Bus Fumes

If you haven't already seen this piece of dreck, don't bother.

For the first 15 minutes or so of this movie, Buckaroo Bonsai kept saying, "I don't know. Maybe this movie was just misunderstood." (Nope. It's a double stiff middle finger to the viewer, as far as I'm concerned.)

After the first half hour, however, BB was wondering if we could get a refund on the video rental. In fact, he thought that maybe Blockbuster should compensate us for pain and suffering.

Lousy script, terrible acting. Was director Wes Anderson really involved in the day-to-day filming, or did he just phone it in?

Think I'm exaggerating? Then how about this review by pongoboy:

Bill Murray has been on a downhill slide ever since Meatballs, he has finally hit bottom! Fortunately I just rented this stinker. Oh my, did it suck. If you liked this then you'll like "Glitter"...

He's not kidding.
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Bill Quick takes on director Stephen Soderbergh. He's no more thrilled with him than Buckaroo Bonsai and I are with Wes Anderson.

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Is it me, or has Hollywood forgotten it has an actual paying audience? Seems to me that many, many of the movies that have come out lately are self-indulgent crap, intended to please the director and/or actors, but giving not one tiny crap about anyone or anything else.

So what do moviegoers want?

Intelligent stories and characters -- NEW stories, not remakes or rehashes. (I read about a bazillion books a year. Trust me, there are great new books that would make wonderful screenplays.)

No more Michael Moore political documentaries. I will not pay for the "privilege" of having someone else's political views rammed down my throat. Ever.

Less CGI, more actual acting.

Children's movies actually made for children.

Teen movies that are clearly teen movies. Remember this one? Or this one? Or this one?

Mature movies for adult audiences. Ones that don't pander to the lowest common denominator. Comedies, parodies or shoot-em-ups are okay. But they should be really well written and acted. Action movies should actually have a plot.

And would it kill the powers that be to make more movies that are a little offbeat and actually advertise them and put them in the big theaters?

Call me crazy, but whoever made movies for distribution in 2005 seems by and large to have forgotten... or disregarded... any of this. Feh.

Is it any wonder that I wait until most films come out on video before I see them?

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Two very good questions indeed. Gah!

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Speaking of the Kelo decision, Lynne Kiesling's husband has a very good point:

He said that his biggest objection to the ruling was that it opened up more avenues for local governments to engage in risky and speculative activity, at great risk and potential cost to taxpayers. Governments are not the proper institutions for engaging in risky ventures; they don't hedge, they don't do a good job of managing costs, and they impose risks on people unwittingly that they might not choose to accept themselves.

Great. Just great. Our tax dollars at work.

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Durrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! (At least I'm not the only one that gets my knickers in a knot over asshattery like this.)

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Here's a spectacular bit of fumage on the President and Kelo.

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There's even fuming in the funny pages. Wow. (A tip of the cap to Steve H.)

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I generally think highly of Obama, but this was a distinctly stupid thing to say when you're a Senator from the great state of Illinois, better known as the "Land of Lincoln."

What the hell is wrong with Democratic representatives from Illinois? Don't they get it that you don't piss off the folks who voted you in to office?

Oh, Mayor Daley!!! Time to dust off the cluebat again!

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