What is the last movie you saw? and rate it.

Been asking that question myself. But let me add a few of names to that trifecta of brotherly love you've got there: Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, The Ayatollah Khomeini, Fidel Castro, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler...I'm sure there're more. Oh yeah, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Jefferson Davis, Antonio López de Santa Anna, and of course George III.

I do agree with what Howard Zinn said in that clip, something like - watch governments closely, listen to what they say, and watch what they do. But I'm not yet cynical enough to believe that the United States' recent foreign adventures where all planned out as some shady international economic deal. And an internet video that chops up sound bites of Alan Greenspan, Richard Nixon, Dick Cheney, and Fox News (P'Tooey); and then forms a general conclusion as to a grand plan behind U.S. foreign policy is a good example of horribly flawed inductive reasoning and, well, commie propaganda.

Anyway the big question that's been weighing on my mind lately is - what's going to happen when Rick Perry is elected President of the United States? You know, he's from TEXAS.

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Originally Posted by Sancho

Anyway the big question that's been weighing on my mind lately is - what's going to happen when Rick Perry is elected President of the United States? You know, he's from TEXAS.

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Surely the question is 'if' rather than 'when' but, assuming that he gets to the White House, how about secession?

With a cast of top class actors of the period, this thriller opens with a cleverly planned murder of an arms dealer by his wife and her lover. It then falls apart with the killer trapped in a lift while his car is stolen and used in the random killing of two German tourists. It was much admired in its day, but with a plot full of holes, Louis Malle's directorial debut is nothing to write home about even though the Paris locations are, as always, very watchable.

http://youtu.be/sjURPebrbrY

My wife and I watched Blended last night: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blended/ Initially, the dialog seemed goofy, but that was before we finished our bottles of Dragon's Milk: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/335/5428/. After the stout, the dialog was great. I was looking forward to a nice comedy like 50 First Dates from Barrymore and Sandlers and, with the help of the beer, they delivered.

Score:10/10

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Originally Posted by Emil Miller

Surely the question is 'if' rather than 'when' but, assuming that he gets to the White House, how about secession?

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Oh no, it's when. Just ask Governor Perry. He'll tell ya. Definitely when. Boy Howdy. But what happens then? My guess is we'll all be packing heat and wearing those pointy toed cowboy boots that can smash a cockroach in a corner.

Braveheart 8/10

It just seemed appropriate with all this talk of secession (on both sides of the pond). I'm afraid though this time over here if Perry is elected, it'll be North that secedes. In fact, it's probable that everybody except TEXAS secedes.

I don't normally watch the news. I didn't know Scotland wanted to secede from the UK until I read about it in one of Biggus' poems. But I think he's right. The other parts of the UK should vote on whether they want to let Scotland stay.

And now I hear that Texas just might want to secede or the rest of us might want to secede from Texas and I think to myself if a state can avoid its share of the US national debt by seceding from the union, that might be a good move unless the remaining states don't ultimately plan to pay it back anyway.

At the library I found out that Joan Rivers died and so I checked out "Don't Start With Me". She was 78 when she made this movie, three years ago, and I don't know where she got the energy and the jokes were crude and funny, just what I expected.

Score: 10/10 and I wasn't even drinking.

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Originally Posted by Sancho

Oh no, it's when. Just ask Governor Perry. He'll tell ya. Definitely when. Boy Howdy. But what happens then? My guess is we'll all be packing heat and wearing those pointy toed cowboy boots that can smash a cockroach in a corner.

Braveheart 8/10

It just seemed appropriate with all this talk of secession (on both sides of the pond). I'm afraid though this time over here if Perry is elected, it'll be North that secedes. In fact, it's probable that everybody except TEXAS secedes.

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That might be construed as having an anti-Texan bias. After all, I seem to recall that the present incumbent's predecessor came from Texas and his oratory will go down in history like that of Demosthenes and Cicero....but not for the same reason.

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Originally Posted by YesNo

I don't normally watch the news. I didn't know Scotland wanted to secede from the UK until I read about it in one of Biggus' poems. But I think he's right. The other parts of the UK should vote on whether they want to let Scotland stay.

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Well they decided against independence. One of the many questions that might have concerned them was what their national anthem would be. Here's one possibility:



http://youtu.be/dF7wXe1LznU

^ouch, but also, Hahaha! Toot that saxophone.

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Originally Posted by Emil Miller

That might be construed as having an anti-Texan bias. After all, I seem to recall that the present incumbent's predecessor came from Texas and his oratory will go down in history like that of Demosthenes and Cicero....but not for the same reason.

