i m N s h o

So with much fanfare and hype, the James Bond series rebooted itself once again this past weekend, and all was good again in the world of Bond. Reviews were great, Daniel Craig seems to have stepped up and done a more than credible job as the new Bond, and the series has a "grittier, more realistic" feel. Doesn't sound bad. But then, we've heard that all before, right? Anyone else remember Timothy Dalton saying he was trying to bring the character "back to it's roots" and make him more real? And we all know how those Bond films fared. (I don't know what Bond he was channeling, but the 'heart on his sleeve' Bond that he brought to the screen was one of the more boring excursions of the series.) By no means coincidentally, I'm sure, Spike TV started its apparently annual Bond marathon this week, and I managed to catch the last of the Brosnan Bond films, Die Another Day . By no means the worst of Brosnan's Bond films (that "honor...

I have to admit it was pretty giddy around here yesterday, at least among those voting Democrat. A veritable "ding dong the Witch is dead" feeling surfaced when we heard Rumsfeld had resigned. It felt like the ending of The Return of the Jedi , complete with cloying ewoks prancing around. And yes, I DO mean the annoying version. There's a reason for that. Frankly, I'm not surprised by the reaction. This is the first "Election Results" day since the 90's that I haven't greeted with a mixture of horror and contempt. And it's not like some of the giddiness isn't justified, I think. After all, Democrats needed about 16 seats in the House to take control, they got 33. Prior to the election, the Senate was questionable at best, but by the end of the day, we'd taken the Senate back as well. Democrats won a sizable number of Governorships. The day was being hailed as a repudiation of "Stay the Course" and the end of the Neo-Con revolut...

OK, it's not that I'm mocking the idea of recruiting for the CIA . Good intelligence is exactly what we need to minimize the threat of terrorism (not to mention what a little dose of decent intelligence could do for Washington). But I'm kind of amused by the latest ad campaign I've seen on TV and heard (incessantly) on the radio lately. Are we sure Joe Shmoe listening to KROQ is really the "exceptional person with a strong sense of patriotism" the CIA is looking for? I honestly think I was more comfortable with the thought of CIA spooks skulking around college campuses and hand-picking their recruits. At least there's a sense that there's some process involved here. Not just "throw open the doors… we'll see what sticks!" And let's face it… there's gotta be some sense of irony in the thought of the National Clandestine Service advertising for spies.

Yesterday, while waiting for Flushed Away to begin, we saw a trailer for the upcoming Christmas film, The Nativity . I'll wait for the reviews on this one before deciding whether I'm going to see it, but I had to laugh at the trailer. (Head over to the videos link from the above link to check out the theatrical trailer.) We get the requisite brief glimpses of scenes from the movie, followed by scrolling text and that oh-so-dramatic Mr. Moviephone voice-over, intoning "A message foretold in the heavens… a prophecy that would threaten an empire." Now, there's no denying the truth to that statement… Christianity ultimately did shake Rome to it's core. But it's the sensational treatment of this that had me laughing. All we needed was the listing of Academy Award® nominated actors playing Joseph, Mary and Pilate to complete the feeling of "big… Hollywood… blockbuster!", a seemingly inappropriate approach to a story such as this one, I would think. (A...

Last week, the Pres said that his administration would no longer refer to our policy in Iraq as "stay the course" (or words to that effect). He then went on to point out that HE had NEVER referred to our policy in such a way, and my first thought to that was 'what are you, 2?'. This got me thinking that I might be onto something. (In a rare moment of public disagreement, VP Cheney went on record the following day, saying that the government may no longer refer to our Iraq policy as "staying the course" but that is indeed the policy. Looks like the Pres got off-script in his previous statement. I assume he was chastised accordingly.) Bush has been mocked for his apparent lack of intellectual prowess, almost from day one of his campaign… a mockery that I have been happy to embrace, if for no other reason than that I find it amusing. But, realistically speaking, for all his touting of his "C" average at Yale, he can't really be as stupid as has b...

So, on paper at least, the fall's been good for crime-themed movies… Hollywoodland, The Black Dahlia, The Departed… you'd think they were making cheap horror/splatter films, the way they're cranking them out. Of course, just because we had a rush on crime fiction, doesn't mean they're all any good. Hollywoodland I've already covered, so no sense going into it again here. But a week after Hollywoodland came The Black Dahlia , so I might as well start there. I really wanted to like Dahlia. Based on a James Ellroy book, directed by Brian DePalma, starring Aaron Eckhart and Scarlett Johansson (and, oh yeah, Josh Harnett), what's not to like? It's got that LA Confidential vibe, with a director that knows the genre and a great cast… and let's not forget that very cool poster ! (Of course, then I realized that the poster was a knock-off of Six Feet Under's first season cover, and it lost some of its glamour.) Sadly, the results simply didn't live...

