Jake Gyllenhaal by Barbara.Doduk

Not surprisingly, I was unimpressed by the social agenda of the film. I think it could have been spectacular without all the cheesy gimmicks. The wife and mother-in-law have a good relationship, and wife is very pregnant. Cheese. I recorded it because I haven’t got my latest installment of The Wire from Netflix.

And wtf with the family man being the terrorist suspect? You can turn on any documentary and the terrorist profile will be a single male. I think of it like honor among thieves, in the extremist world the suicide bombers bless their mothers with their martyrdom, not their children. The mafia never leave their wives, that sort of logic.

Of course, I could have terrible reading and viewing comprehension. But I don’t think so.

I have great appreciation for the acting talent. Just not the cheese in the script. Could the audience not feel the pain of a single male immigrant, or a couple? Are viewers that stupid?  I think I could cry with Reese Witherspoon without the tiny boy and pregnant belly.

Peter Sarsgaard made me think he could be my favorite ex-boyfriend. He’s incredible in that way that Kevin Spacey is incredible because you don’t even know it’s him until you’re looking at the cast list on IMDB. And then you realize you’ve seen him in a half dozen films.

The film does have redeeming qualities. The scenery is terrific. And there are a couple of interesting plot loops. They are not completely surprising in retrospect. But I was enjoying the film during the watching, not over-analyzing, so I got to say a nice little, oooh, at the end.

I’m a practical person. One could rage all day at the injustice and inhumanity of torture. But in my opinion the single best argument against it is that it is ineffective. A tortured person will say anything to make the pain stop. That doesn’t yield good intelligence. That doesn’t mean I think it’s a good idea otherwise. I just choose not to use morality as an argument when there is no telling what sort of moral compass another arguer would have.

But who could regard my opinion. Because stuck in my head instead of the torture, is Gyllenhaal without a shirt.

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David Duchovny by mobu26

So far I have watched half of season two courtesy of Netflix. So my commentary will include only references to those episodes.

I continue to loath Madeline Zima’s character Mia, who imho brings only smarminess to the show, which is quite possibly the point. I just don’t enjoy her character. She is a nasty, manipulative, oversexed teen. How obvious. And any adult with any sense whatsoever would stay far, far away from her. And the Hank character says as much – why is she here, why do we need her attitude?

Somebody in a seat of power must like Zima; because Karen broke up with Mia’s father at the end of season one, which could have effectively terminated the Mia relationship. I really wish it had. There are plenty of female characters on the show. Do we need her?

Hank’s dick continues to get him into trouble. I say it flatly that way, because it seems to go with the theme. He goes down on a strange woman. Which seems quite humorous. I mean, really, if Karen didn’t want to shag him post-vasectomy, in a strange house, how would he get turned around and end up in the wrong dark room with a strange naked woman?

I don’t dislike the Karen character. I just think she isn’t always honest with herself about the fact that she loves Hank as the jerk that he is, and not some imaginary other person who can keep it in his pants. If he didn’t get himself featured on Defamer every now and then; he wouldn’t be Hank.

Hank is the probable father of a child created in an episode during season one. This bit of information is uncovered during a dinner party. Note to Hank: See, once you have a cheap screw with somebody, you’re supposed to throw them away. That’s why it’s called a one night stand – because it is only supposed to last one night. Which pretty much sums up why I think Hank and Karen are so dysfunctional, because they can’t throw anything away, even ex-lovers.

Becca gets a boyfriend. And Hank acts the way you would imagine a hound-dog would when a boy gets near his daughter. It’s quite funny.

Hank is working in this season, not for the Dialtone, Mia’s father and Karen’s former fiance. And that brings another interesting set of problems and strange people into the show.

Charlie and Marcie Runkle continue to be themselves. My favorite line from Marcie is “I wax hairy tacos.”

It’s so wrong. I just can’t look away.

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Sounds labor intensive and kind of nonsensical, no?

