As we hit up May, it's time for that critical 4 month period where studios make most of their money for the year. While a multitude of movies will be shown for all to see, only a handful will be considered must-see. Leading the pack? Star Wars: Episode III of course. Come on, midnight showing! Who's with me?

May 6

Crash - From writer/director Paul Haggis comes a look at the complexities of racial conflict in Los Angeles featuring an all-star cast including Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Ludacris, and Ryan Phillippe.

House of Wax - Teens find a house filled with wax figures and must escape before they become part of the exhibit. Taking away some of the suspense is Paris Hilton, who has already announced she dies in the film.

Kingdom of Heaven - From the director of Gladiator, Ridley Scott, comes another period piece, this time set in 12th century Europe as Christians and Muslims fight over the Holy Land. Orlando Bloom stars.

May 13

Kicking and Screaming - Will Ferrell takes on the task of transforming a youth soccer team into a winner.

Mindhunters - Two and a half years and counting. That's how long this film has been on the shelf waiting to be released. I've watched it and I know why it's been 2 1/2 years. It sucks big time. But seeing as how this is the 4th time I've written about it, just release the thing and make whatever money you can.

Monster-in-Law - Jennifer Lopez just wants to be married to Michael Vartan. Not a simple task with his mother (Jane Fonda) in the way.

Unleashed - Jet Li stars as a fighter who escaped his death-match past and befriended a blind piano teacher (Morgan Freeman). His past comes back to haunt him however when his former master finds him to bring him back.

May 19

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith - The eagerly anticipated final piece of the 6-part puzzle that is the Star Wars mythos. The Clone Wars are at an end but a rising empire awaits the Republic.

May 27

The Longest Yard - Adam Sandler tries out football again as he leads his prison football team in a game against the guards.

Madagascar - Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith and Chris Rock are the voices of 4 animals mistakenly shipped off to the island country of Madagascar.

June 3

Cinderella Man - You know what we need? Another movie about boxing. Yes we do. Russell Crowe, an out-of-work former boxer, gets another shot at the ring during the Depression era.

Lords of Dogtown - This '70s skating flick is rated PG-13 for "drugs and alcohol content, sexuality, violence, language and reckless behavior - all involving teens." So R wasn't an option?

The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants - 4 girls decide to keep in touch by exchanging a pair of pants. Make sure you wash them before sending them on.

June 10

The Adventures of Lava Boy and Shark Girl in 3-D - From Robert Rodriguez comes another 3-D adventure (Spy Kids) courtesy of an idea from his son Racer. Stars David Arquette and Kristin Davis.

The Honeymooners - Based on the classic TV show, Mike Epps and Cedric the Entertainer take over the main roles.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith - It's the movie that touched off the whole Jennifer Aniston/Brad Pitt gossip. Married couple Pitt and Angelina Jolie find out they are assassins for competing agencies and discover their next target is each other.

June 15

Batman Begins - In the hopes of shaking off Joel Schumacher's nipple costumes, director Christopher Nolan returns to Batman's roots with Christian Bale in the title role.

June 17

The Perfect Man - Hilary Duff tries to hook her mom up with a man. But when your mom is Heather Locklear, this should be a 10-minute movie, right?

June 24

Bewitched - Based on the classic TV show, a revival is in the works with Nicole Kidman as the bewitching star and Will Ferrell as her husband.

Herbie: Fully Loaded - Remember that Herbie the Love Bug? Well, it gets a CGI-facelift and a very attractive driver with Lindsay Lohan at the wheel.

George A. Romero's Land of the Dead - Even the title gives me the creeps.

June 29

War of the Worlds - Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg are at it again. Based on the movie and the H.G. Wells story, Cruise leads his loved ones to safety as aliens invade Earth. Who wants to bet there's a slow-motion shot of Cruise running? Anyone?

July 1

Rebound - Martin Lawrence is a college basketball coach who must save face by coaching a junior high team to victory.

July 8

Dark Water - A psychological thriller from the creators of The Ring stars Jennifer Connelly as a woman who tries to start fresh at raising her daughter only to find her apartment has taken on a life of its own.

Fantastic Four - Michael Chiklis, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Ioan Gruffudd constitute the Fantastic Four based on the comic book.

July 15

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Loved the story. Hated the musical. But this time, all is about to change with Tim Burton at the helm and Johnny Depp as the star.

Happy Endings - Another movie about people's lives intertwining with Lisa Kudrow as the star.

Hustle and Flow - The tale of a Memhis pimp who becomes a rapper won rave reviews at Sundance.

The Wedding Crashers - This adult comedy stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as two guys who crash weddings to hit on the ladies. This time, they meet their match in Rachel McAdams and Isla Fisher.

July 22

Bad News Bears - Billy Bob Thornton takes over Walter Matthau's role as drunk manager of the little league baseball team.

The Island - From Michael Bay comes a futuristic thriller starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as two clones who try to escape the facility that harvests their body parts when needed.

July 29

The Brothers Grimm - When a movie has the saltry Monica Bellucci, I'll try to watch. In this delayed film, Matt Damon and Heath Ledger promise to exorcize the ghost that exist but eventually get cursed.

Sky High - If you're the son of superheroes, your future inevitably involves being a superhero. But with no powers to your name, what are you going to do? Ummm, get high?

Stealth - Remember when Chris Rock told producers to wait for the right person to star in your movie instead of rushing anyone out there to act? Well, the producers at Steath have a $125 million film on their hands about naval pilots threatened by a computerized jet. Who's starring? Jessica Biel and Josh Lucas. Wow. Sure, Jamie Foxx is in it too, but he's in a supporting role.

August 5

Broken Flowers - In this limited release, Bill Murray discovers he has a 20-year-old son. If only he knew who the mother was.

The Dukes of Hazzard - Revival summer continues as this TV show from the past gets a movie. Seann William Scott, Johnny Knoxville, and Jessica Simpson star.

The Pink Panther - Inspector Clouseau lives on as Steve Martin takes on the role in search of a ring.

August 12

Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo - Title says it all, doesn't it?

Four Brothers - Foster brothers team up to solve the case of their murdered caretaker.

The Skeleton Key - Kate Hudson tries to break her streak of awful films by taking up a horror flick.

August 19

The 40-Year-Old Virgin - Steve Carell plays the title role with the object of his affection being Catherine Keener.

Domino - Keira Knightley is a bounty hunter. Ignoring its Man on Fire look, watching Knightley as a bounty hunter is worth the price of admission.

Red Eye - Rachel McAdams gets kidnapped on a flight by that guy in scrubs from 28 Days Later.

August 26

The Cave - Imagine going into a cave and never coming out. Well, that's the story of The Cave, a place that the advertising says is below Hell. Stars Piper Perabo. Piper Perabo? Really?

The Interpreter
For any other man, dealing with the death of a spouse can take weeks, months, or even years to recover from. Not Tobin Keller (Sean Penn). He's back on the job after only two weeks. In many respects, he has to come back. He's on the Secret Service protecting visiting foreign dignataries. The latest to visit is Edmund Zuwanie, the President of Motobo accused of crimes against humanity who has come to the United Nations in order to defend himself. But days prior to his visit, an interpreter named Sylvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) claims to have overheard a plot to assassinate Zuwanie. But the more Keller delves into her story, the more questions that come up including those about her African past and those having to gain from a possible murder.

The Interpreter is the type of movie everyone should be making. A simple, cliched plotline (an assassination attempt) set against the backdrop of an unknown and complex locale (the United Nations) brings about many creative ideas. Indeed, this is so on the camera side since director Sydney Pollack got permission to shoot at the United Nations, the first time any movie has shot there. New York City also figures prominently and shows itself off well. However, the storytelling could have used some work. If you go in without watching the 2-minute trailer, you might have been fine but the first hour and a half could be neatly summarized in the trailer and you could have gone straight to the ending. It may not be apparent at first, but the whole ending is revealed in the first 20 minutes...just gotta connect the dots. The climax, with a few minor plotholes, is excellent but if I have to watch Penn become teary-eyed and emotional again, I'll hurl. Honest. 3 stars

Stolen laptops seem to be the rage in Berkeley lately (and Cal being named to lead a cybersecurity project was a cruel joke, right?), but the latest laptop to be stolen has produced the most heated reaction.

Biology 1A Professor Jasper Rine had his laptop stolen last week prior to exam time. But not only does it have that information, it also contains classified information that has forced him to notify various government agencies including the FBI and SEC as well as a company he's working for. As a result, he dedicated the last 5 minutes of lecture to the thief, informing him that he was his only hope to getting out of this mess and that he was leaving for vacation in a few short hours.

First off, he probably missed the deadline since the class I understand is at 8 AM and somebody who's stealing laptops is probably watching the webcast over the weekend instead of listening to him live.

Second, yes, this probably gets your computer back while scaring the thief silly, but Professor Rine, you didn't need to make this public. If you can truly track down the thief through transponders and Microsoft Product Keys (can you really do that?), why not get him discreetly instead of basically detailing what you've got on the computer? It's like somebody stealing a briefcase, only to have the owner proclaim "Hey! That briefcase has the nuclear codes for this country, so you better return it!" Now, you're liable for all the data on the computer, possibly getting you into as much trouble as the kid who stole the laptop in the first place.

Watch the video through the Berkeley webcast (man, was this a lifesaver in my 4 years there) and scroll to about 49:00 or go to Boing Boing for his speech alone.

