8/17/2002
Surprises are a-plenty when I ride in a car with the parents. We're driving to lunch when the CD player switches over to some Vietnamese music. Then for some odd reason, my dad begins to talk about it, even comparing it to American music. So remember, while Vietnamese music speaks from the heart and is so beautiful, American music sounds like cats and dogs fighting against each other. Or it's drinking an espresso or cappucino compared to black coffee. Take your pick.
8/16/2002
August 15 has come and passed, meaning the last day of school is over. Like clockwork though, sickness has traveled to my body. It was really bad Tuesday but has gotten slightly better before my test yesterday. Even now, there's a sore throat and a little cough. Oh, and irregular sleeping patterns. That's the worst. Look! I'm wide awake at 3am!
8/15/2002
We're gonna change directions in the whole movie/life ranting business this one time to talk politics, another little passion of mine. Tonight, we'll talk California with the governor's race. It's a flawed campaign with dumb and dumber fighting to be in the governor's seat come November. As a Republican in Berkeley (yes, gasp at the thought), I'm partial in voting party lines, which means I'll vote Simon, not my first choice during the primaries. I voted Riordan. Sure, he was an old geezer, but he was a moderate who led L.A. past dark times. Instead, we got the lawyer/businessman, two jobs no one wants to be associated with anymore. As a result, all his backers have suddenly disappeared including Rudy Giuliani. To add injury to insult, his company was successfully sued for millions in damages. Simon wants no part of it and has tried to distance himself from it, but to no avail. Inevitably, his financial status became an issue, but he refused to release his taxes. All politicians seemingly do but Simon didn't, causing protesters to rise up in anger. When he finally did, he let inexperienced news reporters with no experts in sight to look at a decade's worth of documents for a couple of hours. Let's face it, he's flawed and he's inexperienced. "If he can't run his own company, how can we trust him to run the 5th largest economy in the world?" the commercial from Davis asks.
Indeed, I say. But now we turn to Gray Davis, the dumber of the two. I mean, come on, he still raises the roof every chance he gets. It wasn't cool the first time and Davis doing it makes it that much worse. He's had three years on the job, but he himself hasn't proven that he can run the 5th largest economy in the world. Back in 1998, he ran on a platform of education and he's certainly fulfilled. Standardized testing reigns in California. Money is tied in with the results. Shape up or ship out is the motto. Spending on education increased much faster than other spending. As a result, the state's kids may be well-funded (not compared to other states, but much better than before) but everyone else isn't. Right now, California faces the largest budget deficit in history, about $24 billion from a $100 billion budget. The fiscal year started 45 days ago and the stalemate in the Legislature doesn't look to be ending soon. Sure, Davis can lay the blame on them but he hasn't done anything to help either. Who knows? We might go back to issuing IOU's like in the early '90s. While all this is going on, Davis continues to fund-raise for his own governor's campaign and a very remotely possible presidential campaign two years from now. Figures show he's got $30 million in the bank while Simon, who's cutting half his staff to save money, has only $5 million. As a result, Davis keeps running attack ad after attack ad. But where does fund-raising stop and political decision-making begin? An allegation exists where the now-defunct Tosco refinery donated some money to the Davis campaign and a week later, a state agency appointed by Davis gave Tosco a few more pollution credits. There's also the mess with Oracle and the new database system they were supposed to make for the state. Oracle also gave him a bunch of money. Then, who can forget the power blackouts? Instead of preparing for it, he took a reactionary stance and made up policy after policy including binding the state into expensive power contracts, most of which aren't needed anymore with cheap power running rampant throughout the state now. And the power companies gave him money too!
Last month, the race was a tie. Now, the Washington Times reports Davis has built a huge 17-point lead over Simon. While the election is three months away, things are looking dim for us Republicans. But as long as they raise those UC fees after I graduate, I'll be okay whoever's in the governor's office.
