Rocket Science - 7.0

This movie (from the director of Spellbound) is about a stuttering teenager who is drawn into the apparently intense world of high school debate teams by an over-achieving girl. It starts sort of slowly but quickly picks up as the main characters come into focus. Overall, this movie's biggest strength is that its characters are well-developed, original, relatively dynamic and generally likable. While far from a masterpiece, this is a good, quirky, enjoyable indie film (think a not quite as good Little Miss Sunshine), and a nice change of pace/transition from all the summer blockbusters, which with only a few exceptions (Bourne, Harry Potter) were pretty disappointing this year. Bring on Oscar season...

Hard Eight - 6.0

Hard Eight is P.T. Anderson's first feature film and deals with an old-school con artist/gambler (played by Philip Baker Hall, aka Bookman from Seinfeld) who takes a young loser under his wing (John C. Reilly). It also features decent supporting turns from Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson and one good scene with Philip Seymour Hoffman. It's not nearly as polished or stylish as Anderson's later films but is effective as a more or less straight forward character study. Watching it, I kept thinking of Thief, one of Michael Mann's first features - the two movies don't have a whole lot in common, but like with Thief, there are moments of brilliance where you can really see the genius of the filmmaker but that potential isn't yet fully realized. Lucky for us, PTA followed up Hard Eight with Boogie Nights and Magnolia. As for Michael Mann, even luckier for us, since the dude hasn't ever made a bad movie and has made several flat-out great ones - Heat, Last of the Mohicans, The Insider being the best with Manhunter, Ali, Collateral, and Miami Vice behind - hadn't expressed my man-love for Michael Mann in a while, good to get it out of my system. Anyways, back to P.T., I've now seen all 4 of his movies and he's definitely up there as one of my favorite working directors with Spielberg, Mann, Tarantino, Chris Nolan, of course the Mexican contingent (Innaritu, Cuaron, Del Toro), and several others. I'm really looking forward to P.T.'s new film coming out this winter, There Will Be Blood, featuring Daniel Day-Lewis (!!!). Even a pretty weak trailer hasn't dampened my excitement for that one.

Marathon Training

I did my longest run yet for my marathon training this evening - 14.5 miles, 7:51/mile. It was supposed to be a 15 mile run, so it's kind of sad I didn't have the motivation to run another half a mile after doing 14.5, but by that point I was more concerned with not passing out. Now thinking about doing another 11.5 miles??? Holy shit, that's going to be hard - I guess I have to count on better weather, adrenaline, and Jeremy pacing me so I don't run my customary 6:30 first mile and lose 15 secs every mile afterwards. I can tell you this, at this point, I'll just be happy if I finish it, I don't care about my time (though under 4 hours would be nice).

