Nice planet we’ll take it’

Nice planet we’ll take it’ — was the tagline of my favourite nasty movie Mars Attacks. In it the aliens saw earth merely as a piece of lucrative real estate, which is definitely not true of the world today.

My favourite piece of cinematic optimism could be Sly Stallone’s Rocky, but I’ll keep it as Little Miss Sunshine with its positive take on grandads, and its clever tagline ‘Everyone just pretend to be normal,’ which shows how we always try to deny the absolute insanity of family life.

I love movie taglines because they’re a kind of poetry of the people. They show how a few words can completely define a pop culture moment. When I was growing up everyone knew ‘just when you thought it was safe to go in the water’ from Jaws, and ‘be afraid, be very afraid’ from The Fly.

While we’re about it, I have discovered that Sylvester Stallone is an interesting artist. For a person who is labelled conservative, his art nowadays shows a sense of chaos that is more about searching for one’s place in the messy world of ordinary people, than celebrating mega fame and fortune.

I think I understand the drive to create untidy art of a personal dimension. But for now, I’m just a little too concerned with trying to use my sense of humour to calm the gremlins instead of stirring them up.