Lots of death recently.

One was my self-confidence as I batted 1 for 2 on the midterms this week with one take-home left. The last one was a disaster. Let's hope the word curve figures prominently.

Then it was discovered this morning that Mr. Rogers is dead at the age of 74 from cancer. As a kid, I never did catch Sesame Street too often because I was more of a Mr. Rogers fan. Farewell to him.

Emmitt Smith had his ties with the Dallas Cowboys killed when they cut him. He is a great, if not the greatest, running back in football and still has some good years left in him. He'll get on another team real quickly.

Pioneer 10 has sent its last signal back to Earth. It was launched in 1972 and was the first satellite to leave the solar system. Being 12 billion kilometers away, NASA chose not to track it anymore.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is leaving her role in Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, which pretty much kills the show's prospects for renewal next season. This comes after Eliza Dushku, heir apparent if Gellar left, got her own drama on FOX.

Not death, but certainly different. David Letterman had to use guest hosts when his eyes puffed up so much, he could barely open them. He was suffering from a case of the shingles. Last night's show featuring Bruce Willis was nothing to win awards with but it was certainly decent considering they only had a few hours prep time.

Ever since the death of Burger King in Berkeley and the rise of Curry-in-Hurry (you will not believe the number of people searching this site for info on the place), change is continuing on Shattuck. The office that used to house former Mayor Shirley Dean's donkey is now home to a new EB Games store. Why the electronics boutique store is opening this one when they just opened another one on Telegraph is beyond me.

And the carousel of failed Chinese restaurants next to the UA theatre is coming to a halt. They're actually opening a Pho Hoa in its place. Pho Hoa has its own little niche in my life. I used to go there all the time as a kid in Lion Plaza until it went all commercial and Americanized and charged more than $5 a bowl. Though that was like 5 years ago, so $5 might be reasonable these days. And my parents' friend owns the one in Milpitas Square. While I go to the trio of pho places near the Target on Capitol when I'm at home, there's a noticeable lack of them in Berkeley. In fact, I can only think of one, the pho house. So there might actually be a market for them here.

As written by Rob Morse today in the Chronicle, he writes a short paragraph on the plight of Bob Gower, an art director at the San Francisco Examiner. Working from home, Gower had problems accessing his email so he called a techie at the newspaper. Jokingly, Gower asked, "Have I been fired?" The techie responded seriously. "Well, yes." The Examiner fired almost everyone to leave a bare-bones staff to put together a now free newspaper that will use the resources of the company's other two established papers. Prior to the announcement, management cut off phone and computer access to all staffers, explaining Gower's problems with his email.

Saddam Hussein wants a televised debate with President Bush on the issues concerning his country. I still think a duel, an idea mentioned earlier by someone in the Iraqi government, would be better. Plus it's cheaper and quicker. But whatever happens, war or not, we know the French will be there to complain.

News reporters a few months ago were being sent to Qatar, which they pronounced as "Cutter." I'd never heard of Cutter before. For some reason, I'd always heard it as Qua-tar. When did people start changing this pronunciation?

Only in Berkeley: a man wearing pink spandex riding a unicycle.

Kevin Spacey told a really corny joke the other day. What do you call a lady of the night who accepts spaghetti instead of money? A pasta-tute.

I probably won't see Gods and Generals in the theatre, but the critical consensus is, while its sequel, Gettysburg, ran more than 4 hours, audiences were left wanting more because it was so well-done. I also felt that way. But while that movie focused on that one battle, Gods and Generals describes the action with the year leading up to the Battle of Gettysburg. And even though it's less than 4 hours, it feels like it takes a year to watch the thing.

Mike Tyson went through a whirlwind week. After dropping out and re-entering, and his opponent dropping out and re-entering, both fought on Saturday. Tyson sported a new Chakotay-like tattoo on his face. The pictures with his baby was just frightening. The fight was a joke. Etienne was knocked out 49 seconds into the bout. Reminds me of a Sports Night episode where everyone was expecting a big 12-round fight only to have the guy get knocked out just seconds into the fight, leaving the Sports Night crew to fill in two hours of programming with the crazy last-minute boxing analyst The Cut Man.

It's been widely reported that Annika Sorenstam, a successful LPGA golfer, will enter a PGA tournament. Not-so widely reported is that Brian Kontak, a not-so successful male golfer, will try out for the U.S. Women's Open. Well, more power to both players.

