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| Sunday, September 7th, 2008 | | 10:51 pm |
True Blood
That was so good! Much better than I expected it to be, actually. Funny, cute, scary, sexy -- everything I look for in a woman tv show. And I had no idea it was going to be so sexually explicit! It was like Tell Me You Love Me but with vampires and bondage, and without the distracting testicle shots. Bonus!
Anna Paquin does a great job as Sookie Stackhouse, the telepathic waitress with a porn star's name. (By the way, the vampires aren't the speculative element here. The fact that Sookie is perky and cute and no one ever asks her out is.) The rest of the characters are well drawn, but a little archetypal right now: the adorable old grandma, the gay dishwasher at the restaurant where Sookie works who has a snap for every occasion, the sassy black best friend, the horndog brother who's always getting himself in trouble. But I suspect they'll develop more complexity over time. Also, I suspect the guy who runs the restaurant is actually some kind of werecollie!
But the weak link so far, at least for me, is Billy, the vampire Sookie is smitten with. So handsome. So brooding. So...*yawn*. I get that you don't want to make your vampire the life of the party, nor do you want to make him Quasimodo ugly or mentally challenged, since he's supposed to be the romantic lead, but the whole gorgeous brooding vampire hunk thing is getting old. At least for me, and admittedly I'm not the target audience for that particular trope. Also, I'm jealous of his hair. There, I said it!
I'll definitely be tuning in again. The TV Nerd says: Take a bite, you might like it! (Okay, that was lame.) | | 6:27 pm |
The Last Ride Today will be the last ride for Coney Island's Astroland. That will leave park owner Carol Albert with two dozen rides and 16 trailers worth of items accumulated over 46 years to clear out by next January in order to avoid fines from land owners Thor Equities.Goodbye, Astroland. Goodbye, Coney Island. It was a fun half century. Too bad Thor Equities wanted your land for their luxury condominiums. The completely insane New York City real estate market, the greedy landlords and landowners, can go to hell as far as I'm concerned. They're destroying this city. I can't even tell you how many empty storefronts there are in my neighborhood where shops had to vacate because their rents were doubled, or in some cases tripled, because the landlords thought they could get more. Instead, those spaces have stood empty for years now, while the stores and restaurants that used to occupy them are missed by everyone. And it's not just my neighborhood, it's everywhere, all across the city. Empty retail spaces that could have continued feeding their landlords' bank accounts for years to come had those landlords not gotten so greedy. Good job, assholes! | | 4:53 pm |
Flashback Sunday
Unlike with other musical flashbacks, I don't really want to know what I was doing when this song came out. 1984 -- I was fifteen. Who wants to be reminded of when they were fifteen? Still, for some reason I've been listening to this song a lot recently. See if you can identify the tune by this catchy part in the middle:
Die (Die!) by my hand (Die!)
I creep across the land (Die!)
Killing first-born man (Die!)
Die (Die!) by my hand (Die!)
I creep across the land (Die!)
Killing first-born man (Die!)
Honestly, I'm not going through an angry phase or anything, I just really like this song! | | 12:44 am |
Craziest Double Feature Ever Tonight, under virtual house arrest by tropical storm Hanna, I watched Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, an experimental, surreal, non-linear feminist Czech film from 1970, and Neil Marshall's Doomsday. Both movies are completely crazy, though for different reasons. One features magic earrings, vampires, and random shots of hedonists frolicking in a stream and making out. The other features the rejected cast from an aborted Mad Max remake, cannibalism, and the random use of 1980s new wave music in a scene that makes even less sense than the Zion rave party in Matrix Reloaded. One uses dense symbolism and dream logic to tell a very fairy tale-like story of a girl becoming a woman. The other uses CGI gore and a complete lack of logic to tell an extremely violent story of a woman becoming Mel Gibson. One is a good movie that's difficult to understand because of its non-linear, deeply symbolic nature. The other is a bad movie that's totally awesome. | | Saturday, September 6th, 2008 | | 1:32 pm |
The Fall TV Season With the fall TV season almost upon us, it's time for your faithful TV Nerd to once again dissect the schedule and let you know what I will be tuning in for, what I might tune in for, and what they couldn't pay me enough to watch. As you'll see below, just like the past couple of seasons, there seem to be very few new shows that are piquing my interest. ( Click here to read more. You know you want to. ) | | 12:16 am |
Republican Comedy Hour Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Republican Comedy Hour! You're going to hear some fine comedy from our guests tonight, but let me just take a moment to remind you that there's a eight house two drink minimum. Please tip your lobbyists waiters, they work hard bringing you all expense paid golfing trips to Scotland drinks all night, and the only thing more tired than their feet are the jokes you're about to hear! Okay, okay, I'm kidding! Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for our first act, the comedy stylings of Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin! "How many saw her speech a couple of nights ago? Wasn't it fabulous?" McCain said Friday during a campaign stop in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. "You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was purchased by her predecessor and sold it on eBay — and made a profit."
