The Man In the Iron Mosque.

this might put me on a no-fly list, but i dont travel that often, so here's my take on the whole Mosque at Ground Zero situation. I think it needs to happen. for the greater purpose and propagation of America and all she stands for, it does. in the immediate, it'll cause political strive, division, protesting, litigation, and arguments. but in the long run, it'll reestablish this country as the harbor of freedom, acceptance and tolerance that it was founded on. this issue goes all the way to the top. aka, Obama. now of course it's not his decision, but he'll take the heat or the glory, depending on the perspective. just as Hoover and Bush took the crap for the downfall of the economy of their respective eras (though one was more 'guilty as charged' than the other), just as Nixon (though it related directly to him, he didn't have as much say as history likes to say he does) in watergate. Obama will catch the political fire, and if it happens in time, it may loose him the presidential candidacy in 2012. i doubt it'll go up that fast, and the wooden torch will be passed to the next, but it will still be on fire, waiting to burn someones hand. to ensure his place among Lincoln, Washington, Kennedy, and the other great presidents, (which i believe he deserves, as he is a symbol, not only of the acceptance and positive possibility of change in this country, but of the odds he's had to overcome), this needs to be his magnum opus. i'm writing this 5 hours after watching him on tv telling the american people that the war in Iraq is over, which is great, but history pays attention to the first strike, not the last. (the exception to that rule is the atom bombs on Japan, but that's because of the impact it had on so many different areas of politics, science, pop culture, etc.) healthcare, the economy and gay rights are going to fall away in comparison to this. there needs to be a large ceremony, and he has to be there, and make a speech. he needs to assert the division that the american people should make between good muslims and bad al-queda members. the same distinction was made during ww2. especially in the media. watching movies from the time period, there are always good germans, and bad nazi's. he needs to point to the heroes of old. Washington establishing a nation of acceptance, Lincoln not only freeing the slaves but also reuniting a country (as he has had to do). kennedy for breaking down race barriers, (even possibly siting his current job title to that end). assert that he never wanted this war. diplomacy was always his 1st choice, and that it still is. site the fact that muslims were treated badly after 9/11, and this is a major step in rebuilding that bond, and bringing it back into the melting pot that not only is new york, but america as well. site its community building and positive infulence. reference the freedom of religion that we all enjoy, thanks to the men and women in uniform. site how great this country is, site how far its come in its development of not only a free people, but an equal people. talk about how our childrens children will look back on this time and see a a great leap forward in citizenship and equality, and freedom of religion. finish with God Bless all of you, and God Bless the United States of America. get in the limo and drive away. don't take questions. leave them to think of what you've said. to realize that this is the greatest country on earth, and that we are all damn lucky to live here, and do what we do. Middle America will quote to their grandkids watching this speech on tv. Middle america is what this country is really about. Middle america is not fox news, its not cnn. it's not The tea party picketers. it's not the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka Kansas. It's families. it's friends. its beers in the driveway on friday nights. its ballparks and barrooms. its dinners at the table, and sunday morning church. middle america isn't concerned with differences in religion. they're just trying to raise their kids, and provide for them, what they couldnt have for themselves. america is a friendly place. a place where people are accepted, not because we're forced to, but because we want to. we realize that we have more freedom than most places in the world, and we also realize we're not perfect. but we love our country, and we love one another.

Pi-i-can't-belive-i'm-watching-this-crapolaha. 3D.

