“‘I first pursued “Forever War” 25 years ago, and the book has only grown more timely and relevant since,’ Scott told the trade. ‘It’s a science-fiction epic, a bit of ‘The Odyssey’ by way of ‘Blade Runner,’ built upon a brilliant, disorienting premise.’” Joe Haldeman’s science fiction classic The Forever War, the tale of a military grunt who — thanks to the vagaries of relativity — keeps returning to the homefront decades-to-centuries after he left for his last cosmic tour-of-duty, finds an established genre film director in Ridley Scott, who will presumably take it up after Nottingham, his Robin Hood re-think with Russell Crowe.
Which reminds me: Scott and Crowe’s recent Body of Lies is one of the many movies out of late — along with Choke, Miracle at St. Anna, Blindness, Eagle Eye, Appaloosa, Flash of Genius, and Traitor — that I’d normally go see and review…if any of ’em could actually manage to break a lowly 65 on Metacritic. As it is, I’ve been dissuaded thus far this fall by the bad word-of-mouth attending all of these films, coupled with the psychic distance of actually having to drive to get to the nearest multiplex these days. (Besides Roti Rolls, the easy-access movie culture is arguably what I miss most about NYC.) At any rate, right now it’s looking like the 2008 end-of-year movie list might well be a short one.
I recommend The Lucky Ones, if you can find it near you. Really wonderful, funny, and — if I may be bold enough to speak for Iraq veterans generally — one of the few movies that doesn’t make us look like lunatics. It’s in the classic road movie vein: see America, learn about yourself. Directed by Neil Burger, who did The Illusionist. It came and went pretty quickly, which disappointed me. But well worth seeing.