Bruce Almighty
Jim Carrey makes a triumphant return to the comedy circuit after a disappointing turn at serious acting in The Majestic, which I didn't think was all too bad, but everyone else seemed to think so. Here, in Bruce Almighty, he plays Bruce Nolan, a news reporter covering the lighter side of events in Buffalo, anxiously awaiting his turn as news anchor. When he's dealt a string of bad luck, including losing out on the anchor position, he blames God for his troubles. God hears him and brings him to his lair at an abandoned warehouse in town and in the form of Morgan Freeman, gives Bruce all his powers to see if he can do as well as God can. The power rushes to Bruce's head and soon does the little things that makes his own life better, forgetting all the others who need help. In this sudden enjoyment, he forgets about his one true love, Grace, played by Jennifer Aniston, and soon regrets the whole thing ever happened.

Side comment: If you're dumb enough to call God's phone number, 776-2323 as given in this movie, maybe you need help in another form.

Carrey has tried comedy and drama and seems to try to meld the two together in this movie, as he did in the better "Liar, Liar", also directed by Tom Shadyac. He certainly shows his comedic chops in this one, both physically and verbally. But the transition from the fun and goofiness to the seriousness of fixing what he's done is poor. We're never meant to care for the relationship of Bruce and Grace as we did for Fletcher and his son in Liar Liar. Instead, it seems separation might have been better for the two of them. A bit of luck and some suspicious connections bring them back together for the inevitable sappy ending. Overall, it sits in the middle of the Carrey pack and after all, he's still funny at whatever he does, even if his supporting characters are left with little else to do except encourage or criticize him for what he's doing. 2.5 stars and that's the way the cookie crumbles.

After a weekend full of Memorial Day fun filled with family and friends, the rest of the week has suddenly gotten boring during the initial dog days of summer. Making things worse was the DSL going down for a day or so, leaving me just scrambling. I call the good people at the phone company to find out more of this outage. Here is how I remember the conversation.

Is there an outage? Yes.
In my area? Yes.
What is wrong? I don't know. My computer just says there is an outage in your area.
Is there an estimated time on when it will be fixed? Nope, I have no idea.
Do you realize it has been down for more than a day now? Yes, and we apologize. We can offer you a credit for time lost but you'll have to call the billing department. (Realizing the potential windfall from such a call is a little more than a dollar, I don't think I'll be calling.)
Uh, well, thanks.

Luckily things were normal as of 10am.

This morning saw the passage of two educational competitions, the Spelling Bee and the MATHCOUNTS competition. Why both of these events are on ESPN, I will never know. MATHCOUNTS features middle school students who must answer math questions faster than their competition at the time. I'd never heard of it, but if I did, I still wouldn't be caught dead at this event anyway. Many students take a written exam and the top ten get to go on to the aforementioned oral round where 9th place takes on 10th place for the right to face 8th place and so on until the last man standing faces the first place guy to see who wins. The questions were easy but the time it takes them to solve it was extraordinary. In the final two, the streotypical Asian nerd faced off against the first place stereotypical white nerd. For an example, the penultimate question involved 4 tetrahedral die with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 on the 4 faces. What would be the most likely number rolled? The white guy buzzed in too quickly and did not take in the whole question, and as a result could not answer. The asian guy then had a full minute to calculate it and answered 8. With all due respect, what was he thinking??? The average is 2.5 and multiplied by 4 is 10! In the end, the white guy's favorite subject in math was geometry and the last question was a geometry question and got it right to win the championship.

The other competition was the Spelling Bee. From what I hear, the documentary Spellbound is a well-done film following the ups and downs of 8 kids in the 1999 Spelling Bee. It is just now being released into theatres, so go and catch that. The real thing featured hundreds of children from around the country listening to a new man at the mike pronouncing the words. The old guy passed away earlier in the year. In the end, one boy and one girl remained. The Indian boy from Texas won with the word, pococurante. Hopefully, the newspaper won't have a headline talking about the "spelers" like it did last year.

