HAPPY 2006 FROM THE ENTIRE STAFF HERE AT MOTHERBOX WHO PROMISES NOT TO LET WEEKS AND WEEKS GO BY BETWEEN POSTS IN THE EVENT ANYBODY'S EVEN STILL

PAYING ATTENTION, OKAY? NO EXCUSES. I LOVE YOU ALL. KISSES. THE MOLE.

A special Dover Area School District Rerun Of....

“Although proponents of the IDM (Intelligent Design Model) occasionally suggest that the designer could be a space alien or a time-travelling cell biologist, no serious alternative to God as the designer has been proposed by member of the IDM, including Defendants’ expert witnesses.”

--Opinion of the Presiding Judge, Intelligent Design Trial, Page 25
Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District, December 20, 2005

I refer you again to an earlier K.I.G. - and rest my case: http://motherbox.blogspot.com/2005/09/my-evidence-for-intelligent-design.html

KONG SAY SEE MOVIE NOW

Yesterday I was in Best Buy and they were selling a dual pack of DVD's of the old Japanese King Kong movies from the '60's -- King Kong vs. Godzilla and King Kong Returns, for twenty bucks. I was sorely tempted by both but held off. I love both movies from when I was a kid but it just didnt seem like the thing to do.

So today I took that twenty bucks and went to see Peter Jackson's new King Kong. Let me tell you, I am very glad I saved my money. I will echo all the other critics and tell you that King Kong gives the kind of fun, thrills, and jawdropping wonder that got me to learn to love movies in the first place. Jackson has taken his eye for grandeur and scope and coupled it with that amazing imagination that allows him to put all this together somehow in his head and make it come out on screen and produce and absolute and total classic. The cast is great -- Jack Black finds his way admirably as the showman Carl Denham and Naomi Watts does an almost-wordless performance making friends with the big monkey that makes you forget (or be totally amazed) that she probably did the whole thing in front of a green screen while looking at a stuffed gorrilla doll on a stick.

But the real star here is Kong himself, amazingly performed by the best unknown famous actor in the world, Andy Serkis, who gives Kong a humanity and a pathos that would not be there if they had "just" computer generated him. Every look, every roar, every glance conveys character because Mr. S is inside looking out. Someday he's going to get a part that allows him to show the same complexity he's brought to Smeagol and Kong and then he'll get his deserved Oscar.

So to sum up:

1) DO NOT wait for this to come out on DVD - this is a movie made for the movie theater, and it will not translate especially well to the tube.

2) Brontosaurus stampede. (!!!!)

3) Kong fights three (3) T-Rex's. At once. This sequence will leave you breathless.

4) Empire State Building sequence heart wrenching and brilliant.

5) You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll feel your nine-to-twelve bucks was well spent.

6) Did I say "brontosaurus stampede"????

GO. NOW. Drop everything. See the best movie of the year. Please.

Dont Ask Me Why No One Quite Knows The Reason

Just a quick note tonight cuz I want to see the Grinch, the real Boris-Karloff-Chuck-Jones Grinch not the incredibly bad Ron-Howard-Who-The-Hell-Thought-He-Could-Pull-It-Off-Even-With-Jim-Carrey Grinch-like thing. Horrors.

A quick shout out to Mr. Christopher Moore, who wrote the most important theological book of the 21st century, the incredibly hilarious Lamb: The Gospel According to Christ's Best Friend Biff, which should be read by everyone with a brain and a funny bone (this excludes Larry the Cable Guy, for example, who has neither) -- I have recently completed Moore's earlier book, Fluke, which is to Moby Dick what Douglas Adams is to, I dunno, Stanislaw Lem or something. If you ever wanted to truly understand whales and laugh out loud while you do, Fluke is your book. It's a quick read for those of you looking for something entertaining over winter break and all in all worth the eleventyseven dollars or whatever it costs.

Okay, let's head for Whoville. See you later, defibrillator.

This isn't writing, this is typing!

It was certainly something of a shock to me when, at some point, I learned that Truman Capote was somebody important in the world of literature, and not just the weird, whiny-voiced guy with the cape on Hollywood Squares (where he thankfully was outweirded routinely by Paul Lynde and Rip Taylor, which may have helped preserve whatever dignity he had left -- but what kinda backstage party must that threesome have made!).

Anyway, I have not yet had the opportunity to read In Cold Blood, but having seen the absolutely masterful film Capote (for which Phillip Seymour Hoffman was deservedly awarded a Golden Globe nomination today) it is rapidly moving to the top of the list. I am surprised the movie itself did not get nominated, as the film is absolutely stunning, the antithesis of American film in the 21st century: quiet, thoughtful, character-driven, and still resonates weeks after seeing it.

Roughly covering the period of time between the murders that inspire Capote's book and the ultimate completion and publication of the finished work, Capote presents an incredible character study of the author, made absolutely real by Hoffman's astounding performance. He absolutely disappears into Capote's skin, as he does in every role he takes on, and stakes a claim to being the best character actor working in film today.

The key to the film is the amazing symmetry between Capote's life and the life of the killer he befriends and cajoles into telliing the gruesome story: at one point he says it is as if the two of them grew up in the same house, and one day the killer walked out the back door and Capote walked out the front. Hoffman wastes no gesture, no inflection and manages to keep his subject from caricature. To date, it is the best movie of the year in my mind, and Hoffman is worthy of the highest critical and popular accolades.

Do you get the sense I like it? Dont wait, go see it while it's still in the theaters. More soon.

Hear the Voice of DOOM!

Okay, the Mole sucks as a blogger, he admits it. There is much to be desired in the swift completion of his appointed round. Nonetheless, I do endeavor to press on, in hopes that I can reward the occasional traveller with an oasis of info and levity. And in that vein, let's discuss Doom 2099.

One of the first attempts to bring some new life into the Marvel Universe, back in the early '90's, was to take all the heroes a century or so into the future and reinvent them all -- thus were the 2099 books, including Ravage 2099, Spiderman 2099, X-Men 2099 -- you get the picture. But one of the most original of these was Doom 2099, which took Marvel's best ever bad guy, Victor von Doom, King of Latveria, bopped him thru a timewarp into the future, and gave him a whole new world to roam. The interesting twist in this series, and all the 2099 books, was that the future was largely run by corporations, and there was some pre-Matrix (I think) internet-reality interface stuff -- and furthermore, some question as to whether the Doom in this story was in fact the Doom of the Marvel Universe, or some alternate realm, or something else.

In any event, some terrific stories, interesting arcs and subplots, and some very nice characterizations of Doom hisownself add up to a very entertaining comic book. It was cancelled around its 45th issue but I have managed to procure the first 21 issues over the past few months from 50 cent bins around the region. I highly recommend this sci-fi adventure series to anybody who likes words in their comics and intelligence in their plots -- some great artwork from the always-excellent Pat Broderick as well. The Mole sez check it out.

Coming Soon: Movie Night with Truman Capote.

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. - Philip K. Dick

Photo Courtesy of the Great Mole Father