Movie Review: The Hit List (4 of 5)
We just watched this movie and were very pleasantly surprised. When I think of Cuba Gooding, Jr., I think of his Oscar for Jerry MaGuire back in 1996 followed by Snow Dogs in 2002. He actually made quite a few movies in between, but that had been the impression. It’s a shame because The Hit List shows that he can be a dynamite villain.
The movie focuses on Cole Hauser, an engineer expecting a promotion at work and married to a wife he adores. We also find out that he borrowed some money from the wrong kind of people and really needs the promotion in order to repay the loan. Of course, if that had happened this would have been an entirely different movie.
Instead Hauser loses out on the promotion to a slimy coworker and arrives home in time to find his wife in a negligee and his best friend buttoning up his shirt. It seems he’s been so focused on getting ahead in the world that they’ve grown apart. She wants to talk, but he leaves for a motel. On the way, he stops at a bar where he meets Cuba and gets drunk.
Cuba admits to our protagonist that he is a professional killer. Hauser thinks its a joke and is persuaded to make a list of 5 people he wants dead: his boss, his slimy coworker, his loan shark, his ex-best friend and his estranged wife. He then takes a bathroom break and when he returns, Cuba is gone.
When Hauser arrives at work the next morning after sleeping in his car, he learns that his boss has been murdered … and the race is on.
Hauser is solid as the normal guy in over his head. Cuba is amazing as the unstoppable killing machine and very reminiscent of Tom Cruise in Collateral.
I recommend The Hit List as an above average thriller and a chance to see Cuba Gooding, Jr. in a different light.
Power and the Corrupt
Everyone is familiar with Lord Acton’s quote:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
The problem I have with that quote is that it is misleading. The biggest problem with power is not that it corrupts the innocent, but that it attracts the people that are already corrupt.
I don’t think there was anything special about the Catholic church back in the middle ages when Martin Luther got fed up. That’s where the power was concentrated.
Lenin and Hitler weren’t decent men corrupted from power, they were horrid bastards that sought power at any cost.
Today’s politicians weren’t corrupted by Washington. They pursued public office because that’s where the power is.
Creating bigger and bigger government and then complaining about the corruption is like spraying a picnic area with sugar water and then complaining about the ants.
(Mostly a copy of a comment at left at Farmer Frank’s)
The Case Against “Need”
We’ve all heard the arguments:
Why does anyone need a gun? 5 guns? 50 guns? Scary looking guns with shoulder thingies that go up?
And we usually answer: “What’s need got to do with it?”
I want to go even further.
Why does anyone need to mountain climb? Rock climb? Sky dive? Scuba dive?
No one needs to watch television or go to the movie theater. In fact, health professionals keep telling us to get off our butts and get some exercise.
We don’t need pizza, donuts, ice cream or Kobe beef. Maybe Congress should shut down all the restaurants and mandate everyone eats a specified diet of vegetables and grilled chicken.
We don’t need large houses or even large apartments. We don’t need fast cars or big trucks.
As a country experiencing serious economic troubles, a $16 trillion debt and over $1 trillion deficits for the foreseeable future, we certainly don’t need to borrow more money to fund art, music, sports and other luxuries.
If history is any guide, we don’t need Freedom.
But then, the gun-banners already know that.
Kindle Fanboy
Saw where W.O.R.M. asked for advice about getting a Kindle and my comment kind of got out of control. So I thought I’d turn it into a post.
Here you go:
I admit: I am a Kindle fanboy.
I bought mine 1.5 years ago and love it. I bought my wife one for Christmas. I bought my mother a 3G Kindle because she doesn’t have internet. We recently added a Kindle Fire to try out.
I am definitely a bibliophile. As I’ve gotten older, I found that after reading all day at work (computer and paper documents) I was getting headaches from eyestrain. With the Kindle, I boost the font size and can still enjoy recreational reading even after a full work day.
You can get free public-domain books from Gutenberg Press (many are available via Amazon). If you like SF, Baen.com has a free library of books and short stories to get you hooked on their authors – PLUS, Baen sells their ebooks at lower prices than Amazon.
Amazon also makes it incredibly easy to self-publish and a lot of people are taking advantage of that – most at $0.99 to $3.99 each. AND you can download a sample prior to purchasing just like you can for ebooks from the mainstream publishers.
Of course not all is roses. Many mainstream publishers are milking ebooks like a cash cow. You usually have to pay full suggested retail while the paperbacks are often discounted (like they usually are at Walmart and Target). Amazon tried to set a maximum $9.99 price a few years ago and ended up losing the argument to the big publishers.
My wife and I have the Gen 3 (or keyboard Kindles). They have wifi, but not 3G and the battery lasts 3-5 weeks if you shut the wifi off when not using it. We took them on a cruise last year and had no trouble reading them in direct Caribbean sunlight or in the cabin. I’m still playing with the Fire and like it so far, but find that I’ve been more likely to play games on it than read a book.
Wow! I should copy this and make it a post on my own blog.
Zimmerman
After commenting on this post over at Tam’s, I decided to repeat it here at my humble blog and maybe expand on it a bit.
( I still need to complete my review of The Hunger Games, but I was sick over the weekend and work has been pretty busy this week. I’ll try to post it this weekend.).