As for the follies involving final exams, the results have been better than expected. In 104, I've mentioned countless times before that I achieved the score of 1 out of 10 on the midterm in a class where the high score was 5, 10 people got the same score I did, and 5 did worse to receive a 0. I must've wowed the professor or something because the grade was pretty high for a 1 out of 10. In 113, my grade was lower than expected but because I took the final on the first day, the professor let us look at it before she turned them in and lo and behold, she added up my final exam score wrong. Now my grade is what I thought I'd get.

Every city faces a budget deficit and most of them may find it right to be more strict in enforcing the rules and issuing citations. New York City is getting extra scrutiny for the number of questionable citations its police officers are giving out. A pregnant woman resting her feet got a ticket for blocking a stairwell. An old man got a ticket for feeding the pigeons. A man got a ticket for having a faded out registration sticker on his car. A restaurant owner got a ticket for having the curtains closed. A tourist got a ticket for taking up two seats on the subway. Man, good thing these officers aren't riding on BART.

The Amazing Race started up again last night. 12 teams of two race around the world for $1 million, certainly the classiest show on television. It always amazes me about the kind of combinations they get for this show. There's the usual dating pairs and married couples. But then there's the clowns. And air traffic controllers. And best friends who are models. And a couple who have been dating 12 years who proudly proclaim they're virgins. Fine, but like a politician saying he's never smoked pot, nobody's gonna believe them.

Poolhall Junkies
(Note: This film got limited release in NY/LA and other markets in February and March but didn't expand to other markets as of yet.)

Johnny Doyle was destined for a great life as a professional pool player but his lifelong father figure Joe (Chazz Palminteri) was overprotective and wanted to use him as a hustler instead. So he stuck around in the club circuit, befriending a few people and laying low, never to become rich and famous with the tremendous talent he's got. One day, he becomes fed up and leaves Joe for a more normal life, outside the hustle of pool halls. He soon finds that his new life is hard to adjust to without the game of pool. Soon enough, all the pieces start to fit together for his triumphant return. He meets his girlfriend's uncle, Christopher Walken in a small but enjoyable role, who team up in a pool game to get some money from her lawyer bosses. Joe returns with a professional to show up Johnny. With the distraction of his brother in jail after being defeated by this new pro (Rick Schroder), Johnny must put that and a broken hand aside to defeat his former mentor.

Poolhall Junkies seems to be a movie that tries too hard to be cool. There's trick shot after trick shot. There are the smart jokes and smart cons. It never stops. It's also very heavy on the pool. This isn't your garden-variety pool games. Miraculous shots only a trickster could do show up in almost every scene. It all becomes just a big cliche. His forays to move on to a normal life, once as a construction worker and another as a motor home salesman, are half-hearted and are set up against him so that you know exactly what he's gonna do next. No small detail ever goes unnoticed and the star, also the director, makes sure of it. All these little things may become important later on and it makes us obsess on what he's gonna do next instead of focusing on the visuals, a much more fascinating thing to focus on. 2 stars

The Italian Job
Mark Wahlberg, Edward Norton, Donald Sutherland, and others have pulled off the ultimate heist by stealing away $35 million in gold bricks. What wasn't in the cards was a double-cross by Norton. He succeeds in taking the gold and during the confusion, shoots Sutherland and leaves the others for dead in a frozen pond. The rest of the team though lives and after a year passes, finally tracks down Norton in sunny Los Angeles. Soon, they come up with a plan to take back the gold that belonged to all of them. What they really need is a guy to break into the safe and they find their safe-cracker in a woman, Sutherland's daughter played by Charlize Theron. Together, their intricate plan leads them to Norton's handsome mansion and with a bunch of conniving moves and a trio of minis, their goal is to see the shocked and surprised look on Norton's face after he realizes he's been outwitted and outplayed.

Heist films have been getting popular the last couple of years, highlighted by the release of Heist and The Score, also starring Norton. While both were well-done, both also got bogged down with the details of the heist, taking away the fun from it and leaving it to plot tricks to keep us interested. This picture, itself a remake of the 1969 movie of the same movie, gives time to the rest of the backstory, better developing the characters involved and keeping their eyes on the prize while providing a light sense of humor throughout. Credit this to director F. Gary Gray, whose wide range includes The Negotiator and Friday. Simply though, it's a straightforward story, not really too tricky to figure out, that along with its ending shows a lack of imagination, like its villain in Norton. The simple plan they devise works with what seems to be a huge amount of luck and characters are introduced only to become red herrings. So plot holes are abound in the film, some of it a bit dated (Napster's so old now), but at its core, The Italian Job is an enjoyable film to watch. 3 stars

