Tonite, the prepsterous and ridiculous 10.5 is being shown on NBC. And the only thing funnier than the film itself apparently is the critics' bashing of the film. They seem to be in agreement in the fact that the film is so bad that it's good.
The best review so far comes from Tim Goodman at the SF Chronicle. To quote:
"This miniseries may be the ultimate drinking-game movie. There are so many weary disaster-movie cliches here and so much write-by-numbers formula that the entire country could wobble over drunk on Sunday and come back for two more hair-of-the-dog hours on Monday. In fact, "10.5" is so joyously awful that if you dare undertake participation-style viewing connected in some manner to alcohol you'll have to rein in the number of tip-off moments. Try these: 1. When someone looks shocked -- shocked! -- at any kind of news delivered to them. 2. When the treacly music roars up from behind. 3. When it feels like "Saturday Night Live." Do not, under any circumstances, base tipping-point moments on when someone cries, or yells, or freaks out, or demands that someone "do something" or when there are dramatic close-ups or people are seen running like wild animals."
"Later (Fred) Ward, who really disembowels his career here, is hired by Bridges to head up the campaign to stop the earthquakes from continuing. Yes, you read that right. Eventually he green-lights the use of a nuclear weapon to do this. Naturally. Ward is really something. "According to your hidden fault theory, we could be looking at the Big One," he says to Delaney. Oh, Fred, you're soaking in the Big One, buddy."
"David Cubitt stars as the Guy Who Looks Stunned by Everything Kim Delaney Says and, later in the movie, as the Guy Who Advances the Plot by Asking Questions Only Delaney Can Explain. Example: From a helicopter Delaney realizes the Kern River is acting weird (just go with it). Cubitt: "It changed direction? How's that possible?" How indeed? And how is it possible this movie got made?"
"Ivan Sergei ("Crossing Jordan") and Dule Hill ("The West Wing") are featured as young doctors because every disaster movie needs medical miracles."
"John Schneider ("Smallville") and Kelly Cuoco ("8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter") also appear, because every disaster movie needs a father and daughter starting out at odds, falling into peril and finally bonding."
"You have to love a movie that topples the Space Needle and the Golden Gate Bridge almost immediately, but it's a truly special occasion when you can watch an earthquake follow a train down the tracks and swallow it up like a shark chasing a swimmer in "Jaws." That alone is almost worth the four-hour price of admission to "10.5" because, if nothing else, it gives keen insight into the rest of the movie. After all, if you can dream up a scenario in which an earthquake CHASES A TRAIN DOWN THE TRACKS, well, anything is possible."
"A favorite scene has Delaney and Cubitt poring over maps (maps and computers that zoom in on things and beep a lot are very popular in "10.5"). Delaney says excitedly about some aftershocks: "These are not from our fault. They are from the faults affected by our fault." Well, hell, it's somebody's fault."
5/02/2004
It's May which means the summer movies are about to be released. And while in this preview, it seems like I'll be watching every one of these, trust me, I won't. Maybe half.
May 7
New York Minute – 12 years ago, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen made a trip to grandmother’s house in their first film. Now, they return to their roots with the two making a trip to New York City and have to deal with various obstacles along the way.
Van Helsing – Hugh Jackman gets to face off against the most popular vampire of them all, Dracula.
Super Size Me – Watch as one man dares to eat McDonalds for an entire month, supersizing whenever he can and suffering the consequences. (Limited)
May 14
Breakin’ All The Rules – Jamie Foxx of all people gives advice on how to break it off with someone.
Troy – “Immortality! Take it! It’s yours!” Okay, Brad Pitt’s line is a bit tacky, but at $200 million, this film will be one of the grandest ever to document the Trojan War. Also starring are Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom.
Coffee and Cigarettes – A collection of short films on a variety of topics starring Bill Murray, Steven Wright, Roberto Benigni and others. (Limited)
May 21
Shrek 2 – The sequel to the wildly successful cartoon brings back original voices Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy.
The Clearing – Robert Redford and Helen Mirren reassess their lives separately when Redford is kidnapped. (Limited)
Stateside – A troubled rich kid on leave from Val Kilmer’s military school, falls for the popular singer/actress played by Rachael Leigh Cook. (Limited)
May 26
Raising Helen – The beautiful Kate Hudson suddenly gains custody of her sister’s three kids and must balance them with her wild and happy single life.
May 28
The Day After Tomorrow – Roland Emmerich makes another disaster flick as global warming finally causes some catastrophic damage.
Soul Plane – This airline filled with short skirts, hip music, and Snoop Dogg in the cockpit makes even Hooters Air jealous.
Baadasssss! – Mario Van Peebles’ tribute to his father, also a filmmaker. (Limited)
Saved – Jena Malone’s Mary gets pregnant by her newly gay boyfriend. Her best friend is Mandy Moore’s Hilary, a devout Christian who later outs her. Soon, Mary navigates her way to graduation with a band of outsiders, pariahs if you will. (Limited)
June 4
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Alfonso Cuaron’s prior film “Y Tu Mama Tambien” dealt with two guys and a girl learning about life through sex. So what better person to deal with the third film of the Harry Potter series? Here, Harry, Hermoine, and Ron must contend with a prisoner (Gary Oldman) making his way toward Hogwarts.
Mindhunters – A group of FBI agents are stuck together to try to figure out which one of them is the murderer. Stars Val Kilmer and is directed by Renny Harlin.
June 11
The Chronicles of Riddick – Vin Diesel reprises his role to battle an army of warriors known as the Necromongers.
Garfield – In this live action/animated combo, Odie has gone missing and it’s up to Garfield to find him.
The Stepford Wives – In this world, everything including the women seem a bit too perfect. This remake features a powerhouse cast including Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Glenn Close and Christopher Walken.
June 16
Around the World in 80 Days – Steve Coogan and Jim Broadbent attempt to settle a bet on whether Coogan’s new invention can travel around the globe in 80 days. Going along for the ride is Jackie Chan.
June 18
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story – What more can be said about dodgeball? Stars Ben Stiller.
The Terminal – Tom Hanks is stuck at the airport. And it’s not just a simple delay. He’ll be there for weeks.
June 23
Door in the Floor – Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger lead an unhappy marriage and it’s not until the arrival of a young man until needed change is undertaken. (Limited)
June 25
The Notebook – As an old man, he reads from his notebook the story of his love, their separation due to World War II, and their reunion 14 years after that.
Two Brothers – The heartwarming story of two twin tiger cubs who lead vastly different lives only to be reunited years later.
White Chicks – The Wayans Bros. as white chicks. The horror.
Before Sunset – Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reunite after nine years of separation to see if the love is still there, even though Hawke is married now with kids. Sequel to Before Sunrise. (Limited)
De-Lovely – American composer Cole Porter has his life written for the screen as the film explores his songs and his personal life. Stars Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd. (Limited)
June 30
Spider-Man 2 – Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) struggles with his new identity, his evolving relationship with M.J. (Kirsten Dunst) and a new villain in Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina).
July 7
King Arthur – Sure, Keira Knightley is one of the hottest ladies out there. But will it convince me to see yet another story about King Arthur? That remains to be seen. Directed by Antoine Fuqua of “Training Day” and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.
July 9
Anchorman – Will Ferrell makes another promising comedy as he is the popular news anchor who is threatened by a female co-anchor in Christina Applegate.
July 16
The Cinderella Story – In yet another update to Cinderella, Hilary Duff is the lonely girl who becomes the talk of the ball after a makeover.
I, Robot – In the year 2035, Will Smith believes a robot committed a crime. With robots as indispensable as running water, kinda crazy, no? Based upon the short story of Isaac Asimov.
July 23
The Bourne Supremacy – If there’s a third one, I just wanna know what they’re going to name it, since supremacy is kind of a stretch.
Catwoman – You know, Catwoman? Eartha Kitt. Michelle Pfeiffer. And now, Halle Berry. Also stars Sharon Stone.
Cheer Up – I know, it sounds ridiculous but…okay, it is. Tommy Lee Jones is a FBI agent charged with protecting a group of cheerleaders.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle – In the footsteps of “Dude, Where’s My Car?” comes this comedy about the adventures two guys have on their way to some hamburgers at White Castle.
A Home at the End of the World – Two boyhood friends move into the home of an older woman and wouldn’t you know it, they both fall for her.
She Hate Me – Spike Lee’s latest joint involves a businessman who’s unemployable because he became a whistleblower. Now without work, he soon turns to impregnating lesbians for cash. Now even that’s becoming complicated. (Limited)
July 30
The Manchurian Candidate – A remake of the 1962 classic is updated with Denzel Washington in the lead role as the commanding officer whose group begins to have the same recurring nightmares.
The Village – Another supernatural thriller in the hands of M. Night Shyamalan, this time set in the woods of rural Pennsylvania. Let’s see, last time they were afraid of water. Is it sunlight this time?
Garden State – Zach Braff (of Scrubs, also the director of the film) attends his mother’s funeral after 10 years of being away. Natalie Portman helps him re-adjust back to family life. (Limited)
August 6
Collateral – An eagerly anticipated drama from director Michael Mann stars Jamie Foxx as a cab driver who figures out the man he’s been driving around all day (Tom Cruise) is indeed a contract killer and must try to stop him before he gets killed himself.
Shall We Dance? – A workaholic (Richard Gere) soon finds himself with a passion for dancing. It doesn’t hurt to have Jennifer Lopez dancing at your side.
Thunderbirds – It’s directed by Commander Riker himself! It has to be good! Okay, well, I took a shot. The top-secret headquarters of the Thunderbirds isn’t so secret anymore and it’s up to the sons of Jeff Tracy (Bill Paxton) to keep out The Hood (Sir Ben Kingsley).
Code 46 – Starring Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton, this is a love story set in the future with Robbins playing an insurance investigator following up on a case involving fake papelles. Following up meaning having an affair with the creator of these fake papers (Morton). (Limited)
August 11
The Princess Diaries 2 – Now that Mia (Anne Hathaway) is now a princess, she has to turn to more pressing matters like getting married and becoming the queen.
August 13
Alien vs. Predator – I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here and hopefully it’ll be light-years better than that atrocious Freddy vs. Jason flick.
Blade: Trinity – Honestly, I didn’t even know they were making a third Blade film but here it is with Wesley Snipes in the lead role again. Here, he joins up with a couple of Nightstalkers to battle a modern Dracula.
We Don’t Live Here Anymore – An affair between friends threatens to bring down both of their marriages.
August 20
Cellular – Kim Basinger is kidnapped and only has a cell phone in the trunk of a car to save herself and her family.
Exorcist: The Beginning – Just when you thought it couldn’t end, they go back to the beginning, now looking at events in post-WWII Africa.
Hero – It’s been in Chinese theatres since 2002 and it’s been on the Internet and my computer for quite a while too. Now, catch this great movie in theatres starring Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi. (Limited)
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead – Former gangster Clive Owen comes out of hiding to investigate his brother’s death. (Limited)
August 27
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid – Wow, they made a sequel to this??? Scientists must evade super anacondas and blah, blah, blah.
Benji Returns: Rags to Riches – Did the dog ever leave?
May 7
New York Minute – 12 years ago, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen made a trip to grandmother’s house in their first film. Now, they return to their roots with the two making a trip to New York City and have to deal with various obstacles along the way.
Van Helsing – Hugh Jackman gets to face off against the most popular vampire of them all, Dracula.
Super Size Me – Watch as one man dares to eat McDonalds for an entire month, supersizing whenever he can and suffering the consequences. (Limited)
May 14
Breakin’ All The Rules – Jamie Foxx of all people gives advice on how to break it off with someone.
Troy – “Immortality! Take it! It’s yours!” Okay, Brad Pitt’s line is a bit tacky, but at $200 million, this film will be one of the grandest ever to document the Trojan War. Also starring are Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom.
Coffee and Cigarettes – A collection of short films on a variety of topics starring Bill Murray, Steven Wright, Roberto Benigni and others. (Limited)
May 21
Shrek 2 – The sequel to the wildly successful cartoon brings back original voices Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy.
The Clearing – Robert Redford and Helen Mirren reassess their lives separately when Redford is kidnapped. (Limited)
Stateside – A troubled rich kid on leave from Val Kilmer’s military school, falls for the popular singer/actress played by Rachael Leigh Cook. (Limited)
May 26
Raising Helen – The beautiful Kate Hudson suddenly gains custody of her sister’s three kids and must balance them with her wild and happy single life.
May 28
The Day After Tomorrow – Roland Emmerich makes another disaster flick as global warming finally causes some catastrophic damage.
Soul Plane – This airline filled with short skirts, hip music, and Snoop Dogg in the cockpit makes even Hooters Air jealous.
Baadasssss! – Mario Van Peebles’ tribute to his father, also a filmmaker. (Limited)
Saved – Jena Malone’s Mary gets pregnant by her newly gay boyfriend. Her best friend is Mandy Moore’s Hilary, a devout Christian who later outs her. Soon, Mary navigates her way to graduation with a band of outsiders, pariahs if you will. (Limited)
June 4
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Alfonso Cuaron’s prior film “Y Tu Mama Tambien” dealt with two guys and a girl learning about life through sex. So what better person to deal with the third film of the Harry Potter series? Here, Harry, Hermoine, and Ron must contend with a prisoner (Gary Oldman) making his way toward Hogwarts.
Mindhunters – A group of FBI agents are stuck together to try to figure out which one of them is the murderer. Stars Val Kilmer and is directed by Renny Harlin.
June 11
The Chronicles of Riddick – Vin Diesel reprises his role to battle an army of warriors known as the Necromongers.
Garfield – In this live action/animated combo, Odie has gone missing and it’s up to Garfield to find him.
The Stepford Wives – In this world, everything including the women seem a bit too perfect. This remake features a powerhouse cast including Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Glenn Close and Christopher Walken.
June 16
Around the World in 80 Days – Steve Coogan and Jim Broadbent attempt to settle a bet on whether Coogan’s new invention can travel around the globe in 80 days. Going along for the ride is Jackie Chan.
June 18
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story – What more can be said about dodgeball? Stars Ben Stiller.
The Terminal – Tom Hanks is stuck at the airport. And it’s not just a simple delay. He’ll be there for weeks.
June 23
Door in the Floor – Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger lead an unhappy marriage and it’s not until the arrival of a young man until needed change is undertaken. (Limited)
June 25
The Notebook – As an old man, he reads from his notebook the story of his love, their separation due to World War II, and their reunion 14 years after that.
Two Brothers – The heartwarming story of two twin tiger cubs who lead vastly different lives only to be reunited years later.
White Chicks – The Wayans Bros. as white chicks. The horror.
Before Sunset – Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reunite after nine years of separation to see if the love is still there, even though Hawke is married now with kids. Sequel to Before Sunrise. (Limited)
De-Lovely – American composer Cole Porter has his life written for the screen as the film explores his songs and his personal life. Stars Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd. (Limited)
June 30
Spider-Man 2 – Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) struggles with his new identity, his evolving relationship with M.J. (Kirsten Dunst) and a new villain in Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina).
July 7
King Arthur – Sure, Keira Knightley is one of the hottest ladies out there. But will it convince me to see yet another story about King Arthur? That remains to be seen. Directed by Antoine Fuqua of “Training Day” and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.
July 9
Anchorman – Will Ferrell makes another promising comedy as he is the popular news anchor who is threatened by a female co-anchor in Christina Applegate.
July 16
The Cinderella Story – In yet another update to Cinderella, Hilary Duff is the lonely girl who becomes the talk of the ball after a makeover.
I, Robot – In the year 2035, Will Smith believes a robot committed a crime. With robots as indispensable as running water, kinda crazy, no? Based upon the short story of Isaac Asimov.
July 23
The Bourne Supremacy – If there’s a third one, I just wanna know what they’re going to name it, since supremacy is kind of a stretch.
Catwoman – You know, Catwoman? Eartha Kitt. Michelle Pfeiffer. And now, Halle Berry. Also stars Sharon Stone.
Cheer Up – I know, it sounds ridiculous but…okay, it is. Tommy Lee Jones is a FBI agent charged with protecting a group of cheerleaders.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle – In the footsteps of “Dude, Where’s My Car?” comes this comedy about the adventures two guys have on their way to some hamburgers at White Castle.
A Home at the End of the World – Two boyhood friends move into the home of an older woman and wouldn’t you know it, they both fall for her.
She Hate Me – Spike Lee’s latest joint involves a businessman who’s unemployable because he became a whistleblower. Now without work, he soon turns to impregnating lesbians for cash. Now even that’s becoming complicated. (Limited)
July 30
The Manchurian Candidate – A remake of the 1962 classic is updated with Denzel Washington in the lead role as the commanding officer whose group begins to have the same recurring nightmares.
The Village – Another supernatural thriller in the hands of M. Night Shyamalan, this time set in the woods of rural Pennsylvania. Let’s see, last time they were afraid of water. Is it sunlight this time?
Garden State – Zach Braff (of Scrubs, also the director of the film) attends his mother’s funeral after 10 years of being away. Natalie Portman helps him re-adjust back to family life. (Limited)
August 6
Collateral – An eagerly anticipated drama from director Michael Mann stars Jamie Foxx as a cab driver who figures out the man he’s been driving around all day (Tom Cruise) is indeed a contract killer and must try to stop him before he gets killed himself.
Shall We Dance? – A workaholic (Richard Gere) soon finds himself with a passion for dancing. It doesn’t hurt to have Jennifer Lopez dancing at your side.
Thunderbirds – It’s directed by Commander Riker himself! It has to be good! Okay, well, I took a shot. The top-secret headquarters of the Thunderbirds isn’t so secret anymore and it’s up to the sons of Jeff Tracy (Bill Paxton) to keep out The Hood (Sir Ben Kingsley).
Code 46 – Starring Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton, this is a love story set in the future with Robbins playing an insurance investigator following up on a case involving fake papelles. Following up meaning having an affair with the creator of these fake papers (Morton). (Limited)
August 11
The Princess Diaries 2 – Now that Mia (Anne Hathaway) is now a princess, she has to turn to more pressing matters like getting married and becoming the queen.
August 13
Alien vs. Predator – I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here and hopefully it’ll be light-years better than that atrocious Freddy vs. Jason flick.
Blade: Trinity – Honestly, I didn’t even know they were making a third Blade film but here it is with Wesley Snipes in the lead role again. Here, he joins up with a couple of Nightstalkers to battle a modern Dracula.
We Don’t Live Here Anymore – An affair between friends threatens to bring down both of their marriages.