First, read Tam’s post (always a good idea), and now for my comment:
We are constantly being told about how the Republicans risk alienating Hispanic voters because of their stand against illegal immigration, capital punishment, voter id, etc… yet I haven’t seen anyone – media or bloggers – concerned about alienating Hispanic voters by describing Zimmerman as a “white Hispanic” and persecuting him publicly and criminally for what was originally ruled self-defense.
I also haven’t seen anyone concerned about Hispanics rioting over his trial or conviction.
I guess only Republicans can alienate a voter group and Hispanics only riot over soccer games.
Starting in 2003, census data showed that Hispanics had become the largest minority group in the US. As of July 1, 2009, Hispanics made up 16% of the population. You don‘t have to look hard to find numerous stories on Hispanic support for Obama in 2008 and how Democrats hope to secure their continued support for 2012 and beyond. But my Google-Fu apparently isn’t all that hot since I only found a single story concerned about the impact the Zimmerman case may have on that support and not a single editorial predicting riots, protests or basic “unrest.”
Hunger Games
I will give it a full review this weekend, but I saw this movie with the family tonight. My wife and youngest had already seen it and my oldest has seen it twice.
It was good. Highly recommend it.
Freedom is a Loophole: Part 2
I just found out that Guffaw in AZ has moved from Blogspot to WordPress (I’ve update his link in the sidebar). I was catching up on some posts that I’d missed when I read this one that included a rant from George Carlin on how society is rigged against the comman man. I’m not sure when Carlin made this rant, but it does have a ring of truth to it. I did get annoyed when Carlin states that the current state of affairs started “30 years ago” and thought I’d make a comment about that. The comment was bit longer than expected, so I thought I’d share it here as well.
You might want to read the original post first.
My comment:
Carlin was stuck in the 60′s. What he said had a lot of truth to it, except for saying that it started “30 years ago”.
That’s always how the game’s been played.
Divine Right of kings, Philosopher kings, might makes right, etc…
That is why the Magna Carta was such a big deal in 1215. For the first time, a king was placed under the law instead of above it.
That is why the American Revolution was the shot heard ’round the world. We stated that government ruled only under the consent of the People and by the powers delegated by the People. And the light from the shining city on the hill began to inspire the world…
But US decline began almost immediately. There is a reason we refer to Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, et al as robber barons. The decline became official policy starting with Woodrow Wilson and his belief in philosopher kings. Progressivism/Socialism wasn’t about making the world better for everyone, it has always been about putting the “right” people in charge to make decisions for the huddled masses (i.e. philosopher kings).
Carlin just didn’t notice it until Nixon took office and never realized the larger scope. Despite this rant about society screwing the common man, he still supported the progressive agenda.
My original post: Freedom is a Loophole.
Movie Review: John Carter (3.5 of 5)
So I read the reviews (pro and con) and procrastinated as long as I could, but when my wife and youngest daughter both expressed an interest, I couldn’t put it off any longer. We went to see John Carter (of Mars) on Saturday. I didn’t spring for the 3D version, preferring to spend my money on sodas and popcorn instead.
I liked it … quite a bit. My wife liked it okay. My 13 year old loved it and wanted to see it again while my 15 year old hated it and complained all the way home.
A number of reviewers were outraged at the liberties taken with the story. If you could point to a single movie that didn’t have significant changes from the book, I might understand that complaint. But overall, John Carter is remarkably consistent with A Princess of Mars. Yes, they made changes, but at least a loyal fan could tell that this movie was based on the Burrough’s book – unlike I, Robot which had more in common with Jack Williamson’s Humanoids series than anything Asimov wrote. And despite one idiotic reviewer, the movie producers stayed faithful to the names and language of the original and didn’t violate Heinlein’s prohibition (which he broke himself) on Martians named Smith.
Carter is still a former Confederate officer from Virginia. He mines for gold and get chased by Apaches. The movie provides a less metaphysical method to transport Carter to Mars. Tars Tarkus is still 10 feet tall, green and has four arms. Yes, Tars is now Jeddak of Thark from the start rather than fighting his way to the top, but some things have to change to make a movie.
I am not going to list everything they did right, nor everything that they changed. I will note that I agree with Harry Knowles that they made a mistake by starting the movie on Mars with a narration to explain the political landscape of Barsoom. The movie would be greatly improved if they had started with Carter on Earth and let us learn about Barsoom politics when he does.
The movie has good effects and more humor than expected – well played humor, at that. I would have liked to see a banth, but at least they were mentioned.
And the ending was awesome.
I don’t know the actors and don’t care to look them up. Their performances were acceptable, but not outstanding. I found it a little distracting that Carter looked like Christian Bale when he had a beard, but looked more like Brandon Lee once he got a shave. This Dejah Thoris may not have been the most beautiful woman of two worlds, but the actress was easy on the eyes and her portrayal was not quite the Xena, Buffy, River Tam warrior princess that I’d been expecting due to other reviews. I can accept a woman with a sword killing swaths of bad guys as long as she doesn’t go ninja-fu on them.
To sum up: a good action movie that was reasonably faithful to the source material. Unless you are one of those guys that will never forgive Peter Jackson for leaving Tom Bombadil out of the Fellowship of the Ring, you’ll probably enjoy it as I did.
