Berkeley has been known for its chilly winter-like weather year-round. I remember last year when Channel 5 did a news story about the first day of school and showed freshmen huddled up in sweatshirts on a foggy morning in August. This week has been an aberration. From Wednesday, high temperatures were 91, 94, and 91. I went home for the weekend only to encounter a temp of 98.

In the BART ride home, a sane enough man with a bicycle sat in front of me. About 15 minutes in, passing by Lake Merritt station, he started to talk to a woman in Chicago. She was apparently a police dispatcher. His brother had been arrested on some "bogus" charge, as he described it, and wanted to talk to the detective in charge. He got the run-around and after about three connections, got back to the same dispatcher, to whom the man just started yelling at the poor woman, wanting to get the detective on the phone. I think he got disconnected because he started yelling profanities. Once he talked again, he started yelling, "I WANT DETECTIVE FRANCIS ON THE PHONE!!! F-R-A-N... He was stopped when the person on the other end apparently identified himself as Detective Francis. The man explained his situation and calmed down since he complimented the detective for his nice attitude. Once he was done with his call, he got off the train.

Now here's the weird part of this loud incident. As I saw the man, he had no phone in his hand. I assumed he had one of the those ear pieces that connect to a cell phone, plus his finger was in the ear the entire time as if holding onto some headphone. But about 5 minutes into the conversation, only his finger was in his ear. He had yelled at himself for 15 minutes all the way up to San Leandro station.

It has been exactly a month since school let out for the traditional school year and today the summer session. Various people have asked me why I keep taking summer classes when I've got a bazillion units already. Well, I'm overachieving I guess. Besides, it's a history class. I'll busy myself with the reading this summer; a textbook, a compilation, and a course reader. And essays galore. The professor either acts high or like a surfer from socal. Either way, he's got a phd. He teaches in West Texas and is 30% deaf. What better place to put him than a 100-student classroom for 40 students. He gets easily distracted and once he gets distracted, has a hard time getting back on track, easily forgetting what he was talking about before. For example, questions about administrative things turned into a discussion about "Berkeley time" and why it's called that. Then it turned into a "What makes Berkeley, Berkeley?" discussion. Finally, once he was done, he asks the first guy who asked a question what his question was all about. With lots of yelling and tangents, he's an unorthodox teacher but it seems as though he knows his stuff.

When I got back to Berkeley, everyone seemed a bit angrier or on edge for some odd reason. Driving on University, I saw three red light runners from I-80 to my street McGee. The first bus I rode today wouldn't pick me up at first. He was closing the door and I was running toward it. I got to the door and I motioned for him to open it. And all he did was stare at me. It was the most awkward 10 seconds but he finally opened. After the aforementioned class, I stood about 3 feet from the bus pole when the bus came and went. It stopped at a nearby red light and I ran to it and asked him why he didn't stop and he yells back that I wasn't standing at the pole. Geez, three feet away with my arm waving, isn't that enough? Then there was the petition guy who was running around trying to get people to sign his petition. What was it for? I don't know. He gave me a mean look and went on his way. Finally, police cars have been racing past my apartment more than usual. 3 in the last 2 hours. It's all too weird.

There were also 3 KRON-4 vans parked around the Berkeley campus. I have no idea what could be happening unless they wanted to cover the first day of Session C.

You know, Listerine bottles get bigger and bigger with no reason for it. Sure, people need their mouthwash but I get back to my apartment and my roommate has bought a bottle of mouthwash bigger than the gallon of bleach that sits on the floor. I guess as long as he doesn't mix the two up, he'll be fine.

What have I been doing the last month? Seemingly nothing. Sure, there's the movies. And the friends. And that graduation thing. And that fender-bender. I don't seem to remember much more than that. The house is getting a new roof so that's something new. My parents spent three days talking to this one roofer about prices, shingles, and tiles, virtually wearing him out. Then after one hour with another roofer, they choose him, screwing over the three-day guy. With a $5,000 difference, I can understand why. But he doesn't know it yet and he still has his samples at the house. The next day, 3 Mexican guys climb up onto the roof and start tearing it apart. After two days, it's all gone and new gutters have been installed. Ever since...silence. Apparently, they don't have the tiles and won't be delivered til tomorrow. In the meantime, a big ad of the company sits in the front yard, announcing "another quality roof installed" when a big black sheet sits on the roof.

