Quick Reviews: Zero Django

I have five movies to write about but the other three are 2013 releases, so I'm getting these two out of the way first. (By the way, I have a handful more 2012 releases to see, including a couple of Oscar Best Picture nominees, so I'm going to hold off on a best-of-2012 a bit.)

After watching Zero Dark Thirty, which tells a story -- not the story, as there are some details (including names) changed for various reasons -- of the USA's long but eventually successful manhunt for Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I was struck with two things that kind of bothered me a bit. And one of those things was not whether the film glorifies the torture used to obtain evidence. It clearly doesn't. It displays it quite graphically but it doesn't really take a side. The film centers around Maya (Jessica Chastain), a CIA officer with a dogged determination to solve the mystery of bin Laden's whereabouts, but she's such a mysterious character -- all we really know about her is she began her CIA career after high school -- that I thought it was difficult to understand her or identify with her. And while there may be artistic merit to the style of shooting the raid on bin Laden's compound, with jittery cameras work, with scenes either dark or seen through night-vision goggles, and no real "money shot" of the actual killing of bin Laden, it also blunts the emotional payoff a bit. It's a very good film but it seems a bit drained of passion. My grade: B-plus.

As for Django Unchained, it fits right into the Quentin Tarantino formula: lots of violence, lots of in-jokes, homages, music, cameos, etc. Where "Inglorious Basterds" was a revenge-on-Nazis fantasy, this one is all about revenge on slave traders and plantation owners. It's so...out there. A German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) who frees, then teams up with, Django (Jamie Foxx) to collect more bounties before rescuing Django's wife, now owned by plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio -- actually a nice change of pace for him, playing a villain instead of a hero). Of course, the plantation is called...wait for it...Candyland. It's just hard to take too seriously, which is fine, but at the same time I almost feel like Tarantino should do a romantic comedy or something, just to challenge himself. My grade: B-minus.

#WhyImNotVotingForRomney

I saw the hashtag on Twitter and just had to use it. But since I didn't want to issue a bunch of individual tweets, I decided to put it all on here...well, maybe not everything, but as much as I can think of right now.

I'm sick and tired of the Republican party in general.

I'm sick and tired of the extremist, racist segments which have taken firm control of the Republican party -- the Tea Party and the religious right (aka the American Taliban). Even if Mitt Romney is not in fact a racist or a religious extremist, he has encouraged and emboldened the racists and religious extremists with his words and actions, making him no better.

I'm sick and tired of the wealthy and the large corporations getting more and more tax breaks that they do not need, and reduced regulation in so many areas, while the rest of us find our lives becoming more and more of a struggle every day. Mitt Romney will continue the tax cuts for the wealthy. In fact, as it was reported yesterday, it seems that Mitt Romney may not have paid a single penny in taxes for the years 1996 through 2009. NOT A SINGLE FUCKING PENNY. FOURTEEN YEARS.

I'm sick and tired of not having the same rights as everyone else because of my sexual orientation, and of having a woman's right to control her own body being restricted or completely removed, and having Planned Parenthood and other agencies that provide quality health care services threatened, all due to the influence of the American Taliban. Romney has thrown in with the American Taliban on these issues.

I'm sick and tired of the lack of affordable quality health care for everyone. I'm sick and tired of the efforts to stop health care reform, when we've finally begun to make progress after decades of failure. Not only has Romney thrown in with the Tea Party extremists, he's going against the health care reforms he pushed for while Massachusetts governor. This is not leadership -- this is hypocrisy and gutlessness.

I'm sick and tired of hearing about how jobs aren't being created because taxes aren't low enough, and how Barack Obama didn't do anything to fix the economy. Taxes for the wealthy were cut during the execrable George W. Bush presidency and somehow we ended up with many fewer jobs and the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. Why didn't the "job creators" create jobs with the windfall profits they received then? Why does anyone think they'll do it now? And while the economy is still in bad shape, all the indicators show it's beginning to recover. And it would have begun sooner had it not been for the Tea Party extremists in Congress who have spent the last four years doing nothing but blocking any legislation supported by Obama, because their ONLY goal for the last four years has been to do everything possible to make sure Obama wasn't reelected.

I'm sick and tired of the GOP still trying to paint Barack Obama as weak on foreign policy and terrorism. If the death of Osama bin Laden isn't enough evidence to the contrary, Mitt Romney proved with his blundering excursion to London during the Olympics that he has about as much expertise in foreign affairs as Paris Hilton.

I'm sick and tired of the Tea Party extremists and American Taliban's complete repudiation of science. Whether in fighting against stem-cell research or regulations to improve the environment and lessen the effects of climate change (unthinkable, especially after the unprecedented strength and path of Hurricane Sandy) or teaching "creationism" instead of evolution in schools, there's no excuse for this utter stupidity.

And, because it just seems to need to be said, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

It's very simple: unless you're a wealthy, white, heterosexual male, or a racist, there is simply no reason to vote for Mitt Romney. He is NOT on your side. His policies will NOT make your life better. Only a complete moron would think otherwise.

My Week In Comics 4-27-11

I only bought two books, but one was huge. More on that shortly. First...

Batman Incorporated 5: I'm not quite sure what was going on in this book. Maybe I need to re-read the previous two, or maybe it's just getting ridiculous. I did enjoy the first meeting between the Bruce Wayne Batman and the new Batwoman, though. And she called him "sir." I thought it was weird, but I look at it as an outgrowth of her military training. She's dealt with the Dick Grayson Batman before, but with Batman, Inc. getting off the ground, it's obvious to her that the original Batman is the five-star general.

Action Comics 900: As befits such a milestone issue, this book contained 96 pages. A large chunk was devoted to the main stories, which have finally dovetailed -- the finale of "The Black Ring" and the continuation of the "Reign of Doomsday." And yes, the return of Doomsday was a Lex Luthor machination. The Luthor story, and his confrontation with Superman (hey, he's back in his own book!) after gaining godlike powers as a result of merging with the being that created the energy spheres, was superb. The "Doomsday" storyline, in which the captured Superboy, Steel, Supergirl, Cyborg-Superman and the Eradicator have been trapped in an endless maze of sorts, felt out of place. Two separate stories instead of one that swung back and forth between the two plotlines might have been better. The other mini-features in the book have their own charms, but one in particular made a splash in the news.