I've been trying to stay off my feet for the last few days. An ankle sprain can be a bitch. Luckily, those fitness foci from middle school came in handy. Remember RICE, people?

So there's a new pope. If I was Catholic, I'd be excited. Instead, it's just noteworthy. You may have heard there's black smoke if there isn't a decision on who the new pope is and white if there is. Guess what color it was today? Grayish. Good thing Pope John Paul II wrote that he wanted the bells to ring when the new pope was chosen. Well, they were 5 minutes late, but hey, nice thought. The new pope, Benedict XVI, is 78, the oldest pope elected in 300 years. I guess some weren't kidding when they commented they wanted a "temporary" pope before the next great revolutionary came along.

At my former employer (I told you I changed jobs, right?), my co-workers and I would always ridicule the marketing department. You never see any newspaper ads, but they've got plenty of posters that make no sense. In the world of hard drives, perpendicular recording will change it drastically, increasing capacity by 10 times what it is now. To explain this technique, marketing has created another in a long line of embarrassing flash animations and video clips. Is this infromative? Sure. Is it cringe-inducing? You bet. See for yourself.

Melinda and Melinda
Two people get into an argument over whether comedies and dramas are preferable. So guy #3 gets involved and presents them with a situation: a woman crashes a dinner party. The two people then create a comedy and drama on that basis in this latest Woody Allen work. The common thread in the two is Melinda (Radha Mitchell). In the drama, Melinda crashes a dinner party of her college friend, who had offered her a place to stay a few months earlier but never showed up. Melinda's husband had just left her after she had an affair and her friends try to hook her up. Instead, she falls for the piano player at another party, which leads into another disaster. In the comedy, Melinda crashes a dinner party held by her neighbors Susan and Hobie (Amanda Peet and Will Ferrell). Susan and Hobie's marriage has been falling apart with their careers going in opposite directions. Hobie begins to get attracted to Melinda but doesn't know how to break it to Susan. However, as one door opens, another closes.

I'd have to go with the comedy on this one. The drama is utterly depressing filled with emotionless characters who couldn't care less about their friends even if they say something different. The comedy though has little more going for it except for the chemistry between Hobie and Melinda, which was limited to a few short minutes. Ferrell is always funny but was surrounded by an unfunny cast and, ultimately, story. But it was entertaining nonetheless. Too bad it was only half the movie. 2 stars

Sin City
From Frank Miller's graphic novels and the direction of Robert Rodriguez comes a slickly created look at Basin City, a place where the people are the true holders of the law. The film is essentially three short stories put together to form one fantastic film. The first introduces us to Marv (Mickey Rourke), a large ugly brute who is caught in bed with a dead prostitute (Jamie King). As his one true love, he vows to find her murderer. The second story involves Dwight (Clive Owen), new love of waitress Shellie (Brittany Murphy), defending her honor against her former boyfriend, Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro). Jackie Boy is eventually lured into the Old Town, controlled by a group led by Rosario Dawson. But the situation gets complicated as it is discovered Jackie Boy is a cop and the mob, led by Michael Clarke Duncan, gets involved. Finally, Bruce Willis is Hartigan, a man who saved a young girl from being raped and killed, getting injured in the process. Fully healed and released from a jail cell after 9 years, he goes in search of the little girl he saved, who had stopped sending him letters. By discovering the little girl all grown up (Jessica Alba), he puts her in danger once again and must save her.

In any other film environment, this movie may have never been shown. There would be too much violence and gore to be seen without a NC-17 rating, something that would scare studios away. Yet the film's visual style tones it down while leaving behind the same effect producing a mind-blowing experience. But while many will focus on the style, there's a lot to be said for the substance. Female prostitutes empowering themselves to take back the streets, an old man risking his life twice for the same person and the perserverence of one man to find the killer of the one he loves make for interesting storylines and things we can admire. Well, not the killing parts. And that violent version of Michael Jackson.

3.5 stars

Game 11: Orioles 7, Yankees 6

Who would have thought games against the Yankees would cure what ails the O's? They've won 4 out of 5 against them this year, the latest being a come-from-behind victory after trailing 6-2 in the 7th after a poor throw in the field by Miggy. Brian Roberts continues his torrid pace by hitting his 5th HR, which is better than the 4 he had last year.

Cabrera is on the mound today against injured old man Kevin Brown. If young Daniel doesn't translate his spring success into quality starts, I'd want to see him outta there.

Game 7: Orioles 7, Devil Rays 6

So...Tropicana Field. Do they vacuum the field to make it look ugly like that?

I'm beginning to lose my patience with Cabrera. Sure, he's a big guy with a strong arm, but two poor outings to start the season doesn't bode well for the rest of it. Luckily, this team is built to overcome lackluster pitching with an explosive offense.

You could almost see the O's braintrust pat themselves on the back with its decision to switch Ryan and Julio in their relief roles. Julio almost gave the game away, giving up a run before leaving for Ryan, who also had a close call but managed to close the game with 3 straight outs after giving up a triple and a walk. Kudos. Even more kudos to Brian Roberts, who already is having an outstanding year.

Sammy Sosa got his first home run of the season. Here's a weird fact I heard: This was Sosa's first home run at Tropicana Field. There are only a few places where he hasn't hit one. One of them is the O's own Camden Yards.

Garbage at the Warfield was a blast last night. Shirley's voice sounded great, even though she was still recovering from a flu that canceled the band's first concert on the tour in Seattle. She was more fun to watch this time than the last time around since she was able to strut around the stage as if she owned the place, something she wasn't able to do when she was playing second fiddle to No Doubt in SJ. 90 minutes of pure enjoyment.

A few things to note:

Michelle from OG was standing right next to me, which was kinda random.

Garbage's new CD, Bleed Like Me, drops Tuesday. They performed 4 songs off it at the concert: Bleed Like Me, Right Between the Eyes, Sex is Not the Enemy, and the first single, Why Do You Love Me. Sounds good but will it reach the heights of Version 2.0? Probably not.

The opening act, The Dead 60s was more like dead on arrival. A rock band with high hopes, big dreams, lots of energy, but are they talented? Let's just say this English band is not my cup of tea. Pretty much the same beat for every song and that cowbell in the middle was a little excessive. It's not the prescription for what ails them. What's with the name anyway? They aren't 60 and it didn't look like they were channeling anything from the '60s. Just happy the '60s are dead?

I was on the floor so when you're about 4 rows away from Shirley, people behind you are bound to try to get closer. But this girl behind me was trying to push me for a good 15 minutes before giving up and heading left. So there's an immovable object for ya. Downside? Her boyfriend, trying to move with the music, got to move up and kept elbowing me in the ribs every few seconds for about a half hour. So not only do my feet hurt this morning, my ribs are feeling it too.

We turn away from the Orioles and movies for a moment so that we can on another favorite of mine, the Masters. I wouldn't usually write about golf, but the notable things happening there this weekend are hard to ignore.

First, there was the rain. Only 4 tournaments this year have not been affected by rain. So, the Masters, of course, was affected. Luckily, no rain this weekend has meant non-stop golf.

Then there was the heartfelt good-bye to Jack Nicklaus, the greatest golfer to ever grace Augusta National. He won there 6 times, including one in 1986 when he was 46. His heart wants him to play every year but his body is forcing him to say no. While breaking 80 is a feat for a 65-year-old, it's something Jack isn't accustomed to and as a result, he says he has played his last tournament there. His son, Jackie, says he'll be back and quite possibly the allure of Augusta will be too strong, but Jack may be good as gone. At least until he visits St. Andrew's for the British Open in July.

Finally, the important news concerning the tourney. Greg Norman was a very dominant player in the late '90s but had never won a major in the United States. In 1996, he led after the first 3 rounds by a dominant 6 shots. But over the course of the final day, he basically choked, giving way to Nick Faldo's 5-shot win. A swing of 11 shots is very hard to do. This morning, Chris DiMarco held a 4-shot lead over Tiger Woods in the middle of the third round.

The only thing worse than trailing a leading Tiger Woods is having Tiger in second while you're in the lead. When the horn sounded to begin play, DiMarco did his best Norman imitation while Woods played like Faldo. DiMarco shot a double bogey on 10 while Woods birdied. On 11, Woods birdied again, leaving them tied in less than a half hour. DiMarco would shoot 3 more bogeys while Woods would shoot 7 consecutive birdies, tying the record, before shooting 2 bogeys to hold a 3-shot lead heading into the final round.

The only majors Tiger has won have been when he has either led or was tied heading into the final round, so things aren't looking good for Chris DiMarco if he wants to save face from this collapse.

(Update: DiMarco managed to make it close thanks to Woods' two bogeys to finish the final round, but Tiger prevails.)

Game 2: Athletics 9, Orioles 0

So Newton (I remember now...3rd law, I got it) talked about how every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. Well, after the O's shutout win over the A's, the A's got to produce a shutout win of their own.

In many ways, this is the O's team everyone expected to see with the exception of the absent offense. You would think with emergency starter Kirk Saarloos going for the A's, the O's would have a field day. Instead, they only got a hit off him in addition to a hit off that time bomb waiting to explode Ricardo Rincon and another off newbie Huston Street. Hey, I was just on Huston Street the other day, but that's another story.

You could tell that it would be a frustrating night for pitcher Daniel Cabrera. Just like Rodrigo Lopez before him, his first batter, Mark Kotsay, fouled off pitch after pitch. After a little talking to from Tejada, Lopez recovered and pitched a masterful game. Tejada also talked to Cabrera and he recovered but pitched an awful second inning. It was pretty surprising Mazzilli left him in til the 4th.

