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In 1925, Dodge Connelly is a charming, brash football hero who is determined to guide his team from bar brawls to packed stadiums. But after the players lose their sponsor and the entire league faces certain collapse, Dodge convinces a college football star to join his ragtag ranks. The captain hopes his latest move will help the struggling sport finally capture the country’s attention. Welcome to the team Carter Rutherford, America’s favorite son. A golden-boy war hero who single-handedly forced multiple German soldiers to surrender in WWI, Carter has dashing good looks and unparalleled speed on the field. This new champ is almost too good to be true, and Lexie Littleton aims to prove that’s the case. A cub journalist playing in the big leagues, Lexie is a spitfire newswoman who suspects there are holes in Carter’s war story. But while she digs, the two teammates start to become serious off-field rivals for her fickle affections. As the new game of pro-football becomes less like the freewheeling sport he knew and loved, Dodge must both fight to keep his guys together and to get the girl of his dreams. Finding that love and football have a surprisingly similar playbook, however, he has one maneuver he will save just for the fourth quarter.

Genres: Comedy and Sports; Running Time: 1 hr. 53 min.; Release Date: April 4th, 2008 (wide); MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief strong language.

Starring: George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski, Wayne Duvall, Jonathan Pryce

Directed by: George Clooney

Lay and I watched this movie on TV Saturday evening as an Amazon.com download. There was great chemistry between Clooney and Zellweger. The movie had some funny moments, and would be OK for a family to see. That gags were reasonably funny. Clooney did  a great job recreating what I take to be the period.

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Genres: Drama, Adaptation and War; Running Time: 1 hr. 33 min.; Release Date: November 7th, 2008 (limited); MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some mature thematic material involving the Holocaust.

Starring: Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, Cara Horgan, David Hayman, Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon

Directed by: Mark Herman

I was moved beyond words by this movie. It was maybe one of the saddest and most moving stories I’ve seen. All the actors were great, but especially Asa Butterfield as Bruno, the Nazi Commandants son, and Jack Scanlon as the Jewish child Schmuel were just remarkable. The music was beautiful in its simplicity, and by the end came to sound like a hymn.

This story has so many messages that it’s hard to know where to begin. First there is the story of the innocence of childhood. It is amazing to be able to see the world through children’s eyes, and realize how really simple the world can be. We just have to find those things we have in common with one another, and friendship is easy. There is the moral story of karma. Those who foment hate and evil may have it come around to bite them in the ass.

This movie was a stunning morality play, and I hope it will be seen by millions. This movie, like Schindler’s List, is an important story with an important message applicable to how we treat one another today, and a reminder of the importance of never ever standing by for this type of evil. At the end of the movie everyone in the theater sat quietly rather than making the usual dash to the exits. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was stunned into a soul searching reflection. Even as we began to leave, with the beautiful piano solo playing the movie theme that had become more like a hymn, people could only whisper in respect for the experience.

It was also amazing to hear the language used to teach hate for other’s, and see how it can effective for those looking to blame their problems on someone else. It was remarkably similar to the words and tactics used by those today to dehumanize gay people.

Know that the film’s resolution, though admirably restrained and unsentimental, is devastatingly sad. Parents should take this into account. This beautifully rendered film is told in a classic and old-fashioned style, in the best sense, providing poignant and powerful teachable moments.

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I think I love the atmosphere most. It’s a rustic look with exposed brick walls and a dark oil stained wood floor. The restaurant is very deep and narrow with on long continuous bench down one wall with a comfortable cushions and pillows, and the expected row of tables. The place is basically divided in half by a less than head high divider wall separating the dining area from the bar. We have eaten at the bar, and the experience was OK. It has an atmosphere of relaxed charm, without being pretentious. There is changing art on the wall over the bench, and there are always interesting pieces. They generally play very nice jazz at just the right level, and I believe they have live music on Sunday’s.

The wait staff wear long aprons with shirts and ties, and we have always enjoyed very professional service. The wait staff seem very familiar with both the menu and special items, and generally show up at just the right times. They have almost always struck that important balance between being friendly and pleasant without trying to be too “familiar.”

