Alert Reader and Ruby Tuesday Connoisseur Tammy and I went to, ah, Ruby Tuesday tonight. We were standing in the entryway where people who are not being help stand, waiting patiently to be helped, when a man approached us. He made eye contact with Tammy and said:

"Are you being helped?"

He continued approaching us as he said this, and Tammy responded:

"No."

Still walking towards us (reminiscent of the "castle charging" scene by Sir Lancelot the Brave in Monty Python and the Holy Grail) he nodded a small nod of recognition as if to say "Sorry about that I'll seat you now" and then walked right past us and out of the restaurant.

* * *

I actually laughed out loud when the door shut behind him. It was partially from being bemused - because, really, who doesn't laugh when bemused? - and partially from the oddity of the whole thing. Who was this man? Did he work there? Or was he just a complete random stranger? Where was he headed?

While that entire situation was confusing it's not as confusing to me as something President Bush apparently said to the World Economic Forum. He told the Middle East that they were running out of oil, and that they (presumably the people in the Middle East with oil) had better get ready.

I really have no problem with that part. But keep in mind this comes on the heels of his Saudia Arabia trip wherein he asked the Saudis (wait for it) to pump more oil to ease prices.

So on the one hand they're running out of oil but please pump more and faster so that we'll have cheaper prices. Does that make any sense at all? If you've been reading here for any length of time you've probably surmised that my own politics lie right-of-center. But not even I can understand how this works, and I'm a political geek of the first order.

I'm entirely open to the possibility that there's some sort of Jedi Mind Trick at work here but I can't see it. It's like someone who asks you if you're being helped, and upon finding out that you're not promptly leaves the building.

Or as Sir Lancelot might explain:

Sir Lancelot: We were in the nick of time. You were in great peril.
Sir Galahad: I don't think I was.
Sir Lancelot: Yes, you were. You were in terrible peril.
Sir Galahad: Look, let me go back in there and face the peril.
Sir Lancelot: No, it's too perilous.

Posted by Carl at 9:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We saw Prince Caspian on opening day - I enjoyed it, although I think I may have enjoyed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe more. A few notes about the two films:

1. Wardrobe had Tilda Swinton*, who did an amazing job (I thought) as the White Witch. Conversely, Caspian has an animated mouse who is very entertaining. And short.

2. Wardrobe is a better known story, I think, than Caspian. Although all of us die-hard fans have read each of the books several times.

3. Caspian had some intriguing bits with Susan that I think begin to lay some ground work for her character development moving forward. I don't want to write anything that's a spoiler, so for now I'll leave it at that.

4. I have to say that the water and tree computer animation in Caspian is amazing. And Aslan looks so real you don't even think of him as a computer-generated character. Or even a lion. (At least, I didn't. But then again, I was entertained by the mouse and the squirrel.)

If you get a chance definitely go see it. Weekend BO is being described as weak. My theories about that is that Iron Man siphoned off some business because it's a similar demo (fantasy/sci-fi and generally family fare) and because of it's running time (147 minutes although Wardrobe was a similar 143.) I expect that Caspian's worldwide gross will equal or exceed Wardrobe, but we'll see.

Here's an article at CNN about Caspian's box office (complete with an erroneously-titled caption) (see, even the professionals make mistakes!):

*I could write (and probably will, one day) a post or two about the conflict I experience when I judge an actor's performance in a movie against their own personal views and lifestyle. If you support the performance does this mean you are lending support (even tacitly) to the actor's personal views or lifestyle? Ms. Swinton has turned in a number of unusual, if not critically acclaimed, performances and some of her personal views are not those I would share. It terms of acting skill, though, her brief appearance in Caspian had a great deal of power and weight that I thought was missing from the rest of the cast.

Well, except for the mouse. And the squirrel.

Comments welcome.

Posted by Carl at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I know, you are probably wondering how I find this stuff. I obviously can't say as it's a trade secret.

