Quick Review: The King's Speech

"The King's Speech" stars Michael Sheen as British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has to...wait, what? This is a movie about British royalty and/or politics and it doesn't have Sheen as Blair? Hmmm. Okay, let's start over. "The King's Speech" stars Colin Firth as King George VI, who had to overcome a speech impediment and deliver a radio address to his people after war was declared against Germany in 1939. Of course, the film actually starts well before this, when he's just the plain old Duke of York; after failed attempts to correct his stammer he gives up, until his wife (Helena Bonham Carter) goes behind his back and seeks out Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), whose unconventional methods (such as insisting on calling each other by their first names) infuriate the Duke until he realizes that they seem to work. It probably worked better for me because it's a story I wasn't familiar with, but even so it's sort of predictable. For a drama, though, it's got a surprising amount of humor. It doesn't make my top 10 of 2010, even though it's an Oscar Best Picture nominee, but it's still fine. My grade: B-plus.

My Week In Comics 1-26-11

I might as well knock this out since it's 2 a.m., and I'm awake, and I'm waiting for the end of a podcast I'm listening to so I can listen to two songs I downloaded using part of the $10.00 iTunes gift card I received from Philadelphia Weekly...besides, I only bought two books this week:

Action Comics 897: There's almost no action in this issue, just lots of talk. But it's terrific, as Luthor tracks down another of those Black Lantern energy spheres. It's in Gotham City. Specifically, at Arkham Asylum. To be precise, somehow the Joker has it. Not only that, but there's a twist near the end. And the last page, a setup for the next issue, brings back a very fun character.

Futurama Comics 53: The Planet Express crew has to make a delivery and things go awry...of course, that could be the plot of just about every episode of the TV series, not to mention these comic books...anyway, things go awry when the package they're delivering turns out to be more than it seems.

Time To End All-Star Games?

With two All-Star games this Sunday, the NFL's Pro Bowl in Hawaii and the NHL All-Star Game in Raleigh, North Carolina, we need to discuss the fact that these games (in all four major pro sports) are pretty much irrelevant.

Too many players back out because of minor injuries or other reasons, so that the "best" players aren't in the game. The rosters don't always include the "best" at any rate because fan voting either decides the starters or plays a part in the decision, and there are always undeserving players who are voted in because they're popular or well-known. And with the NFL moving the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl instead of the week after, the two Super Bowl teams' players are automatically off the Pro Bowl rosters.

As much as baseball likes to tout that their game "counts" because the league that wins gets 4 of 7 home games in the World Series, the game is a shell of its former self. The rosters are now bloated thanks to expansion and the need for enough pitchers to try and ensure that another debacle like the tie game in 2002 never happens again.

The NBA game doesn't interest me anyway, but at least they used to have a fun slam-dunk contest.

My Week In Comics 1-19-11

Still in catch-up mode here, so let's begin.

Supergirl 60: I mentioned that there's a change in writers for this series, which had me worried. So far, so good. There's a plot point central to the story, where someone's invented a Foursquare-type app that allows people to follow superheroes, that's a bit "Social Network"-y, but it helps establish that character as quite evil.

Superman/Batman 80: This concludes the two-part story that features the Superman and Batman from the DC: One Million stories, and has a few brief cameos from some of the other "World's Finest" duos over the centuries. It's kind of an old-school story, though. It also features Superman, Batman and the original Robin and, as such, it's a way different vibe from the current stories where Superman is moping across America and Batman is the Dark Knight who had to "die" and return in order to regain some humanity and a sense of humor.

Simpsons Comics 174: Trouble at the Springfield Bird Sanctuary leads to Lisa taking care of a rather Bart-like injured owl, and Homer gets a new assignment from Mr. Burns: temporarily bringing down property values so Burns can make a killing buying and reselling homes, and eventually the twain (of stories) shall meet...

Quick Review: No Strings Attached

There may be a new trend in movies: romantic couplings in which the guy gets all gushy and falls in love with the girl, but she just wants sex. There was "Love and Other Drugs" a couple of months ago with Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. Coming up later this year is "Friends With Benefits," starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. Right now there's "No Strings Attached," with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman as the two friends, Adam and Emma -- actually, it doesn't seem they're very close friends at first; the film starts with flashbacks which seem to be the only times they've met prior to arriving at the present -- who have sex and afterwards agree to keep having sex without dating or anything romantic. It's Emma's doing, although there's not as specific a reason as Anne Hathaway's character in "Love and Other Drugs" had. She's just a standard commitment-phobe. Sure enough, Adam starts falling for her and tries to win her heart. It was better than I expected, and Portman shows she can do comedy, although it has a sappy and predictable end. It's rated R and, besides some raunchy language, features a sighting of Kutcher's bare butt. Between that and how much skin Gyllenhaal showed in his movie, Justin Timberlake has to step up. Also, "No Strings Attached" was titled "Friends With Benefits" before production began, and Kunis and Portman went at it in "Black Swan," so it seems to me that, with so much already in common between the films, Kutcher and Timberlake should have a sex scene in a movie as well. My grade: B.

Fake Jake Has To Go

It seems that the picture shown here keeps bringing hits to my blog. So why not find yet another excuse to run it?

