Tag: Carrie Fisher

Film Review: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Abrams is back in command, but is that all there is? 

The gang’s all here: (from l.: Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), Poe (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega), and Rey (Daisy Ridley) gather aboard the Millennium Falcon.

Let me say up front that what you are reading will be a completely spoiler-free review of the new, ninth and final Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker. So read on without fear. I want to be careful about revealing any of the film’s surprises, since, if you’re a fan of the franchise — especially a Gen X’er one like me — you’ve waited a long time for this finale, and you deserve to watch it fresh. Instead, I’m going to talk about feeling, because feeling is big in this film.

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Film Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Ninth installment sticks to the script

A rebel X-Wing doesn't know when to call it a day
A rebel X-Wing doesn’t know when to call it a day.

“Every once in awhile I have what I think of as an out-of-the-body experience at a movie,” wrote a rapturous Roger Ebert in the summer of 1977 of Star Wars. Later that year a more skeptical Pauline Kael, writing about the same film, said, “the loudness, the smash-and-grab editing, the relentless pacing drive every idea from your head.” Never could the duality of responses to the Star Wars series of films be better predicted. They are either the greatest experiences in a movie theater since L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat, or the biggest waste of time since Birdemic: Shock and Terror. Continue reading “Film Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi“

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-06-21 – 2017-06-25

It’s Pride Weekend in San Francisco this week, and it’s fun to see all the bright-eyed people in the city who are attending their first Pride celebration.

Speaking of going to new things, let’s talk about this week’s concerts. Here’s what we’ve got coming up this week in the Bay Area: tanned people, clan people, French people, bad people, and cool people. Should be a pretty cool week.

So, let’s preview. We’re previewing now. Let’s preview and do the preview where we preview. Preview!

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Final Goodbyes of 2016: Notes on Who We Will Miss

2016 will go down in history as the year in which all of our heroes died. Most everything that happened felt like a cold darkness, and the world feels like a worse place. Here are a few thoughts from our writers about a few of our favorites who passed away this last year…

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Film Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New Star Wars Movie

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One has aged. The other has not.

[KINDA SPOILERS AHEAD]

Don’t let my subtitle fool you—I actually really enjoyed Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I saw it twice and can’t wait to see it again! However, as one of the most highly anticipated films in decades and what will likely be the highest grossing film of all time in the next week (with every word I type it probably makes another $1 million), it was hard to put all my thoughts together in an unbiased film review — after all, I don’t want to be one of the few saying “it’s really not that good”. But what I know now is that as The Force Awakens has marinated in my mind over the past two weeks, I now know that I didn’t just like the film, I actually loved the film. Everything I initially took exception to I have now found justification for, and that’s how my review will unfold:

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