One year has now passed since the beginning of this blog. From that, 250 messages have been posted, mostly to waste your time, not likely to stimulate the mind whatsoever. Last year, my last final would be the next day and I was still disappointed by the major blockbuster film that came out the week before only to be entertained far more by a skit on television. This year, parallels are running. My last final was on Wednesday, the Matrix certainly didn't live up to the hype (at least the next one comes out in November, not 2005 like another trilogy), and ABC released a hilarious skit featuring Columbo in Alias. If you don't watch Alias, you're missing out.

As much as the Xanga craze has broken out, I'll keep on keeping on with blogspot since they're the originals and I'm not used to giving up on the first product I use. Long live Netscape. They have to, AOL owns it. Sooner or later, this blog will die, but it's not gonna be today. Next year, maybe.

Owning Mahowny
Versatile actor Philip Seymour Hoffman is Dan Mahowny, a run-of-the-mill newly promoted loan officer at the bank. His demeanor screams of mediocrity: quiet, hard-working, personable, the works. Nothing you could really hate about him. Secretly, he doesn't have a gambling problem. What at first was some fun at the track turned into "financial problems" and the only way he knew to get out of it was to gamble with high stakes on the line at a casino in Atlantic City run by John Hurt. When this man gambles, his focus is like a laser beam until time runs out or his chips run out. But all he needs is a little time to get more chips for his position at the bank allowed him to sneak off with millions of dollars through a series of tacking on a few dollars here and even making up a character, totalling 10 million by the end of his spree. All this without the hint of suspicion from the bank or his girlfriend, an oddly placed Minnie Driver with a weird big blonde hairdo. The bookie who consistently bothers him for the money he's owed comments that Mahowny wins just so that he can gamble and eventually lose again. He takes losing to a whole new level.

It's really an interesting character study on fighting an addiction without actually trying. It's based on true events from 1980-1982. Any man who runs up the amount of luck Mahowny gets would be jumping for joy and basking in the glory of the money he will earn. But Mahowny plays it differently as if it was meant to happen. And Hoffman just shows off how good of an actor he is by being simply the dullest man to win millions after spending millions. But in a movie about payoffs, the movie itself lacks one. The movie just keeps on going scene after scene with the mantra of the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Characters rotate in and out really without warning, especially the police, seemingly a bumbling outfit, looking out for the next major drug deal. (Hey, they're Canadian after all.) Driver isn't much of a factor in a movie that is driven by Hoffman alone, the way his character might have wanted it to. 2.5 stars

Well, that was it. I took my last final last night and I thought it was a mild success. True, I thought the last test in that class was a success too before I got a 1 out of 10 with the class mean being a 1. Now it's time for being lazy, watching TV, and hanging out with friends. Wait, that's no different than during school. Hmm.

I was erasing like crazy throughout the test. It got so bad that I reached the top of my click eraser and had to take the eraser part out and erase with the stub.

The Practice got renewed for another season. But at half of its license fee, David Kelley was forced to make some casting changes, including not renewing the contracts of six of its stars. So now it's a question of what's the point?

The President got what he wanted with a tax cut about to passed by the House and Senate. The key to making things fit are so-called sunset provisions which make the tax cuts expire after a certain time, a genius move by Republicans who will most likely argue that Democrats will want to raise your taxes once the expiration date comes near.

So I got an email from the Berkeley servers writing that my upcoming schedule has changed. (If it's so important, why not send an email saying what the change is?) So I log on to BearFacts where not only did I find out that my early afternoon class got changed to an absurd 5:30-7 pm slot, there was a strange button that said "photo release -- NEW." Intrigued, I click on it to find out what it is. Using your picture from your student ID, your professors can get a look at who you are anytime they want. It's a nice idea, but something about it strikes me as odd. Maybe it's just me who finds this all too weird. I mean, isn't having them see you 2 or 3 hours a week enough? They can eventually match names and faces. They're not dumb, they're just professors.

