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May be a bit hyperbolic, but I think you might agree once you hear what it is. I was channel surfing tonight and came across an episode of Future Cars on the Discover Channel. This one was titled "The Brain" and was talking about how changes in computing power will influence the design and capabilities of the car of the future. Basically, your car is going to get really smart (smarter than the vast majority of drivers, I have to assume.) As someone who actually enjoys driving, I have to say I found a lot of the ideas and concepts they were floating anywhere from annoying to downright chilling. I hated the idea of the "Senso" from Sweden… a car that can sense your driving style and mood and will change the interior color scheme to soothing colors and your music to easy listening if it finds you driving too aggressively. (Might as well call it the Orwell .) While I found the concept of the "Automatrix" somewhat less annoying, I'm not entirely sure I...

I can't begin to describe how much I enjoyed this movie. After month's of dreck, with only the occasional good film to keep me interested, it's so refreshing to honestly enjoy a film without caveats or disclaimers. At times beautiful and haunting, at others terrifying and disturbing, Pan's Labyrinth does an amazing job of blending its two stories into a seamless whole. Del Toro does something that I only seem to see in European films, a blending of disparate, but equally important and powerful themes into one film. The first time I saw this was in The Unbearable Lightness of Being , where the story of a man's love affairs are set against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. More recently, I watched The Dreamers , a Bernardo Bertolucci film about a trio of young cinéastes who fall into love and bed with each other, all set against the backdrop of the '68 Paris student riots. In both movies, the political background is used to bring a greater depth to the pers...

I leave that to real journalists, like Tim Rutten in his Regarding Media column from last week's Sunday LA Times. But I've gotta figure, what's the point of one more person chiming in on the Anna Nicole Smith story, you know? But this week has really pushed this over the top. First, there's video of Anna, obviously out of it, seriously pregnant, in clown makeup with a baby doll in a carriage. And her lawyer/friend/would-be baby daddy Howard K. Stern heard on the tape telling her the video's "going to be worth millions". Then comes word that she was prescribed methadone under an assumed name, by some doctor she's seen rolling around with in a West Hollywood gay bar, while Howard (yes, that Howard) and the other wanta-be babby daddy, Larry Birkhead are looking on. Mom, Howard and god only knows who else are fighting over where she's going to be buried. Her dad, whom no one's heard from in over 20 years, has suddenly crawled out of the woodwork. ...

Went to the movies yesterday ( Ghost Rider , if you must know. Much as with the writer/director's previous film, Daredevil , it was pretty unimpressive.) But I had to laugh during the "pre-show entertainment" (Seriously, who the hell do they think they're fooling with that crap? It's 20 minutes of advertisements, I don't care how you dress it up.) Anyway, there was a spot that starts off in the 60's with the family looking over at the TV to watch a rocket launching and the family mouthing "wow!", then it segued to other "wow" moments, including one of a woman watching the fall of the Berlin wall, followed by, presumably her husband, coming into the apartment with a piece of that wall. There were other historical "wows", as well as some more nature type moments (a guy sees a dear on the street as he's jogging, etc.). But those two moments are the ones I remember, because they're such BIG moments, historically speaking....

With the news of Anna Nicole Smith's death yesterday, you had to figure it was only a matter of time (and a short amount of time, at that) before the custody battle ramps up. After all, her 5-month old daughter COULD end up the heir to millions, depending on how Anna's battle over her late husband's estate is finally resolved. We knew that her attorney/friend/husband (?) Howard K. Stern and former boyfriend Larry Birkhead were going to continue slugging it out. And I assumed that it wouldn't take long before Anna's mom jumped into the fray. After all, who better than family to look after that poor (metaphorically speaking) little girl? Whether it's Anna's mom that makes that realization, or one of the bevy of lawyers surely to be circling the household like a murder of crows is beside the point. But then comes this gem , in which Zsa Zsa Gabor's eighth husband, Prince Frederick von Anhalt, reveals that he's had a decade long affair with Anna. He says...

Every once in a while, a commercial comes along that just annoys the hell out of me. Honda's latest "we just want to apologize" campaign has captured one of those moments. In the commercial, the guy from Honda is talking to some woman and says he "just wants to help." So she leads him to a room where her pet parrot (or whatever) resides, and tells him the birds cage needs changing... "Bad". I mean, come ON! How difficult is it to get something like THAT right? It doesn't even SOUND right. f'ing morons. That's it. No more Hondas for me.  

