Many days of bright sunshine has given way to the hounds of winter once again. Rain is expected on and off for the rest of the week. A hot day turned into a very cool evening tonight complete with fog. I knew it got dark for a reason. The ASUC campaign season is up and running. Nothing against the people promoting their own causes, but do they realize what they're getting themselves into? One only needs to look at this year's ASUC senate, constantly bickering with the administration and promoting the undergraduates instead of the entire campus (though even the undergraduates aren't getting too much help). Meetings are filled with sometimes pointless legislation and disagreement on how to close a massive budget deficit on top of the debt payment that was ignored by the previous senate. We pay $27.50 per student to fund this but the return is negligible, save for its funding of hundreds of student groups, which must make due with a reduced budget.

My friend was vice president of the ASUC a couple of years ago and even though he kept going with a smile on his face, I couldn't imagine what he was going through. Presiding over Senate meetings that would last all night. Having his decisions questioned by opposing senators and the press. Overall, an inaccurate portrayal of who he is. Maybe that's the whole point. Maybe the ASUC is an accurate portrayal of the electoral process today.

Which brings me back to the basis of the ASUC, campaigning to join this body of government. Sure, democracy at work is a good thing to witness. But I just ask if I can get to my class without people jamming flyers in my face or tailing me to convince me to vote for them. The worst part is when the candidate isn't doing it, just a party faithful doing his job. All this is doing is clogging up Sproul. And as we get closer to Election Day, they're just gonna spread like wildfire. Big signs will appear out of nowhere. Flyers will be stapled everywhere. Buttons distributed. Clothes with the candidate's name on it. Whatever happened to finding out what the candidates want in a public forum? And I don't mean the little blurb written in the Daily Cal the week before elections. Being able to write is just one part of being a successful politician, another is the meet and greet with the constituents and in a large gathering as well. President Bush isn't the smartest person out there, but his demeanor made him seem like a nice, honest guy, attracting people who were turned off by Clinton's antics, which eventually won him half the election. It's a good thing those who hold executive office don't run for re-election. If they were held accountable for their campaign promises, they'd sink faster than the Sharks are right now.

So mark your calendars, because by next Thursday, it should all be over.

And with the sound of a snap of the fingers, nine days of so-called Spring Break have gone poof and into the air. And while I did keep myself busy doing various odd tasks and spending time with friends and most of all, rest and relaxation, none involved school work. And while on some respects that's a good thing, it's not on this night, where I've suddenly realized that it's all piled up. So how did I waste my time? Writing this, so in turn, wasting your time as well.

First and foremost, there was Iraq. We're now in day 12 of the war and we're going nowhere. Every time I hear of the progress toward Baghdad, they keep saying they are 50 miles away. Today, they were making progress as they are now 49 miles away. Protests aren't as bad as I heard coming up to it, none of the threatened bridge closings and what not, just intersections. As for the war, the bombs seem to be devastating yet all it has done is allow a small percentage of Iraqis to rise up and fight for their "dying regime" spoiling the plans by the United States to keep this war quick. How quick? President Bush budgeted this war for less than a month. Now estimates are that it's going into the summer and maybe beyond. Hussein probably believes the longer this war is, the more protests there will be against the actions of President Bush, which would force some kind of cease-fire, something Secretary Rumsfeld and Pentagon officials vow will never happen. To my father, he doesn't believe in bringing in more troops. He knows how that could fail, seeing as how we're here instead of Vietnam. As he told me, as long as the North had rice to eat, they'd be unstoppable. Bombs wouldn't do any good if you're just dropping them blindly into the jungle. And in the end, the North won after the U.S. withdrew. My dad reasons then that unless they're able to starve out Baghdad now, they should just withdraw now. But instead they're in too deep and now there's no way out. I truly hope the U.S. can tough it out soon or else we're in it for the long haul.