Indeed, I say. But now we turn to Gray Davis, the dumber of the two. I mean, come on, he still raises the roof every chance he gets. It wasn't cool the first time and Davis doing it makes it that much worse. He's had three years on the job, but he himself hasn't proven that he can run the 5th largest economy in the world. Back in 1998, he ran on a platform of education and he's certainly fulfilled. Standardized testing reigns in California. Money is tied in with the results. Shape up or ship out is the motto. Spending on education increased much faster than other spending. As a result, the state's kids may be well-funded (not compared to other states, but much better than before) but everyone else isn't. Right now, California faces the largest budget deficit in history, about $24 billion from a $100 billion budget. The fiscal year started 45 days ago and the stalemate in the Legislature doesn't look to be ending soon. Sure, Davis can lay the blame on them but he hasn't done anything to help either. Who knows? We might go back to issuing IOU's like in the early '90s. While all this is going on, Davis continues to fund-raise for his own governor's campaign and a very remotely possible presidential campaign two years from now. Figures show he's got $30 million in the bank while Simon, who's cutting half his staff to save money, has only $5 million. As a result, Davis keeps running attack ad after attack ad. But where does fund-raising stop and political decision-making begin? An allegation exists where the now-defunct Tosco refinery donated some money to the Davis campaign and a week later, a state agency appointed by Davis gave Tosco a few more pollution credits. There's also the mess with Oracle and the new database system they were supposed to make for the state. Oracle also gave him a bunch of money. Then, who can forget the power blackouts? Instead of preparing for it, he took a reactionary stance and made up policy after policy including binding the state into expensive power contracts, most of which aren't needed anymore with cheap power running rampant throughout the state now. And the power companies gave him money too!
Last month, the race was a tie. Now, the Washington Times reports Davis has built a huge 17-point lead over Simon. While the election is three months away, things are looking dim for us Republicans. But as long as they raise those UC fees after I graduate, I'll be okay whoever's in the governor's office.
8/14/2002
Yes, Star Trek: Nemesis hasn't even come out yet, but the DVD better have tons of deleted scenes in it. News has it that they've shot a 3 hour movie, unheard of among Star Trek movies. It means they'll need to cut at least an hour from it. One of the scenes includes Wesley Crusher at Troi and Riker's wedding, frankly one of the more annoying characters in Next Gen lore but also barely seen since he went off to Starfleet Academy.
8/13/2002
XXX
Curiously, when you start walking out of this flick, you hear the words "none of this makes any sense" during the song blaring over the speakers. How perfectly does it sum up XXX? Very well. Vin Diesel plays Xander, a no-fear type of guy out on parole. When the NSA needs help in getting the 411 about a new biological weapon, Samuel L. Jackson, in his worst role to date, with a ridiculous unexplained scar no less, calls up a group of people including Xander for the task. Predictably, the group is weeded down to one, Xander. With his reputation and interest in cars, he successfully infiltrates Anarchy 99 and finds out its leader has acquired rockets that can spread gas and kill a city's population instantly.
It's loud and pointless. The powers that be turn this film into stunt after stunt after stunt. It never gets a chance to really develop its characters, something that needs to be done since they're probably going to do many sequels. Sure, it's an action film but they seem to dumb it down so much it's simply one-dimensional thinking. It all becomes quite over the top and so ridiculous that you can't help but laugh. As for the stars, this is Diesel's vehicle. Everyone's focused on him. As a result, Jackson seems to be in the way and beautiful bad-girl Asia (3 syllables!) Argento does nothing but stand there. The stunts speak for themselves and the gadgets, while few and far between, look cool with the exception of the bazooka at the end which is just a camcorder with a pole attached to it. 1.5 stars
Curiously, when you start walking out of this flick, you hear the words "none of this makes any sense" during the song blaring over the speakers. How perfectly does it sum up XXX? Very well. Vin Diesel plays Xander, a no-fear type of guy out on parole. When the NSA needs help in getting the 411 about a new biological weapon, Samuel L. Jackson, in his worst role to date, with a ridiculous unexplained scar no less, calls up a group of people including Xander for the task. Predictably, the group is weeded down to one, Xander. With his reputation and interest in cars, he successfully infiltrates Anarchy 99 and finds out its leader has acquired rockets that can spread gas and kill a city's population instantly.
It's loud and pointless. The powers that be turn this film into stunt after stunt after stunt. It never gets a chance to really develop its characters, something that needs to be done since they're probably going to do many sequels. Sure, it's an action film but they seem to dumb it down so much it's simply one-dimensional thinking. It all becomes quite over the top and so ridiculous that you can't help but laugh. As for the stars, this is Diesel's vehicle. Everyone's focused on him. As a result, Jackson seems to be in the way and beautiful bad-girl Asia (3 syllables!) Argento does nothing but stand there. The stunts speak for themselves and the gadgets, while few and far between, look cool with the exception of the bazooka at the end which is just a camcorder with a pole attached to it. 1.5 stars
8/12/2002
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
Them people from the first Spy Kids movie are at it again with this sequel, a waste of time the first time and a waste of time this time. Apparently, some device that can make electronic devices to not work is coveted by the new head of the spy organization. Stung by the emergence of new kid spies, our two main characters switch assignments secretly to retrieve it, where mayhem ensues.