There's a problem, though. I've decided that I need to replace it as my desktop wallpaper. As pretty an image as it is, it's fake. It's not the real Jake Gyllenhaal, so it has to leave my screen. But I need a replacement for it. If you have any suggestions for what I should use as a replacement, please let me know. I want something new. If it's another man, or even it's a real picture of Jake, I need something as hot and sexy as this, except it can't be photoshopped. It has to be real.

There are no prizes. (Wouldn't that be fun, if I could give away an Amazon gift certificate or something? Oh, to have a few extra dollars around...) If you suggest something that I deem worthy, I can only offer you my thanks. Unless you're Jake Gyllenhaal or someone who looks very much like him, in which case we can make other arrangements...

Snow, Baby, Snow

Before you watch this (assuming it works, since I'm trying some new site), please note that I was carrying an umbrella in one hand and my phone in the other, and I had an OCD moment and had to check my pants pocket to make sure I had my house keys. That's why the video is shaky at times.

There must be at least a foot of snow as of the time I recorded this, and it's still coming down. Looking at the current radar it looks like it'll wind down in the next two or three hours.

EDIT: The embed code for the site I tried didn't work. I tried a second site and that didn't seem to work. So, for the first time in quite a while, I tried YouTube -- where the videos I had tried to post lately didn't have sound -- and it's working! With sound!

Weather Wars And Other Odd Screencaps

Here are a few things I copied from my screen today. Nothing like that weird Twitter comparison from yesterday, fortunately.

First, with yet more snow headed our way (have I mentioned how much I'm sick of this weather?) a Facebook post made a few hours ago by Adam Joseph, one of the meteorologists on 6ABC...

The "person who bashed us" is presumably John Bolaris of FOX-29. Locals may remember when a March 2001 "Storm of the Century" turned out to be a few showers instead of a blizzard. There was an interesting article recently about both the recent Bolaris comment and his role in the "Storm of the Century" hype, written by the station's news anchor at the time, Larry Mendte. Of course, Mendte has had his own problems in recent years, so you may want to consider the source. (And, while you're at it, here's an article from Phillyweather.net talking about TV news and weather hype.)

Later, as I was reading the list of Oscar nominations at Entertainment Weekly's website, I discovered a very popular film that I somehow neglected to see!

 

Gotta love those typos. And then tonight, there was lots of Twitter activity before, during and after the State of the Union address. Most of this "live-tweeting," as it's called was repetitive, boring and useless to me, to be honest. But in addition, Joan Rivers was live-tweeting the premiere of her new reality show, in which she moved in with her daughter for a while for some reason. President Obama made a comment about "our generation's Sputnik moment," referring to the 1950s space race in which the Soviet Union launched a satellite into orbit before the USA. So it was mentioned in a number of tweets on my timeline. But at the same time, Joan tweeted about another "moment." and reading these tweets one after the other made me chuckle:

My Week In Comics 1-12-11

Overdue! Overdue! This is not a library book but it's still overdue. Plus I bought a book that had been released a week prior, because I read an article about it. Let's deal with that first...

Starman/Congorilla 1 (of 1): This is a special one-shot tied into a storyline in the current Justice League of America series. In the current iteration of the JLA these two are members. I don't buy that book so I don't really know how it's tied in beyond what is explained in this book. Why did I buy it? Well, the article I read referred to this Starman character being gay, and the story in part deals with his not-too-healthy way of dealing with his grief over his lover's murder. And then another hero is brought back to life after being dead for a while. (I know, shocking!) And guess what? He's also gay. Can a "Justice League: Valentine's Day Special" be far behind?

Superman 707: On his Walk Across America trying to reconnect with the regular folks, Superman is in Des Moines, Iowa and still having doubts about what he's doing. If that isn't bad enough, the way he deals with a dispute between the workers and management at a chemical plant (after dealing with an explosion and fire there) makes Lois really mad. If he were going home that night he'd be sleeping on the couch, let me tell you.

Secret Six 29: This continues the story from Action Comics 896, the confrontation between Lex Luthor and Vandal Savage just before an explosion in the LexCorp building. While wrapping that up, it also provides a little backstory for Savage and his daughter Scandal. This is loopily narrated by Ragdoll, who thinks everyone was killed in the explosion.


Victorian Undead II - 3 (of 5): This entire book, except for the last couple of pages, consists of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and then Holmes' brother Mycroft, comparing notes on Dracula with Professor Van Helsing and his associates. There's a lot of talk but not so much plot advancement.

Come ON, Twitter...

I know Twitter (and Facebook) probably uses keywords to help you identify people/places/things you might want to follow/friend/Like, but you just have to wonder about their automated processes when it comes up with something like this. I saw a tweet that mentioned Daniel Hernandez, the 20-year-old intern to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords who helped save her life when she was shot in Tucson, attending tomorrow's State of the Union address. Turns out he has a Twitter account. When I clicked on the link to his page and saw this, I was flabbergasted. Check out the "Similar to" suggestion in the bottom right-hand corner:

In what world is a student/intern similar to a drag queen from a TV show? I don't think this would fly in Bizarro World. This is nothing against Pandora Boxx -- and hey, tonight is the Season 3 premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race, and I'll be watching. But these Twitter/Facebook suggestions are virtually useless. Sure, I've complained about this issue before and I know nothing will change, but some things are just too weird to let pass without comment.

And by the way, someday I think I'll have to write about those shootings in Tucson and the issues that surround it. But not right now. If you know me you can probably guess a lot of what I will say, anyway.