August 20
Cellular – Kim Basinger is kidnapped and only has a cell phone in the trunk of a car to save herself and her family.
Exorcist: The Beginning – Just when you thought it couldn’t end, they go back to the beginning, now looking at events in post-WWII Africa.
Hero – It’s been in Chinese theatres since 2002 and it’s been on the Internet and my computer for quite a while too. Now, catch this great movie in theatres starring Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi. (Limited)
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead – Former gangster Clive Owen comes out of hiding to investigate his brother’s death. (Limited)
August 27
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid – Wow, they made a sequel to this??? Scientists must evade super anacondas and blah, blah, blah.
Benji Returns: Rags to Riches – Did the dog ever leave?
4/28/2004
So, right now, getting ready for bed, there's a huge mosquito just attached to the ceiling. Don't you just hate the feeling of a pest out-of-reach from you and when you turn out the lights, you know it's there? Yeah, I'm in that stage now.
Congrats to the Sharks, on their way to the conference finals after building up a 3-0 series lead on Colorado. The best part about the playoffs is their compactness. You get a game about every other day with each game taking advantage of the energy built up on the last. Contrast this to the NBA, where games are separated by a couple of days and the first round isn't supposed to end until May 4! That's also when hockey's second round is supposed to end.
Through my travels in the last few days, it's amazing to see the number of businesses headed into different ventures. 3 of the more interesting ones I saw last weekend. Curry in Hurry, yes, the Indian fast food joint with the awkward name, has closed for remodeling. Not a big deal except for the very small sign in front. Not only can you get your Indian food, but pizza and pasta is also scheduled to be put on the menu. Down the street at some cellular phone place, not only will you get a free phone with activation, you can also get a free caricature! Finally, in SJ, in that plaza near the Auto Row, a Vietnamese place opened up named Banh Me Beef Noodle. First, is the spelling wrong? I think it is. And second, the thing that cracked me up was the fact that under the grand opening sign was the fact that they were still selling burgers.
In an era when SAT scores are becoming obsolete, a new university is placing added importance on it. Organizers are planning Ronald Reagan University in Colorado, a 200-acre world-class facility in the Rocky Mountains with estimates of an opening in 2010 with 10,000 students and 2,000 faculty members and plans for medical, law, and public policy schools. But here's the kicker. One of the criteria for admission is a 1400 SAT. Isn't that a little harsh? "You've got a 1390? HAHA! Nice try!" Well, at least I could get in.
What happened? My standing was hurt in the eyes of Google. I'm down to 122 from 36 in a search for ranting. Maybe a link will help.
Congrats to the Sharks, on their way to the conference finals after building up a 3-0 series lead on Colorado. The best part about the playoffs is their compactness. You get a game about every other day with each game taking advantage of the energy built up on the last. Contrast this to the NBA, where games are separated by a couple of days and the first round isn't supposed to end until May 4! That's also when hockey's second round is supposed to end.
Through my travels in the last few days, it's amazing to see the number of businesses headed into different ventures. 3 of the more interesting ones I saw last weekend. Curry in Hurry, yes, the Indian fast food joint with the awkward name, has closed for remodeling. Not a big deal except for the very small sign in front. Not only can you get your Indian food, but pizza and pasta is also scheduled to be put on the menu. Down the street at some cellular phone place, not only will you get a free phone with activation, you can also get a free caricature! Finally, in SJ, in that plaza near the Auto Row, a Vietnamese place opened up named Banh Me Beef Noodle. First, is the spelling wrong? I think it is. And second, the thing that cracked me up was the fact that under the grand opening sign was the fact that they were still selling burgers.
In an era when SAT scores are becoming obsolete, a new university is placing added importance on it. Organizers are planning Ronald Reagan University in Colorado, a 200-acre world-class facility in the Rocky Mountains with estimates of an opening in 2010 with 10,000 students and 2,000 faculty members and plans for medical, law, and public policy schools. But here's the kicker. One of the criteria for admission is a 1400 SAT. Isn't that a little harsh? "You've got a 1390? HAHA! Nice try!" Well, at least I could get in.
What happened? My standing was hurt in the eyes of Google. I'm down to 122 from 36 in a search for ranting. Maybe a link will help.
4/26/2004
One of my guilty pleasures is Iron Chef on the Food Network. Watching the seriousness the chefs have in a cooking competition coupled with the overactive English dubbing puts me over the top. So boy was I excited when an American version was being produced. And it wasn't the crappy William Shatner version either.
Approved by its Japanese creators, Iron Chef America brought about 3 of the most popular Food Network Chefs: Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, and Wolfgang Puck. These would be the American Iron Chefs and their first two competitors would be two Iron Chefs from the Japanese show: IC Japanese Morimoto and IC French Sakai. But while watching the show, something smelled fishy, and it wasn't the massive amounts of seafood being used.
What was good about the show? The sharp pictures gave us a really good idea of what was being cooked. There were nice angles to document the action and it was much better than the handheld grainy pictures produced from Japan. The Food Network also deserves credit for sticking with as much of the Iron Chef aura as they could without actually being a carbon copy.
So what was bad about the show? Though they're words said it (here they went overboard with the constant references to Kaga and such), you could never feel the tension. Everyone was relaxed while cooking. No beads of sweat pouring down. No catastrophes to be seen. Even the countdown was nice and quiet. The announcer Alton Brown wasn't his eccentric self and his knowledge, as well as the reporter's, seemed to be lacking.
Finally, there was the judging. The dishes the Japanese chefs made probably would have produced a slam-dunk win in Japan. Yet, they lost, badly, to their American counterparts, which is inexplicable. Plating and originality was a dead-heat, but the Americans won tasting by at least 5 points, which seemed a bit excessive. As a result, Flay, Batali, and Puck won their battles.
The final battle was genius. It was a mixed doubles event with Batali and Sakai going against Morimoto and Flay. I didn't get to watch it but I saw the end and I really wanted Sakai to win one, he after all being the King of Iron Chefs, but he fell to defeat again, even after a summary that portrayed a negative light on the Morimoto/Flay side of things.
Approved by its Japanese creators, Iron Chef America brought about 3 of the most popular Food Network Chefs: Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, and Wolfgang Puck. These would be the American Iron Chefs and their first two competitors would be two Iron Chefs from the Japanese show: IC Japanese Morimoto and IC French Sakai. But while watching the show, something smelled fishy, and it wasn't the massive amounts of seafood being used.
What was good about the show? The sharp pictures gave us a really good idea of what was being cooked. There were nice angles to document the action and it was much better than the handheld grainy pictures produced from Japan. The Food Network also deserves credit for sticking with as much of the Iron Chef aura as they could without actually being a carbon copy.
So what was bad about the show? Though they're words said it (here they went overboard with the constant references to Kaga and such), you could never feel the tension. Everyone was relaxed while cooking. No beads of sweat pouring down. No catastrophes to be seen. Even the countdown was nice and quiet. The announcer Alton Brown wasn't his eccentric self and his knowledge, as well as the reporter's, seemed to be lacking.
Finally, there was the judging. The dishes the Japanese chefs made probably would have produced a slam-dunk win in Japan. Yet, they lost, badly, to their American counterparts, which is inexplicable. Plating and originality was a dead-heat, but the Americans won tasting by at least 5 points, which seemed a bit excessive. As a result, Flay, Batali, and Puck won their battles.
The final battle was genius. It was a mixed doubles event with Batali and Sakai going against Morimoto and Flay. I didn't get to watch it but I saw the end and I really wanted Sakai to win one, he after all being the King of Iron Chefs, but he fell to defeat again, even after a summary that portrayed a negative light on the Morimoto/Flay side of things.
4/20/2004
Responding to Steves' request for an opinion, I thoroughly enjoyed both parts of Kill Bill, but I don't think they are homages to Asian movies, rather, they just happen to have an Asian influence. Director Quentin Tarantino is a huge, huge fan of Japanese filmmaking and I wasn't surprised that he incorporated parts of that into this film. Saying that, Tarantino is no Kurosawa, the master of Japanese filmmaking. In fact, the Asian concept of filmmaking is a much different beast than its American counterpart, emphasizing a balance between dramatic storytelling and the vivid imagination. Hero, the Chinese film nominated for a Foreign Film Oscar last year, is by far superior to Kill Bill, but I won't officially say so until it comes out here in the fall. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon tried to bring this Asian concept to the American way and while it was quality stuff, I found it boring compared to the purely Asian features I have grown accustomed to. Hopefully, Crouching Tiger is the exception. American filmmaking certainly needs better movies. A quick check at Rotten Tomatoes shows 14 of the top 16 films at the box office are rotten.
In other news, the editor of Details magazine has apologized for the Gay or Asian piece mentioned earlier. No word yet on whether the author will apologize
The Bush Administration is utterly confused by what's going on in the economy. They see consistent GDP growth. Inflation is minimal. The economy grew by 300,000 jobs last month. Yet, overall satisfaction with the economy is still low. Why? People are micro in a macro world. They care about what they see. And what's that? Gas prices are up. It's pushing 1.80 in the country and it's 2.15 at the Valero down the street from me. Those Vietnamese who own the Shell on the other side of me are changing 2.30. And that's not the only thing putting people down. It is businesses closing, which is really evident in Berkeley. Pretty soon, it might be a ghost town. The takeover and proposed re-opening of the Shattuck Hotel is dead. Huston's Shoes is closed. Eddie Bauer is closed. Gateway is closed. Bath and Body Works (right across from campus, no less) is closed. Tower Records is on the verge of closing. And the people hurt by this are the lowly consumer.
The VSA Culture Show happened on Saturday, and taking into account the expectations for the show, it was a mild success. It had its technical problems but the overall content of the show was very good. Props go out to all those involved.
During the show, there was a pitch to find the next Vietnamese Idol. Yowza, that might be bad. But it's better than Superstar USA. Its purpose is to find the next William Hung, and really, one is enough, thank you. (Though ZERO is preferred.) Superstar USA seeks to find the worst singers out there. Talented people are thrown out in the initial rounds, leaving only the untalented to compete and become a superstar. Cover your ears and tape up those windows, becoming an idol is here to stay.
Lastly, in other TV news, NBC has a new movie coming out called 10.5. Scientists have denounced the movie, called it woefully inaccurate. First of all, it seems impossible to have an earthquake of 10.5. The largest one in history was a 9.5 in Chile. Then in the movie, atomic bombs are used to try to fix the problem. I don't know, but common sense seems to tell me that bombs would make things worse, no? Reached for comment, the producers claimed they checked the Internet for some facts about earthquakes before proceeding. Now that makes me laugh.
In other news, the editor of Details magazine has apologized for the Gay or Asian piece mentioned earlier. No word yet on whether the author will apologize
The Bush Administration is utterly confused by what's going on in the economy. They see consistent GDP growth. Inflation is minimal. The economy grew by 300,000 jobs last month. Yet, overall satisfaction with the economy is still low. Why? People are micro in a macro world. They care about what they see. And what's that? Gas prices are up. It's pushing 1.80 in the country and it's 2.15 at the Valero down the street from me. Those Vietnamese who own the Shell on the other side of me are changing 2.30. And that's not the only thing putting people down. It is businesses closing, which is really evident in Berkeley. Pretty soon, it might be a ghost town. The takeover and proposed re-opening of the Shattuck Hotel is dead. Huston's Shoes is closed. Eddie Bauer is closed. Gateway is closed. Bath and Body Works (right across from campus, no less) is closed. Tower Records is on the verge of closing. And the people hurt by this are the lowly consumer.
The VSA Culture Show happened on Saturday, and taking into account the expectations for the show, it was a mild success. It had its technical problems but the overall content of the show was very good. Props go out to all those involved.
During the show, there was a pitch to find the next Vietnamese Idol. Yowza, that might be bad. But it's better than Superstar USA. Its purpose is to find the next William Hung, and really, one is enough, thank you. (Though ZERO is preferred.) Superstar USA seeks to find the worst singers out there. Talented people are thrown out in the initial rounds, leaving only the untalented to compete and become a superstar. Cover your ears and tape up those windows, becoming an idol is here to stay.
Lastly, in other TV news, NBC has a new movie coming out called 10.5. Scientists have denounced the movie, called it woefully inaccurate. First of all, it seems impossible to have an earthquake of 10.5. The largest one in history was a 9.5 in Chile. Then in the movie, atomic bombs are used to try to fix the problem. I don't know, but common sense seems to tell me that bombs would make things worse, no? Reached for comment, the producers claimed they checked the Internet for some facts about earthquakes before proceeding. Now that makes me laugh.
The Alamo
Remember the Alamo? No? Nobody blames you. We lost anyway. In 1836, Mexican forces marched up to the Alamo, recently captured by Texans and Tejanos during a battle in December 1835. Led by General Santa Anna, the Mexicans vastly outnumbered the soldiers and militia stationed at the mission. Within the Alamo, there was a struggle for power between Jim Bowie, the militia leader played by Jason Patric, and William Travis, an unproven lieutenant colonel thrust into a leadership role. Indecisiveness and poor communication between the two heads led to the Texans firing the first shot against the Mexicans. For a subsequent 13 days, the Alamo was under siege by constant cannon fire and small sneak attacks by Mexican soldiers. Pleas for help went largely ignored. The few who did come to help are prominent in history. Davy Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), a congressman from Tennessee during this time, comes into the Alamo at the urging of Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid), who would continue the fight after the Alamo.
This story of American bravery is, by most accounts, historically accurate. But for films like this to be successful in today's marketplace, it must capture the emotion of the people who are being sacrificed and compel us to really feel for them. Glory and Gettysburg do this. The Alamo, sadly, does not. The film is filled with images of men fighting and conversing and in battle, but none of them are lasting. This lack of story from anybody reduces the characters to chess pieces, with the director constantly moving them along until one side is gone, in this case, the Texans. The only one who really stands out is Thornton's Crockett, who shows some fight in him from beginning to end. Quaid's fine character is largely missing from the film, a casualty of the cutting room floor in its effort to cut 1 hour from the 3+ hour film. Viewed as a historical, just the facts, sort of film, it pretty much excels in capturing the era and the battle scenes are on par to what we've enjoyed as filmgoers. But while students of history will remember the Alamo as the ultimate in sacrifice for lasting so long against a vastly superior Mexican army, people will remember "The Alamo" just as entertaining as listening to a history professor talk about the Alamo. 2 stars
Remember the Alamo? No? Nobody blames you. We lost anyway. In 1836, Mexican forces marched up to the Alamo, recently captured by Texans and Tejanos during a battle in December 1835. Led by General Santa Anna, the Mexicans vastly outnumbered the soldiers and militia stationed at the mission. Within the Alamo, there was a struggle for power between Jim Bowie, the militia leader played by Jason Patric, and William Travis, an unproven lieutenant colonel thrust into a leadership role. Indecisiveness and poor communication between the two heads led to the Texans firing the first shot against the Mexicans. For a subsequent 13 days, the Alamo was under siege by constant cannon fire and small sneak attacks by Mexican soldiers. Pleas for help went largely ignored. The few who did come to help are prominent in history. Davy Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), a congressman from Tennessee during this time, comes into the Alamo at the urging of Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid), who would continue the fight after the Alamo.
This story of American bravery is, by most accounts, historically accurate. But for films like this to be successful in today's marketplace, it must capture the emotion of the people who are being sacrificed and compel us to really feel for them. Glory and Gettysburg do this. The Alamo, sadly, does not. The film is filled with images of men fighting and conversing and in battle, but none of them are lasting. This lack of story from anybody reduces the characters to chess pieces, with the director constantly moving them along until one side is gone, in this case, the Texans. The only one who really stands out is Thornton's Crockett, who shows some fight in him from beginning to end. Quaid's fine character is largely missing from the film, a casualty of the cutting room floor in its effort to cut 1 hour from the 3+ hour film. Viewed as a historical, just the facts, sort of film, it pretty much excels in capturing the era and the battle scenes are on par to what we've enjoyed as filmgoers. But while students of history will remember the Alamo as the ultimate in sacrifice for lasting so long against a vastly superior Mexican army, people will remember "The Alamo" just as entertaining as listening to a history professor talk about the Alamo. 2 stars
4/17/2004
The VSA culture show is tonite. $12 at the door at 5:00pm and running for 3 hours. Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley.
Before I watched the sneak of Kill Bill: Vol. 2 in the city, there was predictably a huge line. Some wimpy security lady was concerned about the coiling line in the lobby and asked us to move it outside. It was cold and windy that night and many of us screamed that fact. So she left. 10 minutes later, she brought along a huge fat guy with a security uniform with the badge sewn on and told us to move outside. No one seemed to want to stand up to him so we did. And by then, it was raining, which sucked a lot since I left the apartment with only a shirt on.
My friend notified me of a site called pornolize.com, which is extremely funny. You enter in a site and this site will pornolize it for you. It looks like all it does is add nicknames to all the proper names it can find and replaces adjectives and verbs with porn adjectives and nouns. But it sorta keeps the structure of what they were trying to say and that makes it funny.
Heads up to the Iron Chef fans out there. Next week debuts Iron Chef: America on Food Network. Unlike the awful Iron Chef: USA hosted by William Shatner, this one has the approval of its Japanese creators and has helped by allowing Iron Chef French Sakai and Iron Chef Japanese Morimoto to compete against the best of the Food Network chefs, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and Wolfgang Puck. It's sure to be quite the battle. It's on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday next weekend.
Watching the news, it's become apparent to me why Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger does all these causes. He wants a free jacket. The after school initiative, running for governor, Props 57 and 58, and now the workers compensation reform, every time he seriously campaigns, he has a jacket made for him specifically for this, always black and always with the message on the front and back. Quite shrewd on his part and you know what? He's never lost.
Anyone who's watched the Apprentice knows that Bill won and has decided to head up the construction effort of one of Trump's hotels in Chicago. So what of Kwame? He has the opportunity to work at KFC for a week! He could become Chief Sales Officer and try to come up with a new advertising initiative for its roasted chicken. He could also work for Mark Cuban. But is he worth it? My brother's friend went to Harvard Business School with Kwame and remarks that he is a tool.