First of all, this island has no lost dreams. What the heck are they talking about? Second, having the spies turn against each other defeats the supposed purpose of showing off gadgets to solve mysteries. Third, see the previous sentence. If they go to a mystery island where there's no such thing as electronics, what's the point of Spy Kids? Fourth, there's an action sequence in which skeletons are fighting Carmen and Juni. It looks so fake that the sequence in Jason and the Argonauts looked more realistic. Fifth, having Ricardo Montalban and Holland Taylor as the grandparents was a good idea, but they're wasted in this film. Sixth, what happened to George Clooney? Seventh, if Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) was originally supposed to be head of OSS as it said on the teleprompter, why didn't anyone say something? Eighth, who would elect Christopher McDonald (the villainous golfer from Happy Gilmore) as president? Ninth, it may have been in the first movie and I didn't remember. What are those fans supposed to do when the spies point it at someone? Tenth, how does something that renders electronic devices useless kill people? Eleventh, if the OSS is so high-tech, why can't they detect people hacking into their system? Carmen gets Juni back into the OSS when he gets fired simply by hacking. They get Gary and Gerti transferred to the Gobi desert by hacking. What kind of security does this place have? Twelth, how was it that it reused jokes from earlier comedies this summer? There's that shittake mushrooms joke from Goldmember and the lengthy trip down to the secret underground lair from Undercover Brother. Finally, there's so much more but everything I know is only the beginning. 1 star
Them people from the first Spy Kids movie are at it again with this sequel, a waste of time the first time and a waste of time this time. Apparently, some device that can make electronic devices to not work is coveted by the new head of the spy organization. Stung by the emergence of new kid spies, our two main characters switch assignments secretly to retrieve it, where mayhem ensues.
First of all, this island has no lost dreams. What the heck are they talking about? Second, having the spies turn against each other defeats the supposed purpose of showing off gadgets to solve mysteries. Third, see the previous sentence. If they go to a mystery island where there's no such thing as electronics, what's the point of Spy Kids? Fourth, there's an action sequence in which skeletons are fighting Carmen and Juni. It looks so fake that the sequence in Jason and the Argonauts looked more realistic. Fifth, having Ricardo Montalban and Holland Taylor as the grandparents was a good idea, but they're wasted in this film. Sixth, what happened to George Clooney? Seventh, if Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) was originally supposed to be head of OSS as it said on the teleprompter, why didn't anyone say something? Eighth, who would elect Christopher McDonald (the villainous golfer from Happy Gilmore) as president? Ninth, it may have been in the first movie and I didn't remember. What are those fans supposed to do when the spies point it at someone? Tenth, how does something that renders electronic devices useless kill people? Eleventh, if the OSS is so high-tech, why can't they detect people hacking into their system? Carmen gets Juni back into the OSS when he gets fired simply by hacking. They get Gary and Gerti transferred to the Gobi desert by hacking. What kind of security does this place have? Twelth, how was it that it reused jokes from earlier comedies this summer? There's that shittake mushrooms joke from Goldmember and the lengthy trip down to the secret underground lair from Undercover Brother. Finally, there's so much more but everything I know is only the beginning. 1 star
8/11/2002
I happened to stop by the CNN home page this morning and find the big words BREAKING NEWS plastered on top of the page. With my 56K connection, I'm left to wonder. What happened? Has there been another disaster? Did the president slip and fall while eating a pretzel on vacation? Has Al-Qaida been eliminated? What? None of that happened. Apparently, Domino's is considering charging a buck for pizza delivery.