Justin Timberlake hasn't been cranking out the great songs ever since N'Sync temporarily broke up to pursue individual projects. You can say he's really embracing rap even though he's not good at doing so. The latest example is this Rock Your Body video, a complete mess. Hey, even Cry Me a River was funny to watch.

My sister let me know of Avril Lavigne performing at the Grammys last night. Since Alias was in commercial, I casually switched over to watch that poor Skater song she sings. Somebody really needed to do a sound check. It sounded horrible. But the funniest part was in the mini-mosh pit they put in front of her. I don't know, but watching people with nerdy glasses on doesn't really set the right tone for Avril.

Speaking of the Grammys, Norah Jones totally deserves the 5 Grammys she won, plus the 3 she had a hand in winning for other people. Congrats also to No Doubt and Foo Fighters, who will be on Letterman tonite. But looking at the categories, even just the sheer number of them, the Simpsons are right: it really is easy to win a Grammy.

I pulled an all-nighter last week for a midterm and while doing so, flipped through the channels to see what could be on. To my surprise, all the 80s shows I watched as a child have been relegated here. Sure, everyone knows of Saved by the Bell on at 4 am. But there's also MacGyver on TV Land at midnight. And Nick at Nite has Perfect Strangers and Head of the Class back-to-back at 3 am. Let PBS bring back Square One TV, and I'll be living in the 80s again.

Daredevil
Ben Affleck plays a blind man who's suddenly a superhero in an adaptation of one of the less popular Marvel Comics. Ever since he acquired an increased sense of everything but the sight and held his father's dead body in his arms, he vowed to help the poor and helpless for the rest of his life. To that end, he became a lawyer who does pro bono work. When he doesn't get his way, he gets into costume and beats them up of course. The person who attracts his attention villain-wise is the Kingpin, played by Michael Clarke Duncan. Lady-wise, it's Jennifer Garner as Elektra, the daughter of a wealthy billionaire who does martial arts on the side. Working for the Kingpin is Bullseye played by Colin Farrell. Hired to kill Elektra's father, the events play out so that it looks like Daredevil had killed him, setting up a battle between the three characters in the end.

There's some nice comedic touches by Jon Favreau as Affleck's law partner. But we never do see enough of Garner and Farrell, the two characters that make this worth watching, if you're searching for a reason to do so. There's really nothing wrong with Ben Affleck. But there's something about the story that made it seem unbelievable, impossible, and a little generic all at the same time. Daredevil is really one-dimensional. If he doesn't get his way in the "real world," he could just fix it in the violence of his own fantasy world. Yet the sad part is, no matter what he does, he'll always hold back because he needs evil to have any meaning in his life. Without it, there's nothing left because obviously, he's not a successful lawyer (maybe that explains hooking up with the billionaire daughter) and all his money is going to meds and his Batcave digs. In the end, everyone seems to be misused in one way or another and the character and the movie never live up to its name. Maybe they'll fix it by the time the sequel comes out. 1.5 stars

As made fun of on the Daily Show, the government has put out a preparedness web site, ready.gov, to further inform the public on what they should do to prepare for a terrorist attack and what to do if it actually happens. It truly is filled with tips such as "if you're on fire, don't run," and contains pictures of possible types of attack with a what to do below each one. Here are a few that looked interesting. Whoever drew these may have had Fight Club in mind.


This one apparently wants you to stand behind a wall when a nuclear bomb, or a sign with a nuclear insignia, goes off.


For some reason, if I knew a nuclear bomb had gone off, I wouldn't spend 5 minutes outside looking for it. Especially if its energy is focused as it's shown in the picture.


Make sure you are twice the size of your shelter.


If you're trapped under debris, remember to use the flashlight and whistle you keep with you at all times. If you don't have a whistle, shave your head and shout.


If I see dead fish, swirling gas, and a big chemical sign, I wouldn't spend my time pondering what the heck that is. Nor would I spend my precious thought bubbles thinking whether an aerosol can poses a biological threat. Better yet, I'd be running if I knew an aerosol can was spraying all by itself.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be rushing out to the hardware store to buy the duct tape and plastic sheeting needed to protect me from a nuclear, chemical, or biological attack.

