I give up. I have no idea what monster the Lego in the fourth picture here is supposed to be. New monster movies are not a favorite genre of mine. I can handle the old 1950s ones, but I don’t like being scared or grossed out, and that’s what monster movies—when done well—are supposed to do.
Anyone know what monster this is supposed to be?
It’s really not difficult. The Polanski case comes down to one thing: Consent.
A 13-year-old girl cannot consent to having sex with a 44-year-old man. In fact, a 13-year-old girl is not old enough to consent to having sex with a 30-year-old, a 20-year-old, a 14-year-old, or even another 13-year-old. It doesn’t matter that Polanski plied the girl with alcohol and drugs. It doesn’t matter that he claims he didn’t know how old she was.
It’s the fact that a 13-year-old child cannot consent to having sex, for the obvious reason that the child is thirteen years old.
It’s reprehensible that Whoopi Goldberg said “not necessarily” to the question “Would I want my 14-year-old daughter having sex with somebody?” The answer should be a plain, simple: No. Absolutely not.
When Anne Applebaum says that the child asked permission to be photographed in the jacuzzi, she implies that that was asking permission for whatever happened next. What happened next was rape. It frankly wouldn’t matter if the child’s mother had been right there and given explicit permission for Polanski to have sex with her daughter—the fact that the child cannot consent still applies.
There is no defense of this case whatsoever. There is no, “Yes, he did a bad thing, BUT” leading into a long-winded treatise on how the poor man has suffered all these years by not being able to come back to America, and is forced to live a life of luxury in Europe.
My heart bleeds.
It’s the consent. A thirteen-year-old child cannot consent to sex. Period.
Remember this?
SciFi SyFy had it on last weekend. I put it on the DVR, and Sarah and the kids came over today to watch it. Some notable lines:
“Don’t love the sea too much. It won’t love you back.”
“Most animals fled in fear from the Ice Age.”
Really. That last one. I stopped the movie, said, “Wait a minute! Did she just say that the dinosaurs ran away from the Ice Age? As in, “Ohmigod, it’s SNOW!!!”?
Sarah suggested that perhaps the writers of the movie had used the animated film Ice Age for research, because all the animals there were fleeing the cold.
How bad was it? When even a seven-year-old says, “Those are really bad effects,” it’s bad. Of course it was stupid. It was supposed to be stupid. Why did the shark jump up and bite the Golden Gate Bridge? Because someone thought it would look cool. How did the giant octopus manage to knock down a jet? Well, it’s a dumb movie, that’s how. The science was awful, as always. The shark was able to swim at a speed of 500 knots. Keep in mind that it was bigger than the biggest whales, and a humpback can swim at the breathtaking speed of about 16 mph when it’s in a hurry, and everyone knows that the bigger something is, the faster it is, right? And of course, none of our missiles or weapons so much as dent the creatures’ skin.
But it was fun. It’s a movie that you want to watch with a group of friends, and if you’re in college, I suggest figuring out a drinking game for it. Take two shots every time someone says “The target was destroyed.”
It was about as bad as we thought it was, and I’m quite happy I decided to wait for it to come on TV rather than buy the direct-to-video flick. However—there may be a sequel.
Pass.
Oh, so THAT’s why HRW released a report about Hamas: So they could accuse Israel of more war crimes. I was thinking it was more to do with being caught trying to bash Israel to the Saudis so they could get money out of the royals, but that was apparently only part of the reason.
Chavez cause-and-effect: Gee, let’s think. A nation’s president blames Jews and demonizes Israel on a constant basis. He pals around with Hezbullah, which is now said to be setting up camp there. His countrymen then perform more acts of anti-Semitism (including government-sponsored raids on Jewish centers). Somehow, I can’t figure out why that’s happening. How about you?
Oh, look: More Arab civilian deaths ignored by the world. Yemen is
The AP notices that townhall protesters are average citizens: Oh, they push the “organized opposition” line in the first few paragraphs, but overall, they’re starting to notice that the anger is real, and that Americans don’t want socialized medicine. The media narrative is being broken. Except, of course, by the denizens of the New York Times op-ed page. This is a great thing. That healthcare bill is dead in the water.
Palate cleanser: Molly Ringwald’s tribute to John Hughes. It will make you go, “Awwwww.”
(That’s Snark News Briefs, to those of you who haven’t been paying attention.)
Fatah blames Israel for Arafat’s AIDS: Not really. Fatah refuses to even consider the idea that their dead (and unmourned) leader did not die because of Israeli death rays, or Mossad poisons. Because it makes them far more popular to be able to blame Israel. And oh, hey—this kind of puts the lie to the people who insist that Fatah is moderating, doesn’t it?
Doggone it! My dad was not a dog! The Arabs have yet another grievance against America: A movie that insults Anwar Sadat by naming a dog after him. I swear, you simply couldn’t make this stuff up without having bullshit called on you. Don’t these people have anything else to do but get outraged over stupid things? I guess not, considering Egypt is a nation that lacks freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and a freely elected government. And then, you get a breath of fresh air when you least expect it:
Meanwhile, Sadat’s nephew Talaat Sadat reacted differently to the movie, and told Egyptian newspaper al-Shuruq: “It’s just a commercial film that is not worthy of a response.”
Stop doing the right things, Bibi! Israel’s prime minister visited the Tel Aviv club that was the scene of a horrible attack that murdered two young gay Israelis and listened to representatives of the Israeli gay community. That’s funny. I thought he was one of those religious zealots in the Likud that think gays are an abomination. What? People are spreading lies about him? No! You can’t mean it! Just because he’s acting like a good leader today doesn’t mean that tomorrow he’s going to come out and suggest gays should be stoned. (By the way, they’ll find the bastard who did this. This is the nation that tracks down terrorists years after their attacks. Give them time. They’ll get him.)