Ok, so I just heard this word on tonight's episode of Bones . According to Urban Dictionary , it's been around since at least 2004, but tonight was the first I'd heard it. For anyone that's ever been caught in one, this is a perfect word to describe the event. Click on the wrong link/banner/search result and suddenly your computer is deluged with cascading windows of the pornographic kind. I haven't been caught in a pornado in a long time, it seems. Nor sure if that's because browsers have gotten better at combating this one, or the porn sites have moved to different tactics, or maybe I'm just not browsing in questionable turf these days. Whatever the case, this truly captures the experience.  

As you've probably heard, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued an exhaustive report Friday on greenhouse gasses and global warming… Report: Humans 'very likely' cause global warming - CNN.com The gist of the report is that global warming is real, there's no doubt, and we'd better get ready for it. Surprisingly (especially in light of these revelations ), the White House not only acknowledged the report, but even went so far as to acknowledge the results… that global warming does indeed exist. Of course, part of the reason they accepted this report and its conclusions, while they've ignored so may other reports over the past six years, probably has more than a little to do with the ultimate conclusion the IPCC reached… global warming is real, but it's too late for us to do anyting to change anything. All we can do is prepare to weather the worst of it. That's right, the President can now acknowledge that global warming is real since he can...

So we finally got out to see a good movie! I've been looking forward to seeing this one since the I first saw the trailers last fall, and I was really glad to see the predominantly positive reviews for it once it opened. I liked Children of Men on a lot of levels (and ultimately, I think I liked it better than Dani did). The performances were almost universally great, but what else do you expect from a cast like this one has? I don't think I've ever seen a performance of Clive Owen's that I haven't liked, no matter what I may have thought of any particular Owen film. Same can probably be said for Julianne Moore and Chiwetel Ejiofor. And Michael Caine was blissfully batty and nearly stole the film. Even more than the performances, I liked the story they were telling. This is science fiction of a type you don't see much in movies any more, thanks to the success of Star Wars, Star Trek and countless other Sci-Fi epics of the past 30+ years. The difference here bo...

It's been a while since last I mocked 'em, but this year's People's Choice Awards certainly do seem mock-worthy. The simple fact is, the People apparently have no taste. How else do you explain the fact that Nickelback is somehow anyone's favorite group in 2006? (And over the Red Hot Chili Peppers?) Or that Jennifer Aniston won for Favorite Female Movie Star? Or Vince Vaughn as Favorite Leading Man? (Who the hell knew The Break-Up was that popular?) And, while I enjoyed the hell out of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest … Favorite Drama?!? What the… ? Favorite action movie, maybe. Favorite comedy, perhaps. But Drama??? That's like saying Click was a funny movie. Oh wait. You guessed it… Favorite Comedy. (Of course, since the other nominees in the Drama category were The Da Vinci Code and X-Men III , maybe it's not The People's fault. Somebody need to buy the nominating committee—and I use the term loosely—a dictionary. Or maybe just a c...

Sadly, my holiday movie viewing seems to be getting into a yearly rut. Thanksgiving weekend, we usually get out and see several movies as we've been "storing them up" for that weekend. Then we might catch one or two as we get closer to Christmas, but between shopping for presents and getting the house ready for either guests or a party (or both), movies tend to end up on the low end of Dani's to-do list. And, since I'm usually included in most of her more important items on that to-do list, MY movie going tends to decline as well. This year was even busier than usual, as we were going to Seattle to visit Dani's mom right after Christmas, so there was even less time than ever to catch anything. It's a bit of a bummer, since Christmas is what all the studios are saving their prestige pics for these days, and there are bound to be several in the week or two leading up to Christmas that are going to be well worth catching. The only up-side to it all is that th...

First, things get crazy at work before the holidays. Then, I take a couple of weeks off and enjoy Christmas and New Years… next thing I know it's been more than a month since I last posted! damn. Guess I'll have to get back to it now. hmmm… where to start?

My first name is Lou. (Louis if I'm being formal, but let's not get started on Louis/Luis. I live in Southern California… just how often do you think they get my East Coast Italian first name spelled right on the first try?) I've always had to deal with people getting my name wrong. My last name, which is about as phonetic as it gets, gave grade school teachers horrors and it wasn't till I got to UCI that I had instructors that breezed through it. I always figured that was because of the high Asian population at UCI. Compared to those names, my last name was a breeze. Telemarketers are another pain, with rampant mispronunciation that runs the gamut from understandable to unforgivable. Of course, it makes it easy for me when they ask for Mr. Espinoza, since he really doesn't live here. But really… if you're trying to sell me something, don't you at least TRY to get the name right? My latest pet peeve, however, is the coffee bar/sandwich place "what'...

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...