CJ7 (2008)

Stephen Chow is back with another movie, but this one has little to do with martial arts, though it does go for comedy like his earlier films. CJ7 is very clearly a kids movie. While Chow has a supporting role as the father of the main character, the story is really about the son who is 8 or 9 years old. Well, about the boy and his space alien dog.
This movie is reminiscent of Batteries Not Required, if that movie were Chinese and anime in style, with a whole lot of slapstick thrown in. Okay, I guess it's not that much like it, except for the premise. Poor but adorable kid just wants to fit, dad finds alien 'toy' and gives it to the kid. Kid and toy have midadventures and form a tight bond. Something bad happens to dad and toy sacrifices self to help dad. After more sadness and comedy, a whole bunch of aliens come for the toy.
Aside from the handful of actors I recognized from Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer, this film is nothing like the other two with it's intended audience being young children instead of adults. But, it's still entertaining.

2046 (2004)

Directed by Wong Kar Wai, 2046 is the story of a writer, Chow (Tony Leung) living in Hong Kong in the 1960s. Or maybe it's the story of a man living in 2046. The film starts in 2046 on one of the "world trains" one that goes to 2046, where many people have gone to recapture old memories, but none have returned until now. It's not made clear now or at any other point in the film if 2046 really is the year the train is traveling in, if it might instead be a time travel kind of deal, or if 2046 is the signifier of a location, or perhaps even the train itself. After a while on the train, where Chow is the only passenger and the only other 'person' is the bartender / engineer and two very lifelike looking android waitresses.
Flashback to the mid-1960s and Chow is just arriving in Hong Kong. He gets work as a writer and tells everyone that he has moved there for a change of pace, but is really there looking for a woman - Lulu, who now goes by Mimi. He finds her and they go out drinking. He takes her back to her place - apartment 2046 in the Oriental Hotel - but she is passed out, so he does the gentlemanly thing, which is taking off her shoes and covering her with a blanket. When he comes to visit her next, he finds that she has been murdered. He wants to rent her room, but ends up taking the room across the hall 'until' 2046 is cleaned up and redecorated. By the time it's ready he decides to stay in 2047 and an attractive young woman who looks very similar to one of the android waitresses moves in. She's a prostitute by trade and she and Chow become drinking buddies, with benefits which he pays for if they have sex in her room, and she pays for if they have sex in his room.
After a while, for some reason Chow ends up doing stuff with the daughter of the Hotel manager, which looks an awful lot like the other android waitress and the bartender / engineer, respectively. Their relationship is purely platonic though. To amuse her, Chow begins writing a book that is supposed to be a cheap martial arts drama. At some point though, Chow changes the focuss of the book, but he doesn't finish it before the girl leaves to be with her love in Japan. Chow gets depressed, but finally finishes the book which turns out to be about a guy riding a train coming back from 2046 with two android waitresses whom he is cautioned about falling in love with, but does with the one that looks like the daughter, while the one who looks like the prostitute develops a crush on him. Chow doesn't just describe the story, the movie switches back to the imagery of the opening.
After a time, we go back to Hong Kong and it's several years later or several years before the first time we are there. Chow explains that he has been in Singapore where he had gambled away all of his money, but that a mysterious professional gambler who goes by the moniker of "Black Widow" because she always ears a black glove on her left hand, helps him out. Back in Hong Kong, he has looked for her and she may have been Lulu / Mimi, or she may have been someone she knew. He doesn't find her or what has happened to her.
Chow doesn't end up with the prostitute or the daughter, or the gambler.
I know this film won all kinds of awards and is supposed to be a masterpiece, but I guess Wong is just going over my head.
Is it a sci-fi psychodrama? Is it a film noir? Yes and no. It's both, but not mixed together. 2046 spends more time as a noir but never develops that aspect, but it is also a sci-fi film, but fails as that too as we never know if the two halves are actually linked, or if one is real and the other imagination.
The one thing that Wong does make clear is that nobody gets to be happy in the end. Things end badly for everyone.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Last Olympian

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Last Olympian (book 5)
by Rick Riordan
Unabridged audiobook, read  by Jesse Bernstein

The fifth and final book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series is the best of the books. Now, perhaps this is because Riordan's writing has gotten better, or because I've grown fond of certain characters, or because I know what to expect, or because the reader did a better job. I'll go with a mix of the first three - Bernstein's performance is exactly on par with the earlier books, no better, no worse.
It's the final summer before Percy turns 16 and the prophecy will be fulfilled and Olympus will fall or stand because of it. Jackson is right in the middle of it and is in fact the one upon which everything depends. Riordan takes a couple of pages from Rowling's playbook in accomplishing this - character's are killed, minor yet key villains redeem themselves and our hero stands toe to toe with the baddy and has the realization that the only way to win is to give up his tight control of the situation and depend on those he cares about most.
All the major characters make it through this one and come out the other side a better person / demigod / satyr / cyclops. Jackson gets the girl - Annabeth, not Rachael - as it should be, or at least as is expected. Jackson gets the admiration of all and the respect of many who disdained him earlier.
I feel like I could really rip this book apart, but I'm not going to. I enjoyed it. Not everything is a work of enduring literature, and that's not a bad thing. This book, like the rest in the series is well-based in Greek mythology and is a great jumping off point for a young person just getting into studying the classics or for a middle-aged man who is already familiar and wants to play in a field that he already is familiar with.
The book ends with the new oracle (hay - we knew Rachael Elizabeth Dare was going to be important) pronouncing the next big prophecy, but other than that everything is wrapped up. There is nothing left dangling. I do know that there is another set of books that take place in the same universe, and Jackson has cameos, but you don't need to read them if you don't want to. I think after I give genre reading a break, I'll find that I'm ready to take on some YA again, and I'll probably give them a look. I am willing to give Riordan's Egyptian-based series a shot, too. I just hope that there is a different reader for these other books. Maybe there just needs to be a new director - it's not that Bernstein's voice is annoying, it's doing "voices" for characters that I find annoying. Either go all in and develop a bunch of distinctly different voices, or don't do voices. But, I'm beginning to get off topic...
One thing that I can say about these books is that they are written very cinematically. I don't know if they are making sequels to that first movie, but if they do, I'll probably watch them.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth (book 4)
by Rick Riordan
Unabridged audiobook, read  by Jesse Bernstein