Congrats to the Sharks for eliminating the Blues in the first round. It lets them focus on more legal matters. Mike Danton provided some spark in the Blues losing effort, but dejected from losing, he was bound to board a plane back to St. Louis until FBI agents arrested him on murder charges! This is too weird. Apparently, he caught wind of a hitman after him and consulted a friend to get a hitman to kill the first hitman, and in the process, offering $10,000 to do the job, along with the set-up (the house was supposed to be burglarized to cover it up). But the friend turned him in. Everyone sees the problem right? First, he needed to offer more than $10,000. No one in their right mind would do a job like that for a measly $10,000. The second is to cover your tracks. You needed the hitman to kill the friend as well, and then you need to finish the job by killing the hitman. By planning ahead with more money and ambition, he could be sitting pretty, but now, Mike Danton gets to sit pretty next to some jailhouse inmate.
Now that I'm number one when you search for the word ranting in many search engines including Yahoo, MSN, and Altavista, (How? I'll never know) the goal now is to become number one on Google. A quick check shows I'm number 36. I'll keep track of it on the sidebar.
Before I watched the sneak of Kill Bill: Vol. 2 in the city, there was predictably a huge line. Some wimpy security lady was concerned about the coiling line in the lobby and asked us to move it outside. It was cold and windy that night and many of us screamed that fact. So she left. 10 minutes later, she brought along a huge fat guy with a security uniform with the badge sewn on and told us to move outside. No one seemed to want to stand up to him so we did. And by then, it was raining, which sucked a lot since I left the apartment with only a shirt on.
My friend notified me of a site called pornolize.com, which is extremely funny. You enter in a site and this site will pornolize it for you. It looks like all it does is add nicknames to all the proper names it can find and replaces adjectives and verbs with porn adjectives and nouns. But it sorta keeps the structure of what they were trying to say and that makes it funny.
Heads up to the Iron Chef fans out there. Next week debuts Iron Chef: America on Food Network. Unlike the awful Iron Chef: USA hosted by William Shatner, this one has the approval of its Japanese creators and has helped by allowing Iron Chef French Sakai and Iron Chef Japanese Morimoto to compete against the best of the Food Network chefs, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and Wolfgang Puck. It's sure to be quite the battle. It's on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday next weekend.
Watching the news, it's become apparent to me why Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger does all these causes. He wants a free jacket. The after school initiative, running for governor, Props 57 and 58, and now the workers compensation reform, every time he seriously campaigns, he has a jacket made for him specifically for this, always black and always with the message on the front and back. Quite shrewd on his part and you know what? He's never lost.
Anyone who's watched the Apprentice knows that Bill won and has decided to head up the construction effort of one of Trump's hotels in Chicago. So what of Kwame? He has the opportunity to work at KFC for a week! He could become Chief Sales Officer and try to come up with a new advertising initiative for its roasted chicken. He could also work for Mark Cuban. But is he worth it? My brother's friend went to Harvard Business School with Kwame and remarks that he is a tool.
Congrats to the Sharks for eliminating the Blues in the first round. It lets them focus on more legal matters. Mike Danton provided some spark in the Blues losing effort, but dejected from losing, he was bound to board a plane back to St. Louis until FBI agents arrested him on murder charges! This is too weird. Apparently, he caught wind of a hitman after him and consulted a friend to get a hitman to kill the first hitman, and in the process, offering $10,000 to do the job, along with the set-up (the house was supposed to be burglarized to cover it up). But the friend turned him in. Everyone sees the problem right? First, he needed to offer more than $10,000. No one in their right mind would do a job like that for a measly $10,000. The second is to cover your tracks. You needed the hitman to kill the friend as well, and then you need to finish the job by killing the hitman. By planning ahead with more money and ambition, he could be sitting pretty, but now, Mike Danton gets to sit pretty next to some jailhouse inmate.
Now that I'm number one when you search for the word ranting in many search engines including Yahoo, MSN, and Altavista, (How? I'll never know) the goal now is to become number one on Google. A quick check shows I'm number 36. I'll keep track of it on the sidebar.
Walking Tall
The Rock plays another macho guy beating people up in a remake of the original "Walking Tall". The Rock plays Chris Vaughn, a military man returning to his hometown to set up roots in the community. But the town he returns to is far different than the one he left. The old mill has closed down and a new casino has popped up, bringing with it sex, drugs, and a mafia-like organization to run it all. They're led by Jay Hamilton Jr. (Neal McDonough Jr.). Once Vaughn sees cheating going on at the casino, he decides to take action by standing up to the casino, but it only results in nasty scars on his chest. Then, when his nephew O.D's, he's fed up and trashes the casino. Afterwards, he's acquitted of the charges and soon learns that to stop the casino, he must replace the corrupt sheriff, which he ultimately does. Will that solve the problems plaguing the community?
The Rock has a lot of charisma going for him to become the next huge action star. But placing him in films like this are insulting. The whole thing reeks of implausibility and foolishness with a crazy set-up to its final ending. Johnny Knoxville brings some nice comic relief to the movie and The Rock is, well, The Rock, but other than that, he seems portrayed more as a dumb hit-man type person than the guy we were introduced to, close to his family and not willing to fight at the first opportunity. The film's short length probably produced this. A lot of dialogue must have been cut to showcase The Rock's active fighting scenes and ultimately, that's where the film was hurt. 1.5 stars
The Rock plays another macho guy beating people up in a remake of the original "Walking Tall". The Rock plays Chris Vaughn, a military man returning to his hometown to set up roots in the community. But the town he returns to is far different than the one he left. The old mill has closed down and a new casino has popped up, bringing with it sex, drugs, and a mafia-like organization to run it all. They're led by Jay Hamilton Jr. (Neal McDonough Jr.). Once Vaughn sees cheating going on at the casino, he decides to take action by standing up to the casino, but it only results in nasty scars on his chest. Then, when his nephew O.D's, he's fed up and trashes the casino. Afterwards, he's acquitted of the charges and soon learns that to stop the casino, he must replace the corrupt sheriff, which he ultimately does. Will that solve the problems plaguing the community?
The Rock has a lot of charisma going for him to become the next huge action star. But placing him in films like this are insulting. The whole thing reeks of implausibility and foolishness with a crazy set-up to its final ending. Johnny Knoxville brings some nice comic relief to the movie and The Rock is, well, The Rock, but other than that, he seems portrayed more as a dumb hit-man type person than the guy we were introduced to, close to his family and not willing to fight at the first opportunity. The film's short length probably produced this. A lot of dialogue must have been cut to showcase The Rock's active fighting scenes and ultimately, that's where the film was hurt. 1.5 stars
4/16/2004
So on campus, ASUC elections have been going on, now in the 5th step of a 6-step process. The first involves political parties and the in-fighting that ensues when trying to figure out who to announce in your executive slate. The second is this announcement of the slate and the anticipation of what these people can bring to Cal. The third is the campaign, which ranges from the political forums to shaking hands with the electorate or giving speeches in the middle of class. The fourth involves voting. Duh. The fifth involves in-fighting among the parties. They all accuse each other of dirty campaigning and sue each other to get them disqualified. Finally, the 6th is the announcement of who won the voting once all the lawsuits go away.
To review, the first went to the last minute as Cal-SERVE, the dominant party of the executive branch, did not announce until the last possible day. The announcement of the executive slates was met with surprise as a new, supposedly non-partisan, party formed called BEARS-United, Student Action turned to independent outsiders to fill its slate, and Cal-SERVE chose to use staffers of its top people.
Now, the campaign. As you know, I routinely stand up to the CalPIRG people because they are weak environmentalists who simply have clipboards and stickers and can easily be scared away. One of them was my friend, and well, not only was he weak, he was such an idiot I didn't know why they would give him a clipboard to begin with. ASUC campaigners are different beasts. They've got big signs with wooden stakes they can beat you with. So then it's a matter of staying away from them. To many, voting for these people involves personality, not the issues they're talking about. I've been here 4 years and I can honestly tell you I haven't seen ASUC do anything extraordinary. Only the things they're supposed to do like give out money to student groups, which they can't even do correctly. When my friend ran for, and won, Executive Vice President a couple of years back, he ran on some promises that never happened and even found himself in trouble with allocating money for food. Food! This is what the ASUC debates all the time??? Even the President that year had some ambitious One Campus idea to unite everyone as a force to bring about real change, but that never happened. The MLK Student Union sits in disarray. ASUC is in debt all the time now, being helped by funds it doesn't routinely tap and a small pardon from the University. Then during campaign season, empty promises are made to fix everything that is wrong, but by now, it's hard to believe them, which is why you'll see heavy campaigning in the dorms and toward freshmen. They're naive like that.
Once you get through the two weeks of that, you finally get the voting. Like ASUC, voting gets off on the wrong foot every year. The first year had paper ballots, no problems but awfully slow. It takes a long time for Cal students to count votes I guess. So some brilliant people had the idea to use computers. What an idea! But now, it seems that may be bringing more problems than their worth. Costs pushed $100,000 last year when they budgeted considerably less. Computers broke down, poll workers never showed up, etc. After a year of planning, this year's is not without problems either. Servers aren't being turned on, computers are breaking down again, students aren't getting authenticated because of their Tele-Bears status, etc. They extended voting but there's no count on how many were discouraged from voting.
So right now, we're at Step 5. It's the desperate step for many as party members accuse each other of campaign violations serious enough to disqualify entire parties in order to win. Even if it means everyone is disqualified and Squelch! becomes the dominant party on campus. This year, Student Action fired the first shot, charging Cal-SERVE with 4 counts of violations including taking advantage of an ASUC sponsored event, significantly blocking a students' right-of-way to class, and even simply flyering over other groups' flyers. Cal-SERVE is secretive on what they have, but we'll find out soon enough. It doesn't usually work but it almost did a couple of years back when Student Action was barred before the voting only to come back later on. More details can be found on Calstuff.
Step 6 is the results. And to those who win, congrats. You'll be inheriting an organization in such disarray, it will only be doing harm to your future political career.
To review, the first went to the last minute as Cal-SERVE, the dominant party of the executive branch, did not announce until the last possible day. The announcement of the executive slates was met with surprise as a new, supposedly non-partisan, party formed called BEARS-United, Student Action turned to independent outsiders to fill its slate, and Cal-SERVE chose to use staffers of its top people.
Now, the campaign. As you know, I routinely stand up to the CalPIRG people because they are weak environmentalists who simply have clipboards and stickers and can easily be scared away. One of them was my friend, and well, not only was he weak, he was such an idiot I didn't know why they would give him a clipboard to begin with. ASUC campaigners are different beasts. They've got big signs with wooden stakes they can beat you with. So then it's a matter of staying away from them. To many, voting for these people involves personality, not the issues they're talking about. I've been here 4 years and I can honestly tell you I haven't seen ASUC do anything extraordinary. Only the things they're supposed to do like give out money to student groups, which they can't even do correctly. When my friend ran for, and won, Executive Vice President a couple of years back, he ran on some promises that never happened and even found himself in trouble with allocating money for food. Food! This is what the ASUC debates all the time??? Even the President that year had some ambitious One Campus idea to unite everyone as a force to bring about real change, but that never happened. The MLK Student Union sits in disarray. ASUC is in debt all the time now, being helped by funds it doesn't routinely tap and a small pardon from the University. Then during campaign season, empty promises are made to fix everything that is wrong, but by now, it's hard to believe them, which is why you'll see heavy campaigning in the dorms and toward freshmen. They're naive like that.
Once you get through the two weeks of that, you finally get the voting. Like ASUC, voting gets off on the wrong foot every year. The first year had paper ballots, no problems but awfully slow. It takes a long time for Cal students to count votes I guess. So some brilliant people had the idea to use computers. What an idea! But now, it seems that may be bringing more problems than their worth. Costs pushed $100,000 last year when they budgeted considerably less. Computers broke down, poll workers never showed up, etc. After a year of planning, this year's is not without problems either. Servers aren't being turned on, computers are breaking down again, students aren't getting authenticated because of their Tele-Bears status, etc. They extended voting but there's no count on how many were discouraged from voting.
So right now, we're at Step 5. It's the desperate step for many as party members accuse each other of campaign violations serious enough to disqualify entire parties in order to win. Even if it means everyone is disqualified and Squelch! becomes the dominant party on campus. This year, Student Action fired the first shot, charging Cal-SERVE with 4 counts of violations including taking advantage of an ASUC sponsored event, significantly blocking a students' right-of-way to class, and even simply flyering over other groups' flyers. Cal-SERVE is secretive on what they have, but we'll find out soon enough. It doesn't usually work but it almost did a couple of years back when Student Action was barred before the voting only to come back later on. More details can be found on Calstuff.
Step 6 is the results. And to those who win, congrats. You'll be inheriting an organization in such disarray, it will only be doing harm to your future political career.
4/15/2004
Kill Bill: Volume 2
After 6 months of waiting, Quentin Tarantino's continuation of Black Mamba's (Uma Thurman) quest to kill Bill (David Carradine) is here. And it is worth it. After showing the massacre at the wedding chapel that started the whole thing, we catch up to events concerning Budd (Michael Madsen). Bill comes along to warn him about The Bride, but Budd re-assures him that everything will be okay if she wants to pick a fight. Also meeting Budd is the 4th member of the troop, Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) for a little exchange of goods. As a result, The Bride, as expected, comes along and has to deal with both of them. Once finished, the only one left is Bill. Standing in her way toward her ultimate goal though is the discovery of her daughter, B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine).
After watching the first one, I felt then, and now even more so, that Tarantino's vision should have been realized by releasing this as one film of 4 hours than 2 of 2 hours. The first one hits us from all sides, introducing every major plot point in rapid succession while indulging in some of the bloodiest swordplay ever seen. In Volume 2, there's a contrast. Dialogue, slowed down by a lot, takes the stage as all the violence is held back, probably with the exception of the catfight between The Bride and Elle. You won't see squirting blood or body parts strewn about. Instead, you'll see the delicate balance of action and wordplay. That, along with a hilarious training sequence with Pai-Mei (Gordon Liu), makes for an enjoyable movie from beginning to end. It plays mind games with us with its long-winded speeches, constant glares where their eyes speak volumes, and the closeness we get to the characters, including some time in a coffin. Probably the only thing that disappoints is the soundtrack, which isn't as enjoyable as the Asian-influenced first one. But this can be overlooked by the events on screen, which doesn't need a soundtrack to move it along. 3.5 stars
After 6 months of waiting, Quentin Tarantino's continuation of Black Mamba's (Uma Thurman) quest to kill Bill (David Carradine) is here. And it is worth it. After showing the massacre at the wedding chapel that started the whole thing, we catch up to events concerning Budd (Michael Madsen). Bill comes along to warn him about The Bride, but Budd re-assures him that everything will be okay if she wants to pick a fight. Also meeting Budd is the 4th member of the troop, Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) for a little exchange of goods. As a result, The Bride, as expected, comes along and has to deal with both of them. Once finished, the only one left is Bill. Standing in her way toward her ultimate goal though is the discovery of her daughter, B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine).
After watching the first one, I felt then, and now even more so, that Tarantino's vision should have been realized by releasing this as one film of 4 hours than 2 of 2 hours. The first one hits us from all sides, introducing every major plot point in rapid succession while indulging in some of the bloodiest swordplay ever seen. In Volume 2, there's a contrast. Dialogue, slowed down by a lot, takes the stage as all the violence is held back, probably with the exception of the catfight between The Bride and Elle. You won't see squirting blood or body parts strewn about. Instead, you'll see the delicate balance of action and wordplay. That, along with a hilarious training sequence with Pai-Mei (Gordon Liu), makes for an enjoyable movie from beginning to end. It plays mind games with us with its long-winded speeches, constant glares where their eyes speak volumes, and the closeness we get to the characters, including some time in a coffin. Probably the only thing that disappoints is the soundtrack, which isn't as enjoyable as the Asian-influenced first one. But this can be overlooked by the events on screen, which doesn't need a soundtrack to move it along. 3.5 stars
4/12/2004
Hellboy
In 1944, the Nazis were in the midst of bringing in some creatures from the depths of the unknown through a portal. The Americans swooped in just in time to thwart this operation, but not before a small baby demon comes through. The scientist on hand (John Hurt) cares for it and, with its red exterior and horns, promptly named him Hellboy. Years later, now fully grown and played by Ron Perlman, he's dispatched when the regular police will not dare to go. It's during this time when a new liaison is assigned to him (Rupert Evans) and delves into the world of the FBI's Bureau of Paranormal Research. Along with an aquatic sidekick and Selma Blair's pyro abilities, the group goes out to seek a Russian spiritualist who was on hand for the portal opening in 1944 and seeks to re-create his work in the present day to open another portal, but only with the help of Hellboy himself.
The film has a lot going for it. It has an extremely likable character in Perlman's Hellboy, able to stand up to any villain while making light of any situation. Yet the writers don't seem to know what to do with him. Is he a gung-ho protagonist willing to fight through any situation or is he a lover and a fighter all at once? Is he a tough man or comedian? Is he top-secret or can he just leave whenever he wants? This last question is particularly boggling since he's introduced as a bigfoot-type character with repeated denials of his existence by the head of the FBI, played with some effect by Jeffrey Tambor, and blurry pictures plastered in many newspapers, yet he walks through society as if he's just another person without being met with hostility and is able to sneak out to spy on his crush, Blair, which, while a delightful scene, doesn't seem to fit in all too well. Once they get a handle on who Hellboy is supposed to be, they've got a real franchise on their hands. Until then, enjoy the complex character that he is. Just don't try to put it all together. 2 stars
In 1944, the Nazis were in the midst of bringing in some creatures from the depths of the unknown through a portal. The Americans swooped in just in time to thwart this operation, but not before a small baby demon comes through. The scientist on hand (John Hurt) cares for it and, with its red exterior and horns, promptly named him Hellboy. Years later, now fully grown and played by Ron Perlman, he's dispatched when the regular police will not dare to go. It's during this time when a new liaison is assigned to him (Rupert Evans) and delves into the world of the FBI's Bureau of Paranormal Research. Along with an aquatic sidekick and Selma Blair's pyro abilities, the group goes out to seek a Russian spiritualist who was on hand for the portal opening in 1944 and seeks to re-create his work in the present day to open another portal, but only with the help of Hellboy himself.
The film has a lot going for it. It has an extremely likable character in Perlman's Hellboy, able to stand up to any villain while making light of any situation. Yet the writers don't seem to know what to do with him. Is he a gung-ho protagonist willing to fight through any situation or is he a lover and a fighter all at once? Is he a tough man or comedian? Is he top-secret or can he just leave whenever he wants? This last question is particularly boggling since he's introduced as a bigfoot-type character with repeated denials of his existence by the head of the FBI, played with some effect by Jeffrey Tambor, and blurry pictures plastered in many newspapers, yet he walks through society as if he's just another person without being met with hostility and is able to sneak out to spy on his crush, Blair, which, while a delightful scene, doesn't seem to fit in all too well. Once they get a handle on who Hellboy is supposed to be, they've got a real franchise on their hands. Until then, enjoy the complex character that he is. Just don't try to put it all together. 2 stars
4/10/2004
Avril Lavigne. Oh, where did everything go wrong?