Because the world simply doesn’t have enough online games: Champions is joining the online gaming community. I absolutely refuse to say why I know what Champions is. I will only admit that Call of Cthulhu was an awesome game if run by a great gamemaster and peopled by decent players. Not that I know anything about it. Really. I don’t. (Detectives are so cool, don’t you think?)
John Hughes was THE writer/director of the 1980s. He didn’t just create his own genre and influence millions of American teens, he launched the careers of a host of actors. He died yesterday of a heart attack.
A native of Lansing, Mich., who moved to suburban Chicago and set much of his work there, Hughes rose from comedy writer to ad writer to silver screen champ with his affectionate and idealized portraits of teens, whether the romantic and sexual insecurity of “Sixteen Candles,” or the J.D. Salinger-esque rebellion against conformity in “The Breakfast Club.”
Hughes’ ensemble comedies helped make stars out of Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and many other young performers. He also scripted the phenomenally popular “Home Alone,” which made little-known Macaulay Culkin a sensation as the 8-year-old accidentally abandoned by his vacationing family, and wrote or directed such hits as “National Lampoon’s Vacation,”"Pretty in Pink,”"Planes, Trains & Automobiles” and “Uncle Buck.”
[...] Other actors who got early breaks from Hughes included John Cusack (”Sixteen Candles”), Judd Nelson (”The Breakfast Club”), Steve Carell (”Curly Sue”) and Lili Taylor (”She’s Having a Baby”).
[...] Actor and director Bill Paxton credited Hughes for launching his career by casting him as bullying older brother Chet in the 1985 film “Weird Science.”
I’ve seen more of his films than I realized. And it’s interesting to note that some of his best work was based on real life.
Hughes films, especially “Home Alone,” were among the most popular of their time and the director was openly involved in marketing them. But, with his ever-handy “idea books,” Hughes worked as much from personal life as from commercial instinct. His “National Lampoon” scripts were inspired by his own family’s vacations. “Sixteen Candles,” in which Ringwald plays a teen whose 16th birthday is forgotten, was based on a similar event in a friend’s life.
I think my favorites are Ferris Bueller and Sixteen Candles. I didn’t even realize Weird Science was his, but it makes sense—it’s totally in the same genre, and uses some of the same actors. The house used as Cameron’s house used in the movie was recently sold for over $2 million. And the realtor, of course, used the movie in the ad.
Hughes was only 59.
Israel? What Israel? Fatah won’t recognize Israel, or stop “resistance,” and once again, Palestinians openly state that they only said they’d recognize Israel to get international approval (and billions to use against Israel). But this won’t show up anywhere in the mainstream media, of course.
Ahmadinejad vs. Khameini? I don’t know what to make of this, but man, I hope it means the rifts in Iran are deeper than we thought. Mad Mahmoud is refusing to fire his buddy, as demanded by The Supreme Leader. Get out some popcorn, boys and girls, because if this plays out badly, it’s going to be great for Israel and America.
Probably not what you think when you think “Men of Israel”: Hm. Gay pr0n starring gorgeous Israeli men. Well, it’s one way to make people think better of Israelis. (Ladies, the picture in the article is totally worth clicking through.)
What’s in a gnome? Apparently, garden gnomes raising their arms in a Nazi salute are not illegal in Germany. Good to know, just in case we ever utterly lose our mind and our taste and want to move to Germany, buy a house, and put a Nazi gnome in the front yard. (By the way, the picture in the first link makes you think the gnome is just waving nicely. Click here to see the Nazi salute.)
Brits to America: The Israelis don’t listen to us. Meryl to Brits: You anti-Israel, anti-Semitic gits. Why should they?
Barry Rubin cut the bullshit: He did, really. (It’s okay, Barry, I put it back for you.) Seriously, click the link and read his latest essay. It’s one of his best ever.
UNIFIL watched as Lebanese invaded Israel: Okay, they weren’t terrorists—but isn’t it UNIFIL’s job to keep the two sides apart? What’s that you say? On days that end with a “y” it’s Israeli Double Standard Time? Yeah, I knew that.
Oh, please—Hezbollah “sympathizers”? The mainstream media is truly as stupid as you think they are.
A crowd in southern Lebanon threw rocks at U.N. peacekeepers over the weekend, wounding 14 of them in an effort to prevent the investigation of an explosion in the area, the United Nations said.
How many of this “crowd” you figure were Hezbollah soldiers? I’m guessing nearly all of them. Why? Read Michael Totten’s account of what happened when Christopher Hitchens ran afoul of Hezbollah thugs. That’s why.
Pop quiz! Who said this:
“One of the things that I know the blogs are best at is debunking myths that can slip through a lot of the traditional media outlets and a lot of the conventional wisdom,” he said, according to audio of the call posted on Web sites. “And that is why you are going to play such an important role in our success in the weeks to come.”
Your choice: A) Barack Obama. B) John McCain. C) Karl Rove. D) Joe the Plumber.
The answer: Barack Obama, on a call to liberal bloggers. He’s right, but about the wrong side. And while you’re posting against ObamaCare, don’t forget to call and write your Congresspeople.
I know you’re going to be shocked to hear this: NYDN found Harry Potter fans who weren’t happy with the movie. Please. Try to be strong and understanding—really. Not everyone liked the film. Wow, now that’s news!