Do you remember when winning a million dollars on a game show actually meant something? People flocked to ABC by groups of 30 million or more to watch Regis Philbin ask some poor person 15 questions for a million dollars. Even mediocre copycat game shows like Greed, Winning Lines, and Twenty-one hopped on the bandwagon with mild success. Those days are now gone. Who wants to be a millionaire? Apparently, everyone does and now it's very easy to do so. In the past 24 hours, two game shows have given away a million dollars. One was with great fanfare. 40 million people saw "Joe Millionaire" Evan Marriott finally admit to Zora that he has not inherited $50 million and instead, must rely on his underwear model looks to find the woman of his dreams. Miraculously, Zora is happy with his looks and his, ahem, personality, and wants to continue the growing relationship. The money shot for Fox though never occurred. The big news was met with tepid reaction, not even a jaw drop. Then the butler walks in with a check for a million dollars. Really, that simple huh? Live in the lap of luxury pretending to be a millionaire in front of 20 women, going through the task of picking the right lady and then getting a million dollars yourself? I tell ya, once the money has been blown, the relationship is off.

The second show with a big winner was the original one, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, now relegated to a syndicated spot and hosted by Meredith Vieira. The first winner, IRS guy John Carpenter, won with the whole country watching and now another guy has won a million dollars, and America barely blinked. We were still talking about Joe Millionaire or shouting about Iraq in some anti-war protest. The lucky guy's name is Kevin Smith (such a popular name), a truck driver from Los Angeles. The million dollar question was "The U.S. icon Uncle Sam was based on Samuel Wilson, who worked during the War of 1812 as a what?" After another read of the question, Smith correctly answered a meat inspector. I wonder what's harder, living a lie for a month or answering 15 questions. Which ever it is, they're both worth a million dollars.

I've finally finished watching all the 2002 movies I wanted to see, 60 in all out of the 468 released. What follows is my best and worst list for the year. I even saw my first 2003 film: Daredevil. Suffice it to say, it's going on my worst list soon. But first, here is the list for the best of the year. Check the archive for past reviews.

1. The Pianist - Roman Polanski's new take on the Jewish holocaust is one of the best on the subject. Adrien Brody masterfully brings realism to the picture.
2. Minority Report - Cruise and Spielberg team up to make a great movie for sci-fi fans as well as the mainstream audience.
3. Chicago - Sets the bar high for the continuing revival of the musical started by Moulin Rouge.
4. Gangs of New York - Captures 1860s New York superbly with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role. Daniel Day-Lewis gives a masterful performance.
5. The Quiet American - Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser fight for the same girl in the beauty and the political scene of 1950s Vietnam.
6. About Schmidt - Jack Nicholson gives one of his finest performances ever. And the movie's pretty good too.
7. Punch-Drunk Love - Yes, that really is Adam Sandler toning down his slapstick comedy just a tad to let in some dramatic scenes.
8. Catch Me If You Can - Another DiCaprio flick with Tom Hanks this time. The chase and its inevitable end is entertaining and funny.
9. Y Tu Mama Tambien- Great coming-of-age story about two Mexican teenagers growing up by learning about themselves and an attractive woman.
10. Antwone Fisher- The power generated by poor Antwone can no longer be ignored in this true story directed by first-timer Denzel Washington.

Of the 60 movies I've seen, these are the top ten movies of the year through a composite ranking of 129 prominent critics (i.e. professionals, not a nobody like me) courtesy of moviecitynews.com.

1. Y Tu Mama Tambien
2. About Schmidt
3. Adaptation
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
5. The Pianist
6. Chicago
7. Gangs of New York
8. The Hours
9. Punch-Drunk Love
10. Minority Report

Of course, after the best comes the worst. None of these movies were true stinkers. No. Instead, they were just really bad. And the worst movies this year are...

1. Scooby-Doo - It didn't need to be made but it did and it doesn't even come close to the decent cartoon it's based on.
2. The Tuxedo - Whoever thought Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt could have on-screen chemistry should be fired.
3. Jason X - Mindless killing. If that's your kind of movie, then maybe it's on the wrong list.
4. The Rules of Attraction - College kids on the brink of killing themselves. Just die already.
5. National Lampoon's Van Wilder - It all seemed out of place to me. Can you really stay in college for 8 years?
6. Solaris - Even at 2 hours, it felt like 20.
7. The Mothman Prophecies - Really...we're supposed to be scared of a moth?
8. Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams - Strays past the original and into bizarro land.
9. Full Frontal - It looks bad, the story's bad, the acting's bad, it's bad.
10. Eight Legged Freaks - It has Kari Wuhrer, but big spiders sadly do not mean a better movie.