[twitter]

I found a little app that I like, Yoono, that runs in the sidebar and creates a feed that combines Twitter and Facebook.  Most importantly, it lets me edit the feed to some degree.  So I don’t need to follow every friends activity in Farmville and Mafia Wars.  If I have time to kill, I can actually go to Facebook and play.  But in the course of a normal day, when I have stuff to accomplish, I can read the highlights.  This was especially handy when SIL was posting baby on the way updates.

It’s a much better method, than what I was doing previously, which was not logging in to Facebook more than once a week.  Because it can truly be a time sink.

I’m thinking now about the rules of engagement for comments.  Because I have unfriended a person, because person has digressed to being unable to talk about anything unrelated to getting laid.  Ditto for comment to my blog.  I could go on.  But I’ll spare you.

[unfriend]

So here’s the question:  is social networking skewing the filter of polite behaviour?  Too much freedom to get our thoughts out in the world?  Too easy to pull the trigger and hit enter? 

In my defense… I use my standard test for peoples actions and whether I need to be party to them and look for a pattern.  An occasional foot in the mouth in my estimation is typical.  Toxic with regularity is to be avoided.

Then there is the business end of things.  I’m good with reading a few times a day about somebody’s hobby or profession, unless it is the only topic.  Or it gets all hourly spammy.  But the pay per post type links on twitter.  Ugh.  Isn’t this why people pay for cable, and  tivo, and subscribe to xm radio?  Me anyway.

Hulu has this new feature where you have to watch an ad to keep it free, but get to choose which ad.  I like this.  The trojan condom commercial where Joe Average hooks up with a hot girl because she is a vampire is hilarious.  And there is a bacardi ad that I like because of the music.  On the other hand, there’s a VW ad and a banking ad that I hope I never have to see again.  Fortunately, I haven’t had to.  I can stick to the R rated condom and liquor commercials that entertain me.

We’re about to turn the cable back on. We turned it off because it’s a time sink and crazy expensive considering we can watch tv free.  Except that there is a racquet for tv and sports.  DH cannot watch his sports on the pc.  They are blocked or otherwise unavailable.  So after months of torture, I suggested we turn it back on.  Some people drink in the evening and unwind.  DH watches sports.  I like him better with his sports.  He’s happier. 

I have not missed tv much, because I watch Hulu and Netflix and whatever else crops up.  I miss DH having tv, golf in particular.  I will be pleased to see Law and Order SVU again.  And I will like lifting weights while I watch tv.  I don’t do that when I’m on the computer, because I’m attached to a headset and the screen is small.

Damn, I’m wordy tonight.  And now we return to our regularly scheduled programming.

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The woman needs medication.  And then, this recent episode, Season 5, Episode 16, Clean, she’s taking all sorts of pills.  The most interesting thing about it though is that Tommy is the hero of the story and a likeable alcoholic.  And she is this crazy, neurotic bitch that makes my skin crawl.  Doesn’t seem fair now does it?

[Callie Thorne, Sheila Keefe on Rescue Me]

I had another example, of another crazy, manipulative bitch in a male dominated, male written tv show that I otherwise like. But as soon as I thought of the Sheila character, I creeped myself out and forgot.

It isn’t a good commentary on men either, these freaky women, because the Tommy character actually likes her.  Another, wtf. 

I also saw Public Enemies a week or so ago, which seemed to me a chick-flick with a lot of gunfire.  I’m fairly certain that if I tried to watch it at home I would have fallen asleep.  Being the freak that I am.  I like movies for guys who like movies.  So, if it’s a gangster film, I want to see an actual gangster film.  I’m good with a chick-flick now and then, so long as that’s what I’m expecting.  But a chick-flick with gunfire is just kind of sneaky.  I guess it having Marion Cotilliard should have tipped me off.  Either way, I did like it.  I just wanted to see a really Godfather-esque type film.  Like American Gangster.  That was great.

I’m currently trying to watch JCVD on Netflix in ten minute increments.  Ten minutes at a time because that is about how much of anything I can do without interruption.  So far I really like it.  But I’m partial to movies where the English and the French run together, makes me feel at home.  Even if they are in Belgium.

DH does not want to go with me to see the new Terminator movie.  Boo.

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