Finding Nemo (4.2 of 5)
Pixar has not failed. Every film they release is an unoriginal story that has been told so many times before. But the highly polished final product is storytelling with a stroke of mastery. Pixar and photo-realism do not mix, and I never want them to mix them. These are cartoons for the new millennia. That being said, Nemo is a little clown fish captured by a diver/dentist while, under the watchful eye of his sole (bad pun, he is a clown fish anyway) neurotic father. The film is the journey the father takes trying to get back his son. A journey that becomes a legend to the underwater community, and it is a big community. While the father, voiced by Albert Brooks keeps the movie together, it-s Ellen DeGeneres-s amazing performance as Dory that steals the show. Always airy and funny, but a touching lost soul too. Every character was fascinating and entertaining, Easily a top ten movie for the year and top 3 of Pixar productions to boot. Deb and I just saw this film last weekend and that-s 10 weeks after it debuted-most films leave the theaters after 6.

My Platform:
1. Thumbprint added to all ID services.
2. Government takes over Utilities (Gas Water Electric)
3. Cut all redundant Social Programs (some programs exist on state and county and city levels- Basically cut every job Gumby …created.. in the last 4 years)
4. Allow San Fernando Valley to succeed from LA County…come on they deserve it.
5. Split State in 2 along Kern County. (Win/Win they lose all the immigration problems, we lose all the voting that created them… I don’t want to govern NorCals anyways)
6. School vouchers!!! (see below)
7. Widen the freeways, remove all carpool lanes, make all freeways like the 105 (trains and all)
8. State Run Bullet Train Union Station to Vegas (or legalize gambling take your pick)
9. Legalize and regulate Marijuana
10 Remove all affirmative action, But make state run loans available at 1% over prime to all regardless of location or race.
11 Lower over-tax on tobacco.
12 Flat-Tax income to 1% for California.
13 Sales tax to 5%.
14 Repeal Car Tax
15 Repeal Family Leave Bill
16 Cap Workman’s Comp.
17 Tax free ‘First Year’ for Business over 50 Employees.
18 Chino Prison Expansion
19 Loser pays the bills if State Grand Jury finds lawsuit frivolous.

How to solve the school problem:
Eighth grade mandatory testing for advancement.
9-12 school vouchers cover 50% while-Alumni Fund- covers other 50% of costs.
Result: taxpayers pay for the schools they use.
Alumni fund is a 1% tax of a students income for the first 20 years after graduation.
Result: Turn out better students = schools get more money
Mandatory testing for voucher teachers every 2 years/ 4 years for tenured teachers.
Result: Weed out the bad eggs
Huge startup cost for this system…but will pay back in droves in less than 6 years.

And a message to the feds……………I’m coming baby!!!!

S.W.A.T. (3.2 of 5)
Always digged they way Mark Shera whipped that repel rope around to the theme music way back before Star Wars made me all glassy eyed for sci-fi. That was one of the many instances of childhood TV that made me like the intros more than the show itself. Maybe I am built to cut trailers and intros more than anything else. Anyways-the 2003 version of S.W.A.T is basically a big budget version of FX’s-The Shield–if you love that show-you will love this movie. But there lies the problem–The Shield- is a TV show- I don-t want a TV show on the big screen. I pay the 8 bucks to take me farther, show me the bullet taking the guy down, show the cussing, and show the explosions. The written story is a good one: Make a misfit S.W.A.T. team, arrest the biggest crime lords son, offer 100 million to anyone who busts him out, drama and explosions galore. But the film is shot a little to episodically and the emotion of the situations is lost. The biggest problem for me was the restraints of the PG-13 rating they were going for. This needed to be gritty and it couldn-t be. The right people were in place: Colin was perfect, Jackson was perfect, Hell, even Josh Charles was perfect. But it all just clicked on a lower level that I wanted it to. But that-s just me-I ALWAYS want True Lies and T2. And a side note, while I understand when a trailer is made it is sometimes early in the editing phase of a film, and a shot or scene in the trailer is omitted from the final cut. This time around there were easily 4 shots and scenes cut from the trailer. When Michelle says-cause it tickles me- in the trailer-it was a deciding factor in me seeing the movie-and after watching the film-It needed it back in!