The Quiet American
This is not a movie to be quiet over. Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser vie for the love of a Vietnamese woman during the dying days of the French colonial period in Vietnam. Caine plays Thomas Fowler, a British journalist who's overstayed his welcome according to his bosses in London and want him to return. But his love for Phuong keeps him in Saigon and so, stories from the front line of the skirmishes between the French and the Communists allow him to stay temporarily. In arrives Fraser as Alden Pyle, part of an economic task force from America. The two become friends but Phuong catches the eye of Pyle, who instantly falls in love with her. The problem between Fowler and Phuong is that Phuong wants to be married and possibly even travel with him to England, but Fowler has a wife back home who is not willing to get a divorce. When Phuong finds out Fowler's lie about a promised divorce, she leaves him for Pyle. This sets up an interesting discovery about Pyle and a resolution that ends up with the death of Pyle, as seen in the beginning of the film.

This is a great film on many levels. On one, it's a fight between two men for the love of a woman. On another, it's about two men and their own separate ways in what they believe is the correct way to save Vietnam. On another, it's a story about the struggles between the French and the Communists with innocent people caught in the middle just trying to survive or to start their own little revolution. On another, it sets up the many storylines for the Vietnam War and America's involvement, specifically the CIA, before it. While Caine's performance is excellent, possibly even routine now with another Oscar nomination under his belt, Fraser's performance should not be overlooked. He's come a long way from the likes of Encino Man and Airheads to make quality films like Gods and Monsters and this movie. Both exhibit a certain easiness when working together and that provides wonders to the screen. Director Philip Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Rabbit-Proof Fence among others), in a novel by Graham Greene, seamlessly combines the romances with the politics to make a powerful film that makes the simple even more complex in scenes that capture the beauty of a yet-to-be-disturbed Vietnam. 4 stars

Antwone Fisher
Denzel Washington makes his directorial debut about a boy who overcomes the odds and succeeds in life. He's played by first-time actor Derek Luke in a true story written by Antwone Fisher himself. Antwone has all the makings to be an outstanding navy officer, but sudden bouts of violence toward his shipmates force him to see psychiatrist Jerome Davenport, played by Washington. After the silence of two meetings, Antwone opens up about his abusive childhood with a foster mother after his true mother gave him up after being born in a prison. Together, they build a friendship that provides guidance to Antwone, both in his growing relationship with new girlfriend Cheryl and in his motivation to find his real family. And in the end, family is the missing piece needed to complete Antwone's new and better life.

Like first-time director George Clooney reviewed earlier, Washington shows a sure hand in directing, boldly moving along without taking too many risks. He manages to get an honest and inspiring performance out of Luke. In other less than capable hands, the movie may have degenerated into an over-acting free-for-all, complete with little touches that makes inspiration turn into the unbelievable. Instead, Fisher's story and Luke's performance seem all too believable. One flaw was the resolution of Davenport's storyline about his marriage. It's briefly introduced and is quickly resolved at the end. The movie could have been better if this was developed more. But alas, only slightly better since Antwone's story was already a great tale to watch. 3.5 stars

An extraordinary event is occuring right now on CSPAN2. The Senate is being obstructed by a filibuster by the Democrats. A filibuster effectively stops all Senate action until an issue is resolved. This issue concerns the nomination of Miguel Estrada, a conservative lawyer from Honduras, to the circuit court of appeals to the District of Columbia, a stepping stone away from the Supreme Court. Republicans are more than happy to vote him in, a pick of the White House. Democrats, probably unhappy of the conservative court-packing under way, have used the excuse of not enough information as a reason to hold back, both in the failure to disclose certain internal memoranda as well as some vague answers to some questions asked by the Senate. As a result, Senators are forced to stay on the floor and keep talking until the issue is resolved. And that's happening right now. I know the debate started this morning and it's still happening now. The most famous, and longest, filibuster was by recently retired Strom Thurmond, who 46 years ago held up the Senate single-handedly for 24 straight hours with his opposition to civil rights legislation.

Update: I turn to the West Wing and I turn back, and the filibuster would seem to be over. Or perhaps delayed until tomorrow. We'll see.

Oscar nominations were announced this morning and while there were some surprises (no Richard Gere for best actor being the major one), most came true to form as predicted. Here are some of the major categories.

Best Picture
Chicago
Gangs of New York
The Hours
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Pianist

Achievement in Directing
Rob Marshall, Chicago
Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York
Stephen Daldry, The Hours
Roman Polanski, The Pianist
Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Adrien Brody in The Pianist
Nicolas Cage in Adaptation
Michael Caine in The Quiet American
Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York
Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt

Best Supporting Actor
Chris Cooper in Adaptation
Ed Harris in The Hours
Paul Newman in The Road to Perdition
John C. Reilly in Chicago
Christopher Walken in Catch Me If You Can

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Salma Hayek in Frida
Nicole Kidman in The Hours
Diane Lane in Unfaithful
Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven
Renee Zellweger in Chicago

Best Supporting Actress
Kathy Bates in About Schmidt
Julianne Moore in The Hours
Queen Latifah in Chicago
Meryl Streep in Adaptation
Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago

The rest can be found on the Oscar web site. Winners will be announced March 23. My wrong predictions will start before then.