Arsenal 1 City 0

Here are some quick player ratings from Arsenal's 1-0 victory over Man City this weekend. Starters -Manuel Almunia - 8.0 - made a few good saves and more importantly, didn't make the big mistake like Lehmann had in the first two matches of the season. If I'm Wenger, I leave him in for a while. -Gael Clichy - 7.0 - I love this guy, for me, he's already nearing the level of Cashley, he's gotta break into the French national team picture soon - he's been called up a few times but never played - it will be tough though since when motivated Eric Abidal is one of the best leftbacks in the world. As always, he showed he's extremely dangerous going forward against City and rock-solid in the back. He did however send in some pretty bad crosses from good positions in this particular match which was quite frustrating. -Kolo Toure - 8.0 - he played awesome, holding a makeshift defense, that featured a central midfielder (Gilberto) playing beside him at center back and another midfielder (Flamini) playing rightback for most of the match. My favorite player, will be tough when he's gone in the middle of the season for the African Nations Cup. -Gilberto - 4.0 - I like him in the center of the midfield but his lack of experience playing centerback showed this match with his positioning. Most of City's best chances were the result of his being out of position. -Bacary Sagna - no rating, only played like 15 minutes before getting hurt. I was very disappointed because he has been getting rave reviews from the Arsenal fan sites for his first few matches and also had just received his first cap for France last week. Can't wait to see him for a full match. Nice hair too. -Mathieu Flamini - 5.0 - he gets docked a point for being the one who injured Sagna, though to be fair, there really wasn't much he could do. He had a lot of trouble dealing with Petrov (who was City's best attacker by far imo) but he's not a true defender, so I can't be too hard for him. He is a great guy to have around though since he can play so many positions relatively well (though none exceptionally), especially with Senderos, Sagna, Eboue, and Gallas all out Saturday (and Djourou loaned out, doh, bad move Arsene). -Cesc - 6.0 - blah, he had a very pedestrian game but one of my rules for player ratings in soccer (my only rule at this point) is if you score the only goal in a 1-0 win, the worst rating you can have is 6.0. It was a nice finish, similar to Lampard's goal against Germany. -Rosicky - 5.5 - so so game. Was at the center of several nice buildups but didn't have a huge impact on the game. -Alexander Hleb - 6.0 - pretty invisible for much of the game but came through big, both by drawing the penalty that RVP blew, and assisting on Cesc's goal. His play in the first 4 games of the season has been an extremely pleasant surprise. -Emmanuel Adebayor - 4.0 - did well in the air but didn't take any of his 2 or 3 half chances and also very noticeably took the lazy way out on two plays that may or may not have been something (RVP cutting it across the keeper one time only for Adebayor to not be at the far post and giving up on what looked like a 50-50 through ball vs. Richard Dunne). -Robin van Persie - 4.0 - often dropped back and was given tons and tons of space 25-30 yards out on numerous occasions and never did much with it. Also blew his penalty by going straight down the middle (at least elevate it a little if you do that so the keeper can't save it with his feet). Overall, it was an off game, but I still love this guy - if he can stay healthy, he should score 20+ goals in the league this season. Bench -Denilson - 6.0 - played almost an entire match after coming on for Sagna. Looked good not great - is clearly an extremely promising player. -Eduardo - 3.0 - was pretty horrendous on his home debut. Gave away possession on several occasions and also did not take his chances. Probably nerves more than anything since he came on as a sub so he never really was able to settle into the game. I'm still confident that his addition and improvement from RVP, Adebayor, and Hleb can offset the loss of Henry. -Song - 2.0 - ew, this dude's not very good. Made one glaringly idiotic play when we had possession at the end of the match (holding a 1-0 lead) and just played the ball out of bounds for no apparent reason. Maybe he can turn into something, I don't know, there's gotta be a reason Wenger's playing him right? Some thoughts on Man City - they defended well - a lot of good buildup from Arsenal did not result in too many clearcut chances. Their back four looked really good, the new guys, Corluka and Garrido looked good as fullbacks, but their centerback pairing is what really stood out. Micah Richards was solid, Richard Dunne exceptional. Schmeichel the second also looks like a great shot stopper in goal, though he did look shaky on crosses. Sven smartly used a counter-attack strategy and City actually looked dangerous on several occasions. Petrov was impressive while Mpenza and Elano (maybe off day?) were underwhelming. As for Arsenal, if not for Jens' error against Blackburn, we'd be off to the perfect start, but I'll take 2 wins, 1 tie in the league and a 2-0 road champions league win. I feel like this City game is the type of winnable home game that Arsenal would've drawn last year, so it was great to see them come away with 3 points. I'm not hopeful that we'll be challenging for the title, but anything's possible, and it certainly looks like we have a stronger team than Spurs who were supposed to take our champions league spot this season (granted Spurs have a had a ton of injuries in their defense, but Gallas, Eboue, Senderos, Sagna were all out against 100% record City and we still managed a clean sheet, so I take those excuses with a grain of salt).

Curb, Hard Knocks, Coupling

So since I moved back to Chapel Hill, I've been watching more TV shows than movies. Here are some thoughts... Curb Your Enthusiasm I had seen probably 10-15 episodes of Curb in the past and liked it a lot but didn't love it. But after watching 4 episodes in a row tonight with my roommates + Dan, I can safely say this is easily my second favorite current comedy behind The Office. The humor is very Seinfeldian (I would probably have Seinfeld tied with The Office for my favorite comedy of all time) and since it's Larry David, it feels genuine and original instead of just being a cheap imitation. Basically, if you like Seinfeld, you'll like this show - this is even more true if you're like me and George is your favorite Seinfeld character since Larry David essentially = George Costanza. Hard Knocks I've never watched this training camp/preseason NFL documentary on HBO before and now I regret it big time. It works perfectly on HBO because it's uncensored so you actually get to see what it's really like behind the scenes with an NFL team. The show does an admirable job of focusing on the big picture of the team as a whole while also essentially adding character development by going into more depth on a handful of players, many of them complete unknowns even to a big NFL fan like myself. This year's edition deals with the Kansas City Chiefs, and having no previous allegiance to the Chiefs whatsoever, they are now easily my 2nd favorite team. Coupling This is basically the British, BBC version of Friends but better. I actually like Friends - I laugh almost every time I watch an episode but in general, Coupling steers clear of the cheap laughs that are a Friends staple, instead going for smarter, cleverer comedy, building up (and building upon) jokes for an entire episode in a Seinfeld-esque way. The problem with this is, while the 'big' overarching, episode-long jokes do work more often than not, when they fail, the whole episode is mostly worthless. My other problem is that 1 of the 6 main characters (Jane) sucks pretty bad and another (Steve) isn't the greatest either. Fortunately, there is one consistently hilarious character (Jeff) and the show is always worth watching for his scenes if nothing else.