A person who will remain nameless caught wind of a free concert by Avril at the Southland Mall in Hayward. And well, guess who was subject to the misery.
We arrived at 4 as scheduled. But signs pointed out things wouldn't start til 5. I suggested we hang out at the mall.
"NOOOO! We gotta line up and wait there!"
Umm, okay.
So we wait. And wait. And wait. The crowds started to form. Predictably, the young kids came out along with their parents. Spring Break, you know. Then the young teens came out. Though right next to me was this 20s looking fellow wearing all this black makeup and reading an Avril magazine. Quite disturbing.
Every once in a while, these AOL guys would come out (AOL was the sponsor of this little thing) to rile up the crowd with AOL chants and throw some AOL walker guy stuffed toys. Do those things have names?
As the time approached, the emcee walked out.
I really like that commercial from Southwest Airlines where the rapper goes "Thank you Detroit! We love you!" And then his bandmate next to him informs him that Detroit was last night. Well, this emcee came out and said "Heeeelllllloooooo San Francisco!!!" To which the entire crowd gasped in horror. This is Hayward. We're so far away from San Francisco. The emcee tries to correct himself by saying that he knows they're in Hayward but the two were close enough. Ehhh, no.
At 5:10, Avril walks out. Lots of pre-adolescent girls screamed at the top of their lungs creating a high-pitched noise that almost popped my ears. Sings a few songs, some oldies that were irritating, some newbies that were even more irritating. Best move by her? She sitting in a stool while playing a guitar and singing instead of standing like an idiot. The aforementioned guy next to me seems enchanted. Then with the snap of a finger, she's outta there. 5:30 and my feet hurt. So like her, I'm outta there as fast as I could, headed to the food court for some refreshment as I try to drown this experience away.
A person who will remain nameless caught wind of a free concert by Avril at the Southland Mall in Hayward. And well, guess who was subject to the misery.
We arrived at 4 as scheduled. But signs pointed out things wouldn't start til 5. I suggested we hang out at the mall.
"NOOOO! We gotta line up and wait there!"
Umm, okay.
So we wait. And wait. And wait. The crowds started to form. Predictably, the young kids came out along with their parents. Spring Break, you know. Then the young teens came out. Though right next to me was this 20s looking fellow wearing all this black makeup and reading an Avril magazine. Quite disturbing.
Every once in a while, these AOL guys would come out (AOL was the sponsor of this little thing) to rile up the crowd with AOL chants and throw some AOL walker guy stuffed toys. Do those things have names?
As the time approached, the emcee walked out.
I really like that commercial from Southwest Airlines where the rapper goes "Thank you Detroit! We love you!" And then his bandmate next to him informs him that Detroit was last night. Well, this emcee came out and said "Heeeelllllloooooo San Francisco!!!" To which the entire crowd gasped in horror. This is Hayward. We're so far away from San Francisco. The emcee tries to correct himself by saying that he knows they're in Hayward but the two were close enough. Ehhh, no.
At 5:10, Avril walks out. Lots of pre-adolescent girls screamed at the top of their lungs creating a high-pitched noise that almost popped my ears. Sings a few songs, some oldies that were irritating, some newbies that were even more irritating. Best move by her? She sitting in a stool while playing a guitar and singing instead of standing like an idiot. The aforementioned guy next to me seems enchanted. Then with the snap of a finger, she's outta there. 5:30 and my feet hurt. So like her, I'm outta there as fast as I could, headed to the food court for some refreshment as I try to drown this experience away.
4/04/2004
I'm shocked. I'm offended. I'm relieved that I don't dress anything like this.
Details Magazine ran this article wondering whether this person was gay or Asian. Nobody should be making this comparison in the first place. The magazine argues this is just another in a series of gay or fill-in-the-blank articles meant to highlight social stereotypes and that it wasn't their intention to offend. Really, how hasn't it? According to sites, Details has apologized, but to whom? Yes, the gay/lesbian community. As a result, Asian American groups are in an uproar and are planning protests at the magazine in a couple of weeks.
Click to enlarge.
Details Magazine ran this article wondering whether this person was gay or Asian. Nobody should be making this comparison in the first place. The magazine argues this is just another in a series of gay or fill-in-the-blank articles meant to highlight social stereotypes and that it wasn't their intention to offend. Really, how hasn't it? According to sites, Details has apologized, but to whom? Yes, the gay/lesbian community. As a result, Asian American groups are in an uproar and are planning protests at the magazine in a couple of weeks.
Click to enlarge.
4/03/2004
Today, the VSA holds their second poker tournament of the semester. Why this thing isn't getting shut down is beyond me. It's gambling! No, it's not. It's simply a tournament with an entry fee. In any case, it's at least for a cause, which is the VSA Culture Show occurring on CAL Day, April 17th at 5pm in Zellerbach. Interested parties should buy tickets early since they'll cost $12 at the door instead of the $8 for students who buy early.
Also coming to campus is Mitch Hedberg, easily one of the funniest stand-ups out there. His work takes time to get used to, both in the first time listening to him and even within a performance, but he wears on you and you can't help but laugh. Tuesday night at 8 in Wheeler. $10 for kids with a Cal ID, $15 for those without.
On Sunday, one sports season ends and another begins. Those keeping track to the left will see the Sharks as an improbable second-place finisher in the West. This after a second-to-last finish last year. Their season ends tomorrow against Los Angeles before the playoffs begin on Wednesday against an unknown opponent. Tomorrow night, the Orioles begin their quest for a World Series championship against the cursed Red Sox. The Orioles have gone a long way to improve their offense with the addition of Miguel Tejada, Javy Lopez and Rafael Palmeiro, but their crappy pitching staff (Ponson, and who else??) will lead to another disappointing season. Of course, I ask them to prove me wrong.
Chalk up MSN and Altavista as other sites where a search for ranting leads you here first.
Also coming to campus is Mitch Hedberg, easily one of the funniest stand-ups out there. His work takes time to get used to, both in the first time listening to him and even within a performance, but he wears on you and you can't help but laugh. Tuesday night at 8 in Wheeler. $10 for kids with a Cal ID, $15 for those without.
On Sunday, one sports season ends and another begins. Those keeping track to the left will see the Sharks as an improbable second-place finisher in the West. This after a second-to-last finish last year. Their season ends tomorrow against Los Angeles before the playoffs begin on Wednesday against an unknown opponent. Tomorrow night, the Orioles begin their quest for a World Series championship against the cursed Red Sox. The Orioles have gone a long way to improve their offense with the addition of Miguel Tejada, Javy Lopez and Rafael Palmeiro, but their crappy pitching staff (Ponson, and who else??) will lead to another disappointing season. Of course, I ask them to prove me wrong.
Chalk up MSN and Altavista as other sites where a search for ranting leads you here first.
4/02/2004
The Ladykillers
The Coen Brothers have been busier than usual lately. But since "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" a few years back, it hasn't really been high times for them. Intolerable Cruelty was big on ideas but short on execution. Bad Santa was a bit dark for people's tastes. And now, The Ladykillers. They even got Tom Hanks to do it. He is Professor Goldthwait Higginson Dorr Ph.D. He notices a room for rent sign at the house of Marva Munson (Irma Hall), a widower whose life revolves around the church. But Dorr has other plans for his new place. It's all part of an elaborate scheme to rob the nearby riverboat casino, which has its underground facilities in close proximity to the Munson house. Under the guise of a church music group, Dorr and his accomplices work to dig a tunnel to the casino, rob the counting room of its money and leave. Yet Munson knows a bit more than she lets on, leaving the group with a heavy decision to make.
The film for the most part is funny. Scenes like the planning of the heist, Munson trying to control the team making too much noise or doing something they aren't supposed to and the eventual resolution to the story are among the high points of the film. Hanks contributes a peculiar character that is a joy to watch. Sure, his accomplices are funny as well, but they are one-note characters. They do the same thing over and over again. It gets less and less funny. My economics education taught me that that's called the law of diminishing returns. Did we really need to hear about IBS about 4 or 5 times or see the General swallowing his cigarette 4 or 5 times? I think not. It was funny the first time, but not so much later on. With this, the film at times gets tired and it takes a smart-alecky line from Hanks to pick things back up, but that alone can't solve everything. The gospel music's good but never really finds a niche in the overall film. 2.5 stars
The Coen Brothers have been busier than usual lately. But since "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" a few years back, it hasn't really been high times for them. Intolerable Cruelty was big on ideas but short on execution. Bad Santa was a bit dark for people's tastes. And now, The Ladykillers. They even got Tom Hanks to do it. He is Professor Goldthwait Higginson Dorr Ph.D. He notices a room for rent sign at the house of Marva Munson (Irma Hall), a widower whose life revolves around the church. But Dorr has other plans for his new place. It's all part of an elaborate scheme to rob the nearby riverboat casino, which has its underground facilities in close proximity to the Munson house. Under the guise of a church music group, Dorr and his accomplices work to dig a tunnel to the casino, rob the counting room of its money and leave. Yet Munson knows a bit more than she lets on, leaving the group with a heavy decision to make.
The film for the most part is funny. Scenes like the planning of the heist, Munson trying to control the team making too much noise or doing something they aren't supposed to and the eventual resolution to the story are among the high points of the film. Hanks contributes a peculiar character that is a joy to watch. Sure, his accomplices are funny as well, but they are one-note characters. They do the same thing over and over again. It gets less and less funny. My economics education taught me that that's called the law of diminishing returns. Did we really need to hear about IBS about 4 or 5 times or see the General swallowing his cigarette 4 or 5 times? I think not. It was funny the first time, but not so much later on. With this, the film at times gets tired and it takes a smart-alecky line from Hanks to pick things back up, but that alone can't solve everything. The gospel music's good but never really finds a niche in the overall film. 2.5 stars
Jersey Girl
Ollie Trinke (Ben Affleck) seemingly had it all. A high-paying job as a publicist at a music company. A beautiful wife (Jennifer Lopez) with a baby on the way. Then it all came crashing down. The baby is born but the mom dies shortly after delivery. After a few short weeks, Ollie loses it in front of the press while trying to juggle his newborn with a Will Smith press event and gets fired. So he moves back to New Jersey with his father to raise young Gertrude. Fast forward seven years later, with Gertie (Raquel Castro) firmly planted in school and Ollie taking over his father's job as garbageman and street sweeper. Ollie though still yearns to get back into the publicity game, never turning down an interview. One night, he gets to know the video store clerk Maya (Liv Tyler) who learns of Ollie's story and starts to fall for him. Meanwhile, Ollie starts to get New York City on his mind again with a trip there with Gertie to see a Broadway play as well as the prospect for a job with his old assistant's company. But can he leave all that he's built up in New Jersey for the life he once led?
Yes, it's a cliched story, but I found that the pieces for success were there. You have the adorable kid in Castro, a scene stealer. You've got the beautiful love interest in Tyler. You've got great comedic support in George Carlin. Kevin Smith writes some good lines and directs a fine film. The group's theatre production in the end is hilarious. The problem? Affleck. In his career, he's never shown the talent and charm to be a romantic lead. Dramas and action flicks seem more his thing (Armageddon, also with Tyler, Good Will Hunting, Daredevil, The Sum of All Fears). Films where his romance seems to take a back seat to the more important things. In here, his demeanor doesn't seem to be one who can be caring or loving. This from a guy who is consistently funny outside of the movie spectrum (i.e. SNL). Without the convincing male lead, the film doesn't work. And Jersey Girl just barely works. 2.5 stars
Ollie Trinke (Ben Affleck) seemingly had it all. A high-paying job as a publicist at a music company. A beautiful wife (Jennifer Lopez) with a baby on the way. Then it all came crashing down. The baby is born but the mom dies shortly after delivery. After a few short weeks, Ollie loses it in front of the press while trying to juggle his newborn with a Will Smith press event and gets fired. So he moves back to New Jersey with his father to raise young Gertrude. Fast forward seven years later, with Gertie (Raquel Castro) firmly planted in school and Ollie taking over his father's job as garbageman and street sweeper. Ollie though still yearns to get back into the publicity game, never turning down an interview. One night, he gets to know the video store clerk Maya (Liv Tyler) who learns of Ollie's story and starts to fall for him. Meanwhile, Ollie starts to get New York City on his mind again with a trip there with Gertie to see a Broadway play as well as the prospect for a job with his old assistant's company. But can he leave all that he's built up in New Jersey for the life he once led?
Yes, it's a cliched story, but I found that the pieces for success were there. You have the adorable kid in Castro, a scene stealer. You've got the beautiful love interest in Tyler. You've got great comedic support in George Carlin. Kevin Smith writes some good lines and directs a fine film. The group's theatre production in the end is hilarious. The problem? Affleck. In his career, he's never shown the talent and charm to be a romantic lead. Dramas and action flicks seem more his thing (Armageddon, also with Tyler, Good Will Hunting, Daredevil, The Sum of All Fears). Films where his romance seems to take a back seat to the more important things. In here, his demeanor doesn't seem to be one who can be caring or loving. This from a guy who is consistently funny outside of the movie spectrum (i.e. SNL). Without the convincing male lead, the film doesn't work. And Jersey Girl just barely works. 2.5 stars
The Dreamers
Matthew (Michael Pitt) looked for enlightenment in the year 1968 and was attracted to France. But once he got there, he was hooked into French cinema and mostly stayed in the theatre. From this, he builds a relationship with Isabelle and Theo (Eva Green and Louis Garrel), twin siblings living with their parents, the father a famous author. These two grew up on cinema, especially on New Wave Cinema pioneered by Godard and others, and strike up fascinating conversations with Matthew, even inviting him to stay at their apartment. When their parents leave, Isabelle and Theo's innocent bond with Matthew soon becomes something more. Though movies are always foremost on their minds, with debates about the comedic stylings of Charlie Chaplin vs. Buster Keaton or the beauty of Greta Garbo, like most teenagers, sex affects them as well and with most of the film set in the apartment, it becomes inevitable what happens. The dream state the trio lives in soon meets up with the reality of the revolution happening just outside their door.
You get the nice feeling of nostalgia when you watch this film. Bertolucci intersperses a few scenes with clips of New Wave films like Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless and it really makes you yearn for the time when movies reached for a higher level. While that's not to say movies today don't, it's just that the quality seems a bit down. "The Dreamers" is visually striking to watch, both in the beauty of the cinematography and locale and in the shock value of all the sex that goes on between Matthew and Isabelle along with Theo watching from a distance. Yet, the sex acts as a distraction from the bond we are seeing growing before our very eyes. Instead, we fascinate as we see other things growing before our eyes. Along with an ending that doesn't get too much set-up throughout the movie, we're left with a mismanaged film; a bunch of scenes obsessed with the sex without all the value that comes from setting it all up. The foreplay, I guess. 2 stars
Matthew (Michael Pitt) looked for enlightenment in the year 1968 and was attracted to France. But once he got there, he was hooked into French cinema and mostly stayed in the theatre. From this, he builds a relationship with Isabelle and Theo (Eva Green and Louis Garrel), twin siblings living with their parents, the father a famous author. These two grew up on cinema, especially on New Wave Cinema pioneered by Godard and others, and strike up fascinating conversations with Matthew, even inviting him to stay at their apartment. When their parents leave, Isabelle and Theo's innocent bond with Matthew soon becomes something more. Though movies are always foremost on their minds, with debates about the comedic stylings of Charlie Chaplin vs. Buster Keaton or the beauty of Greta Garbo, like most teenagers, sex affects them as well and with most of the film set in the apartment, it becomes inevitable what happens. The dream state the trio lives in soon meets up with the reality of the revolution happening just outside their door.
You get the nice feeling of nostalgia when you watch this film. Bertolucci intersperses a few scenes with clips of New Wave films like Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless and it really makes you yearn for the time when movies reached for a higher level. While that's not to say movies today don't, it's just that the quality seems a bit down. "The Dreamers" is visually striking to watch, both in the beauty of the cinematography and locale and in the shock value of all the sex that goes on between Matthew and Isabelle along with Theo watching from a distance. Yet, the sex acts as a distraction from the bond we are seeing growing before our very eyes. Instead, we fascinate as we see other things growing before our eyes. Along with an ending that doesn't get too much set-up throughout the movie, we're left with a mismanaged film; a bunch of scenes obsessed with the sex without all the value that comes from setting it all up. The foreplay, I guess. 2 stars
3/30/2004
I saw a little false advertising tonite while slumped on my bed, lazily watching the news, since nothing else was on.
Channel 2 showed a report about Federal Express introducing a new line of diesel/electric trucks to complement their delivery force in Sacramento. The new trucks would increase fuel efficiency by 50% while reducing pollution by 90%. Along for the announcement was Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who got to look at the engine and took a test drive of one of the trucks.
2 went to commercial so I switched to 3, which is Channel 11. They were teasing the next segment.
The graphic on screen wrote "NEW JOB?" while the video showed the same clip of Arnold behind the wheel of the hybrid truck.
In a loud voice: "Is Arnold looking for a new job??? Find out why Governor Schwarzenegger is starting to drive FedEx trucks, next on the 6:00 news."
Channel 2 showed a report about Federal Express introducing a new line of diesel/electric trucks to complement their delivery force in Sacramento. The new trucks would increase fuel efficiency by 50% while reducing pollution by 90%. Along for the announcement was Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who got to look at the engine and took a test drive of one of the trucks.
2 went to commercial so I switched to 3, which is Channel 11. They were teasing the next segment.
The graphic on screen wrote "NEW JOB?" while the video showed the same clip of Arnold behind the wheel of the hybrid truck.
In a loud voice: "Is Arnold looking for a new job??? Find out why Governor Schwarzenegger is starting to drive FedEx trucks, next on the 6:00 news."
3/27/2004
Two weeks ago, when you put the word "ranting" into the Yahoo search engine, this site came up #2 among the thousands of legitimate ranting sites out there, if there is such a thing as a legitimate ranting site. I guess there isn't, since if there was, this site wouldn't be ranked #1, as it is now.