The Matrix: Reloaded
Finals can go ahead and shove... oh hello. On a Wednesday night opening in March 4 years ago, my siblings took me to see The Matrix. I didn't know what I was getting into, I hadn't heard about it much save for the bullet time sequence constantly being shown on television. When I left, I had witnessed a seamless combination of storytelling and action that will stand the test of time. Its newest sequel, "The Matrix: Reloaded" builds upon its original in terms of action but leaves a bit to be desired in the storytelling department. Neo has become a seasoned veteran as the One and now finds himself in the midst of a huge battle between the humans down in Zion and the sentinels threatening to kill them all. But he's also troubled by the visions he's getting, including the disturbing image of losing his love Trinity. The oracle soon comes calling for Neo and tells him to find the keymaker. Out to complicate things is Agent Smith, not an agent anymore and now with the power to replicate himself. Neo's quest for the keymaker leads him to the Merovingian, who prevents him access to the keymaker though his companion Persephone leads them to him and they get away after a dazzling freeway chase. The true reason for the keymaker is to access the core of the matrix and according to the prophecy, its destruction will free humanity from the hands of the machines.

The Matrix: Reloaded suffers from the same problem as most other trilogies go through. The middle child has to try too hard to please its big fans from the first one while at the same time lay the foundations for the exciting conclusion. What results in this case is an overloaded movie. You're bombarded with so many ideas that you need time to comprehend them all. Here, a stretched out movie longer than the current 2:15 would have been advisable. That's why with multiple viewings, the movie will probably get better as you understand more of it. That doesn't mean you'll understand it all. All the questions raised won't be clearly answered as the first one, filmed as a stand-alone movie, might have been, but watching it more and more may solve a few things, leaving the rest to be answered in the third film, instead of the first time viewing conclusion of "I'm not sure what's going on."

So, as you're trying to figure out what the heck is going on, a nice action scene pops into play. And there are many of them. It truly is a visual orgy of special effects and martial arts. It's all much more amazing than the first one, but its two signature scenes, Neo against seemingly a world of Agent Smiths, and the freeway chase, suffer from being too long. I know it was cool and all to watch Neo beat up 10-15 Agent Smiths, but once it got to like 100, it seemed cartoonish. So otherwise great visual effects give way to a rushed script that should've spent more time developing the story it wants to tell. The film is all about choices and now we'll wait until November to see if its intended effect does indeed occur. 3 stars

Danny Deever was hanged again today. As tradition goes, the Campanile's bells toll this song on the last day of class and stay silent throughout finals. It marks the time when thousands of students wonder what the heck they've learned for the past 15 weeks after they realize it's been 15 weeks since the start of the semester.

Tomorrow, the governor's budget is officially released. In a down economy, everyone crosses their fingers and hopes nothing bad happens. As a college student at a public university, obviously how much it costs to attend is the most important thing I care about. The news on that front is gloomy. Originally, fees were supposed to be raised by $795 for UC students and a little more than half of that for CSU students. Now, even more uncertainty about budget cuts have delayed the regents' decision on how much to raise it. After all, a $35 billion deficit isn't about to close itself. And when fees are tied to how the economy performs, fees are going to go way up.

Nationally, President Bush is making trips across the country to promote his tax cut. I'm sorry to say, whenever I see him talk I have to laugh hysterically, whether its his hand motions, the way he slows down once he reaches a 3-syllable word, when he makes a joke nobody gets, or his smirk whenever he begins to speak about something serious. But make no mistake, he's serious about this tax cut, a $350-550 billion stimulus package meant to increase jobs and growth. No, I don't think this large of a tax cut is wise, but there's only two ways the government can increase the GDP, cutting taxes or increasing spending, and Bush has chosen his path and pushing for it aggressively.

Back in his home state of Texas, the state house isn't able to do any business after 53 Democrats left the state and fled to an Oklahoma Holiday Inn to protest a redistricting bill. House rules state at least 100 of 150 members must be present to do any legislative business. I'm all for expressing opinion and fighting for a position, but a majority is a majority for a reason. The minority has a right to have its say but the majority has its right to see that a vote goes through and not let the minority obstruct it.