But it turns out the twin-engine Westwind II was a tough sell on the Web — and the state eventually pulled it offline and sold it through an ordinary brick-and-mortar brokerage, for a loss, a spokeswoman said Friday.
When putting it on eBay failed, aircraft broker Rob Heckmann was called in to sell the jet. Businessman Larry Reynolds bought the five-passenger jet for $2.1 million. And Reynolds is now seeking another $50,000 from the state for unexpected maintenance issues with the aircraft.Hahahahahahahaha! Wasn't that great, folks? Now you're in for a treat. We have a very special guest with us tonight. Please put your hands together for the Republican Representative from Georgia, Lynn Westmoreland! “Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity,” Westmoreland said, according to the Capitol Hill Newspaper the Hill.
Westmoreland's spokesman, Brian Robinson, insisted the congressman did not know the word has been used with a racially derogatory intent against African-Americans.
"When describing the Obamas as part of an elite class, Congressman Westmoreland also used a synonym for elitist: uppity. He was using the dictionary definition of the word, which is having 'an inflated self-esteem' or 'snobbish.' He stands by that characterization and thinks it accurately describes the Democratic nominee. He was unaware that the word had racial overtones and he had absolutely no intention of using a word that can be considered offensive," Robinson said.Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! *claps* And now, please show some love for the Republican chairman of the Alaskan House Rules Committee, John Coghill! Key Alaska allies of John McCain are trying to derail a politically charged investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner in order to prevent a so-called "October surprise" that would produce embarrassing information about the vice presidential candidate on the eve of the election.
In a move endorsed by the McCain campaign Friday, John Coghill, the GOP chairman of the state House Rules Committee, wrote a letter seeking a meeting of Alaska's bipartisan Legislative Council in order to remove the Democratic state senator in charge of the so-called "troopergate" investigation.Hahahahahahahahahahaha! WOOO! YEAH! *wipes tear from eye* Because the state senator in charge is a Democrat! Get it? Only the Republican Party can police the Republican Party without bias! Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Good night, everybody! Drive safe! And remember, if it's not a lie, mind-bogglingly ignorant, or completely fucking corrupt, it's not the Republican Party! Good night! | | Friday, September 5th, 2008 | | 12:56 pm |
"Duck Stamp" Is the New "Rusty Trombone" People calling a federal phone number to order duck stamps are instead greeted by a phone-sex line, due to a printing error the government says would be too expensive to correct.
The carrier card for the duck stamp transposes two numbers, so instead of listing 1-800-782-6724, it lists 1-800-872-6724. The first number spells out 1-800-STAMP24, while the second number spells out 1-800-TRAMP24.
People calling that second number are welcomed by "Intimate Connections" and enticed by a husky female voice to "talk only to the girls that turn you on," for $1.99 a minute."Hello, can I get a duck stamp?" "Ooooo, you are nasty!" "Um...what?" "I don't even know what a duck stamp is! I hope it doesn't get my tight schoolgirl uniform all messy, or I might get a spanking!" "Hello? Who is this?" "My name is Amber, and I want you to stamp that dirty duck! Stamp it! Oh yeah, stamp that duck, stamp it good, you stud!" "I just want to..." "STAMP IT! STAMP IT! OH!" "Oh, um, so...do you like duck hunting? We can go sometime--" "Your bill comes to $18.95." | | Thursday, September 4th, 2008 | | 11:27 pm |
John McCain at the RNC
A great speech, poorly executed. John McCain is just not comfortable speaking before a large crowd. He doesn't know from delivery, and those awkward, too-quick smiles make him look disingenuous. I did like parts of the speech, such as when he talked about how the Republican party lost the confidence of the American people, and when he talked about how he hates war because he's seen it firsthand, but overall the speech was choppy and low energy. (It also didn't help whenever they cut away to delegates with misspelled signs like "MAVRICK." Maybe school vouchers will help!)
