If the writers at Saturday Night Live have their fingers on the thought process of the Congressional Republicans, then they are spending so much times chasing their own tail that they remember a Kline Bottle.
If not, it’s still funny as hell.
Category: Entertainment
Michael Moore’s Next Movie
Tentatively titled “Swindle”, will be about the banking crisis.
Can’t wait until it hits DVD.
Top 10 Reasons to Watch Battlestar Galactica
Letterman
Pay Per View Review
It was movie night, and Sharon* chose the 2008 remake of Get Smart.
Steve Carell … Maxwell Smart / Agent 86
Anne Hathaway … Agent 99
Dwayne Johnson … Agent 23
Alan Arkin … The Chief
Terence Stamp … Siegfried
Terry Crews … Agent 91
David Koechner … Larabee
James Caan … The President
Bill Murray … Agent 13
Patrick Warburton … Hymie
Masi Oka … Bruce
Nate Torrence … Lloyd
Ken Davitian … Shtarker
David S. Lee … Ladislas Krstic
Dalip Singh … Dalip
Of all the returns to this series, I think that this was the best, and that includes the 1970s “The Nude Bomb”, which was really pretty lame.
The character is definitely not the late Don Adams’, but Steve Carell of Smart as an overeager crackerjack analyst who has a knack for screwing up generally works.
I think that the weakest of the performances were by Alan Arkin as the Chief, and Terence Stamp as Sigfried.
Arkin’s Chief is a hot-head, as opposed to the reserved, and aggrieved Chief of the late Ed Platt, and I think that had he been played closer to the original, it would have worked better.
Stamp, who makes a marvelous heavy, was simply wrong as Sigfried. He was too evil. The original Sigfried, played by Bernie Kopell, who had a cameo, was more of a sort of mirror image of Adams’ Smart.
I also miss the German accent.
For both of these, I blame the script writer more than anything else.
Anne Hathaway, as 99, did a very good job capturing the extreme competence of the character, as well as the playful sexiness of Barbera Feldon, from the original series.
Dwayne Johnson, aka “The Rock”, was surprisingly good, but more details would be spoilers.
It does touch on all the bits from the original, the cone of silence, “Missed it that by that much”, “Would you believe….”, “In KAOS, we don’t…”, he drives both the sunbeam and the Karmann Ghia, the shoe phone, “The old $$$$ trick”.
The core of the movie, as it was in the series, is the relationship between Max and 99.
There is real comic chemistry there, though the development of the romantic aspects of the relationship were too compressed.
This is not a surprise, as the development of the relationship in the original went from toleration, to amusement, to affection, to love over about 4 seasons, and 110 minutes is just not enough time.
Recommended
*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
I Am Not A Number, I Am A Free Man!
Patrick McGoohan, creator and writer of The Prisoner, among other acting accomplishments, has Died at 80.
I saw the series in 1977 or so, and I’m still not sure I’ve hot my head wrapped around it…It’s simply brilliant.
Rumored At The Mountains Of Madness Film
It appears that director Guillermo Del Toro is interested in directing a film based on the H.P. Lovecraft story, at least that’s what he is saying in this interview:
With regard to At the Mountains of Madness, I’d love to see you tackle H.P. Lovecraft in a way that hasn’t been done.
Del Toro: Me too. Me too. … Part of the arrangement with Universal–in being essentially there for now until 2017–part of the arrangement was they would finance research and development for Mountains of Madness. And we are doing it. There are many technical tools in creating the monsters that don’t exist, and we need to develop them. The creatures, Lovecraft’s creatures, the tools that exist for CG and the materials that exist for makeup effects, you need to push them to get there, and we’re going to push them.
I am unfamiliar with Del Toro’s oeuvre, but I would really like to see this made into a film.
It’s my favorite Lovecraft story, and I think that it would translate to film fairly nicely.
More at link about the technical challenges….Yeah….A Shoggoth is “challenging”.
Me Want
¼ scale remote control WWII tank replicas, complete with rotating turrets and elevating guns. They can actually pull a car on level ground.
I’d prefer a Panther or T-34 to the Tiger II shown, but that’s just me.
I won’t get it though….With all the options they top out at £10,000.
God is Great
So says New York Post
….. although we didn’t think it would be possible to silence Ann Coulter, the leggy reactionary broke her jaw and the mouth that roared has been wired shut . . .
The fact that I’m amused makes me a bad person….Oh well…
OK, This is Just Creepy
Think Progress notes a bit of parody that came distressingly close to reality, a cover of Life magazine based on a movie in which Tina Fey was John McCain’s running mate.
I hate living in an era where parody consistently predicts reality.