For a great synopsis of this story, check out the "The Battle of the Labyrinth" page on wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_the_Labyrinth
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You would think that by the fourth book I would be used to the reader. I still haven't gotten used to Mr. Bernstein and his vocal portrayals. I dont' mind the silly voices, I just don't like how he makes so many voices similar, particularly those of main characters. The two main characters have the same voice and when the action heats up and Riordan stops using 'Percy said' or 'Annabeth said' after each quote, it does get confusing. Perhaps if he didn't use any voices I wouldn't be depending on that so much.
This book was the best so far. It was not so much like a stripped down Harry Potter novel. I was also not so familiar with the monsters, which was kind of nice.
Hephaestus and Hera make appearances in this one to help out Percy, though their ends are definitely their own. Poseiden also appears at the end, but he's really their to support Percy and not trick him into doing something.
Thank god Riordan used Rachel Elizabeth Dare, otherwise I would have been really pissed off. I'm not sure why he always refers to her by her full name (okay, not always, but most of the time). She's described as having red hair, and her initials spell 'red'. I have pondering on the significance of this for two books now, and have not arrived at any conclusions. I'm not familiar with any Ancient Greek stories about red-haired people. I suspect that the hair color would have been highly uncommon during that time period, perhaps never seen.
I have thouht about tracking down the ebook version of this book so that I could do a count of how many times Riordan uses the word "mortal" and the term, "ADHD". If you had a dollar for every time Percy mentions that he has ADHD, you could go out for a movie and a nice meal when the book is done.
On balance, with my nitpicking aside, this was a good book. Percy spent a lot more time analyzing his feelings and motivations for action. I guess this might be as telling about me as it is about the books - perhaps I just want something that is more character oriented and less action oriented. Or maybe it just took Riordan four books to find the voice of his main character, or more likely, maybe it just took me four books to get into the groove.
There is only one book left in the series and I know it's shorter than the fourth book. I don't know how I feel about this. There are a lot of issues left to resolve, but they're not particularly complex issues, I guess. There is going to be at least one big, knowck-down, drag-out battle. I suspect that some characters will be killed off, and I also suspect that they will not be mains. The fact that I am actually looking forward to the book is a good thing, though. And this time next week, I'll know whether it was worth it or not.

This series of books has prompted me to step away from YA for a while, maybe even away from genre and do some serious reading. That doesn't meant that I don't enjoy YA, etc. I do. I enjoy these books as well, I just need something that is speaking a little more to my intellect.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse (book 3)
by Rick Riordan
Unabridged audiobook, read  by Jesse Bernstein

Book 3 of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series breaks with the pattern set by the first two by starting just prior to Winter break instead of right before Summer break. Grover has sent a message to Camp Half-Blood that he needs help. Always eager for an adventure and to help his buddy out, Percy along with Thalia and Annabeth head to upstate Maine to find out how they can help the satyr.
They arrive at the military school where Grover is undercover, only to meet the monster-in-disguise right off the bat. In this case, the assistant Principal is really the manticore and explains that he was a Greek monster before he was banished the lands and the tales of the Middle East.
Annabeth is captured by the manticore, and Thalia, Grover and several of the Hunters (of Artemis) join together to quest for her, notably the leiutenant to Artemis, Zoe and one of the two kids that Grover had brought Percy to help him in the first place. Percy uses Annabeth's baseball cap of invisibility to tag along until he is discovered, when he openly joins the quest.
Artemis, Apollo and Athena help the kids on their journey across the US to San Francisco, which is set up as both the anti-Manhattan and the anti-Olympus. Some interesting things happen throughout this tale, like two of the main characters getting killed off (at least I won't spoil it by saying who), but one of them in such an indecisive way as to make me think that she may make a comeback. We also learn that Hades has two children, but that he didn't break the moratorium on the big three having kids because they have been stuck in the Lotus Eater's Hotel since prior to World War II when the ban on kids for Zeus, Poseiden and Hades went into effect.
The story ends with Annabeth deciding to move to San Francisco to give living with her dad and his family another chance.
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This book has the least resemblance to a Harry Potter book yet. This is neither good or bad, just an observation. It was nice, though, to see a different type of story evoked.
Let's see, which of the gods have helped Percy now? Poseiden, Hermes, Apollo, Artemis, Athena and Aphrodite. Ares kind of helped, kind of set Percy up, so I'm not going to count him in the "helpers" list. Who are the haters? Zeus, Ares, Hephaestus and Hades, and kind of Athena, but it's not really personal, so she shouldn't be on the list of "haters" I guess.
I know that Riordan is writing the Kane cycle now which is set among the Egyptian gods, but might the statements of the manticore be more than explanation? Might they be a hint of another story cycle to come sometime later?
Speaking of new series by Riordan, I also just learned that there is another series with the Greek gods, called the Lost Heroes or something which not only features some characters from the Percy Jackson series but also uses the Roman pantheon. How the hell does that work? Is there a Zeus and a Jupiter? Or do we discover that sometimes Percy's dad likes to slum it and go around playing Neptune?
Going into this book, I knew that the title had to refer to one of two titan's and predicted I would know within the first chapter and that it would not actually be revealed to the reader until much later in the book. As soon as we learn that Luke has aligned himself with the General of the titans, to help restore Chronos, we know that the villain is Atlas. The other option was Prometheus, who may not want the gods to be in power, but he wouldn't want to replace them with the titans.
There is a muggle, I mean a mortal in this book, that I know we are going to meet again, and if we don't, I will write an email to Riordan detailing my displeasure. The red-headed girl whom Percy meets at Hoover Dam can see through the mist. And then Riordan uses her full name in three other sections of the book when Percy is reflecting on the dam situation. If this is not foreshadowing, I am very disappointed, either at the failure to include her later, or at the editor's failure to allow her full name to be used so much in the book.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters (book 2)
by Rick Riordan
Unabridged audiobook, read  by Jesse Bernstein