In news I've seen, TNN was supposed to change their name to Spike TV. Why they would want to do this I don't know. It's a pretty dumb name, but to them, it screams male so that's what they want to do. In comes Spike Lee, suing Viacom to stop the name change claiming people will confuse the channel with him. I don't know, the last thing I think of when I hear Spike TV, would be Spike Lee. I think of the punch at parties. I think of the things under my shoes when I play golf or soccer. I think of volleyball. Heck, I'll think of Spike Jonze before Spike Lee. It's a dumb lawsuit for a dumb name that they'll probably want to change in the future anyway.

The governor of California is on his way to being recalled. Davis is brushing this off as an effort by the losers of the last election to get him out of office. But when a million people sign a petition to do so and possibly a majority of voters in an election will agree to it, then maybe it is the right thing to do. It will only be so if there is an adequate replacement waiting in the wings. And right now, there is none. All the decent Democrats are standing behind Davis, including the two senators and the constitutional officers. On the Republican side, there's Schwarzenegger but all he's done politically is pass an after school program. There's Issa, a congressman heading the recall campaign, but he's too right-wing for a left-wing state. There's Condi Rice, National Security Adviser, but she's a foreign policy person, not a fiscal person. There's Bill Simon, but he already lost to Davis. So who's left? It could be you. All you need is 65 signatures and $3500 to get on the ballot. Then all it takes is for you to get the most votes and you're instantly governor. What a story that will be.

Before I saw The Hulk (in a half-empty auditorium, probably will only make $120 million, tops), I saw a trailer for a live-action Peter Pan. Something seemed very wrong about it. I don't know why. It's my belief they shouldn't mess with the cartoon. It's bad enough Hook was made. But what really got me was the music. They played Coldplay's Clocks. It seemed all too awkward with what was going on the screen.

The Hulk
Ang Lee's first film since the warmly received but overrated "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is anything but small. It's the major comic franchise, The Hulk. But Lee's big ideas for this green man ultimately fall flat. The action takes us to a desert base known as "Desert Base" where David Banner is working on some genetic resequencing. When his military boss, Ross, rejects the use of human subjects, David instead chooses to experiment it on himself. When his wife announces she's pregnant and has their baby, David finds that Bruce has inherited the altered genes. The consequences of this boy even being alive eventually forces Bruce to move in with foster parents. Flash forward 30 years later to Berkeley, where Bruce (Eric Bana) has also become a geneticist, coincidentally partnering with Ross' daughter Betty (Jennifer Connelly), not knowing about the whereabouts of his parents or any memories of them. A freak accident involving gamma radiation activates the altered genes inside Bruce and he becomes the Hulk. Ross (Sam Elliott) is now forced to stop the Hulk by any means necessary while David (Nick Nolte) tries to re-establish contact with his son after 30 years of prison.

Lee and writing partner James Schamus seem to specialize in filming human interactions. They bring it here to the Hulk with uneven results. The story of Bruce's origins and the constant tries to remember his past bog down the entire movie and make it tediously long. We all come to see The Hulk, but have to sit through a good hour of dialogue to get to him. It comes to a point where they're just stretching the material all the way it can be, making the audience wonder why we should care about the subject altogether and get to the more exciting things the Hulk could be doing. Lee's presentation of the long material is innovative but wasted. He uses multiple cameras to capture the same scene at multiple angles, a la 24, and putting them in as if we're moving from panel to panel in a comic book. Sure, it was nice to see and all, but 24 uses this technique to its advantage by looking at different locales at the same time while Lee confines it to two or three different shots of the same subject. If there is any saving grace to the film, it's in the action. As long as you don't see the Hulk close-up to recognize how fake he is (the fish in Finding Nemo seem more real), it's pretty cool to see him taking bullets, evading helicopters, or jumping from mountain to mountain. But that's only 30 minutes out of a 138 minute movie. 2 stars

28 Days Later
Director Danny Boyle returns for a haunting look at our possible future. After animal rights activists release some rage-inflicted apes, its virus quickly spreads around the world. It simply takes the introduction of infected blood into the blood stream to get rage, something easily done with the inflicted being bloody and vomiting blood non-stop. 28 days later, Jim, a bike messenger, wakes up from a coma only to find the hospital and the entire city of London deserted. Church won't do any good; it's filled with dead bodies and beady-red-eyed humans inflicted with rage. He soon meets up with a few unaffected people, Selena and a father-daughter duo, and make their way toward a radio broadcast calling out for help. What they find is a small group of soldiers questioning their future in a world filled with nothing for them. Jim and his group must fight off the inflicted and the uninflicted in order to survive.

