I have a day job. So every word of this is my opinion, not that of my employer. This offer IS void in Wisconsin. Except, of course, that some material in this column comes from incoming e-mail; such material is usually reproduced in the Sans Serif type font to distinguish it from the (somewhat) original material.

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Tales of Teaching 2004
Tales of Teaching 2005

January 6, 2003 Vol. 5, No. 1

General News

• A Great Holiday

Computer Industry News

• Craig Reynolds' Technobriefs

Web Site of the Week

• None

Humor

• None

Movies

• Adaptation
• 8 Mile
• Drumline
• Hot Chick
• Catch Me If You Can
• Solaris
• Two Weeks Notice

Letters

• None

General News

A Great Holiday

What a terrific holiday. My head is spinning, and I am afraid I enjoyed myself so thoroughly I left very little time for this column. I saw five movies in one day with Marlow, then added a sixth, to bring my total for the year 2002 to 46, down slightly from 2001's 54, and well below 2000's record-setting 72.

As mentioned last time, Marlow came home for Christmas. We opened presents on Christmas Eve, as is the (Germanic) tradition in my family. Christmas Day, Vicki went to Los Angeles to spend time with her mother; than, on the 30th, the girls and I drove my Mercedes SUV to Los Angeles. I spent a few days with Vicki's mom while the girls saw friends; then I drove home while they flew to Las Vegas, where they stayed at the Flamingo Hilton while Rae fenced in the Duel in the Desert. She didn't place very well, but she got a lot out of it and enjoyed it. We spent most of Sunday together as a family, with lunch at Picante in Berkeley, a visit to my wife's sister, Pamela, in Kensington, then the family tradition of taking down the Christmas decorations together before dinner.

The joy I get from spending time with my children is beyond my meager powers to describe.

I also read Jekyll and Hyde and watched both movie versions. I am ready to start my last two weeks of student teaching on Monday, when I will try to impart some deeper understanding of this literary work to 42 high school sophomores.

Computer Industry News

Craig Reynolds' Technobriefs

Craig Reynolds surfs the net for you. Next week.

You want the facts? Go to the Internet Movie Database.

This movie is so strange it is almost beyond description. If, in its weirdness, it reminds you of Being John Malkovich, that may be because the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, wrote the other movie as well. By the way, despite the fact that he receives a co-screenwriting credit for this film, there is no Daniel Kaufman. He is fictional. It is part of Charlie Kaufman's conceit.

Charlie Kaufman set out to adapt Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief for the screen. He apparently only came up with 10 or 15 minutes of good material, which he proceeded to pad out to 114 minutes by writing a movie about how hard it was to write a movie about this particular book. From the description within the movie, the book doesn't sound bad, just impossible to adapt.

If you like your movies non-linear and thought-provoking, this is the film for you. If you like movies that tell a clear simple story, with three acts, a story arc, and character growth, this is definitely not the film for you, although you may enjoy Brian Cox's hysterical portrayal of screenwriting guru (and unproduced screenwriter) Robert McKee, who propounds such movie structures in his famous and expensive screenwriting classes and book.

You want the facts? Go to the Internet Movie Database.

I thought Eminem was a jerk, but his performance in 8 Mile as, more or less, himself (a white rapper growing up poor in Detroit) is incredible. Also, I've been reading more and more that his public persona is just that, a public persona. The only performance in this film more remarkable than his is Kim Basinger as his mother. I really don't understand why we can't work up a full head of respect for most beautiful actresses until they play gritty, but apparently that's the case. I have kind of liked her in other movies, but I was blown away by her portrayal of the hand-to-mouth working-class mother of Eminem's character. You don't often see the underclass portrayed relentlessly and without hope in a mainstream movie, but you'll see it here. Gritty, raunchy and foul-mouthed, but probably true-to-life. Not exactly an uplifting film, but if you're in the mood for something dramatic and dark, this might fill the bill. Screenwriter Scot Silver has come a long way from his other major credit, The Mod Squad.

You want the facts? Go to the Internet Movie Database.

Apparently someone at 20th Century Fox decided that Nickelodeon regular Nick Cannon really needed his own movie. And then they decided to cast Orland Jones, but not as an idiot! There's just no figuring out Hollywood sometimes. What I wouldn't give to have been a fly on the wall for the pitch meeting: "competing college bands! And the finale is a drum-off down on the field where they glare at each other and play snare drums!"

With thanks to IMDB for the official verbiage, this film has a simple tagline "Half time is game time," and a simple plot (band director recruits a Harlem street drummer to play at a Southern university). The result was a simple movie called Drumline. I would never in a million years have gone to see a feel-good movie about marching and dancing. Except that this one was promoted on MTV's Total Request Live. Which I never watch. Except the Columbia University Marching Band (the world's smartest band) accompanied Nick when he appeared on TRL, and my daughter Marlow is in CUMB, so I watched the TV show and got dragged to the movie.

It's not bad. It is really family entertainment, rated PG-13 for innuendo and language. Anyone younger than 13 would be bored to tears anyway. In fact, unless you play in a band, or once played in a band, or know someone who plays in a band, I can't imagine that you won't be bored to tears too.

By the way, if you do go, and you leave before the credits, there really is a Morris Brown, and that band played itself. Atlanta A&T is fictional, made up mostly of 170 Atlanta area high school, college and graduate musicians, ranging in age from 16 to 26. That information was hard to find. I guess no one else cared.

You want the facts? Go to the Internet Movie Database.

What can I tell you? It's a Rob Schneider movie. It's dumber than dirt, mildly amusing, not as smutty as you might expect from the previews. It has three acts and character growth and Rob Schneider in each and every scene. I wanted to see Harry Potter, but Marlow and I misread the showtimes, so we ended up only with time to see this bow-wow. I mean, less awful than you might expect, but Rob shouldn't get up early on Oscar nomination day, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

You want the facts? Go to the Internet Movie Database.

Boy, that Steven Spielberg can make an entertaining movie. He can even make a movie that's about 40 minutes too long. This was a good 2 hour and 20 minute film. It would have been a great film at 100 minutes. And who knew Leonardo DiCaprio could do funny and Christopher Walken could do not creepy? Not me, certainly. Tom Hanks, of course, we expect a good performance from, and he doesn't let us down here. DiCaprio is a con man, Walken is his father, Hanks is the relentless FBI man. The whole thing is a comedic edifice that rolls along just tickety-boo. Spielberg will probably be showered with awards for his "serious" film this year, Minority Report, but if Oscars were awarded on the basis of sheer entertainment value, this film would win one.

PG-13 for some sexual content and brief language, but take the whole family. The young ones will miss the language and won't be able to figure out the sexual content, and everyone else will have a rollicking good time. I know I did.

You want the facts? Go to the Internet Movie Database.

I didn't see it. My mother walked out on it. Her comment was that it was boring and pretentious and "not worth bothering to give a thumb down." She did stay long enough to see George Clooney's ass--and was not impressed.

You want the facts? Go to the Internet Movie Database.

Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant in a romantic comedy. Is there any way you can go wrong? No there isn't. I had to choose between this and Maid In Manhattan. Although I still haven't seen the other film, I feel sure I made the right choice. Hugh Grant really is Cary Grant, and Sandra Bullock should stick with comedy rather than action adventure, because she's really good at comedy. PG-13 for some sex-related humor, but frankly not much of it. Good clean fun, very amusing, and just heartwarming enough to be interesting but not cloying.

Lots of you wrote, with some interesting links. I just ran out of time to process them. I hope to include a few next week.

Dave Methvin's PC Pitstop