This revelation comes off the heels of the announcement that Yahoo has introduced a new way to rank pages, similar to Google's PageRank system. I'm flattered, humbled, and honored to come out on top (it's like winning an award!), but I'll be sticking with Google for the time being. Those searches have gotta be more relevant. After all, over there, simply putting in ranting doesn't lead you to here of all places.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=ranting&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-tab-web-t&cop=mss&tab=
This revelation comes off the heels of the announcement that Yahoo has introduced a new way to rank pages, similar to Google's PageRank system. I'm flattered, humbled, and honored to come out on top (it's like winning an award!), but I'll be sticking with Google for the time being. Those searches have gotta be more relevant. After all, over there, simply putting in ranting doesn't lead you to here of all places.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=ranting&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-tab-web-t&cop=mss&tab=
3/25/2004
The rumors have turned out to be true, courtesy of Variety and Yahoo!
There's still life in the animated laffer "Family Guy," which has officially gone back into production -- two years after being canceled by Fox.
20th Century Fox TV will produce at least 22 new episodes of the series, although the studio expects that number to eventually go as high as 40. Cartoon Network has signed on to air the new episodes, which will premiere in early 2005 -- although Fox can exercise an option to broadcast the segs first.
"There was never any question that this show was wildly successful creatively, but it didn't draw a broad enough audience to justify sticking on the network," 20th Century Fox TV prexy Gary Newman said. "But we've found a way to capitalize on the incredibly loyal and fanatical base of enthusiasts for the show."
The announcement has been a year in the making. Studio execs first broached the idea of reviving "Family Guy" last spring after sales of the show's first DVD collection went through the roof ( Daily Variety, May 29). Additionally, repeats of "Family Guy" running on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" block quickly became one of the net's top-rated programs.
"It's really astonishing," "Family Guy" creator/exec producer Seth MacFarlane said. "We all kind of mused when it was canceled that it would be funny to have a fate like 'Star Trek,' where you go three years, get canceled and then explode in reruns. We never thought that would happen, but then, here we are."
It's actually the third wind for the series. "Family Guy" bowed to strong numbers in 1999, but the show's ratings cooled after it was moved to Thursday night in its second season. The laffer was canceled but quickly revived as Fox Entertainment prexy Gail Berman's first executive decision when she joined the network.
But after its third season didn't make waves, "Family Guy" was axed for a second time in 2001.
Then came the slot on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" and the DVD. According to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, more than 2.2 million units have been sold of "Family Guy's" two DVD volumes.
"This is one of the more interesting stories of the DVD era," said Steve Feldstein, senior VP at the division. "We're hearing so much about the significant impact of the DVD on the bottom line of Hollywood -- here's an instance where it impacted creatively as well. This was a tremendous asset that was lying dormant."
According to Newman, the Cartoon Network license fee and expected DVD sales will help cover the cost of resuscitating "Family Guy." Also, the studio expects to now reach 85 to 100 episodes of the show, enough for off-net broadcast syndication.
"Whether or not the show a few years from now will be available for syndication remains to be seen," Newman said. "But if it is, then we have a situation where we managed to take a busted series and turn it into a real asset."
In order to justify the show's return, Newman said the show's budget has been cut by about 10%. But MacFarlane said the belt-tightening won't have a major impact on the show.
"Family Guy" revolves around absent-minded dad Peter Griffin and his brood, who live in the quirky town of Quahog, R.I. Action revolves around Peter and his devoted wife Lois, daughter Meg, slacker son Chris, baby Stewie (the homicidal tot bent on world domination) and well-spoken family pet Brian, who prefers cocktails to puppy chow.
The show has scored two Emmy Awards: One in 2000 for outstanding voice-over performance (MacFarlane) and one in 2002 for outstanding music & lyrics (MacFarlane and Walter Murphy). "Family Guy" was also nominated for outstanding animated series in 2000.
MacFarlane voices several of the show's characters, including Peter; the show's other voice actors (including Seth Green (news), Alex Bornstein and Mila Kunis (news)) are in talks to return.
MacFarlane said he will divide his time on "Family Guy" and "American Dad," the animated project he's exec producing and writing with Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for Fox. The pilot for "Dad" is being animated.
Despite the "Family Guy's" resurrection, Newman said it's unlikely other canceled shows will experience a similar fate.
"In no way should anyone think this is a template for the future," he said. "A successful DVD life does not justify production costs. What it does suggest is those of us on the supplier side of the business have to be open to unique shows and situations."
There's still life in the animated laffer "Family Guy," which has officially gone back into production -- two years after being canceled by Fox.
20th Century Fox TV will produce at least 22 new episodes of the series, although the studio expects that number to eventually go as high as 40. Cartoon Network has signed on to air the new episodes, which will premiere in early 2005 -- although Fox can exercise an option to broadcast the segs first.
"There was never any question that this show was wildly successful creatively, but it didn't draw a broad enough audience to justify sticking on the network," 20th Century Fox TV prexy Gary Newman said. "But we've found a way to capitalize on the incredibly loyal and fanatical base of enthusiasts for the show."
The announcement has been a year in the making. Studio execs first broached the idea of reviving "Family Guy" last spring after sales of the show's first DVD collection went through the roof ( Daily Variety, May 29). Additionally, repeats of "Family Guy" running on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" block quickly became one of the net's top-rated programs.
"It's really astonishing," "Family Guy" creator/exec producer Seth MacFarlane said. "We all kind of mused when it was canceled that it would be funny to have a fate like 'Star Trek,' where you go three years, get canceled and then explode in reruns. We never thought that would happen, but then, here we are."
It's actually the third wind for the series. "Family Guy" bowed to strong numbers in 1999, but the show's ratings cooled after it was moved to Thursday night in its second season. The laffer was canceled but quickly revived as Fox Entertainment prexy Gail Berman's first executive decision when she joined the network.
But after its third season didn't make waves, "Family Guy" was axed for a second time in 2001.
Then came the slot on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" and the DVD. According to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, more than 2.2 million units have been sold of "Family Guy's" two DVD volumes.
"This is one of the more interesting stories of the DVD era," said Steve Feldstein, senior VP at the division. "We're hearing so much about the significant impact of the DVD on the bottom line of Hollywood -- here's an instance where it impacted creatively as well. This was a tremendous asset that was lying dormant."
According to Newman, the Cartoon Network license fee and expected DVD sales will help cover the cost of resuscitating "Family Guy." Also, the studio expects to now reach 85 to 100 episodes of the show, enough for off-net broadcast syndication.
"Whether or not the show a few years from now will be available for syndication remains to be seen," Newman said. "But if it is, then we have a situation where we managed to take a busted series and turn it into a real asset."
In order to justify the show's return, Newman said the show's budget has been cut by about 10%. But MacFarlane said the belt-tightening won't have a major impact on the show.
"Family Guy" revolves around absent-minded dad Peter Griffin and his brood, who live in the quirky town of Quahog, R.I. Action revolves around Peter and his devoted wife Lois, daughter Meg, slacker son Chris, baby Stewie (the homicidal tot bent on world domination) and well-spoken family pet Brian, who prefers cocktails to puppy chow.
The show has scored two Emmy Awards: One in 2000 for outstanding voice-over performance (MacFarlane) and one in 2002 for outstanding music & lyrics (MacFarlane and Walter Murphy). "Family Guy" was also nominated for outstanding animated series in 2000.
MacFarlane voices several of the show's characters, including Peter; the show's other voice actors (including Seth Green (news), Alex Bornstein and Mila Kunis (news)) are in talks to return.
MacFarlane said he will divide his time on "Family Guy" and "American Dad," the animated project he's exec producing and writing with Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for Fox. The pilot for "Dad" is being animated.
Despite the "Family Guy's" resurrection, Newman said it's unlikely other canceled shows will experience a similar fate.
"In no way should anyone think this is a template for the future," he said. "A successful DVD life does not justify production costs. What it does suggest is those of us on the supplier side of the business have to be open to unique shows and situations."
3/24/2004
Dawn of the Dead
The signs were there. Young nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) was getting off her shift at the hospital when the sick started rolling in. She ignored the media warnings in favor of some good tunes on the radio and quality time with her boyfriend. Then morning struck. The neighbor's girl was in the house. Ana and her boyfriend are confused until the girl attacks the boyfriend. In that instant, he turns into a zombie and sets his sights on Ana. She escapes and drives through the ground-zero atmosphere of her neighborhood in Milwaukee. After swerving off the road and hitting a tree, she joins up with a group of people headed toward the mall. Of note is the cop (Ving Rhames), the husband (Mekhi Phifer) with pregnant wife, and the de-facto leader of the group (Jake Weber). They take refuge in the mall but when the security guards are too unwielding (they're more worried about possible looting than zombies), they mutiny against them and take over while allowing some unaffected people inside. After many days, it's obvious no help is coming for them, leaving it to the group to figure out a way to leave the mall.
The gore isn't at the level of the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it comes close. It certainly does frighten and the film does well in its start as well as its ending. It's the middle that I'm concerned about. Not much killing goes on through the middle (except for a hilarious sniping scene courtesy of the gun store owner across the street). And when the killing drops to zero, implausible situations take its place that make you go, hmmm. It's here where the plot holes are wide and evident and the frightening aspects of the zombies wear off. In fact, these zombies are really quite dumb. You mean to tell me after at least a week, the zombies still had no way of getting in the mall? I think the ones in "28 Days Later" were smarter than these poor folks. But you know, unlike 28 Days, this film leaves you much more satisfied and possibly a little more shocked considering it's in America rather than England. 2.5 stars
The signs were there. Young nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) was getting off her shift at the hospital when the sick started rolling in. She ignored the media warnings in favor of some good tunes on the radio and quality time with her boyfriend. Then morning struck. The neighbor's girl was in the house. Ana and her boyfriend are confused until the girl attacks the boyfriend. In that instant, he turns into a zombie and sets his sights on Ana. She escapes and drives through the ground-zero atmosphere of her neighborhood in Milwaukee. After swerving off the road and hitting a tree, she joins up with a group of people headed toward the mall. Of note is the cop (Ving Rhames), the husband (Mekhi Phifer) with pregnant wife, and the de-facto leader of the group (Jake Weber). They take refuge in the mall but when the security guards are too unwielding (they're more worried about possible looting than zombies), they mutiny against them and take over while allowing some unaffected people inside. After many days, it's obvious no help is coming for them, leaving it to the group to figure out a way to leave the mall.
The gore isn't at the level of the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it comes close. It certainly does frighten and the film does well in its start as well as its ending. It's the middle that I'm concerned about. Not much killing goes on through the middle (except for a hilarious sniping scene courtesy of the gun store owner across the street). And when the killing drops to zero, implausible situations take its place that make you go, hmmm. It's here where the plot holes are wide and evident and the frightening aspects of the zombies wear off. In fact, these zombies are really quite dumb. You mean to tell me after at least a week, the zombies still had no way of getting in the mall? I think the ones in "28 Days Later" were smarter than these poor folks. But you know, unlike 28 Days, this film leaves you much more satisfied and possibly a little more shocked considering it's in America rather than England. 2.5 stars
The Girl Next Door
Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) is a man filled with dreams. He has his sights set at Georgetown and an important speaking event coming up with a scholarship on the line. Then his life gets flipped upside down with the arrival of the aforementioned girl next door, Danielle, played by 24's damsel in distress Elisha Cuthbert. A few awkward looks later, the two hit it off relationship-wise, but gets complicated when Matthew's friend Eli (Chris Marquette, Joan of Arcadia) finds Danielle in a porn movie. Soon, the distractions get the better of Matthew, who up to this point had been coasting through life, but now the combination of a girlfriend, missing money, the scholarship offer, and school burden him, forcing Matthew to deal with things one at a time.
At first glance, this is just another typical teen movie. Yet, looking closer, this movie is smart and charms with its high-quality performances. Newcomer Hirsch (thus far, his biggest film was The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) is very talented and Cuthbert shines as someone to see, both in looks and performance, things lacking in her role in 24, where she has no idea what's going on, gets into one ridiculous situation after another, and now is stuck behind a desk at CTU. By far, the funniest scenes comes from its look at sex education films and the radical makeover Matthew and his group do to it when they produce their own, complete with real porn stars. For a film that sells itself off as a sex-crazed teen comedy, it sends the serious message that doing the right thing will get you far ahead in life. In fact, it may be too smart for its own good, heaping on conflict after conflict for Matthew to solve and lengthening the film even further. At some point, I was getting a bit bored by it. But in the end, you'll laugh without being grossed out and you'll appreciate the characters of Matt and Danielle as two people who weren't dumbed down for the sake of a cheap laugh. 3 stars
Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) is a man filled with dreams. He has his sights set at Georgetown and an important speaking event coming up with a scholarship on the line. Then his life gets flipped upside down with the arrival of the aforementioned girl next door, Danielle, played by 24's damsel in distress Elisha Cuthbert. A few awkward looks later, the two hit it off relationship-wise, but gets complicated when Matthew's friend Eli (Chris Marquette, Joan of Arcadia) finds Danielle in a porn movie. Soon, the distractions get the better of Matthew, who up to this point had been coasting through life, but now the combination of a girlfriend, missing money, the scholarship offer, and school burden him, forcing Matthew to deal with things one at a time.
At first glance, this is just another typical teen movie. Yet, looking closer, this movie is smart and charms with its high-quality performances. Newcomer Hirsch (thus far, his biggest film was The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) is very talented and Cuthbert shines as someone to see, both in looks and performance, things lacking in her role in 24, where she has no idea what's going on, gets into one ridiculous situation after another, and now is stuck behind a desk at CTU. By far, the funniest scenes comes from its look at sex education films and the radical makeover Matthew and his group do to it when they produce their own, complete with real porn stars. For a film that sells itself off as a sex-crazed teen comedy, it sends the serious message that doing the right thing will get you far ahead in life. In fact, it may be too smart for its own good, heaping on conflict after conflict for Matthew to solve and lengthening the film even further. At some point, I was getting a bit bored by it. But in the end, you'll laugh without being grossed out and you'll appreciate the characters of Matt and Danielle as two people who weren't dumbed down for the sake of a cheap laugh. 3 stars
3/23/2004
Did anyone see what happened at the box office this weekend? Dawn of the Dead hit number one, pushing The Passion of the Christ to number two. In other words, demons from hell have knocked off Jesus Christ himself.
Spring Break has begun in earnest but not before I pretty much failed my midterms. There are only two feelings you can have after taking a midterm. It was so hard that you failed miserably on it (that's my math one where I believe I got one out of seven right) or it was so easy that it was easy for the rest of the class and you probably did worse relative to the curve (that's game theory). Oh well, it's all in the past now. Only one week to dwell on it.
Before my math midterm, my professor told us to turn off our cell phones. Cell phone cheating. Has it really become that prevalent? I've never seen it executed before in my classes, but with the proliferation of camera phones and text messaging, I wouldn't be surprised if it was widespread by now.
When I got home, my parents struck me with the news that my mother's cousin Minh had died. My first thought was, who? Well, I'd never seen him before and my older brothers had only faint memories of him. What makes his story notable was that he was found dead at the Capitol Expressway overpass. You see, he was homeless. I never could imagine someone in my family being so but there it is. In Vietnam, he was a successful banker with a wife and child. He left all of that behind when he fled to America, hoping to replicate his success here and bring his family along later. That success never came. My uncle was closest to him here and tried to help, but he refused any help and didn't even consider returning to Vietnam to be with his wife. Everyone in the family lost contact with him for 10 years. Last week, the coroner visited my uncle. Minh had kept his address on his person. At first he didn't know who the coroner was talking about, but it eventually got to him. He was found with an ear bitten off, probably by rats, and no teeth. An autopsy revealed Minh had died of a heart condition.
Rest in peace.
Spring Break has begun in earnest but not before I pretty much failed my midterms. There are only two feelings you can have after taking a midterm. It was so hard that you failed miserably on it (that's my math one where I believe I got one out of seven right) or it was so easy that it was easy for the rest of the class and you probably did worse relative to the curve (that's game theory). Oh well, it's all in the past now. Only one week to dwell on it.
Before my math midterm, my professor told us to turn off our cell phones. Cell phone cheating. Has it really become that prevalent? I've never seen it executed before in my classes, but with the proliferation of camera phones and text messaging, I wouldn't be surprised if it was widespread by now.
When I got home, my parents struck me with the news that my mother's cousin Minh had died. My first thought was, who? Well, I'd never seen him before and my older brothers had only faint memories of him. What makes his story notable was that he was found dead at the Capitol Expressway overpass. You see, he was homeless. I never could imagine someone in my family being so but there it is. In Vietnam, he was a successful banker with a wife and child. He left all of that behind when he fled to America, hoping to replicate his success here and bring his family along later. That success never came. My uncle was closest to him here and tried to help, but he refused any help and didn't even consider returning to Vietnam to be with his wife. Everyone in the family lost contact with him for 10 years. Last week, the coroner visited my uncle. Minh had kept his address on his person. At first he didn't know who the coroner was talking about, but it eventually got to him. He was found with an ear bitten off, probably by rats, and no teeth. An autopsy revealed Minh had died of a heart condition.
Rest in peace.
3/14/2004
And we're back. Not completely though. Walking into math and poli sci Thursday afternoon, something about me was amiss. But I chose to ignore it. Then, a whole pizza, a VSA meeting, a crappy play, and a dinner and a movie later, combined with a lack of sleep the previous 5 nights really made that little thing on Thursday bad. Real bad. It turned out to be a stomach flu. So not only was my weekend schedule flushed away, well, you can imagine what else was being flushed away. At least it was all happening Friday night rather than the night before midterms.
So I've pretty much been in bed the last 36 hours, fighting this stomach flu and headache. And I'm feeling much better than I did. Some things I've learned? Well, all that thinking I did while doing nothing in bed made me realize how dumb my proposed topic was to be for my poli sci class. Pepto-Bismol is much better in liquid form than in tablet form. You can never have too much toilet paper in your place. If your stomach doesn't feel right, don't go out and try to eat a large meal. And ultimately, get at least as many hours of sleep per night as fingers on your hand.
So being stuck here leaves me with not much to talk about. I did get a card from the commencement folks writing that the keynote speaker at this year's graduation will be Ted Koppel, host of ABC's Nightline. You know what? That's a half-decent speaker to get. Will it get me to go to commencement? Eh. I don't know. I do have a final the next day.