Construction for the wedding has had me a bit behind in most other things, but I think we are on track with a little more than a week to go.
Photo: Go – Video: Go – Hall: Go – DJ: Go – Pastor: Go – Honeymoon: Go- Rehearsal Dinner: Go- Stress: Go
All Fees are paid and only the elbow grease is left.
Still to go: Dress Alteration, Rear Screen (sew and paint), Paint Centerpieces, Program Printing, Seating Chart, Gift Box, Two More cuff Links, Organza Cutting

Amidst all of this the Rams played their second preseason game against the Superbowl champs Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This outing was much more solid and even without Marshall, Williams, Sehorn and Pace the team looked ready. Kurt Warner was on his game even though no passes went over 15 years. Each pass was a bullet and hit everyone in stride and on the numbers. The Rams marched all they way down the field on the number one defense without a glitch. The Defense kept all TB-s first string out of the end zone and scored a defensive touchdown to boot. Got the juices flowing and now can-t wait for the season to start.

2 Fast 2 Furious (3.2 of 5)
John Singleton gets the helm to the sequel of Rob Cohen-s visually stunning-Fast and the Furious-. I have never figured out John Singleton-s style-or the reason for hype he has received.-Boyz on the Hood- was a great movie under the circumstances and put Cuba Gooding on the map, but his following films left much to be desired. Each film I saw-could have been better:-Poetic Justice- – No acting, depressing and with Tupac on screen-irritating.-Higher Learning– Too preachy and made me dislike black people (was that what they were going for?)-Rosewood– a much better overall effort (I think his best), sure put women in a bad light and kind of left everything unresolved, just one more blacks getting screwed over history lesson.-Shaft- – His biggest budget but none of it seemed to be on the screen, Sam tried to save but he seemed hog-tied in the film. This film needed to be a little more like-Die Hard III- and less like the original movie there were remaking. The first-Shaft- film was more fun and interesting. Baby Boy- Never saw and had no interest in seeing. OK-so-to me a sequel made by a different crew must bring something new to the table, this film brought nothing. A few of the ground breaking camera moves from the first film were recycled but that was about it. In the Theater: No cheering, no laughing-nothing-ohhhhhh! Pretty colors though. And the hot Asian chick on the poster looked about 12 years old in the film and gave me a creepy vibe whenever she talked. Also, not one WRX in the film-what is that all about?

The Hulk (3 of 5)
In a new twist the Avi Arad/Stan Lee team at MARVEL decided to hire a Drama director Ang Lee for this yarn. The results are a mixed: While much more emotionally deeper than most comic book movies the action suffers in a 90% CGI environment. There are no laughs, no applause, no nothing really. The saving graces to the film are the editing and acting. The-Comic Book / 24- type scene changes were fun and made a drab pace seem more interesting. The acting was superb. The ending was anticlimactic, the effects we good-but you could tell something was a bit off. Very nice to see the Super Cobra finally make it to a film. Everything just kind of fell a bit flat-Hulk 2 should be better.

Lets start by saying I liked the first one. Well-photographed MTV / USA style with lots of Hong Kong type fights. Simple, stupid and fun.
So now comes the sequel: Bigger Faster and Uncut-snicker. McG took what he had and went bigger, More wire work, less clothes, dumber acting, bigger stunts-.results: Coooool and stupid as expected. My only real problem with the film is the realm of impossibility that is achieved in the final sequence. Meaning: while the entire movie had scenes that were impossible, mathematically they COULD work. The final chase between Cameron and Demi was IMPOSSIBLE to do-and pissed me off just like the opening sequence of GOLDENEYE when the final few seconds of the stunt was done as a special effect-dammit!-special effects in a bond stunt-what the hell!!.
Anyways-the film was on par with the CA1 on the enjoyment scale-albeit a little more pornographic in a Austin Powers kind of way. I would put either one in my DVD player just to watch the pretty bodies and colors.

