Issue 85

News: Christian Student goes to court over "purity ring".
In Britain right now, a student is suing her school over what she believes to be a human rights violation. The "human rights violation" is in fact that she is not allowed to wear her chastity ring, while Muslim women are allowed to wear headscarves which are not normally allowed by the school's dresscode. She has joined a Christian abstinence program called Silver Ring Thing, one of many of the abstinence-related programs funded by the Bush Administration to evangelize to our kids on our dime (a blatant violation of the First Amendment). The school's defense (and one very sound one) is that the student's ring is not mandated by her Christian faith, and the Scarves are mandated for woman by Islam. Indeed, the idea of the abstinence ring goes all the way back to 1996 in Pennsylvania, and in many instances in the Epistles, St. Paul mandated that Christian women cover their heads (especially in Church). I'm sure this will be factored into the decision of the girl's lawsuit. Here is the story in London's Times.

Band Name of the Day: The Beverly Squidbillies. From two television series: The Beverly Hillbillies and Adult Swim's "The Squidbillies".

Film Reviews of the Day: Here are two films in this section today: One I hated, the other I loved.
Prospero's Books: Well, it isn't Shakespeare, oh wait; It is? I rented this film expecting to see something that even vaguely resembled its source material: The Tempest. Unfortunately, Peter Greenaway managed to mangle it beyond recognition to the point where it doesn't even seem to have a plot.
Videodrome : This film is about a future society, and more specifically about a television station that manages to pick up a violent television series called "Videodrome", which is merely plotless violence and turns out not only be for real, but the source of a brain tumor, which ultimately changes reality for the viewer.

Film Idea of the Day: Nothing new this week.

Quote of the Day: "Oh honey, that again. Come here a second will ya, let me tell you something. Now just 'cause I don't go to bed with you, doesn't mean I don't love ya. I mean, let's face it, even if you were beautiful - like that girl on TV - I'd still ignore ya. 'Cause you're my wife!"
___________Al Bundy

Link of the Day: Andy's fish will read your mind.

Issue 84

News: Smoking will now affect the ratings system.
Ever since I saw Whale Rider rated PG-13, but with nothing to show for the rating but a blink and you'll miss it sight of drug paraphenalia, I have suspected that the MPAA rating system is flawed. But now, my suspicions have been confirmed. Now smoking is going to become a factor in ratings. Fortunately, the MPAA hasn't been taking it to the extreme that a number of anti-smoking groups have been suggesting it take (automatic R ratings), and underaged smoking has been a factor for the MPAA boards for years, but now adult smoking is to be targeted as a factor. I know that tobacco does more harm than any of the drugs than all the drugs that we have made illegal combined, but I don't think that should necessarily mean that this is a good reason that seeing it being done should be considered something that could potentially lead to a film getting an R rating in and of itself. Consider all of the movies of Humphrey Bogart, for instance. This was produced in the days when American cimema had to conform to the Hays Code, which prohibited swearing, drug use (even liquor except for the purposes of characterization or plot), depiction of crime, most references to sex (including married couples sleeping in one bed), disregard of religion and "vulgarity... presented in bad taste", but many of the stars chainsmoked. The one most identified with chainsmoking today was Humphrey Bogart, star of The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and many other songs. With his constant smoking, and the lack of too many other criteria which could have an effect on the ratings, would Maltese Falcon garner an R rating in today's MPAA? Anyway, I doubt that making movies that show smoking R-rated would have much of an effect on the availability of the movies to the underaged market. If underaged kids cannot be able to get tickets to those films rated R for smoking only, they can just download them off the internet (Note that I am not suggesting anything here, but just stating a known fact.) In conclusion, I must state that I doubt that making smoking a criterion for rating would be effective and the very concept of adults (not just the under 18s, but adults as well) smoking making a film more likely to garner an R rating just seems ludicrous to me.

Band Name of the Day: Pervasive Smoker. From a variety article on the same topic I just ranted about earlier.

Film Idea of the Day: In the near future, Wyoming has become a penal colony. A young criminal sent there questions the meaning of his life. Mad Max meets Oz.

