StanleyWheeler

"Wrong or right, they have the might, so wrong or right, they're always right, and that's wrong... right?"

If you've ever seen the musical Camelot, you know that King Arthur spoke the line above as he contemplated some wrong to right, some peril to face, and what use to make of knights. I had never seen the show before. It was a recording of the musical play, not the 1967 movie that also starred Richard Harris--which I've also never seen. I highly recommend this musical. It makes me want to reread The Once and Future King which I haven't read since I was in jr. high school. My wife had seen this film before and even knew most of the songs. Apparently she used to sing a few of them with her sister.

Earlier today, I mentioned Camelot as an introduction to the line with which I opened this post to a room of 14 year old boys; they all wondered what Camelot was. They had never even heard of Camelot. At least they heard of King Arthur--they just didn't know diddly about him, it seemed. (They didn't even know Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade--which forced a detailed explanation of the reference to: "He chose poorly.")

I shall have to watch Camelot again...and again...and again; there's some good stuff in it.

This

on the other hand, was a movie that neither my wife nor I had previously seen. We had pretty low expectations going in and our hopes hovered only slightly higher--mediocrity would have been a win. This film gushes hilarity like ichor from a punctured aorta--and the victim never runs out of blood. We laughed all the way through it. How come I've never seen this? This is the funniest thing I've ever seen Bill Murray do. The car chase alone is a screaming, pants-wetting laugh fest. Murray's performance as a member of a Russian dance troupe delivers an entire series of comedy-club blows to the head that made me feel like an entire nursery of baby harp seals.

Murray plays a Blockbuster Video clerk who goes to the UK to see his brother, a successful banking executive. His brother gets him placed into a live street theater television show for the night. Murray, mistaken for a hit man, unwittingly wades into a swamp of international intrigue, blackmail, and murder. He thinks it's all part of the television show and believes the others involved are actors. Meanwhile, the real hit man has taken Murray's place in the television show and murders an actor in the first scene. Cops, hit men, and assorted  bad guys pursue Murray to the incredible end.

I know that if I watch it again, it won't be as funny; "I'm therefore going [to do it] anyway." --to borrow from James T. in ST3:The Search for Spock.

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I could say more about the state of the novel but I won't. Although, I am wondering about volunteers to for beta readers of a flintlock fantasy set during the American Revolutionary War. 

Anyone?