There was the trip to the dentist office. Another new one, I think the seventh one. Nice old guy who went to Loyola Marymount and USC. Apparently, I've got perfect teeth but a little too much plaque. So they keep poking at my teeth with various metal objects causing my gums to bleed. The hygenist asks, "Do you know why your gums are bleeding?" If I was in my usual mood, I would've said it was from the sharp objects attacking my teeth. Instead, I looked away choosing to focus on the small amount of pain. She chose to promote the line of electronic toothbrushes out on the market today. She seemed to be putting down manual toothbrushes as if they were from the stone age or something. Sorry, I'll keep with my tried and true.

There was the Sharks game against the Stars, probably the best loss the Sharks have suffered. They gave up two early goals, but managed to battle back with some hard work and hustle to tie 2-2. But very quickly, they gave up a goal to go down 3-2. A good effort by Marco Sturm tied things right back at 3. A dumb penalty by Adam Graves allowed the Stars to take a one-goal lead with 2 minutes to play, forcing the Sharks to pull their goaltender for the extra skater. Teemu Selanne gets the puck with seconds remaining and backhands it in just as time expires. But the referee waves off the goal saying he heard the horn go off before the puck went into the net. They go to video review and after 5 minutes of talking to the video judge and league officials in Toronto, they determine the replay was inconclusive and thus the goal did not stand, leading to a 4-3 loss.

There was the night of drama at home. My friends have noticed that my sister takes too many liberties nowadays. My parents second that, saying she's a bit out of control. Whenever I'm at home, they seem to be fine and I don't notice anything out of the ordinary. That changed on one night when my sister planned on going to the movies. Granted, she mentioned it in passing a couple of days earlier, but my parents don't get the message unless you tell them a couple of more times. Too many times though they'll get sick of it and they'll definitely say no. When the time came, she was ready to go but it was late and my parents had a vague notion on who was going to be with her. So predictably they said no and wouldn't let her go. Oh, did she cry her eyes out. Usually, after a few minutes, they'd let her go. But they stood their ground, like nothing I'd ever seen before. She was even willing to give up her drivers' license. After fifteen minutes, my mother let her go but it was in that tone of voice where you'd regret it if you did. So she gave up and had to break the news to her friends. In the morning, seemingly all was forgiven since there wasn't any mention of it.

There was my cousin's college plans. As every high school senior knows, March is the college admissions season and among the colleges she's been accepted to is Berkeley, albeit a Spring admit. I never understood the wisdom of Spring admissions. If they're as good as a Fall admit, they should allow them to join in the so-called fun instead of having them suffer from not having the perks available to a Fall Freshman. (I know, what perks?) Then again, I know a relative number of Spring admits doing much better than I am, so it might not be a bad idea to ease your way into a successful Berkeley career. Or they could waste away at another college.

There was Jennifer Garner. All over the television this week. She was at the Oscars wearing a powder blue dress that was obviously too small for her. She was on the rerun of Saturday Night Live, not being too funny but humorous nonetheless. And she was on Alias tonite where a bunch of stuff happened. She rode a mechanical bull. She sneaked her way into Russia and into Spain to save Christian Slater playing a scientist. She was witness to the death of Dixon's wife by way of a car bomb by Sloane, who saw that Dixon killed his wife as both were trying to get away in the last episode.

There were other things but for now, there's homework to be done and due at noon tomorrow.

The 75th Oscars have come to a close without a hitch and with it come a few surprises.

While everyone knew Chicago would win the big one, the other categories were in the air and while it was tempting to give Chicago the win by default, the Academy did the right thing in giving their awards to people who deserved them. Adrien Brody and Roman Polanski deserved those awards. I thought a lack of exposure would hurt The Pianist, the best movie of the year in my opinion, but where there's good work, people will follow and congrats to them. Even more important was that the Academy actually recognized quality work instead of being blinded by popularity and its audience pleasing ways, but they did give Chicago undeserving awards in some technical categories.

Polanski was also thought to be hurt by his outstanding criminal charge of rape of a 13-year-old girl some 20 years ago, which is why he can't step into this country again. His accuser came forward with a new interview to Larry King just days before ballots were due.