Your Defense Dollars at Work
As the sole sponsor of the series, Air Force will create custom intro billboards that will run with each pilot and interactive media placements that will live across the Xbox LIVE online entertainment network and the Xbox.com website. Users can click on these custom units and engage directly with the Air Force Brand Destination which offers users the opportunity to learn more about the Air Force through video downloads, gamer pictures and theme packages. GSD&M Idea City, the Air Force’s advertising agency orchestrated the sponsorship.
Barney Frank is right, we are spending way too much money on defense.
Buy a Piece of the Original Main Runway at Edwards AFB
It’s a fundraiser for The Flight Test Historical Foundation.
Not my kettle of fish…I’m not a big one for coasters made from bits of buildings, roads, or other civil engineering projects.
On the other hand, searching for old machines in an antique store I find fun.
But if this is your thing, go to town.
Why We Will Miss the Earth Pig
Because the F-111 Aardvark is just so much fun at airshows.
It All Comes Back to 1960s TV Shows
NASA is looking at reinvigorating its quiet supersonic program, and their concept vehicle looks very familiar to my eyes:
Remember the Fireflash from the 1960s series, Thunderbirds?
Truth be told, I don’t know if this is sweet, or lame.
Economics Update
We are all, as Bender is wont to say, “totally boned”, and you need to look no further than the fact that :NASCAR is experiencing cash flow problems because financially strapped sponsors are bailing.
About the only good news is that collapsing demand appears to be keeping inflation in check.
BTW, the crisis just hit Phil Gramm’s bosses, as the Swiss government was just forced to bail out UBS.
Don’t expect a turn around in the real estate martket, because mortgage rates just posted their largest increase since 1987.
This might explain why the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index has fallen to an all time low, 14, where a neutral reading is 50.
In the real world of manufacturing, industrial production and the Fed Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index both plummeted to levels not seen in over a decade.
With a very strong indicatrions of a recession, commodities, in particular oil ($69/84/bbl!!!) and gasoline, continued their falls.
What takes this from an economic down turn to an apocalypse are signs of the apocalypse, and one of the is when Americans consumers save, rather than spend their money.
If you want another sign of the apocalypse, how about banks cutting back on issuing credit cards, because they need to hold additional reserves against defaults.
When banks cut back on what is probably their most profitable business, you know something is up.
Jobless claims for the week aredown, but week to numbers are noisy, and the it’s an artifact of the fact that we’ve had a hurricane free few days.
The dollar strengthened a little. I think that there are two competing pulls here: the concern that the US is no longer the financial colossus striding the world, and the habit of going into the dollar when times are uncertain.
WAYYYY Too Much Free Time
Laser site and flashlight for a multi-shot rubber band gun?
It’s kind of neat, but still….too much free time.
Peanuts Animator Bill Melendez Dies at 91
Give me a Fracking Break!!!!!
We now have Robin Leach excusing John McCain for not knowing how many homes he has, because he would, “call it honest confusion.”
Let’s see….Robin Leach, former host of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, is defending John McCain for not being able to remember how many homes he owns….Seriously, ou cannot make this sh&% up…really.
This is beyond even the Nostradamus-Like genius of The Onion.
Bennigan’s and Steak-and-Ale Chains Go Out of Business
Bankruptcy, filing for liquidation, not reorg.
It appears that something happened to their credit line with GE Capital, and had to shut down.
Revenge of Judith Iscariot
Sue Jones-Davies, Mayor of Aberystwyth, Wales, is campaigning to remove a ban on the Monty Python movie Life of Brian.
It turns out that the ban was instituted 30 years ago, and then promptly forgotten about.
Her Honor, Ms. Jones-Davies, also played Judith Iscariot in the movie….Yes, it was her naked in that scene.
Funny the way that things come together.
BTW, the article mentions that George Harrison, who bankrolled the film, had a cameo. I must have missed that. Could someone email me with where it is in the film, preferably with a still?
People Who Need to Get a Life, Or At Least a Sense of Humor
The American Medical Association (AMA):
Last week, the advocacy arm of the powerful physicians’ group unleashed a tsk-tsk campaign against “The Incredible Hulk,” a Marvel film that opened on Friday and is distributed by Universal Pictures. The complaint was of “gratuitous depictions of smoking.”
In the movie, which drew a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, General Thunderbolt Ross, a bad guy played by William Hurt, is rarely seen without a smoke-spewing cigar. (Presumably, the physicians’ association worries that children who identify with the authoritarian general who wants to annihilate the Hulk, played by Edward Norton may be tempted to pick up the habit.)
Dianne Fenyk, president of the advocacy group, AMA Alliance, is particularly infuriated because General Ross did not smoke in “Hulk,” the 2003 film directed by Ang Lee, though he always smoked in the comic books. …..
Dianne Fenyk is arguably the 2nd most overemployed induhvidual in the United States.