Germany 2, England 1

Well Jeremy liked my USA/Sweden summary so I figured I'd give some thoughts on the extremely entertaining England/Germany friendly yesterday as well. Both teams had several of their stars out with injuries (Gerrard, Rooney, Cashley, and others for England, Ballack, Klose, Podolski, Frings, SCHWEINSTEIGER! for Germany). England -Paul Robinson - 1.0 - he's awful, the first German goal was a joke. He was out of position for the cross to begin with which caused him to panic and instead of punching the ball over the crossbar, he knocked it down right in front of his own goal for Kuranyi to tap in. He also gave a rebound chance on the one save he did make. -Nickey Shorey - 7.0 - solid player, looks like he'll be a good backup for Cashley at leftback. -John Terry - 6.0 - solid not spectacular. Was slow to react on the first goal but can't blame him since he's used to playing with keepers who don't suck. -Rio Ferdinand - 5.0 - only played 1st half and since the Germans did nothing for the first 25 minutes, he had little to do. Also shares a tiny bit of the blame on the first goal for the same reason as Terry. -Micah Richards - 8.5 - this guy is an absolute beast. In the first half, he looked completely comfortable at rightback and was England's most dangerous player going forward, setting up Lampard's goal with a great run and drawing two other freekicks in dangerous areas. In the second, he was switched to centerback and also did a nice job. He's only 19 right now, I really think you could put him at literally any position on the field and he'd become a star. One thing's for sure, he's not going to be at City for much longer. -Becks - 4.0 - he looked off, sent 2 or 3 good balls but also several uncharacteristically terrible ones. I hope he does well just so the story won't be, "look at how bad Becks sucks now, must be because of the crappy competition in America." -Joe Cole - 8.0 - adds another dimension to England's attack with his dribbling ability. Glad he is finally healthy again, he's a hell of a player. -Frank Lampard - 7.0 - scored a nice goal and in general looked way way way more comfortable playing without Gerrard. McClaren really needs to make a choice and go with one or the other of Lampard and Gerrard, they just can't play with each other. I'd go with Gerrard because he's such a good all-purpose mid but there's definitely an argument to be made that Lampard is a better fit right now with England's striking problems because he's the better goalscorer. -Michael Carrick - 3.0 - probably one of the worst games I've ever seen him play - his passing was way off and didn't do much else. He's a good player though, really should be him or Hargreaves along with Gerrard or Lampard in the center of the midfield. -Alan Smith - 2.0 - pretty worthless performance. Bad bad situation that he might be starting up top in England's must win Euro qualifiers coming up. Amazing that losing one player (Rooney) leaves England with such a striking crisis - they gotta be able to do better than Smith, though to be fair, Darren Bent and Andy Johnson were also out with injuries (though neither have done anything for England yet) and Crouch didn't start cause he is suspended for England's next qualifier. -Michael Owen - 4.0 - looked really rusty, blew a couple good opportunities (including an open net). His time as a world-class striker (if he ever was one) is done. Maybe he can still be a decent goal poacher but I don't know. Bench -Wes Brown - 5.0 - solid but his lack of attacking ability really stood out since he took over at rightback for Richards at half-time. -David James - 5.0 - really didn't have a whole lot to do. The question is, would he be better than Paul Robinson at this point? I'd say yes, but England is kind of stuck with a bunch of promising young keepers who aren't proven thus can't just be thrown in there in these huge qualifiers, leaving two flawed options in Robinson and James. -Gareth Barry - 6.0 - he actually did a pretty nice job in the center of the midfield. If England does qualify for Euro '08, he'd be a great utility player to have - can play centermid, wing, or fullback effectively. Also takes PKs for Villa I believe, so would be nice to have in the case of a shootout. -Peter Crouch - 4.0 - never really got into the game. My favorite play was when Crouch was the one sending a cross in, trying to find Kieron Dyer. Switch that around fellas... -Kieron Dyer - 2.0 - he's a winger (and not that good of one) so subbing him for Owen when a goal down and using him as a forward makes little to no sense. He had one great chance that he blew and did not much else. Don't understand why he'd get the call instead of Jermain Defoe, who has been getting shit on at both club and country for a while now. -Shaun Wright Phillips - 5.0 - looked lively as ever but didn't have much of an impact. He's a good super-sub to have though, kind of what Dyer or Vassell used to be. Germany I can't really do player ratings for them since I don't know their players as well. Some random thoughts though... -Bernd Schneider was their best player and probably the best player on the field today. Very good player. -This goal by Pander was ridiculous. -Kevin Kuranyi was pretty much crap imo. It'll look like he had a decent game because he was gifted a goal but other than being at the right place at the right time, he did nothing and wasted possession numerous times. -Philip Lahm, who is one of the best fullbacks in the world imo, had a pretty average game. Probably because England was dominating possession for most of the match, he never had the chance to get forward. Bottom line, even with several of the best players on both teams out, this was still a very entertaining match. England looks like they could be in trouble and may not qualify for Austria/Switzerland next summer with their current combination of average to subpar strikers and terrible goalkeeping. Really it looks like they'll need one of their excellent midfielders to score or they'll have to rely entirely on set pieces (which means they better be playing Becks). I would still bet that they qualify but it's going to be tough.