The story opens as Percy Jackson wakes from a horrible nightmare about his friend Grover. His mom calls him to breakfast, where all the food is colored blue in honor of it being the last day of school. Not only is it the last day, but Percy has stayed out of trouble all year and it looks like this will be the first time in seven years that he has not been kicked out of his school.
Percy hurries off to meet his friend, Tyson whom he rides to school with on the subway. Percy is distracted by his dream as he tells his mom goodbye, that and he keeps thinking that he is seeing something out of the corner of his eye, but when he looks there is nothing there.
Tyson is a large, homeless kid who's only friend is Percy. Tyson gets picked on by the other kids, which often causes him to cry even though he is much larger and stronger than them.
This last day of school sees a group of kids visiting from another school - but they're not kids at all, they're disguised giant cannibals who try to kill Percy in the deadliest game of dodge ball ever played. Fortunately, Annabeth shows up (she had been the shadow that Percy kept noticing) and Tyson is more than just a kid. Unfortunately, the deadly dodge ball game destroys the gymnasium and starts the school on fire.
The three kids escape and do the only thing they can do - go to the Half-blood camp. But, when they arrive, Clorice is leading a group of other campers in an attempt to defend the camp from two giant mechanical bulls.
Chiron has been fired from his position because Thalia's pine tree was poisoned, and he has been replaced by a man named Tantelus who takes an immediate dislike to Percy.
Percy, with help from Hermes, decides to go find and rescue Grover, and while he's at it, retrieve the Golden Fleece which is likely the only thing that can stop Thalia's pine from dying. He has been forbidden a quest of this undertaking, that had been given to Clorice, so Percy, along with Annabeth and Tyson sneak out of camp and catch a ride south towards where Grover is being held. It is just their bad luck that the ship they stowaway on, is being captained by Luke, the son of Hermes that stole the items in the first book, and tried to kill Percy a time or two.
Percy and Annabeth withstand many trials and tribulations to finally end up on the island Grover is being held on, only to be reunited with Tyson who had been missing for the last while, and to find that Clorice is already there and being held captive, too.
The group defeats the evil cyclops, Polythemus and escapes to Miami, only to be attacked by Luke and his cronies. All seems lost until Chrion shows up with a group of other Centaurs and helps drive Luke and his group away.
By the end of the story everything is as it should be, except that the Golden Fleece did a little bit too good of a job on healing Thalia's pine and has actually healed her and separated her out from the tree.
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This was a short and sweet Harry Potter derivative. I had already mentioned when writing about the Lightning Thief how similar the two series are. Well, listening to the second book did nothing to change that view. Maybe derivative is too strong of a term, it's more like using the same formula, but with a smaller budget. The best analogy I can think of is actually literary (huzzah for me). Percy Jackson is to Harry Potter as the Belgariad / Malloreon is to Lord of the Rings. It uses a similar structure to tell a similar story. We see this kind of thing in media all the time. CSI comes along and is a huge success, and suddenly there are all kinds of forensics procedural shows. Some producer, actually several producers, crack the formula and set off to cash in. I'm going to be more generous to Mr. Riordan, though, I think he used the Potter books to fire off his own ideas. I mean, sure, the dude wants to sell books, but I think he's just try to write an entertaining story. And in much the same way that I watch almost all the forensics procedurals, there is room in my life for Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. The Jackson stories just aren't as deep or as broad as the Potter stories. But, that doesn't mean that they're not entertaining.
I had some issues with Mr. Bernstein's reading of the book. The first issue isn't his fault at all, but is something the producer or engineer should have caught, and that is the 'tinny' sound that occurs in several places. I might be Library2Go's fault - that's where I downloaded the files from. The other two issues are definitely Mr. Bernstein's, though his director should have caught it. Bernstein uses the same voice for Percy and Annabeth. Now I don't think that he should have used a falsetto voice, but he might have thrown in a bit of a Southern twang (Annabeth is from Virginia), really anything to help differentiate between the two as they have many conversations together. Particularly towards the end of the book as the action picks up and Riordan drops 'he said' and 'she said'. There were spots that I had to listen to a second time to figure out who was saying what. The other issue is the surfer dude talk. It's bad enough that Luke talks like a surfer dude, but, I'll allow it annoying as it is. But at the end of the book when Chiron brings the centaurs to the kids aid, all of the centaurs taht are not Chiron talk like surfer dudes. Annoying. You wouldn't catch Jim Dale doing a surfer dude, let alone the same surfer dude for a whole gaggle of characters.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning ThiefC