Brody made headlines afterwards by kissing Halle Berry, making two dreams come true in one night.

Michael Moore shocked the audience by denouncing President Bush in his speech as he won for Bowling for Columbine. While his opening statement was greeted with cheers, he was booed off the stage for keeping on with the anti-Bush speech.

Another shocker was the win by Eminem for Lose Yourself. It was the best song of the five offered, but would old Academy members stop to recognize such a work? And yes they did. It's nice to see his partner, Luis Resto (above, far right), dress up for the occasion.

The big loser was Gangs of New York, which I thought would do well in at least the technical categories, but instead becomes another loss for Scorsese and his gang.

Steve Martin did a fantastic job in hosting. Yes, a few jokes fell flat, but most were funny and most important, the show ran over only 30 minutes instead of the usual 45-75.

As for my predictions, I missed on 9 of them. I'll run them down. Missing 9 isn't so bad according to the Yahoo prediction game. I'm ranked #160 out of 32,000 predictors.

Brody had an excellent performance in The Pianist, but up against two veterans in quality roles? I thought he didn't have a chance. But he did. Well-done.

Polanski, along with Scorsese, both deserved a win, but here, I thought the Chicago bandwagon would rumble through here, but instead it crashed into Polanski's grand piano. At least it picked itself up for a win in Best Picture.

The Pianist also picked up an Oscar for Best Screenplay. Here, the actions of Brody and the direction by Polanski are truly what make the film, not its writing. The Hours mastery of three storylines would have been a better choice.

The Charming Man won for Live Action Short Film instead of my choice, Inja. Really, I've never watched any of them and based it on other people's opinions and the descriptions of the movie.

Art Direction, Editing, and Sound all went to Chicago. Sound I could understand. But editing should have gone to The Hours, again trying to balance the actions of three storylines, and art direction should have gone to Gangs of New York with its sets of 19th century New York instead of a stage and prison in 1920's Chicago. Chicago was a great film, in its directing and its songs, but technically, it was merely average.

Original score should have gone to The Hours with its piano work, but I will admit Frida's had a nice rhythm to it. It should also be noted that Frida's Goldenthal beat out veterans John Williams, Elmer Bernstein, Thomas Newman, and Philip Glass.

So, in total, Chicago won 6 awards while The Pianist scored 3 of more importance. Frida and The Two Towers both won 2.

And that's it. What will I write about now? I've only watched three films in 2003. One good, two bad. It's gonna be a long year.

It's a depressing time we live in, isn't it? Even though Iraq is half a world away, we're being bombarded with it all the time now. Turn on a television and what do you get? Bombs bursting in the air. Small mushroom clouds where a building used to be. Whew, here's a comedy, and then, SPECIAL REPORT. And it goes on and on. Turn on a radio and listen to a Coldplay or Foo Fighters song and right after, get a news update about Iraq. Walk the streets and watch as protesters scream and yell about something they have no power to affect. So, let's see, we've got Iraq, Iraq, Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq.

I had a similar experience looking through my bookmarks the other day. Friends of mine have caught into the blogging experience like wildfire. But what do I see? Xanga, xanga, xanga, xanga, xanga, darkjournal changed to xanga, blogspot turned into xanga, blogspot turned into xanga, blogspot (what? am i reading correctly?), xanga, and it keeps going until I got to mine, a blogspot. I see xanga and I don't see anything special about it. Maybe it's for the young, cool types while I stick with blogspot and its decidedly popular 1.1 million population.

The funny thing about protests is how remarkably small crowds can be yet disrupt so much of what's around them. Here in Berkeley, 120 people were arrested at Sproul Hall for blocking the entrances and whatnot. Among other things, officials say admission letters will be delayed in being sent, making worried applicants even more nervous. At night, thousands marched down University Avenue and back again. Good thing I don't drive. Yet if you're away from the little realm the protesters are living in, life seems shockingly normal. Little talk about the war in the classes I went to. Various events went on as planned, such as the VSU's date auction, an event to raise money for their culture show. I happened to stop by since a friend of mine wanted to bid on someone who sadly did not go up. Also sad was the massive amounts of money spent on these dates. Hundreds of dollars were being spent on these people who did not look to be worth it, but I guess it's for a cause.