Piranaha's 3D was one of the most ridiculous/theorectially possible worst case scenario movies i have scene in a while. WARNING: SOME PLOT SPOILERS FOLLOW. basically, everyone who you expect to live lives, and everyone you know is gonna die, dies. the ingenue, the young hero, his mother, his brother and sister, the old scientist, and the middle aged scientist live. with the exception of the last character in the last closing seconds, which was one of the more ridiculous plot twists. the biggest problem with this movie that was that it was in 3D. let me explain. the capabilities of the technology are so much more than what these movies are giving us. the same "scary" stuff coming out of the screen thats as old as the technology itself. the one movie thats really made use of the power and majesty thats capable in 3D is Pandora. which sucked plot wise, but had amazing sweeping landscape scenes that wouldn't have been capable in 2d. the other is the short before Toy Story 3, i believe it was called night and day. it was the first really intelligent use of the mixing of 2d and 3d animation, and everyone should/will see it when it comes out on DVD. but scary fish or a boat coming out at you is the same thing as the giant shark coming out at you in JAWS 3D. Final destination used the same technique, and i know Saw 3D will too. its cool in concept, but very very stale in practice. now the storyline is slightly plausible at parts. college kids come to a lake and a huge school of piranahas show up and all hell breaks loose: pretty plausible. a beer bottle falling to the bottom of a lake and opening up a crevice that reconnects a 15 million year old lake, completely ridiculous. techtonic and erosive activity would have done that long before a beer bottle would. but the biggest turn off in this movie was the horrible way people died, and the amount of insane wounds that people endured. pulling torsos out of the water, while the people moan, a girl getting split in half by a sound cable, and a girls face getting ripped off b/c her hair got caught in a boat propeller borders on snuff film. now i know its all fake, i've got a theatre degree. fake blood and guts is nothing new to me. but to pack that much carnage into one film made me almost sick to my stomach. i can stomach/enjoy the saw movies. it was almost as bad as the happening. i say almost b/c at least this movie has a plot, crazy as it seems. (If Devil turns out to suck, I'm swearing off M. Night Shamalyan movies for life). all in all it was a tit sprinkled gore fest, with lame 3d tactics and pretty much 1d acting. i mean i love the lead from Party Down, who doesn't like Elizabeth Shue, and cameos by both Christopher Lloyd and Richard Dreyfus are great, but with a terrible monster movie script, you cant really expect much. Hope Monsters turns out as good as Cloverfield without the handycam hangover!

The Expend-abilia-buddies.

So i recently saw "The Expendables". WARNING: SOME PLOT SPOILERS FOLLOW. i'm not really reviewing the movie, i just thought about a few things as i was watching this movie. most paramount was how dark it was. i dont mean its themes and acting, i mean its pitch black. 95% of the movie happeneds at night. now i get that when taking down warlords and dictators, one needs the cover of darkness to heighten the element of suprise, but seriously, dark passages and moonlit battles are for batman movies, and the blair witch project (or, for the younger readers, Paranormal Activity, (same basic concept)), not the "biggest" action movie of the summer. i say biggest b/c it was touted as the most ridiculous grouping of action stars....ever. which i get. the problem with packing all those action stars into one movie, is that it becomes 95% action, and 5% hot chick. the story line was pretty lame, predictable, and completely un-cerebral. not that i expected a mind melting chris nolan experience, but cmon, rocky was exciting, and a great storyline. (til rocky 3). neways, there were 2 gems in this movie that i think really give hope to Sylvester Stallone. not the actor (seriously, i can't understand a word you're saying!), but Stallone the movie maker. the 1st is stallone makes a reference, in a scene with bruce "Die Hard: willis and Arnold "Terminator" Schwarzenegger. Basically, willis is a shady CIA agent, posing as a potential employer, and Stallone and Schwarzenegger both show up for a possible job, both as leaders of assassination teams. Terminator hears the proposition, laughs and says he has better things to do. the interesting thing is that, as he turns to leave, pushes the doors open and is basked in the sunlight, willis asks "what's his problem?", stallone replies: "He wants to be president." now of course he is commenting on the current political situation that the Govenator is in. but in the bigger picture, stallone is taking a political position with a movie. he takes another, but i'll get into that in a minute. is he backing the Austian? its hard to tell. his sarcastic tone reading of the line says no, but the comment in and of itself says yes. he's positing a future where he is president, planting the seed in the American consciousness. an interesting theory, but only time will tell whether or not he takes a more definitive stance. the other interesting thing that happens in the movie is they water board the female lead to get information on why rocky and the transporter were in the little piss ant country at all. now, to my knowledge, this is the first time in a big league wide release movie that this has been shown in graphic detail. the scene isn't very long, probably 90 seconds at most. but its interesting that its in there at all. they could have beaten her, used a hot poker, or held up her prized havanese with a huge bowie knife. but stallone puts the torture method in the movie to vilify it. only bad guys do this sort of thi.....wait a minute.....Uncle sam does this too from time to time. he's saying its bad, he's saying he's against it. he's also saying everyone else in the movie is against it. which from my earlier comment means that the Govenator and possible future candidate to lead the free world is against it to. so is he saying he's a democrat (hollywood has a long blue history) but its unclear if he's actually taking a position. he's definitely saying its bad, and that he's very against it, so he's saying he's against the former methods of the military, but he's not saying he's pro anything. so it holds promise that in the future he moves away from action movies a little and towards more politically infused projects. but i guarantee they'll have a fight scene. i mean this guy burst on to the scene by writing and staring in a boxing movie. promising start sir. promising.