They've redesigned the $20 bill to further stymie countefeiters. Why is it that every time new currency is introduced, it becomes a bit less prestigious the next time? Wavy fonts are used. Pink colors are their favorite it seems. Keeping the tradition in the dollar bill makes it feel important to hold onto instead of the lightish green, holographic pieces of paper my wallet holds that I can exchange for goods and services.

ASUC election results have been announced and Student Action's stranglehold on the executive offices are no more. Since its inception 7 years ago, Student Action has been the dominant player in ASUC politics, but all around them, they've seen their big ideas turn into big money sinkholes. Students have finally looked closely and chosen Student Action's rival, Cal-Serve, to lead the next year. Kudos to them. One race turn into a one-man race when the leading candidate was accused and found guilty of using an ASUC font. Apparently, it's illegal to use a font that is identified as an ASUC resource. Fine, it's something to get confused about, but grounds for disqualification? I don't think so.

It's been two months since the Sharks fired General Manager Dean Lombardi and since that time, it seemed only one man, part-owner and president Greg Jamison, was handling the hiring of the new one. After two months, you would have thought that Jamison was preparing to hire someone who would bring a massive amount of skills and a boatload of respect to a team that basically went from first to worst in one season. Today, who do they get? Doug Wilson, basically second-in-command under Lombardi. Man, good-going. This late into the game and this close to the draft, Wilson is a natural fit. He knows the Sharks system and its strengths and weaknesses. But as it stands, Wilson doesn't seem like the guy who will lead the Sharks to a championship. Instead, it seems like he'll produce a team who will do well enough to keep the ticket holders happy. Hopefully, Wilson will prove me wrong.

Dawson's Creek came out, what, 5 years ago? And now, it's ending and commercials promise one of the four will die. My guess? Josh Jackson from the Mighty Ducks movies since he's the only one who's doing promotion for the finale.

Some lawyer is trying to get Oreos banned from California because of its trans-fat levels. If you're so worried about trans-fat, don't eat them!

The Matrix: Reloaded comes out tonight. Line up now!

Thursday nights are a time of relaxation for me, usually because I've spent the night before doing math homeworks. Both of my math classes have their homeworks due on Thursday and today's was the last one, and it wasn't pretty. Stayed up until 6 am to finish it all and then had to wake up again at 8 to talk to a professor. Yet, I seem to be used to it since I haven't taken a nap in all these weeks of staying up. Lots of sugar keeps me awake while television keeps me sane while I'm doing all this, enjoying old 80s and 90s shows now relegated to late night. Ironic how Saved by the Bell had the episode last night when Jessie laughably portrayed an addict on caffeine pills, trying to stay awake to keep up with all her studies and dancing.

The television is still on right now, since there's a lot going on. USA and Mexico played a soccer match, going to a 0-0 tie. But the way they were playing, it was anything but a friendly match. If only the World Cup had less than a 4-year cycle, but the announcers did remind us that qualifying begins in a short 9 months. The tribe on Survivor saw their camp burn down. I must say, this bunch of people has been interesting to watch, quite the opposite from the last few which have been awfully boring. Can you believe this is the sixth one? But yes, this sixth one has been full of betrayal, deceit, and utter control by a select few; ingredients not seen since the first one. Minnesota beat Vancouver to move on in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If you had Minnesota and Anaheim going to the Western Conference finals, you must be a millionaire by now. Speaking of millionaires, ABC has this fascinating documentary about the people who cheated on Millionaire in Great Britain. When the guy in the hot seat seemed indecisive about the answers, he would try to work it out by saying out loud the choices. Whenever he heard two coughs from the audience, he had found the right answer and eventually worked his way to one million pounds or $1.5 million. But the producers of the show weren't stupid. They noticed a louder than usual audience and soon discovered a pattern to the coughs and are now taking them to court. Game show scandal documentaries are few and far between, but whenever one is shown, I find it interesting, whether it's the Oscar-nominated Quiz Show or the Press Your Luck scandal when a guy figured out the light patterns for big bucks.

I wonder if the dogs on the Miss Dog Pageant get a million dollars.

While you're out in the world, buy a cookie from your bus driver. Public transit is hoping to increase attention about their deficits by holding a bake sale. No, a bake sale alone is not going to save the buses, but every little bit helps I guess. (Am I the only one who finds bake sales by public transit ridiculous?)