We have had a number of their seafood dishes and steaks, and each has been very good. Sometimes flavors can be a tiny bit bland, but we’ve never had anything bad, and all the food has always seemed fresh. We almost always get a dozen oysters on the half-shell, and they are excellent…very fresh and flavorful. Just a note here, their cocktail sause has a bit more horse radish than some sauces, so test the heat before “swabbing” it on. They serve fried and baked oysters in an assortment of preparations, and we’ve tried most of them. They are excellent, but then what would you expect from a place with “oyster” in the name.

They almost always have a crab-corn chowder, and we always get a bowl of that instead of salad, as it is excellent. This is worth the trip by itself. It is creamy without being too thick, and it has just a hint of spicy heat to it as part of finish. It’s loaded with crab, but in nice smallish pieces, so you get a lot of flavor.

Oysters, soup and two dinner entrees will run you about $70 with tip, so it’s not the least expensive place to eat, but well worth the occasional splurge. Park in the dirt parking lot in the 100 block of Central, and you can just leave your car there and walk through the parking garage to go to Baywalk for a movie. (By the way, we went to see The Boy In the Striped Pajamas Friday night, and you can read my review of this excellent movie here.)

We have never tried desert, as we are always full. In fact, we often get a dozen on the half, the chowder, and then maybe a Calamari and one of the other baked oyster appetizers and let that be the full meal. It’s always been plenty of food.

We have never experienced much of a wait, but they do take reservations, and it might not be a bad idea if you are going at peak time on a Saturday night. Also, they booked solid for Valentine’s Day a couple of years ago when we went, so be sure to call for reservations for those sorts of evenings.

We heartily recommend the place.

Central Ave Oyster Bar
www.centraloysterbar.com
249 Central Ave
St Petersburg, FL 33701
(727) 897-9728

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Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Kids/Family and Animation; Running Time: 1 hr. 35 min.; Release Date: June 6th, 2008 (wide); MPAA Rating: PG for sequences of martial arts action.

Cast: Seth Rogen, Michael Clarke Duncan, James Hong, Randall Duk Kim, Dan Fogler, Wayne Knight, Kyle Gass, J. R. Reed, Laura Kightlinger, Tanya Haden, Mark Randolph Osborne, John Wayne Stevenson, Jeremy Shipp, Melissa Cobb, Kent Osborne, Emily Robison, Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Ian McShane, Lucy Liu, Angelina Jolie, David Cross 

Directors: John Wayne Stevenson, Mark Randolph Osborne

This movie was incredible! It was so funny, I was off my seat laughing. Jack Black was awesome and the visuals were great. The kung fu parts were amazing! I think it was dreamworks best movie they ever made. All of the jokes were spot on. It had a great cast and Po was just so fat and cute in the movie, I loved him! The whole family will laugh their head off! One of the best times I had at the movies this year!

I was expecting a horrible children’s movie with a naive plot; instead I was presented with an action-packed and realistically-animated story. It also managed to sustain my laughter for the duration of the movie. The characters are lovable and easy to sympathize with. This movie is a must-see.

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Let’s take a look at some of what happened on election day. There are a number of factors that lead to the passage of these amendments. None of it should have come as a surprise, and some of it ain’t pretty.

The Mormon Church
The Mormon Church has become very much a focal point for the anger of the gay community, and they don’t like it. It’s been estimated that nearly $20m in funding for the Yes on 8 campaign in California came from people affiliated with the Mormon Church. It also appears the Church itself, in violation of a number of election laws, may have provided in-kind services such as phone banks and material support. Make no mistake, the LDS Church was a big part of the campaign to pass Proposition 8.

They have previously been active in campaigns to institutionalize the same kind of hate in Hawaii. I find it intriguing that a Church which used to (and to some extent still does) condone Polygamy, used to exclude African-Americans from membership, and were themselves persecuted, have now taken it on themselves to support bigotry and hatred around marriage rites.

“Everyone in the United States has a legal right to protest, which we support fully,” said Waterford Clayton, president of the Newport Beach stake LDS. “This is not about sexual preference. This is about the moral standing of marriage.” (Get it, the Mormons, of all people, are lecturing the rest of us on the “moral standing of marriage.”)