Sweden 1 USA 0

The USA soccer team played Sweden in a friendly this afternoon and lost 1-0. Here are my player ratings for USA: Starters: -Tim Howard - 8.0 - made 2 or 3 good saves and didn't have much of a chance to stop Sweden's goal. He's really solid, which is nice after watching Paul Robinson (for England) and Jens Lehmann (Arsenal) make some horrible goalkeeping mistakes in recent games. -Jon Bornstein - 7.5 - stood out as our best defender today, though he never looked very dangerous coming forward. -Oguchi Onewyu - 6.0 - he fouls too much and is occasionally out of position but he actually did a decent job with a very tough matchup against Ibrahimovic in this game. -Carlos Bocanegra - 4.0 - out of position too often and doesn't have the speed to make up for it. I think he might be the type of guy who is good in Concacaf but struggles against better competition (him being at fault for both goals Arsenal scored against Fulham last weekend backs up this theory). -Steve Cherundolo - 4.0 - he is normally solid but looked overmatched physically today. -Michael Bradley - 3.0 - also looked overmatched, really didn't do much of anything. I really wish he wasn't the coach's son so Ricardo Clark would have a real shot to start in the center of the midfield. -Benny Feilhaber - 4.0 - also had a bad game but was playing out of position as a winger for much of the time. -Pablo Mastroeni - 7.5 - noticed his value way more after he was subbed out at half-time. They had almost no sustained possession in the first half with Mastro in there wreaking havoc, but with him on the bench in the 2nd half, we went through several minutes-long stretches where we didn't touch the ball. Very important player. -DaMarcus Beasley - 6.0 - looked dangerous in the first half but also blew a great opportunity in the first few minutes. I'm encouraged by his recent play, he's looking more and more like the pre-injury Beasley of a few years ago who was starting in the champions league semifinal for PSV. Also encouraging that he looks to have a regular spot with Rangers. -Landon Donovan - 2.0 - I want to give him a zero but that probably wouldn't be fair. The reason his rating is so low is because he is our best and most important player so he's held to a higher standard. When he plays like he did today where he's basically invisible and never really gets into the game, we basically have no attack. It sucks that such a talented guy is so inconsistent and is such a little bitch. -Clint Dempsey - 6.0 - played way out of position essentially as a lone striker. He looked dangerous with the ball at his feet but for some inconceivable reason we kept playing the ball in the air to him like he's Brian fucking McBride - I don't think he won a header the entire game. I blame Bob Bradley for this - we should've been keeping it on the ground and using our speed and the 1 on 1 ability of guys like Donovan, Dempsey, and Beasley. Clint did miss a great chance when he scuffed a one-time shot from 8 yards out but I thought in all he did pretty well given a tough situation. Sucks that our forwards are so bad that we have to play Donovan and Dempsey out of position so often now. We really need Eddie Johnson to step up (and Jozy Altidore to get called up). Bench -Bobby Convey - 6.0 - looked rusty but he was back out there and didn't get hurt which is the most important thing. If Dempsey is going to be stuck at forward then Convey should have a good shot at the starting wing position opposite Beasley. Hopefully he can also get some time with Reading where it seems like Stephen Hunt may have taken his spot in the 9 months or so he's been out with injury. It sucks since Reading has turned out to be such a solid team and Convey was one of their stars when they got promoted to the EPL two years ago. -Kamani Hill - 7.5 - out of the random young attackers who got in, he looked the best by far. -Sal Zizzo, Charlie Davies - both came off the bench and did nothing of note for the 15 or so minutes they played. -Jay DeMerit, Jon Spector - 5.0 - both were solid but unspectacular. In all, it was a pretty mediocre performance. We looked dangerous at times and had 3 very good chances that we didn't finish (Beasley, Dempsey from close range, Bradley header saved) but never had any sort of sustained attack. Watching us play then watching England/Germany (with both teams having several of their best players out no less) really emphasized for me how often we waste possession - I think this is the biggest difference between us and the really good teams. Our defense looked shaky at times, mainly because we couldn't handle Zlatan, but we didn't look terrible there either, just mediocre. Not a terrible performance, but far from a great one. Last thought, after watching all the Gold Cup games and friendlies, I feel like I'm finally getting a feel for the new players. My preferred starting 11 at this point, with everyone completely healthy, would be: Howard in goal, Cherundolo at rightback, Onewyu and Gibbs in the center of the defense, Bornstein at leftback (nice find by Bob Bradley), Dempsey and Beasley on the wings (with Convey in the picture as well), Mastro and Clark as the central midfielders (if Clark doesn't work out, I prefer in order 1) Feilhaber 2) putting Convey in as a winger and using Donovan as a central midfielder and Dempsey as an attacking midfielder/forward, and 3) Bradley), Donovan attacking mid/withdrawn forward, Eddie Johnson up top (and hopefully Jozy Altidore challenging for this spot soon).