Film Review of the day: The House of Yes. Marty Pascal has decided to send his fiancee to his family thanksgiving ceremony, where she meets his dysfunctional family, including his slow brother Anthony, his psychopathic sister Jackie-O, obsessed with the eponymous first lady, and his mother, who insists that her family is perfectly normal. A very dark comedy which should be fun for those who are willing to see Dysfunctional families and the JFK assassination made light of.

Quote of the Day:
Mom: What's that gun doing there?
Jackie-O: Being gunlike, gunesque, gunonic.
Mom: Where did it come from?
Jackie-O: God?
_________The House of Yes.

Link of the Day: Another blog Focusing on the Fundies.

Issue 83

News: For Star Wars' 30th.
As you may know, this year marked the thirtieth anniversary of the release of the classic film Star Wars. Just a few days ago, I picked up DVDs of the original trilogy (Three separate Limited edition 2-Disc DVD sets of each film for the low price of $10 each). These editions are notable because for the first time, the DVD sets contain the original release of the film. Before I continue, I must say that I am not one of those guys who go around and obsesses about every aspect of the Star Wars universe to the exception of everything else, but, as one may have inferred from previous editions of the blog, I am a huge movie buff. While I respect George Lucas' right to change the films, I do not respect the fact that since the 1997 Special Edition VHS releases, he decided to memory hole the original theatrical versions. This first became noticeable to me when I viewed New Hope and Return of the Jedi for my religion class in school and I noticed some things glaringly different from what I remembered (most particularly in Jedi where Hayden Christensen (who played Anakin in Episodes 2 and 3) now stands where Sebastian Shaw (who played Anakin's old pale body in the movie) once stood with Yoda and Obi-Wan, as well as an entire musical number cut out and replaced with an entirely different one with a different (CG) singer. Another glaring difference from the new and old versions was when Han Solo meets Greedo, one of Jabba's mercenaries and exchange some dialogue. In the original release, Han shoots Greedo before Greedo has a chance to shoot him, thus marking him as a tough character. However, in the Special Edition, Greedo shoots first, but misses from about two feet (something very unlikely for a bounty hunter like him to do) before Han shoots him (thus making him seem comparatively weaker than if he had shot first.) Amazingly, George Lucas claims that was what he originally intended to do in the scene. It is unknown why he wanted to do it. This was somewhat corrected in the 2004 DVD release, where Han and Greedo shoot at roughly the same time, despite Greedo still shooting first. Fortunately, for this new release, George Lucas has his final version on DVD along with the version that millions of people fell in love with from 1977 to the early 90s.

Band Name of the Day: The Sunshine Rains. This comes from a fact that yesterday, I went home and it was raining. Curiously, at the time I got out of the car, the sun was shining, despite the fact that the rain was still falling.

Film Idea of the Day: Like a Fox. A man witnesses a murder by a cult and devotes his life to destroying it. He throws them off by making them think he's crazy by ingesting psychadelic mushrooms, but turns out to be actually crazy, despite thinking that he's only feigning insanity.

Film Review of the Day: Full Metal Jacket. I just saw this film after reading a copy of the script and the original novel it is based on (surprisingly rare, by the way). I must say the fitst half of the film is very good (and a good explanation of why I plan on never joining the military, even if it means going to Canada if/when the draft comes back, which is thankfully unlikely at the present time, with the likelihood of troop withdrawl from Iraq more likely than ever), but I must note that the second half of the film is comparatively poorly made. It probably would have made more sense for Kubrick to have made two feature-length films, even if the move would have alienated critics and the moviegoing populace.

Quote of the Day: GREEDO: You can tell that to Jabba. He may only take your ship.
HAN SOLO: Over my dead body.
GREEDO: That's the idea... I've been looking forward to this for a long time.
HAN SOLO: Yes, I'll bet you have.
_____The dialogue that precedes Han shooting Greedo, or Greedo shoting Han and missing, or Both shooting each other at the same time.

Link of the Day: Han shoots first, as he should.