John Waterman

Yeah, House of Flying Daggers was a lot more watchable and entertaining. Another thing that bothered me about "Hero" was that

SPOILER

According to the "actual" storyline, every major battle turns out to be a hoax. Kind of a dramatic let down.

Also, the outline of Nameless left by the arrows reminded me a Wile E. Coyote cartoon.

"2. the final statement of the flick, and this is the biggest one: in it, it says that the King of Qin built the great wall to encompass the Seven Kingdoms - and did NOT go beyond those seven kingdoms, as he had originally intended (as he tells Nameless). when you check historical maps, neither Tibet or Taiwan where part of the Seven Kingdoms. Thus, Yimou implies that China should not have gone beyond those borders. Quite a few historians/political commentators have pointed out that this is probably the most critical statement on China's aggression towards Tibet/Taiwan any Chinese filmmaker has made in recent times (and got away with - wasn't Yimou also placed under supervision for a while?)."

Wow. I'd never considered the ending as a criticism of current Chinese policy before. I've always been a little put off by the "horray for fascism" theme at the end, and never looked a little deeper.

Anyone see "Munich" yet?

It looks pretty interesting, and I have to admit, I've always been interested in the Olympic assassinations that sparked the Israelis into hunting down suspected Black September operatives. However, a friend of mine saw it, and warned me that it's another one of those "movies with a message," and that it was about as sublte as a jackhammer in conveying it. Spielberg is a gifted director, and his films tend to appeal to the widest audiences, but he can lay it on a little thick at times.

Ebert really liked it, but then again, he also really liked "Syriana" which did not sit well with me at all. I'd like to hear some opinions on the film before I bother driving an hour to Memphis to see it.

I watched "Serenity" the other day. I think I'm going to buy a copy. I enjoyed "Firefly" very, very much, and thought the film was a good capstone to the series, although I would love to see at least one more. I hate that the show got cancelled right when it just was beginning to explore what could have been a fascinating universe.

Picked up both RSVPs at the comic book store yesterday, and what a great two issues they were.

Even though this has been the third time we've had a "Chas-gets-fed-up-and-kicks-the-shit-out-of-John" moment, it felt right in terms of the story. It was also very cool to see the nods to earlier moments in the HB mythos, like the foreskin bible, Norma (who is looking much worse for the wear) and the Webley revolver that killed the family man. These cameos were worked into the story much more effectively than the characters in "Down in the ground..."

I'm also very, very glad Cheryl and Tony remain dead. Cheryl's death came as a shock to begin with, and if it had been reversed in one of the last two issues...well, that would have sucked.

The last few pages of the second issue were great. Liked the scene where John looked his own ghosts in the eye, and I really liked the scene before that when he violently remonstrated the magicians for doing...pretty much what he does. John's occasional sanctimonious streak, despite all of the trouble he causes, is one of the most refreshing, if not likeable things about his character.

I would have liked to have seen more resolution regarding Gemma and Angie, but at the same time, Angie was a flat character to begin with, and we'll be seeing more of Gemma sometime down the line.

I'd go as far to give the entrie story a 10. Can't wait to see what direction the series will take in January.

I watched Miller's Crossing again last night. Now *that's* how you make a movie.;

Scalia is a baffling character. He almost never grants on-the-record interviews, and has even been sued for having his State Trooper escorts confiscate recording equipment from reporters. But it's hard to write him off as a total asshole. He is a staunch supporter of free speech (as long as it isn't his, I guess), and typically rules against the police in cases that deal with questionable searches and seizures. I've seen him speak once, and the man is smug asshole to be sure, but he seems sincere about his respect for the Constitution.

No, I'm not wild about his duck-hunting trips with Cheney either. But he can't be too close to the Bush Administration if King Dubya didn't want him in the chief justice spot.

His unwillingness to pass laws that federally guarantee certain rights is very troubling, especially in today's political climate. But again, at least the man is honest about where he's coming from. As for the Constitution being "just a piece of paper," I think that's a very dangerous attitude to take. Scalia's is too rigid, but at the same time, it deserves way more respect than that sort of blowoff. Because there are plenty of nutcases in the government who would love to do just that.

I was very, very disappointed with Syriana. Convoluted story, poor pacing and incredibly underdeveloped characters who were victimized by the "West Wing" style of writing dialogue--they didn't so much talk to each other as much as they spouted off political diatribes to one another.

The only character I was interested in was George Clooney's shlubby CIA provocateur. If the movie had just focused on him, it would have been good, probably even great. Everyone else, especially the Oil Company lawyers and exec were just kind of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I really enjoyed "Traffic" and have watched it many times. This movie? Not so much. I found the subject matter interesting, and happen to agree with most of its politics, but would have much rather just read an essay, or watched a documentary on the matter. They sold this movie as an espionage thriller, and it came across as a fucking PBS special. I can't remember the last time I've wanted my $7 back so much.