Let's face it. Commencement speakers have been less than overwhelming the last couple of years with Olympian Jonny Moseley (who dropped out of Berkeley; how's that for a message?) and Leon Panetta (the chief of staff for Clinton; I know, you're still wondering who Leon Panetta is). And the committee set a pretty high bar for itself when they scheduled Secretary of State Madeline Albright and Attorney General Janet Reno in the years before that.
Koppel is a highly respected, award-winning newsman who has name recognition and should attract a crowd, albeit an educated crowd. You'd be hard-pressed to find probably 50 people of the graduating class who regularly watches Nightline.
The only black mark on Koppel? He graduated from Stanfurd, which itself has gotten Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as its graduation speaker.
So I've pretty much been in bed the last 36 hours, fighting this stomach flu and headache. And I'm feeling much better than I did. Some things I've learned? Well, all that thinking I did while doing nothing in bed made me realize how dumb my proposed topic was to be for my poli sci class. Pepto-Bismol is much better in liquid form than in tablet form. You can never have too much toilet paper in your place. If your stomach doesn't feel right, don't go out and try to eat a large meal. And ultimately, get at least as many hours of sleep per night as fingers on your hand.
So being stuck here leaves me with not much to talk about. I did get a card from the commencement folks writing that the keynote speaker at this year's graduation will be Ted Koppel, host of ABC's Nightline. You know what? That's a half-decent speaker to get. Will it get me to go to commencement? Eh. I don't know. I do have a final the next day.
Let's face it. Commencement speakers have been less than overwhelming the last couple of years with Olympian Jonny Moseley (who dropped out of Berkeley; how's that for a message?) and Leon Panetta (the chief of staff for Clinton; I know, you're still wondering who Leon Panetta is). And the committee set a pretty high bar for itself when they scheduled Secretary of State Madeline Albright and Attorney General Janet Reno in the years before that.
Koppel is a highly respected, award-winning newsman who has name recognition and should attract a crowd, albeit an educated crowd. You'd be hard-pressed to find probably 50 people of the graduating class who regularly watches Nightline.
The only black mark on Koppel? He graduated from Stanfurd, which itself has gotten Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as its graduation speaker.
3/13/2004
Spartan
Where's the girl? Nobody seems to know. To answer the question, the United States government brings in a man simply known to us as Scott (Val Kilmer). Sent on a one-man mission, Scott roughs up people and uses some smart deduction to get what he wants. Where's the girl? Yes, I'm getting to that. The president's daughter (Kristen Bell) was abducted and sent to a white slave company. Scott gets some help from an army ranger (Derek Luke) to pinpoint the key clues involved in the case as well as her whereabouts throughout the ordeal: first a bar, then an escort house, and eventually overseas to Dubai. Where's the girl? I told you, Dubai. But underneath it all, an odd cover-up brews, leaving you to doubt who to trust.
Written and directed by David Mamet, you do get a Mamet film here, complete with snappy, repetitive dialogue and twists and turns throughout the movie. The execution of the film is great. Kilmer actually does a fine job in the lead role as does his supporting cast. After all, this is Mamet we're talking about, he's a master of characters. But the message he's trying to convey is a bit muddied. First of all, the plot line surrounding the cover-up is a little implausible. I'll leave you to watch the film for details. But like the last administration, this one involves an affair. Second, while the film is smart, it's also supposed to be a political thriller and there weren't too many thrills involved in the film. It finally finds it in the end, but by then, it's too late. We're already too tired from keeping track of the dialogue. Finally, the ending seems to leave us wanting more by leaving many questions unanswered. Though we can probably figure out the answers, I don't think a sequel is in the pipeline. 2.5 stars
Where's the girl? Nobody seems to know. To answer the question, the United States government brings in a man simply known to us as Scott (Val Kilmer). Sent on a one-man mission, Scott roughs up people and uses some smart deduction to get what he wants. Where's the girl? Yes, I'm getting to that. The president's daughter (Kristen Bell) was abducted and sent to a white slave company. Scott gets some help from an army ranger (Derek Luke) to pinpoint the key clues involved in the case as well as her whereabouts throughout the ordeal: first a bar, then an escort house, and eventually overseas to Dubai. Where's the girl? I told you, Dubai. But underneath it all, an odd cover-up brews, leaving you to doubt who to trust.
Written and directed by David Mamet, you do get a Mamet film here, complete with snappy, repetitive dialogue and twists and turns throughout the movie. The execution of the film is great. Kilmer actually does a fine job in the lead role as does his supporting cast. After all, this is Mamet we're talking about, he's a master of characters. But the message he's trying to convey is a bit muddied. First of all, the plot line surrounding the cover-up is a little implausible. I'll leave you to watch the film for details. But like the last administration, this one involves an affair. Second, while the film is smart, it's also supposed to be a political thriller and there weren't too many thrills involved in the film. It finally finds it in the end, but by then, it's too late. We're already too tired from keeping track of the dialogue. Finally, the ending seems to leave us wanting more by leaving many questions unanswered. Though we can probably figure out the answers, I don't think a sequel is in the pipeline. 2.5 stars
Starsky & Hutch
Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson reunite yet again for another comedy, this time based on the 70's television series. Stiller is Dave Starsky, the conservative cop who plays it by the book at all times. At the other end of the spectrum is Ken Hutchinson (Wilson). Their captain, seeing that both are without partners, pair them up. Their first case involves cocaine. Reese Feldman (Vince Vaughn) has invented a new form of the drug that can't be detected through normal means and simply looks like artificial sweetener. With the help of Huggy Bear (played in a hilarious turn by Snoop Dogg), Starsky and Hutch track down Feldman while along the way, attracting two cheerleaders played by Carmen Electra and Amy Smart.
It seems as though Stiller and Wilson were made for each other. Both exhibit excellent chemistry in a film that would otherwise be a disaster. Director Todd Phillips can chalk up another success after last year's underrated "Old School." Yes, he seems to working with the same people, but at least he knows what works and what doesn't. And with the cast involved, there isn't much that doesn't work. Will Ferrell makes a cameo appearance as Big Earl, a fetishist who wishes to see Wilson perform for him in exchange for information in one of the film's funnier scenes. And it's nice to see the original Starsky & Hutch make cameos as well. Every scene tries to get that big laugh and while some don't, the effort is there and most do get it, almost all the result of the antics of Stiller and Wilson. 3 stars
Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson reunite yet again for another comedy, this time based on the 70's television series. Stiller is Dave Starsky, the conservative cop who plays it by the book at all times. At the other end of the spectrum is Ken Hutchinson (Wilson). Their captain, seeing that both are without partners, pair them up. Their first case involves cocaine. Reese Feldman (Vince Vaughn) has invented a new form of the drug that can't be detected through normal means and simply looks like artificial sweetener. With the help of Huggy Bear (played in a hilarious turn by Snoop Dogg), Starsky and Hutch track down Feldman while along the way, attracting two cheerleaders played by Carmen Electra and Amy Smart.
It seems as though Stiller and Wilson were made for each other. Both exhibit excellent chemistry in a film that would otherwise be a disaster. Director Todd Phillips can chalk up another success after last year's underrated "Old School." Yes, he seems to working with the same people, but at least he knows what works and what doesn't. And with the cast involved, there isn't much that doesn't work. Will Ferrell makes a cameo appearance as Big Earl, a fetishist who wishes to see Wilson perform for him in exchange for information in one of the film's funnier scenes. And it's nice to see the original Starsky & Hutch make cameos as well. Every scene tries to get that big laugh and while some don't, the effort is there and most do get it, almost all the result of the antics of Stiller and Wilson. 3 stars
Welcome to Mooseport
Monroe Cole (Gene Hackman), retired as President of the United States and recently separated from his wife, decides to spend his remaining days in the town of Mooseport, Maine. The town leadership sees the need for a new mayor and ultimately decides Cole would be the perfect man for the job. His competition for the job is from Handy Harrison (Ray Romano), the plumber and hardware store owner. Harrison has great respect for Cole until he asks out Harrison's girlfriend, Sally (Maura Tierney). Soon, it becomes an all-out war with Cole's political machine working with full force and Harrison choosing to pick his battles with the ex-President himself.
High expectations killed this movie. It had the idea and the stars, but the end result is disappointing. Many movies have found success extracting humor from political situations or small-town environments, but "Welcome to Mooseport" can't seem to find much success on either account. Romano is a comedian who has been successful in making fun of what he has lived through but it seems if you put him in any other environment, it most likely will be a lost cause. Hackman turns in a nice performance but that's no surprise. The rest of the supporting cast seems wasted, especially Marcia Gay Harden as the President's secretary. Overall, this "comedy's" few genuinely funny scenes can't make up for the predictable fare. 2 stars
Monroe Cole (Gene Hackman), retired as President of the United States and recently separated from his wife, decides to spend his remaining days in the town of Mooseport, Maine. The town leadership sees the need for a new mayor and ultimately decides Cole would be the perfect man for the job. His competition for the job is from Handy Harrison (Ray Romano), the plumber and hardware store owner. Harrison has great respect for Cole until he asks out Harrison's girlfriend, Sally (Maura Tierney). Soon, it becomes an all-out war with Cole's political machine working with full force and Harrison choosing to pick his battles with the ex-President himself.
High expectations killed this movie. It had the idea and the stars, but the end result is disappointing. Many movies have found success extracting humor from political situations or small-town environments, but "Welcome to Mooseport" can't seem to find much success on either account. Romano is a comedian who has been successful in making fun of what he has lived through but it seems if you put him in any other environment, it most likely will be a lost cause. Hackman turns in a nice performance but that's no surprise. The rest of the supporting cast seems wasted, especially Marcia Gay Harden as the President's secretary. Overall, this "comedy's" few genuinely funny scenes can't make up for the predictable fare. 2 stars
3/12/2004
At this late of an hour, I just finished one of those online poker tournaments and out of 4000, I ended up 142nd, easily my best to date. If it wasn't a free tournament, I probably would've gotten something, but alas nothing.
CalPIRG is out in full force again working on their fundraising drive for the semester. Every semester, it's always hard to say no or to run away from them because they are always so persistent, they come in numbers, and are usually in a row so that if you say no to one of them, 5 paces away, there's another one trying to get your student fees. An "I pledged CalPIRG" sticker is treated like a badge of honor while not having one means being hunted down until you give them your money.
What transpired today was a little surreal. Coming down from Northside, 3 CalPIRG volunteers were lined up waiting for the morning rush. As part of this rush and noticing the bright orange stickers and clipboards, I quickly want no part of them. Besides, I was late for class. One of those brave souls does confront the girl walking in front of me.
"Can I walk you to your class?" she asked. In a sudden retort, the girl yelled out NO! while giving her a glimpse of an evil eye. The volunteer was quickly scared away, walking quickly toward Northgate while the girl went along her merry way, either on her way to class or scaring more volunteers.
CalPIRG is out in full force again working on their fundraising drive for the semester. Every semester, it's always hard to say no or to run away from them because they are always so persistent, they come in numbers, and are usually in a row so that if you say no to one of them, 5 paces away, there's another one trying to get your student fees. An "I pledged CalPIRG" sticker is treated like a badge of honor while not having one means being hunted down until you give them your money.
What transpired today was a little surreal. Coming down from Northside, 3 CalPIRG volunteers were lined up waiting for the morning rush. As part of this rush and noticing the bright orange stickers and clipboards, I quickly want no part of them. Besides, I was late for class. One of those brave souls does confront the girl walking in front of me.
"Can I walk you to your class?" she asked. In a sudden retort, the girl yelled out NO! while giving her a glimpse of an evil eye. The volunteer was quickly scared away, walking quickly toward Northgate while the girl went along her merry way, either on her way to class or scaring more volunteers.
3/08/2004
Though the title of the blog is Ranting..., rarely do I rant. Yet something interesting was noted to me earlier today. If you put in the word ranting in the Yahoo! search engine, this site comes in #2. Dumb algorithms.
Last summer, NBC successfully launched the show Last Comic Standing, in which amateur comedians vote the least funniest each week before the group is small enough for the audience to decide who indeed is the last comic standing. They picked an outstanding comedian in Dat Phan, whose act was really funny for about two seconds before it got repetitive, unfunny, and cringing to watch (overlooking the hilarious Dave Mordal). 6 months later channel surfing, I saw him performing on BET, that bastion for comedy. And you know what? He did the same exact material that made him famous. That's just lame.
Anyway, they've brought it back for a second season and while I don't think it can work the same magic as it did in the first season (we'll see), it's already brewing with controversy. Hundreds of comedians are widdled down to 10 finalists and supposedly, 4 judges have a say in this decision-process. Two of the judges, Drew Carey and Brett Butler are already crying foul over the selection of two finalists, agreeing that they weren't funny to be qualified. To top it off, these two are represented by the executive producer of the show, who also represents the host, Jay Mohr. Of course, the exec recused himself from all decisions.
A spokesman for NBC said the judges weren't clear on what their roles were in the decision-making process and that they weren't choosing folks to become finalists. Celebrity judging is simply a factor in the process.
Something about it all doesn't sit right but I'd rather have successful comedians, okay, comedians who used to be successful, be talent scouts for a comedy show rather than a bunch of stiff execs calling the shots. You don't see 3 lawyers judging talent on American Idol, do you? Good thing too; they might conclude William Hung is the American Idol. Shudder at that horrifying thought.
Last summer, NBC successfully launched the show Last Comic Standing, in which amateur comedians vote the least funniest each week before the group is small enough for the audience to decide who indeed is the last comic standing. They picked an outstanding comedian in Dat Phan, whose act was really funny for about two seconds before it got repetitive, unfunny, and cringing to watch (overlooking the hilarious Dave Mordal). 6 months later channel surfing, I saw him performing on BET, that bastion for comedy. And you know what? He did the same exact material that made him famous. That's just lame.
Anyway, they've brought it back for a second season and while I don't think it can work the same magic as it did in the first season (we'll see), it's already brewing with controversy. Hundreds of comedians are widdled down to 10 finalists and supposedly, 4 judges have a say in this decision-process. Two of the judges, Drew Carey and Brett Butler are already crying foul over the selection of two finalists, agreeing that they weren't funny to be qualified. To top it off, these two are represented by the executive producer of the show, who also represents the host, Jay Mohr. Of course, the exec recused himself from all decisions.
A spokesman for NBC said the judges weren't clear on what their roles were in the decision-making process and that they weren't choosing folks to become finalists. Celebrity judging is simply a factor in the process.
Something about it all doesn't sit right but I'd rather have successful comedians, okay, comedians who used to be successful, be talent scouts for a comedy show rather than a bunch of stiff execs calling the shots. You don't see 3 lawyers judging talent on American Idol, do you? Good thing too; they might conclude William Hung is the American Idol. Shudder at that horrifying thought.
3/04/2004
I'm thinking I should rethink my sleeping patterns. For various reasons, I stayed up til about 2:30 last night and woke up at 7:30 for the 8:00 class. Once you're up, you've got the energy to last a few hours. It's those hours around lunchtime that'll kill you. Having math in that primo spot doesn't help.
So I'm in there today, listening to Cauchy's Integral Formula and writing whatever the professor writes on the board. I soon start dozing off, barely able to keep my eyes open. Apparently, after 45 minutes of being awake and asleep and probably 2 minutes of a complete blackout, I wake up. The lecture had continued on, and I kept on writing. And wouldn't you know it, I started writing poli sci stuff for about 3 lines worth. Funny how the brain works. So in my notes, I know that in the formula, g(b) is valid if and only if the state passes it with a two-thirds majority vote.
Math is tough business. I was in a workshop tonite with mostly math majors and the undergraduate math advisor who was there made the comment that grade inflation had reached the Berkeley College of Letters and Science but she was proud that math was not one of those majors raising grades. Upon hearing that, most of us grumbled. Did you know the average Math GPA is 2.7? There's a good line for me. I'm above average as a math major.
You know what class I need to boost my GPA? Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball. This class was taught by Georgia coach Jim Harrick Jr. in 2001. It consisted of one multiple-choice test at the end of the term. Not only was the test ridiculously easy, students could miss the whole class, 3 of whom were on the basketball team on which Harrick Jr. was the assistant coach, and everyone in the class got A's. Harrick Jr., as well as his father, the head coach, have since lost their jobs as a result of academic fraud. A copy of the test is at ESPN. Here are a few choice questions. I'm not including the choices but bear in mind, unless otherwise indicated, the questions are multiple choice.
How many halves are in a college basketball game?
How many quarters are in a high school basketball game?
How many points does a 3-point field goal account for in a basketball game?
Diagram the 3-point line and half-court line.
How many goals are on a basketball court?
The poker craze has reached the Bay Area. It was small stuff on the Berkeley campus when the VSA had its own little hold 'em tournament. Datman came in second after the Persian guy who beat him got a flush out of a 7-3 off-suit on the last hand. The big stuff is happening down in San Jose at Bay 101 with the World Poker Tour Shooting Stars Tournament. 23 hot shots in the poker world have joined the 230-player field for a 3-day tournament to be televised on the Travel Channel in June. 200 people can watch it live Friday at 2 pm at the casino to see the final 6 people battle it out.
Crazy happenings while walking through Sproul today. Two ladies with children, one walking and one in a stroller, were walking alongside. They were having a lively conversation when suddenly, the one with the stroller stopped dead in her tracks. The stroller was empty. Now the woman was hysterical, running around the area by the MLK Student Union, looking around corners, asking people if anyone saw a small child, her friend trying to calm her down. Three minutes later, the child comes back in the arms of her father, both looking calm and collected and he remarked that they stayed behind to stare at the visage of Bob Marley near Sather Gate. A relieved mother collapsed in front of that ASUC bulletin board, where for some odd reason, stayed for at least 10 minutes and was still laying there when my bus finally came. Good thing it was 9:45 in the morning when things were empty.
So I'm in there today, listening to Cauchy's Integral Formula and writing whatever the professor writes on the board. I soon start dozing off, barely able to keep my eyes open. Apparently, after 45 minutes of being awake and asleep and probably 2 minutes of a complete blackout, I wake up. The lecture had continued on, and I kept on writing. And wouldn't you know it, I started writing poli sci stuff for about 3 lines worth. Funny how the brain works. So in my notes, I know that in the formula, g(b) is valid if and only if the state passes it with a two-thirds majority vote.
Math is tough business. I was in a workshop tonite with mostly math majors and the undergraduate math advisor who was there made the comment that grade inflation had reached the Berkeley College of Letters and Science but she was proud that math was not one of those majors raising grades. Upon hearing that, most of us grumbled. Did you know the average Math GPA is 2.7? There's a good line for me. I'm above average as a math major.
