We all know that Democrats and liberals have used the courts for years to push their views on the public. They're fully aware that they don't win elections by honestly pushing socialism, massive tax increases, rights for criminals, et. al, so they've slowly pushed those ideas through using the courts.
And now they're having hissy fits because the Supreme Court has chipped away at some of their precious left-wing dogma.
[quote]New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a powerful member of the Democratic leadership, said Friday the Senate should not confirm another U.S. Supreme Court nominee under President Bush “except in extraordinary circumstances.”
“We should reverse the presumption of confirmation,” Schumer told the American Constitution Society convention in Washington. “The Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance. We cannot afford to see Justice Stevens replaced by another Roberts, or Justice Ginsburg by another Alito.”
Schumer’s assertion comes as Democrats and liberal advocacy groups are increasingly complaining that the Supreme Court with Bush’s nominees – Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito – has moved quicker than expected to overturn legal precedents.
Senators were too quick to accept the nominees’ word that they would respect legal precedents, and “too easily impressed with the charm of Roberts and the erudition of Alito,” Schumer said.
“There is no doubt that we were hoodwinked,” said Schumer, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.[/quote]
What a liar. The whole point the hearings as far as Schumer and the other Democrats were concerned was to find a reason not to confirm Bush's appointees. Alito and Roberts didn't give them that reason. So now it's "we were tricked! Waaah!"
I can't stand liars like Schumer. He knows full well that a left-leaning Supreme Court is the liberal's best friend in this country. Without that, they have major problems.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Friday, July 06, 2007
How about something non-political?
My Transformers movie review
I’m no movie critic. I know what I like, and if I find a movie enjoyable, I’m not going to pick it apart to find the flaws. I’m going to sing its praises and try to convince as many people as I can that they should go see it as well. To that end, I have to say that “Transformers” is awesome. From the opening moments of the movie where Peter Cullen reprises his role as Optimus Prime from 20 years ago, I was hooked. Giant shape-changing robots slugging it out is absolutely my idea of great entertainment.
The movie opens with Optimus Prime spelling out the backstory for the film. “In the beginning was the cube...”. The “cube” is the Allspark, the object which gives life to the Transformers, and in this movie, the object over which they are waging their war. It’s the “macguffin” that drives the plot, and of course, it’s come to Earth after drifting through the cosmos for millenia. After the introduction, the expectation of the audience to see the giant robots is sated by a quick action sequence where the Decepticon Blackout attacks and destroys a US military base in Qatar, from which only a few survivors escape, including two of our protagonists. The group is pursued through the desert by Scorponok, who burrows under the sand and bursts out to attack, and curiously is never seen to transform. The special effects are excellent, and the sight of a lone Decepticon trashing an entire military base on his own (admittedly in a sneak attack) confirms everything we fans have known about these guys for years. They’re dangerous and scary, and not to be taken lightly. In fact, all the Decepticons in this movie are impressively ruthless and deadly, as they should be.
If that’s the B plot, then the main storyline is the one involving Sam Witwicky and Bumblebee. Shia LeBouf is not an actor I’ve seen in anything else, but I was impressed with him here. He really does carry much of the movie with his acting, and despite the fact that one of my major complaints is that we should have had less humans and more Transformers, I find that Shia’s character Sam Witwicky doesn’t wear out his welcome. He’s very sympathetic and entertaining to watch, and his friendship with Bumblebee, particularly later in the film, is well-played. I initially found the idea of making Bumblebee mute to be irritating, but I’ve changed my mind. It serves to distance him a bit at first, as well as forcing the filmmakers to let his actions and body language speak for him, and that approach works surprisingly well. It keeps him distant and alien, something which is lost when the other Transformers start speaking and the robots become essentially human, at least in character. Not that I’d want them mute by any means, but the tone of the film undoubtedly changes when they appear and introduce themselves. This slow buildup to the robot reveal actually works quite well, which again surprised me, given that I’d be happy with two straight hours of wall to wall Transformer action.
The two storylines are loosely connected, and the movie cuts back and forth between them regularly. It takes a surprisingly long time for the Transformers to appear en masse, leaving them to be almost supporting characters in their own film. Since this is an introductory film in many ways, that’s more acceptable than it would be in a hypothetical sequel, but it’s noticeable all the same. The Decepticons get short shrift in this regard, with Blackout and Scorponok featuring early on, leaving Barricade and Frenzy to pretty much represent the Decepticons during the middle of the film. Many of the others don’t appear until near the end, including Starscream and Megatron, surprisingly. Several of the characters show up only to be finished off rather quickly, including Brawl (named Devastator in the subtitles) and Bonecrusher, who makes the mistake of tackling Optimus Prime. And while the fate of several characters is decisive, Scorponok and Barricade are not accounted for at the end (at least, not to my knowledge) and Starscream is clearly shown escaping Earth’s atmosphere.