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (book 1)
by Rick Riordan
Unabridged audiobook, read  by Jesse Bernstein

12 year old Percy Jackson is afflicted with both ADHD and dyslexia - both things that make him hard to focus in school and easy to get in trouble. This is proved by the fact that Jackson has been in six different schools in six years, managing to get kicked out of all that he has been enrolled in thus far. He has high hopes for this year, though. He has a best friend, Grover, who is handicapped and forced to walk with crutches. He also has a teacher, interestingly enough who is wheel chair bound, who believes in him and is always pressing Jackson to do better.
Grover is always getting picked on by the school bully, and every time Jackson does get in trouble it is due to him sticking up for his friend. It all comes to a head while the class is on a field trip to a museum in New York City. In protecting Grover from the obnoxious red-haired girl, Jackson somehow causes her to go soaked by the fountain they are in front of, which everyone will assume is because he pushed her into the fountain, but he saw the water rise up and pull her in.
He is taken inside by a teacher that hates him, to receive his punishment, but to his surprise, she is really some type of hideous monster who would have killed him if not for the intervention of Chiron. This is when he discovers that the teacher he likes is more than he appears to be as well, but not in a way that Jackson can pin down at this point.
Jackson manages to finish out the school year, and on his way home for the summer, ditches Grover at the train station (he had promised to do something with him) and goes home to be met by his horrific step-father. After much squabbling, Jackson and his mother leave, only to be pursued by a minotaur, which actually turns out to be the minotaur from Greek mythology. The beast kills Jackson's mother and drives him away, fleeing into what is the one place where he'll be safe - the camp for 'half-bloods', the children of the Gods of Ancient Greek times.
Jackson discovers that his buddy Grover is really a satyr, and that his favorite teacher is here as well, and his wheel chair is actually a magical contraption to hide that he is the legendary centaur, Chiron. He also meets a girl his age, Annabeth, whom he learns is the daughter of Athena.
Almost immediately, Jackson tangles with the camp bully, a daughter of Ares, who along with her siblings try to give him a swirly in the girl's bathroom. But somehow, the water in the pipes comes shooting out, drenching everyone, foe and friend alike, except for Jackson who is completely dry. Soon enough, the Ares kids are taking their revenge on Jackson during a game of capture the flag, at which time he is forced back into a stream and somehow the water comes to his aid again, this time there is also a rush of strength and adrenaline. After the game is over and a hell hound defeated, a blue and green trident appears over Jackson's head and he is declared a son of Poseiden.
Jackson's lineage is a matter of no small importance as there is a pact between Zeus, Poseiden and Hades not to father any offspring, coupled with the fact that someone has stolen Zeus' thunderbolt, and matters in the Greek Gods' world are very tense and even more dangerous then usual.
So, to rectify matter, Jackson is given a quest to find the thunderbolt and return it within the next ten days to avoid a great amongst the Gods.
Jackson set out immediately, with Annabeth, the wiser, more experienced friend, and Grover the loyal if somewhat inept friend who always manages to come through when he absolutely has to. They travel across the U.S. fighting monsters along the way and even encountering Ares himself.
Thinking that Hades has stolen the thunderbolt, due in large part ot Ares, the trio descend to the Underworld and confront Hades himself. But they discover that Hades has also had his mask of invisibility stolen, and it happened the same time that Zeus' thunderbolt was stolen. Jackson has to admit to his friends that he ulterior motives for coming to the Underworld - he wished to bring his mother back, who wasn't dead after all, but was taken away by Hades just before she was killed, so he could hold her for ransom to get his mask back. Jackson surprises them all when he leaves his mother behind to continue on with his two friends.
Jackson ends up in a showdown, grudge match with Ares himself, and discovers that Ares had the two items stolen so he could insight a war between the 'big three'. Jackson somehow defeats the God of War in single combat, and is able in a nick of time to return the stolen items, and in the process meet his father for the first time. Zeus and Hades are glad to have their items back, and show this in very different ways - Zeus allows Jackson to leave with his life, while Hades actually frees Jackson's mother and returns her to New York.
Finally, Jackson discovers that the thief was one of the kids at the camp, a camp counselor actually, named Luke, who is a son of Hermes. Luke tries to kill Jackson and leaves him with information that Jackson had suspected, that the real mastermind behind this had not been Ares, but had been Chronos, whom Luke now serves.
The story wraps up with Luke going to stay with his mother instead of staying year round at the camp. His mom has recently gotten rid of her no good husband and has a new place in the City where she has secured Jackson a spot at school number seven.
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If my description reminds you of a certain boy wizard I'm not surprised. It's almost straight across for the main characters - Percy would be Harry, Annabeth is Hermione, Grover is Ron, Chiron is Dumbledore, and the step dad was Harry's muggle family all rolled together in one. Percy, like Harry had trouble in normal schools, and like Harry knew nothing of who he really was before it was thrust upon him. There is also a prophecy and just like Harry, there are some things of his new found life that Percy is very good at from the beginning. Oh, and of course the children of Ares are for all intents and purposes the Slytherin House.
There are differences of course. The main one being that Percy's mother is still alive, and so is his father, though Percy doesn't much interact with him. And of course, Percy goes to a special summer camp, but regular school, while Harry went to a special school, but was in the muggle world for summers. OK, maybe this is not that big of a difference.
The real difference comes in two ways: the style of writing and the way things are resolved. Stylistically, this book is quite different from the Harry Potter books as we here from the very beginning Percy's thoughts on everything, where we largely get a third person view in the Potter books. This is both a good and a bad thing, mostly good. We get to hear all of Percy's desires as he sees them, and we get to know his weaknesses and strengths in the same manner. A drawback is that at times, Riordan is not writing the reactions of a 12 year old boy. There are times when the thoughts and actions of Percy are of a mature adult - not that 12 year old boys cannot act in a mature or adult fashion, they can, it's just that the particular things / situations are things that most adults couldn't handle in a mature fashion. Perhaps I'm being too critical here, perhaps being a kid today readies one for learning he is a demigod and that Gods and monsters are real. It's also very telling what Riordan doesn't have Percy thinking about. But, that is as much a critique of the genre as this book - YA does not deal with the mundande things that people think about, like what to eat or who to talk to or where the bathroom is or if young people are sexually aware. How old is Harry before he finally kisses Cho?
The reader, Jesse Bernstein, does a good job. He bothered me at the beginning, but I think that was mostly about the way the book was written. Once I got the hang of it, he stopped annoying me. I do wish that he had tried to speak with a different voice for the various characters - I don't mean in a different voice, I mean using his voice to convey the fact that Annabeth is going to speak in a different style than Percy, and Chiron will certainly speak differently.
I watched the movie first. I was told that the film brings in a lot of things from the second and subsequent books, but if it did, I don't know how or what. The main difference is that in the film, Percy is several years older. If each of the remaining four books is one year of Percy's life, instead of finishing around the time he would finishe high school, the films will have Percy in college or working at a job. I guess I'll have to wait and see.
I didn't love this book, I must confess. But, I did like it. I will give the second book a chance. Unlike the Potter books where I couldn't wait to read the next, I feel like this story nicely wrapped up most issues in a way that didn't leave me wondering, though of course there is still a great evil on the horizon, and I presume that Percy is the kid who holds the key to it all. We'll see.