If you like cute, funny, family-oriented films, you will like Night at the Museum 2. Sarah and the twins and I went this afternoon, while Larry took the older boys to see Star Trek. (She and I will see that movie ourselves later.) It was amusing, and fun, and cute, and better than the original. I think it’s a perfect example of what a family film should be like—there’s really almost nothing in it to scare younger children, and enough in it to keep the rest of us entertained (including a few jokes that only the parents are going to get, since all the teenagers were evidently watching Terminator: Salvation).
Max apparently likes to repeat the lines that make him laugh. I can put up with his behavior for another year or so, but after that, he gets the “Max, Aunt Meryl likes quiet when she watches a movie” talk. Even for the silly ones like this one, I prefer to watch movies without chatting. When I used to go to the movies with a group of friends, I’d always make sure I didn’t sit next to the one who could never shut up during a movie. (It was for his own personal safety. I’d have killed him, eventually.) But we were in a theater with parents and small children, so indulgences were made.
If you’re looking for sheer mindless fun, this is the movie for you. Hank Azaria is utterly hilarious, and so are the cast of figures from the Smithsonian that come to life.
Yeah, it’s a slow weekend for me. Feel free to read the news yourselves.
One of the beauties of my job is that I can take a long lunch once in a while. Today, after I took care of the must-finish work, my friend Sarah and I caught a noon matinee of Wolverine.
It was very good, especially if you don’t care about all the messing about with the origin story—and, well, I don’t.
But besides the fact that it’s a pretty amazing comic book movie, I realized that men and women are going to be watching this film in very different ways.
There was a scene where Wolverine did some amazing action sequences, slicing here, dicing there, defeating the bad guys, and then paused, posing, on the top of something or other.
“Wow,” I said.
“Yeah,” Sarah responded, “he’s buff.”
And yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what I was looking at, and thinking. Action, shmaction. Hugh Jackman is hot.
If you think tonight’s show was bad, never forget this one:
Yes, that’s Rob Lowe, singing to Snow White.
And if you think that was bad, then you’ve forgotten what happened a mere two years ago:
I watched almost none of it. I felt bad for Hugh Jackman, who I love, for having to sing a horrendous opening number. Here’s a tip, Oscar writers: Only Billy Crystal can write the “let’s sing the nominated movies” in the opening number. But Sarah and I had fun mocking it.
Yesterday, a couple of friends of mine drove down from NorVA and spent the evening here in New Home in Richmond. They had previously seen both my old apartment and the outside of my new home, as I couldn’t very well ask the realtor to let me in a month before I owned it just so my friends could see what it looked like inside. Although he was pretty affable; if it hadn’t been a weekend, he might have done it. (If you need a realtor in the Richmond area, I highly recommend mine.)
So after we finished watching the new episode of BSG, I turned my DVR to a Sci-Fi movie, Journey to the Center of the Earth, thinking it would be some sort of halfway-decent remake of the classic Jules Verne tale (of which the James Mason version is my favorite, duck and all). We realized immediately that this would not be a good movie, because it started out with this team of six chicks in quasi-military gear (that would be they all wore the same t-shirts and pants that kinda sorta resembled a uniform). There was The Tough Chick. You knew she was tough because she grabbed The Scared Chick’s gun and threatened her with it. There was The Smart Chick, whom you could tell was smart because she was wearing glasss. There was The Reasonable Chick, who calmed down The Tough Chick, and who turns out to be The Scientist’s sister. There was The Hero, played by Greg Evigan, whose role, as far as I could tell, was to smile a lot no matter what. Probably couldn’t believe he actually got paid to be in this piece of crap. I am only going to describe four of the six chicks, for reasons that will become apparent later.
This was a really, really bad adaptation. See, the Chick Squad was apparently a group of volunteers for a science experiment in matter transportation. They were supposed to be transported to Stuttgart, and apparently, this matter transporter could only transport them directly through the center of the earth. Now, this plot device does not explain how you get to Germany from the United States by going straight through the center of the earth, as I’m pretty sure Germany isn’t on the exact opposite side of the planet from the U.S. But it did explain why they got stuck 600 kilometers inside the earth. And I am perfectly willing to suspend my disbelief for almost any Jules Verne story, because damn, they’re fun, whether it’s a man trying to go around the world in 80 days, shoot a rocketship to the moon, or build a submarine. Fun, fun, fun. This one? Not so much.
The Chick Squad—oh, I forgot. The movie never explains why there are no men on the Chick Squad. Perhaps the explanation was cut out of the script due to budget imperatives (”Hey! Let’s hire a known face like Greg Evigan and fire the scriptwriter. You don’t really need much of a script with this shit anyway, right?”). In any case, the Chick Squad arrives on a plain, where they promptly break Danger Rule Number One: They split up. Two of them immediately get eaten by a T-Rex, thus explaining why there were six chicks in the squad, but you didn’t get to know what the other two chicks’ cliches were. And by the way, unless you are dumber than a brick, I would think you’d be able to say, “Holy shit! They just got eaten by a T-Rex, and I thought dinosaurs were extinct!” instead of, “That THING ate whatshername and whosamacallit!” (sorry, I simply cannot be bothered remembering the names of two redshirts, even if they are part of the Chick Squad). It wasn’t until The Smart Chick called it a tyrannosaurus Rex that the chicks started calling it a T-Rex. You know, even a two-year-old knows it’s a dinosaur.