You know what class I need to boost my GPA? Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball. This class was taught by Georgia coach Jim Harrick Jr. in 2001. It consisted of one multiple-choice test at the end of the term. Not only was the test ridiculously easy, students could miss the whole class, 3 of whom were on the basketball team on which Harrick Jr. was the assistant coach, and everyone in the class got A's. Harrick Jr., as well as his father, the head coach, have since lost their jobs as a result of academic fraud. A copy of the test is at ESPN. Here are a few choice questions. I'm not including the choices but bear in mind, unless otherwise indicated, the questions are multiple choice.
How many halves are in a college basketball game?
How many quarters are in a high school basketball game?
How many points does a 3-point field goal account for in a basketball game?
Diagram the 3-point line and half-court line.
How many goals are on a basketball court?
The poker craze has reached the Bay Area. It was small stuff on the Berkeley campus when the VSA had its own little hold 'em tournament. Datman came in second after the Persian guy who beat him got a flush out of a 7-3 off-suit on the last hand. The big stuff is happening down in San Jose at Bay 101 with the World Poker Tour Shooting Stars Tournament. 23 hot shots in the poker world have joined the 230-player field for a 3-day tournament to be televised on the Travel Channel in June. 200 people can watch it live Friday at 2 pm at the casino to see the final 6 people battle it out.
Crazy happenings while walking through Sproul today. Two ladies with children, one walking and one in a stroller, were walking alongside. They were having a lively conversation when suddenly, the one with the stroller stopped dead in her tracks. The stroller was empty. Now the woman was hysterical, running around the area by the MLK Student Union, looking around corners, asking people if anyone saw a small child, her friend trying to calm her down. Three minutes later, the child comes back in the arms of her father, both looking calm and collected and he remarked that they stayed behind to stare at the visage of Bob Marley near Sather Gate. A relieved mother collapsed in front of that ASUC bulletin board, where for some odd reason, stayed for at least 10 minutes and was still laying there when my bus finally came. Good thing it was 9:45 in the morning when things were empty.
3/03/2004
So I started this previously so now I'll finish.
Yesterday's elections weren't much of a surprise.
The Republican race was a landslide. George W. Bush got 100% of the vote. While being the only one on the ballot, it reminded me of that election Saddam Hussein had a while back, when he made the point that he got re-elected with 100% of the vote, seemingly affirming his support within Iraq.
Kerry pretty much won the Democratic nomination by taking 9 out of 10 Super Tuesday states. The exception being Vermont, where they seemed to think Howard Dean was still in the race. This sets up a Kerry vs. Bush showdown in November. Bush is already starting full steam ahead since all the $100 million he has in the bank must be spent by September because of campaign finance rules. By comparison, Kerry has raised $31 million for the entire campaign and has much less in the bank.
Bush's first television ads end with the line "steady leadership in times of change." That's the most awkward line I've heard for a campaign commercial. Sure, it gets to the point, but it's not something I wanna be repeating to myself. Reminds of that commercial that kept running in "Wag the Dog" where you kept hearing that you don't change horses in midstream.
And someone needs to change the law where the candidate in question must say that he or she approves of the message being said. Hearing a candidate say that, while being accountable, makes it sound like he's delegating tasks and not taking a role in the decision-making process.
Props 55, 57, and 58 all passed. 56, a prop to make it easier for California to pass the budget failed. Apparently, in this Democratic-controlled state, people still want to see Republicans tie things up and make it harder to pass a budget, which is fine by me. 55, the education facilities bond, won by the slimmest of margins with a 60,000 vote margin out of 5.5 million votes.
Bill Jones, former Secretary of State, will face Barbara Boxer for the U.S. Senate seat. Alameda County will pay 8.75% in sales tax, thanks to a tax increase to benefit health care in the county. People crossing the bridges will pay $1 more to improve transportation in the Bay Area.
The person I feel sorriest for? Matthew Mo. The County Central Committee for the 1st Supervisoral District had 6 seats open for 7 candidates and you could vote for 6 too. Mo happened to come in last place and lose out on the seat.
Yesterday's elections weren't much of a surprise.
The Republican race was a landslide. George W. Bush got 100% of the vote. While being the only one on the ballot, it reminded me of that election Saddam Hussein had a while back, when he made the point that he got re-elected with 100% of the vote, seemingly affirming his support within Iraq.
Kerry pretty much won the Democratic nomination by taking 9 out of 10 Super Tuesday states. The exception being Vermont, where they seemed to think Howard Dean was still in the race. This sets up a Kerry vs. Bush showdown in November. Bush is already starting full steam ahead since all the $100 million he has in the bank must be spent by September because of campaign finance rules. By comparison, Kerry has raised $31 million for the entire campaign and has much less in the bank.
Bush's first television ads end with the line "steady leadership in times of change." That's the most awkward line I've heard for a campaign commercial. Sure, it gets to the point, but it's not something I wanna be repeating to myself. Reminds of that commercial that kept running in "Wag the Dog" where you kept hearing that you don't change horses in midstream.
And someone needs to change the law where the candidate in question must say that he or she approves of the message being said. Hearing a candidate say that, while being accountable, makes it sound like he's delegating tasks and not taking a role in the decision-making process.
Props 55, 57, and 58 all passed. 56, a prop to make it easier for California to pass the budget failed. Apparently, in this Democratic-controlled state, people still want to see Republicans tie things up and make it harder to pass a budget, which is fine by me. 55, the education facilities bond, won by the slimmest of margins with a 60,000 vote margin out of 5.5 million votes.
Bill Jones, former Secretary of State, will face Barbara Boxer for the U.S. Senate seat. Alameda County will pay 8.75% in sales tax, thanks to a tax increase to benefit health care in the county. People crossing the bridges will pay $1 more to improve transportation in the Bay Area.
The person I feel sorriest for? Matthew Mo. The County Central Committee for the 1st Supervisoral District had 6 seats open for 7 candidates and you could vote for 6 too. Mo happened to come in last place and lose out on the seat.
3/02/2004
Today is Election Day and while it is extremely unlikely one vote will actually make a difference in the grand scheme of things, if everyone thinks like that, no one will vote at all, right? So go out and vote.
While my conservative tendencies are known, all anyone wants to talk about is the Democrats choice for President, a two-man race between Senators John Kerry and John Edwards. Actually, three if you believe all the posters of Dennis Kucinich all around Berkeley. If I were a Democrat, I would choose Edwards, who would have the ability to win in the South and has run a positive campaign filled with reaching out to the people and embracing the issues that matter to them most. Kerry certainly walks the walk and talks the talk, but he doesn't really look presidential, does he? Okay, neither does Bush but he's proven his worth after 4 years with the top job. And while Kerry has 25 years as a senator, there's nothing that shines on his record. Edwards is short on experience but is high on potential.
The state faces 4 propositions all dealing with the budget. 55 and 57 authorizes $27 billion in bonds for the schools and the state respectively. It will certainly strap the financial futures of the state for a long time, but the money is badly needed. 56 lowers the budget requirement from a 2/3 majority to a 55% majority. 58 would require a balanced budget in the state and prevent the state from issuing deficit bonds, something Governor Schwarzenegger proposes to do this year anyway. I would reluctantly vote yes for all 4. Schools are in bad shape and need to rebuild and the state can't afford any more cuts, even at its high future cost. Nobody wants to see a majority have an easier job in passing the budget but a bad budget is better than no budget at all. Besides, if and when Republicans are in the majority in the Legislature, I'm sure they would then welcome the 55% majority rule. 58 goes hand in hand with 57. If one fails, they both do.
Berkeley and Alameda County have Measure A on the ballot, which would raise the sales tax in the county to 8.75% for health care purposes. Yes, it's needed, but to have the highest sales tax isn't really welcome.
There's a 4-way race for the Republican Senate nomination between Bill Jones, the former Secretary of State, Rosario Marin, the former U.S. Treasurer, Howard Kaloogian, and Toni Casey. Jones is obviously the most qualified and should be the nominee but he would face an uphill climb to unseat the liberal Barbara Boxer.
So go out and vote. You'll get a cool sticker too.
In reality, it's Tuesday morning, but I'm thinking it's Monday night still so birthday wishes to up and coming filmmaker Steves down there at USC.
While my conservative tendencies are known, all anyone wants to talk about is the Democrats choice for President, a two-man race between Senators John Kerry and John Edwards. Actually, three if you believe all the posters of Dennis Kucinich all around Berkeley. If I were a Democrat, I would choose Edwards, who would have the ability to win in the South and has run a positive campaign filled with reaching out to the people and embracing the issues that matter to them most. Kerry certainly walks the walk and talks the talk, but he doesn't really look presidential, does he? Okay, neither does Bush but he's proven his worth after 4 years with the top job. And while Kerry has 25 years as a senator, there's nothing that shines on his record. Edwards is short on experience but is high on potential.
The state faces 4 propositions all dealing with the budget. 55 and 57 authorizes $27 billion in bonds for the schools and the state respectively. It will certainly strap the financial futures of the state for a long time, but the money is badly needed. 56 lowers the budget requirement from a 2/3 majority to a 55% majority. 58 would require a balanced budget in the state and prevent the state from issuing deficit bonds, something Governor Schwarzenegger proposes to do this year anyway. I would reluctantly vote yes for all 4. Schools are in bad shape and need to rebuild and the state can't afford any more cuts, even at its high future cost. Nobody wants to see a majority have an easier job in passing the budget but a bad budget is better than no budget at all. Besides, if and when Republicans are in the majority in the Legislature, I'm sure they would then welcome the 55% majority rule. 58 goes hand in hand with 57. If one fails, they both do.
Berkeley and Alameda County have Measure A on the ballot, which would raise the sales tax in the county to 8.75% for health care purposes. Yes, it's needed, but to have the highest sales tax isn't really welcome.
There's a 4-way race for the Republican Senate nomination between Bill Jones, the former Secretary of State, Rosario Marin, the former U.S. Treasurer, Howard Kaloogian, and Toni Casey. Jones is obviously the most qualified and should be the nominee but he would face an uphill climb to unseat the liberal Barbara Boxer.
So go out and vote. You'll get a cool sticker too.
In reality, it's Tuesday morning, but I'm thinking it's Monday night still so birthday wishes to up and coming filmmaker Steves down there at USC.
2/29/2004
Showing how much of a loser I am, these were my Oscar predix. Getting half right is about average but getting 70% right means you're an expert. Two years ago, I was 14 for 24. Last year, I was 15 for 24. I probably won't get even close to that this year. It should be updated in the course of events during the ceremony with winners.
I actually beat last year's total by 1 again going 16 for 24. I really did not expect a Lord of the Rings sweep, hoping to think that Academy voters would show mercy on the other films but I'm afraid not.
Winners are in bold. Correct predictions will be boldly italicized, and incorrect predictions will be just italicized with descriptions on why I think things happened as they did.
Best Picture:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Director:
Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Actor:
Sean Penn, Mystic River
Bill Murray, Lost in Translation
Yes, Penn gave a fine performance and I have no complaints about this win but Murray seemed to have deserved it so much more over a performance Penn can do sleepwalking nowadays.
Best Actress:
Charlize Theron, Monster
Best Supporting Actor:
Tim Robbins, Mystic River
Best Supporting Actress:
Renee Zellweger, Cold Mountain
Best Adapted Screenplay:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
Mystic River, Brian Helgeland
The magic of LOTR is what's on screen, not on what was written. Do you remember anything of what was said?
Best Original Screenplay:
Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola
Best Animated Feature:
Finding Nemo
Best Animated Short Film:
Harvie Krumpet
Destino
Never watched any of them, so it was a total guess.
Best Art Direction:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Cinematography:
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Seabiscuit
The Academy showed its liking of action films in this category, opting for the sea-faring M&C rather than the natural beauty of Seabiscuit.
Best Costume:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
M&C's costumes were far superior than anything LOTR offered, especially when you consider most of LOTR's characters were computer-generated, eliminating the need for costumes. Yet, LOTR took things by storm anyway.
Best Documentary Feature:
The Fog of War
Capturing the Friedmans
The Fog of War deals with a fascinating subject in Robert McNamara, who helped shape America's foreign policy during the Vietnam War and I wasn't surprised that it won, though Capturing the Friedmans dealt with more interesting subject matter.
Best Documentary Short Subject:
Chernobyl Heart
Best Editing:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
City of God
I'm sorry, any film more than 3 hours should not win a best editing award. That should be a rule of thumb.
Best Foreign Film:
The Barabarian Invasions
Best Live Action Short Film:
Two Soldiers
Die Rote Jacke (The Red Jacket)
Again, didn't watch any of these so it was also a total guess.
Best Make-up:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Original Score:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Howard Shore
Best Original Song:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, "Into the West" by Fran Walsh, Howard Shore, and Annie Lennox
Best Sound:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Sound Editing:
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Best Visual Effects:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
I actually beat last year's total by 1 again going 16 for 24. I really did not expect a Lord of the Rings sweep, hoping to think that Academy voters would show mercy on the other films but I'm afraid not.
Winners are in bold. Correct predictions will be boldly italicized, and incorrect predictions will be just italicized with descriptions on why I think things happened as they did.
Best Picture:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Director:
Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Actor:
Sean Penn, Mystic River
Bill Murray, Lost in Translation
Yes, Penn gave a fine performance and I have no complaints about this win but Murray seemed to have deserved it so much more over a performance Penn can do sleepwalking nowadays.
Best Actress:
Charlize Theron, Monster
Best Supporting Actor:
Tim Robbins, Mystic River
Best Supporting Actress:
Renee Zellweger, Cold Mountain
Best Adapted Screenplay:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
Mystic River, Brian Helgeland
The magic of LOTR is what's on screen, not on what was written. Do you remember anything of what was said?
Best Original Screenplay:
Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola
Best Animated Feature:
Finding Nemo
Best Animated Short Film:
Harvie Krumpet
Destino
Never watched any of them, so it was a total guess.
Best Art Direction:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Cinematography:
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Seabiscuit
The Academy showed its liking of action films in this category, opting for the sea-faring M&C rather than the natural beauty of Seabiscuit.
Best Costume:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
M&C's costumes were far superior than anything LOTR offered, especially when you consider most of LOTR's characters were computer-generated, eliminating the need for costumes. Yet, LOTR took things by storm anyway.
Best Documentary Feature:
The Fog of War
Capturing the Friedmans
The Fog of War deals with a fascinating subject in Robert McNamara, who helped shape America's foreign policy during the Vietnam War and I wasn't surprised that it won, though Capturing the Friedmans dealt with more interesting subject matter.
Best Documentary Short Subject:
Chernobyl Heart
Best Editing:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
City of God
I'm sorry, any film more than 3 hours should not win a best editing award. That should be a rule of thumb.
Best Foreign Film:
The Barabarian Invasions
Best Live Action Short Film:
Two Soldiers
Die Rote Jacke (The Red Jacket)
Again, didn't watch any of these so it was also a total guess.
Best Make-up:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Original Score:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Howard Shore
Best Original Song:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, "Into the West" by Fran Walsh, Howard Shore, and Annie Lennox
Best Sound:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Sound Editing:
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Best Visual Effects:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2/28/2004
The Passion of the Christ
It's been mentioned many times before, but as a Simpsons fan, I'll mention it again. An episode of the animated series featured a guest starring Mel Gibson remaking "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" with Jimmy Stewart. With the help of Homer, Stewart's poignant ending in Congress turned into a violent shoot-em-up with Gibson in the Stewart role killing everyone in the chamber, a decision that had audiences fleeing shouting it was the worst movie ever. In "The Passion of the Christ", all that violence is squarely focused on one character, one Jesus of Nazareth played by Jim Caviezel. The Pharisees, shocked and outraged by Jesus' blasphemous sayings, force upon the Roman governor Pilate to crucify Jesus, something he reluctantly agrees to in order to prevent any major bloodshed in the province. What follows is a graphic portrayal of the last hours of Jesus, complete with floggings all over his body and the torture he endures as he carries his cross to his eventual crucifixion. All of this occurs while his mother Mary (Maia Morgenstern) and sister Mary Magdalene (Monica Bellucci) weep from a distance.
This graphic bloodshed of Jesus director Gibson has given us seems both justified and excessive. The movie culls powerful images throughout in documenting the last hours of Jesus, a truthful rendition based on the Gospels with most of it that will be remembered for a long time. Yet at its base, Gibson has given us the basic shoot-em-up, only this time, there are no guns, just clubs and a cross. Gibson's narrow-mindedness to focus solely on Jesus' physical punishment loses the film's motivation as a film to teach, with not much opportunity at all to back up the violence when he clearly had a chance to more fully explain the inner thoughts of all the characters involved. Instead, only Pilate and his wife get this complex treatment of the inner struggle of the decision made. While probably pushing but not crossing the anti-semitic line, the film doesn't treat the Jews in a fairly positive light either, with most all pushing for his death, yelling when they needed to and spitting when they had the chance. Visually you get your money's worth but enlightened? You are not. 2.5 stars
It's been mentioned many times before, but as a Simpsons fan, I'll mention it again. An episode of the animated series featured a guest starring Mel Gibson remaking "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" with Jimmy Stewart. With the help of Homer, Stewart's poignant ending in Congress turned into a violent shoot-em-up with Gibson in the Stewart role killing everyone in the chamber, a decision that had audiences fleeing shouting it was the worst movie ever. In "The Passion of the Christ", all that violence is squarely focused on one character, one Jesus of Nazareth played by Jim Caviezel. The Pharisees, shocked and outraged by Jesus' blasphemous sayings, force upon the Roman governor Pilate to crucify Jesus, something he reluctantly agrees to in order to prevent any major bloodshed in the province. What follows is a graphic portrayal of the last hours of Jesus, complete with floggings all over his body and the torture he endures as he carries his cross to his eventual crucifixion. All of this occurs while his mother Mary (Maia Morgenstern) and sister Mary Magdalene (Monica Bellucci) weep from a distance.