Something went wrong this time though. In an internal church document (LDS Church Anti-Gay Marriage Memo (PDF) (11)), the church made it clear they were pleased that the leaders of the Hawaii initiative were not being associated with the Church. This time though, the word of their unprecedented sponsorship did not go unnoticed, and now the LDS has the gall to whine and complain about being called out for it. Sorry guys, but that’s how that messy old thing called Free Speech works. I may not like your message, but I defend your right to say it, but it also means you have to make room for my speech as well, even if you don’t like the content. The Mormon Church has every right to take a stand against Gay Marriage, but Gay people then have a right to take a stand against any institution that supports hatred.

When people are angry, they need a focal point for their anger. There are lots of reasons and people and groups responsible for the outcomes on election day, but the Mormon Church is serving as a good focal point for the anger, and I’m OK with that for now, but at some point we will need to move beyond blame. 

The Voters
A great deal is being made of a surge of black and Latino voters in this election having an impact on the outcome of the Amendment in California, and I would expect to find similar numbers here in Florida and Arizona. According to a report in the Sacramento Bee, “70 percent of African Americans also voted for Proposition 8, as did 53 percent of Latino voters.” According to the report:

Last week, however, 10 percent of voters were African American while 18 percent were Latino, and applying exit poll data to that extra turnout reveals that the pro-Obama surge among those two groups gave Proposition 8 an extra 500,000-plus votes, slightly more than the measure’s margin of victory.

To put it another way, had Obama not been so popular and had voter turnout been more traditional - meaning the proportion of white voters had been higher - chances are fairly strong that Proposition 8 would have failed.

However, it was also helped along by older voters. Nate Silver at Five Thirty Eight writes:

Exit polls suggest that first-time voters — the vast majority of whom were driven to turn out by Obama (he won 83 percent [!] of their votes) — voted against Prop 8 by a 62-38 margin. More experienced voters voted for the measure 56-44, however, providing for its passage.

I can’t quite get my mind around Nate’s math. However I do agree that this can’t be blamed just on Black and Latino voters. If all white voters had voted against these initiatives, they would have failed. So it is clearly a combination of Black, Latino and Older voters.

In Florida, I think the ads and rhetoric put out by the Yes On 2 campaign was able to frighten easily confused older voters. I think that combined with a large evangelical community throughout the state, and, let’s be real, a good smattering of red necks (especially in northern parts of the state), gave the bigots the votes they needed.

The Professional Activist Organizations
There is no doubt that the professional activists organizations, the HRC nationally, and Equality Florida in my state, did not do an adequate job. Clearly the outreach to Blacks and Latinos came up short.

Here in Florida, I saw almost no TV ads, no rallies, no outreach beyond a bunch of debates at Tiger Bay clubs, and my yard sign was the only No On 2 sign in the whole neighborhood, and I know of a number of other gay households around here. Another problem was two competing organizations, and I visited both websites and could find little in the way of on-going information, just a lot of requests for money. They had blogs which hadn’t been updated since July. They were attempting to arrange for volunteers at polling places, but I’m just now sure that wasn’t too little too late.

On a more grand scale, the HRC has become a joke in my opinion. I called them to get information on implementing domestic partner benefits in my company about a year ago. It took me two phone calls and three emails to finally get a response three weeks after the final contact, and the information provided was virtually useless. They have experienced legislative failure after failure, and the outcome of this election shows their inability to have influence.

I grew up in the South in the 1960s where there were still plenty of vestiges of discrimination. I remember hearing comments about “good blacks” who “knew their place.” I now realize that both phrases were code for African-Americans who said “yes sir” and “no sir” to while folks, and didn’t make trouble demanding equal treatment. Well, I think the problem with the HRC is that they place too much emphasis on being “good gays,” and showing we “know our place.” Well, that strategy hasn’t worked so well, and the HRC’s response to the defeats?…they are going to hold a “Spa Night.” That’s right…after the hard work of losing rights already won, they need a nice evening of being pampered.

What’s Next?
The whole set of hastily organized nationwide rallies held Saturday was not organized by HRC or any of the other major activist organizations. It is truly grass-roots and came about as a result of a single person and a blog post. Some of the major organizations are upset they aren’t included, and I’m sure they will be inserting themselves, but while HRC was out having their spa night, other people were just out making stuff happen.