I am baffled by the critical acclaim this movie has gotten. Similarly, I'm surprised at how much critics trashed Aeon Flux, which I really, really liked. The plot was decent, and had a few interesting concepts, the action was easy to follow and well shot, and it was one of the most visually pleasing and interesting movies I've seen in years. But most of all, it was a MOVIE and it told a STORY, instead of having a bunch of actors stand around and argue about

SPOILER

the evils of cloning, even in the event of a massive plague that wiped out humanity.[/color=white]

END SPOILER

I think the only movie the media and I have agreed on lately has been Brokeback Mountain. Which was undisputably excellent.

I'm...really not a big fan of the Jenkins run. Apart from the "Critical Mass" and "Difficult Beginnings" stories, which are actually very good, I thought Jenkins' take of Constantine was full of lots of good ideas, but just not very fun to read. After the above-mentioned stories, I had to almost force myself through the rest of his run.

Carey's run had its issues, but I found it a million times more cohesive and enjoyable than Jenkins.

I always felt that the FOTF was really Garth Ennis at home in his underwear or bath robe.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh, fuck me, that's funny.

I just breezed through Mike Carey's entire Hellblazer run upon getting the last three issues of "Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go" and "The Gift." It stood up pretty well upon re-read, although its weaknesses were also more pronounced.

I think it's safe to say that, stand-alone issues aside, the run's quality begins to drop off after issue #200. Dragging in characters from previous authors' work is always a risky gimmick, and in the last two major arcs, it didn't come off very well.

Carey wrote Map, Clarice, Albert, Map and Watford very well, and I was glad to see them again, because Ellis' aborted run left me wanting to know more about them.

But the minor characters that were killed off during "Reasons to be Cheerful" were almost completely arbitrary. Hell, Constantine didn't even know that most of them were getting dead. I particularly hated to see the deaths of Mange and Helen. Mange was hilarious, and Helen's death completely cheapens the end of "Rake at the Gates of Hell," one of my favorite HB storylines.

The return of Ellie and the Demon Constantine were also mishandled. There was a lot of potential in both these characters for the hell storyarc, and their appearances both flopped for me.

I did like to see the First of the Fallen again. Props to Carey for writing him better than both Jenkins and Ennis. While he was an overpowered dolt in Ennis' run and too much of a goof in Jenkins', Carey struck the perfect balance of humor and true menace.

But even the First's improvement is a double-edged sword. Because of his presence, the resolution to "Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go" is very unsatisfactory. I'm not talking about Cheryl's death and damnation. That was cool. But after a dozen issues of buildup, Constantine's troubles with Rosacarnis, his demon offspring and Nergal are resolved in three pages when the First simply zaps them all.

Okay. That's a lot of complaining, but I really did like this run quite a bit. I liked that from the very first issue, the reader got the sense that something much larger was going on behind the scenes. I liked seeing John back in England as opposed to mixing it up with hick pornographers and fey billionaires who are not the least bit menacing even if you read the stories drunk with all the lights off.

I liked they way the storylines flowed into each other. I really liked Manco's artwork. And I loved every single one of the stand-alone issues, especially "Cross Purpose" and "The Gift." I know a lot of people didn't much care for "Event Horizon," but I didn't see any problems with it. I would agree that it should have been placed elsewhere in the overall arc, though.

Carey's development of Gemma was also deftly handled. She's getting to be as big a bastard as her uncle. I love it.

Oh, a few more niggles: I didn't really care for Angie post-"Staring at the Wall" she wasn't much of a character before that, and she was totally useless afterwards. Also, Frusin's art started to really suck towards the end of his tenure. And the overall breakneck pace of the story didn't allow for many of the slower, more character-driven moments that I really liked in Ennis' run.

For the most part, Carey's run was exciting and well-written. The post-#200 issues were weaker, but still very entertaining. I'm glad to see that the entire run will be traded, but its reliance on the Hellblazer mythos means it will be a bit difficult for new readers to jump in.

Solid 8/10 for the whole run. Looking foward to getting both RSVPs in December.

Man, am I pissed.

Oxford, Mississippi isn't a bad town. In fact it's kind of nice, really. Cheap bars, cheap rentals, pretty girls, nice University atmosphere, and lots of empty land where you can drink beer and then shoot at the bottles. Unfortunately, the aforementioned bottles usually have shitty domestic labels on them. Recently, I guess, the beer situation has gotten better. One store even has Newcastle, Wiehenstephaner, Lowenbrau and a few others. But the beer selection is still nothing like New Orleans.