Stuck in the sickbed for my weekend of recovery, here's what I noticed on the television.

The state controller, Steve Westly, wants to overhaul the Internet tax system in California. California has an Internet tax system, you ask? Sure, it does. When you order something online, you'll probably notice that you don't pay any sales taxes on your purchase. Ah, but at the end of the year, you're supposed to report all your online purchases in your state income tax return and pay the appropriate amount, something even the state admits hardly anyone does. I bet you don't. I know I don't. The rush to do this was put on by a 37-state pact with various online companies, California excluded, to streamline the tax process. With a $35 billion deficit, every little bit helps.

CBS is showing golf from Pebble Beach. Great tournament with Davis Love III winning. Tiger Woods is still injured but he promises to play next week in Torrey Pines near San Diego. The thing that caught my ear was the CBS music. It sounded too American Gladiators to me, trumpets and everything.

The Travel Channel showed some weird stuff called The Battle of the Buffets. 6 people get to eat until somebody throws up. It was a pretty gross experience with one guy eating 12 plates of stuffed tomatoes and some other international stuff and another eating 10 plates of eggs benedict and waffles, all under a time limit of 15 minutes. This program was followed by the top ten eating contests in the country including the hot dog eating contest at Coney Island and the Wing Bowl in Philadelphia, where a guy ate 150 chicken wings to the bone in 30 minutes. Poor chickens.

Wait. Is it a bad thing if one of those banner ads that writes you've won if this is flashing, isn't flashing?

Got through watching the All-Star festivities in basketball. In one shot, they showed us the winner of the ultimate fan contest. From the looks of it, all they got was a couch to sit on, really high from the floor. If I was the ultimate fan, I would've wanted to sit on the floor.

There's a Michelob commercial on the air which has a lady waiting for her bag at baggage claim. A guy sees the bag, picks it up, and decides to dump it in the garbage so he can meet her and yes, have a Michelob with her. Is this guy dumb or what? My bet is the relationship won't last long.

TBS has been showing The Patriot all week, an above average war flick starring Mel Gibson. I always wonder about the neatly formed lines the regiment makes before they fire and shoot. I mean, the other side fires and they just stand around takin the hits. They don't run around, duck, get behind a guy, anything? I find it amazing so few died this way.

Poor James Coburn. He's selling gambling videos he made a few years ago, which is wrong. Why? He died in November! If his estate is paying off debts or if some guy is trying to make an extra buck, he should really try another way.

Finally, The Cutting Edge. Whew, probably the only uplifting figure skating film there is. Things happen in that movie that are so far-fetched that it's even more comedic than they probably realized. Like that last move they do, that twist. It never worked in their five weeks of practice. It looks as though nobody could do it. Yet, on the biggest stage in the world, they pull it off at the last minute. Geez, like we didn't see that coming.

Hmm...no updates since Tuesday night. Reason for this? I've been on my death bed all week long. I woke up Wednesday morning and something didn't feel right. My muscles were aching a bit and I felt a little feverish. I chose to ignore it and went to school as if it was a normal day. By Wednesday night, a big headache hit and I had no appetite to eat anything even though my stomach roared otherwise. And as luck would have it, I ran out of Tylenol. So I toughed it out until the next morning, when I felt worse than I did the day before. I had the added pleasure of a bad cough, complete with the traditional colors that go with it. I was tired and I felt miserable. What could possibly convince me to go to school? I have no idea but I did anyway. By the end of the school day, I was exhausted and malnourished, with oranges and lots of water and juice as my diet. Tonight, only the cough and a sore throat remain. This after 10 hours of sleep, well, 2 hours here, 3 hours there, that added up to 10 hours.

This weekend, I can finally write the reviews to the last two 2002 films I'll see: Antwone Fisher and The Quiet American. That will make it 60 movies out of the 468 released in 2002. It will lead into the first 2003 film I'll get to see next week, Daredevil.

In a television age where reality shows and crime rule and old shows from 25-30 years ago are reliving their past through anniversary shows or updated adventures (Look! Columbo's on!), I'm surprised the FOX network has brought back something from my childhood and very much fake.