Though with flaws, Boyle returns from the disastrous "The Beach" to deliver a solid and scary thriller. His digital camera work, blurred and shaky with closeups galore a la Blair Witch, adds a level of tension to an already scary situation of zombies roaming around and soldiers being absolutely controlling. It's hard to tell what keeps these zombies going except to seek out living beings and spit blood all over them, but these encounters are few and far between in the movie as most of the first 2/3rds of the movie is characters roaming around looking for other people, a storyline that takes an hour to tell even though it could have done in half that time. But the true scary aspects of the film lie not with the red eyes of the zombies (yes, scary enough), but with the shocking reality of the situation they're in and the things humans do, such as the soldiers, in reaction to it. Boyle thus sees this as an opportunity to do something big, almost epic, with this film, evident from the wide shots of a deserted London and the unnecessary length of its climactic bloody scenes, when all that's needed is something smaller. 2.5 stars

Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd
Let's see...no Jim Carrey...no Jeff Daniels...no Farrelly Brothers...sure, make a prequel. And that's exactly what they've done in detailing Harry and Lloyd's first encounter. It was Harry's (Derek Richardson) first day of high school and his mother (Mimi Rogers?!?) gave him a map and the instruction to make a new friend. In comes Lloyd (Eric Christian Olsen) who comes crashing into him while chasing the school bus even though he lives with his father at school. They soon become best pals. Meanwhile, the principal and lunchlady (Eugene Levy and Cheri Oteri) scheme to start a special needs class to get $100,000 and buy themselves a condo in Hawaii. Of course, their first two students are Harry and Lloyd. A beautiful reporter, Jessica (Rachel Nichols), seems to have figured things out and enlists Harry and Lloyd to help.

I probably laughed twice and chuckled a few times more. Other than that, the result is a poorly made film that embarrasses its two actors with no real punchline. I guess I don't really see the humor in smearing chocolate all over a bathroom or seeing the effects of a brain freeze. It becomes more stupid than it is funny. Veteran comedians Levy and Oteri are wasted in this film, possibly literally when they signed the contract to be in the film. And the three-man script with a director with 2 films to his credit does not come close in quality to its earlier incarnation. At least Olsen and Richardson kinda look like Carrey and Daniels. Half a star.

Congrats to my cousin Tram for graduating from Oak Grove today. She'll be going to Berkeley next fall so umm, uhh, good luck to that. I'm sure she'll have as much as fun as I'm not having.

Going to graduation, it seemed a bit shorter this year. Maybe it was the smaller class. Maybe it was the inaudible speeches. Or the way they were speeding through the names. Whatever it was, I passed the time reasonably well while talking with old classmates and seeing others, including Theodore, Crystal, Gurjeet, Andrew, and other people whose names I forgot but seemed to recognize me. I think one guy's name was Chris. And maybe there was another Andrew there. There were a couple of others but I was totally clueless.

2 Fast 2 Furious
The sequel to the successful "The Fast and the Furious" found itself without its bankable star, Vin Diesel, nor its director, Rob Cohen. Instead, in comes John Singleton as director and a change in locale from Los Angeles to Miami. What results are the same things that made the first one work but not much else. Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) is out of the police force and now focused exclusively on cars. A police raid at a race strip rounds up Brian for the purpose of being part of an operation to bring down a drug operation led by Carter Verone. It is the police's belief that if Verone can be caught with drug money, he can be captured. Brian and his friend Roman (Tyrese) play the role of transporters; to bring the money down to the Florida Keys without being caught. The wild-card in the whole operation is undercover agent Monica Clemente (Eva Mendes), who may be playing both sides.

I must admit, I couldn't sit through the first one in just one sitting. I missed it in theatres. Watched roughly the first half on DVD and the other on some free preview from Starz. Here, ignoring the awful plot, the racing scenes and the added comic relief by Tyrese makes this one at least watchable at the way through. But the material that the actors must work through treats them and their cars as just eye candy. The entire plot point of transporting the money seems to be completely unnecessary since with all the insiders he has in the police department and the security he has, it seems Verone could have taken the money himself instead of bringing in middlemen. The customs agents are complete idiots right from the start with their assumption that Brian and Roman were speeding off instead of doing their job. And the big climax of hundreds of cars overwhelming the police force could have been scaled down a bit. In a word and a number, it was 2 ridiculous. But when you do step into a theatre to see it, you're in for a fun ride. 2 stars

It's pretty troubling that a little girl was kidnapped on Friday. This really wouldn't be news here since kidnappings seem to be happening all the time with all the nationwide manhunts and the numerous amber alerts that people slow down and read, plaguing my commute home whenever I have a commute home. But this one hit nearby, down Monterey Highway at Tennant near the 85 overpass. While we should be all thankful that she was found in East Palo Alto Sunday night, the question remains, who would do such a thing as to stalk this poor girl and kidnap her in broad daylight, attacking the mother and brother in the process? There's no motive, no ransom note, and no explanation as to why the kidnapper let the girl go free, which leads to another thing.