The Sci-Fi channel has an "original movie" airing soon. Here's a screen capture from their site:

In case you missed that bit at the bottom which explains what this movie is about, it reads: "She's an ex-model. He's an elite commando. They're going to solve global warming - by stopping the aliens who are causing it!" There are a couple of take-aways here that you'll want to note:

1. Global warming is real. Never in the description is global warming in doubt.
2. Man is NOT causing global warming. This is a huge relief. We can all go back to our SUVs and air conditioning and flatulating cows now.
3. Aliens exist.
4. Aliens are causing global warming. I have no idea why they would do this but one can assume it's because aliens dislike us, our planet or our flatulating cows.
5. The aliens are no match for an ex-model and an elite commando.

I for one will be rushing out to get TIVO so that I can make sure I don't miss this new Sci-Fi channel documentary.

Posted by Carl at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I confess I don't know what that would be (the sound of a sigh caught in a black hole) but I thought the phrase would make a great blog post title. It seems very deep, like the "sound of one hand clapping" until you think about it and realize that it's completely meaningless. I suppose a sigh caught in a black hole would sound like siiiiiighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. There might even be a pfffft! right at the end there when it crosses the event horizon. For more on sighing and black holes and event horizons consult your local wikipedia.

Some of you have wondered why I haven't been posting as regularly as in the past. Some surmised I was in a terrible corn canning accident. Others have suggested that the Japanese Mafia finally caught up with me late one night at Wal-Mart, during an ill-fated Twinkies and Pepsi run. A few inquired about my health, given all of the bionics from poorly waged light saber battles and my diet of Twinkies and Pepsi. All good guesses, of course, but in truth I was on vacation at Disney World for the last six months.*

As proof I offer this photo snapped at EPCOT. It is part of the current Tin Toy exhibit being held in the Japan section of EPCOT, right behind the Japanese Mafia booth - which I carefully circumvented while dressed in my Speed Racer disguise. I think this is a Tin Godzilla, desperately in search of some Tin Japanese Soldiers to stomp on. He had just stomped on the Mach 5, Speed Racer and his box office receipts - but was still hungry.

*Okay, I made that up. I can hardly afford to put gas in my well-made but gas-guzzling SUV let alone vacation at Disney World for six months. But vacation is, after all, just a state of mind.

Posted by Carl at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A stumbled across a trailer for Prince Caspian a few days ago. Here's the link at Yahoo! Movies where you can view it or download the monster HD version. It looks great, I can't wait.

Posted by Carl at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

George Clooney, the famous actor who - unfortunately - often resorts to filming commercials for overseas multinational corporations in order to "make a living" has an interesting dilemma.

Apparently actress Michelle Pfeiffer has a bet with George that he will never get married, and there's $100,000 riding on it.

Now, I'm going to go a little "outside of the box" here but if George is in need of some cash it would only stand to reason that he find a nice wife and settle down, and collect on his $100,000 wedding gift. While sipping his Nespresso.

Posted by Carl at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Talk like a pirate day be upon ye! Abandon all hope, and pass ye the Twinkies and Yoo Hoo!

Posted by Carl at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's a great article at the Times Online site, "The inedibles? Cartoon giant derailed" which talks about the animation industry's tension between creating movies that appeal to kids and to adults, and movies that will are timeless. Ratatouille is used as the case study. The article is a long read but worth it, and a great follow-up to my earlier post about the french rat.

Posted by Carl at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jim Hill, of Jim Hill Media - an entertainment news website that often comments on matters Disney - has a post today about the Disney/Pixar movie Ratatouille. Although it recently crossed the $200 million dollar mark, the movie ranks "only" eighth in the year's movie race. By the end of the year it may even fall out of the top ten. Pixar's releases have often landed in the top 5, and so now - apparently - the finger pointing begins. Hill reports that the Pixar people are blaming the Disney marketing people, to the point of seizing control of the marketing of the next Pixar release WALL-E. And of course, the Disney marketing people aren't thrilled about that.

I write about all of this only because I thought Ratatouille was (is) brilliant and am disappointed it hasn't done better. I would highly recommend the movie to anyone, and will buy the DVD as soon as it's released. I'd much prefer that movies like Ratatouille would be made over films like 300 (that's just a personal preference, no offense to all of the Spartans in the audience.) And I'm baffled why it hasn't preformed better. I suspect part of the problem was that no one could pronounce it (trailers and posters actually included the pronunciation) and the story takes place in France. The latter is silly, of course, and didn't bother me, but I do know people who just tune out anything that even as smells French.

