jenk

I somehow think the reviews of Angels & Demons may be more amusing than the movie itself.

A. O. Scott:

Its preposterous narrative, efficiently rendered by the blue-chip screenwriting team of Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp, unfolds with the locomotive elegance of a Tintin comic or an episode of “Murder, She Wrote.” Mr. Howard’s direction combines the visual charm of mass-produced postcards with the mental stimulation of an easy Monday crossword puzzle. It could be worse.

The only people likely to be offended by “Angels & Demons” are those who persist in their adherence to the fading dogma that popular entertainment should earn its acclaim through excellence and originality. It is therefore not surprising that the public reaction so far has been notably calm. [...]

Robert Ebert:

This kind of film requires us to be very forgiving, and if we are, it promises to entertain. "Angels & Demons" succeeds.

[...] Why not just blow up the place? What is the purpose of the scavenger hunt? Has it all been laboriously constructed as a test of Langdon's awesome knowledge? [...] I don't know, and, reader, there is no time to care.

Am I the only one who is hoping that the "rebooted" Bond will start to get Bond's usual sense of humor?

(No, I haven't seen Quantum of Solace yet. ;)

As clearly and objectively as we think we see things, we begin to realize others see them differently from their own apparently equally clear and objective point of view.
- 7 Habits Daily Calendar

Luke:	You told me Vader betrayed and murdered my father!
Obi-Wan:	Your father... was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I told you was true ... from a certain point of view.
Luke:	From a certain point of view!?
Obi-Wan:	Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.

- Return of the Jedi

I ran into this on the slog and couldn't resist.

Defective Yeti published a few factual inaccuracies in "The Path To 9/11". (comments are mine)

• Evidence that the Taliban was founded by Tipper Gore is (alas) circumstantial at best.
  
  
• The scene in which Howard Dean punches Jesus is a dramatization. (He actually punched St Francis, but concerns that depicting St Francis would be misunderstood by non-Catholics dictated a change.)
  
  
• Blooper! When the Clintons are in bed and Bill is reading to Hillary "to get her in the mood" he is holding Mein Kampf upside-down. (His accent, however, is impeccable.)
  
  
• The finale, in which Bush crashes Airforce One into a remote Afghan stronghold, emerges unscathed from the wreckage, and defeats Al Qaeda using nunchucks and pyrokinesis, is actually a composite of several different events.

There's more over at the defective yeti...

Morena Baccarin (Inara) accepting Serenity's Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form Hugo.

Joss won the Best Script Nebula for Serenity, so now it's on the list of joint Hugo AND Nebula winners.

Here's an interesting article on the philosophical & theological elements in the movie Groundhog Day from the National Review Online.

When the Museum of Modern Art in New York debuted a film series on "The Hidden God: Film and Faith" [in 2003], it opened with Groundhog Day. [...] According to the New York Times, curators of the series were stunned to discover that so many of the 35 leading literary and religious scholars who had been polled to pick the series entries had chosen Groundhog Day that a spat had broken out among the scholars over who would get to write about the film for the catalogue.

(And yes, happy Imbolc, Candlemas, St Brigid's day, and anything else being celebrated now ;)

"Last time I spoke with Alex, we had a fight. I yelled at him."
"That's probably why he killed himself."
- Meg and Nick

"The offices were very clean, and the clients were only raping the land, and then, of course, there was the money. El Greedo strikes again."
- Meg explaining why she left the Philadelphia Public Defender's Office for real estate law.

"Nobody said it was going to be fun - at least nobody said it to me."
- Richard explaining why he thought Alex couldn't handle life.
( Read more... )
"What, nobody thinks they're a bad person. I'm not even claiming that people always think they're doing the right thing. They may know that they're doing something dishonest or insensitive or manipulative but they almost always think there's a good reason for doing it. They almost always think that it will turn out for the best in the end. And even if it just it turns out best for them, cause by definition what's best for them is what's best."
"Mm-hm"
"Now look. In addition, you instantly come up against the question of style. My style may be too, uh, direct. Perhaps given my style, I seem more nakedly opportunistic or jerky or uh...what was the other thing?"
"Uh, manipulative?"
"Whatever. Really all that's happening is that I'm trying to get what I want. Which is what everyone else does, only their styles are so warm or charming or sincere or otherwise phoney that you don't realize they're just trying to get what they want. So you see, my transparent efforts are in a way much more honest and admirable."
"Why is it what you just said strike me as a massive rationalization?"
- Michael and Sam

"Does the suit come with the machete?"
- Harold to Sam, re: a scene on his TV show