There were other pretty miserable moments that we mocked. There was the off-scene killing of the dinosaur by The Scared Chick (I think it was her; really, they just all blended together after a while into a single, four-sided chick) with, we think, a rock. No, it wasn’t her, because she was the one who was too scared to eat roast dinosaur at first, and yes, they did say, “It tastes like chicken,” but at least they had the decency to laugh at it. Maybe it was The Smart Chick who killed the dinosaur. With a rock. Really. A rock. Bashed its head in. The head was the size of a pony, but she killed it. With a rock.
There was the scene where The Scientist, who turned out, of course, to be Greg Evigan’s ex-wife, who was also currently having a thing with The Other Scientist, who turns out, of course, to value science more than human life. You will be shocked to hear that The Scientist clocks The Other Scientist and goes back to The Hero, I know. Also, that her baby sister survives. Also, that after giving Greg Evigan a schematic of the super drill that they’re going to take through 600 kilometers of the planet (including a sea of lava that had slugs in it, yes, slugs, and yes, in a sea of lava, and yes, they tried to eat the drill and the people inside it), she throws down a notebook filled with stuff and says “You have to learn this before we leave.” In, like, an hour or two. And that schematic? It was, um, a line drawing of the outside of the ship, with no technical specs whatsoever, but they were talking about it like it was an actual schematic. It greatly resembled a drawing that your special effects crew would use to, say, make a model of the drill so the computer guys can shoot it and then make their model of it for the special effects. Way to keep on budget, guys!
There was a giant spider, or maybe more than one. I had gotten bored by this time, and Janet seemd utterly intent on watching this movie to the bitter end, so I went into the kitchen to surf the net while glancing from time to time at the TV and making snide remarks. Chris fell asleep. Good man. Definitely a good comment on the movie’s quality. Just about all of our predictions came true. I told Janet that one of the four would die. “Why?” “Because someone has to die.” It’s for the sniffle factor, you see. So Scared Chick was apparently impregnated with baby spider sacs or something by the giant spider (I really wasn’t watching), and they hatched out of her just like a million little aliens, and yes, Janet got it so right when she predicted that one of the baby giant spiders was transported back with them. By the way, if you want to know why there were giant spiders in this movie, well, get in line. Maybe the scriptwriters had just seen The Fellowship of the Ring and said, “Cool! Let’s put a giant spider in the center of the earth. That’s like, Middle Earth, right dude?”
In any case. The ominous music indicated that the producers of this film (or maybe just the person who scored it) were extremely optimistic and think there will be a sequel. I’m going to have to go with: Not in a thousand years. It is, however, highly likely that before I die, I will get to see yet another wretched version of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Maybe someone will make a good one, too. After all, the Sci-Fi Channel’s version of Dune was pretty good. Too bad that team didn’t make this movie.
You might remember, a few weeks ago there was news about the “Real Genius” weapon. Well now different scientific news recalls another movie.
CERN – the Conseil Européenne pour la Recherche Nucleaire – the same organization where the World Wide Web was born, is about to start testing the Large Hadron Collider in an effort to recreate conditions after the Big Bang.
However there are those who fear that the experiment could destroy the world and have filed lawsuits to prevent the activation of the device.
The device is designed to replicate conditions that existed just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, and its creators hope it will unlock the secrets of how the universe began.
However, opponents fear the machine, which will smash pieces of atoms together at high speed and generate temperatures of more than a trillion degrees centigrade, may create a mini-black hole that could tear the earth apart.
Does this remind anyone of this dialogue from Ghostbusters?
Dr. Egon Spengler: There’s something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don’t cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I’m fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, “bad”?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
So if you’re reading this next week, the experiment has been so far successful. But if not, apparently the black holes were a bigger problem than the researchers anticipated, but at least we were first with the news.
h/t Secular Blasphemy, who lives in Norway, which is a lot closer to the collider, so if there are any problems maybe he could send out a warning e-mail.
UPDATE via Instapundit: An item about debunking the doomsday scenarios.
Several rounds of scientific studies, considering increasingly outlandish scenarios, have ruled out the black-hole threat. The evidence shows that the collider is absolutely safe, and poses no chance of cosmic catastrophe. Nevertheless, the hysteria continues: Part of the reason for that is that scientists say it’s conceivable that a less threatening breed of subatomic black holes could be created. But another factor is that there’s so much science-fiction appeal to the tale of the black hole that ate the earth.
But this is also fascinating:
Speaking of time travel, Cramer has been in the midst of a real-life experiment in retrocausality – a kind of backward flow of information from the future to the past. I first wrote about this experiment almost two years ago, and Cramer recently told me that he’s still trying to get the apparatus to work. Perhaps what Stephen Hawking said is true: Nature abhors a time machine.
And if Cramer’s successful he’ll write an article about it last week!
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
Busy working when I wasn’t recovering from a stomach bug. But I found this on Hot Air:
Effing hilarious, even if you haven’t seen the movie.
The Hulk is guest-blogging here again:
Hulk go to new Hulk movie. Hulk was hoping it better than stupid movie girl took Hulk to last time. Stupid movie had giant dogs. Hulk in movie smash giant dogs, but that just stupid. Hulk like dogs. Hulk not want to smash dogs. New Hulk movie was better. No giant dogs!
Betty in this movie not boring, girl says. Girl says this movie Betty play same role every single movie she in. Hulk not know what “role” means. Girl says movie Betty just has to look pretty and be love interest. Oh. Hulk get that. Movie Betty good at that. But movie Betty not as pretty as real Betty.