I drove up to Memphis last night for a screening of "The Ice Harvest" with a friend of mine. We had a few hours to kill, so we drove around the Cooper-Young district for a while looking for something to do. We spotted a wine emporium and elected to check it out. We weren't interested in the wine. But we were very interested in the hi-volume imports. Shelves and shelves of Baltika, Fin du Monde, Arrogant Bastard Ale, and countless others that just begged to be devoured. We both grabbed an armful of these delicious potables and proceeded merrily to the register.

I just turned 23. My friend is 22. My friend recently had his wallet stolent by a vengeful ex. While it is normally flattering to be carded, it wasn't tonight. To summarize a tedious conversation, the girl at the counter wouldn't sell to us, wouldn't sell to me, and wouldn't sell to me later that night if I came back alone. I would have to come back the next day, she said.

Trechary! Foiled! Exquisite malt beverages so near, and yet so far away.

My friend, in his low Russian accent growled, "I am going to fucking kill (her)" referring to his ex. The shopgirl looked quite alarmed at this development. "Not you," I chirped, and we made our exit.

Anyway, "The Ice Harvest" was pretty damn good, but I can't believe I missed out on inexpensive Fin du Monde. Bastards.

I scored a couple of press passes to "The Ice Harvest" last night. It was great. As someone who doesn't really enjoy Christmas to begin with--I enjoy the camaraderie and pretty lights, but can't get into the travelling, buying frenzy and cold weather--it's a near perfect crime flick.

It's short too. I wouldn't call it a "fast-paced" movie, but there's just about zero bullshit in it. Great performances by Billy Bob Thornton and John Cusak. They both nail their characters' unflappability and deadpan delivery. Lots of disturbingly amusing violence abounds as well. Oliver Platt has a very entertaining role as Cusack's perpetually drunken buddy.

My only complaint is that it was almost too short. While I guess we don't need to know too much about Thornton and Cusack's characters, other than that they're sleazy, icy-hearted bastards, they were both compelling enough that I wanted them to be fleshed out a bit more.

Anyway. Go see this one if you're the type who gets a bit fed up with the holidays. It's dark, mean-spirited and amusing as hell. It'll cheer you right up.

Guiness. Maker's. Pogues. Marlboro Reds.

The girlfriend took off for New Jersey for Thanksgiving. Miss her, but it's a good opportunity to cut loose with the guys. All things considered, tonight's been pretty fun.

Sounds about right, Josh. I heard as much at a gun show, and the local ammo store is currently out. However, both were fairly confident that the situation was very temorary.

I hope so anyway. Winchester 7.62 is a drain on the wallet.

I bought a new rifle about a month ago. It's a heavily modified Norinco SKS. The original should look something like this:

http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/sks-56.htm

Mine has most of the wood stripped off an replaced with light, hard black plastic casing. Makes it a lot easir to tote around. It also have a Dragunov-style sniper stock, a 30 round magazine, and an over-under scope. I'll post pics later.

It's a very fun weapon to shoot, and it's decently accurate, even if you're firing fast as you can pull the trigger. I get the occasional stoppage, but I've been able to clear them with a simple yank on the slide. The accuracy tends to wane around 170-200 yards. I was shooting at beer and liquor bottles at about 200 yards, and it took me about five shots to nail each one. The accuracy was actually much improved using Winchester 7.62x39, but I fucking hate to buy it because it costs almost $20 for 40 rounds.

Russian-made Wolf hollow points are only $3 for a box of twenty. Not as accurate, but they get the job done, and with the price, they practically sell themselves.

I still like my 1911 the best though, and honestly, that's probably all the gun I need. And I may sell the rifle to get a little extra cash. I've already had some pretty good offers on on it.

I'm not sure if this has been traded yet, but I recently was able to collect all of 303, by Garth Ennis. I had scans of issues 1-3 for the longest damn time, but had been unable to find 4-6. Anywhere.

It's not a very complicated story, but the suspense is very well built up over each issue, and it shifts gears from a straight military story to a much more surreal, allegorical tale seamlessly. Some of its implications are very haunting, and I think they'll be staying with me for awhile.

It's probably Garth Ennis' darkest story yet (with the possible exception of Unknown Soldier), and he's on top form here. While his "Punisher" arcs have been much gritter over the past year or so, they're still way too over the top to take too seriously. I'm not surprised that Ennis had to publish this through Avatar; some of the stuff it pulls in the final issues is very shocking, especially considering the current political climate.

I only have two minor criticisms: Jacen Burrows' art, while generally very good, is a bit too straightforward for this sort of story. The characters seem a bit too square-jawed, and the colors are a little too bright. Actually, the art gets much better in issues 4-6, but I can't help but wonder how much more effective this sort of story would have been with, say, Killian Plunkett (Unknown Soldier, again) illustrating.

