Classic Dishes...



What A Difference A Day Makes

First off, loved I, Robot. Loved it. Will Smith did not let me down, there was plenty of high-tech eye candy, and the story had enough twists and turns to hold my attention for two hours. Good stuff.

That said, here’s the Big Brother 5 stuff I promised you:

Had I written this piece yesterday, I would have lamented over the math, which pretty much spelled out that unless Marvin realized that he was in fact the Token Horseman (in pretty much every way imaginable), that ditzy bitch Holly was gonna survive the eviction ceremony, and Adria, who hasn’t done a single thing (either as herself or as her twin sister Natalie) to upset anyone that I’ve seen, was gonna get tossed from the game.

What I didn’t know was that the Horsemen were effectively going to blow themselves up following Tuesday night’s show. Had I known that, the 7-1 vote against Holly would have come as much less of a surprise, because there was NO reason to keep the mean IQ of the house in single digits otherwise. Without someone protecting her, Holly has done NOTHING to suggest she belonged in this game one minute further. My hearty congratulations to the house for issuing just about as much of as a mandate as you can in this format.

So as of last night, I had it on good authority that the HoH standoff was down to Jase and Karen. Jase is pretty much wearing a bullseye for being a general asshole now that he has no alliance protecting him, and Karen is still looking for revenge for being forced to shove Lori under the bus when Jase rescued Holly the first time. So this is huge. I’m pulling for Kathy, simply because that pretty much guarantees Adria’s safety, and I want to see if the former Horsemen are in fact physically capable of shitting a brick when they see a second Adria walk into the house. :)

(The HoH competition _is_ over, and I know who won, and how, but I don’t know if I should post it before Saturday’s show. I don’t think I will. You guys can make it 28 hours, right? Anyone who HAS to know before then, contact me via one of the accepted methods and I’ll tell you the whole story.)

So in the turnaround of about a week, BB5 went from a fair accomplit to what should be a pretty entertaining ride to the end. And all that had to happen was for Jase to stick his tongue down Holly’s throat. Hope it was worth it, chief.

(I’d like to point out that I made it all the way through this post without using the word “Nakomis“. Oh, damn.)

Chez Fred, Silver Screen Edition, Vol. 2

So I’m up late on a Saturday night doin’ laundry and I have some time to kill. So let’s talk about some more movies:

Saw Spiderman 2, and it was every bit as good as had been reported. I was a little disappointed to get home and find this list of factual, logical, and continuity errors in the movie, especially because a lot of them are, unfortunately, dead right. But I still enjoyed myself and agree that it’s one of the better superhero movies out there, period. It may remain as such, as I don’t have very high hopes for Spiderman 3…I’d tell you why, but it would ruin the ending. Just go see it, don’t try to read too much into it, enjoy the effects and Alfred Molina’s performance, and have fun.

Also finally saw Pulp Fiction for the first time start to finish the other night on IFC, so it was still uncut and all the motherfuckers and various other obscenities were still in there. And I think we’ve finally found a Quentin Tarantino movie I actually like. I didn’t care much for Resevoir Dogs despite the existence of Steve Buscemi…maybe he has to be Rockhound (from Armageddon) to amuse me. I rather vehemently dislike Mr. Tarantino himself, felt that way ever since he had the bad taste to show up on Jay Leno shitfaced beyond recognition one night…that’s a part of Americana reserved for Shelly Winters and her alone. But my favorite scene in Fiction was his scene, where the guys marvel at the work of the esteemed Mr. Wolf.

Still need to see I, Robot…I have much of next week off, so I’ll probably try to get out to see it one of those weekdays, when the theatre is bare.

We’re a week and a half into Big Brother 5, so I’ve seen enough to have a good feel for the cast…when I next post I shall break down the gang and give you an idea how I think it’s gonna shake out…

Odds And Ends

We haven’t been here in a while, so lets clear out the junk drawer, shall we?

First, big props to the men back home:

ArenaBowl XVIII
San Jose Sabercats 69
Arizona Rattlers 62
Sabercats win second ArenaBowl

Best. Arena. Football. Game. Ever. I’ll leave it at that, because those of you who haven’t seen Arena Football live just wouldn’t understand. Seattle needs an AFL team something awful – but once again, it’ll never happen because the Key eats wang when configured for hockey, and that’s what you have to do to be able to fit the AFL field. (Configure for hockey, not eat wang, you perverts.) Special thanks to Barry Ackerley for that one, you polesmoker.

Okay, onward. The summer movie season seems to be in FULL effect, so I thought I’d comment on a few I’ve seen, and what I want to see:

Watched Dodgeball yesterday. About what I expected: group of loveable losers makes good with the help of a cute chick, but with enough of a sense of humor about itself to be worth the time invested. Rip Torn is always funny (hell, just saying his name is pretty damned funny), and the cameos in the last half hour, and the wrapup in the last 10 minutes (which would OTHERWISE be totally formulaic crap, unless you read what was printed on the treasure chest, which makes it all totally okay) is actually worth the fairly insipid buildup. (But not $8. See a matinee or rent the DVD.)

Today’s feature was the controversial Fahrenheit 9/11. Usually I can leave Michael Moore to his business, but I’ve heard enough conflicting opinions about this flick that I figured I should see it myself and make up my own mind. And my mind’s made up: I was right the first time. Not a thing here I didn’t already know: Moore spends the first half of the movie using preroll footage of Gee Dub to make him look like a ninny. Here’s a tip from someone who knows a little something about television: when you have footage of someone who doesn’t know the camera’s on him getting ready to go on camera, you can pretty much make ANYONE look like a ninny. If they had TV back then, I could get you B-roll of FDR that would make him look about as Presidential as Carrot Top. Of course, it helps that Gee Dub IS IN FACT a ninny, but, again, Moore could have done something other than take the easy road out and I would have respected him a little more.

He then goes on to show us that the war in Iraq was started for pretty much no good reason. Well, duh. Finally, he wraps up with a Michael Moore trademark: he follows politicians around with a microphone asking questions that no politician in his right mind would answer, and thinks this proves a point other than that politicians know better than to spend time on camera talking to Michael Moore, because he would twist a lunch recommendation around to make them look bad.

So, I left the movie with about the same feelings I had going into it: the President is an idiot, the war is stupid, and Michael Moore has become a lazy filmmaker. The only reason I can think they they would award this the Palme D’or is that it’s a French film festival and the movie makes Bush look stupid. Of COURSE they love it.

Upcoming: Spiderman 2 is a no-brainer. I thought the first one was pretty good, but the Green Goblin just isn’t strong enough in terms of personality to make a compelling filmatic bad guy out of. Alfred Molina as Doc Ock, on the other hand….GENIUS casting. Nicholsonesque, if I may say so.

Finally, and I know it’s not gonna have a thing to do with the actual story, but I wanna see I, Robot. But I’m gonna go into it expecting not a good sci-fi story, but tons of special effects, lots of cool future-lookin’ sets, and His Royal Freshness blowing shit up. So I should be okay.

And now I get to go downstairs and be trained on the proper procedure for issuing a new CD key. I don’t issue CD keys myself, since I don’t deal with customers directly anymore, but I figure it can’t hurt to brush up on procedure, so I don’t write something that throws the techs under the proverbial bus. So, until next time…