05 | June | 2019 | Through the Shattered Lens

It seems like we’ve been hearing about Ad Astra forever.

Well, it actually hasn’t been forever. Director James Gray first announced that he would be going into production on Ad Astra in 2016. The film was shot in 2017. It was originally scheduled to be released in 2018 but then the date kept getting pushed back until, eventually, it was announced that the film would be released in January of 2019.

And we were all like, “Oh, January. It must be really bad, then.”

But then the movie was pushed back again, to May.

And we were all like, “Oh, May. It must not be terrible but it’s probably not particularly memorable.”

But then it was moved back again, to September.

And we were all like, “September? Isn’t that when the Oscar movies start to come out?”

So, who knows what to expect? Here’s what we do know: James Gray has directed some good movies (The Lost City of Z) along with some frustratingly uneven ones (We Are The Night). Ad Astra stars Brad Pitt as an astronaut who goes into space in search of his father (Tommy Lee Jones). With Gray directing, one can imagine that there’s probably a bit more to the story than just a father/son reunion. Apparently, Pitt is also going to discover a secret that threaten humanity’s existence. Gary has also said that he wanted to the film’s depiction of space travel to be 100% realistic.

So …. again, we’ll see. When a movie’s release date gets shuffled around as much as Ad Astra‘s, it hard not to be a little skeptical. But the talent involved is impressive enough that I’m definitely going to give the movie a chance.

Here’s the just-released trailer:

“I was driving in Los Angeles, and there was this unusual downpour. And there was a real pretty girl on the side of the road. I passed her, and then I thought, ‘Well, I’d better pull over’ or at least turn around and offer her a ride, and by the time I got back she was gone. Her legs were the first thing I noticed. Then I noticed that she had a Brooke Shields hairdo that was in danger of falling. She was not going to get wet. She had legs and she knew how to use them.”

— Billy Gibbons, on the inspiration behind Legs

With Legs, the third of their Eliminator videos (following Gimme All Your Lovin’ and Sharp Dressed Man), ZZ Top showed that they knew better than to mess with a good thing. This video follows the same plot as the previous two videos, except this time it’s a young woman (played by Wendy Frazier) getting the help of the ZZ Top girls instead of a young man. I don’t know how the video’s heroine ended up working in the Hellscape that opens this video but it’s a good thing that the ghosts of ZZ Top were around to help her. As the video makes clear from the start, she does have legs and, after a trip in the Eliminator and a makeover, she knows how to use them.

The three ZZ Top girls were played by brunette Jeana Tomasino, blonde Daniele Arnaud, and Kymberly Herrin, who is identifiable by the red top she’s wearing. Tomasino and Arnaud appeared in the previous Eliminator videos while Herrin made her first appearance in this video.

Like the previous two videos, Legs was directed by Tim Newman. Though the girls and the Eliminator would return for one more video, Newman would not. Sleeping Bag would be directed by Steve Barron and we’ll see how he did tomorrow.

Enjoy!