In the end, the Democratic National Convention belonged to their presidential candidate, Barack Obama, but the Republican National Convention belonged to their vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. It's funny to think that just a week ago I was wondering if history would view her selection as the end of the McCain ticket, at least with the Republican base, when in fact she might be what saves it.
You know, maybe this makes me crazy, but a lot has been made of Palin being an Alaskan beauty pageant finalist, yet the one at the RNC who really cranks my erector set is Cindy McCain. Yes, I know she's 54, and I'm well aware that she's married, but I would totally go crazy on her!
Anyway, now that the conventions are over, it's back to business as usual. It's sixty days to the general election, and as we know, that's plenty of time for either side to screw up big time and lose whatever post-convention bumps they gained. | | Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 | | 11:14 pm |
Giuliani and Palin at the RNC
Rudy Giuliani's speech did not start off well. It was awkward and at times seemed bitter, like he still couldn't understand why he wasn't the nominee. He seemed overwhelmed by the crowd. He made a major fumble in dissing Hillary Clinton, considering how hard the Republicans have been courting her supporters. But by the end he seemed to hit his stride and find his comfort zone. Still, not a great speech overall. But when he said, "How dare they ask if Sarah Palin has enough time to raise her kids and govern at the same time? When have they ever asked a man that?" it was electrifying. I can guarantee you have never heard those words at a Republican National Convention before!
But tonight was really Sarah Palin's night. This was her chance to not only let people get to know her, but to win over the naysayers. And she knocked it out of the fucking ballpark. (Though once again she brought up the "I said thanks but no thanks to the bridge to nowhere" line, which we now know ain't exactly true, and a lot of the same "Obama's going to raise your taxes" fearmongering. Also I never want to hear the words "hockey mom" again. Sorry, hockey moms.) She was strong, personable, compassionate, tough and humorous. Claiming that parents of special needs kids, as she is, would have an advocate in the White House was an amazing moment. She was also, at times, an effective attack dog, as vice presidents are often asked to be. She got off quite a few zingers. This vice presidential candidate is now, as they say, in play.
Though I got a little creeped out by a closeup of some angry-looking Aryan youth in the crowd chanting "USA! USA!" Yeesh!
And not to be mean or anything, but Bristol Palin's boyfriend had this "What have I gotten myself into?" look on his face the whole night. I actually feel kind of bad for him, even if by all accounts he's a douchebag. This was so not what he bargained for when he finally went all the way with his girlfriend. | | 9:42 pm |
Mike Huckabee at the RNC
Spectacular speech by Mike Huckabee! I don't like his socially conservative policies, but I've always thought Huckabee seemed like a decent human being. He's charismatic, soft spoken, and above all has a good sense of humor. I wouldn't vote for him, but I'd gladly have lunch with him.
I'm getting a little confused by all this talk about how the Republicans want smaller government, though. Wasn't it the current Republican administration that basically turned the government into Big Brother, what with all the warrantless wiretapping, data scooping, email peeking, suspension of habeus corpus, unlimited detention without access to lawyers or charges, etc.? Isn't this the same government that wants to dictate which consenting adult couple can get married and which can't? That seems like dangerously big government to me.
Watch for Huckabee to run again in 2012 just like Romney, should McCain not win. I don't think the same can be said for Giuliani, who is the next big speaker on the docket. | | 9:19 pm |
Mitt Romney at the RNC
First off, the delegates clapped so hard and loud for Romney I bet he was thinking, "Oh, now they like me?"
His speech was short, to the point, punchy and even had a good zinger or two. Lots of the usual conservative talking points (The New York Times is evil, liberals are weak and PC and will raise taxes to feed the bloated government they so love, etc.), and the crowd ate it up. Weird that he called Washington and the Supreme Court liberal when the conservatives have run the executive and judicial branches of government for the better part of a decade now. It was also funny hearing him talking about "Eastern elites" when he used to be a liberal governor of Massachusetts.
No disrespect to Gov. Palin, but it became clear between 9:00 and 9:20 PM ET tonight that Mitt Romney should have been chosen as McCain's VP. Now that would have been a tough ticket!