Hulk like this movie. Lots more fighting. Hulk wins every fight. Hulk always wins fights. Hulk is the strongest one there is. Movie Hulk fought big ugly monster. Hulk can’t say monster name. Girl say it for me. Girl will speak now.
It’s the Abomination, Hulk.
That stupid name.
Well, uh, yeah. But I didn’t make it up.
Hulk will call him Ugly Monster. What girl think?
I think that’s a great name, Hulk.
Girl always agree with Hulk. Girl smart.
Hell, yeah!
Hulk fought army men, too. Why do soldiers always fight with Hulk? Hulk not bother soldiers. But soldiers always follow Hulk, always try to hurt him. Movie Hulk same as real Hulk. Movie Hulk smash soldiers.
Actually, Hulk, I think they broke the Hulk Smash rule in this one. The movie Hulk killed a bunch of people. Comic book Hulk never does.
That right. Hulk not kill soldiers, even though soldiers always try to hurt Hulk! Hulk just smash soldiers! Where soldiers? Hulk will smash them!
They’re just movie soldiers, Hulk. No soldiers here. No! Wait! Not the door again!
Crap. Now I have to get a new door. Again.
Well, this Hulk movie was excellent. They didn’t waste the first 45 minutes trying to give you Hulk’s raison d’smash. There’s a three-minute backstory while the credits roll, and then you’re in the movie. I liked Ed Norton as Bruce Banner. I liked William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross. And Liv Tyler was a great Betty. All she really had to do was look lovingly at Bruce/The Hulk, and she’s got that down to a science now. And best of all: No giant mutant poodles. Just the Abomination, with a slightly different origin, but hey, it worked for me.
A few chuckles, but overall, don’t go into the Hulk expecting the same experience as Iron Man. Iron Man was funny. Hulk is dark, which it rather has to be. The only disturbing part, for me, was breaking the Hulk-never-kills-anyone rule. I know it defies logic that the Hulk never kills anyone, but hey, he’s a comic book character. We get to bend the rules for comic books. (That’s how the Jack Kirby Hulk can grab a chunk of asphalt and make it go up and down in waves like a carpet, instead of just breaking off in his hands, as it would do in reality.)
And yes, we do see a return of the purple pants.
Best news is the cameo at the end of the film. The Avengers movie can’t be very far behind. And word is the next Hulk villain will be: The Leader. Woo-hoo!
No, the best news is the box office estimate: Looking good. $21 million on Friday night.
This is a great summer for comic book movies.
If you have not yet seen Iron Man, go. Sarah and I went last night, and we thoroughly enjoyed the film. It was also great to be in a half-empty theater with choice of seats. And a definitively metal soundtrack… totally fitting, but I thought they should at least have had the lyrics during the end credits.
This one’s a keeper. I may even buy it on Blu-Ray and I don’t even have a Blu-Ray player.
Looking forward to the new Hulk movie next month, too. I’m taking two of my first-year students, who I took to see the X-Men film six years ago. I suspect that they won’t have to peek through their fingers during the really violent parts this time, though. They’re fifteen by now.
Marvel characters really do seem to get the better movies. The only DC movies that have been truly great are the first two Christopher Reeve Superman movies and Batman Begins.
I really like that we have movie producers, writers, and directors who have grown up reading comic books. It makes the difference between a great comic book movie, and a piece of crap like the 1980s Swamp Thing. Ew. Now a Swamp Thing movie that was faithful to the Alan Moore series…. brrr. That’d be scary. I probably wouldn’t watch it. The comic books used to freak me out to the point that I wouldn’t read them at night. It’s not that I’m a chicken. It’s that I get really involved in whatever I am reading or watching. I have a hard time remembering it isn’t real. That’s why I can’t watch horror films. That, and the fact that they give me nightmares.
Anyway. Go see Iron Man. It rocks.
Charlton Heston is gone. The article didn’t mention cause of death. I have my suspicions that it was a deliberate early exit due to Alzheimer’s, and if so, more power to him. Alzheimer’s a horrible way to die.
But while we’re talking about Heston, what’s your favorite line of his? Or your favorite film?
My all-time favorite is “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty apes!” from, of course, The Planet of the Apes (the good version).
Yours?
What did the Spanish diplomat, Eduardo Propper de Callejon have in common with Raoul Wallenberg, Frank Foley and Aristades De Sousa Mendes? Like the others, Propper de Callejon risked his life and career to issue visas to Jews to escape the Nazis.
As German troops marched into France in the summer of 1940, Propper de Callejon, then first secretary in the Spanish Embassy in Paris, stamped and signed passports for four days nearly nonstop to allow refugees to escape to Spain, and from there to the relative safety of Portugal.Propper de Callejon, a Franco loyalist, defied Spanish Foreign Ministry instructions not to issue such visas. In 1941, he was demoted, and never promoted to be an ambassador. He retired in 1965 and died in 1972. The exact number of visas Propper de Callejon issued remains unknown, but Yad Vashem Director Avner Shalev said it was believed to be at least 1,500, both Jewish and non-Jewish. ”He was signing papers with both his hands. He signed so many that his hands hurt so much, my mother had to bandage them at the end of the day,” said Elena Bonham Carter, his daughter. ”It was extraordinary. He said those were the most important days of his life.”
Like De Sousa Mendes he paid for his heroism with his career.
Wallenberg came from one of the wealthiest families in Sweden. (And it’s still quite wealthy.) Propper de Callejon, though, also has a famous relative, his granddaughter.
Israel’s Holocaust memorial on Wednesday posthumously recognized a prominent Spanish diplomat, who was actress Helena Bonham Carter’s grandfather, for his role in saving hundreds of Jews during World War II.