Eagle Vs. Shark (2007)

Written and directed by Taika Waititi, Eagle Vs. Shark is a quirky film, full of uncomfortable moments that sometimes border on the sublimely funny. Lily (Loren Horsley) is a quiet girl who works at a fast food joint in the mall. She typically counts the seconds until her shift is over, except when Jarrod (Jermaine Clement) comes in. He works at the sporting goods store in the mall and at first doesn't seem to notice her. Lily ends up with an invitation to Jarrod's birthday party, which is an animal themed costume party. The night progresses and Lily spends the night and has sex with Jarrod (which happens while fully clothed and takes about a minute). Soon enough Lily discovers that Jarrod is ready to unleash his master plan - gaining revenge on his childhood nemesis, Eric (David Fane). To do this, he must return to his home town, and he does so with Lily in tow.
Lily soon discovers that the rest of the family, while eccentric in their own rights, are good enough folk who try to support Jarrod. Because Jarrod had not called ahead, he and Lily end up sleeping in a tent in the backyard, and it's there that he dumps her, because his life is too complicated, what with he plans for revenge and all. Lily cries and calls her brother to come get her, but she can't get ahold of him, and the next bus isn't until Sunday.
Eventually, Jarrod has the showdown with Eric, but Eric's in a wheel chair, which doesn't stop Jarrod form hitting him with numchucks and wrestling on the ground (all of this after Eric has apologized for their school days).
Jarrod flees off into the fields surrounding the family home and nearby beach, and it's up to Lily to let him know that in spite of everything that she still likes him.
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What a messed up movie. I mean that in the nicest possible way, though. There are some really awkwardly funny moments, and a couple of times where I expected the cast to break out in song a la Flight of the Conchords (but that doesn't happen).
You can't help but wonder what Lily sees in Jarrod. She's quirky, sure, but she's cute and sweet. Jarrod is a twelve year old trapped in a man's body who just wants his dad to love him. He's always lying to make himself sound better, even when he has to know that everyone present knows he's lying (like when Lily tells his family that what he has just said about her is a lie).
When Jarrod attacks Eric in his wheel chair at the end of the film, it's painfully funny. There is this long moment just prior where you think Jarrod is going to grow up, accept the apology, win the girl and ride off intot he sunset. And then he doesn't. It's surprising at first because you would never see that in an American film (well maybe an Indie, but probably not). And yet, Lily still sees something in him that is worth caring for. She's a better person than I. But at least at the end of the film as Lily is going to the bus stop with Jarrod's family in tow, they quite like her and she them, Jarrod is waiting for her with flowers and he even remembered the ones that she likes.