I have a feeling we'll be seeing Romney running again in 2012, should McCain lose, and this time doing a whole lot better.
Next up, Huckabee, Giuliani and Palin. | | 11:02 am |
| | 12:01 am |
Bush/Thompson/Lieberman at the Republican National Convention
Bush, Thompson and Lieberman - it sounds like a law firm, doesn't it? Anyway, having watched all three speeches tonight without compulsively scratching the skin off my bones, I've come to the conclusion that I'm probably a lifelong Democrat, or at least an Independent, should New York allow Independents to vote in primaries someday. A lot of Republican rhetoric just rubs me the wrong way. A lot of it sounds militaristic to me.
In tonight's triumvirate of speechifying, Daddy Warbucks President Bush went first, appearing via satellite in what looked to me like a pre-recorded speech (not that it matters, but I thought it would be live, and for all I know it was). That speech went pretty much how you think it would: 9/11, McCain war hero, 9/11, McCain POW, the surge is working, 9/11, abortion is bad, McCain will be a strong daddy I mean president. It seemed to go over well with the delegates, who I think were all drunk. His speech lasted ten minutes, and then he had to go back to the serious business of hiding in a house you and I pay the mortgage on.
Next up was D.A. Arthur Branch Fred Thompson, and color me surprised because his speech was actually the best one of the night. Not that it was firecrackers, but he held my attention, which he's never done before. He spent several minutes detailing the horrors John McCain went through as a POW in North Vietnam, and it was extremely effective. And moving. It served as a reminder that McCain isn't a hero because he got shot down and captured, but because of what he endured afterward for five and a half years. Then Thompson lost me by launching into some rhetoric about how McCain and Palin are so great because they're "rebels" and "reformers" and aren't afraid to "take on the establishment" -- which is funny because there's no one in the universe anymore who doesn't view the Republicans as the party of the establishment. But he was the best speaker of the night, in my opinion, and that's saying something about how low energy the night felt.
Speaking of low energy, the third and final speaker was Droopy Dog Joe Lieberman. The delegates seemed restless at first, not sure how to feel about this man who was the vice presidential nominee of the other party eight years ago, where he was one half of a ticket most of these very same delegates called "Sore Loserman." Lieberman's speech did what it was supposed to do, which is give Democrats and Independents who think they might like McCain better than Obama permission to vote for him in November. If Thompson's speech was the most rousing, Lieberman's was the most strategic. Too bad he has no charisma.
Tomorrow night, Gov. Sarah Palin accepts her nomination for vice president! I can't wait to hear the words "hockey mom," "Hillary Clinton" and "glass ceiling" again!
(Okay, so obviously I'm being a little partisan here, but really, I tend not to like the Republicans. Remember, they're the party who wanted to tell committed, adult couples what they could and could not in their own bedrooms.) | | Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 | | 7:45 pm |
Countdown to the Republican National Convention
As the secondish night of the Republican National Convention gets under way in St. Paul, President Bush is planning to address the crowd via satellite for approximately ten minutes, from the White House. This is the first time since 1968, apparently, that a sitting president has not been at his party's convention. The reason is pretty obvious, and it has everything to do with cameras. No pictures, no video of Bush and McCain together. McCain doesn't want it to come back and bite him in the ass.
But here's the funniest thing.
President Bush may be quite literally phoning it in, but Vice President Cheney, the only politician with a lower approval rating than Bush's, has left the fucking country!
Fred Thompson, the world's most boring speaker, is scheduled to speak tonight with Joseph Lieberman, the world's second most boring speaker. They really should have kept Rudy Giuliani on the schedule for tonight instead of dumping (or bumping) him in favor of Thompson. At least Giuliani doesn't sound like a mumbling somnambulist.