The Autobots fare better, though there are only five of them. Of those five, Optimus and Bumblebee get the most screen time, leaving Ratchet, Ironhide and Jazz as secondary characters, allbeit all with some good character moments. Jazz is the only Autobot fatality, torn in two by Megatron, who seems absolutely unstoppable. All of the others survive. And without a doubt, if any of them had to get the most dialogue, I’m glad it was Optimus. My inner 13 year old was cheering every time he spoke. Bringing back Peter Cullen gave the film the stamp of authenticity for this Transformer fan, and I’m grateful he was given the job. I’m glad to hear he’ll be back if a sequel is made. I’m disappointed Frank Welker didn’t get to reprise Megatron opposite Cullen, but such is life. Hugo Weaving certainly did a good job with the part, and he deserves credit for that.
The CGI robots are outstanding. The movie designs were another thing that I was iffy about when they first appeared, but they work very well. The computer models are very complex, and it seems as though every little piece of these guys shifts and turns when they transform. It had to have taken a whale of an designer to create the movie Transformers, and some dedicated animators to make them move. And they blend almost seamlessly into their environment, be it desert sand, back yard or downtown LA (or wherever the city was meant to be). The transformations are always one of those “oh yeah!” moments, particularly when the bot in question is driving at a high rate of speed, or flying through the air. The sequence where Starscream is flying among a squad of F22s, transforms and shoots some of them down, and then returns to plane mode, all while in midair flying amongst skyscrapers, is particularly worthy of note. The bots move with relatively fluid motions, and interact well with the environment. Prime in particular runs along the freeway leaving broken pavement behind, hangs under a bridge over a helicopter at one point, and descends between two buildings, leaving showers of brick and masonry falling on his way down.
The movie had its flaws of course. Some of the humor was in poor taste, particularly the “were you masturbating” scene, and the instance when Bumblebee leaks oil all over the sector seven leader as though he were urinating on him. The audience laughed at both, but crude humor doesn’t appeal to me, and the movie could have done without it. I also found the whole subplot with Anthony Anderson’s computer hacker character a waste of time. It added some laughs, but did little or nothing to advance the plot and probably ought to have been cut altogether, in my view.
Several occurances are never explained, such as the bots the Allspark creates near the end of the movie like the steering wheel Transformer or the Mountain Dew machine bot. Are they still wandering around the city? Why are all the bots created by the Allspark evil? What happened to Scorponok and Barricade? And there were other things I wondered about that just aren’t coming to mind right now.
The bottom line: far better than I had hoped for, “Transformers” does a pretty good job of bringing back the robots in disguise as a live action movie. It doesn’t have the spirit of the old cartoon or comic, but as a modern adaption, it’s not half bad. I really enjoyed it, and despite the flaws, I’d give it a “A”. A good effort, and hopefully one which will spawn some sequels which will go on to give us more robots and less humans. Time will tell. Go see it!
I’m no movie critic. I know what I like, and if I find a movie enjoyable, I’m not going to pick it apart to find the flaws. I’m going to sing its praises and try to convince as many people as I can that they should go see it as well. To that end, I have to say that “Transformers” is awesome. From the opening moments of the movie where Peter Cullen reprises his role as Optimus Prime from 20 years ago, I was hooked. Giant shape-changing robots slugging it out is absolutely my idea of great entertainment.
The movie opens with Optimus Prime spelling out the backstory for the film. “In the beginning was the cube...”. The “cube” is the Allspark, the object which gives life to the Transformers, and in this movie, the object over which they are waging their war. It’s the “macguffin” that drives the plot, and of course, it’s come to Earth after drifting through the cosmos for millenia. After the introduction, the expectation of the audience to see the giant robots is sated by a quick action sequence where the Decepticon Blackout attacks and destroys a US military base in Qatar, from which only a few survivors escape, including two of our protagonists. The group is pursued through the desert by Scorponok, who burrows under the sand and bursts out to attack, and curiously is never seen to transform. The special effects are excellent, and the sight of a lone Decepticon trashing an entire military base on his own (admittedly in a sneak attack) confirms everything we fans have known about these guys for years. They’re dangerous and scary, and not to be taken lightly. In fact, all the Decepticons in this movie are impressively ruthless and deadly, as they should be.