(Yes, her name differs from that of her mother by one letter.)Not entirely related, you might remember that two other Harry Potter cast members have contributed to a Holocaust memorial event.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
If you’re really geeky, all episodes of the original Star Trek series are available for download at CBS. (h/t Crossing the Rubicon3)BTW, why is this on CBS and not NBC, as you might recall.
Mr. Spock: Here is the readout, Captain. The computer has identified the alien vessel as a 1968 Chrysler Imperial with a tinted windshield and retractable headlights.Captain Kirk: And the little blue and orange numbers?
Mr. Spock: That’s called a “California license plate”, and it’s registered, or was in 1968, to a corporation known as “NBC”. Wait.. there’s something more.. The computer isn’t sure, but it thinks this NBC used to manufacture cookies.
So my best guess is that CBS has a hand in the producing the upcoming Star Trek movie so it’s hoping that making the original show available will generate interest in the movie. (Though CBS and Viacom have split there’s still a production company called CBS Paramount.)
(The main post is about the Church of Spock, which Daled Amos figures is one of the more mainstream tourist sites in Lynchburg.)
If you’re super geeky here are Star Charts of the whole Trek Universe. So if you want to trek through the Romulan Empire or vacation on Bajor, here’s all the info you need. (h/t Colossus of Rhodey)
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
Go see it.
Really. There isn’t much more to say. It was funny, it was sweet, it has a fantastic cast, and the kid that plays Juno is simply amazing. It gets a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It deserves 100%.
Really, really good.
I saw Sweeney Todd this afternoon, in a theater that had a decent-sized crowd. I can see why Steven Sondheim gave the movie his blessings. It’s quite good. It has its flaws, but overall, I enjoyed it immensely.
Flaw number one is that Helena Bonham Carter is a great actor, but she can’t sing for squat. Tim Burton really needed to give the role of Mrs. Lovett to someone who can actually sing. Johnny Depp isn’t a great singer, but his voice was good enough for the film.
Flaw number two was that I was immensely peeved that the introduction and finale were both skipped. The film ended too abruptly, and I really, really missed the finale.
Other minor quibbles: I thought most of the songs were sung too slowly. The comedic songs, especially, weren’t as quick and funny as they could have been. And Helena Bonham Carter either doesn’t do comedy well, or didn’t get that Mrs. Lovett wasn’t a dark, tired, sad woman all the time. I guess I really can’t compare her to the Angela Lansbury version, since Angela won the Tony for her role. But she could have been a little funnier.
Really, though, I did like the film. I’ll probably see it again, or maybe even buy it, spurting blood from throats and all. Tim Burton might not have wanted to make it so bloody, though. I’ll bet a PG would have gotten him legions of Johnny Depp tween fans. It’s rated R. Sorena couldn’t get in to get us seats early; she had to come get me to get her past the ticket-taker.
Overall, today was a very good day. And I got some cash in the karma bank because we discovered someone had left his keys hanging out of the door of his Toyota convertible, so I left a note on the windshield and the keys at the box office. I imagine someone got a nice little present when they got out of their movie.
Just breaking …
Christopher Pine has been cast to play the young Captain Kirk in the next Star Trek movie.
The bridge of the starship Enterprise is filling up.
Chris Pine, who had been in talks to join the cast of J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” flick, will play the young James Kirk, while Karl Urban will take on the role of Dr. Leonard McCoy, distributor Paramount confirmed Thursday.They join previously announced cast members Zachary Quinto as Vulcan scientist Spock, Simon Pegg as engineer Scotty, John Cho as helmsman Sulu, Zoe Saldana as communications officer Uhura and Anton Yelchin as navigator Chekov.
Leonard Nimoy, who played Enterprise science officer Spock in the 1960s TV series and six “Star Trek” feature films, also will appear as an older version of the Vulcan.
Eric Bana, the star of Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” and Ang Lee’s “Hulk,” is playing a villain in the “Trek” film, which begins shooting in November and is due out in December 2008.
They couldn’t find someone named Christopher Pike?
UPDATE: It occurred to me that if Nimoy will be playing an older Spock, the story will likely be told as a flashback. So in the framing story will Spock have returned to the Federation or will he still be, where we last saw him, fomenting revolution on Romulus?
UPDATE: I know nothing of these actors, but someone isn’t happy with the choices. (h/t Transterrestial Musings)
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
I went up to the office yesterday and had a couple of meetings, then got to actually work in an office instead of from my home, which felt very work-like. Seriously. I do the exact same work at home, yet it feels far more official when I’m doing it in an office. I wonder if that’s really why they make most of us work in an office.
Anyway, things are proceeding nicely via the job, and if all goes well, I should be an on-staff employee, working from home four days a week, and traveling to NorVA once a week. We’re trying to pick a day.
This morning I am the guest of Janet and Chris, who have four cats, three of which are on hand most of the time. The fourth is a bit shy.
We watched Babylon 5: The Lost Tales last night.
Wow, did it suck.
A full review will have to wait, but there was a first-season episode of the Gilmore Girls where Lorelai and Rory were making fun of Father Knows Best, and the conversation went something like, “Do you remember the episode where Buddy lost his homework and nothing happened?” “Or how about the one where the dad came home late from work and nothing happened?”
Last night, Janet kept asking “When is the story going to start?”
That was because nothing happened.
I’m taking it off my wishlist. If you were thinking of buying it, I wouldn’t. The only good thing about the show was seeing the Bruce Boxleitner still looks great. Except he should dye his hair. He’s aging better than Tracy Scoggins, who reminded me how much I disliked season five.