Before Cabrera gave way to the bullpen, commentator Rick Sutcliffe (that was him right?) was saying if the starters can give some good innings, the bullpen will take care of business. Okay, so the starter only gave 3 1/3. Would the bullpen hold up? Absolutely not. The only bright spot was Todd Williams, who was pretty much perfect in the spring and tonite pitched a perfect 8th inning. Parrish was okay but did allow some walks.

And whoa, what was with the attendance? 22,000 it says in the box score. You can bet Angelos will try to squeeze a little more money out of the Nationals now.

I won't be commenting on the O's every game, but this is a special case since they're facing the A's, the favorite team of a few of my friends. So to them, pile it on tonight and we'll see what happens in the rubber game tomorrow.

First in an occasional series

Game 1: Orioles 4, Athletics 0

During the entire winter, Orioles fans chanted for one thing: pitchers. There were plenty of good options out there, highlighted by Tim Hudson. Yet the GM duo chose to upgrade the relieving corps and bring in Sammy Sosa to an already powerful hitting lineup.

You can't judge a season by its first game, but if you could, the Orioles may end up doing okay, possibly ending its consecutive losing season streak at 6. Rodrigo Lopez pitched a strong 6 innings and Manager Lee Mazzilli brought in his closing lineup of Steve Kline, Jorge Julio and B.J. Ryan to close the deal, shutting out the A's on Opening Day. Under pitching coach Ray Miller, the O's did show improvement in the last half of 2004 and we may just be seeing a continuation of that work.

Even without a home run from its power hitters, the O's offense was strong, led by Sosa's 2 hits and a home run by Luis Matos. Something to keep an eye on is Javy Lopez's exit in the 7th inning, giving way to Geronimo Gil. Either Kline prefers Gil, Kline doesn't prefer Javy, or something is amiss. It couldn't be exhaustion...it's opening day! (Update: It was something amiss. The official line is "lower back stiffness". I just hope this doesn't plague him for the rest of the season.)

All in all, a strong start.

Well, let's move on.

Daylight Savings Time begins tonite. Spring up by moving those clocks forward one hour.

Anyone notice the place they're filming in those TIAA-CREF commercials? None other than Pimentel Hall on the Cal campus. One thing wrong about the look though. That auditorium looks mighty full of alert students. Everyone knows a typical lecture will be half full, with half of those people asleep. Oh yeah, it looks a little cleaner on TV too.

I was passing by Hillsdale Park the other day and it was packed on a very nice day. Lots of people were eating and playing basketball. But what was weird was the tennis courts, which were empty. Then I think I saw why. Two Department of Corrections buses were in the parking lot. Guess those tennis players were just a little scared.

AMC = American Movie Classics. Supposedly. You've heard me remark about the kinds of movies AMC shows on their cable network that are obviously not classics. Speed. Crocodile Dundee 2. Not even the original...the sequel. Tonite, it's a Van Damme marathon. Oh my. But recently, I saw a film that you know would be a classic.

Death Wish 3. Man, what a movie. Basically, a gang has taken over a neighborhood in New York City and Charles Bronson comes in with a partner and a few guns and singlehandedly takes the entire gang out. Gratutitous violence at its finest.

The Ring 2
After ridding themselves of the curse of the Ring, Rachel (Naomi Watts) and son Aidan (David Dorfman) move from Washington to Oregon for a fresh start. While at work as a newspaper editor, Rachel gets word of a mysterious death that sounded eerily familiar. Sure enough, the tape has reappeared. While she destroys it, Aidan begins to exhibit odd behavior, becoming hypothermic in the process. It becomes clear to Rachel that Samara has come back to haunt her and it's up to her to investigate how to get rid of her again.

While The Ring was a mildly scary adventure, it certainly didn't need a sequel and yet here we are: an unnecessary sequel that isn't as scary as the first and tough to comprehend. Directed by the original Japanese director, scenery and atmosphere are the main focus of his scare tactics whether it's the dark basement or the deep well and it sure looks nice, but overall it falls short. Besides, it's hard to fathom the tape reaching the exact town where Rachel and Aidan are when Samara apparently didn't need the tape to get to them. So while you sit there quietly taking it all in, you get to an ending that's just as exciting as Ringu's emptying the well ending except this time, it pretty much makes no sense. 1.5 stars

A death of note this morning...and it's not Terri Schiavo's.

According to HowardStern.com, Mitch Hedberg has passed on. One of my favorite comedians of the last 5 years, Mitch had the uncanny ability of finding the right humor in all the high places. Through his two CD's, multiple TV appearances, and club dates, it was easy to find someone laughing hysterically at his jokes. It was probably me.

The cause of death is unknown, but rumors point to a heroin overdose (Update: According to this St. Paul obituary, his family was told it was a heart attack). He used to do drugs. He still did use them, but he used to, too. He was 37.

Have I ever told you the story about some water at a pho place? Well, it was at one of those pho restaurants on Capitol and Silver Creek (don't worry, not in business anymore) and we asked for water and tea. Disgustingly, one of the cups of water had keys in it, so when we showed it to the server, he just laughed and replaced it with a new water (or he could've just fished them out, I don't know...I stuck with the tea).

Now comes word of a different sort of object in food, this time a bowl of chili at Wendy's on Monterey near downtown where a couple seems to have found a human finger. When it was brought to the attention of the workers, they thought it was just a vegetable, but it has been confirmed otherwise. The last sentence in the Mercury News article really had me laughing though.

Asked whether they were still selling chili, Irving said they had run out of it that evening but planned to continue selling it today.

Hostage
After a failed hostage negotiation, Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) chose to leave the job of negotiator and take the position of police chief in a small Los Angeles suburb. But everything he left would soon come back to him in the form of three teenagers with an eye toward an Escalade who hold a rich family hostage at their hilltop house. While he passes the case onto other authorities, he's forced upon the situation by an unknown hooded mob, which needs a disc inside the house, who holding his own family hostage. So Talley needs to use his wits to solve two separate hostage situations before everyone potentially loses their lives.

The situation is very interesting and it would have made for a great movie if not for the stupidity of all involved. The teenagers, who apparently have a history of carjacking (if so, why are they driving such a beat-up truck?), instead break into the guy's house and force him to give up the keys? They do realize they could be tracked with GPS right? (I'm sure the car has it, this rich guy seemed to have everything.) Plus, they're up on a hill. Probably one access road that could easily be blocked. Then they give up Kevin Pollak as good faith? Man, they need to watch some of those hostage movies that are part of the rich guy's collection. Then Talley comes up with a plan that involves all three teenagers to come out to the front. Gee, they're dumb, but they're not that dumb. Then this mob comes up to invade the house parading as the FBI. Why didn't they do this in the first place? Haven't they seen Die Hard? They could have just taken over and not needed Talley's help whatsoever. It's also a letdown that we never see who holds Talley's family hostage, seeing as how they knew so much about him. I must admit the whole ordeal is kinda thrilling, but if you're looking for a smart thriller, look elsewhere. 2 stars

Sources inform me of a new place serving pho and it's somewhere where you'd least expect.

Fresh Choice is introducing an Asian flavor to its dishes with the introduction of pho as a soup to serve in its soup and salad buffet. The picture on the web site doesn't make it look too appetizing. There are carrots on top and the noodles look way too big. (or do those look like bean sprouts?)

The important question is how does it taste? I don't know, but I'm game if you are.

Gee, and I thought Berkeley's administration was messed up. It seems SJSU is 10 times worse. Ever since my sister began there, from a records standpoint, it has been awful. Lost transcripts, lost financial info., re-send transcripts, scheduling difficulties, etc. But this one takes the cake.

My dad was worried that he hasn't received the 1098 tax form yet from SJSU. It gives tax credit for tuition. So my dad called up the cashier's office and gave them my sister's info. First question they ask?

Is she a U.S. citizen?

It was at this point my dad went off. "Of course she is! How else could she be in school?" could be heard from the semi-yelling. He goes on to recite SSNs and birth location and date. But to no avail. All they said is to use a printout of what you paid to use for the tax form.

As for the U.S. citizen question, they apparently didn't have her SSN on file. How can this be fixed?

Leave a message and we'll get back to you...

On the heels of Hai's B-day yesterday is Steves' birthday today. Happy 23rd.

Happy birthday wishes go out to Hai on his 23rd birthday today.

Oscar predictions. It's a funny thing.

2002: 14/24
2003: 15/24
2004: 16/24

So you would think I'd get 17 this year, right? Nope, I did one better.

My Oscar Predictions (Winners in Bold):

Picture: Million Dollar Baby

Director: Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby

Actor: Jamie Foxx, Ray

Actress: Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby

Supporting Actor: Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby

Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, The Aviator

Adapted Screenplay: Sideways

Original Screenplay: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Foreign Film: The Sea Inside

Live Action Short Film: Little Terrorist Wasp

Animated Feature: The Incredibles

Animated Short Film: Ryan

Documentary: Born Into Brothels

Documentary Short Subject: Autism is a World Mighty Times: The Children's March

Editing: The Aviator

Art Direction: The Aviator

Cinematography: A Very Long Engagement The Aviator

Visual Effects: Spider-Man 2

Make-up: The Passion of the Christ Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Costume Design: The Aviator

Original Song: "Accidentally in Love" from Shrek 2 "Al Otro Lado Del Rio" from The Motorcycle Diaries

Original Score: Finding Neverland

Sound Mixing: Ray

Sound Editing: Spider-Man 2 The Incredibles

While there's still 2004 movies to watch through Netflix, it's time to move on. So here's the big list of movies seen in 2004.

