Word: bland
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...require an excess of exposition, and the film lacks both snappy comic writing and truly suspenseful action. Beatty aside, the minor characters are not developed with much flair. Sam Waterston, as a onetime Matthau protege in the agency now forced to lead the pursuit of his mentor, is bland in a blandly written role. Herbert Lorn, as Matthau's friendly rival from the U.S.S.R., is too friendly for the good of the picture. The film lacks a needed air of menace...
...musical worth, but must nomadically migrate to a new brand of music and a new "persona" on each album to amuse his audience. This kind of analysis, aside from its off-hand assumption that a popular musician always changes for commercial and not for evolutionary reasons, also treats with bland ignorance the musical development of Bowie's last three albums. With Brian Eno's aid. Bowie built a triptych of immense proportions, charting sonic territories for a new generation of musicians to populace. Atop this musical canvas he has now added Scary Monsters like a vision of the Last Judgment...
...asked for an administrative hearing to or der delivery of Berkeley's documents. But Administrative Law Judge Thomas Schneider found in favor of the university. Said he in defense of the need for privacy in evaluating candidates: "Words written with the likelihood of publicity are likely to be bland and noncommittal and nonspecific." Last month, Labor Secretary Ray Marshall overruled Schneider's finding and ordered Berkeley to deliver the documents in 30 days or face a cutoff of federal contracts totaling roughly $25 million yearly...
Unfortunately, the positive pitches run the risk of being so bland as to go nearly unnoticed among all the teary dramatics and canned laughter of commercial television. Despite some lively visual effects, the Carter ads have been almost too successful in portraying the President as the quiet, calm, hard-working-and uninspiring -man that he is. Reagan is shown more often simply as what the TV experts term "a talking head"-just Ronnie in an easy chair, making his simple points in his smooth, soothing voice. The aim of the ads, says Reagan Aide Stuart Spencer, is to emphasize Reagan...
That millions of Americans can be mesmerized by such trivia as Dallas only proves that the average American seeks excitement by means of the tube, rather than by making an effort to raise his life out of the rut of bland mediocrity...