8/09/2002
Eight Legged Freaks
Hitless David Arquette strikes out again in this feature about spiders taking over a small town in Arizona. The star of such classics as See Spot Run and Ready to Rumble comes back to his childhood home just in the nick of time to see spiders at the local spider farm mutated by nearby river contamination and run loose in the streets. Predictably, the rest of the movie shows a bunch of running and shooting and little story in between. It also stars Scarlett Johansson of Ghost World fame, reduced to the role of rebellious but helpless daughter of the pretty and cool Kari Wuhrer, who people will (or will not) remember from the old MTV game show Remote Control. Nerds and geeks alike will remember her from the last years of the Fox/Sci-Fi channel show Sliders. She's the sheriff who leads the town against the spiders.
The commercials had this one comparing itself to Tremors, but this my friends is no Tremors. For some odd reason, that struck the odd balance of being realistic, smart, creepy, and humorous all in the same movie. But like Reign of Fire, Eight Legged Freaks dumbs down the movie to simply kill or be killed. Heck, Tremors' two awful sequels are slightly better than this. Storylines designed to make this a little complex are handled in a line or two. "I know you love me but let's kill that spider first." or "Hey, there's the gold that will save this town." Not actual lines from the movie, but it certainly wasn't meant to be memorable either. Besides, the spiders weren't too realistic. You could really tell they're fake. I will give it credit for making fun of itself. It is such a ridiculous idea to fathom that it has to be somekind of self-parody. Plus, I don't understand how if fire didn't kill them earlier in the movie, it does later in the movie. Was it because with the gas, it made the fire ..., what, hotter??? Please! But all in all, it's awful, boring, and awfully boring. 1.5 stars
Hitless David Arquette strikes out again in this feature about spiders taking over a small town in Arizona. The star of such classics as See Spot Run and Ready to Rumble comes back to his childhood home just in the nick of time to see spiders at the local spider farm mutated by nearby river contamination and run loose in the streets. Predictably, the rest of the movie shows a bunch of running and shooting and little story in between. It also stars Scarlett Johansson of Ghost World fame, reduced to the role of rebellious but helpless daughter of the pretty and cool Kari Wuhrer, who people will (or will not) remember from the old MTV game show Remote Control. Nerds and geeks alike will remember her from the last years of the Fox/Sci-Fi channel show Sliders. She's the sheriff who leads the town against the spiders.
The commercials had this one comparing itself to Tremors, but this my friends is no Tremors. For some odd reason, that struck the odd balance of being realistic, smart, creepy, and humorous all in the same movie. But like Reign of Fire, Eight Legged Freaks dumbs down the movie to simply kill or be killed. Heck, Tremors' two awful sequels are slightly better than this. Storylines designed to make this a little complex are handled in a line or two. "I know you love me but let's kill that spider first." or "Hey, there's the gold that will save this town." Not actual lines from the movie, but it certainly wasn't meant to be memorable either. Besides, the spiders weren't too realistic. You could really tell they're fake. I will give it credit for making fun of itself. It is such a ridiculous idea to fathom that it has to be somekind of self-parody. Plus, I don't understand how if fire didn't kill them earlier in the movie, it does later in the movie. Was it because with the gas, it made the fire ..., what, hotter??? Please! But all in all, it's awful, boring, and awfully boring. 1.5 stars
8/06/2002
My siblings and I went to Sizzler last weekend. Ever since the company went bankrupt, leaving the franchises to carry the Sizzler name, they've been slowly trying to bring it back to respectability. But my brother noticed it has become the anti-restaurant in the process. First, what's the first thing you see when you walk in? The bathrooms. Who would put bathrooms at the entrance? After you pass them, you're confronted by a line in front of the menus. You want your own menu? Tough. It's on the wall. Before you even get your first bite, you must choose and pay within minutes of stepping through the door. Once you're done, you have to carry your drinks and find your own table. What kind of dining is this? If it was a buffet, I'd understand but they promote that they are a restaurant, because after all, you get more than what you pay for.
Before things get normal, they get weirder. The salad bar is supposed to be its pride and joy. Yet they serve chicken wings and tacos in the salad bar? Find that at Fresh Choice! Remember that receipt you got documenting what you ordered? Say bye-bye. The server needs it to know what you ordered. Once this happens, food is actually served to you! You would think you'd have to cook it yourself or at the very least, pick it up yourself but no. Then it's on to dessert. What dessert? There's only one option. The non-dairy lactose-free soft serve ice cream with your choice of toppings of course. They don't even have real M&M's, they're fake ones.
Yes, Sizzler has been doing this for years. It's just that I hadn't noticed until now. I'm not complaining either. The food's pretty good.
