Tuscon Shooting

Yesterday, Democratic Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was seriously injured in a crazed shooting at a during a public meeting with her constituents.  So far six people have died thanks to the attack, include a Federal Judge and a nine-year-old girl who was visiting Giffords to ask for advise upon being elected to her school's Student Council.  Aside from Giffords herself, who is expected to survive, eleven others have been injured.  So far we don't know the motives of the shooter or shooters.  The rambling Internet writings of the shooter can be seen here, though I rather doubt you'll discover any kind of serious political statement inside the schizophrenic metaphors.  I think its obvious to everybody that this is a major national tragedy, whether or not a Congresswoman was involved or not.

Honestly that's all I have to say.  The people on the news networks are debating whether this is because of partisan politics, whether Congressmen need better security, whether we need tighter gun control, whether Sarah Palin and the Tea Party's militant rhetoric deserves some blame, and on and on.  I have no conclusions at all to draw about this.  What conclusions are you supposed to draw?  Six people are dead, I don't think there are any answers at all to be found in that.  I don't think we need to reform society because of one act, because we don't even know why Giffords was attacked at all, beyond pure lunacy itself.

So I all I have to say is this:  say a prayer for our Congresswoman, say a prayer for the dead and wounded, and say a prayer for the shooter, in hope that he too can find peace.  As should be pretty evident, this is a sad day for America and a sad day for our democracy.

True Grit

Is this really the first Western I'm doing here?  That I cannot believe, frankly, I just cannot.  Westerns are an amazingly genre of film:  stark tales of desperate morally ambiguous heroism in the pristine harshness of the wilderness.  Gunfights, deserts, and classic Western imagery - you already know the cliches.  Wooden sidewalks, trains, saloons, wooden coffins, sheriff stars, jangling spurs, and revolvers.  These are great tales where heroes or antiheroes can go out and fight the most viscous of outlaws at High Noon.  Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns like "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" and "Once Upon a Time in the West" are without a doubt the highest point of this century-long genre.  Tragically the Western is a dead genre, despite several recent attempts at a revival such as "No Country For Old Men" and the remake of "3:10 to Yuma".  Those may not have resparked America's imagination for the Wild Wild West, but it sure sparked mine.

So when the Coen Brothers, the directors of such great films as "The Big Lebowski", "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", and "Fargo" were returning to the Western after their well-directed but still lousy "No Country For Old Men", I knew I had to go see it.  The Coen Brothers don't always make good movies, but they have their own weird sense of humor both random and dark, making their films always worth a view.  "True Grit" is a remake of the 1969 film of the same name starring Western legend, John Wayne, who won an Academy Award for his performance.  Replacing John Wayne is... The Dude, Jeff Bridges, who has completely absorbed himself into the role of one-eyed sheriff, Rooster Cogburn.  But he's not the protagonist:  its a tough little fourteen-year-old girl named Mattie Ross - the true star here.

"True Grit" is a fine Western film, made with the same brilliant imagery that was wasted in "No Country For Old Men", but with more than a little bit of the Coen Brother's dark humor.  Brilliantly directed, brilliantly acted, amazingly written, and with very good action scenes.  Everything about this movie just feels "right".  I didn't want to write my Top Films of 2010 post before I saw this film, because I knew this would make it.  It so belongs there, in the #4 spot.

2011's Most Interesting Upcoming Films - Updated -

Since I just looked back to 2010, I suppose I should also look forward as well.  Unfortunately looking back while looking forward requires a lot of ridiculous manic spinning, and I don't have the dexterity.  Growing eyes in the back of your head might help, but being since I am neither a parent in the front seat of the car or your third grade teacher, I lack those extra organs.  So instead I'll take it one at a time.  I already looked back, so now I can look forward.  Then I suppose I'll look left in another post.

A cursory look at 2011's major upcoming films is enough to depress anyone.  The superhero films just don't look good at all, and history has taught me that by and large, most superhero films suck.  So when I hear about "The Green Hornet", "Thor", "Captain America", "X-Men First Class", and "The Green Laturn", I'm not interested.  Then there's "Kung Fu Panda 2" and a slew of bad sequels to movies I didn't see in the first place like "Happy Feet 2", "Alvin and the Chipmunks 3", and a film that according to the known laws of physics should be impossible, "Spy Kids FOUR".  By the way, here's a title to make anybody cringe:  "Big Momma's House 3, Like Father Like Son".  And the remakes... my God:  "Footloose", horror classic "The Thing", vampire classic "Fright Night", The Three Musketeers", "The Muppets", and "Conan the Barbarian".  We got another "Transformers" coming, my God.  There's a Justin Beiber movie!  Have we not entered the End Times, or what?  And even the studio which I've always relied upon to make the best or second best film of the year, Pixar, is making a sequel to their only bad movie, "Cars 2", meaning I don't even get that much this year.  I think I might cry.

