I, the Jury

Wow. I caught this late last night and I am glad I stayed through it. Because the second part of the movie felt like a Johnny Devo film.
Here's the story breakdown from wikipedia--

"The plot involves P.I. Hammer discovering that a friend, Jack Williams a one-armed detective, has been murdered and he begins investigating in an attempt to find out what happened. It turns out that there is a serial rapist involved as well as a sex therapy clinic headed up by sexy Dr. Charlotte Bennett. The plot also contains, but not in the novel, government conspiracies and mind-control techniques by the CIA and the Mafia."

Got all that? It was crazy. I was trying to follow along with Assante who is awesome by the way, as he's investigating this sex therapy clinic for the rich. The Dr. called it a facility of "free radical thinking" and by that she means lots of orgies.
If these scenes were supposed to be erotic it didn't work. Everyone is over 40, and not in good shape. Yeech.
Of course there's going to be gratuitous female nudity. All the "sexpot" female leads are bra less and most of them show the boobs at some point. In fact a couple die while boobage is exposed.

But the best part is the last act of the film when it felt like Devo took over and and directed it. Mike Hammer storms a booby-trapped [ heh pun intended! ] fortress where the government baddie awaits.
It involves:
Mike Hammer leaping from a trailer van that's been driven on a bridge onto the roof of the killer's getaway truck which is in the lane below Hammer
Alan King getting blown up in his car, by his own men.
Hammer takes out all the henchmen one by one. One of them has a machine gun and still can't manage to kill Hammer.
Hammer kills a sniper henchman hiding in a tree.
Hammer rigs his gun so that later, when the baddie kicks his ass and takes his gun, the baddie shoots himself in the chest.


Below is a scene that I managed to find.





They never really explained that part, but ya know who cares? It's about a bunch of insane criminal agents. That's all you need to know.

Batman begins

Well I finally saw this.I will say it's better than the Schumacher versions. Is it the best one? Maybe, although I think Burton's first film is a very close second.
The majority of the cast is top notch. They were excellent. Katie Holmes is the only weak one, and I don't think it has to do with the fact that she's Mrs. Tom Cruise. It's a role that any actress can fill in, and she just didn't make it special. Take Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, now there's an actor who take a small part and make it special. Loved him.

Liked: That the city of Gotham is stylish but not too stylish or in your face, like Burton's or Schumacher's neon colored city Gotham.

Liam Neeson. Ok, there is where I am mixed on this. Liam was very cool but I'm not sure if I liked how this story turned out. I think it has to do with making Bruce and Gotham into a grand and gothic fairy tale, which I never really thought about before. Probably because I am not a huge fan, and there are different takes on Batman.
But it kind of hit me in the scene with Bruce, Qui-Gon, and the Secret Order of Shadows or whatever they called themselves. They talk about how Gotham needs to be destroyed. When did Gotham become a world wide symbol of corruption and the target of vigilante ninjas living in the Himalayas?
I always took Gotham as just a darker version of Chicago, and Metropolis was New York. Big cities with character that just happen to have superheroes living there,not the center of "all that is unjust!"

Not saying it was bad, but it did take me awhile to get used to the idea.

Other things I liked: The Bat-tank.Where can I get one? I can really use it for my drive on the 405 freeway morning rush hour. Also they needed more Scarecrow in this flick too.

Overall, I did have fun, and I am looking forward to Dark Knight.

Werewolves in my cereal!

That would be my slogan for the commercial if they brought this back. Darn.



edited to add: Fruit Brute? Gay Werewolf? Discuss.

Music interlude

Fer Sure!