Before things get normal, they get weirder. The salad bar is supposed to be its pride and joy. Yet they serve chicken wings and tacos in the salad bar? Find that at Fresh Choice! Remember that receipt you got documenting what you ordered? Say bye-bye. The server needs it to know what you ordered. Once this happens, food is actually served to you! You would think you'd have to cook it yourself or at the very least, pick it up yourself but no. Then it's on to dessert. What dessert? There's only one option. The non-dairy lactose-free soft serve ice cream with your choice of toppings of course. They don't even have real M&M's, they're fake ones.
Yes, Sizzler has been doing this for years. It's just that I hadn't noticed until now. I'm not complaining either. The food's pretty good.
8/04/2002
Signs
I'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible. Mel Gibson stars as a former minister who finds crop circles in the middle of his field. Predictably, his family, two kids and his brother, is freaked out. Soon, through the magic of television, they found out similar circles are being seen throughout the world, mainly India and Mexico. What follows is a sequence of events leading up to an invasion by unknown aliens.
Director M. Night Shyamalan has only made two movies before. Now all three follow his distinctive style of focusing on single objects in the picture, studying them, and moving on as if they were pieces to a puzzle. The Sixth Sense was his best effort at this because I was just blown away by the ending the first time I saw it. Unbreakable worked on a lesser extent but the revelation that Samuel L. Jackson played the villain justified doing it. In Signs, there really isn't any payoff to paying attention. It's basically all laid out there, as any traditional movie would. Sure, he does have flashbacks at the end but you have the feeling of what they're going to do instead of being totally surprised.
Also, when Shyamalan does this "focused directing," it makes things awfully S-L-O-W. It gets frustrating sometimes, more so in the beginning when they were setting up the story. As the movie progressed, there were some frights and the movie got more exciting.
Lots of questions remain unanswered pertaining to these aliens. Because Shymalan chooses to focus in on a house of people watching CNN, we'll never get to know, making it a missed opportunity. Curiousity drives the human race and it would have been satisfying to find out what these aliens wanted but again we never find out.
Now about that ending. In Unbreakable, its main characters had an Achilles Heel. It's no different for these aliens. What it is in this movie is so dumb, I thought Mars Attacks' lousy music as a way to defeat those aliens was just as plausible.
The movie does frighten and it is suspenseful but I think it's unsatisfying, especially compared to the caliber of films Shyamalan has made and is capable of making. 2.5 stars
I'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible. Mel Gibson stars as a former minister who finds crop circles in the middle of his field. Predictably, his family, two kids and his brother, is freaked out. Soon, through the magic of television, they found out similar circles are being seen throughout the world, mainly India and Mexico. What follows is a sequence of events leading up to an invasion by unknown aliens.
Director M. Night Shyamalan has only made two movies before. Now all three follow his distinctive style of focusing on single objects in the picture, studying them, and moving on as if they were pieces to a puzzle. The Sixth Sense was his best effort at this because I was just blown away by the ending the first time I saw it. Unbreakable worked on a lesser extent but the revelation that Samuel L. Jackson played the villain justified doing it. In Signs, there really isn't any payoff to paying attention. It's basically all laid out there, as any traditional movie would. Sure, he does have flashbacks at the end but you have the feeling of what they're going to do instead of being totally surprised.
Also, when Shyamalan does this "focused directing," it makes things awfully S-L-O-W. It gets frustrating sometimes, more so in the beginning when they were setting up the story. As the movie progressed, there were some frights and the movie got more exciting.
Lots of questions remain unanswered pertaining to these aliens. Because Shymalan chooses to focus in on a house of people watching CNN, we'll never get to know, making it a missed opportunity. Curiousity drives the human race and it would have been satisfying to find out what these aliens wanted but again we never find out.
Now about that ending. In Unbreakable, its main characters had an Achilles Heel. It's no different for these aliens. What it is in this movie is so dumb, I thought Mars Attacks' lousy music as a way to defeat those aliens was just as plausible.