Be back later to let you know what I think of the speeches. Who knows, maybe Thompson will actually rile up the crowd and...Zzzzzzzzzz.... | | Monday, September 1st, 2008 | | 8:09 pm |
Werewolf Last night at a friend's Labor Day party I played a game called "Werewolf" (alternately known as "The Village"). From what I gather, it's similar to the game "Mafia" that ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) pgtremblay is always going on about. The players sit in a circle, and everyone is given a card telling them who they are. You can't show your card to anyone, and your identities remain a secret until it is strategically advantageous to reveal them. The majority of players are simple Peasants, but there are also: the Hunter, with the power to shoot any player he/she suspects is the Werewolf with a silver bullet; the Witch, with the power to protect another player (or him/herself) from the Werewolf, but never the same person twice in a row; the Elder, who is given confusing clues as to the identity of the Werewolf (like whether the Werewolf is sitting next to the Witch, etc.); and of course the Werewolf him/herself. The game is divided into night and day. During the night, all the players have to close their eyes so as not to discover the others' identities. The person running the game then asks the Witch to open his/her eyes and indicate who they want to protect, then the Witch has to close his/her eyes again. It moves on to the Elder, who gets a clue (in the form of a yes or no question -- "Is the Werewolf sitting next to the Hunter?" -- that the other players don't hear the answer to because it is given as a nod or a shaking of the head), then the Werewolf is asked who they want to kill, and the Hunter is asked who, if anyone, they want to shoot. After the night round comes the day, when everyone opens their eyes again to discover who has been mauled to death and who might be dead from a silver bullet. Then everyone argues over who they think the Werewolf is in prime "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" fashion. (Every time I was accused of being the Werewolf, I accused them all of being anti-Semites, but it didn't seem to matter.) As paranoia sweeps the Village and brother turns against brother, as it were, the risk gets higher that the Hunter might wind up accidentally shooting an innocent Peasant, or one of the important characters like the Witch or the Elder -- especially if the Village reaches a majority on who they believe the Werewolf is, because then the Hunter must either shoot that person or no one at all. And the Hunter has only a limited amount of silver bullets! Every third or fourth night, depending on how many people are playing, is the full moon, which means the Werewolf has an option of either killing two people or turning another player into a second Werewolf. And let me tell you, when there are two Werewolves involved, the game gets crazy! The above description may seem complicated, but once you start playing it's incredibly easy to pick up. After playing three games last night -- they go pretty fast, considering -- I was totally hooked. I can't wait to play again! | | 4:47 pm |
Now This is Class And it's how politics should always be played, if you ask me. Policies are fair game. Personal lives are not. Sen. Barack Obama told reporters to "back off" Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her family, following the GOP vice presidential candidate's disclosure that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant.
"I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off limits," Obama declared after attending a Labor Day picnic here. "People's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories."
He continued, "You know, my mother had me when she was 18. How family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn't be the topic of our politics. I hope that anybody who's supported me understands that's off limits."I don't like Palin's anti-choice stance, her opposition to sex ed in favor of abstinence-only school programs, or her flirtation with the Trojan horse that is Intelligent Design. But am I going to diss her because her teenage daughter got pregnant? Hell no. And it's nice to see Obama, a candidate I support, is on the same page. Thanks to vee_ecks for pointing out the article. | | 11:57 am |
Fear Zone Turns One, with Some Exciting News Happy birthday to Fear Zone, which turns one year old today! I've been along for the ride since pretty much the start, with my first article for them (an interview with author Sarah Langan) going live on October 25, 2007. I've been doing book reviews and interviews for them ever since. But that's about to change, and a new era of my involvement with Fear Zone begins this month. As editor Greg Lamberson writes in today's editorial: Look for more columns in the very near future. Nicholas Kaufmann, who has conducted several interviews and written reviews for us, will be tackling THE STATE OF THE GENRE this week.That's right, I've landed a monthly column at the Zone, which I have named "The State of the Genre." My mandate? I get to write about whatever I want to write about, so long as it has to do with the horror genre. (That's what I do on my blog anyway, pretty much, except now I'm getting paid for it!) Since I have no fear of controversy or speaking my mind, and certainly no fear of criticizing the genre I love so dearly, you can be sure "The State of the Genre" will never be boring. We're starting things off this month with a lighter column, though, nothing too heavy. A way to ease readers into the State of the Genre before I bring out the big guns. The first column goes live this week. I'll be sure to announce it as soon as it's up. | | Sunday, August 31st, 2008 | | 3:07 pm |
