WCBE 90.5 FM: "It's Movie Time" - "Spider-Man 2,"America's Heart and Soul," "Fahrenheit 911"

“It’s Movie Time” with John DeSando & Clay Lowe
“Spider-Man 2,” “America’s Heart and Soul," "Fahrenheit 911”
Taped: 3:30 pm, June 30, 2004
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, July 2, 2004
Streams live on the web at www.wcbe.org.

John
“Spider-Man 2” is the best American movie so far this year. . .

Clay
“America’s Heart & Soul" is Disney’s answer to Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911” . . .

John
“Fahrenheit 911” is hip and hilarious . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:
It's Movie Time in Mid-Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC UP AND OUT

DeSando
I'm John DeSando

Clay (“Spider-Man 2”)
And I'm Clay Lowe.

HIT CD: “SPIDER-MAN 2” AT 00:05 IN (CUT 1-”VINDICATED”-DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL), ESTABLISH, THEN UNDER CLAY ’S REVIEW

John, critics and audiences alike are being blown away by the return of Tobey Maguire’s angst-ridden hero in “Spider-Man 2.” Not the aggressive-warrior type as played by Brad Pitt in the battle of “Troy.” Nope. Maguire’s "Spider-Man 2" is first cousin to that melancholy knight of the woeful countenance, Don Quixote.

Never mind that the action stops every time Peter Parker and Mary Jane gaze into each other’s limpid eyes. Never mind that the plot screeches to a halt whenever Spider-Man loses himself in heavy-duty self-reflection. Because America needs a thinking-feeling hero who can serve as an alternative role model to those stonewalling tough-guys in Washington.

John
Be careful.

Clay
I know. But, I also know John Kerry’s therapist should NOT take him see “Spider-man 2,” because thinking heroes tend to get lost in thought and forget that they used to be men of action.

MUSIC UP, THEN CROSS FADE TO (CUT 14: SPIDEY SUITE), UP, THEN UNDER FOR

John ("Spider-Man 2")
You'll need a therapist to help find out why you must have slept through the best comic-book adaptation ever made.

Clay
Sorry to disappoint you, I'm sticking with the original.

John
This is the kind of movie American filmmakers excel at with nail-biting action, weepy relationships, and gloriously improbable endings, all complemented by unparalleled special effects and actors such as Tobey Maguire destined to play their roles.

The interesting twist in this second installment is that Spidey loses his powers in conjunction with several other losses in his life, job and love included. That maxim, “With great power comes great responsibility,” still eludes him because he disavows heroic responsibility and hurls himself into an existential funk questioning his purpose in life.

Clay
Oh, funk, funk.

John
Spidey nemesis Doc Ock warns, “I'll peel the skin off your face!” Talk about makeover. His octopus-like tentacles achieve almost character-status themselves; his climbing Manhattan buildings with various female victims in their grasp evoke the great King Kong. Like Kong, Ock has a soft side that makes him less monster and more human.

This is a movie to draw you firmly and forever into its warm web, even more than the original did.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Clay (“America’s Heart & Soul” & ”Fahrenheit 911”)
John, if it’s a warm-web you’re looking for then Walt Disney’s “America’s Heart & Soul” is the movie for you. Full of stock images of breath-taking landscapes (minus our freeways and malls), the movie features a steady stream of interviews with America’s commonfolk who have learned, as did Janis Joplin, that freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.

John
It caught me in its heartwarmth about American freedom but mostly about eccentric Americans, of whom you are a distinguished member.

Clay
John, if American eccentricity and sheer determination have become your inspiration then you’re going to love Michael Moore’s “Fahrenehit 911” which is a nasty, give-em-back-tit-for-tat attack on George W. Bush and those rowdy boys over at the Pentagon.

Ironic juxtapositions rule the day. When America goes under attack, Moore cuts his camera to a shot of President Bush stunned into dumbness. When Donald Rumsfeld tells us our weapons are humane and precise, Moore cuts to gruesome shots of the mangled bodies of those who have just been destroyed by them.

The real theme of the movie, however, is that it’s the rich and the powerful who have taken us to war, but it’s the sons and daughters of the working class, who are more likely than not, the one’s coming home in flag-covered coffins.

John ("Fahrenheit 911")
What did I then learn from Moore's new diatribe that's not directly about the poor? That big oil is supported by oil-related Bushes, even if its roots are dug deep in the ancient Saudi soil and reach to the bin-Laden family.

Though for entertainment, who can deny that Bush continuing to read “My Pet Goat” in a classroom on 9/11 even after he hears the second plane has hit a tower is either hilarious or horrifying, depending on your political or humanistic orientation? Who can’t enjoy watching congressmen scurry away from Moore’s camera, much as Charlton Heston ambled away in “Columbine”?

“Fahrenheit 9/11” is muckraking journalism that keeps a citizenry informed while not offering the defining arguments. But “Fahrenheit’s” Flint, Michigan, mother whose son died in Iraq is a sobering support for those who deserve to criticize a conflicted administration.

Mark Twain could have been describing Moore’s incendiary polemics when he said, “I like criticism, but it must be my way.”

Clay
Well, John, let's do it OUR way because it’s grading time.

John
Hooray!

HIT DRUMS

Clay
“Spider-Man 2” gets a “B” from me because Peter Parker’s woeful soul gets lost in transition . . .

John
"Spider-Man 2" earns an "A" for an AWESOME AMERICAN creation. . .

Clay
“America’s Heart & Soul” gets a “B” because it reminds me how much I miss the wry wisdom of “On the Road” with Charles Karult” . . .

John
“America’s Heart & Soul” earns a “B” for its BIG support of American freedom . . .

Clay
“Fahrenheit 911” gets an “A” because war is ugly and Michael Moore refuses to mislead us . . .

John
"Fahrenheit 911" is an "A" for ATTACKING our APATHY . . .

Clay, I'm out to climb some buildings 'cause I haven't been with my Russian interpreter in over a week!! I'm outta here.

Clay
Well, John, while your climbing the walls, I’ll be helping Spider-man work out HIS demons.

I'm outta here too.

See you a the movies, folks.

HIT CD: “Spider-man 2” (CUT 3: “DID YOU” - HOOBASTANK), ESTABLISH, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:
The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is produced by Richelle Antczak in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus 106.7 FM in Newark, WYSO, etc. Reviews on the web, etc., etc.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

Copyright 2004 by John DeSando and Clay Lowe