All of this will be interesting to watch when WALL-E comes out. I saw the trailer, and it looks interesting - but a movie about a garbage compactor? It sounds like a tough sell - personally I hope Pixar hits another home run.

Posted by Carl at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Arr!

Posted by Carl at 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight we saw the movie Bridge to Terabithia. You can find the official movie site here and the Wikipedia entry about the book here and movie here. (Some of these are likely to contain spoilers.)

I wasn't familiar with the book before going to the movie; Connor had read it and hinted at a significant development that I said I didn't want to know about. The advertising for the movie is somewhat misleading; the trailers and print materials focus on the "magical world" of Terabithia with obvious comparisons to Tolkien and Narnia. However, the movie has more to do with the trials and travails of an eight-grader: dealing with bullies, a distant father, money issues, and the dreaded school bus ride home, which I remember in vivid detail. (Some things just can't be fixed with therapy.)

So if you plan to see this movie, two important things to consider are:

1. It's not Lord of the Rings for kids

2. It's a bit heartbreaking

I suppose "heartbreaking" is a strong word, but this isn't SpongeBob Squarepants, That's So Raven or High School Musical. To Disney's credit, the movie adaptation (from Katherine Paterson's book) deals with difficult issues that don't have come with simple answers. There's a bit of muddled theology involved, in my opinion, but all of the stories elements fit together nicely. (I don't know how much detail the book presents on the theological issues - author Paterson partially addresses this question on her website here and in an interview here.)

Overall I would rate Bridge to Terabithia 3 out of 4 stars. Right now on Rotten Tomatoes it has a "freshness" rating of 83%. On the hankie scale I would give it three solid hankies (out of four.) Of course, I'm a guy and you might have to adjust my hankie scale appropriately. It's rated PG for "thematic elements including bullying, some peril and mild language."

If you've read the book or seen the movie leave a comment/email, I'm curious to hear what you think.

Posted by Carl at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If not, definitely a sign of, you know, the chapters right before the end. I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't covered in Henry's my nemesis' blog: "Plan to create human-cow embryos". Isn't this how most sci-fi/horror movies start out? You're introduced to a group of people. Most of them have obvious character defects that cause you to hate them almost immediately. One or two of them seem nice enough, and probably say early in the movie, "No! Mixing cows and humans can only result in a genetic mutant Cowman abomination that will surely destroy us all!" Of course, they won't be heeded. And the scientists will go on to make the Cowman, which will turn out to be a genetic mutant abomination that will destroy the entire cast except for the one or two sympathetic characters. In the end, the cowman will be killed...or, will he? What's that rising from the fog-enshrouded, muck-encrusted swamp? Is it...yes! A bovine hoof thrusts out of the water!

Fade to black. Start filming Cowman 2: Udder Death.

Posted by Carl at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In yet another bout of spontaneity we saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Friday night. (In the future I'll just refer to the movie as PotC:DMC since that's so much easier to type and everyone knows what that means.) Apparently we were part of movie history, as PotC:DMC made $55 million dollars that night, the most money any film ever in the history of film making all the way back to the Mesozoic Era has made in an opening night or in one day. The previous record was held by Star Wars 3, and before that Pee Wee's Big Adventure (at $50 million and $49.9 million respectively.)

I won't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen PotC:DMC yet but MAN I could NOT believe that clown with the flaming batons. Just crazy. Oops, sorry about that.

We all really enjoyed the film. I would give it 4 immortal cursed monkeys out of five:

In the meantime, if you saw it leave a comment. I'd be curious to hear what you thought. And a general warning to all - if you read the comments, there'll likely be spoilers. ARRRRR.

Posted by Carl at 1:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Sigh. I'm all for people taking the time and doing things right, but I'm an American and demand to be entertained immediately.

NariaWeb is reporting that Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Disney is reporting that Prince Caspian has been bumped from Christmas '07 to Summer '08. Something about another movie getting in the way. Which, if that's the reason, I'm all for bumping that movie. I'm not getting any younger, and I've still got six movies left to see.

Posted by Carl at 8:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)