Top Ten Movies of the Year
1. The Incredibles
2. Hero
3. Kill Bill: Volume 2
4. Sideways
5. Million Dollar Baby
6. Hotel Rwanda
7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
8. Collateral
9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
10. Maria Full of Grace

Bottom Ten Movies of the Year
1. White Chicks
2. Surviving Christmas
3. Thunderbirds
4. Resident Evil: Apocalypse
5. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins
6. Walking Tall
7. King Arthur
8. Alfie
9. The Village
10. Alexander

The Rest
3½ stars

The Bourne Supremacy
The Manchurian Candidate
Miracle

3 stars

13 Going on 30
The Aviator
Before Sunset
Closer
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
The Girl Next Door
Goodbye, Lenin!
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
In Good Company
Mean Girls
Meet the Fockers
Ray
Shrek 2
Spider-Man 2
Starsky & Hutch
Super Size Me

2½ stars

50 First Dates
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera
Dawn of the Dead
Fahrenheit 9/11
Friday Night Lights
House of Flying Daggers
I, Robot
Jersey Girl
Ladykillers
Man on Fire
Ocean’s Twelve
The Passion of the Christ
Shaun of the Dead
Spartan
The Stepford Wives
Troy

2 stars

The Alamo
Blade: Trinity
The Day After Tomorrow
The Dreamers
Eurotrip
The Grudge
Hellboy
Laws of Attraction
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Napoleon Dynamite
National Treasure
The Notebook
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Team America: World Police
The Terminal
Welcome to Mooseport

1½ stars

A Cinderella Story
Raise Your Voice
Raising Helen
Wimbledon

Million Dollar Baby
Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) is headed toward the last legs of a career as a boxing trainer. His last boxer just left with a new manager. All he has left is the gym he runs with his friend Scrap (Morgan Freeman). A female boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) is eager to be trained by Frankie, but he refuses. So in the corner, she trained and trained until finally, Frankie saw some promise in her. With his help, she becomes the best female boxer in the country. But when tragedy occurs during an international match, Maggie and Frankie together make the most important decision of their lives.

While advertised as a boxing film, the movie is so much more. It takes a lot of character development to build the complexity Million Dollar Baby is able to do, and Eastwood, Freeman, and Swank pass with flying colors, breathing life to a not-so-showy script. Coming in, all three lives were incomplete, needing that final piece to be happy, and together, they manage to complete it in their own way. Eastwood's direction in the film is excellent, showing off the continued high quality of his work. It may not be the best picture of the year (Oscar voters may say differently) but it is certainly one of the best and most emotionally fulfilling. 3.5 stars

Hotel Rwanda
Early in its history, the people of Rwanda were divided into two groups, Tutsis and Hutu. Today, it looked as though peace would be achieved between these two factions, but violence kept them divided. The Hutu threatened to kill every Tutsis in sight, even with the eyes of the world upon them and U.N. peacekeepers doing nothing about it. In the middle of it all, Paul (Don Cheadle) is the manager of a hotel that caters to American and European tourists. Paul, a Hutu, is married to Tatiana, a Tutsis. Once the violence erupts, Paul houses hundreds of Tutsis refugees in the hotel, as U.N. forces withdraw to safer territory. It takes a lot to protect these refugees, constantly paying off his police friends while he pleads with the commander of the U.N. forces and the president of the hotel for help. It's a temporary fix, but time is running out and everything around him crumbles in the mean time.

The film does a really good job showing the inhumane conditions the Rwandans faced during this time of civil war. You can't help but feel for Paul as he himself feels helpless through many junctures of the film until a quick idea leads to a few more days of survival. Cheadle does a great job of conveying this, showing a good face to the crowds but showing how it can take its toll privately. It's also a quick history lesson for those who do not remember the casualties in Rwanda during the crisis in 1994. 3.5 stars

Assault on Precinct 13
Detroit's Precinct 13 is destined to be closed on January 1, to be replaced by a high-tech facility nearby. As a result, it's a bitter goodbye from those who are manning it for the last time, headed by Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) and accompanied by old timer Jasper O'Shea (Brian Dennehy) and secretary Iris (Drea de Matteo). Meanwhile, the police have scored a coup with the arrest of criminal mastermind Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne). Along with a group of other prisoners, they are about to be transported to a different facility until bad weather forces them to nearby Precinct 13. Due to Bishop's involvement with some dirty cops, these cops, led by Gabriel Byrne, want Bishop dead and soon try to storm the police station, but Roenick rounds up what little men and ammunition he has to make a stand.

I don't understand why Byrne's team couldn't take the station by force. Obviously outmanned and outgunned, they could've just blown up the place right? They didn't care that cops were going to be killed and the building was about to be torn down anyway, so why not? So other than their implausible stand, Assault on Precinct 13 makes for some good entertainment, even knowing the fact that it could've been over sooner than the 2 hour running time indicates. 2 stars

Hide and Seek
It's a traumatizing time for the Callaway family. Wife Alison has committed suicide leaving husband David (Robert DeNiro) and daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) to pick up the pieces. David, himself a psychiatrist, is convinced a move to upstate New York will help his daughter cope with the loss. But after the move, Emily begins to change due to a new imaginary friend of hers named Charlie. While it seems innocent at first, Emily is moving away from the good girl that she was. It's up to David to figure out whether or not Charlie is real or not and how he can get rid of her.

When you figure out the true identity of Charlie (How can you not? It's quite obvious if you follow the clues), the movie goes downhill into a slasher-type flick. Even if you can't figure out the clues, they give him up fairly early into the ending, with about 30 minutes to go. It would have been better to find out more about Charlie (origins, etc.) instead of him terrorizing everybody, but that's the direction they went, which is disappointing because it had more going for it than that. 1.5 stars

Friday Night Lights / Raise Your Voice
These movies are out on DVD but since they came out in October, they still make the list to the left. However, there isn't much to say about them.

Friday Night Lights chronicles the events of a high school football team in Permian Basin, Texas. High school football in Texas is a religion for most folks down there and at this high school, it's no exception. With pressure running high for a state championship, Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) has his hands full. While the talent is there, having them work as a team is another problem. It is this dedication to building bridges in order to achieve one goal brings the team together all the way to the state championship game, even as their star running back gets injured.

While events in the film were changed a little bit to suit Hollywood, it still comes up short in telling a compelling story. However, it is one of the most nicely shot football films I've seen in a while so credit goes to those who made it look so real.

Raise Your Voice concerns a young girl (Hilary Duff) who has dreams of becoming a great singer and helped along by her brother (Jason Ritter), applies to an exclusive summer music program in Los Angeles. But when the two sneak out for a concert, her brother dies in a car accident. Still recovering from his death, nothing can break Terri from her depression, even the news that she was accepted to the program. Her mom (Rita Wilson) and aunt (Rebecca DeMornay) convince her to go and manage to sneak her there under the nose of her father, who highly opposes Terri going. Once there, the competition is fierce but everything Terri puts into her singing is for her brother, giving her the chance to win a coveted scholarship.

This movie shifts back and forth so many times, it never knows when to stop until the movie is over. Duff tries to do here best with the bad material but mainly, she's either smiling or crying. Soon, it eventually becomes a cycle as you await how Terri will become teary and want to leave or when the angry dad appears or when everyone gathers in the quad to jam. Might as well let Duff sing in the movie instead of surrounding it with all that dialogue.

Friday Night Lights: 2.5 stars
Raise Your Voice: 1.5 stars

I was talking with my cousins the other day at the New Year's party and I realized something about the li xi, money, we get every year. For most Asians I know, the older you are, the more you get. For my family though, it seems to be a bell curve. You start out young and you get a few bucks from everyone. Once you hit around junior high or so, earnings multiply quickly. Around high school, you've reached the limit. After that, while money per person remains high, the number of people giving money to you dwindles until finally you're too old. Suddenly, I'm feeling deprived.

With New Year's mostly done (more parties this weekend), Valentine's Day approaches and one of the weirdest commercials I've seen involves buying pajamas for your significant other. While it looks professional, obviously someone just wanted to film ladies in pajamas in bed while spewing out such lines as "also buy some of that spa stuff women love."

Hockey seems more or less doomed as evidenced by the latest proposal and rejection by the owners and players respectively. Those owners are very shrewd. You see, the owners and the players each have their own proposal. The owners said, okay, we'll follow the players' proposal but if it gets too expensive, things will automatically revert to the owners' proposal. But the owners are the ones paying the checks! They can make it expensive whenever they want. Idiots, just get a deal done.

Oscar predictions start Saturday. I did see Million Dollar Baby and Hotel Rwanda, both excellent films. It almost offsets watching Hide and Seek and Assault on Precinct 13. Almost.

Let me be the first, second, or hundredth person to wish you and yours a happy lunar new year.

The State of the Union was tonite and President Bush spoke in surprisingly coherent terms for a very long time for him. All eyes were focused on his proposal for private accounts in Social Security. Democrats argue the system is in no real danger until 2042. Bush argues the system will pay out more in benefits than it will take in through taxes in 2018 meaning steps must be taken now in order to prevent insolvency. I do believe the system must be fixed but not in the drastic terms Bush wants to take it. Raise the cap on payroll taxes, change the way benefits are paid out, or even raise the retirement age before even considering private accounts, something too complicated and expensive to do right now.