I know I asked for more like this a couple of weeks ago… Looks like Keith's ready to step up and give it to me. 'Beginning of the end of America' I never knew I was a Keith Olberman fan (and, frankly, doubt this is going to make me check out his column on a regular basis). But we certainly agree on this particular point. (I can't help but point out that I've had the Ben Franklin quote he mentions on page 2 as an email signature since shortly after 9/11, when it became obvious that Mr. Bush and company weren't particularly concerned with notions like the Constitution, liberty and responsibility.) I guess one can take some comfort from the examples that Olberman mentions—Adams, Wilson and Roosevelt—and the thought that the country survived those threats. But it's still a sad day to see this kind of legislation proposed, let alone passed and signed into law. (Let me get this straight… Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about a blow-job. George Bush shreds th...

So I'm bit disturbed by the reappearance of post-apocalyptic themes in pop-culture this year. There was a brief, shining moment between the fall of the Berlin wall & collapse of the Soviet Union and today, where all those nuclear nightmares I'd developed after years of gloom and doom SF in the 70's were just bad memories. Now, thanks to global terrorism, the lunacy of N. Korea's "Dear Leader" and an administration that can't even pronounce nuclear, let alone reassure me that they're on top of the issue, it seems those old bad thoughts are making a comeback. Heroes on NBC has a scattered group of people discovering that they have super-human abilities and will have to work together to avert the disaster that one of them is able to foresee. So far, I'm enjoying the hell out of this one. Interesting characters with cool powers and the overriding mystery of who's going to blow up New York and why… there are enough interesting twists to keep me...

So weeks of hype (I'm pretty sure I read a quote somewhere calling this the best new sitcom of the season) culminated in Wednesday's premier episode of 30 Rock , and, as my title implies, all I've gotta say is "what the fuck?" THIS is "the best" of the new? I guess I fell for the hype, 'cause I went into it really looking forward to the show. I've already decided I can't get enough of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (god help me if the audience numbers don't pick up) and figured getting the satirical sit-com angle on the sketch comedy genre could be a lot of fun. I don't think I could be more wrong. I was nonplussed from the very start, with an absurd argument over hot dogs and a Mary Tyler Moore'ish opening number (obviously meant to be winkingly satirical), leading to the discovery that Tina Fey's character is the head writer on a late night sketch comedy show called, ironically (?) The Girlie Show. I know they make jokes abo...

Sunday, lately, seems to be my day to revisit movies I've seen recently, but never actually talked about. Last week was Batman Begins , this week Legend of Zorro . One good, one not so much. Let's start with the good… Batman Begins, of course. First off, there's the film's pedigree. Christopher Nolan directs (Memento, Insomnia). David Goyer wrote the screenplay (Dark City, the Blade series). And the cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, I could go on, but there's really only one disappointment in that cast, so let's cut to the chase. Despite the overwhelming quality of the cast, somehow we got stuck with Katie Holmes as the romantic interest/foil for Batman, and you gotta wonder how that decision was reached. (Well, actually, you probably don't. Some genius at Warner Bros. gave Nolan a list of "hot young actresses" and told him to pick one for the Rachel Dawes role and Katie somehow ended up at the top of the list.) Sa...

And then there's Zorro. I really liked the first movie in this series, The Mask of Zorro . It had some great swashbuckling moments and some really fun swordfights. It probably doesn't bear up to much critical analysis, but it was a fun ride. My first glimmerings that there might be a problem came with the announcement of the story for the sequel, The Legend of Zorro . (A sequel nearly a decade in the making, by the way). Apparently they decided that the one thing missing from the great relationship between Zorro and Elena and his role as protector of California… was an annoying child to muck up the works. (Don't get me started on this trend again. I ranted enough the first time around .) Funny thing is, the child turned out to be the least annoying thing they did with the movie. I don't know what they were thinking, but between a patently formulaic approach to the sequel (a MOTS—More Of The Same—sequel, if there ever was one), shoehorning contemporary politics into th...

I love Looney Tunes, with their puns, in-jokes and pop-culture references of the era. (Especially the puns, as anyone who really knows me can attest.) So I'm amused to learn just where Foghorn Leghorn must have come from... That's a Joke, Son That's only an aside to the main point of the article… an amusing intro to the topic under discussion, as it were. I'm not really concerned with the article itself today. I just thought the Claghorn/Leghorn thing was amusing.