8 1/2 - 3.0

I watched this Fellini 'masterpiece' over the course of two sittings several days apart (the first time I tried to watch it I fell asleep in the middle of the day, only a few hours after I had gotten up). I'm sure I missed the point of the movie but unlike say Mulholland Drive I am not in the least bit motivated to watch again or even look online to see what exactly was going on. A dull, disappointing film.

The Death Penalty

Stories like this are the reason I am against the death penalty. Not even considering the moral side of things or the issues with state sponsored killings, it is just too final a solution in an imperfect system.

Jaime's Wedding

Here are some pictures (that I did not take) from a very fun weekend in Birmingham for my cousin Jaime's wedding.

Superbad - 8.0

This raunchy high school sex comedy is pretty damn funny, kind of a combination of American Pie style sexual humor with some of the intelligence and heart of other Judd Apatow films The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. The two leads are both funny and complement each other perfectly - Jonah Hill's (the fat kid) over the top, profanity-laced, hilarious rants are balanced by Michael Cera's (George Michael from Arrested Development) low key approach. And while the leads do an outstanding job, they are sometimes even overshadowed by the supporting characters - McLovin is involved in some of the funniest moments of the film and the two cops (Seth Rogen and Bill Hader), while completely outrageous, are great. All in all, I laughed a lot, which is really the only fair, and obviously completely objective, way to judge a comedy. With this and Knocked Up right now occupying two of my top three spots for 2007, this could be the first year since I can remember (i.e. the last 4 years when I really started keeping track) that two comedies make my oh so prestigious yearly top 10 list. Thank you Mr. Apatow.

Madden '08

So I've been fortunate enough to spend a large part of the last 24+ hours playing the new Madden on 360. Without a doubt it's better than last year in several ways, including superior and easier to use pre-snap options and the correction of one of the more unconscionable oversights in recent memory, not including a fantasy draft option in '07. The graphics are also quite nifty. However, the game play is essentially the exact same as the last few years and there are a few I wouldn't say major but certainly annoying problems; the kicking is exceptionally easy, there seems to be an extraordinarily high number of turnovers, and when you do force a turnover, it's ridiculously easy to return it for a TD, whether it be a fumble or INT. I used to always play the NFL2k games and not Madden and still prefer the gameplay on those, but Madden is growing on me, and the new version is definitely fun to play, if for no other reason than it has updated rosters and gets me ready for the upcoming season.