Funniest moment of the night? Senator Joe Biden of Delaware started to applaud after President Bush's request for more money toward Palestine, but when no one applauded with him, he stopped and let out a silent "damn."

So the Orioles realized, hey, we gotta field a team this year, eh? Let's see who we can get.

Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado are out there. Nope, we gotta re-sign B.J. Surhoff.

How about Carl Pavano or Pedro or even Derek Lowe and Matt Clement? We need an ace for the rotation. Oh wait, we need aging middle relief. Let's get Steve Kline and Steve Reed. And don't forget that Asian pitcher that pitched a few games for us last year Bruce Chen.

I know, we're suckers for comeback stories. Go out and sign Tony Saunders and James Baldwin.

As you can see, the team hasn't come close to the success we had in free agency last year when the Orioles obtained Tejada, Javy Lopez, and Palmeiro. This year, they've taken stabs at Pavano and Delgado with no success and you can't blame the money. The Orioles basically threw as much money as they wanted to and still couldn't get them. Does Angelos still have that negative effect on the team? Maybe, maybe not.

So tonite, word comes that Sammy Sosa will be traded here. How fun. This could be the biggest acquisition for the team (save for Miggy) since Albert Belle. Hmm, that name should send shivers. He basically was the greatest cause for the team's demise for the last 5 years as his contract ate up most of the money the Orioles had. While successful prior to his arrival, Belle only played 2 years while the team paid for 5. Now Sosa arrives, obviously on the back end of his career. Hopefully, he experiences a revival with a change of scenery. If his production stays constant from what he's done for the last couple of years, I'd say he'd be worth it given what we're giving up (Hairston, a couple of minor leaguers from our weak system, and probably Julio too, expendable since Ryan takes the closer role this year). But if he turns out to be another Belle, say hello to the cellar.

Tragedy struck in Glendale in the form of an accident involving 3 trains and a SUV. And if it weren't for the 11 deaths and the 200 people injured, the circumstances surrounding this incident borders on comedic.

A man decided to commit suicide so he drove his car onto some railroad tracks and waited. And waited. And waited. Soon, the train was coming. Suddenly, he had a change of heart. He wanted to live. So he got out of the car and walked away. Ehh, forgot one thing. He positioned the car so that it was stuck in the tracks and couldn't move it. As a result, the train hit the car, derailed, hit another train coming from the opposite direction and then hit another train, idling on the side.

Good one, guy. Might as well have gone through with it instead of going through the pain and suffering now.

Oscar nominations were announced this morning and while there were some surprises, it's a wide-open race. Where's Paul Giamatti? The Aviator got how many?

The nominations can be found here. My predictions will start in February. I was correct on 15 and 16 of them the last two years but I don't think I'll match that this year. The only true lock among the majors this year is Jamie Foxx for Ray.

With all the celebrities in the news, I figured out that if you're a stalker, you can get steady employment in the news business. How else to explain the blow-by-blow account on what happened on the island where Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston broke up including video of their boat ride and the home they were staying in. Or the news that, "at this theatre, Johnny Carson went to see The Aviator one week prior to his death." People don't want to know these things, right?

My run-in with celebrity last weekend was at my cousin's wedding where one of the invited guests was the female announcer from those Paris by Night videos. Honestly, they're up to a million of those by now, aren't they?

So yesterday, President Bush officially started his second term, marking 4 more years of heavenly times or 4 more years of hell, whichever way you want to look at it. It is around this time when presidents in their second go around begin to think about their legacy. For this one, it looks like he wants to change Social Security as we know it by creating private accounts. What a horrible idea!

4 years ago, when Bush rammed through his tax cuts, he pushed it through with the line that he trusts us to spend the money wisely instead of the government. While we didn't spend much of it at the stores, like he wanted us to, we saved it in a savings account or paid down some debt and were grateful for the help. Today, he uses essentially the same line to fix Social Security in that if we invested our money ourselves, we may be able to get a greater return on our investments. There would be restrictions, or as the President awkwardly put it, we couldn't bet it on the lottery or "dice games."

One little problem. Give us money to spend? No problem. Give us money to invest? Ha, we're idiots when it comes to that. If the stock market was so risk-free, why isn't everyone doing it?

Simply put, private accounts won't save Social Security from the crisis President Bush insists it is in. In fact, Social Security is solvent until 2042, at least. So if Bush wants to do something, he'll do the unpopular thing and cut benefits by slowing their rate of growth while lifting the cap on payroll taxes that go to Social Security. What does he have to lose? After all, he's a lame duck.

Set your calendars:

FAMILY GUY is back by popular demand with all-new episodes beginning Sunday, May 1 (9:00-9:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX, it was announced today...

So this morning, my dad said he wanted to ride the "Free Train" to San Francisco. I assumed he was talking about the Freedom Train, part of the annual tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. as people get rides to the city to take part in events up there. So when I asked him what part of this day would make him want to participate, he responded, "isn't it free?" Upon informing him it cost $5 to ride the train, he quickly said "let's just go eat lunch at Fish Market."

Sideways
Two college roommates. One trip to the wine country. Lots of fun. Jack (Thomas Haden Church) is about to be married and his college roommate, Miles (Paul Giamatti), a wine expert, failed novelist, and recent divorcee, offers to take him to wine country for a bachelor party. While Jack wants to have fun in the traditional sense of a bachelor party, Miles wishes it to be a little more civilized. In any case, Jack succeeds in getting dates for each of them; he has his eye toward a pour girl Stephanie (Sandra Oh) while he sets Miles up with a waitress, Maya (Virginia Madsen), whom Miles has noticed before but has always been shy towards. His personal depression comes to the forefront of their conversations as Miles questions the direction he wants to take in life.

Sideways has everything you could ever want in a film, unless you're out looking for explosions. In that department, you only get the verbal kind, not the ones involving C4. Its comedic scenes are sensational, highlighted by Miles' blowup at the winery after finding out his latest effort as a novelist has been rejected. But more than its comedy, it's a great character study of two middle-aged guys looking for completeness in their lives. Jack is simple for us; he just wants to sleep around before he gets married. However, Miles is a bit more complicated. What ended his first marriage was his own love for wine. Now, it's wine that possibly brings him back since that is his life and his dialogue tells us that. His scenes with Madsen produce some of the most emotional scenes you'll see all year. Director Alexander Payne has a knack for making memorable characters in memorable movies, and the four characters of Sideways certainly fit the description. 3.5 stars

Ray
It's probably quite obvious what this movie is about. As a young black boy living in Florida, Ray Charles Robinson even then had an ear for music, learning from an old shop owner how to play the piano. His ears would be all that he has left when glaucoma strikes and he is left blind. Fast forward to his 20s when he rouses crowds with his voice and piano play. Various people take advantage of his talent and blindness, but it isn't until he signs a contract with Atlantic Records when he hits the big-time. Along the way, Ray attracts a wife (Kerry Washington), a mistress on the road (Regina King), and a heroin addiction. It takes time, but Ray straightens out his life so we can remember him today as the music pioneer he is.

If you see Ray for only one reason, it's this: Mr. Jamie Foxx. His portrayal of the blind Ray Charles is extraordinary, from the piano-playing to the times where he had to deal with his blindness. The movie that surrounds him could have certainly used some more work. While 3 hours may seem short to detail the life of such a great man, many of its scenes seem repetitive and its overuse doesn't serve to emphasize key points. The multiple times we see Ray feeling up some lady's arm or shooting up heroin had me looking at my watch multiple times. The filmmakers' decision to essentially end the movie in a rehabilitation center also deprived us from witnessing some of the more memorable moments from late in his life, including his rousing rendition of America the Beautiful. However, the great early hits of Ray Charles and the rousing performance of Foxx is enough to watch this film. 3 stars

In Good Company
For the premier magazine Sports America, loyalty is key. With Dan Foreman's veteran sales team, the magazine has reached new heights to become the flagship of the company. However, on this day, the big fish becomes a small fish in a big pond. Its parent company is taken over by Globecom, a media conglomerate, and with it comes new management. Foreman (Dennis Quaid) sees himself demoted as a hotshot businessman Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) with little sales experience becomes the boss. It sets off a series of events where both of their lives take a turn for the worse. Foreman deals with the news that his wife is pregnant with their third child and a second mortgage is needed to pay off the bills. Duryea has to go through a divorce. But one man's loss (Foreman sees his daughter Alex, played by Scarlett Johansson, transfer to New York University) is another man's gain (Alex and Carter become a couple).

In Good Company is simply a nice film to watch. I'm always a sucker for productions in a corporate environment (think The Office, Sports Night, Office Space, etc.) and this one doesn't disappoint. It has a right touch of comedy and romance that many will enjoy. You certainly feel for Quaid's character, who gets demoted for someone half his age and suddenly money becomes a problem with his daughter getting into NYU and another baby on the way. The romance between Grace and Johannson was done well by both but has a fleeting feeling to it and part of the problem there might be because writer and director Paul Weitz moves through each of the scenes fairly quickly. While 8+ months pass through the film, these events could have happened within a few days and no one would have been the wiser except for the fact that Dan's wife delivers her baby. A slower movie that emphasized further the strong scenes the couple had as well as a few scenes showing the office (which seems to disappear in the middle of the film) and the struggles Carter experienced there would have made the film great. Right now, it's just good. 3 stars

Published a few days ago:

A study published on Monday found that people who sleep less tend to be fat, and experts said it's time to find if more sleep fights obesity.