There’s a reason this thing went straight to DVD, and it’s not because it’s good.
For me it started with the article by Debbie Schlussel in the FrontPage magazine. Let’s not mince the words – the article is a hatchet job, and a very thorough one to boot. Debbie has definitely gone overboard, trying to judge the movie as if it were financed by the Israeli Tourism ministry and should have been focused solely on the Jewish motives. That bit of criticism really cracked me up:
And don’t forget Wall Street Journal reporter Steve Levine, played by Gary Wilmes, the most stereotypically Jewish-looking actor they could cast – a living embodiment of the angst-ridden, sweaty big-nosed, glasses-wearing Jew you’d find in “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” picture book for kids.
I have even taken the trouble to look up the poor guy’s picture. I am not sure that Gary Wilmes is that living embodiment mentioned above, but it is clear that he will have to consider an investment in some major plastic surgery now.
But after looking up some stuff on Debbie’s site, I think I have caught the drift. It seems that Debbie is sometimes slightly overexcited (all for the good cause, no doubt), like in this case, for instance:
Then, there is this BS:
In Palestine, Jewish terrorist attacks finally persuaded the British to pull out.
WRONG again. The Brits pulled out, if anything, because they were tired of Islamic/Arab violence (there was no Jewish violence against the Brits) against British soldiers, and because eventually the land was carved up into Israel, Jordan, etc.
Ah well, as I said, it is all for the good cause, and anyway history these days is a flexible science…
But… Saying all this, there is more to Debbie’s article than meets the eye. Of course, there is no place to criticize Winterbottom, Julie and Pitt for focusing on Mariane Pearl and the chief of Pakistan’s counterterrorism unit. After all, it is their movie and their license.
But blaming the barbaric execution of Daniel Pearl on the misdeeds of US in Guantanamo is pure unadulterated bullshit. The list of kidnappers/murderers demands includes the one re Gitmo prisoners indeed, but read it in its entirety:
We still demand the following:
- The immediate release of U.S. held prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
- The return of Pakistani prisoners to Pakistan.
- The immediate end of U.S. presence in Pakistan.
- The delivery of F-16 planes that Pakistan had paid for and never received.
We assure Americans that they shall never be safe on the Muslim Land of Pakistan.
And if our demands are not met this scene shall be repeated again and again…
It is quite clear that the absurd list was never intended as a base for negotiations and that its sole purpose was to increase the publicity for the planned act of murder. The fact that Winterbottom, Julie and Pitt made Gitmo a focal point of the movie is telling.
Another salient point in the article – disregard of the fact that Daniel Pearl is Jewish. As noticed here:
…something could have been inserted about Daniel Pearl, a man from a family with deep Israeli roots — scenes and sentiments that would make him a real person who once lived, loved, and later died a horrible death, publicly.
It is not certain that Daniel’s fate was sealed by the fact of his Jewishness, but it is certain that the fact did not escape the attention of his murderers and they obviously enjoyed it. The title of the execution clip – “The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl” is sufficient testimony.
The royal pair of Hollywood is definitely way above their heads into politics. Not that it makes them outstanding, many other Hollywood stars and mega-stars have discovered the politicking as a new and glamorous pastime. But the mix of the mega-star popularity, naivety, good will and ability to dumb down any complex issue to a set of childish slogans has a definite impact on general population. Here is one example of a rave review by a groupie:
…without apology, it is simultaneously an unabashedly political vehicle that does not fall victim to sloganeering or jingoism, as well as an effective and gripping re-telling of a story that is still fresh in the minds of the audience. I know a lot of people are criticizing the movie.. but the best thing about this movie was it does not points finger on anyone.
Yep. An unabashedly political vehicle that does not “points finger on anyone”, indeed…
But the best expression of the above mentioned Hollywood mix is provided by the royal pair:
The hero of this movie is a Muslim Pakistani Captain . . . . Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish–they all came together, all of them becoming great friends.
Why, indeed, can’t we all get along and be friends? I really don’t know. Maybe because there are too many gently smiling folks like this one:
I really recommend this clip as a mandatory viewing. Notice that the person that appears in it is an American resident and knows his rights exceedingly well. It is also worth your while to visit his site at _http://www.al-buruj.com/_ to get an in-depth understanding of the creature. And the ideology that moves him and his ilk, making it kinda difficult to make friends with him.
But don’t tell Brangelina about it – it may distress them, possibly on a shooting day, and then the damage to the world will be immeasurable …
Hat tip to Bagel Blogger.
Cross-posted on SimplyJews.
I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with my niece and her mom tonight, as Sorena is going to Interlochen this weekend for three weeks, and wasn’t sure if she’d be able to see it in camp. (And by the way, Sorena is one of only three people her age in the Richmond Youth Symphony Orchestra, if I may brag a bit more.)
Go see it.
Really good.
Best of the bunch.
The duel at the end was superb. That Dumbledore—he has presence.
Next Friday night, Sarah and I are taking her eldest sons to the local Barnes & Noble’s to get the seventh book. I took Sorena two years ago. (Was it only two years? Wow. She sure has grown.) She had fun. I did, too.
Did anyone else see the Darren Aronofsky film The Fountain?
Yeah?
Did you get it?
Me neither.
On the other hand, I’m going to buy another Clint Mansell soundtrack. Damn, he’s good.
Why is it that every time I hear the name “The Red Mosque” (for that jihadi mosque in Pakistan) all I can really think of is “The Mosque of the Red Death?”