Code 46 (2003)

William (Tim Robbins) is an investigator sent to Shanghai to look into who has been supplying fake papeles to those who cannot properly get a cover. There, he meets Maria (Samantha Morton) and the day which he questions her just happens to be her birthday.
For some reason that William can never quite put his finger on, he decides not to tell the company that Maria is the person defrauding them. Instead, he lies and says it is another employee. Aftwards, he follows Maria who eventually goes to dinner and then a club with him, before ending up back at her apartment where they make love.
Job complete, William goes home. But then, the man whom Maria had gotten the illegal cover for dies and the powers that be send William bak to Shanghai to clean up his mess. Instead he makes it worse and along the way discovers that Maria is genetically identical to his mother, something which he doesn't tell her. They make love again, but this time she has been given a virus to sotp her from saxing it up with her son, so the solution is to tie her hands to the bed frame so that she can't stop William.
After a car accident while they are trying to flea authorities, Maria and William are captured. She is exiled to the outside and he has his memory of her and the case in Shanghai wiped.
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Take a smidge of Blade Runner, add a pinch of Johhny Mnemonic and a splash of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to your main ingrediant of Oedipus and you get Code 46.
Maria narrates the movie, so you get some idea of why she does what she does, but a lot of William's decisions elicit a "whu?" and even one "what the fuck?" I never get his motivation. I don't blame Robbins though, he did a fine job as always. I blame the writer and director. It is perfectly allowable for characters to be mysterious or to be conundrums, even to themselves. But, what isn't acceptable is not giving us anything. Does William do this on every investigation? Is he drawn to Maria because of her genes? Does he care about his wife and son? Does he care about his job.
The movie has an interesting premise and I appreciate that they didn't want to make this film into an action-adventure sci-fi film. I would have liked to have known more about the context in which Code 46 was first implemented and if it's still relavant. Our people no longer able to conceive children naturally?
This film was missing something for me. I liked Maria, but I guess I needed William to be more emotionally involved for me to be involved with him (which is ironic since he was dosed with an empathy virus), or he could have gone the opposite route. Something.
The other thing which really kills this movie for me, is the gratuitous nudity. When William and Marie make love the first time and at the end of the movie when William and his wife make love, there is no nudity and these scenes work. But the second time WIlliam and Marie make love, well you can't really call it that, but it's not exactly rape, either - I should explain: Marie wants to make love to William (and he to her), but she has been given a virus to make her flee from his romantic touches, so she has him tie her to the bed and then fights him through the whole act while she still wants to have sex. Complicated. The nudity comes just after William has bound her hands and taken off her pants. The camera slowly pans up her legs and stops on the money shot. This is before he mounts her and nothing of her exposed parts are shown during the act. I have to question why this was done. It didn't lend to the story. I could imagine that if there had been a scene where Marie is fighting William as he is pulling off her pants that results in nudity, while not necessary wouldn't be incongruous with the story. Maybe scenes were cut that explain this, but I doubt it. It left me feeling kind of ucky - not from the whole Oedipus deal or her mind wanting one thing even though her body was programmed to fight it. Those are integral parts of the story. But this scene is not. It leaves me feeling like the director is a perve and so am I for watching the movie.

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

Stephen Chow has done it again with this film. I remember watching Shaolin Soccer and thinking that this was a fantastic movie that was going to be the start of a new genre, the comedic kung fu flick. Okay, so that wasn't really the first one, there are lots of examples of humorous martial arts films, like early Jacky Chan, or the American films like "They Call Me Bruce". But, this was different, this film brought the super hero style of kung fu into the comedic realm.
Kung Fu Hustle is as much a commentary on American pop culture as it is on Chinese. The axe gang, with their hand axes and stove pipe hats, and then when the need arises their tommy guns, is an interesting comment on America. The combination of Abraham Lincoln with the gangster motif is wickedly sublime. Add into the mix the 50's cars and dancing and you have a wickedly western take on an eastern gang.
There were more than a few occasions in which I was reminded of the Matrix. Not only were there slowed down action scenes, but there is a scene when the axe gang first comes en masse that is reminiscent of many Agent Johnsons, and when our hero is fighting them just before the finale fight, it is like it again - this time with baddies flying into the air from impossibly powerful blows.
The notion of the hidden masters, who have found refuge in living a mundane life is taken to a humorous extreme, when not one, not two, but five end up living in the same slum. The fact that they are hidden even from each other is just another layer of amusement. Then of course there are the super villains, each more absurdly powerful and eccentric than the last. I was a little bit surprised when the first three masters, the saviors of the slum are killed by the street musician killers.
The other motif borrowed from the genre is the meeting of the young hero with a virtuous maiden whom they will later meet and need to prove themselves to. Though, typically you don't see the young hero getting peed on by the bullies.
This was a nice, humorous diversion, and I can only hope that Chow is at work on another (though I'm sure that since this came out he has been at several).

Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

This film follows the exploits of a couple of theives, Ridley (Justin Whalin) and Snails (Marlon Wayans) as they attempt to help a young mage, Marine (Zoe McLellan), find a powerful magical relic and clear their names of the murder they have been falsely accused of. They are pursued by the evil Damodar (Bruce Payne), who is the minion of the even more evil, wizard Profion (Jeremy Irons). Along the way, a dwarf and an elf join the group.
Our hero Ridley, finds the artifact only to have it stolen and used by Profion to control the (presumably) evil red dragons in his attempt to overthrow the Empress Savina (Thora Birch).
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IMDB.com has this movie with a rating of 3.6 out of 10. That seems about right. I had high hopes, because I'm naive like that. But come on, when you see Jeremy Irons name on a project, you think that it might be, you know, at least good. But Irons overacts, to put it politely. But, but, that is not necessarily bad - if he had gone just a little bit further, he would have hit the level of camp I normally see from Bruce Campbell. Thora Birch, also well-known for being a good actor, took the role super-seriously. If she had come at with the same, er, mock-gusto that Irons did, this film would have been geratly approved. Whalin and Wayans, not two of the greatest actors, but they're passable and actually don't disappoint in this movie. The only real gem, and this is because I'm a nerd, is seeing Tom Baker as the Elven Elder who heals Ridley. Cool.
The real failing of this movie comes in how it handles D&D. I guess the biggest disappointment was that it used the at the time brand new third edition rules / setting. Meh. This just mixes up all kinds of stuff and allows for a lot of non-traditional races to be present, like the dragon-men and orcs everywhere. The second big snafu was the handling of the beasties, in particular the beholders and the dragons. The beholders were portrayed as guard dogs. Ya, they looked cool, but they are following around gruops of low level fighters above ground and only roar - never cast a single spell. Speaking of no spells, the dragons were handled as flying, fire-breathing steeds. Sure, they can do that, but they can do so much more, like you know, talk, use magic, especially the dragons portrayed which were gaggles of reds and golds, two of the most magical of dragonkind.
I've already wasted too much of my tome on this...

