Behnke's Useless Thoughts

                                   My knowledge of Steven Hawking is often been through media depictions of the man. The only dramatic depiction of Stephen Hawking that I can think of is  The Theory of Everything , a dull Hallmark movie that somehow got a theatrical release (and they somehow casted a freckled eight-year-old in the lead role). I guess his life is ripe for any prestige movie produced by Focus Features. In 2014, Criterion reissued the oft-forgotten docu-adaptation of Hawking's hugely popular science book, A Brief History of Time.                                     A Brief History of Time is both a semi-adaptation of Hawking's best-selling science book of the same name (I get the feeling the movie barely scratches the surface of Hawking's theories) and a biographical accoun...

                            I don't hate Michael Bay. That's probably an unpopular thing to utter. To cineastes, he ruined the modern landscape of movies, relying on blunt spectacle rather than substance. But, you can't deny that he holds a unique place in movie history. I mean, sure, his name has become synonymous with shlock but it's shlock with flair . He's a dazzling pyrotechnic, full of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing. If Bay had picked a different career, he probably would have been one of those fellas who shoot off fireworks at the local county fair. Roland Emmerich is in the same camp though you never hear his name bandied about (probably because 'Michael Bay' is a snappier name). His movies are not quite as memorable as Bay's (except for Independence Day ) which I guess makes Bay a half.... step up, I guess (as I write this, I realize that Emmerich, as mediocre a filmmaker as he is, at least h...