On another side note, We are not going to back down. So Bush ” THE CHILDREN HAVE THE SNIFFLES” lets get going, the camo boys are ready. We have a couple unruly kids in the playground, and we have to start spanking now. Before the good kids get traumatized…..peace out.

Was it big? Yes, Was it Good? Yes, Was it long? Yes, Is there awards in its future? Yes. Was it the best picture of 2002..No. Martin Scorsese-s film about the draft riots of the civil war, and the gang riots for territory in New York has a huge scale and it-s all up there on the screen. Leo does ok, Cameron not so good, but Daniel is simply amazing. Broadbent and Gleason are also amazing, as usual. There are not a lot of fancy Scorsese shots in the film. Long cave walks and occasional slow-mo are the extent of it. There was more of a straightforward Amistad feel to the film, a little dingy and very dark. The shots of five points and the housing of the immigrants around it are very interesting. My biggest problems were Diaz-s accent, the plain boringness of all the second gen actors,and the lack of release at the ending. This film wonderfully builds the tension for 2.5 hours then the ending becomes so large and scattered that it loses its focus. The movie is a great piece of celluloid but not a great film. Once the riots started and the blacks blamed, the galleria audience started to get restless, but nothing to bad. Harry Knowles of AICN nailed it for me: “I was far more interested in seeing the movie that would have ended with that opening battle than the movie that began with it. “

A Republican and a Democrat were walking down the street when they came to a homeless person. The Republican gave the homeless person his business card and told him to come to his business for a job. He then took twenty dollars out of his pocket and gave it to the homeless person.
The Democrat was very impressed, and when they came to another homeless person, he decided to help. He walked over to the homeless person and gave him directions to the welfare office. He then reached into the Republican’s pocket and gave the homeless person fifty dollars.
Now do you understand one difference between Republicans and Democrats?

1. Cheech and Chong are getting back together to make 2 movies!
2. David Fincher will direct MI:3!
3. Battle Royal 2 finished filming
While this year was great, and I do mean GREAT!!!, Next year is gonna blow it’s doors off.

Dont believe me?……broadband users click HERE

When in middle school (1982-he he) this was as far as I got. And by that time I still liked-The Hobbit- the best (easier to read). So after the wonderful Fellowship I knew this one was going to be darker and bigger. I was pumped. The film was great- don-t get me wrong, but I was not as pleased compared to fellowship. Jackson still has a few issues with filming close-ups in battle scenes. But his wide-open battles are very special indeed. I loved Jackson so far and was willing to give him license with the story, but elves at helms deep? I thought the idea was that the elves abandoned the humans till Return of the King?-oh well. Arrow effects are always more fun. And what-s with the small door on the side of helms deep-jeeez. Anyways this was a great sequel and moved the story along nicely. Another good: Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are becoming friends and brothers, not just warriors with a cause, and I like that a lot. The only thing that made me wince was the transformation of Gandolf. When he was-the Grey- he was very human and had an underlying knowledge. When he became-The White- I was expecting and all powerful, all knowing Super-Gandolf, instead we got an anti-social Alzheimer-s dude with white hair-weird. Maybe it was the artwork on the books that messed me up on that. P.S. Gollum was the bomb! He should get an academy nod (both in effects and the actor who played him)

One more side note:
Dead Zone (third best TV show last season-after 24 and Alias) starts up again this weekend on USA

Frida (3.2 of 5)
Story of the wife of Diego Rivera, a Mexican painter in the 20-s 30-s and 40-s. More tragic than uplifting, but the color palette in the film was amazing. Art Direction and cinematography should get a nod this February. Salma was good; Molina, Golino and Rush were superb. As well as Salma breasts which make about 6 appearances in the movie. The story was jointed and has bad flow, and was probably the reason for limited release in probably one of the hardest markets so far this year. The art to life transitions were wonderful but Amele still takes the cake on this arena. Probably would have done very well in Mexico if it wasn-t in English. Saw at the regal in Rolling Hills, Clean and bright and only adults in the theater. Side Note :Come on chick directors-you need to step it up if you want to be among the greats. Amy Heckerling is the closest but she hasn-t even broken the top 100. I think James Cameron-s ex. Kathryn Bigelow has the best shot since she is still making films.

Extreme Ops (3 of 5)
Ahhh so much potential. Seemed like a fragment of a movie instead of a complete movie. Canada-s own Christin Duguay (The Assignment, Scanners 2, Live Wire) is one of my favorite second tier directors. He is incapable of making a sub par shot, no matter what the budget is. But the is story needed about 4 or 5 more rewrites. Not that what was up there was not good…just incomplete. It-s the story of making a commercial for a Sony camcorder, showing extreme sports people using it in extreme situations. With 80 percent of the commercial done, a very cool commercial I might add, the final shot is a skier using the cam while racing an avalanche. So the crew heads off to Austria. Great shots, great stunts, great dog chase. Bad ending. Saw this at the AMC 9 in Union station in Washington DC. Boy I thought the Galleria was bad. The screen was the same size as mine-literally. They had no VOT center so they put the voices through the left speaker and the music and sound through the right. Lame beyond belief.

Die Another Day (3.8 of 5)
New Blood, New Style, New Meanness, and a New Chick. I haven-t seen bond this pissed since License to Kill. The beginning takes a new twist by capturing and torturing Bond for 14 months-all the way through the title sequence (the weakest so far-but still fun). Bring in new character Jinx and one of the best sword fights I have ever seen, and this bond is worth the price. A few hooky escapes and a lot of coincidences doesn-t make this the best Bond, but almost all the slow parts were cut out to make a fast and nonstop Bond. Saw this in Pentagon City mall in Virginia, not bad considering they were using technology from the 70-s ..old seats, old speakers, old screen.

Rams Win !! 3 in a row. We dominated AZ, even though the score looked close. I was down in San Diego for a Volleyball tourney and a few Birthdays. My Brother Mike wrenched his back on his European Vacation. So he was barely mobile. Anyway we went to a local La Mesa Bar to watch the game. TV-s were small but the food was good, wings above average. And the people were nice. The 20- TV with the ram game was 40 feet away, and OK for me but Deb had a hard time seeing it. So hopefully I am going to be able to stay home for the rest of the season, or cry a lot.

Stat of the Week: Attacks on civilians by Palestinian armed groups :128 attacks / 350 civilians, most of them Israeli, were killed since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa intifada in September 2000.

All the Answers in the Movies:
1. Is the American flag over Mecca the only way to solve all of this? – West Wing
2. Nuke the site from orbit – only way to be sure – Aliens
3. Well you know what I’d Do – I’d start blastin’ – Rio Bravo