Cal got eliminated from the NCAA tournament. On a happier note, Stanfurd was eliminated too. Also eliminated was Zora from Joe Millionaire's life. Luckily, they both split a million dollars for their troubles. So, as always, there will be a balance in the world, whether it's in the force or in the few dollars left in my bank account.

President Bush, citing numerous violations of United Nations resolutions, has put together a coalition of allied forces, though mostly American, to come into the Middle East and take out the threat Saddam Hussein presents. I was in the third grade when this happened the first time and twelve years later, we are back where we started. In a perfect world, none of this would be happening. We'd all be living in harmony with one another and everyone would be living comfortably without the thought that this day will be their last. But dreams sadly are not reality. Instead, dangers threaten our world everyday. Saddam presents one of the more prominent dangers today but this military action promised by our president threatens to worsen the quality of life we're struggling to keep up today. Now that the deadline for Saddam to leave Iraq has passed, it's only a matter of time until Bush gives the order to attack. From that point forward, the world will be changed in a drastic way once again. As dangerous as the world is, it is also unpredictable. Sure, it may quell one danger, but two or three others may pop up. Bush's actions may open the Pandora's box of evil and nothing would be able to stop it. Then again, it may also send a message that the United States has no fear and wouldn't hesistate for a second to act upon any situation. Whatever happens, we must be worried first and foremost with the here and now. And the here and now asks us to wish the troops carrying out the mission of this country safety through whatever obstacles they will face and a safe journey home.

Phone Booth
"Who do you think you are?" asks the billboard behind the phone booth. Colin Farrell is forced to ask both a sniper and himself this question to try to get out of the nightmare he's put himself in.

Farrell plays Stuart Shepard, a hard-working publicist who lies and deceives his way into the big leagues. Now, he enjoys a nice life with many connections throughout the city and a loving wife at home. He's also seeing someone else, Pam, played by Katie Holmes in a very small role. This has made him a target of one particular sniper (Kiefer Sutherland) who preys upon people who have done bad things in their lives. After he enters this phone booth where he calls Pam to avoid his wife Kelly to see the calls on his cell phone, he receives a call from the sniper, and soon becomes the target. Things get more complicated when the sniper shoots an innocent bouncer in the street, something witnesses believe Stu did himself. What ensues is a dangerous game where Stu must negotiate his way out of the nightmare he's in with the sniper while the police surround him with guns in hand waiting for him to come out. All that the sniper wants is for Stu to fess up to all that can hear the sound of his voice, including Pam and Kelly who have now joined the scene and unknowingly have become targets themselves. How will Stu get out of this one? Only time will tell, and that's almost run out.

In terms of execution, the film is excellent. The action is non-stop and the tension is high. You can't take your eyes off it, eagerly awaiting what comes next. Credit director Joel Schumacher, who will get praise for this after duds like Bad Company, 8MM, and Batman & Robin. It's a simple story where every step leads to a more complicated situation. Will he step away? Will he use the gun and take matters into his own hands? One minor quibble is the motivation for the sniper to do this. Sure, having a mistress is bad to have, but is it really worth choosing life or death over it? There are far worse people he could be targeting. But still, it's all too riveting for someone to overlook this film. 3 stars

Upon hearing that a group of war protesters blocked foot and auto traffic in San Francisco's Financial District this morning, a Berkeley homeless man wondered aloud, "What's so special about that? I do that every day here and nobody cares."

How's this for a vote of confidence: President Bush with a big thumbs up as he entered his helicopter on his way to Portugal for a last-minute emergency summit with allies.

Today's Yahoo-worthy front page headline is that little sleep may be as bad as no sleep at all. Many nights of 6 or less hours is equivalent to staying up for two days straight, the study says. Really. Then what's to explain my eight hours of sleep at night contributing to my little naps during lectures?