Reviews

Here are some quick thoughts on some movies I've seen recently... Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - 5.0 Watched this one cause it made AFI's new top 100 list - was mildly disappointed. It reminded me of Ordinary People, but this movie never grabbed me like that one did. While the acting was very impressive, it was a little too talky for me. Suddenly, Last Summer - 8.0 I imagine this Tennessee Williams tale of repressed homosexuality and psychiatric extremes may have been more timely when it came out in 1959. And while it was a bit dated (lobotomies used as a legitimate procedure??), this movie worked because it was essentially a showcase for its actors. This, of course, is much more effective when you have three of the best actors of all-time at your disposal (Monty Clift, Katharine Hepburn, Liz Taylor). Clift, as the upright surgeon, gave the movie a backbone which allowed Hepburn, as the deluded, crazed mother, and especially Taylor, as the traumatized, beautiful young woman to shine. In my opinion, Liz Taylor gave an even more impressive performance in this film than she did for her deserved oscar for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (and man she used to be hot). Sophie's Choice - 7.0 Here's another movie that essentially relies on a brilliant actress to carry it. Not too bad a trait when you have Meryl Streep giving possibly her best ever performance (and only lead actress oscar win I believe) as a Polish concentration camp survivor living in the US. It is a slow slow slow movie but when the flashbacks to Sophie's time at Auschwitz begin, it really picks up. It ultimately is one of the more heartbreaking movies I have seen in recent memory. Shooter - 5.0 This has essentially the same strengths and weaknesses as Live Free or Die Hard (some good action set pieces, charismatic lead performance as strengths and a general stupidity and complete implausibility as weaknesses) but because I didn't expect as much from Shooter, I enjoyed it slightly more. There were also some nice bluray visuals that worked in its favor. Elizabeth - 6.0 This is a pretty interesting historical look at how Queen Elizabeth I came to power (though not surprisingly, it took some liberties with the actual history). I had a bit of trouble following the plot, mainly because in these types of movies, there generally seems to be a lot of different characters that have some importance to the plot that are never really introduced, or only introduced in passing. I was however playing poker while I watched so it was probably just as much me as any ambiguity in the storyline. Pretty interesting movie with a good performance from Cate Blanchett.

The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Ultimatum - 8.0 While guilty of several of the same action genre cliches as Live Free or Die Hard (and every other action movie made), this movie worked for a number of reasons: -I am normally pretty ambivalent towards heavy usage of the hand-held camera, but as it was in Greengrass's other films United 93 and The Bourne Supremacy, it was perfect here. It gave the overall film a much grittier and less polished feel, and in turn, the big action set pieces didn't feel staged and were much more intense, suspenseful, exciting, entertaining, and pretty much any other positive adjective you want to use. -Matt Damon's understated performance was perfect. In fact, he hardly speaks the entire movie. This is a nice contrast to most action movies that inundate you with corny one-liners and bad dialogue. Ultimatum did have the one scene where the hero gets a lengthy explanation from one of the bad guys, which is apparently mandated by the screenwriters guild for every action movie, even though there is absolutely no reason said bad guy would ever feel the need to give an explanation in a real life scenario. But I'm willing to write this, as well as other annoyances like the invincibility of the hero, off as necessary plot devices. -I personally enjoy the Bourne movies because of the globe-trotting locales where the action takes place. In Ultimatum, my favorite was an awesome chase scene in Tangier that ended with the Bourne film staple, the hand to hand fight between Damon and another badass where you feel like your sitting two feet away. The reaction shot of Stiles after this fight ended was infinitely funnier than any one-liner could ever have been. The 15 or 20 minutes in Tangier and the scene in Waterloo station in London were up there with the opening chase in Casino Royale as the most exciting, most suspenseful, most jaw-dropping action sequences in recent memory. And for the record, there were no massive explosions in any of these scenes (though on second thought, there was one at the end of the chase in Casino Royale, but the memorable part was when they ran/jumped/swung/etc/etc through the construction sight). -A final unique aspect of Ultimatum that I appreciated was that it shunned the chance to establish a cheap romantic storyline between Damon and Julia Stiles. This was an especially good idea because it removed the requirement for Stiles to even attempt to act. Bottom line, The Bourne Ultimatum is an exciting, intelligent, and highly entertaining thriller. For now, it is going behind 300 and ahead of Knocked Up in the 2 spot of my top 10 of the (so far disappointing) year. I have several other movies to review but gave Bourne priority since there's actually a chance someone else will watch it. I'll post some more reviews in the next few days.