Police are crediting Sunday's release of footage from a video surveillance camera that captured the kidnapper speeding down the street for this sudden re-appearance of the girl. Being safe should be applauded. Locking doors and closing windows, that's the extent my house goes through. But cameras at a neighbor's house? These aren't mansions they're living at. They're just regular single family homes and there are security cameras filming the place? That may be going overboard, but the grainy picture captured of a fuzzy car with illegible license plates and the sounds of a struggle easily confused with birds chirping prevented a family from further anguish.

In a perfect world, drivers like me would be appreciated for their carefulness. It's a shame we don't live in such a world and the resulting mixture of awful drivers results in accidents like the one I had last week. It wasn't much. My car wasn't damaged at all. She got a pretty heavy dent. So it's like this. It's the OG parking lot, teachers lot so supposedly safer, picking up little sister from school. I've parked in a space waiting for her. She comes out with a friend and gets in the car. Slowly, I start to back out. No cars from my vantage point except for a car backing out about 10 spaces farther down. Seeing as how I've backed out just enough, I begin to brake, look ahead, and change to D. Suddenly, BUMP. What happened? The car across from me had speedily backed out and in the time my car was braking from its reverse, it had hit her car in the side rear. Since my rear bumper hit her side, there wasn't any damage on my car. I park back in and get out and start yelling that I had the right of way. I was all the way out. Didn't you see me??? But she seems to take it in stride as if nothing happened. I later find out she's been in two accidents before. So, as a seasoned veteran, she proclaims no one was at fault and waits to exchange insurance info. She says it's a small dent relative to the car and since her brother works at a body shop, she wouldn't report it to the insurance. A mother who was a witness also said not to report it, she being a veteran of 5 accidents as a teenager. Right then, I'm shocked at what kind of drivers I'm surrounded by. Once it's done, she speeds off, late for work and I go on my way.

Finding Nemo
The 5th Pixar Animated Studios Film shows that they have perfected the art of the high quality cartoon only Disney in its glory days could achieve. Here, Marlin, a clownfish voiced by Albert Brooks, is trying to start over after his wife and hundreds of eggs were taken away from him through the circle of life. What was left was one single egg, which Marlin promptly named Nemo, his wife's favorite name. Nemo grows up to be a fearless fish, willing to explore the unknown, but is held back by his overprotective father. At school, Nemo hangs around a bunch of other sea life who goes off on their own to the edges of a reef near Australia. There, Nemo finds himself alone and gets taken by a scuba diver/dentist to be a gift for his niece, who killed the last fish she was given. Marlin makes it his mission to find Nemo anyway he can. Along the way, he meets Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) a fish with a memory loss condition. Together, they take a journey through the ocean, encountering sharks, jellyfish, and sea turtles on their way to Sydney. Meanwhile, Nemo makes friends with the other fish in the aquarium to plot their way out of the tank and towards the nearby ocean.

There are two things every cartoon needs to be successful. One is an exotic location filled with exotic characters that can't be achieved through live action. The other is crossover appeal between adults and children alike. Finding Nemo is a perfect example of these. The visual presentation is excellent. There were some underwater shots where I was convinced that I was looking at someone filming with a camera only to realize it was totally animated. The level of detail seen on screen makes it seem like it might as well have been shot with a camera.

The story itself is simple enough so that kids can follow and adults won't be bored by it since we can all relate to the relationship between father and son. Word of caution to the littlest of kids who may find some scenes frightening. Older kids may not be frightened, but they'll probably be annoyed by the screaming and crying that may follow.

The people providing the voices to the sea life bring passion to their characters, especially the main pair of Brooks and DeGeneres as well as Willem Dafoe, who as Gill, has a similar handicap Nemo has with their defective fins. It's this basic premise to entertain and wonder that gives Finding Nemo the praise it deserves. 4 stars

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

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

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

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

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

Luckily things were normal as of 10am.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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