Watching college basketball the last couple of days, it's clear that this has gotten much more exciting than its NBA counterpart. You've got dominating teams, cinderella stories, scandals, and a big tournament to wrap things up. All the NBA has had for the past few years is a big guy and a scorer dominating the entire league. Nothin' special about that.

The good box office people at AC Nielsen have figured out that Kirsten Dunst and Christopher Lee were the top-grossing actress and actor in 2002. Dunst starred in the popular Spider-Man movie and the less-than-popular The Cat's Meow. Lee was prominently featured in Attack of the Clones and The Two Towers. And while Steven Spielberg was the director of the most films last year (3, including the ET re-release), their combined gross could not surpass Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. Likewise, Charlie Kaufman's 3 screenplays could not surpass the gross of David Koepp's Spider-Man plus Panic Room.

So let me get this straight. After 7 months, Elizabeth Smart has been found. Yet, it's been described that she was being paraded around Utah and Southern California during those months away from her family, albeit covered up. But really, nobody recognized her? Elizabeth never recognized the flyers with her picture on it while just walking with her captors through Salt Lake City? It seems as though this could have been resolved in less than 7 months, but good news nonetheless.

UCLink, the Berkeley email service, had been down all week due to a technical glitch. It has since been fixed. A spokesman was quoted as saying that many machines break down and that this one wasn't any different. It's comforting to know that email is guaranteed to stop working at some point in the near future. Luckily, I wasn't a person with a username that started with the letters j-o. All their email was erased.

Finally, there comes word that spell-check software may not be as useful as the old brain itself. Researchers at Pitt did a study to see if it was advantageous to use spell-check software or not. Without it, a person with a high verbal SAT score made on average 5 errors per page while a person with a low one made about 17 errors on average. With Microsoft Word's squiggly lines, both types of people made about 16-17 errors per page. So I guess it pays to take those grammar classes.

But as usual, this post has not been spell-checked.

Wednesday was the "books not bombs" national day of protest by students. Instead of dropping bombs, students protested the government's stance on Iraq by dropping their books and leaving class. At Cal, the protest was quiet for Berkeley standards. Ironically, it started at noon with the campus fire drill, every first Wednesday of the month. More than half the crowd was high school students and even so, the protest was so small that the Daily Cal had written that Stanfurd's protest was bigger. What's wrong? Is it devoted students who chose not to go to a protest and instead to class? Is the student population turning conservative? Do they want a war? It's not an easy question to answer. But suffice it to say, only outspoken critics of the war are making any noise. The others are either for the war or are against it and feel there's no way to stop the Bush administration.

Right now, I'm beginning to see things in a Bush light. U.N Resolution 1441 ordered Iraq to give up all its weapons and it was up to inspectors to confirm this. They weren't sent there to go on a treasure hunt for weapons, which is exactly what they're doing over there. Iraq's 10,000 page report basically stated they destroyed their weapons and don't have any. Instead, the inspectors have found empty chemical missile casings, and other missiles that can travel farther than the limit allows. Full cooperation was ordered but with this and the many conditions the Iraqi government has placed on scientist interviews, it's clear inspections in this light are not working. Yes, inspections are working in the form of containment but with intelligence indicating that Saddam is continuing to build the same missiles he's destroying in front of inspectors, we can't be assured that inspections alone will prevent Saddam's weapons buildup. Nobody wants a war but the military option must be open to both provide validity to the inspections for the time being and to fully execute that option once the time comes, which isn't long now. It's been 3 months since inspections began, 6 months since President Bush made his first speech to the U.N. about Iraq, and 12 years since the end of the Gulf War.