Eleventh hour: Miracle

Professor Hood (Patrick Stewart) and his Protection Services officer Rachel (Ashley Jensen) are called to a meeting where Drake (Roy Marsden) uses Hood to disprove to MI-6 that a potential nuclear weapon manufacturing site is that. While waiting to go in, Hood is reading tabloids and they all feature a story about a boy who was miraculously cured of his cancer by drinking well water. Hood takes this story very personally and decided that he will go up to Clayton where the boy lives and disprove that it was the water that cured the boy.
Hood meets Dr. Williams (Clare Holman), the boy's physician who assures him that the boy did indeed have a cancerous tumor on his kidney and that he received no treatment for it. From this, Hood concludes that there must have been something in the water so goes about systematically checking the water from the reservoir, the highest water source in the water tables, down to the spring from which the boy drank.
After many false starts, Drake keeps popping up warning Rachel that Hood is in danger and it is her duty to make Hood leave. The problem is that Rachel doesn't take orders from Drake, and thus Hood is given enough time to finally find the cause of the contaminant in the water and in the process uncovers black ops being run by Drake.
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I swear that in the last post when I was going on about the X-Files, that I had not seen this episode yet. This episode was pretty much X-Files, UK, with Hood as both Muldar and Scully, well the passion of Muldar if not the belief in something that could not be explained by science. The whole feel of this episode was very much in the vein of a Chris Carter show - the camera work, the lighting, the suspecious government officials trying to dissuade our protagonists without outright threatening them. Actually it strikes me that Hood is the X-Files all in one - the passion of Muldar, the scientific discipline of Scully and the hairstyle of Skinner.
Marsden and Holman are both well known actors, and neither one disappoints. This was probably the most consistent and the best acted episode of the series. But, based upon what the Oracle told me about the creator not liking the comparison to the one show that I keep comparing it to, I can see why it didn't come back, though I am not sure why someone else didn't just act as executive producer and continue the show. Perhaps the creator maintained control over the intellectual property.
Whatever the reason, I am sad that there were only four episodes. I feel like we were just starting to get to know Hood, and the Rachel character hadn't been explored much at all, other than her devotion to Hood. We never learned why this particular science advisor to the government needed a Protective Services agent keeping care of him. Oh well.
Just like in episode three, the outcome was pretty obvious from the beginning. The first time you see Drake, you think first that he's more of a spook than Hood and Rachel realize, and second that he's a bad dude. Not only that, but the first scene he is in with Hood gives away the endind. It was still a good episode but maybe this is some sign into why the show didn't go into a second season - without the creator on board, it was just another mystery show. Still, I would watch further episodes if they existed. Meh.

Eleventh Hour: Kryptos

Climatologist Richard Adams (Donald Sumpter) is either on to something or is off his rocker. The government sends his old friend, Professor Ian Hood (Patrick Stewart) to look in on him, Hood is accompanied by his capable bodyguard Rachel (Ashley Jensen). They find Adams in a state of agitation at his home where we meet his wife, Gillian (Susan Wooldridge) who we find out was Hood's girlfriend first. Adams goes on about conspiracies and secrets and seems quite the loon to everyone. That is until he kills himself, leaving Hood a cryptic email and a quiz that leads to Hood and Rachel investigating the institute that fired Adams, run by the evil Destrano (Tom Mannion).
A second scientist had seen Adams work and reveals to Hood that Adams might have been on to something, but Destrano finds out that the man is going to steal the data that Adams left behind and has him fired, and then run over by a passing car as the man is walking out of the building carrying the box with all of his personal effects.
Hood finally figures out the keyword to crack the code, just as Rachel does through a different line of enquiry that reveals the truth about Adams.
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This was a great episode, full of familiar faces. Sumpter, Wooldridge and Mannion are recognizable to anyone who as spent a bit of time watching shows that aired on the BBC. That's the great thing about the UK's model of television programming - the seasons are shorter than US television, so more shows get aired. Most actors can't make a living off of playing one character, so they pop up in all kinds of places, and I'm told it's the norm to do at least as much theatre as television for these actors, so they all tend to have the chops, so to speak, to really bring mysteries (like this show), dramas and comedies alive.
The Oracle told me today that this show only lasted four episodes because the creator upon seeing the way the first episode and beginning credits were handled left because he wanted the show to be about science, not science fiction, and certainly not the X-Files. But, so far three out of three opening scenes have looked very much like my favorite Fox show ever. And the credits could not do more to evoke an X-Files type feel without actually displaying the word "X-Files" somewhere in the titles. She also mentioned that the US version, while getting picked up for a full season and airing right after CSI, couldn't hold the audience. I wonder if that is because they went the straight science route, or went the X-Files science route? I'll get back to you on that.
This was the first episode where I figured out the answers to questions long before Hood did. The big reveals in order are the Fibbonace sequence and Tokyo. The first one may be due to my fascination with this number sequence, but the second one is due to horribly obvious hint dropping.

