soapbox

I would say that the best part about this movie is that you get the comic genius of Jack Black without having to actually see his face, but that’s not fair to the movie.  This film is very well done, both conceptually and technically.  A clean but engaging animation style and several strong performances combine to produce a very fun and funny movie.  

The ‘plot’ is 100% folk tale/fable/etc, but that’s not a bad thing.  In this case predictability allows you to sit back and just enjoy the movie in all of its awesomeness… there were really maybe only two slow spots out of the whole film.  Good stuff.

Even though many of you already frequent the blog this link comes from, I still think it’s worthy of inclusion here. I found it amusing enough to steal the author’s best line for the link that follows.

Gary Gygax had a time machine, yo!

Fun! Woo-hoo, Platonic solids!

Funny though

link

The above could apply to many people, certainly, but in this case I’m labeling Roger Clemens and David Stern.  If this were on Slashdot, I would file the post in the “people in glass houses… category” or something like that.

Basically, if you’re going to file a libel-like suit, you’d better be damn sure that you the other guy doesn’t have anything on you.  In the case of the Roid-ket, he had no business claiming “defamation of character” when he’d already had multiple affairs, possibly one with a 15-year-old, and another with John Daly’s ex-wife.

Now it comes out from the NBA ref who got caught betting on/fixing games that there were other refs involved, and that multiple playoff games were affected.  Why did he disclose the info now, in the middle of the NBA finals?  Because Stern just filed a suit against Donaghy for $1mil… as if he didn’t have anything to lose.  Not only is Stern a bully and an asshole, but he’s also a dummy.

Chris may not post things on his own, but he does come up with some blogworthy stuff occasionally.

This past week, a minor league baseball team (Calgary Vipers) traded pitcher John Odom to the Laredo Broncos for 10 maple bats with a value of $650 (Odom was unable to get into Canada due to a minor but unspecified infraction). Odom appeared to have a good attitude about the trade, saying “hopefully I can turn it into a good thing. I mean I might be able to turn it into a feel-good story. … It’s just one of those funny stories that will go down in history and that I’ll be able to tell my kids about.”

Actually, he’s in pretty good company - check out the trades listed below, courtesy Jim Caple and the internet.

Ernie Harwell: The Brooklyn Dodgers acquired the broadcaster from the Atlanta Crackers in exchange for catcher Cliff Dapper.

Lefty Grove: Traded by a minor league team for the repair costs of its outfield fence that was knocked down in a storm.

Dave Winfield: The Twins traded him to Cleveland during 1994 strike for a dinner between the GMs if the season did not resume.

Randy Winn: Tampa Bay traded him to the Mariners for right to sign Lou Piniella as manager.

Harry Chiti: The Mets traded the catcher to Cleveland in 1962 for a player to be named later. The player wound up being Chiti, who went back to the Mets.

Tim Fortugno: Minor league Reno traded him to Stockton for 12 dozen baseballs and $2,500 in 1989.

Johnny Johns: Traded for a 25-pound live turkey.

Joe Martina: Texas Leaguer traded for two barrels of oysters.

Al Michaels: To sign the announcer, NBC traded ABC/Disney the copyright to Disney’s old cartoon character, Oswald the Rabbit.

… and apparently they hate him back: members of Russia’s communist party are calling for a boycott of the Crystal Skull.  The quote is funny: the movie “aims to undermine communist ideology and distort history.”

If anybody thinks that this movie will be taken at all literally, well, good on them.  We went to see it over the weekend, and K summed it up well: “I don’t think that was worth $9.50, but I would have wanted to see it eventually, and if you’re going to see it you might as well see it on the big screen.”

First, the good: it’s entertaining, it has the standard Indy elements, including the requisite bad guy being dissolved/eaten/goo-ified/etc, and has a decent chase scene.  More subtly, Harrison Ford’s age is appropriate, and they did a good job not hiding that fact and instead making it work with the story.

That said, sometimes it seemed like Ford did his own stunts, and the film was discouragingly linear.  Maybe I was hoping for too much? dunno.

Finally, back to the Russian communist boycott (wow, I feel like I’m back in the ’80s), it occurs to me that really filmmakers have very limited options.  The only acceptable baddies are white; you have to be <strong> really</strong> careful if you’re going to use middle-eastern bad guys, I don’t think you could use Japanese bad guys unless it’s a period piece, and similarly Chinese bad guys are off limits unless the movie is set in 19th-century Hong Kong or something.  So, you’re left with cultures, not races, as historical baddies: Nazi Germans (but still white) and Communist Russians (still white).  And I guess even then you’re going to piss people off.