If that’s the B plot, then the main storyline is the one involving Sam Witwicky and Bumblebee. Shia LeBouf is not an actor I’ve seen in anything else, but I was impressed with him here. He really does carry much of the movie with his acting, and despite the fact that one of my major complaints is that we should have had less humans and more Transformers, I find that Shia’s character Sam Witwicky doesn’t wear out his welcome. He’s very sympathetic and entertaining to watch, and his friendship with Bumblebee, particularly later in the film, is well-played. I initially found the idea of making Bumblebee mute to be irritating, but I’ve changed my mind. It serves to distance him a bit at first, as well as forcing the filmmakers to let his actions and body language speak for him, and that approach works surprisingly well. It keeps him distant and alien, something which is lost when the other Transformers start speaking and the robots become essentially human, at least in character. Not that I’d want them mute by any means, but the tone of the film undoubtedly changes when they appear and introduce themselves. This slow buildup to the robot reveal actually works quite well, which again surprised me, given that I’d be happy with two straight hours of wall to wall Transformer action.
The two storylines are loosely connected, and the movie cuts back and forth between them regularly. It takes a surprisingly long time for the Transformers to appear en masse, leaving them to be almost supporting characters in their own film. Since this is an introductory film in many ways, that’s more acceptable than it would be in a hypothetical sequel, but it’s noticeable all the same. The Decepticons get short shrift in this regard, with Blackout and Scorponok featuring early on, leaving Barricade and Frenzy to pretty much represent the Decepticons during the middle of the film. Many of the others don’t appear until near the end, including Starscream and Megatron, surprisingly. Several of the characters show up only to be finished off rather quickly, including Brawl (named Devastator in the subtitles) and Bonecrusher, who makes the mistake of tackling Optimus Prime. And while the fate of several characters is decisive, Scorponok and Barricade are not accounted for at the end (at least, not to my knowledge) and Starscream is clearly shown escaping Earth’s atmosphere.
The Autobots fare better, though there are only five of them. Of those five, Optimus and Bumblebee get the most screen time, leaving Ratchet, Ironhide and Jazz as secondary characters, allbeit all with some good character moments. Jazz is the only Autobot fatality, torn in two by Megatron, who seems absolutely unstoppable. All of the others survive. And without a doubt, if any of them had to get the most dialogue, I’m glad it was Optimus. My inner 13 year old was cheering every time he spoke. Bringing back Peter Cullen gave the film the stamp of authenticity for this Transformer fan, and I’m grateful he was given the job. I’m glad to hear he’ll be back if a sequel is made. I’m disappointed Frank Welker didn’t get to reprise Megatron opposite Cullen, but such is life. Hugo Weaving certainly did a good job with the part, and he deserves credit for that.
The CGI robots are outstanding. The movie designs were another thing that I was iffy about when they first appeared, but they work very well. The computer models are very complex, and it seems as though every little piece of these guys shifts and turns when they transform. It had to have taken a whale of an designer to create the movie Transformers, and some dedicated animators to make them move. And they blend almost seamlessly into their environment, be it desert sand, back yard or downtown LA (or wherever the city was meant to be). The transformations are always one of those “oh yeah!” moments, particularly when the bot in question is driving at a high rate of speed, or flying through the air. The sequence where Starscream is flying among a squad of F22s, transforms and shoots some of them down, and then returns to plane mode, all while in midair flying amongst skyscrapers, is particularly worthy of note. The bots move with relatively fluid motions, and interact well with the environment. Prime in particular runs along the freeway leaving broken pavement behind, hangs under a bridge over a helicopter at one point, and descends between two buildings, leaving showers of brick and masonry falling on his way down.
The movie had its flaws of course. Some of the humor was in poor taste, particularly the “were you masturbating” scene, and the instance when Bumblebee leaks oil all over the sector seven leader as though he were urinating on him. The audience laughed at both, but crude humor doesn’t appeal to me, and the movie could have done without it. I also found the whole subplot with Anthony Anderson’s computer hacker character a waste of time. It added some laughs, but did little or nothing to advance the plot and probably ought to have been cut altogether, in my view.
Several occurances are never explained, such as the bots the Allspark creates near the end of the movie like the steering wheel Transformer or the Mountain Dew machine bot. Are they still wandering around the city? Why are all the bots created by the Allspark evil? What happened to Scorponok and Barricade? And there were other things I wondered about that just aren’t coming to mind right now.
The bottom line: far better than I had hoped for, “Transformers” does a pretty good job of bringing back the robots in disguise as a live action movie. It doesn’t have the spirit of the old cartoon or comic, but as a modern adaption, it’s not half bad. I really enjoyed it, and despite the flaws, I’d give it a “A”. A good effort, and hopefully one which will spawn some sequels which will go on to give us more robots and less humans. Time will tell. Go see it!
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