BillSaysThis

80 minutes until the last episode of The Sopranos for this season, I am very excited!

As most reviewers have written, this is a good movie. I’ll agree to that and add that one reason for me is that new to the series director Alfonso Cuaron and written every one scripter Steve Kloves have found a way to make this a movie, keyed to pacing and plot, and not just a transliteration of the novel to the screen. As good as the novel is, a film is simply not the same thing; Peter Jackson faced off against a similar challenge in LotR and won.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the film of the third book in the coming of age story of a young English Wizard, in case you’ve been serving in Afghanistan the last five years. This time out Harry doesn’t have to face off against his main adversary, Lord He Who Must Not Be Named, but finds danger elsewhere. I do like most of the the visualizations of strange creatures from the book, the Dementers from Azkaban, the werewolf, the Hippograf.

recommended

Jim Carrey’s character in Bruce Almighty might, to quote a song from the soundtrack, “have the power,” but the movie sure doesn’t. There are some funny bits, I am hard pressed to imagine a Jim Carrey movie that wouldn’t unless he decided to do a remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, but director Tom Shadyac equivocates on the movie’s core. For a comedy, especially farce, the movie dips too far into melodrama and for anything more serious it goes way past acceptable into slapstick.

don’t bother unless you’re a Carrey fanatic

The Big Guy sent over a link to a British TV clip that is hilarious and exciting, showing off the Lotus Exige. British media types are apparently more creative than Americans, here coming up with descriptions comparing the car to a Saturn 5 rocket in a food blender and convincing the British Army to lend an Apache helicopter. Which tries unsuccessfully to get missile lock on the marauding sportster while constrained to staying within the oval race course. Brilliant!

Coincidence or Conspiracy: Raygun Ronnie dies the same day Smarty Jones blows his Triple Crown bid.

Frankly I had read mostly bad reviews of Neil Jordan’s remake of Bob La Flambeur, now called The Good Thief, and took a pass during the theatrical run but when I saw the title on the program guide said what the heck and recorded it. In the end I wasn’t disappointed.

Nick Nolte is usually pretty good and he is as Bob, the half-American title character, a retired thief spending his waning years gambling and shooting up heroin in Nice. Not without friends, though, and one day they present him with an opportunity for a last, huge score. Gérard Darmon is very slick as the older one, Raoul, and Saïd Taghmaoui as the young lover Paolo are given somewhat stock characters but turn out fair performances.

Complicating the situaiton is Anne (the Georgian teen Nutsa Kukhianidze), perhaps all of 17 and caught up in the web of a pimp named Remi until Bob sneaks her away; though she of course has eyes only for her saviour, the old man has no interest(???) and wants her to pair off with Paolo.

The final important players are Roger the cop–Tchéky Karyo, better here than as Jet Li’s antagonist in Kiss of the Dragon or Mel Gibson’s pal in The Patriot–who follows duty in pursuing one final arrest of an old opponent even though the cop owes his life to an intervention by the thief and Said, a drug dealing informant trying to buy his way out of trouble (a charge of attempted murder on Roger) by informing on the thief.

Though writer/director Jordan has a checkered history of playing to Hollywood rules, his script does follow convention: People are weak, their weaknesses seem to betray them, their inner strength and/or hard-earned wisdom give them a way to salvation and the end is positive but ambiguous. Still, an enjoyable hour and three quarters. Jordan and crew put attractive visuals on the screen and the soundtrack is matched well enough to almost be an extra supporting character, telling part of the plot; Bono offers a surprising interpretation of the hoary Sinatra chestnut That’s Life and Leonard Cohen’s A Thousand Kisses Deep works very well in context.

recommended

Jeffrey Sachs, writing in the NY Times, looks at foreign aid as a tool of national security (JRobb, this would be a good piece for a Global Guerrillas post). I definitely agree with Sachs’ main points; consider how much positive work could be accomplished by shifting $15 billion from Defense (-3.3% of budget) to Aid (+100% of budget) and how much insight into problems and potential problems we will get as a result.

Rumsfeld says he is worried America is losing the wider war against terrorism, “It’s quite clear to me that we do not have a coherent approach to this.” So, Mr. Secretary, wouldn’t putting our feet on the ground in a supportive, productive manner be a good way to get clearer? Or is violence and skullduggery the only approach you know?

With Tenet and his top deputy for clandestine ops leaving the CIA and the FBI caught up in a tizzy over domestic intelligence, right now would be a great time to brainstorm both how we gather and evaluate knowledge about the wider world, how we interact with others. We’ve reached a cusp and the question is whether the Administration, or Kerry when he wins in November for that matter, can grasp it in a positive way rather than following a worn-out path.

Meta Efficient is probably a good thing though as usual one must wonder if the American/Western European consumer base will take the hint; after reading through some of the site I know I won’t make much use of it.

Creed breaks up

Bruce Arena drops three Wizards players because the Rapids won’t release one for the Grenada matchup.

Nearly 40 years after he lost it, Rolling Stones bass player Bill Wyman has one of his guitars back, thanks to a New Zealand musician.

The NY Giants signed Kurt Warner one day after he was released by the Rams in a salary cap move.

Communications Breakdown, one of the extras on disk one of the recent Led Zeppelin DVD, is lip synched. Badly. (Okay, this is less obvious than it sounds.)

The annual Bilderberg meeting starts today

The 1/4k long thread about ads on MetaFilter, which I would contrast with this thread on non-military use of lasers.