Another bill

Just saw this new bill as well. "The US House of Representatives has passed a radical new energy bill, which aims to expand the use of renewable fuels and cut tax breaks to oil firms." Apparently it's still a long way from becoming law as it will have a much tougher time passing through the Senate than the House, especially after the oil lobbyists start throwing money around, not to mention Bush would obviously have the option to veto if it does make it through the Senate. Still, more of a focus on renewable energy is certainly a step in the right direction and something that absolutely needs to be done not only for the environmental benefits but also because it could help us decrease our reliance on foreign oil, which I think almost anyone can agree is a good idea. Anyways, this lightened my mood and restored some of my faith that a democratic congress is better than a republican one. I'll be back with some movie reviews tomorrow or the next day, including thoughts on the excellent Bourne Ultimatum, and not so excellent Shooter.

Be Careful What You Say (or write)

So this is my first post about politics on my blog and with election season coming up, it probably won't be my last... New spying bill: "The legislation, which is expected to go before the House today, would expand the government's authority to intercept without a court order the phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States who are communicating with people overseas." "This bill gives the government more authority than it had under a controversial warrantless wiretapping program begun in secret after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Under that program, the government could conduct surveillance without judicial oversight only if it had a reason to believe that one party to the call was a member of or affiliated with al-Qaeda or a related terrorist organization. This bill drops that condition." I'm obviously not at all surprised that this administration would push something like this through - separation of power, judicial oversight, these types of constitutional necessities have never meant much to them in the past (though if you try to infringe on someone's "right to bear arms," all hell will break loose, never mind that the 2nd amendment actually gives one the right to bear arms within a well-regulated militia, but I digress). But while I am likely being naive, what I am somewhat surprised and very disappointed in is that the now democratic congress is more or less letting it go without a fight. Our civil liberties being trampled, another fine day in America. I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotations, which is certainly relevant in this case: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Ben Franklin

Jackie Manuel's Posse

Jackie Manuel was signed to a one year contract by the Celtics today. After the 10 for 1 KG trade, the Celtics had a bunch of roster spots to fill so this is about as good a possible situation as Jackie could've ever hoped for. Ray Allen and Paul Pierce are the starting wings with Tony Allen as the only other reserve right now, so it looks there's a reasonable chance Jackie could get some playing time for a playoff contender, especially since Pierce and the Allens are all a bit brittle. Good for him - if he could ever master the corner 3, he could maybe even be a poor man's Bruce Bowen. This is now 6 guys on NBA rosters from the '05 title team. Ray and Sean in Charlotte, Rashad in Minny, Marvin in Atlanta, and Noel in Milwaukee. If Resyshawn can make Dallas's roster, that's 7 (no idea what kind of chance he has, but Dallas did trade for him so they must like him at least some). There's a reasonable chance someone will eventually give Jawad a shot, which would make 8. And then there's surely numerous suitors out there for Melvin Scott and Wes Miller...on second thought, maybe not, but 8 pros from one team is pretty good...

