Capsule Reviews

Seen recently:

Inkheart - Good solid fantasy fare. What Brendan Fraser gets paid to do nowadays. Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent should have gotten more screen time, and their characters should have wound up together at the end, a missed opportunity IMHO. Some potential sequel material.

Twilight - Why did I bother? SFX pretty cheesy, but the target audience won't notice. A very good teen angst romantic vegetarian vampire movie. A little unclear if Edward, who vamped out in 1918, has actually killed people, not really motivated to find out.

Transporter 3 - my first view of the series. Anti-hero with a heart of gold Frank Martin is forced to break his rules, transport skanky Ukrainian teenager across Europe, a trip with curiously few difficulties at border crossings. Car/train sequences at the end are fun.

Body of Lies - Crowe and DiCaprio. Not as noir as a spy thriller should be, too much an actioner. Crowe is Mr Ugly American, action at a distance puppeteer. DiCaprio is the humint, constantly frustrated by his handler's ham handedness. Every bit of local color that DiCaprio befriends dies for their trouble, except the beautiful, saintly Iranian nurse (Golshifteh Farahani). If this was a real spy film, she would have bought it. Upbeat ending = torture is worth it? Maybe in the Bush Era. Actually, the torture in the film never works, but somehow that doesn't stop the people using it.

Jean Renoir - Whirlpool of Fate

I took advantage recently of a Barnes and Noble sale on art films, and picked up a boxed set of Jean Renoir. The first one I've watched is his 1925 silent film, Whirlpool of Fate (English title). The film was interesting on a few levels. One was the view of contemporary French life. Horsedrawn barges cross the countryside, and the rich play with motorcars. The second level wsa the mechanics of the film-making. Renoir used many storytelling techniques, and there is a delightful special effects sequence in the middle of the film.

By modern standards, the final resolution might not seem very cathartic. The foul uncle of the damsel in distress is knocked into the river and swept off shaking his fist, and said damsel is taken along on a trip to Algeria by the family of her wealthy benefactors. But has she actually married the handsome young scion? To me it is unclear. Perhaps to contemporary audiences, her change of dress, and riding with the family in their carriage are sufficient clues that she is now a part of the family by marriage. To me, the fact that the film skips any explicit symbols of marriage, even a swinging church bell, leaves it ambiguous whether love has successfully bridged class differences.

While I greatly enjoyed the special effects sequence, for me the greatest enjoyment in the first few seconds of the film after the titles. Leaves flashing on the trees just out of sych with the film rate create this impressionistic shimmer on the screen that immediately transported me to another place and time, not only of story, but of story-telling.

Why Now?

In the interests of full disclosure, let me admit that I have been banned at Uncommon Descent. It is something of a badge of honor...

So one of the reasons for this blog is to provide a platform for comment and Kremlinology on the denizens of UD and the discussions there.

This time around, let us wonder at the recent post by Dr. Dembski himself. Yes, what is the predictive power of ID?

cue crickets chirping...

Well, that wraps up our program for today!

Now, for the Kremlinology portion of our show - what is the subtext of this message?

First, it is a way to say "I am important". Normally, important people don't have to broadcast that fact, so this is really telling us that Dr. Dembski's importance is falling rather than rising.

Second, it tells us that someone in the media is actually taking Darwin Day seriously. There is no other reason that anyone would take Dr. Dembski seriously enough to put him on TV (other than with Steve Colbert). Dr. Dembski is the "counterpoint" position for a Darwin program. Well, for a Fox program he might be the "point" position...

Third, it says Dr. Dembski's estimation of his chances of actually getting on the program are low. After all, actually appearing on the show is much more impressive than telling your friends that you might be invited on the show. But if this is as good as it is going to get, he's got to go with it.

Fourth, what is it with WaD and premature ejaculation? The guy cannot keep his mouth shut until the real results come in, he has to start blabbing at the very beginning. If you want other examples, look at the Polya Center and EIL fiascos. The guy knows how to kill his own prospects with ill timed PR better than anyone I know.