This graphic bloodshed of Jesus director Gibson has given us seems both justified and excessive. The movie culls powerful images throughout in documenting the last hours of Jesus, a truthful rendition based on the Gospels with most of it that will be remembered for a long time. Yet at its base, Gibson has given us the basic shoot-em-up, only this time, there are no guns, just clubs and a cross. Gibson's narrow-mindedness to focus solely on Jesus' physical punishment loses the film's motivation as a film to teach, with not much opportunity at all to back up the violence when he clearly had a chance to more fully explain the inner thoughts of all the characters involved. Instead, only Pilate and his wife get this complex treatment of the inner struggle of the decision made. While probably pushing but not crossing the anti-semitic line, the film doesn't treat the Jews in a fairly positive light either, with most all pushing for his death, yelling when they needed to and spitting when they had the chance. Visually you get your money's worth but enlightened? You are not. 2.5 stars
50 First Dates
This romantic comedy reunites Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler in the search for more money. Sandler here plays Henry Roth, a vet working at the zoo who's guilty of many one-night stands with tourists visiting Hawaii. Rule #1 is never to fall for a native, which he does when he sees Lucy (Barrymore) having breakfast in a cafe. They hit it off but when they meet the next day, Lucy has no idea who he is. Lucy can't keep any short-term memories after a car accident. Henry can't imagine a life without her and works hard to win her love one day at a time. It used to be that her father and brother kept the truth from her by recreating the day of the accident through an elaborate scheme involving that day's newspaper and a bunch of white paint. Eventually, Lucy finds out the truth in one day and decides to leave them all and stay at a hospital which specializes with people in her condition. Can Henry convince his true love to love back?
There's a certain sweetness when it comes to watching Barrymore and Sandler work on-screen. So while they've got the romance part down, this whole memory concept isn't as smart nor as funny as Bill Murray made it become in Groundhog Day (I know, what can?). Sandler comedies usually have you rolling on the floor laughing but no such scenes exist here. Sure, it's amusing but not haha funny. Without Sandler being his funny self, the supporting cast gets the weight put on to accomplish this, but they drop the ball badly, led by Rob Schneider who is forced to do most of the gross-out comedy with mixed results. Instead, we must look to Barrymore for the sunshine of the film with Sandler taking his cues from her and making us believe they really are falling for each other. 2.5 stars
This romantic comedy reunites Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler in the search for more money. Sandler here plays Henry Roth, a vet working at the zoo who's guilty of many one-night stands with tourists visiting Hawaii. Rule #1 is never to fall for a native, which he does when he sees Lucy (Barrymore) having breakfast in a cafe. They hit it off but when they meet the next day, Lucy has no idea who he is. Lucy can't keep any short-term memories after a car accident. Henry can't imagine a life without her and works hard to win her love one day at a time. It used to be that her father and brother kept the truth from her by recreating the day of the accident through an elaborate scheme involving that day's newspaper and a bunch of white paint. Eventually, Lucy finds out the truth in one day and decides to leave them all and stay at a hospital which specializes with people in her condition. Can Henry convince his true love to love back?
There's a certain sweetness when it comes to watching Barrymore and Sandler work on-screen. So while they've got the romance part down, this whole memory concept isn't as smart nor as funny as Bill Murray made it become in Groundhog Day (I know, what can?). Sandler comedies usually have you rolling on the floor laughing but no such scenes exist here. Sure, it's amusing but not haha funny. Without Sandler being his funny self, the supporting cast gets the weight put on to accomplish this, but they drop the ball badly, led by Rob Schneider who is forced to do most of the gross-out comedy with mixed results. Instead, we must look to Barrymore for the sunshine of the film with Sandler taking his cues from her and making us believe they really are falling for each other. 2.5 stars
Miracle
1980 was a tenuous time in America. President Carter was losing the country and his own job to outside pressures. Energy was in short supply and the economy was weakening. But most importantly, the Soviet Union was continuing to show its dominance. This time, it was through their hockey team. The 1980 Winter Olympics were being held in Lake Placid, N.Y. and Team USA needed a strong showing. To do this, officials bring in a college coach named Herb Brooks from Minnesota, wonderfully played by Kurt Russell. But instead of recruiting the best and brightest from America's teams, Brooks chooses to follow the Soviet Union's example and creates a team of players who are quick and can work hard. It's tough going as these players are growing wary of what Brooks demands of them but soon the message is abundantly clear, especially after two key losses on the way to a semifinal match against the hated Soviet Union team.
This is easily the best movie released so far this year. Movies are meant to be about the personalities they put forth onto the screen and here, a colorful group is offered from all walks of life and showcases the magic created on its way toward an improbable gold medal. It's too bad there were too many people they could've focused on that by the end of the film, you're unlikely to remember the majority of the players on the team. Instead, it's just Herb Brooks and everyone else. Russell alone really makes the film go and they've done a great job in getting straight to the hockey instead of boring us with pointless stories like three Mighty Ducks films have done. Do you believe in miracles? I do. After watching this film, I really do. 3.5 stars
1980 was a tenuous time in America. President Carter was losing the country and his own job to outside pressures. Energy was in short supply and the economy was weakening. But most importantly, the Soviet Union was continuing to show its dominance. This time, it was through their hockey team. The 1980 Winter Olympics were being held in Lake Placid, N.Y. and Team USA needed a strong showing. To do this, officials bring in a college coach named Herb Brooks from Minnesota, wonderfully played by Kurt Russell. But instead of recruiting the best and brightest from America's teams, Brooks chooses to follow the Soviet Union's example and creates a team of players who are quick and can work hard. It's tough going as these players are growing wary of what Brooks demands of them but soon the message is abundantly clear, especially after two key losses on the way to a semifinal match against the hated Soviet Union team.
This is easily the best movie released so far this year. Movies are meant to be about the personalities they put forth onto the screen and here, a colorful group is offered from all walks of life and showcases the magic created on its way toward an improbable gold medal. It's too bad there were too many people they could've focused on that by the end of the film, you're unlikely to remember the majority of the players on the team. Instead, it's just Herb Brooks and everyone else. Russell alone really makes the film go and they've done a great job in getting straight to the hockey instead of boring us with pointless stories like three Mighty Ducks films have done. Do you believe in miracles? I do. After watching this film, I really do. 3.5 stars
2/26/2004
So yesterday it was raining like a, well, you know. I might as well have been carrying a bucket to school since not only was I drenched, my backpack was collecting water. That just sucked. Plus, later in the day I had to finish my paper, not a pleasant thing to do. I'd been working on it off and on for the past few days, but yesterday seemed like the perfect day to do it since it was due today. I started at 10 at night and finished up at 4. It's the first time I'd written a paper in like two years. The rust really got to me. I had to dust off that old MLA book I bought my freshman year. What I was writing was the easy stuff; a budget analysis of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency and the effect an ERAF shift has on the agency, should Governor Schwarzenegger (I still can't get used to writing that) have his way in the budget.
I set my alarm clock and went to sleep once I was done. 8:00 class you see.
Woke up. It's 12:00. Something's not right. There was a power outage in Berkeley during the big storm so I had to set my alarm clock again. In my caffeine-induced, half-asleep state I was in at 4 in the morning, I neglected to notice I set my alarm for 6:30 pm instead of am. Silly me. So I hurry to math.
In an episode of Head of the Class, Charlie needs to pass a course in macroeconomics in order to renew his teaching credential. The teacher hurriedly begins to explain the parts of GDP (which equals consumption + investment + government spending + net exports, yet the teacher neglected the exports part). Then she hears her watch beep, erases the board before everyone is done copying, and wishes them good luck on the final the next day. A fellow adult next to Charlie asks whether he got all that. To which Charlie yells yes. Then the adult asks what did it all mean and Charlie said he didn't know but at least he copied it all.
In math, the professor is explaining the proof of Cauchy's Theorem on a disk. He's quickly going through this mumbo-jumbo, gets variables out of thin air, draws clueless figures, mentions the film 12 Monkeys for some odd reason, finishes up, looks at his watch and quickly leaves, leaving the students dazed and still copying. My friend next to me asks whether I understood all that, to which I could only reply, no, but at least I got it all down.
I set my alarm clock and went to sleep once I was done. 8:00 class you see.
Woke up. It's 12:00. Something's not right. There was a power outage in Berkeley during the big storm so I had to set my alarm clock again. In my caffeine-induced, half-asleep state I was in at 4 in the morning, I neglected to notice I set my alarm for 6:30 pm instead of am. Silly me. So I hurry to math.
In an episode of Head of the Class, Charlie needs to pass a course in macroeconomics in order to renew his teaching credential. The teacher hurriedly begins to explain the parts of GDP (which equals consumption + investment + government spending + net exports, yet the teacher neglected the exports part). Then she hears her watch beep, erases the board before everyone is done copying, and wishes them good luck on the final the next day. A fellow adult next to Charlie asks whether he got all that. To which Charlie yells yes. Then the adult asks what did it all mean and Charlie said he didn't know but at least he copied it all.
In math, the professor is explaining the proof of Cauchy's Theorem on a disk. He's quickly going through this mumbo-jumbo, gets variables out of thin air, draws clueless figures, mentions the film 12 Monkeys for some odd reason, finishes up, looks at his watch and quickly leaves, leaving the students dazed and still copying. My friend next to me asks whether I understood all that, to which I could only reply, no, but at least I got it all down.
2/24/2004
Two articles caught my eye while reading the paper today.
The first is a sick story about vandals breaking into a portable classroom in Palo Alto and, among other things, killing a hamster named Marshmallow. If they cut off his head, it would've been like that headless parrot in "Dumb and Dumber". Instead it was "butchered" and its remains would be buried today.
Two other rodents were not harmed, which raises the question: what enemies did young Marshmallow have? Was there a message being sent when they spared these two?
The second is funny by itself. Ever wonder how junk email is filtered? Usually, the program searches for obscene words and automatically deletes the message. But what if your name was obscene? The article documents the problems Craig Cockburn has in sending email. Please, it's pronounced Coburn, but a dumb computer algorithm doesn't know that.
I know my name isn't obscene, so that's no reason to bounce my email to you back to me.
The first is a sick story about vandals breaking into a portable classroom in Palo Alto and, among other things, killing a hamster named Marshmallow. If they cut off his head, it would've been like that headless parrot in "Dumb and Dumber". Instead it was "butchered" and its remains would be buried today.
Two other rodents were not harmed, which raises the question: what enemies did young Marshmallow have? Was there a message being sent when they spared these two?
The second is funny by itself. Ever wonder how junk email is filtered? Usually, the program searches for obscene words and automatically deletes the message. But what if your name was obscene? The article documents the problems Craig Cockburn has in sending email. Please, it's pronounced Coburn, but a dumb computer algorithm doesn't know that.
I know my name isn't obscene, so that's no reason to bounce my email to you back to me.
2/20/2004
Remember that scene in Minority Report when Tom Cruise has just switched out his eyes and is making his way toward the refrigerator only to reach for sour milk and a rotten sandwich? That's exactly what I did this morning.
Well, not the eyes part but the rest of it is applicable.
After three hours of sleep working on a project, the alarm clock for once woke me up, but I felt drowsy yet hungry. I switched beds in the apartment and this one's a tad higher so when I stumbled out of bed, I literally fell to the floor, hitting my head on the table. Surprisingly, while it hurt, it was no help in waking me up. I made my way to the kitchen where I had cereal. It was dark but I didn't want to turn on the light. The refrigerator light was enough. I poured in the milk and started eating and yuck. The milk had turned sour. Turning on the light, I found chunks in my cereal bowl. Not the best of things to wake up to. Reflecting upon it, the milk box did say February 9. I just didn't recognize.
So what did I have instead? A zinger. What the heck's a zinger? It's a wannabe Twinkie except they have ingeniously put frosting on top. I guess that makes it last half as long as a regular Twinkie but get charged the same inflated price.
Well, not the eyes part but the rest of it is applicable.
After three hours of sleep working on a project, the alarm clock for once woke me up, but I felt drowsy yet hungry. I switched beds in the apartment and this one's a tad higher so when I stumbled out of bed, I literally fell to the floor, hitting my head on the table. Surprisingly, while it hurt, it was no help in waking me up. I made my way to the kitchen where I had cereal. It was dark but I didn't want to turn on the light. The refrigerator light was enough. I poured in the milk and started eating and yuck. The milk had turned sour. Turning on the light, I found chunks in my cereal bowl. Not the best of things to wake up to. Reflecting upon it, the milk box did say February 9. I just didn't recognize.
So what did I have instead? A zinger. What the heck's a zinger? It's a wannabe Twinkie except they have ingeniously put frosting on top. I guess that makes it last half as long as a regular Twinkie but get charged the same inflated price.
Eurotrip
After the euphoria from watching "City of God", things hit bottom while watching Eurotrip. 4 relative unknowns, the most famous being Michelle Trachtenberg from Harriet the Spy and the last season of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, explore Europe in search of Scott's (Scott Mechlowicz) penpal and future love, Mieke (Jessica Bohrs), after his former girlfriend (a cameo by Kristin Kreuk) breaks off the relationship to be with a rocker (a cameo by Matt Damon). Along for the ride are twins Jenny (Trachtenberg) and Jamie (Travis Wester) and Scott's best friend Cooper (Jacob West). With 4 high school graduates running around Europe, only hijinks could ensue. And so they do as their adventures go through London, Paris, Amsterdam, Slovakia, Germany and finally Vatican City.
Yes, the ads do say it's from the producers of Old School and Road Trip but you know what? It's half as funny as Road Trip and half as smart as Old School. Sure, there are laughs to be had in the film. Matt Damon's song is hilarious. The soccer hooligans, led by Vinnie Jones, are wild and crazy especially when they're driving on the wrong side of the road. But most of the comedic material otherwise borders on bad taste. The all-male nude beach was gross. Various gags don't go far enough, making you wonder why they did them with so much effort just to get a cheap laugh when they could have had a knee-slapper with a bit more controversy. And don't get me started on all the screw-ups and goings on at the Vatican. But most importantly, with the exception of just a few laugh-out-loud scenes, the film that should be consistently funny suffers from long periods of silence as the filmmakers stuff as many breasts they can get on-screen. I'm not complaining about that last part, but after all, I came for a comedy, which for this film, is merely an average one. 2 stars
After the euphoria from watching "City of God", things hit bottom while watching Eurotrip. 4 relative unknowns, the most famous being Michelle Trachtenberg from Harriet the Spy and the last season of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, explore Europe in search of Scott's (Scott Mechlowicz) penpal and future love, Mieke (Jessica Bohrs), after his former girlfriend (a cameo by Kristin Kreuk) breaks off the relationship to be with a rocker (a cameo by Matt Damon). Along for the ride are twins Jenny (Trachtenberg) and Jamie (Travis Wester) and Scott's best friend Cooper (Jacob West). With 4 high school graduates running around Europe, only hijinks could ensue. And so they do as their adventures go through London, Paris, Amsterdam, Slovakia, Germany and finally Vatican City.
Yes, the ads do say it's from the producers of Old School and Road Trip but you know what? It's half as funny as Road Trip and half as smart as Old School. Sure, there are laughs to be had in the film. Matt Damon's song is hilarious. The soccer hooligans, led by Vinnie Jones, are wild and crazy especially when they're driving on the wrong side of the road. But most of the comedic material otherwise borders on bad taste. The all-male nude beach was gross. Various gags don't go far enough, making you wonder why they did them with so much effort just to get a cheap laugh when they could have had a knee-slapper with a bit more controversy. And don't get me started on all the screw-ups and goings on at the Vatican. But most importantly, with the exception of just a few laugh-out-loud scenes, the film that should be consistently funny suffers from long periods of silence as the filmmakers stuff as many breasts they can get on-screen. I'm not complaining about that last part, but after all, I came for a comedy, which for this film, is merely an average one. 2 stars
2/19/2004
City of God
At last year's Oscars, much ink was spilled about the Academy not giving "City of God" a foreign film nod. Recognization however would come one year later with 4 Academy Award nominations, including best director for Fernando Meirelles. So I finally got a chance to see it last weekend and I was amazed.
Set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, we follow the events happening around Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) growing up. His brother Shaggy (Johnathan Haggensen) is part of the Tender Trio, a gangster group which holds up gas trucks and other things. After a bloody hotel robbery and Shaggy flees the slum life, ultimately killed, we fast forward to Rocket's teenage life. His tastes have grown to include photography, drugs and women, especially Angelica (Alice Braga), seemingly the only love in his life. But the slums have grown up too, maybe too quickly. Cocaine is the name of the game in the slums and two rival gangs are battling for domination led by Carrot (Matheus Nachtergaele) and Lil' Ze (Firmino da Hora). When the peacemaker, Benny (Phelipe Haagensen), is shot dead, all hell breaks loose with kids given guns to join the fight and Rocket caught in the middle, documenting the whole thing with his camera for the newspaper.
This is a sight to see, simply because it is unrelenting. Unrelenting by the quick pace of action. Unrelenting in the level of cold-blooded gunplay seen by people who could be considered toddlers. And unrelenting in the level of heart it portrays. It plays itself off as a very true film. Even in a sea of violence, personalities stand out like Rocket's and Benny's that show good people can come out of this town fearless of the brutal leaders that control it. Meirelles does his best in documenting this trueness with some gritty camerawork and scenes that, like a gun firing, shoot at you at bullet speeds and hits with its huge impact. 4 stars
At last year's Oscars, much ink was spilled about the Academy not giving "City of God" a foreign film nod. Recognization however would come one year later with 4 Academy Award nominations, including best director for Fernando Meirelles. So I finally got a chance to see it last weekend and I was amazed.
Set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, we follow the events happening around Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) growing up. His brother Shaggy (Johnathan Haggensen) is part of the Tender Trio, a gangster group which holds up gas trucks and other things. After a bloody hotel robbery and Shaggy flees the slum life, ultimately killed, we fast forward to Rocket's teenage life. His tastes have grown to include photography, drugs and women, especially Angelica (Alice Braga), seemingly the only love in his life. But the slums have grown up too, maybe too quickly. Cocaine is the name of the game in the slums and two rival gangs are battling for domination led by Carrot (Matheus Nachtergaele) and Lil' Ze (Firmino da Hora). When the peacemaker, Benny (Phelipe Haagensen), is shot dead, all hell breaks loose with kids given guns to join the fight and Rocket caught in the middle, documenting the whole thing with his camera for the newspaper.
This is a sight to see, simply because it is unrelenting. Unrelenting by the quick pace of action. Unrelenting in the level of cold-blooded gunplay seen by people who could be considered toddlers. And unrelenting in the level of heart it portrays. It plays itself off as a very true film. Even in a sea of violence, personalities stand out like Rocket's and Benny's that show good people can come out of this town fearless of the brutal leaders that control it. Meirelles does his best in documenting this trueness with some gritty camerawork and scenes that, like a gun firing, shoot at you at bullet speeds and hits with its huge impact. 4 stars
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