The movie does frighten and it is suspenseful but I think it's unsatisfying, especially compared to the caliber of films Shyamalan has made and is capable of making. 2.5 stars
8/03/2002
My aunt and uncle celebrated their 25th anniversary last night. Leading up to it, they talked on and on about hiring a live band for the young people at the party. After watching their performance, I must say, I will never have a live band perform for me anywhere. This band, named "Passion", wasn't bad. Its just that their performance really stood out by the antics of the male lead singer, who bears a striking resemblance to that bassist from No Doubt. He was an energetic fellow, always a few notches ahead on the energy scale compared to the audience and his fellow band members; possibly high, possibly gay, I'm not sure. While barely any of the young people danced (they were quickly heading out the door or took refuge in the back of the restaurant), my sister and I couldn't help from laughing by this guy's gestures and pointing. Even the band chuckled a little as if he was the new guy. (Maybe he was.)
After that, we headed home. Remember when I ranted about Speed becoming an American Movie Classic? They've now added Short Circuit to their list of movies. Now it certainly wasn't a classic. It did have a robot and I did like the movie, but it ain't a classic. For one thing, it stars Steve Guttenberg.
After that, we headed home. Remember when I ranted about Speed becoming an American Movie Classic? They've now added Short Circuit to their list of movies. Now it certainly wasn't a classic. It did have a robot and I did like the movie, but it ain't a classic. For one thing, it stars Steve Guttenberg.
7/29/2002
After a yum yum dim sum lunch at Dynasty, my family and I ventured next door to the Grand Century mall, basically a big holding place full of Vietnamese stores. If you've been to the Little Saigon mall down in SoCal in Westminster, you'll know what I mean. Sadly, its only non-asian store, a sporting goods shop, closed down and turned into an arcade for the little kiddies. Though there's probably 40-50 stores in the place, like any group of asian stores, each store can fit into one of 4 categories.
1. Self-image enhancement: Jewelry stores and clothing stores. Always a must. What? 7 jewelry stores within 5 steps of each other?? That's competition at its best!
2. Posessions for a particular age: Cell phones for the fobby asians who want to look cool in their Civics, CDs for the adults complete with way too big speakers in front of the store playing the music, and cheap imported toys for the kids.
3. Restaurants: If you know me, I have no problem with food. But again, there's too many in one area. Not only is there a food court, there's also Dynasty like I mentioned, a sushi restaurant, a grill opening up (the sign says: GRAND OPENING ...soon), two other Vietnamese restaurants on the other side of the mall and a Tung Kee right next door.
4. Health care/herb stores: Either they're selling $50 pills or you're walking into a store with a strange herb smell.
Sure, there are exceptions. There was a place selling cookware. Another sold plants. The weirdest was a simple table out front selling green waffles. My family's still stumped on that one. As I left, I saw another asian center opening up. Its name? King Egg Roll Plaza. What a name.
1. Self-image enhancement: Jewelry stores and clothing stores. Always a must. What? 7 jewelry stores within 5 steps of each other?? That's competition at its best!
2. Posessions for a particular age: Cell phones for the fobby asians who want to look cool in their Civics, CDs for the adults complete with way too big speakers in front of the store playing the music, and cheap imported toys for the kids.
3. Restaurants: If you know me, I have no problem with food. But again, there's too many in one area. Not only is there a food court, there's also Dynasty like I mentioned, a sushi restaurant, a grill opening up (the sign says: GRAND OPENING ...soon), two other Vietnamese restaurants on the other side of the mall and a Tung Kee right next door.
4. Health care/herb stores: Either they're selling $50 pills or you're walking into a store with a strange herb smell.
Sure, there are exceptions. There was a place selling cookware. Another sold plants. The weirdest was a simple table out front selling green waffles. My family's still stumped on that one. As I left, I saw another asian center opening up. Its name? King Egg Roll Plaza. What a name.
Austin Powers in Goldmember
Austin Powers is back with the third movie in the series and as the movie plainly shows, he certainly has his mojo back. In this installment, Austin's father doesn't show up for his knighting and we soon find out he's been taken by Goldmember for reasons unknown. Back in 1975, Austin finds Goldmember, his dad, and Foxxy Cleopatra played by Beyonce Knowles of Destiny's Child fame. They all travel back to the present where we eventually find out Goldmember is working with Dr. Evil to end the world by tractoring in an asteroid. As in the last two movies, Austin saves the world through unseen twists and turns and certainly in style.