This weekend has Mother's Day, so plan accordingly. It's also my brother's birthday and the last weekend before finals. Good luck on those. You quarter people will just have to wait a month.

What's with the bizarro Stanley Cup playoffs? It's bad enough Detroit, Colorado, Dallas, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Toronto, San Jose, and others are not a part of it. But to be replaced by the likes of Anaheim, Minnesota, and Ottawa is just disturbing.

The Practice had its finale aired tonite. Definitely season finale, but series finale? We'll find out next week. With Bobby leaving the firm and getting a divorce, it may very well be finished here. Personally, I don't want to see the show go. I like it a lot. But the fact of the matter is, I enjoy watching those repeats in the morning than I do watching the new ones.

Saturday Night Live has definitely lost its way after some strong seasons. While this can be directly attributed to the loss of Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer, one also needs to look at the choice of hosts lately, either one-trick ponies or people who have no business being in comedy bits. This week, Adrien Brody hosts. Why??? Lemme guess, a skit about him kissing Halle Berry. Typical.
Geez, even Weekend Update had some pretty lame jokes, well, lamer than usual.

Worrying about SARS has reached Berkeley on a massive scale. Up to now, the administration has sent out sporadic emails explaining what to do if a SARS case develops on-campus and who's responsible for keeping us safe, etc. But now, they might be overreacting. They've cut off summer admission to people from high-risk countries. Why not let them come? If they show symptoms before they depart, then keep them there. Keep tabs on them here. But don't prevent them from learning.

Cal athletics usually don't get a mention unless it involves football and basketball. But rugby seems to be the pride and joy of the department. The past 13 years have brought national championships here every one of those 13 years. They have a De La Salle type winning streak going against American schools. Their coach has refused offers to coach rugby overseas. Two of those things ended yesterday, at, of all places, Stanfurd. Stanfurd played host to the national rugby championships where yesterday, Cal lost in the semifinals to Air Force. Sorry, but this does not happen often, so rugby losses deserve a mention.

Getting little attention last night was that the Democrats held a debate among the nine candidates running for President. I don't remember anything like this happening this early, but as a Republican, it's nice to see the other party fighting for a change. Even with power, it seems Republicans still want to pick fights amongst themselves and against the Democrats. But this debate is notable in that even though the faces are somewhat recognizable, no one broke out of the pack. At least three seem to be running just because they were opposed to the war and can be dropped pretty quickly. The front runners are Joe Lieberman, the vice presidential candidate with Al Gore in 2000, Richard Gephardt, former Democratic leader of the House, and John Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts. Close behind are Howard Dean, Governor from Vermont in the "Democratic wing of the Democratic party," rising Democratic star John Edwards, Senator from North Carolina, and Bob Graham (Senator, Florida), a late-comer to the race after some heart surgery. The message loud and clear was we need to get Bush out of the Oval Office, but which one should be doing that task? No clear answer was offered. Plus, after all, there are 9 candidates on that stage.

Were you one of the lucky ones who watched Alias tonight? If so, you were treated to a rousing two-hour finale where everything that changed on that Super Bowl episode changed again with the (spoiler) discovery of Francine as the other double, Sloane reuniting with Jack, and the sudden transport of Sydney two years into the future. Is it simply a kidnap and memory loss? Has Sloane put together a time machine by Rambaldi? Are Sloane and Rambaldi the same guy? See, it's this intrigue that makes this series so good, but its intelligence and many storylines are probably what turns people off. Can't wait til next season.

That's it for now. The countdown is on. 7 instruction days left in the semester.

X2: X-Men United
The X-Men are back and better than ever. Okay, there's only been one other film, but this one is much better than the original. (Nothing beats the comic books.) A freak assassination attempt on the President by Nightcrawler convinces him to authorize an operation by military scientist William Stryker to infiltrate Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. It just so happens on the night of the operation, Jean Grey and Storm have been sent away to capture Nightcrawler and Professor X and Cyclops go to Magneto to see if he is behind the assassination attempt. All the pieces fall into place for Stryker as his true desire was to capture the pieces to Cerebro and kidnap Professor X and manipulate him to kill all the mutants in the world. Once Magneto escapes from his plastic prison, he works with the X-Men to save Professor X and stop Striker at all costs.