People say we should be worried about North Korea more than Iraq since they have nuclear material and the facilities to create nuclear weapons. But people must understand North Korea does this for the money and aid since they're very poor. Saddam's pretty rich from the oil he's sitting on so money's not the problem, it's power that he wants and he may choose to gain that power by using his weapons on the people around him. He's already tried that in Kuwait and luckily, the world managed to stop him there. He'll be smarter the next time out and that's why the U.S. and the world must not give him that chance. At some point, North Korea will be desperate to the point that they may consider using their nuclear weapons, but now is not the time. Iraq is in the spotlight now. Because the war drive seems unstoppable, it must happen sooner than later, both to calm fears of an Iraqi attack and to calm Americans, whose uncertainty about the future has driven down consumer confidence and the economy with it.

It was a long day running around Berkeley, but getting back early evening got me home in time for the two sports games on TV: the Sharks game and the Cal-Stanfurd basketball game, and to study for yet another midterm. Let's take a look at the lowlights.

The Sharks were rolling, building a 3-0 lead in the first. McCauley seemed like a solid character but will never be a Nolan. That was one of the strongest periods they've played this year. They were dominating and connecting. Then it all snowballed downhill from there. The next period was a disaster. Phoenix scored 4 unanswered goals. The third period was simply a game of keep away, with the teams trading goals for the eventual 6-4 final. Even with the great first period, this is easily their worst game this season.

Halfway through the Sharks game, Cal and Stanfurd tipped off at Maples. Cal won the first game at Haas 72-59. It was clear with the regular season finale that this would be different. Coming into the game, Stanfurd was riding high with only a loss to Arizona as a blemish in its record in the past few weeks. Cal was struggling, with losses to Arizona and UCLA and close wins with the Washington schools, USC, and Arizona State. As a result, it was no surprise how the game would start. Stanfurd jumped out to an 18-point lead. But collective foul trouble put Cal on the free-throw line and in the game. By the middle of the second half, they brought the lead back down to 4. The Cardinal's stifling defense, a precise man-to-man instead of a zone, contained the big three of Cal and kept the game out of reach for the Bears. Notably, Amit Tamir did awful, scoring 2 points, never finding a rhythm, and playing lackluster defense and ball control. The Cardinal won 72-60. Assuming they win their first round games next week in the Pac-10 tournament, they will meet again on Friday.

It was a very bad day for the Bears on this Cardinal day. The Bears lost every meeting against Stanfurd today. Women's basketball lost 60-35 in the second round of the Pac-10 tournament. Baseball lost the second of 3 games. Men's swimming earned second place at the Pac-10 championships. In first place was the Cardinal.

Why was it that the Cal band played on and on during the basketball game? Sure, they have a right, but it is on Stanfurd's home court. Shouldn't they get to go first? For example, the halftime buzzer sounded, and very quickly, the sounds of "Fight for California" played the Bears off the court. Hmm, that Stanfurd tree changes more times than Michael Jackson's face, am I right? Then there's this 6th Man the Cardinal posess on their home court. First of all, they clumsily did a Go...Bears! chant with Go...Stanfurd! Not only was it pretty slow, they did it for an awfully long time. Then, when they won, they rushed the court. Why? Yes, Cal's good but this isn't court-worthy. Besides people can get hurt and rushing the court, or even a football field, shouldn't occur whatsoever unless it is the culmination of dedication and/or frustration. A general example would be winning some kind of championship. A Cal example would be winning the Big Game after so many years of not doing so, though the actions of those people rushing the field that day were pretty bad too. Finally, there's the composition of this 6th Man group. I'm sorry to say, most of them were white, save for the stray Indian or African-American person. If it was a public school, the Cal affirmative action folks would be having a field day.

The Daily Cal provides a great service to the city of Berkeley by letting people know of the various crimes and other acts that occur in the city. Not only is there a police log, short paragraphs are written about the major ones. But lately, either it's a slow news week at the paper or people are committing acts that could be considered as weird. Consider these examples from the past week.

A high school kid was caught stealing two granola bars from a cafe. Really, this gets actual words devoted to it? It's not even newsworthy.

A burglar was caught with $6,000 worth of items including, among other things, an ABBA compact disc. Mamma Mia!

A woman managed to steal 40 pairs of khakis from the Gap. This was a traditional grab and run. It even had a getaway car to top it off. A couple of days later, more clothes were stolen from a designer outlet. Outlet!