Why Michael Caine is even in this movie is still a mystery. Not only does his character have little to do, it could also easily be written out for it would have made a speedier movie. But the thing worth noting is the freshness factor. The second movie was plagued by retreads of the same jokes of the first one, still the best of the series. Though old jokes can still be seen (the duet between Dr. Evil and Mini-Me, "Scotty-don't"), those jokes were still funny and were kept to a minimum. The movie in a movie with various star cameos was pure genius. If only the fourth installment had that cast... Speaking of the cast, no word on what happened to Heather Graham or Dr. Evil henchman Will Ferrell. But all in all, a worthy installment suitable for many viewings. 3 stars
Austin Powers is back with the third movie in the series and as the movie plainly shows, he certainly has his mojo back. In this installment, Austin's father doesn't show up for his knighting and we soon find out he's been taken by Goldmember for reasons unknown. Back in 1975, Austin finds Goldmember, his dad, and Foxxy Cleopatra played by Beyonce Knowles of Destiny's Child fame. They all travel back to the present where we eventually find out Goldmember is working with Dr. Evil to end the world by tractoring in an asteroid. As in the last two movies, Austin saves the world through unseen twists and turns and certainly in style.
Why Michael Caine is even in this movie is still a mystery. Not only does his character have little to do, it could also easily be written out for it would have made a speedier movie. But the thing worth noting is the freshness factor. The second movie was plagued by retreads of the same jokes of the first one, still the best of the series. Though old jokes can still be seen (the duet between Dr. Evil and Mini-Me, "Scotty-don't"), those jokes were still funny and were kept to a minimum. The movie in a movie with various star cameos was pure genius. If only the fourth installment had that cast... Speaking of the cast, no word on what happened to Heather Graham or Dr. Evil henchman Will Ferrell. But all in all, a worthy installment suitable for many viewings. 3 stars
7/27/2002
Before I post a review on the great Austin Powers movie, did any Berkeleyans happen to read the review in the Daily Cal today? You didn't? Maybe it was because half of it was blabbering about something about comedy franchises, mainly in telelvision, since he never mentions another movie, which Austin Powers is. Nobody needs to read the fact that you watched a lot of television as a little boy and just happened to continue that lifestyle to college. That's what the Internet is for.
This link on the Yahoo! web page intrigued me today. NY Man Sues, Claiming Fast Food Ruined His Health
Now, I'm no nutritionist but can one really make this claim? If people like this guy are as dumb as the things he says out of his mouth, maybe he can. Consider these gems:
"I didn't find out how bad it was until 1999," he said.
"They said '100 percent beef.' I thought that meant it was good for you," the 272-pound Barber said. "I thought the food was OK."
And, "Those people in the advertisements don't really tell you what's in the food," he said. "It's all fat, fat and more fat. Now I'm obese."
On a lighter note, I happened to find out of a show where Master P and his son Lil Romeo shack up with some Southern white people before a concert. For some odd reason, this was a hilarious idea. Funniest of all, it ended with the whole family attending the concert, being the only white people there. Kudos to MTV. More odd-based celebrity live-ins should be made.
Now, I'm no nutritionist but can one really make this claim? If people like this guy are as dumb as the things he says out of his mouth, maybe he can. Consider these gems:
"I didn't find out how bad it was until 1999," he said.
"They said '100 percent beef.' I thought that meant it was good for you," the 272-pound Barber said. "I thought the food was OK."
And, "Those people in the advertisements don't really tell you what's in the food," he said. "It's all fat, fat and more fat. Now I'm obese."
On a lighter note, I happened to find out of a show where Master P and his son Lil Romeo shack up with some Southern white people before a concert. For some odd reason, this was a hilarious idea. Funniest of all, it ended with the whole family attending the concert, being the only white people there. Kudos to MTV. More odd-based celebrity live-ins should be made.
7/24/2002
James Traficant has been kicked out of Congress. The fiery-mouthed representative who has skunk hair trimmed with a weed whacker, claims Janet Reno is a traitor, and always ends his speeches with the Star Trek words "Beam me up" was voted out 420-1 by his peers. Now, talk about this all you want but the one person who voted with him was Gary Condit. Go figure.
Watching the terrible arranged-date show Meet My Folks, I also find it weird that the whole show makes light of the parents' house, complete with a big sign above the door with their last name, only to see during the credits that it's not even their house.
Watching the terrible arranged-date show Meet My Folks, I also find it weird that the whole show makes light of the parents' house, complete with a big sign above the door with their last name, only to see during the credits that it's not even their house.
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