Bad Boys II : 7-18- Great rookie effort by all involved on the first one. This one will be bigger and better. It-s the Travis lock of the month.
Lara Croft – Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life: 7-25 First one a bit stupid, but the foundation was soild, the visually great Jan DeBont takes a turn and it looks very good so far.
SWAT : 8-8 Very stylish and a great shoot-um-up premise
Freddy Vs. Jason: 8-15 test audiences love it, and that means something in these films.
Jeepers Creepers II: 8-29 1st one was a truly wonderful horror flick, looks like more of the same.
Once Upon a time in Mexico: 9-12 Part three of the El Mariachi/Deserado series from Robert Rodriguez. He has not let me down yet.
Underworld 9-19 Something a little different from blade, and the effects look clean.

And a little further down the road:
Kill Bill: 10-10 Teaser just makes me want more, Video store junkie making a Kung Fu flick-what can go wrong!
Return of the King: 12-17 Finally get to close the book on a history making series.
Matrix Revolutions: 11-5 ..Ditto!

Once I heard this was in the making-WITHOUT Cameron-I cringed. But my faith in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (opps-was I supposed to say that) was always solid, so I dropped my doubts and went in clean. Guess what-it was pretty good. A step down from the-Example of PERFECT Filmmaking- that was T2. But the story had merit and the characters grew and were fun to watch. I have gotten into discussions on whether the TX was an upgrade or downgrade of the T1000, and that alone told me there was something to this film. The camerawork so-so, but 10 years ago this would have been great. But with T2 and the Matrix films in the mix, visually it just seemed-well-so so. Arnold walked through this (but that-s OK) Loken didn-t bring much but boobs (that-s really OK) but Stahl and Danes brought quite a bit to the table. They grew the most and using their point of view to the movie kept it grounded. The-mine is bigger than yours- stuff was fun: bigger trucks,bigger helicopters,bigger everything. Hydrogen fuel cell destruction was kind of cool too; even paying homage to the way the first T101 bought it. And while I liked the ending-hint–It is inevitable- I wanted 10 or 20 more minutes to take it farther. So if a sequel comes cool-if not, this was by far the weakest of the three.

Ghosts of the Abyss (4 of 5) IMAX 3-D
While most IMAX films are rides more than journeys, this film has an underlying soul that explains quite a bit more than the Titanic films could. 60% percent of it is still a-Ride- taking us to the bottom of the ocean to see the sunken behemoth in 3-D. showing us new gadgets and neat graphics and spilt screen views of where we are. Cameron isn-t even in the film all that much, he lets friend and actor-Fuck You Asshole- Bill Paxton (that-s right he said it first) be his voice and eyes. As we see different things, little history lessons pop up and new heroes are created. A good, extremely well filmed journey through time. Then near the end something unexpected happens, one of the ROV units losses battery power and get stuck in the wreckage. After some meetings they try the gutsy move of using the other ROV to try and snag it. And it gets stuck too. After an hour of frustration Cameron takes the controls and gives it one last try-they are freed-yea!!!. On they way back up elated with their triumph they log the experience 6:30PM September 11,2001. When they hit the surface they are told the news, and it hits like a ton of bricks, and the moviegoers feel it too. Wonder and emotion in a 1 hour film-brilliant.

Bruce Almighty (3.8 of 5)
It-s a simple well proven formula: get a nice camera, point it at Carry and start laughing. This one has a little more heart due to the supporting cast. Freeman is wonderful and Aniston hits all of her marks. The Daily Shows- Steve Carell is really delightful and steals a few scenes as the butt of a few jokes. The finger trumpet and-you can-t be an asshole- scenes were priceless. But the non PG-13-Back to you, fuckers!- took the cake. By the end Scoody Doo syndrome sets in and a wonderful happy film for the whole family (except for the asshole and fuckers part) comes out. Lots of laughing, a few well placed-you didn-t see-THE MAJESTIC- so I-m going to make you cry- moments. This is a fun film to watch along the lines of-LIAR LIAR-.

