Stop Frame

The sad fact is that for many film reviews, I’m often a little late to the party. Of course, thanks to the wonders of DVD, that party never really ends. Once upon a time, movies came and went. If you were lucky, it was re-released a few years later and you’d get a second shot at it. In our oh so modern world, however, the “re-release” happens whenever the DVD finally arrives at our doorstep. Such is the case here, after a workmate suggested that 2005’s A Sound of Thunder was a good silly film, worth the time to watch, and loaned me her copy. She lied. A Sound of Thunder tries to be a throwback, a B-movie with aspirations for a higher grade. In this sense, it’s on par with one of my favorite guilty pleasure films, The Core . The Core is massively silly, but you always get the idea that the cast and crew knew it and were just having a good time. Such is not the case with A Sound of Thunder , wherein cast and crew just lumber along. It never bec...

Newly released on DVD, freshly available from Netflix, now overtaxing my ancient television, Speed Racer . At first glance this is an odd film for the Wachowski Brothers to pick as their follow-up to their Matrix trilogy. However, even a cursory look at those films would reveal a certain love not just for Japanese martial arts, but for Japanese animation (anime). So here he comes, here comes Speed Racer , a film which attempts to be wholly original by taking a cartoon world and turning it into a flesh and blood spectacle. You say this has been tried before, but never to this extent. Most comic-to-film adaptations make some concession, or concessions, to reality. An easy example is Batman. Take a look at the comic Batman’s costume and compare it to any of the big-screen adaptations. From ninja tights to armored suit, which is stupid (as Moviebob very aptly pointed out). Speed Racer , the film, makes no concessions. This is anime brought to life. Everything is bright and garis...

I’m a picky bastard. I want it all. I want clean desktop software that connects seamlessly with a feature-rich portable media player (PMP). For years, this has meant there was precisely one choice: the Apple iPod. This is no longer the case because the mandatory iTunes desktop software stopped being “clean” while the iPod product line – with the very notable exception of the Touch – has stagnated. For purposes of this discussion, let us temporarily put aside two things. First, the iPod Touch. Second, the size of the iTunes music library. I’ll bring them back later, promise. And for purposes of clarification, my current PMP is a refurbished SanDisk Sansa 4GB flash player. I want to upgrade. I’m approaching this a little differently than most might. All of the players on the market are, for the most part, interchangeable. They play mp3’s. Yes, there are other formats, but the mp3 is the universal. The user interfaces are similar; one is ...

While waiting for the fourth disk of season 4 of House to arrive, I watched The Descent . This movie has been out on DVD for a while, so why bring it up now? Because I think I might become a fan of its writer-director, Neil Marshall . His latest is Doomsday , recently released on DVD, and while it’s sort of a mess, it’s a mess in that oh-fun-what-the-heck-let’s-shoot-a-Bentley-through-a-bus sort of way. The Descent is a different sort of animal. Prepare for spoilers. Since this film has been out for a while, I’m going to feel free to reveal. The setup is simple: Six friends go spelunking, complications ensue. Basic complications involve Sarah and Juno. Sarah is an emotional wreck following the rather horrible and tragic deaths of her husband and daughter (this trip is seen as therapy , oh my). Juno is a reckless thrill-seeker who leads an unknowing Sarah and friends into a cave no one has – publicly, at least – ever explored. All goes horribly...

From Camille Paglia, and I quote : A feminism that cannot admire the bravura under high pressure of the first woman governor of a frontier state isn't worth a warm bucket of spit. Ahem, precisely. Further: Over the Labor Day weekend, with most of the big enchiladas of the major media on vacation, the vacuum was filled with a hallucinatory hurricane in the leftist blogosphere, which unleashed a grotesquely lurid series of allegations, fantasies, half-truths and outright lies about Palin. What a tacky low in American politics -- which has already caused a backlash that could damage Obama's campaign. When liberals come off as childish, raving loonies, the right wing gains. I am still waiting for substantive evidence that Sarah Palin is a dangerous extremist. I am perfectly willing to be convinced, but right now, she seems to be merely an optimistic pragmatist like Ronald Reagan, someone who pays lip service to religious piety without being in the least wedded to it. I...

I’m hard-pressed to find any other reason – other than blind, raging, insane hatred – because the assaults on Sarah Palin have been blind, raging, insane, hateful, and, yes, sexist. Those paragons of virtue, the illustrious icons of ivory, The Left, the “progressives”, have led these charges and are downright proud of themselves. It is impossible to imagine any of these investigations if Palin had either been a Democrat or, more to the point, a man. Impossible. No one in the media or on the left questioned Hillary’s ability to raise Chelsea while she was running hither and yon as “co-president” during the 1990’s. The same have been strangely silent about John Edwards and his affair, spawning a love child while his wife suffers terminal cancer. (And speaking of Edwards, no one on the left questioned his competency to be vice president even though his entire political experience at the time were the few years (three?) he served in...

My clock says it's just shy of September 3, 2008, and by the time this posts that day may have come. California is still without a state budget. They won't even talk to each other this week. Wrangling over the budget kept most of the Democrats trapped in the state, unable to attend their convention last week. No doubt they are making sure that their Republican rivals are equally trapped this week. Meanwhile, no budget. They're not even talking about it, as though they have more important things to do. State law says the Controller can't spend any money without a budget. Case law says the same, except for payments mandated by Federal law. So meanwhile, no budget. Just saying.