Saddam and I Agree
Saddam Hussein: If I'm Convicted Shoot Me... I'm loving this finding common ground.
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I suppose I should start with an actual review of the movie. M. Night Shyamalan's newest film is an odd little movie. Paul Giamatti plays Cleveland Heep, the caretaker of an apartment complex that, despite its being in Philadelphia, is situated right next to what appears to be an impenetrable forest. No doubt that will not figure in the story. Or at least not prominently.
Cleveland is visited by a strange woman who seems to live in the swimming pool. Her name is Story, and she's played by Bryce Dallas Howard. She is a narf from the Blue World with a task to perform to help humanity.
Obviously, with these names and this premise, we're not in the realm of serious drama here. WB's marketing, framing this as "a bedtime story" is completely appropriate. What I particularly enjoyed was that I wasn't forced to slog my way through endless scenes of sceptical adults complaining how "this just can't be happening!" We've bought the premise enough to buy a ticket to the movie. Why should we have to endure characters with less gullibility than we have?
Personally, I think Story is a listless character, kind of like Leeloo from "The Fifth Element", but without the buttkicking or the orange hair. Cleveland is the hero, and his task isn't to directly save Story from the evil scrunt (read: green lawn wolf), but to sort out who among the bizarre collection of apartment dwellers plays which part in Story's story. For me, those scenes, of revelation, and failure, and further deeper revelation, as the destinies of these characters are revealed... those scenes worked. The middle of the movie is the best part. (Which is unusual.)
Also unusual, and not really obvious until I thought about it later? Among all the people living in that complex, not a single romantic couple... I can't believe that's a coincidence... but I'm hard pressed to know why he would write it that way... Anyway.
Now, on to the meta-review...
As a former Miata owner, I feel the need to trumpet Mazda's roll-out last week of theretractable hard-top MX-5 Roadster Coupe. Very nice. I think it looks even better than the third-generation rag-top, and the factthat they were able to find a place to stow the powered lid without eating up the Miata's (almost non-existent to begin with) trunk space is just brilliant.
Power Line: “In a classic of moonbattery, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Betty Williams says she wants to assassinate President Bush.”
My friend Dan Kish makes an appearance this week in this People magazine article about Ben Underwood, a blind 14–year-old from Sacramento who navigates using echolocation. From the article, Ben reminds me quite a bit of Dan at that age, actually…
Sigh: Boeing airborne laser seen delayed in budget plan
I've a feeling we're already paying a price for the pace at which we're weaponizing lasers.
More expensive than a stamp, but maybe more effective:
U.S. Successfully Completes Missile Test
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) -- The Air Force successfully launched an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile early Thursday.
The Minuteman III dummy warheads were fired at 3:14 a.m. and traveled about 4,200 miles before hitting a water target in the Marshall Islands.
"Dear North Korea. Just a reminder that we have nuclear weapons, too, and ours already fly far enough to land in your backyard. Love, Uncle Sam.”
Russell's a mathematician by training as well as a Wonder Years fan, so he ought to appreciate this one. Anna Johns at TV Squad:
Winnie Cooper, hottest math geek ever Yes, I'm a girl. But I'm not blind. I know that Danica McKellar, the actress who played Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years, is drop-dead gorgeous. She's also wicked smart. As you may remember from Ryan's retrospective earlier this year, McKellar graduated from UCLA with a degree in Mathematics. She's putting that knowledge to work by writing a book for middle-school girls about how to master math. It's called 'Math Doesn't Suck' and it's being published next year by Hudson Street Press. McKellar said she wants to help break the stereotype about how only geeks are good at math.
Good for her. (Except she's wrong. Math does suck.)
Fox News reports the UN Security Council has voted unanimously to demand North Korea suspend its ballistic missile program. Austin Bay says passage of the measure is paybackfrom the Chinese for its loss of face caused by the DPRK's "ballistic missile tantrum."
No teeth, though: China insisted any mention of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter be dropped. And as for sanctions, well, we saw how well those worked with Iraq, didn't we?
Needless to say, North Korea was quick to tell the UN to get knotted. North Korea 'totally rejects' UN council vote
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