Seriously. Read this. Keith Olbermann | A Special Comment About Lying We need to hear more like this, please.

"We've been working as hard as we know how to work - everyone in youth ministry is working hard - but we're losing." Ron Luce , an evangelical activist on fears of a steep decline in the number of young churchgoers. Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers - New York Times Maybe if there are fewer teens getting indoctrinated by ultraconservative evangelicals , we'll get a little more common sense in future generations. I can dream, can't I?  

The news that Representative Mark Foley has been exchanging sexually explicit instant messages with his underage pages (and that, apparently, the pages have been telling each other for years to watch out for him); the news that the Speaker of the House and (presumably) Republican leadership have been aware of this for years and done nothing about it; or the contemptible press release Foley's lawyer issued earlier this week, stating that, not only was Foley abused as a child, but it was at the hands of a Catholic priest. (What, did they sit around with the Mad Libs deck and try to figure out the best combination of traits to lay claim to?) I know it's an obvious joke, but seriously… at this point, when you look up corrupt in the dicttionay, they might as well just redirect you to Republican .

Early this morning, KROQ played a clip of Bush, campaigning here in California, urging people to pay attention to how members of Congress voted on The Military Commissions Act (you know, the one that says it's okay to use torture and to ignore the Geneva Convention), Cheney's domestic spying bill and other "anti-terrorism" legislation recently acted on in Congress, in preparation for going to the polls in November. He suggests that you pay attention to how your Senators and Representatives voted, and which party they belong to, and vote accordingly. And frankly, as I said, I think he's got it half right. You absolutely should pay attention to how your senators and reps voted on bills like this. And then, no matter which freaking party they belong to, vote the motherfuckers out. The Constitution may not be a "suicide pact" as the President's Press Secretary famously stated shortly after 9/11, but neither is it the nuisance that his administration see...

So a few weeks ago, I stumbled across this title at the local Borders bookstore: Star Wars on Trial: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Debate the Most Popular Science Fiction Films of All Time After months of listening to the rabid S.O.A.P. fans rattle on about their movie (no comment on how that translated to actual success of said movie) I have to acknowledge the power of a really cheesy title. And this one ranks right up there, I think. I've got to admit I picked this one up and set it down several times, over several trips to the bookstore. But eventually I succumbed to the lure of topics like "The Politics of Star Wars are Anti-Democratic and Elitist" and "Women in Star Wars are Portrayed as Fundamentally Weak." Then I read David Brin's intro. And Matthew Woodring Stover's intro. And I realized that, despite the extended conceit of putting the Star Wars saga on trial (complete with a droid judge to oversee the proceedings), there was some serio...

The gist of it is, this really was the point I was trying to make here (read the comments). Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Fuels Terror It just carries a bit more weight when it's coming from the people who really know what's going on there. (Meanwhile, of course, Pollyanna is in full denial mode . Of course, the point isn't that Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism existed before 9/11. It's that what's going on in Iraq today is making it worse. And no amount of Bill Clinton blamestorming is going to change that unpleasant fact.)  

Channel surfing tonight I came across Spielberg's War of the Worlds just in time for the scene that ruined the movie for me. Understand that, overall, I think they did a really nice job of updating the story, making it contemporary and relevant without losing any of the major beats of Well's original . The aliens and their machines evoke Well's story while not feeling out of place in our era, the human drama is foremost and, as it's told exclusively from Ray's (Tom Cruise's character's) point of view, immediate and often chilling. But I just can't get past the set-up to this great big bug-eyed monster from outer space extravaganza. The aliens are first revealed as one of their war machines corkscrews out of the earth, underneath a main intersection in Ray's neighborhood. He watches, stunned, as the ground begins to rotate, shearing off the fronts of buildings and collapsing structures as the ground falls into the center of the hole that's being ...

The first thing that strikes me about these two movies was how the 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was really all about Charlie, while last year's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was really all about Willy. (Just look at the character arcs in both movies… who really changes the most in each? You'll see what I mean.) The next thing I realized is how amazingly "safe" this new version of Roald Dahl's story is. And the last thing that occurred to me as I saw Charlie this afternoon was that I really dislike this remake. In 1971's Willy Wonka, Gene Wilder's Willy seems a bit of a cynic, is untrusting and suffers from feelings of superiority to the rest of the world. He's also vaguely threatening, or at the very least, apparently uncaring as to the well-being of these annoying people he's subjected himself to. For the majority of the movie, he's simply not a very nice guy. Meanwhile, Charlie is a quiet child, but obviously on the advent...