"We've put so much emphasis on diet and exercise that we've failed to recognize the value of good sleep," said Fred Turek, a physician at Northwestern University.

"In fact society emphasizes just the opposite," in work places where billed hours are crucial and long work days are common, he added.

Monday's study from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk covered 1,000 people and found that total sleep time decreased as body mass index -- a measure of weight based on height -- increased.

Men slept an average of 27 minutes less than women and overweight and obese patients slept less than patients with normal weights, it said.

In general the fatter subjects slept about 1.8 hours a week less than those with normal weights.

"Americans experience insufficient sleep and corpulent bodies. Clinicians are aware of the burden of obesity on patients," the study said.

"Our findings suggest that major extensions of sleep time may not be necessary, as an extra 20 minutes of sleep per night seems to be associated with a lower body mass index," it added.

"We caution that this study does not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between restricted sleep and obesity, (but) investigations demonstrating success in weight loss via extensions of sleep would help greatly to establish such a relationship."

The study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, along with an editorial by Turek and Northwestern colleague Joseph Bass commenting on it and related research.

In an interview with Reuters, Turek said some studies have shown sleep deprivation causes declines in an appetite suppressing protein hormone called leptin, and increases in another hormone that causes a craving for food.

In addition neuropeptides in the brain governing sleep and obesity appear to overlap, he said.

"It is now critical to determine the importance of lack of sufficient sleep during the early formative years in putting our youth on a trajectory toward obesity ... a trajectory that could be altered if sleep loss is indeed playing a role in this epidemic," the editorial said.

Obesity has been rising dramatically in developed countries and reached epidemic levels in the United States, it added, leading to a variety of health problems.

"In recent years, a new and unexpected 'obesity villain' has emerged, first from laboratory studies and now ... in population-based studies: insufficient sleep," it said.

"However, while there is a growing awareness among some sleep, metabolic, cardiovascular, and diabetes researchers that insufficient sleep could be leading to a cascade of disorders, few in the general medicine profession or in the lay public have yet made the connection," it added.

Meet the Fockers
Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) has successfully won over the in-laws Jack and Dina (Robert DeNiro and Blythe Danner), but now a new obstacle is ahead: for all 4 parents to meet. Greg's parents are a contrast to their conservative counterparts as Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) and Roz (Barbra Streisand) celebrate their freedom quite openly. The contentious weekend is made more heated with the revelation that Pam (Teri Polo) is pregnant. The opportunity to meet Greg's parents gives Jack a new opportunity to survey the history of his future son-in-law including the possibility that Greg fathered a son when he lost his virginity. Jack is convinced more than ever that Greg is wrong for Pam and will do what he can to prevent the wedding to go forward.

The sequel doesn't match the comedy of its predecessor, but it comes pretty darn close. I was a little disappointed at their use of the storyline from the original and the similar resolution, but it's easy to overlook that with the good comedic performances from actors who are usually identified with dramatic roles. Streisand just seems especially perfect for the role of Roz, a sex therapist and Hoffman looks like he's having a lot of fun in his role of father. It was great while it lasted, but, you know, I think two movies are enough. 3 stars

Closer
It all starts with two people. Dan (Jude Law) picks Alice (Natalie Portman) out of a crowd and sees her get hit by a car. Dan quickly cares for her and a relationship develops. But soon, his eye turns toward Anna (Julia Roberts). A recent divorcee, Anna is reluctant to Dan's wish to be together, especially with Alice still in the picture, and pushes him away. As it happens, Dan impersonates Anna in an online chat with Larry (Clive Owen), a dermatologist, and sets up a meeting with the real Anna and they hit it off. However, the connection between Anna and Dan never ceased, leading to a physical relationship for a year. When both confess, all four lives are thrown for a loop and when it will stop, nobody knows.

The way these relationships were being mixed up, I was waiting for Dan and Larry to hook up, though I guess that happened in the online chat. The performances by the four actors are outstanding, highlighted by a career-turning one by Portman, so adult and sensual even with her youth, and the scene-stealing Owen, who pretty much takes command whenever he's on screen. But the constant changing of relationships, which always involves some bad break-ups, sends the film into an uneven rhythm the entire time. Once the spinning stops however, you will have witnessed four indecisive people having a heated and passionate discussion (okay, argument) that will affect the rest of their lives. And while it's hard to root for one, it's also hard to ignore. 3 stars

The Aviator
Literally starting out from nuts and bolts, Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) decides to combine his love for aviation with filmmaking to create the most expensive film ever, necessitating the use of 26 cameras and all with sound. It's mainly a success but as his aviation empire grew sky high (buying TWA and building his own large aircraft while breaking speed records), his mental ability began to reach its limits. The women who found him irresistible before now began to leave him including Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale). Soon, hygiene was important to Hughes as obsessive compulsive disorder came to control his life. Lawmakers found this to be the perfect time to break his empire and soon used his whole life against him. But in the end, Hughes had always found the strength to fight.

Hughes' life is very interesting, both through the highs and lows. The aviation scenes can, at times, be exhilarating. DiCaprio's performance is a sight to see as he displays the energy of a young kid when he's sitting in the cockpit of a plane or when he's going crazy watching his movie in his private theatre with bottles of urine right next to him. The story itself however seems inconsistent, especially the rousing confrontation Hughes has in front of the Senate, which seems so out-of-place from what we see just before and after. While it seems director Marin Scorsese could have put even more material into the already 3-hour film, cutting some of the less-than-rousing TWA/Pan Am fighting would have been ideal. Right now, it's merely a fine film with a great performance by DiCaprio. 3 stars

House of Flying Daggers
The Tang Dynasty in China is threatened by a faction known as the House of Flying Daggers. The police had been successful in assassinating its leader, but with its new replacement, the House is once again a threatening figure. A new dancer named Mei (Ziyi Zhang) is suspected to have ties with them, so the police headed by Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Leo (Andy Lau) hatch up a plan to infiltrate the House. But while all is not what it seems to be, Jin and Leo begin to show their love for Mei, leading to a greater battle between the three of them.

Director Zhang Yimou's second American offering falls off in quality from the first, Hero with Jet Li. This movie doesn't have the same natural beauty, though it's still pretty high, and it's really heavy on the melodrama. Frankly, it delivers the same tepid impact Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon produced. Mixing a heavily romantic storyline with multiple scenes of martial arts weakens the movie as a whole even if some of these scenes were exquisitely done. In fact, the House itself is completely forgotten about in the last half of the film. None of this takes away from the outstanding choreography of the fight scenes, a staple of Asian action films. 2.5 stars

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Famed oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) has only one thing on his mind: his lifelong friend Esteban. On their latest expedition, Esteban was caught by a jaguar shark and eaten. Zissou could only react in horror on film. So for the sequel, it is his intention to hunt the jaguar shark and kill it. Many people questioned his motives but even with little money, some defections, and some outdated equipment, he pressed on. Joining him on the trip is someone who may or may not be his son in Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson) as well as the pregnant journalist played by Cate Blanchett.

The eccentricities of Murray are what keeps this movie barely together to prevent it from becoming a total loss. The humor we usually find from Wes Anderson's films is severely lacking in this film while the impact of characters, while still written with unique features and odd tendencies, seem non-existent. It seems to result in a long journey out to sea with nothing to do until the end. Only Murray seems intent to entertain and entertain he does. The movie does use an interesting and colorful technique to capture the life of the sea, something particularly nice to look at. 2 stars

Happy New Year folks. May 2005 be even better than 2004 unless 2004 was an unforgettable year. In that case, hope that 2005 is just as good. With that, here are the movies coming out in the first four months of the year in what I call the Winter Movie Preview.

January 7

White Noise - Michael Keaton contacts the dead in order to find his lost wife and his lost acting career.

The Underclassman - Nick Cannon is an undercover cop looking to break an auto theft ring at a high school.

January 14

Coach Carter - The inspirational story about a high school basketball coach played by Samuel L. Jackson who whips his players into shape academically.

Elektra - Does it matter what it's about? It's another chance to see Jennifer Garner kick some ass.

Racing Stripes - Another movie with talking animals, this time, it concerns a horse who is set upon winning the Kentucky Crown.

January 21

Assault on Precinct 13 - Ethan Hawke and crew must protect a police station from a gang which wants to free a mobster imprisoned inside.

Hostage - After a botched hostage negotiation, Bruce Willis retreats to a relatively quiet town in Ventura County but is thrust back into another situation in the place where he thought these things could be avoided.

Million Dollar Baby - This Oscar contender expands nationwide as Clint Eastwood trains his boxing pupil, Hilary Swank.

January 28

Alone in the Dark - Christian Slater must prevent demons from reviving in the 21st century. That's it...we're doomed.

Are We There Yet? - What man would not want Nia Long? Ice Cube is thinking that too but it'll take a reunion between the mom and her hard-to-please kids to get him into the mix.

D.E.B.S. - A group of high schoolers must take down a bank robber.

Hide and Seek - Robert DeNiro notices his daughter Dakota Fanning has dealt with her mother's death through an imaginary friend and doesn't worry about it until he realizes the imaginary friend isn't so imaginary.

In My Country - Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche react differently to the reconciliation hearings concerning murder and torture in the Apartheid Era.

Man of the House - FBI agent Tommy Lee Jones isn't out to chase Harrison Ford anymore. Now he's assigned to protect a group of cheerleaders.