This film uses a similar formula as the first. The first half shocks and awes us with the true power these mutants have, showing off to us mortals while the second half delves us into the story. The first movie falls flat in the latter aspect simply because nothing interesting ever happened that piqued my imagination. The sequel performs marginally better, providing a reversal of situations in the middle of the climax while giving everyone a major role in the ending, not an easy thing to do with so many "main" characters. (Except for Iceman...what was his deal? He doesn't do anything. He lets Rogue fly the jet. They're threatened by WATER of all things!) The movie though seriously drags on during the undergound lab scenes. You could tell by the audience, who in my case, reacted to literally every scene only to stay silent throughout the lab scenes. All together, this is a really long movie for what it shows on screen. Long movies are okay in some situations (I hope the Matrix sequels are 3-5 hours each, for example) but simple friends vs. foe adventures like this one don't need to top out at any more than 2 hours. And one of my pet peeves is when a movie sets things up for a sequel unless it's meant to happen like in a middle of a trilogy. This one does it shamelessly in many scenes. But these are minor quibbles to an otherwise solid movie which is much better than the original. 3 stars

Identity and Confidence
Two movies which came out last week use the art of surprise to resolve their conflicts, one in a whodunit mystery, the other involving lots of con jobs. Both turn out to be way too predictable ahead of the time, but only one movie comes out ahead.

Identity stars John Cusack, part of a group of ten who are stranded at a motel when the roads leading out of the town are flooded. All of them aren't too content to stay the night there: the mother of a family has just been hit by a car; a young couple were just married; a policeman is transporting a convict. But soon, one by one, they are being killed, leaving the guests to wonder who among them it could be. In their place are keychains counting down the victims until the last one is left. Soon enough, the blame could be placed on everyone there. While they figure it out, they soon realize all of them have a connection. They all have the same birthday, May 10, and their names match one of the states' names. What the heck does all this mean? Meanwhile, the actions here are intercut with an informal trial setting where a lawyer is trying to get an execution stayed for a man convicted of murder. Inevitably, these two plotlines will connect leading to a who and a why.

This is a really smart, suspense thriller. Lots of twists and turns occur, leaving a number of clues to figure out a la The Sixth Sense. But unlike The Sixth Sense, where without the surprise at the end, the movie was awfully boring in my opinion, Identity holds its own as being a thriller without thrills. Most of the entertainment occurs in your head as you try to figure out what happening on screen instead of reacting to what's on screen. Humor breaks the tension at just the right places and seemingly important plot points become red herrings as new clues are discovered. Sure, the elements that make up Identity seem a bit aged (the motel, the rain, the characters), but it all works out to its benefit in the end, creating a shocker of a surprise, unless you were paying attention like I was, and could see it coming from a mile away. Still, seeing that surprise on-screen still worked for me, as does this entire movie. 3.5 stars

Confidence bills itself as a smart con movie. Being smart is one thing, but being too smart gets annoying, which ultimately dooms this film. Ed Burns and his team cons a man out of $150,000, money that was on its way to the King, played by Dustin Hoffman. When a man from his team gets killed for mouthing about it, Burns chooses to do a job for the King instead of just returning the money. The King gives him the job of getting money from Morgan Price (Robert Forster), a banker. Burns hires Rachel Weisz to round out the team, a pickpocket looking to do something more. But with the King, some LAPD cops, and a Customs agent looking at his every action, Burns tries to pull off the ultimate con to make this work out for him and his team.

This series of twists and turns works to a lesser extent than it did in Identity, mainly because there's so much to keep track of that it's easy to get confused in the entire thing. It takes way too long to get to its ending and along the way, the meticulous planning of the con job is documented and shown, and looking at the right places, it's obvious who's playing whom once you get to the ending. The movie's strong suit turns to its acting. Hoffman as the King was an interesting choice, but he plays the role extremely well, adding an air of mystery to his character. Burns is competent as the leader of the group as is Weisz as the lady who seems to be Burns' equal. James Foley's direction gives his film an old-time look, full of closeups, odd angles, and vibrant colors meant to give the action on screen a certain amount of attention. And you'll need it to make sense of how the movie got to its smart, if implausible, ending. 2.5 stars