An updated animated version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will come to the Saturday morning lineup. You will not believe how much time I spent on the Nintendo playing the video game or even the time and money spent on watching its 3 films and the cartoons. (Yes, they made 3 films, but the live action films didn't compare to the cartoon. Things really hit bottom when they had Vanilla Ice in the second one.)

The producers promise that this new version will be rougher and tougher, something that moves far away from the antics provided from the old cartoon. Even their fighting call is being changed from Cowabunga! to the tame "It's time to raise shell." Wasn't comedy one of its drawing points? Its ability to make all kinds of situations silly? (Yes, I know it's already silly that 4 turtles and a rat can beat up virtually anyone.) Once you focus on the fighting, you turn into a kids' show that takes itself too seriously, something the Power Rangers suffered from where they'd fight, fail, regroup, fight, win, and then have a big laugh at the end for no apparent reason. (How many Power Rangers series are there? Seriously. Every time I flip past the ABC Family Channel or FOX, there's a different kind of Power Rangers on, whether its the first one, or in space, or at the grocery store, or whatever. The worst was when it spawned terrible copycat series such as those Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills.) So, as long as they strike the right balance, these new Ninja Turtles might become just as successful. Then again, are Saturday morning cartoons just as popular as they were in the past?

Being bored out of my mind last night at the last of the New Year's parties (I'm spared from next week's parties), I scrolled through the channels on the television. There wasn't much on at 6:30 on a Sunday night but the cable lineup said Star Wars: A New Hope was on, and you can never watch Star Wars enough. Instead of watching Luke fighting his uncle about leaving the farm, I see Fat Ebert talking about Biker Boyz (Fast and the Furious...with Bikes!) Where was Star Wars? Then a little message came on top of the screen which wrote that due to the shuttle tragedy, it would be inappropriate to show Star Wars. What? While I do understand why this decision was made, Star Wars is all fantasy. It's not like actual space shuttles are out there fighting the Death Star. Besides, it's much more than a space movie. I didn't see the harm in showing it.

No harm, especially when I got to the FX network, where they were showing Armageddon of all movies. Now that's a movie that shouldn't have been shown, with two space shuttles being destroyed.

25th Hour
Montgomery Brogan (Edward Norton) approaches an interesting turn in the road of his life. When the next day rolls around, he will be in a prison after being caught dealing drugs. He decides to make the most of it by spending time with his dad (Brian Cox), his two best friends (Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman), and his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson). As day turns into night, Monty is forced to study what his life has become and soon questions these people and others in their role in bringing him down as well as where their loyalties lie. Lingering in the background is the fact that this is a post-9/11 story, with the subtle reminders of Ground Zero and fallen firefighters sprinkled into the film. It only proves that even with all the bad that has happened, both in New York and in Monty's life, both will struggle to get out of it and both will be stronger because of it.

Director Spike Lee, himself a New Yorker, brings a painful sense of reality and honesty to this film, as he does with almost every film he does. There is a very strong scene where Norton begins to shout expletives at himself in a mirror, blaming almost everybody for what was wrong in New York and the world. It's also found in the book the movie it's based on by David Benioff. But Lee's films are notable by that one scene everyone talks about for years to come. I was watching Do the Right Thing on Bravo again the other night which had its ending of the fight between blacks and Italians and the subsequent fire at the pizza place. 25th Hour doesn't have its one memorable scene and instead tries to use 9/11 as its memorable aspect, even though it serves as more of a distraction rather than a rallying cry. It's not strong enough though to deter us from watching Monty go from a man willing to accept his fate to a man deconstructed before our very eyes. 3 stars

Two side questions: Tobey Maguire really produced this flick? And Lee couldn't find someone with a better accent than Tony Siragusa's?

A real tragedy occured this morning as the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over the Texas skies as it was on final approach to land. 7 people died, including the first Israeli astronaut ever to fly. There hasn't been an accident this catastrophic since Challenger blew up in 1986. Since then, things have been considered routine, even though it's anything but routine. Hopefully, attention will be paid to the space program once again.

What the world doesn't need on a day like this? Jokers. Flipping around the channels, I settle on Dan Rather on CBS. He's interviewing an "eyewitness" who claims some debris landed on his property. When Rather asks him about the location of his property relative to Dallas, the caller quickly tells him, "you're an idiot" and hangs up. You could see Rather was hurt by that comment as his face just froze up and didn't speak for a minute. His co-anchor had to jump in to break the silence.