For the first time I recently tried watching the original 1990 "The Witches" and "Hocus Pocus". Found both super annoying. Had an epiphany that I'm out on the witch genre in general. I'm not sure there's ever been a piece of witch content I've liked. "VVitch"? Bored to death. "Sabrina"? No thank you. "The Craft"? Never my thing. "Blair Witch"? Dumb as hell.
Then I got to thinking, if there's an opposite to the Witch genre, I'd probably like it, right? But what would that be? Wizard movies? Something involving zombies or vampires? Nope. I've decided the opposite of Witch movies is the "Child Prodigy" genre. Why? Just cuz. Alls I know is, I'm all about it. I just blasted through 7 episodes of "The Queen's Gambit" and loved every second of it. I don't even know how to play Chess. I'm not even sure I remember exactly how to play Checkers, to be honest.
Queen's Gambit is merely the latest. It's come to my attention I have universal approval of all "child prodigy" content. "Searching for Bobby Fischer"? Dug it. "Billy Elliot"? What's not to enjoy about a dancing genius. "August Rush"? Glorious. 1989's "Wizard" which is basically Rain Man, but with Fred Savage and a young video game prodigy?... one of my all-time favorites. Side note, while being a top-tier child prodigy film, it's also checks the "wizard is opposite of witch" concept so it gets a double thumbs up.
I mean, give me those scenes of the little kid at a new school handing in some paper, the skeptical teacher scoffing, "you're done already?", and then their eyes widening as they realize it's the the work of genius. Heck yeah. I can't get enough. I want to see some orphan dropping some serious historical or scientific knowledge way too advanced for their age. I personally will not have any idea what the little twerp is talking about, but the jaw-dropped adults in the scene tell me everything I need to know... we got ourselves a prodigy, folks. Let's see some elaborate math problems solved on a chalk board. I have no idea what the heck the numbers represent, but their floating off the board so we know it's gotta be good.
I'm even willing to expand on "child prodigy" to just "prodigy" in general. "Good Will Hunting"? Who doesn't love dem apples. How about "Beautiful Mind" or the recent movies about Stephen Hawkin and Alan Turing? Yup, Yup and Yup. I mean, heck... I'll go as far as to say 1996's "Phenomenon" is peak-Travolta. That's some classic child prodigy with a twist content right there. I might go watch that right now, actually.
Bottom line: I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I hear "The Witches" on HBOMax sucks.
Submitted November 04, 2020 at 05:15AM by LarBrd33 https://ift.tt/35ZCLhv