February 4

Boogeyman - Barry Watson of 7th Heaven fame is afraid of the boogeyman that may be in his house.

The Wedding Date - Debra Messing uses a hired escort (Dermot Mulroney) as a wedding date but could love be far behind?

February 11

Hitch - Will Smith is a relationship doctor who needs some help himself.

Imaginary Heroes - The typical American family that isn't as typical as it seems.

February 18

Because of Winn-Dixie - A 10 year old girl makes use of the Winn-Dixie supermarket to meet people in the town and find out more about them as well as herself.

Constantine - In this movie that has the look of the Matrix, Keanu Reeves investigates supernatural mysteries and now faces one doozy of a case involving heaven, hell, and Rachel Weisz.

Son of the Mask - The Mask 2 without Jim Carrey? Pass.

February 25

Cursed - Siblings mourning the loss of their pass are attacked by werewolves. Gee, what luck.

King's Ransom - A rich businessman plots his own kidnapping after he finds out his wife will divorce him and take half of what he has. However, it seems a lot of people have plans to kidnap him.

March 4

Be Cool - John Travolta reprises his Get Shorty role as Chili Palmer, now in search for work as a manager in the music industry.

March 11

Millions - Kids find a bunch of cash and what do you know? They decide to spend it.

Mindhunters - Anyone want to bet that this gets delayed again? 2 years and counting.

Robots - Fox makes another go at CGI animation with this world of, well, robots.

A Sound of Thunder - When a time travel trip goes awry, Edward Burns needs to go back in time and fix the damage before humanity disappears.

The Upside of Anger - Former baseball player Kevin Costner becomes a part of a dysfunctional family.

March 18

Melinda and Melinda - Woody Allen's latest film literally is a comedy and drama told in one movie.

The Ring 2 - Naomi Watts returns for the sequel to this horror flick.

March 25

Sahara - The discovery of a Civil War battleship could lead to deaths in the area surrounding it.

March 30

Beautyshop - Queen Latifah runs her own shop in a movie that follows in the footsteps of Barbershop.

April 1

Sin City - Based upon the graphic novels of Frank Miller, the action follows three storylines in a ciy filled with sex and violence.

The Weatherman - Nicolas Cage struggles to balance his professional life and his personal life.

April 8

Deuce Bigelow : European Gigolo - Hmm...they could make a sequel out of this?

Unleashed - Jet Li, raised solely to be a fighter, gets an education on being human by Morgan Freeman.

April 15

The Amityville Horror - Based upon the novel, a young couple moved into a house haunted by demons and the site of a murder years earlier.

Rumor Has It - Jennifer Aniston discovers the family secret that the film "The Graduate" may have been based on people in her family and soon realizes history may be repeating itself when she falls for an older man.

Valiant - In Disney's CGI animated film, a misfit pigeon finds himself in the Royal Pigeon Service during World War II.

April 22

The Interpreter - Sean Penn must choose whether or not to believe an interpreter (Nicole Kidman) who believes she overheard a murder plot at the United Nations.

Madison - Jim Caviezel is a repairman who suddenly races hydroplanes on the Ohio River.

April 29

House of Wax - A group of friends discovers that the House of Wax is actually filled with wax-covered corpses. Soon, they must escape before they become part of the exhibit. Stars Elisha Cuthbert, Paris Hilton, and Chad Michael Murray.

XXX: State of the Union - Vin Diesel doesn't return but the rest of the cast does as Ice Cube takes over the lead role.

As is the custom this time of year, critics, even fake ones like me, like to make top ten lists to show what they've liked and not liked. Amazingly, even with the job and the closing of Suprnova, I still managed to watch 62 movies in the year 2004, plus what will be a few more if I can get to watching Sideways, Closer, and other films. But for now, this is my top ten list of the 62 I have seen. Honestly, though, it's been a weak year for the movies, hasn't it?

1. The Incredibles - Another in a long line of great Pixar productions, this one hits the right notes in comedy, action, and drama while entertaining people of all ages.
2. Hero - American audiences had to wait 2 years to get their hands on this beautiful masterpiece from China.
3. Kill Bill: Volume 2 - The second and final installment was worth the wait, but with some good editing, the two could have been combined and would have been numero uno on this list.
4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - The darkest of the 3 films in the Harry Potter series released so far is the best so far.
5. Collateral - A coolly shot Los Angeles frames a confident performance by Tom Cruise as a hitman.
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - The idea itself is worthy of awards, but Carrey and Winslet in the main roles make it that much better.
7. The Bourne Supremacy - It's a rarity in today's films: intelligent storytelling to go along with thrills and action scenes.
8. Miracle - Kurt Russell's portrayal of the late Herb Brooks makes this film go.
9. The Manchurian Candidate - A carefully crafted film that stands on its own as a taut political thriller.
10. Spider-Man 2 - After the first one, I said the only problem was the weak villain. With a better villain this time comes a better movie.

Of the movies I have seen, here are the top 10 movies of the year according to a variety of critics at moviecitynews.com.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. The Aviator
3. The Incredibles
4. House of Flying Daggers
5. Fahrenheit 9/11
6. Kill Bill Volume 2
7. Collateral
8. Spider-Man 2
9. Hero
10. Team America: World Police

According to the same list, the top 5 movies I haven't seen:

1. Sideways
2. Million Dollar Baby
3. Before Sunset
4. Bad Education
5. Maria Full of Grace

Of course, when you mention the best, you have to mention the worst.

1. White Chicks - The Wayans Bros. were just ugly, like this film was.
2. Surviving Christmas - Ben Affleck orders around a family on Christmas. It just gets creepier as the film progresses.
3. Thunderbirds - I bet Ben Kingsley saw his career flashing before his eyes.
4. Resident Evil: Apocalypse - It's a zombie movie where zombies show up when you least expect them and then when you do expect them, they never show up.
5. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins - 3 sequels too many. Oh wait, this one's a prequel.
6. Walking Tall - OK! The Rock can beat people up. I GET IT!
7. King Arthur - Sorry, even Keira Knightley in a bikini through the movie can't save it.
8. Alfie - What's it all about? Really...I'm asking.
9. The Village - Gee, so much build up for nothing.
10. Alexander - If this is all you knew about Alexander, you have to wonder how he conquered most of the known world.

It was a disappointing finish to an otherwise spectacular season which saw the California Golden Bears lose to the Texas Tech Red Raiders 45-31 in the Holiday Bowl.

Ever since I attended Cal, its football teams have always had one weakness: the secondary. Teams could pass at will against the Golden Bears. The problems were somewhat masked this year when Cal would outscore everybody, so it really didn't matter about the other team. Against Texas Tech tonite, two things were exposed which combined to make a perfect storm. The Red Raiders are pass-happy, first of all. They rarely run and when they pass, it's usually 15-20 yards with a lot of YAC. Then without Geoff MacArthur, the Bears' most prolific receiver, QB Aaron Rodgers had few people to throw to and RB J.J. Arrington can't do everything.

So, the secondary was exposed and all Texas Tech QB Sonny Cumbie had to do was throw it in the air and one of his teammates would probably catch it. It hurt a little more when TT chose to keep passing the ball with the game in hand.

What does it all mean for the Golden Bears? 29 seniors plus probably Rodgers are leaving. Only 2 of tonite's 11 defensive starters will return. The team, still ably led by Coach Jeff Tedford, will find it tough to match this year's 10-2 record. The Rose Bowl will become even harder to attain next year with it designated as the national championship game, meaning Cal would have to finish in the top 2 in the yet-to-be-designed BCS rankings. The main reason will be the schedule. This year, Auburn was hurt with a weak schedule despite going undefeated. California has on the 2005 schedule Sacramento State, New Mexico State, and Illinois, all weak teams this year, along with the other Pac-10 teams. Leading the team will be JC transfer Joe Ayoob from the City College of San Francisco. Hopefully the Tedford magic will continue and we can all be yelling Booya (that's Ayoob backwards).

On this Christmas Eve, let me be the first or hundredth or whatever person to wish you a merry Christmas. As usual for this time of year, here is what makes Santa's job so difficult from the math/physics POV. This thing is probably old now since I got it 10 years ago...it needs to be updated.

1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.

3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc.

This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

5) 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera
The venerable Broadway musical from Andrew Lloyd Webber comes to the big screen for the first time. Previous film versions of the Phantom emphasize the horrors of the opera ghost but Webber's focuses on the love triangle between the Phantom (Gerard Butler), the new star Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum) and Raoul (Patrick Wilson). After the Opera Populaire gets new management, the Phantom seizes this opportunity to place his singing pupil Christine in the lead by making conditions for the established star Carlotta (Minnie Driver) less than pleasant. Once she gets her chance, Christine shines and it appears a new relationship may be developing between Christine and the Phantom until Raoul, her childhood friend takes her and become engaged. The Phantom becomes filled with jealousy and it soon becomes a fight for Charlotte's hand while the opera ghost wields his power over the theatre by forcing the group to perform an opera he wrote.