The Ritz Camera had all of its disposable cameras stolen from a display case. Ironic how there wasn't any security cameras in the store.

Two fire extinguisher incidents without any fire. One was in front of a sorority that jammed a lock. The other was in a health lab with no apparent motive.

A homeless man was arrested for "slapping another (homeless) man upside the head" over a woman. The victim had shared a sleeping bag with the woman the other night and the other guy apparently got jealous.

The hockey-obsessed people in Canada have learned that the Sharks have finally pulled the trigger on a trade that sends captain Owen Nolan to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Alyn McCauley, Brad Boyes, and a first round draft pick. And so it begins the dismantling of a team five years in the making. Anyone who has been keeping track of the standings in the sidebar have noticed the former contenders turn into pretenders. Now they're underachieving and being paid way too much. Nolan rarely showed his full potential. He had only one big scoring year but he could always be counted on as a physical presence. His ties with San Jose won't be severed permanently. He lives in rich Silver Creek Valley and is a co-owner the Britannia Arms on Almaden Expressway near my house.

Who comes here? McCauley is an underachieving two-way center who lacks any physical presence. He was penciled in as a second-line center but is instead a fourth-liner who has only 6 goals and 9 assists this year. His strength is in the penalty kill. The prospect Boyes is the real key of the trade. He's had 4 straight 40+ goal seasons and 53 points so far this year in the AHL. If the Sharks can utilize his skills, they will be the winners of the trade. But as of now, considering the shaky status of the Sharks' farm system, established talent gives this trade to the Leafs.

Nolan will be missed.

When my experiences on the Internet were just starting, there were three movie news sites I settled on: Dark Horizons, Cinescape Online, and Corona's Coming Attractions. Soon, after a couple of years, Cinescape went through staff turnover and a redesign, which in my opinion made things worse and I haven't looked back. Mostly, it was a matter of ad clutter and a total lack of organization. Today comes news that Coming Attractions and Cinescape are combining forces, with the people at Corona controlling editorial content. Hopefully, they'll push for a redesign as well. They're still using the bad design. Left in the dust is Dark Horizons, the venerable news site that originates from Australia. Ironic that it's experiencing some server problems right now. What about Ain't it Cool News? You know, I could never get used to reading it. I guess the world needs more sites for movie rumors.

Cradle 2 the Grave
No, the movie doesn't have any cradles or graves to speak of. Instead, childish behavior and deadly cliches are prominent in this one starring DMX and Jet Li. DMX plays Tony Fait, a hard-working jewel thief just trying to make a living in order to bring up a daughter into the world. He takes up a diamond heist to steal some black stones, the next wave in transporting nuclear energy. But soon, he's in way over his head when two Asian fellows come after him for them and a crime boss takes posession of them. One of those Asian fellows is Jet Li himself as Su, a Taiwanese intelligence officer. The other is Su's colleague, Ling, now defected from Taiwan and in the business of makin' a few dollars off nuclear material. In a twist of fate, Ling kidnaps Tony's daughter, making this a personal mission that Tony and his buddies embark on.

See, not much story to speak of, and that's the problem. Once the basic plotline is set up, the director, Andrzej Bartkowiak of Romeo Must Die and Exit Wounds fame, goes out of his way to set his characters up in the most ridiculous of situations and let them fight their way out of it. Ooo, Jet Li just happens to stumble upon an extreme fighting ring. Watch the blood fly! Speaking of him, Li doesn't really put in much of an effort here. It seems as though he always throws one punch or kicks once, pauses for like 5 seconds as his opponent studders and gets back up and then repeats. All of these things set up the final battle as the airport hangar where the individuals in the group fight their counterparts on the other side, with Su and Ling fighting in the ring of fire. Yes, Jet Li gets to fight again surrounded by fire, as in Romeo Must Die, but at least in this one, the fire looks so much more real. Even with all of its problems, this turned out to be a better experience than Daredevil was. 2 stars