38,118 Miles and 26,280 Hours later I am closing the book on the greatest car I have ever owned (leased).-Big Blue- gets put out to stud today, and while it has seen a Rams Superbowl win and return, A terrorist first strike, two retaliation ass whoopings, the birth of American Idol, and the slide of democratic party (they had it coming), 4 Dodger games, 3 Angels games, 6 LA Xtreme games, 2 Rams games, through it all it still remained a zero maintaince vehicle. It never whined, even with the occasional bad detail job and only being garaged 6 of its 1095 days. While finances keep me from getting another like it right now, I know that Daimler /Chrysler moves to the front of the pack of US carmakers. And I will look them up again. Here are some pics of the final day-

And just in case you wanted to know how I am getting around for the next few months…..

1989 Honda PC800 – Pacific Coast. (#3 on my all-time-here-to-there- vehicles)

Full List:
1. 1972-78 GMC Motor home (DeLorean designed…some still at $50,000)
2. General Hummer Hum-Vee (In a word: Unstoppable)
3. Honda PC800 (Adult Scooter)
4. Toyota Previa AWD-SC (Best designed minivan ever)
5. Sea-Doo Explorer Rib Boat (Most useful carefree boat of them all)

One day I will have them all……..

The Ballad of-Kobe Dick-
Howdy folks, just wanted to chime in on the Kobe situation. Don-t like basketball: Highest crime/player ration in sports, to much trash talking, so just the fact he is in that sport is a strike against him. (Scale tips to accuser) There is also an incident that happened at Houston-s in Manhattan Beach that bothered me: Kobe came in bought food for 8 people, left without paying. The when restaurant confronted Lakers he came back and paid-minus tip. (Scale tips farther toward accuser) Then I saw this: PICTURE
Scale balanced again. Why you asked, It-s a vibe I get, she looks like a little Nicole Brown Simpson to me. In the words of Chris Rock- I don-t support OJ killing her-but I understand- . Nicole’s actions during and after the divorce would frustrate even Jesus Christ. In this girl I see the same ‘popular high school cheerleader’ that found out how hard it was to make it in the real world. She wants the Rodeo Dr lifestyle without working for it. And when the sugar daddy of her life dumped her, she saw it slipping away. Failed relationship, failed career, failed suicide attempt-the girl is a failure. With no skills and no chance of reaching her goal. I knew people like this-.and I see it in her. Not to mention Kobe seems like a smart guy, an Adulterous Moron, but not a guy that would risk a billion dollar career on a white girl, even if it was served up on a platter….snicker.
So in my undeniably bias opinion-It could go either way. But it takes a lot of balls to pursue something like this-and she is genetically lacking. So I think she may drop the charges once the load-o-shit starts hitting her.

SeaBiscuit (4.7 of 5)
About as-near perfect- of all the films this year! History channel with a budget! If you don-t cheer for everyone in this film something is wrong with you! That being said: still only places behind 85-s-Phar Lap- but stays ahead of Casey-s-Shadow- show position as the best horse movie ever. A rich and methodical telling of the West Coast phenom that beat the Triple Crown winning goliath-War Admiral- in a match race during the depression. Where the film really shines is in the relationships that are created along the way. Seabiscuit is the catalyst for a true rag tag group of individuals to be national heroes. The races are well filmed but nothing too new until the final race, which has some truly amazing slow motion shots including the money shot of Seabiscuit-s front hoofs almost hitting you in the face down the home stretch. The real charm to the races for me came with the conversations between Red Pollard and George Wolff during the race. The planning, the plotting, the-have a nice ride- stuff gave me goose bumps and made the races an emotional roller coaster instead of just an tense adrenalin rush. My grandfather raised racehorses and I can remember countless trips to Agua Caliente in the late 70-s to see-Castle Run- and Second Place- dash for the line. And seeing Seabiscuit get his start there and staying in the stables south of the field brought back all the trips, and walks, and brushings from my youth. Bridges had a bit of-Tucker- in the presentation but everyone else brought some truly inspired performances to the table. A Tobey supporting actor nod may come his way. This movie is a keeper and not just because it is a great history lesson but it also to shows how to make a emotionally perfect film with out shoving down your throat. Note to my mom: bring a whole box-.you-ll be crying like clockwork on this one.