The other complaint is that it was too damn short. I think there was a lot of wasted potential in the story's hook. Another six issues--at least--could have been spent on the main character's journey from Afghanistan to America (on foot, no less), and it would have been interesting to see him interact with more people in the states.

But all in all, it was top notch. I'd encourage everybody to check it out.

Happy Birthday, John

Jeez, can I pick all of the above?

Busy Friday night here in Oxford, Mississippi. We're playing Arkansas State tomorrow. For those of you unaware of our charming little hamlet's bizzare traditions regarding the holy game of football, this means that about 70,000 people are going to cram into the grove on the Ole Miss Campus around 8 a.m. tomorrow, dressed in their Sunday best before proceeding to suck down a truly epic amount of Bloody Marys, Mimosas and Keystone Light before packing into Vaught-Hemingway stadium and screaming obscenities at our team, who are losing very badly this season indeed.

My roomate sets up about 2 dozen tents for the richer element--the kind that bring satellite TVs and the good silver to a goddam tailgate party--who cannot be bothered to take 30 minutes out of their cocaine-and-orgy filled Friday to set up their own canopies. I'm going to help him for a little while tonight. Won't make much money, but it'll pay off this month's utilities, anyway. Besides, a few hundred yard dashes carrying multiple loads of 50+ pound equipment are pretty good exercise.

I'll probably hit the bars before and after for a few hours of beer and bullshitting. Once they close--Oxford knocks off around midnight or 1 a.m.--I'll probably go back to the house and watch movies or whatever torrents just finished downloading with my girlfriend, who should be getting home around the same time.

"With my girlfriend." Heh. I'm going to have to get used to saying that. It's kind of nice.

Oh, fuck yeah. I've been needing something like this to motivate me anyhow.

On that note, I've seen three truly "scary" horror movies in the past five years: "The Ring," "Session 9" and "Audition."

I also thought the remake of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was pretty intense, even if it wasn't nearly as impressive as the no-budget original.

On a different tack, I saw the Clive Owen/Malcolm McDowell film "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" last night. Owen plays a former gangster in self-imposed exile who returns to London when his younger brother kills himself. It was...OK. But just OK. The acting and cinematography were very nice, but the pace was.....so......unbelivably.......plodding. The actual amount of story could be summed up into one sentence. I felt really drugged and sleepy when it finally ended, and had to watch "Layer Cake" again to wake myself up.

You think so? I figured they had a sort of "Jason in Space" thing going on. They knew how shitty the material is, and just had fun with it.

Personally, I've become completely jaded towards horror movies, even though I can't quit watching them. I'd almost rather something like "Cabin Fever" make me laugh, instead of try to scare me and fall flat (see also: Darkness Falls).

Sample dialogue from "Cabin Fever"

[bert leaves the cabin with a rifle]

Karen: Bert, what the hell is that?

Bert: Huh? Oh, I'm gonna go shoot some squirrels.

Paul: Why would you wanna kill squirrels?

Bert: 'cause they're gay.

Karen: Bert, don't be a fucking retard.

Bert: I'm kidding. I don't care if they're gay or straight, I'll kill 'em either way.

Marcy: That's not funny, Bert.

Bert: Yes it is, you fuckin slut.

Oh, come on. That movie was so ridiculous, mean-spirited and chock full of characters that you wanted to see get it. What more do you want from a horror movie? It was no "Ring," or "Shining" but I thought it was pretty entertaining.

The best Jack Daniel's I ever had was a bottle of their commemorative Gold Label. It was supposed to go for around the price of their Single Barrel, but the store had mislabled it, and was selling it for the price of the standard horsepiss. I bought a couple. Best Jack Daniel's I've ever had. Some actual effort seemed to go into the distilling process.

Then the price jumped back up to $35 a bottle again, and Jack Daniel's discontinued the blend. Bastards.

I don't think I've ever had Gentleman's Jack, or the Single Barrel. Eagle Rare looks pretty tasty, though.

Just wanted to say that Robert Stone is wonderful. I'm reading his first book, "A Hall of Mirrors," about New Orleans in the sixties. It's very funny, but also paints the city as a place that is very dangerous, dark and treacherous. Very precient, considering recent events. Stone has his own style, to be sure, but anyone who enjoys Hemingway, Graham Greene or John Kennedy Toole's book "A Confederacy of Dunces" will love Robert Stone.

I started in on some of that Jack Daniel's tonight...and stopped after one glass. Jesus. Over the past year, I've spoiled myself fucking rotten on Maker's Mark, Jameson, Jameson 12 Year, Johnnie Walker Black, Woodford Reserve Bourbon, and Black Bush. After those...Jack Daniel's is pretty hard to take.

I donated the rest of the bottle to my roomate, who's suffering from the classic Blues scenario of woman-done-me-wrong. He needs it more than I do.