What Happened in Vegas

While Oliver Stone and a screenwriter are busy trying to unpack the story of Vegas mass shooter Stephen Paddock, it's another glorious payday for arguably the most successful movie star in Hollywood History... no, not Scott Baio, but he is of course a close second.  I'm talking about Han Solo himself, Harrison Ford, and his latest, Blade Runner 2049.  I only read some of the critical praise; naturally, they had to skip over details, and not just because of Warner Bros. insistence that they don't spoil the plot.  But seriously, no love for Edward James Olmos or Sean Young?  What are they... CHOPPED LIVER?!!!  Meanwhile, the campaign begins in earnest for Roger Deakins to finally get an Oscar this year.  And from the sound of things, Blade Runner 2049 could very well make it into his IMDb Top 4.  But what will it replace?  Probably not Shawshank Redemption... nothing will ever move that one out of place, anywhere.  Seriously.  Maybe Skyfall or A Beautiful Mind... probably Skyfall.  But whatever lesson the ASC taught Deakins, especially after 2007... I mean, the guy's up for a statue for TWO films and he loses?  Was he late on his dues or something?  Or is the statute of limitations on Barton Fink really just forever and a day?  Call him Good Luck Roger, I guess.
Our second debut this week is slightly more ambitious than the rom-coms of Sandra Bullock and Kate Hudson.  It's called The Mountain Between Us, and... it's all I can do to keep from making a reference to The Defiant Ones, but the similarities are striking.  Instead of being on the run from the law, however, the two protagonists in Mountain are on the run from Mother Nature... at times like this, a much more cruel opponent.  Will these two strangers forge a connection that will allow them to survive?  Much like the connection they've forged with the moviegoing public over the years?  I just hope Idris Elba hasn't seen Titanic... he might just lose all hope, or think that this girl is just bad luck.
Our last debut this week is My Little Pony: The Movie.  This is the kind of thing that I used to turn to The Onion's A.V. Club for some relief.  But they've gone totally corporate now!  They've got their own TV channel or something... no more relief.  Well, maybe this is a bad example.  It's a movie for kids, not a movie for Christians by Christians.  I just grow so weary of Christians sticking their pinky toes in the big waters.  I prefer a little unaffiliated, Atheistic competence in my big-time million-dollar blockbusters, as David Letterman might say.  But I will take a second out of my busy-ass schedule to point out that this is a big step up for director Jayson Thiessen, who's slaved away in the My Little Pony mines for years, and is just now emerging to the surface, seeing the light with the rest of the surface dwellers.  What that must do to a man, spending his days, telling animated ponies what to do...