They never should have shown us that movie in junior high. Brrr. Vincent Price was the bogeyman of my youth. Between that, “The Last Man on Earth,” and “The Fly,” he haunted my childhood dreams.
But back to The Mosque of the Red Death: Yeah. It is.
I wonder what the tally of women and children will be by the time this ends.
There’s a new Bruce Banner in town, and now there’s a new Betty Ross.
The new Banner is Ed Norton, whose name I can never hear without thinking of The Honeymooners. Sorry. I just can’t. And the new Betty is familiar to us all: It’s Liv Tyler. (And may I say: Yay. Jennifer Connelly may have talent, but you never would have guessed it had you only seen her in The Hulk.)
Fanboy-friendly Liv Tyler has been signed to play opposite Edward Norton (and a whole lot of CGI) in Louis Leterrier’s “The Incredible Hulk,” which promises a lot more action than the previous entry — and a lot less poodles.
Souces indicate that Bruce Banner and Betty Ross will be sort of estranged at the beginning of the movie, but get back together when all the chases and explosions and giant green transformations become a factor.
Of course, I could not present this without asking a special guest poster, who, ah, told me what to write. (If you’ve never read his review of the Hulk movie, it’s here.)
‘Bout time Hulk got new movie. Stupid orange rock-man have new moving coming out. Hulk beat stupid Thing lots of times. Um, Hulk try to count: One time. One more time. One more time. See? Lots of times. Hulk always beat Rock-man. Hulk is the strongest one there is! Puny humans should make movie about Hulk beating up Thing! Hulk would like to see that! Girl says she would, too.
Hulk does not care about puny Banner. Hulk better have more time in movie than last time. Stupid Banner. Banner is boring. Hulk want to see Hulk on screen. And pretty Betty. But not boring one. Last Betty boring. Girl says new Betty will not be boring. Girl better be right, or Hulk sit on sofa again. Break door, too.
Took the afternoon off to go see Spider-Man 3. No spoilers will be included with this post.
I liked it, but there were some plot twists I didn’t care for, and totally didn’t expect. Didn’t much like the ending.
On the other hand, the CGI has finally caught up to Spidey. It was really, really good in this film. One reason I haven’t bought the Spidey films is because the CGI sucks. It isn’t that you just always know it’s CGI—it’s that it looks like a computer game in the middle of a movie. Not this time. The Venom and Sandman effects were amazing.
Bruce Campbell plays a small, but very funny part. I miss Bruce Campbell. He needs a new TV series. So does Ted Raimi.
They showed seven commercials and five movie previews, taking a total of 15 minutes. I so should have tried to make the 1:30 screening. I wouldn’t have missed a thing but the commercials. Think I’ll start working that into my movie timetables.
One of the previews was the international trailer for the next Harry Potter film. They really make it look great. That’s another one I’m looking forward to. The summer movie season is here, finally. A big fat “Yay!’ from me.
I tend to rent most of my movies these days, but I’ll pay to see the big action flicks in a theater.
I am, frankly, on the side of the HD-DVD consortium on this. I am a firm believer in copyright protection and have refused numerous times to accept illegal copies of expensive software. Yeah, I’d like to have the software. But I grew up a while back, and realized that it’s wrong to steal. There’s a big difference between fair use (for example, using music clips in my podcast) and outright theft.
Michael Malone has a great article on the Diggers trying to subvert copyright law.
But the biggest problem with Digg is not the business itself, which is an impressive creation, but its community. One of the things we’re learning about the Web 2.0 world is that all communities aren’t alike; when you let millions of anonymous users design your product, you also let them determine your fate. And Digg has put itself in the hands of an army of postadolescents with too much education and too much free time, the age cohort that gets its news from “The Colbert Report” and holds the anarchistic view that all information should be, in fact, “wants to be,” free.
Nothing wrong with that. Indeed, been there, done that. But now, in my gray-haired middle-age I’ve come to realize that if you are going to create a venue for children to play, someone has to be the grown-up. And that is where Digg blew it.
[...] In other words, Digg was willing to block porn and hate sites, but was perfectly willing to violate trade secrets if its users said so.
It was a breathtaking abrogation of responsibility by a person in a position of authority. If you sign up to be sheriff, and are rewarded handsomely for doing so, then your job when the howling mob shows up outside the jail is defend the prisoner under attack, even if you despise him. At the very least, you run away and accept the shame of your cowardice. But the one thing you don’t ever do is join the mob knocking down the jailhouse door.
And that is exactly what Kevin Rose did. Rather than maturely endure the momentary anger of his community, he instead caved in the most craven manner possible. With a certain justice, all that this gutless move managed to do was earn Rose even more contempt for being two-faced and spineless.
Read it all.
Update: Background on the Digg revolution that the article above misses.
While it’s obvious why the creator of a movie or a song might deserve some special claim over the use of their creation, it’s hard to see why anyone should be able to pick a number at random and unilaterally declare ownership of it. There is nothing creative about this number — indeed, it was chosen by a method designed to ensure that the resulting number was in no way special. It’s just a number they picked out of a hat. And now they own it?
As if that’s not weird enough, there are actually millions of other numbers (other keys used in AACS) that AACS LA claims to own, and we don’t know what they are. When I wrote the thirty-digit number that appears above, I carefully avoided writing the real 09F9 number, so as to avoid the possibility of mind-bending lawsuits over integer ownership. But there is still a nonzero probability that AACS LA thinks it owns the number I wrote.
Powered by WordPress