Yes things look bleak, they do.  But, in actually a lot of work, I was able to find a couple of movies I am legitimately excited for.  Of course, I've been wrong before ("The Wolfman") and I'll be wrong again.  I may inadvertently recommend what will be the Worst Film of 2011, who knows?  And I know this list is a little short compared the hundreds of films that are released in a single year.  But that doesn't matter!  Honestly, I'm sure I'll find plenty of movies to see beyond this list.  2011 just started.  Things might look bleak now, but by April I'm sure I'll have seen at least one movie I like:

Favorite Movies of 2010 - Updated -

2010 was not a good year for me in real life, easily the worst year I've ever seen.  And as for the rest of the world, it wasn't very good either.  The War in Iraq did finally come to an end, but in Afghanistan Pakistan, Mexico, and Sudan, things have gotten increasingly violent over the years.  Massive oil spills in the Gulf, earthquakes in Haiti, and Greek economic collapse.  Unemployment is still high, politicians are just as stupid (see the Ground Zero Mosque issue), and nothing seems to be getting better anywhere.  Then just when I thought 2010 couldn't bring me any more horrible gifts, it threw two feet of snow right on top of me in the last week.  Man, this year sucked.

But luckily the movies didn't suck.  There was plenty of happy cinematic diversions to help us forget what a terrible year its been.  So just in case some of you guys missed the best movies of last year, I'll go ahead and list my favorite films that I saw in 2010.  This isn't the definitive list, since God knows I haven't seen every single film released.  I mean, I don't even feel right making a 2010 list without having seen "True Grit" and "The King's Speech", movies I really have a good feeling about.  And its really a personal list, these are my favorite movies, they aren't necessarily going to be yours.  They're just the movies I recommend the highest in case you missed them.  Basically this list is all the movies that I would immediately want to see again.  I mean there were a lot of movies I liked, and a lot I recommended to see in theatres.  But as fun as say, "Devil" or "Predators 3" were to see in theatres, I can't say I ever want to see them again.  "Daybreakers" was good, but I can barely even remember it.  How can I put that on the list?  There are good movies and then there are great movies:  movies I want to own.  These are those films.  Watch them today.  Stop whatever you were doing, even if its a funeral or something, go to the video store or theatre and get watching.  That's a command.  That funeral can wait, these can't.

Bleach Recaps: Ep. 185, Ice and Flame! Fierce Fight of Amagai vs. Hitsugaya

Welcome back!  Last week's "Bleach" was a surprise re-run because of Christmas.  Unfortunately, Adult Swim never does advertise when its anime will be new episodes or old ones - God knows why.  So we all tuned in at midnight only to see that the Purple-Haired Ninja was suddenly back to life.  Last night's episode, however, was a new one.  "Fierce Fight of Amagai vs. Hitsugaya", that sounds good doesn't it?

Good one.  The title for this episode is nothing but a lie.  Amagai fights Toshiro for a total running time of thirty seconds, no more.  Its pure evil that they'd mislead the audience into thinking that Amagai and Toshiro would actually fight to any conclusion.  Maybe next episode, not here.  And the fight isn't particularly fierce either for a "Bleach" battle.  Instead we have the conclusion of the Kira and Kibune fight, which actually does become fierce.  So I'm going to let you guys decide which character wins.  Come on:  good-guy emo teen, Kira or bad-guy pompous homosexual, Kibune?  Or put it this way:  the character who has been around since Season 2 or the dude who just appeared suddenly in what is essentially a gaiden arc?  Shouldn't be too hard to guess, right?  Of course, I'm happy to see this battle end and one of these boring characters die, thus saving me from their mediocrity forever.

The episode starts again recapping Kibune's wacky speech at the end of the last episode.  Clearly they spent so much time animating Kibune's bizarre Grinch-face they might as well use it twice, right?  That was properly hilarious.  So once again we get to learn that Kibune considers Kira to be "a worthless toad".  Yeah, a toad.  Then we replay the cliffhanger the last episode ended with:  Kibune is just about to slice Kira in half with his boomerang-sword.  Can anything save him?  Turns out, yes.  Kira can save himself.  Well done, you goofy-haired Lieutenant, you.