As Another Storm Bears Down on New Orleans, Never Forget Three years ago yesterday:  This time, President Bush, perhaps having learned his lesson, is canceling his appearance at next week's Republican National Convention (he was scheduled to speak Monday, the same day as Gustav's projected landfall) in order to monitor the storm situation from Austin, TX. Vice President Dick Cheney is also canceling his appearance, and though he claims it's for the same reason, there is no indication that he will be with Bush in Texas or doing much of anything at all. Considering Cheney has the lowest approval rating of any American outside of serial killers, terrorists and pedophiles, feel free to draw your own conclusions about his absence from McCain's show. But even if Bush, Homeland Security and FEMA have learned their lessons -- and all current indications are that this is being handled much better than Katrina was -- there is no forgiving and forgetting their tragic, deadly, horrifying indifference three years ago. It's way too late for that. | | 11:22 am |
Some Thoughts on Palin, Again Wow. I'm seeing so many entries on my friends page about how Palin is so untested and inexperienced she'll be an unmitigated "disaster" for the country that I feel like I must be reading the Republican talking points about Obama from this past year! A lot of you folks are going after her hard, and I guess that's okay, but I'd like to propose a moratorium on using her five-month-old baby with Down Syndrome as some kind of point against her. Over the past couple of days, I've seen a lot of comments and entries accusing her of "running for VP instead of taking care of her special needs baby," and I have to admit, it's rubbing me the wrong way. The implication that A) it's a mother's job to be primary caretaker of the children, even if the father and indeed a wide extended family are present, and B) she doesn't care about her baby at all because she's accepting an opportunity to advance her career in politics, kind of sickens me. It's shockingly anti-feminist at its core, and I'm disappointed in many of you for raising it. Meanwhile, it does seem to be growing clearer by the hour that John McCain is putting all his eggs in the "disgruntled female Hillary supporters" basket with his VP choice, and it's already backfiring with Republican voters. I don't know what's going to happen in the next sixty-plus days before the general election, but I have a feeling the decision to add Palin to the ticket is going to be looked back on as the moment McCain lost. | | 2:12 am |
Hamlet 2 Andrew Fleming's Hamlet 2 is a cute movie with several laugh out loud funny scenes, but it's also a mess. A big mess. It could have used another pass-through on the script, because most everything in the film is only half developed. The often funny Steve Coogan plays Dana Marschz, a failed actor who becomes the drama teacher at a high school in Tucson, Arizona. Upon learning the funding for the drama department is about to be cut, he decides to put on one last big show to rally people to the cause of keeping arts education alive. Along the way, he inspires the jaded streetwise kids, learns to believe in himself again, forgives his father -- blah, blah, blah, you've seen this movie before. The problem with Hamlet 2 is that it doesn't know whether it's spoofing those movies or simply being its own addition to the Dangerous Minds ouevre. Catherine Keener rocks the house as Marschz's fed up wife Brie, but her plotline takes a ridiculous turn that is neither fully set up nor properly realized. Frankly, I didn't know what the hell was going on with her, and ultimately her character brings nothing to the movie. The drama class kids are barely more than cardboard cutouts -- the tough kid who turns out to be a really good actor, the racist white girl who finds love with a Hispanic boy, the closeted gay boy -- so when the production hits some major roadblocks and they insist to Marschz that they refuse to give up, the scene is meaningless because we never know why they care to begin with. However, the movie springs to life every time Marschz confronts the pipsqueak drama critic for the school newspaper, Noah Sapperstein (Shea Pepe), a thirteen-year-old boy who is at once the teacher's arch nemesis and greatest mentor. Those scenes are hilarious mini-movies in and of themselves. There's also some good work from Elisabeth Shue, playing herself, but the joke gets stretched to the breaking point by the final scene. Amy Poehler shows up in the last twenty minutes as an ACLU lawyer, and is in fact the final straw that turns the movie too high concept for its own good. But the real meat in this meal is Marschz's production of the play he thinks will save the drama department, his own original musical "Hamlet 2". And I have to admit it's awesome. The much mentioned musical number "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus" is as brilliant as you might imagine, as is Hamlet's lightsaber fight with Polonius, CPR rescue of Ophelia, and confrontation with the giant robot head of his dead father. Too bad there wasn't more of that in the final act of the movie. Instead, they keep cutting away to the lesser enjoyment of the movie's plot. Had the last half hour been the play "Hamlet 2" in its entirety, the movie would have shined. Instead, as it stands, it's a tarnished, half-cut gem that may be worth renting, but not the cost of a movie theater ticket. |
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