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Heh-heh, Dubya does have a way with words, don't he - a splendiferous oratalogical gift.

The sad thing about it is that people are always misunderestimating him. It's gittin' me all hot under the collar just thinkin' about it. I'm fixin' to git heat frustration!

The Outlaw Josey Wales, 10/10

Based on the book, Gone To TEXAS, by Forrest (Asa) Carter, a man with very checkered past.

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Originally Posted by Sancho

Heh-heh, Dubya does have a way with words, don't he - a splendiferous oratalogical gift.

The sad thing about it is that people are always misunderestimating him.

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This reminds me of the time when during his term of office there was a large anti-Bush demonstration in London about the Iraq war. A reporter covering the event wrote that he tried to interview one of the demonstrators but he couldn't understand him because the man was still wearing his George W Bush mask.

The governor of TEXAS that preceded Dubya probably said it best:

Poor George, he caint help it - he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.

http://youtu.be/ZgeQ_y7LMRI

Although the quote was about George H.W. Bush, it works for junior as well. Ann Richards truly had a way with words. That speech at the '88 Democratic Convention made her nationally and even internationally famous. Queen Elizabeth noticed, in fact she visited the governor in Austin in '91.

Ann Richards was also the last (and only) TEXAS governor that I ever voted for. I was living there at the time. She was defeated for reelection by Dubya in a particularly nasty campaign. It was a real smear job designed by the miscreant Karl Rove.

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Originally Posted by Emil Miller

Well they decided against independence. One of the many questions that might have concerned them was what their national anthem would be. Here's one possibility:



http://youtu.be/dF7wXe1LznU

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That potential national anthem got me wondering what "Hoots Mon" even means.

I asked my wife if she knew that Scotland wanted to secede. She told me that was old news and that they voted against secession confirming what you said. I suppose I could have just looked this up on the internet. She said that Scotland has all the natural resources and the nukes. No wonder they wanted to secede.

For movies, I saw the documentary, "Bad Grandpa .5". My wife declined to view it with me. It was a good description of how they made "Bad Grandpa", a movie both of us enjoyed.

Score: 10/10

This British film has a weird provenance insofar as its cast and director are concerned. It was directed by Laslo Benedek, director of The Wild One, and stars Dorothy Dandridge, Edmund Purdom and Trevor Howard; casting doesn't get much weirder than that. A few stalwarts of British supporting actors such as Michael Hordern, Alfred Burke and Paul Stassino complete the lineup. The story looks as though it was made up as they went along and it's a pity to see Trevor Howard in such low grade material, although the opening scene where a burglary is carried out in total silence in the presence of the sleeping victim was genuinely exciting. All in all though, it falls into that category where someone with too much money backs a film that should never have been made.

4/10

Who Is Dayani Cristal?
2013
8/10

It's a documentary about migrant workers coming into the United States from south of the border. I know, as soon as I said "documentary" it sounds boring, but it's not. Here's the set up:

Deputies from the Pima County Sheriff Department are heading out into Sonora Desert to do a body recovery. Pima County is in Southern Arizona and runs from Tucson to the Mexican border. There are some beautiful shots of the desert, but then you see the buzzards circling. The body is of a young man and it is beginning to bloat. Thankfully the film makers digitally blurred the man's face. The one distinguishing characteristic of the body is a tattoo across his chest: Dayani Cristal, hence the name of the film.

You then spend time with the coroner and a representative from the Mexican Consulate in a forensics lab in Tucson. Hats off to these two for what they do. They were serious and conscientious about their task. At one point the coroner looks at the camera and sort of sheepishly says something like - I had to remove the hands and try to rehydrate them to get good fingerprints.

They get a hit on the fingerprints and determine that the man is a migrant worker from Honduras. From there the film takes you along the man's journey from his village in Honduras to the desert near Tucson - and back. The young Mexican actor, Gael Garcia Bernal, narrates as he tries to retrace the man's footsteps, riding atop trains, sleeping in shelters, and chatting with people who are making the trip for real - to the promised land.

It's gritty, it's real, and it's personal.

"Who is Dayani Cristal" sounds interesting. I'll have to keep it on my list with the others people recommend here.

I ran into this short film (less than 12 minutes) as an advertisement prior to watching some other YouTube video, but it was the only advertisement I actually finished watching. It is one of the Jameson First Shot 2014 series of short films called "The Mundane Goddess" written and directed by Henco J: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujqoQ6V_kl0

The Greek gods have incarnated as ordinary people and Hera is in therapy complaining about her life.

Score: 8/10