Sequelizing Blade Runner is as pointless as sequelizing Office Space. Ridley Scott said everything that needed saying when adapting Philip K. Dick’s tech-dystopia novel into seven different cuts. But great brands never die, so here comes Denis Villeneuve’s vapid and over-long Blade Runner 2049. In fairness, the film is only 52 percent vapid (the back half) and 100 percent gorgeous, thanks to cinematographer Roger Deakins, who tells a visual story that’s far more satisfying than the plodding screenplay. Ryan Gosling plays K, an L.A. cop caught up in (surprise!) a corporate conspiracy while hunting down and “retiring” humanoid robots. Eventually (and I mean really eventually), Harrison Ford shows up to reprise his role as O.G blade runner Rick Deckard. I could summarize and spoil all two-and-three-quarters hours in fifteen seconds, but then someone would retire me. Suffice it to say, this movie is worth looking at, but hardly worth seeing.
Welcome to Kicking the Seat!
Ian Simmons launched Kicking the Seat in 2009, one week after seeing Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia. His wife proposed blogging as a healthier outlet for his anger than red-faced, twenty-minute tirades (Ian is no longer allowed to drive home from the movies).
The Kicking the Seat Podcast followed three years later and, despite its “undiscovered gem” status, Ian thoroughly enjoys hosting film critic discussions, creating themed shows, and interviewing such luminaries as Gaspar Noé, Rachel Brosnahan, Amy Seimetz, and Richard Dreyfuss.
Ian is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. He also has a family, a day job, and conflicted feelings about referring to himself in the third person.