For anyone who hasn't watched the musical on Broadway or when it travels the country, this film by Joel Schumacher is a suitable substitute. The problem is the risk-free style of Schumacher's work. With the exception of a couple of exterior shots, you could have filmed this in the Broadway theatre where it is performed and none would have been the wiser. I was also a little disappointed in the choice of Butler as the Phantom. Even without the mask, he still looks okay; nothing horrific about him. His voice though lacks the deep authority the opera ghost should bring. The real star of the show is Rossum, whose look is beautiful with a singing voice that should live on through the ages. Once you get past the singing, it's a really simple love story that doesn't resonate onto the big screen the way it does on stage. But the pounding notes of Webber's score as well as the beauty of Rossum is enough to get through it. 2.5 stars

Surviving Christmas
All Drew Latham (Ben Affleck) is a little companionship for Christmas. His girlfriend has just left him while all his friends are busy during the holiday season. A short conversation with a therapist leads him to his childhood home where he convinces the family now living there to welcome him into their home for $250,000. But with the money comes certain conditions which includes reliving Christmas the way Drew remembers it. It pushes the Valco family led by James Gandolfini to the brink and eventually have to choose between happiness and wealth.

This idea of hijacking Christmas could have had potential if it were in the context of another situation. But this one, in which a rich, crazy person wreaks havoc on the family sucks whatever fun could have been had. Affleck is a one-trick pony when it comes to acting and comedian he is not. Stick to smart-alecky action star please. Gandolfini essentially plays his Sopranos role and that's fine. Catherine O'Hara tries to bring comedic class to the role but that photo shoot scene was so out-of-place, which pretty much speaks for the entire film, especially considering its October release date. 1 star

A reaction to the trailer of White Noise, a new film starring Michael Keaton in which he contacts his dead wife: Hey, while you're at it, contact Michael Keaton's career. That's been dead for many years!

I did something really weird today and I can't even explain why. I'm driving on 85 and the BMW ahead of me throws a tightly wound wad of tissue out the window. So now it's headed right towards me. Now what do I do?

I duck.

Duck??? I'm driving a car. How's it gonna hit me, ducking or otherwise? It proceeds to hit my windshield and goes on its merry way to hit another car, but for the rest of the way, I can't stop thinking how I ducked at tissue headed right at me.

As some of you noticed, it was my birthday on Monday and thanks to you all who sent their wishes of a happy birthday. The day was highlighted by a trip to Todai, the overpriced buffet where it's only worth it if somebody in the party is celebrating a birthday since they're free. Honestly, if you hate sushi and seafood, this is definitely not the place to go, especially with the $25 price tag. Oh, I'm sorry...you get to save a buck on weekdays. To be fair, if you do like sushi, you'll get your money's worth plus it's a heck of a lot cleaner than other buffets.

On a related note, today the 22nd is Al's birthday so happy birthday.

Only 3 days until Christmas folks. I've gotta run to shop. I'm finished, but I gotta find presents people can't find themselves.

Shaun of the Dead
This British film takes the comedic route in dealing with zombies. Shaun (Simon Pegg) has enough problems to deal with as his home deteriorates into a battle between his best friend Ed (Nick Frost) and his other flatmate Pete (Peter Serafinowicz) while his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) threatens to break up with him. But in the course of the night, most of the town has suddenly turned into zombies. It isn't evident at first to Shaun but soon, reality hits him head-on and so he gathers his group together and goes to where they usually hang out: the pub of course. It is there where they make their stand.

Overall, the film is amusing but it lacks the comedic bite to make it a laugh-out riot. Everything we know about zombies is taken by the film, twisted around, and spit back to us in funny ways. Their mimicking of zombies in order to walk down the street is well-conceived. But the ever-changing relationship between Shaun and Liz somewhat drags the film down, bringing with it the problem it shares with the latest update of the Dawn of the Dead: the zombies seem to disappear for large chunks of the film, leaving us uninterested until they show up again. 2.5 stars

Here's a nice sports-related Dancing Bug.

One week before Christmas and I have all my shopping done. Amazing. All finished today with a stress-free trip to Oakridge. Here's a little tip. There are only two places where you should even try parking at Oakridge. One is behind the Target facing Thornwood where the bank is in the back. No entrances mean no one wants to park there. But today at noon, it was filled up. So, plan B. 3rd and 4th floors of the Sears parking garage. It was only half-filled at noon today, supposedly the busiest shopping day of the season.

Sports around here have gone from bad to confusing. It was bad enough that Cal didn't make the Rose Bowl. It's also bad that the Sharks haven't even played a game yet. It's bad that the 49ers are just so bad. But can someone explain the moves the A's are making? Sure, Tim Hudson probably couldn't be re-signed for a reasonable amount in the offseason so Billy Beane had to move him, but what's with Mark Mulder being traded? To me, he was the most consistent of the pitchers on the A's and now the team only has Zito, Harden, and a bunch of promising prospects, nothing like Hudson and Mulder offered.

At least the A's are making moves. What of the Orioles? All they've done is sign their senior citizens Palmeiro and Surhoff to 1-year deals. They still need a starting pitcher and another slugger.

I finally got around to trying one of the two new seafood buffets in the area, one called Super and the other Crazy. I liked the dungeness crab. Everything else? So-so. There is a lot of variety. I didn't even venture to some of the stations. At $16 though, they should scale it down and focus on a few items. I'm going to another buffet on Monday, Todai to be specific. The reason should be clear because of what day it is.

Ocean's Twelve
When last we left the story of Ocean's Eleven, the team had just stolen $160 million from Terry Benedict at the Bellagio. However, Benedict has found out all of their identities and is out for revenge, specifically, the money plus interest or they're dead. As a result, Danny Ocean (George Clooney), Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), and the team flee to Europe to try to steal back enough money to give back to Benedict. Though they thought they were going to work small jobs to reach their goal, they were actually lured by Francois Toulour (Vincent Cassel) who has been jealous of them ever since his mentor, the thief La Marque, believed the Bellagio theft was the greatest ever. Toulour bets Ocean to see who can steal a golden egg first so that only one can claim credit as the greatest thief ever. With $100 million on the line, Ocean can't refuse, but can they actually do it? Hot on their trail is a former lover of Rusty's and now a detective played by Catherine Zeta-Jones.

While the sequel keeps the charm of its predecessor, this European version isn't as smart nor as funny. Furthermore, the first one, even with its multitude of characters, managed to keep a right balance to get everyone in the mix. Here, with the addition of a couple of characters, some are completely ignored (so Bernie Mac spends the final half in a jail cell?) and others get way too much time. The ending is somewhat of a letdown, especially considering the genius of the Bellagio heist. Once you figure out what happened, it's like, wow, that's it? It could be considered too clever for its own good. Ultimately, the movie features a group of people having a fun time, and you will too. Just don't compare it with the previous film since that one is better. 2.5 stars

Blade: Trinity
Our old friend Blade (Wesley Snipes) is back again, this time facing his most worthy adversary to date, Dracula, or as he likes to be called now, Drake (Dominic Purcell). However, the FBI has finally caught up to him, apprehending him after a lengthy fight that results in the death of Whistler (Kris Kristofferson, but seriously, Whistler's died like 20 times already, right?). Without him, help comes in the form of Ryan Reynolds, Van Wilder himself, and Jessica Biel playing Whistler's daughter. Helping out Drake is Parker Posey and the WWE's Triple H. Their hope is that since Drake is a pure-blooded vampire, he could transform today's vampires into daywalkers. Of course, it's up to Blade and his new band of kids to stop them.

Blade has fallen into something deadly: a pattern. These movies, now 3 in total, seem to concern the same thing. Some vampire is better than the rest and Blade comes out to kill him. Ho-hum. Director and writer David S. Goyer seems to have run out of ideas and has come to rely on Matrix-like scenes while conveniently making things easier for Blade and his band (Where did the FBI go? How come the security guards didn't have any guns?). With the addition of Reynolds, an effort was made to add some humor into the mix, but most of the jokes fall flat. There's a nice car chase and some energetic action scenes, but those alone can't save this run-of-the-mill film that's clearly fallen from the first one. 2 stars

Alfie
What's it all about? Alfie (Jude Law) is your typical male living the life in Manhattan, going through one woman after another, let it be Marisa Tomei, Jane Krakowski, Susan Sarandon, Nia Long, etc., etc., etc. Apparently, he is irresistible to the women. But once they've had their fun, they go their separate ways. The women don't seem to mind, but it's Alfie himself who gets hurt. The swinging life of the '60s doesn't translate well in the 21st century. As a result, Alfie has to look to his past to reflect and change his ways before age catches up to him.

Law is fine in the role of Alfie, bringing charm, good looks, and the swagger needed to channel Michael Caine's Alfie from the 60's. But if this is the only Alfie you'll ever see, then you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. He gets rejected by every woman in the film, but you never feel sorry for him, like the movie wants you to. It's the life he's chosen to lead. As a result, the movie goes through different permutations of the same cycle with no end in sight until it finally ends. 1.5 stars

If you're a Cal football fan today, one sign at yesterday's Southern Miss game said it all.

BCS - C = BS

The 46-year drought from the Rose Bowl will stretch to 47 as the pollsters and computers believe that Texas is more deserving of a BCS bowl bid over the Golden Bears. Cal is now relegated to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. You can say that without the BCS, there wouldn't be any talk of Rose Bowl whatsoever. It hurts nonetheless. Being 10-1 is an accomplishment in itself though. So now is the time to look ahead. Task #1 is to defeat Texas Tech at the aforementioned Holiday Bowl. Next is to keep Coach Jeff Tedford and to grant his wish to upgrade the stadium. If Tedford leaves, kiss Cal football as we know it today goodbye for at least a few years. If an earthquake strikes, watch the stadium crumble to the ground. These two things should worry Cal fans more than a simple Rose Bowl.

At least one thing is done. Tedford is staying for at least another year.