Die Hard 4, Magnolia, Little Children, and more

Live Free or Die Hard - 4.0 The new Die Hard movie is pretty standard summer fare. Suspend your disbelief, watch a bunch of stuff blow up, witness some of the worst marksmanship of all-time from the bad guys, and against all odds see the hero come through in the end. This particular entry into the summer blockbuster canon did have a few good things going for it: 1. A relatively interesting plot where cyber terrorists plan a 'fire sale' that essentially disables all the things that we count on computers to run for us like transportation, financial markets, essential utilities, etc; 2. several nifty action set pieces; and 3. amusing one-liners, mostly Willis talking shit to the terrorists. However, a lack of chemistry between Willis and his sidekick, the dude from the Apple commercials, and a complete and utter lack of any transitions whatsoever end up dooming this film to relegation to the decent thoughtless entertainment category instead of the good action category (I put the Bourne movies, the new Bond, the original Die Hard in this category). Two examples of the lack of transitions: first, there is a ridiculous 15 minute fight on a series of concrete overpasses between Bruce Willis and a fighter jet (yes, a fighter jet...which was only one of the flying vehicles John McClane successfully conquered from the ground in this movie). When it ends with Bruce jumping off of the top of the fighter jet, sliding down a perfectly placed diagonal slab of concrete to the ground just inches ahead of the fiery blast behind him (recurring theme in this movie), he looks up and lo and behold, there's the truck he was chasing before the fighter jet distracted him like 100 fucking feet away. So, of course, Bruce just runs over to the warehouse where the truck stops and confronts the bad guys who came ever so close to getting away this time. Another example is when "all the gas on the eastern seaboard" is sent Bruce and the apple dude's way at some power plant type place right after they had just narrowly stopped the bad guys (and token bad hot Asian kung fu girl) from blacking out the entire east coast. This, of course, leads to a(nother) massive explosion where Bruce and apple dude run for their lives before diving inside a conveniently unlocked van. This van, with the doors still open no less, apparently shields them from said explosion and two seconds later they're flying in a helicopter to see Kevin Smith. I mean, who the hell writes this stuff? They come up with some of the most creative ways for Bruce to beat someone's ass during the countless fight scenes, but when fleeing from a massive explosion, the best they can come up with is dive in a van and leave the doors open?? I don't get it. Anyways, as far as mindless summer action goes, Live Free or Die Hard serves as pretty decent entertainment, similar to other recent summer entries like The Island, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and X-Men 3. But even with my disbelief suspended, there was such glaring stupidity at times (I mean you really really want to kill Bruce don't you Seth Bullock...er, superbad cyber terrorist guy? Then why the fuck don't you just shoot him instead of talking to him for 10 minutes every time you or one of your cronies capture him?) that prevented this film from reaching the heights that previous Die Hards and other good action movies have. Since I have several other movies to review, I'm going to keep my comments short... Magnolia - 9.0 Magnolia is an example of what is probably my favorite type of movie right now - multiple, intersecting story lines. This particular film is characterized by dynamic camerawork and incredibly strong acting set to a fantastic score. Some of the shots in Magnolia are breathtaking, whether it be the continuous movement when PT Anderson's camera follows several different characters through a TV studio without a cut for somewhere close to 5 minutes, or the uneasy stillness when Tom Cruise's character is losing his battle to not break down at the bedside of the dying father who had neglected him and his cancer-stricken mother as a teenager (with Phillip Seymour Hoffman's nurse uncomfortably out of focus in the background). Likewise, the acting is outstanding from essentially every member of the huge ensemble cast, with Cruise, William H. Macy, and Melora Waters giving particularly strong performances. Finally, the ever present music was so good that I actually downloaded the soundtrack the next day, a pretty big rarity for me. All in all, the plot is complex and takes a little while to get into but if patient this film is ultimately rewarding. Little Children - 7.5 This tale of suburban discontent is similar to Todd Field's previous film, In the Bedroom, which was also excellent. A fantastic performance from Kate Winslet (surprise surprise) and strong supporting turns from Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earle Haley really carry this movie. It isn't optimistic but it is certainly an interesting take on suburbia. And for the record, I think Winslet's performance in Little Children was more impressive than Helen Mirren in The Queen (I personally preferred Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal and Penelope Cruz in Volver as well). Winslet's now been nominated for 5 academy awards (and she's like 30!) and still hasn't won. It's pretty sad that Halle Berry and Charlize Theron have oscars and Kate doesn't yet. The Devil Wears Prada - 4.0 This movie was decent but nothing special, in my opinion. Meryl Streep as the evil boss was definitely the high point, with Vinny Chase (unsuccessfully) trying to act being the low. The story never really grabbed me so I only half paid attention while looking at my computer. I'm thinking I was just too uninterested in the subject matter, the fashion industry, to really care about the movie - I mean I thought Anne Hathaway was looking pretty good at the beginning in her sweaters and tanktops and looked kind of like a whore when she was all fashioned up in the stylish clothes later on. Anyways, not really my cup of tea but I guess I can see why some people would enjoy it (it's sort of like the girls version of a sports movie). Adam's Rib - 5.0 This is an old comedy starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy about a husband and wife opposing each other in the case of a woman who shot her cheating husband. In general, I'm not a big fan of old comedies, and this film wasn't much different - I laughed only a handful of times (if that). Even so, Hepburn and Tracy have such chemistry and charisma that the movie wasn't completely worthless. If asked to give a three word review, I'd go with: decent light entertainment. That was easy, the end.