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Did you know that Laurie is NASA's first and only Artist in Residence?

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Quote:"NASA two years ago tabbed Ms. Anderson to be its first-ever "artist in residence," a position that carried a $20,000 stipend to create and perform a theatrical piece about NASA. ... Last week, continuing his personal battle to rid the federal government of wasteful spending, Rep. Chris Chocola, Indiana Republican, successfully amended the Science, State, Justice and Commerce annual appropriations bill "to prohibit federal funds from being used to employ an 'artist in residence' at NASA."

Another from our good friends at Baa Ram Ewe. It's on my gotta see list. Hard Boiled meets Chocolate.

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Kung Fu Dunk meets Ong Bak - haven't seen it but it's been recommended. I'm hoping Lionsgate will kick me down a copy.

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I put together a little compilation. You can see it here: Martial Arts Rock

I was doing laundry and I found a folded-up dollar bill in Greg's boxer briefs. hock: Sure, I could ask him how it got there, but it's ever so much more fun to speculate, don't you all agree?

Will Smith is getting in the bad habit of attaching himself to interesting ideas that then become messy, incomprehensible, disjointed, poorly paced, poorly written parodies of themselves.

"I Robot", "I Am Legend" and now "Hancock"

The premise is cool. An alcoholic homeless alien super hero. He is indestructible and can fly but doesn't give two shits about the world around him. If he sees something going down he'll try and help but always causes more damage than he prevents.

Great premise right?

OK how can we fuck it up?

[SPOILER ALERT]

First have him rescue a PR man who insists on helping him mend his image. Next reveal that the PR man is married to Hancock's long-lost white sister who is not really his sister. Then reveal that they need to be near each other to maintain their superpowers. Next have Hancock go to jail for the damage he's caused in the past. Then have one of the convicts stage a crime and kill his sister and kill him but they come back to life and save the world and I can't wrap my head around how bad this movie was.

This Netflix streaming thing is giving me way too many opportunities to watch movies i would normally avoid.

Long-winded rant: I confess. I'm a stalwart Jackie fan. You all know it and it taints my Jackie film reviews. I enjoyed Spy Next Door because I got to share that with my kid (<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1890">viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1890</a><!-- l -->). I enjoyed Shinjuku Incident because it was such a departure from the standard JC film (<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1888">viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1888</a><!-- l -->). Take this for what you may but I loved Little Big Soldier. It's the best kung fu flick to come out of Asia this year so far.

LBS is a comedy drama buddy flick and 100% pure Jackie. There's been a wave of medieval Chinese period melodramas like Yen's Empress & Warriors (<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1888">viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1888</a><!-- l -->), Red Cliff (<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1069">viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1069</a><!-- l -->) and Li's Warlords (<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1052">viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1052</a><!-- l -->). Frankly, that genre has been taking itself too seriously and has been getting played out. In fact, LBS is a lot like Warlords in its grim anti-war message. But this is Jackie, the king of comedy kung fu, doing what he does best - making us laugh. LBS is laugh-out-loud funny. One scene in particular was so funny that it totally floored me - I was laughing so hard. Gone are the big stunts (what do you want in his mid 50s?), but Jackie still delivers some tightly choreographed fights. No one choreographs like Jackie. His fights tell a story, not just of fighter against fighter, a story about benches and branches and other inanimate objects that get in the way. Jackie plays an aging scam artist soldier who survives battles by playing dead. He captures a prince and gets caught between the enemy militia and a warring barbarian tribe. Let the hijinks ensue! LBS is shot in spectacular locations around China and really goes for that world of arms and armor, terracotta buildings and dust. It's a fast and funny plot, moving quickly from poignant drama to comic schticks with hairpin turns. It's gets a little melancholy by the end and lacks that big fight finale, but delivers in a somewhat predictable and satisfactory conclusion. It's the first film of this year that has made me want to get a subtitled version.

Short review for ADD PPFYs: This is a total DOOM Flick, if I can secure a subtitled version.

For a movie touted as the next great comedy, I came away feeling a little non-plussed. There were a few funny bits, but not many. I think I hate Bradley Cooper as an actor and that never helps. This film didn't sell me on the fact of Zach Galifinakis's comic genius. It reminded me of Memento in that they started at the end and had to work back to the beginning. But it only reminded to go watch Memento again. I could be getting too old. After their hotel room is destroyed, all I kept thinking was how were they going to pay for that.

The first book is about a witch trial in the ficitious town of Font Royal in South Carolina. The second book is a about a slasher roaming the streets of New York. They both take place in the colonies in the late 17th century, back when the population of New York was a booming 5000 residents. The books tell the tales of Matthew Corbett who is OCD about asking questions and getting answers. He is a budding detective. In Speaks the Nightbird, he is seventeen and out on the road as a clerk to find out if a woman is guilty of Witchcraft. The book is very evocative of time and place although the murder mystery is a bit murky. But I think I enjoy the books most for their evocation of the time. Towards the end of the book you just wish he would solve the mystery already.

The second book, Queen of Bedlam, is a much tighter read. It's as if McCammon used the first book to find his voice for the character and in the second book he lets the Corbett out to play. He has now switched careers from Clerk to Detective. His big case is to find out who is slashing the throats of the town residents. Corbett is hired by a detective agency that recognizes his skills and puts him to work. They teach him sword fighting which comes in handy for a great sword fight scene at the end. It reminds me a lot of the American Samurai fight scene with Toshiro Mifune where everything in the house comes into play during the battle.

I remember reading McCammon years ago and giving up on him and haven't read him until these books were recommended to me. They are part of what will be a long series. The third book, Mister Slaughter, is out and I'm waiting for the library to give it to me. The books are stand alone, although I'm sure it will help to read them all as there is a criminal mastermind lurking in the shadows. His name has only been mentioned so far, but I'm sure he will be making an appearance in the books to come.

Just like 'Samurai Princess', the film opens with 10 minutes of pure mayhem. Machine Girl breaks up a gang-harassment by using her prosthetic machine-gun arm to cut them into little pieces.

One very nice effect involves destroying a victims head the way you shoot out the little red star in a midway shooting gallery. There are lots of other creative murders and maimings with more attention paid to how fast and far you can make blood spurt than from plot continuity or dialog.

Lots of fun for the whole family.

Did I mention my sister does not allow me to babysit her kids?