Eleventh Hour: Containment

Professor Hood (Patrick Stewart), a Science Advisor for the Home Office and his bodyguard Rachel (Ashley Jensen) are called in to help out on an outbreak of a mysterious virus that has killed one man and likely affected up to 21 more people. Dr. Martin Callan (Nicholas Anderson) is a virologist in charge of a team of scientists brought in to contain the virus and to track down it's source.
Through investigation and interviews, the virus, which is now known to be a hybrid form of small pox and tanner pox, is tracked back to a worker at a refrigerated warehouse. The workers at this warehouse are predominantly Chinese immigrants, all of whom are sick. They are all put into quarantine, as is Rachel because she came into contact with the blood of one of the men.
Hood along with the help of a young virologist discovers that the workers do not have the hybrid virus but only chicken pox. When Hood, Rachel and one of the workers go back to the warehouse to look for containers of Variola (Latin for small pox), they find the samples missing and that the warehouse owner has taken them to sell to Callan, as they were samples from his lab when he used to teach at the University. The man end up taking Rachel hostage, but fortunately for her, Hood will not stop until she's safe.
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Well, no Gepetto, so I guess that question is answered.
This episode was about containing a virus, so I expected something a little more like the CDC and it's EIS agents, but instead got Callan and his group of academics. I have no idea what the situation is really like in Britain, but Hood says at one point "the United States spent a billion dollars on this, we created 37 committees", or something very close to that.
Twice in the episode, Hood explains scientific theories to lay persons, and I think that is pretty damn cool. I don't know if anyone came out of watching this show telling their friends that they now knew more about quantum mechanics or about how small pox was spread, but it is very cool that Hood was explaining this a person as a teacher, and that this wasn't something just said as part of the exposition to fill in the gaps in story.
This show could have gone the CSI route with lots of special effects scenes and one expert talking to another expert, but instead the show has more of a police procedural feel to it. Oh, and the opening sequence was all very X-Files again. I like that. We start off with this crazy looking scene and then explain it all using science.
I don't know how the British Intelligence and Security services are set up more than that MI-5 is domestic intelligence and MI-6 is foreign intelligence, but they are both structured like the CIA. Special Branch, I thought was another name for MI-5, as was Home Office. But Special Branch might be the domestic Special Forces that MI-5 uses for muscle or as a SWAT team.

Eleventh Hour: Resurrection

Dr. Ian Hood (Patrick Stewart) is on the scene of a mass burial of unborn foetuses, but not at the request of the local police, rather a Government Science Advisor. The local police do not take kindly to him being there and looking through their evidence without permission. Hood's bodyguard, Rachel (Ashley Jensen), is a member of Special Branch and it is implied that so is Hood. The police let him explain that foetuses are all clones of the same person and that the genetics are a perfect match for foetuses found all over Eastern Europe. After Hood explains that it's not murders that have occurred, but illegal cloning, the police decide to leave the scene as there is no crime for which they can investigate.
Through a combination of researching local records and making some educated guesses, Hood and Rachel are able to track down the doctor who is implanting the cloned foetuses, but who is not the cloner. The cloner is someone code-named Gepetto (Jane LaPotaire). By tracking this Dr. Hayward (Nicholas Jones) and Hood's realization at the aims of Gepetto, Hood comes into contact with the man, Griffin (Clive Wood) who the cloning is being done for.
In the end, a girl's life hangs in the balance and when Hood finally meets Gepetto, he is unable to stop her because he is saving the girl's life.
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Long live the fighters! Oh, sorry. Wrong Patrick Stewart character.
This show started off with a real X-Files vibe, if the X-Files were British and gritty. It morphed into a more typical police procedural / forensics procedural kind of show. None of this is bad. In fact, it is all very good. Stewart and Jensen are a good pairing. He's the brains and she's the brawn, but not as cliched as I just made it sound.
Now it goes without saying that I'll watch anything with Stewart in it, good, bad or the other, but this is good. I believed that he was a scientist, not a caricature of a scientist. I've heard that there is an American version of this series with Rufus Sewell playing Dr. Hood (or as the credits have it - Professor Hood which is just a little too much like Prof. X for my taste).
I read nothing about this show in advance, as it was a recommendation from the world's leading authority on all good things to watch, and I always take her advice. I hope that this isn't about Hood trying to track down Gepetto because a lot of that mystery is revealed to the viewer. BUT, I kind of do hope that it is about Hood trying to track down Gepetto because there is so much you could do with an obsessed scientist, and how common is it for the evil mastermind to be in a morally grey zone and more importantly to be a woman? In an American television show, the Gepetto character would be a middle-aged or older balding man, or at the very least something would be going on with his hair. If they were actually bold enough to cast Gepetto as a woman, she would be a mid-40s attractive brunette. You know I'm right. The BBC doesn't use this formula, party I guess because the male lead is an older balding man, but they are far more likely to go for acting ability over beauty and no offense to LaPotaire, but she is better acting than she is looking.