What I liked were the Summer days

When I could wear a loose pair of shorts

With a short sleeve shirt pulled out

Sneakers or dock shoes, no socks

Now I wear two shirts every day

Because the office is ice cold

I have to tuck the shirts in to

Long pants because appearance counts

We got up early every morning

Either going to the gym or Vivian

Wanted to catch an earlier train

So then I could have coffee and surf

Now we get up early every morning

Still go to the gym and catch earlier trains

But I have to head to the office

Straight from the train station

I had time to walk to the corner

With Evan, chitchat about politics

Geeky stuff, a new fish tank or

Just think to myself about whatever

Now I’m lucky to get one morning walk

On the weekend, the talk is not as fresh,

People at the office are nice but not the same

Coffee at the office is nowhere near as good

Our National Security Advisor has an up close and personal view, so I have no doubt her assessment will prove correct: Bush will rank high, Rice says, referring to what she sees as history’s view of GWB. Or maybe I do because, as Dan Gilmor points out, We Don’t Need No Stinking Constitution. Gilmor quotes Jonathon Turley: Civil liberties are tolerated only to the extent that they will not interfere with the government’s actions. Who or what will inconvenience the Administration next? Or will we just not hear about them because action was taken carefully and quietly enough no to attract any attention?

One of my good friends, a very sweet woman named Betsy, got married this weekend to Steve Robinson, hence her new name and the cliched post title. I really wish we could have been there to help celebrate but the affair took place on the eastern coast of Florida. I have been assured by the bride that the entire day was amazing, truly memorable and the whole thing went by in a flash, and I can relate to that–I hardly believe more than a year has passed since my own wedding. She’s sending some photos soon but I know that Betsy was a most beautiful bride and I wish them all the love, health and happiness in the world.

We had thought to go see something new in the theaters this weekend but between the ever higher ticket prices and the ever lower quality (friends and reviewers have warned us away from such anticipated flicks as Troy, Van Helsing and even Shrek 2) that we just said screw it.

So I found myself watching Stalag 17, a 50 year old classic instead; like any true classic, one can watch this film time and again and find new bits to enjoy, and this was far from my first viewing. Written for the screen and directed by Billy Wilder, I would rank this as possibly the best comedy made about the Second World War and one of the Top 10 in both the WWII and war comedy categories overall. If you want to know where all the stereotype personas of that era come from, watch this film.

William Holden plays the lead, a scrounger of the first order, who no one likes (except his sidekick, of course) and who everyone suspects of collaborating with the Nazis. Otto Preminger, usually found in the director’s chair on a movie set, here plays the camp commandant. There is even a Sergeant Schultz, played well by Sig Ruman. Peter Graves, Harvey Lembeck, Robert Strauss and Richard Erdman played the other memorable POWs.

Wilder throws in nearly equal amounts of tension and whimsy, at times in the same scene, but the audience is never allowed to forget precisely where these men are and how serious the consequences of a bad decision can be. But if you’re wondering, yes, this has to be the direct inspiration for the ’60s sitcom Hogan’s Heroes.

definitely recommended

I have to admit, we watched What a Girl Wants at dinner time tonight. A pretty cute little movie, if more than a bit predictable. I was surprised to see Colin Firth in it but then came the scene where he dances in front of a mirror wearing black leather pants and a t-shirt, playing air guitar to Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo I understood. Oddity: the movie was based on a play written in 1958 by William Douglas-Home whose brother was Britain’s Prime Minister back in the day and Firth’s character’s run for Parliament is the underlying external event driving the film’s main conflict.

mildly amusing

TS1 and I spent another few terrific hours at the Cantor Center at Stanford this holiday afternoon. Always good to see the Rodin works, especially Gates of Hell, and I am appreciating Richard Deibenkorn more each time I see his works. Added a couple of photos to the gallery: me with Visser 82 and Viv looking angelic.

Roy Moore: Gone but sadly not forgotten

Spot on Enterprise finale review: So bring on the space-Nazis. Let’s see what they got.

I laughed quite a bit at the 2003 remake of The In-Laws but I still am not quite sure why they bothered. Films like this just don’t do big box office–IMDB shows a final US gross of just over $20M–but then Michael Douglas, who stars as the CIA agent here, has a big name but little recent track record of delivering results and Albert Brooks, cartoons aside, never has.

Most people would probably prefer the 1979 original, with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin in the roles played by Douglas and Brooks here, and I can’t argue that too much. Today’s bigger budgets and better special effects technology are nice but in some ways they make things too easy, too smooth. And Falk just has a little bit more in the way of cranky idiosyncracies that draws one into his clutches than the slick as a used car salesman Douglas.

mildly amusing

All streaks end eventually (which Arsenal fans should remember when the EPL restarts) but tonight’s 1-0 loss in Columbus was really sad because the game should have been an easy 2-1 or 3-1 win instd of ending a few match unbeaten skein for the Earthquakes. No fault to backup goalkeeper Jon Conway but Jamil Walker was no substitute for Dwayne Derosario up front and the main reason we were shut out.

Walker had chance after chance but was hesitant or unable to fight through the defenders. In fact San Jose had most of the possession all night and held Columbus to a single serious offensive that, but that turned into the only score. Besides Walker’s miscues, no one else was particularly strong in the box either with Corrales, Donovan and Mullan launching rockets way over the net. Definitely a lost opportunity.

Derosario and regular GK Pat Onstadt are away for this and the next few games as Canada has some friendlies and a World Cup 2006 qualifying round. It won’t get better for us either, as the Quakes will lose Donovan Landon and Richard Mulrooney to US National Team duty. So get ready to see more of Walker, though perhaps coach Dominic Kinnear will go with teenager Arturo Alvarez up front with Brian Ching. Ronnie Ekelund was out again due to neck infection and I can’t find anything saying when he’s expected but when he does return Donovan can move back to the front. Fortunately we have two weeks until the next MLS match–home against MetroStars on June 12–for some healing and thinking.

On a related note, Fox Sports World announced new deals with both the Premiership and FA to broadcast more English soccer in America. Excellent! Or as Dave might say, Bing!