There were several hundred rallies across the country, and both Tampa and St. Petersburg held events. Lay and I attended the one here in Tampa. The crowd was disappointingly small, but I keep telling myself there was also one in St. Pete, and they were all being organized on very short notice.

 My prayer is that the crowds will grow, but it seems hard anymore to get gay people out and into the streets. I think we have a false sense of security and a smugness we need to get over. Many gay people have domestic partner benefits or don’t care because both partners work and have insurance. Many younger gay people don’t have the experiences we older folks have with blatant discrimination, and people seem to get in their mind that if they’re doing OK, don’t rock the boat. That’s being a “good gay,” and it’s not getting you anywhere honey. Come on out.

The Mormon Church and others keep saying that they’re not opposed to equal rights for gays (civil unions, benefits, hospital visitation, etc.), but don’t want us to have marriage. Step one is the call their bluff on civil unions. I agree completely with those who say that separate is not equal, but that will have to come from the courts. The legislative bodies don’t have the wherewithal, but it will come if all the other benefits are implemented.

We need to call out the people who claim they don’t hate gay people, but support these initiatives. The Mormon Church is a start. There’s a big story about a restaurant in LA called El Coyote that has/had a large gay clientel. Apparently the owner is a Mormon, and pulled out her checkbook and made a large donation to the Yes on 8 campaign. Apparently there’s now been a tearful where she didn’t understand why everyone was so upset. How can anyone be so stupid as to not understand. For the first time in the history of this country a Constitution was amended to TAKE AWAY rights from a group of people, and this lady doesn’t understand why members of that group would be mad at her for supporting that effort.

Another person being trotted out now by the fundies was the director California Musical Theater. He made a contribution to the Yes on 8 campaign. When people started learning about his support, they began to withdraw their support of his organization, so he resigned. Funny how this whole free speech thing works. Now Eckern, along with Frank Schubert, the campaign manager for Protect Marriage, the leading group behind the ballot measure, are defending their bigotry as a constitutional right and complaining that those who protest their actions are being intolerant. Per Schubert: “No matter your opinion on Prop. 8, we should all agree that it is wrong to intimidate or harass anyone for exercising their constitutional rights.” This coming from the group that sent a letter to contributors to the No on 8 campaign threatening them with boycotts and other actions. Oh, I get an email almost everyday with a missive from the American Family Association launching a boycott on someone. Pepsi is their latest target. This is what I was talking about earlier, they just don’t understand how that whole free speech thing cuts both ways. Man-up and face the consequences of what you did.

Next up seems to be a No Gay Day on December 10. Gay people are asked to not cosume (no shopping) and to skip work for the day. I think that is a great idea.

What am I Going to Do?
I’m not completely sure just yet what part I’ll play in this, but I am fed up. I’m tired of my life being a proposition. As I noted previously, this is new low for America as a Constitution was amended to take away rights from a group of people. I don’t expect to be leading any parades, but I’ll certainly be in a few. I can carry a sign with the best of them, and I can certainly write letters to the editors, to the hateful activists on the religious right, and to my representatives. No more being a good gay and knowing my place.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I plan to put a little weight behind to help with the bending.

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The Big Picture

Obama was clearly the winner, and it seems he did it with a tightly run and disciplined campaign. One of the heartening parts of his campaign was that it was funded to a record-breaking level by millions of smaller donations from everyday people. They relied on thousands of volunteers, and brought an untold number of new and younger people into the political system. And I don’t mean just newly registered voters, but more important, people who made an investment of themselves into the campaign. I think that is critical in trying to restore democracy to this country. However, it means those millions have a vested interest in his success. That cuts both ways. It means he should get support, but people will expect results.

Certainly both sides ran attack ads. That is to be expected, but I found Obama’s to be a lot fewer and a lot less nasty. The McCain just went out of their way to be disrespectful to Obama, and hateful in the messages they were putting out. I saw nothing but negative ads from the McCain campaign. At various times throughout the campaign, especially from the end of September during the economic collapse and through the election, McCain gave off a very real attitude of panic and foundering. It was clear that he and his campaign were struggling to find a voice. Obama seemed to remain calm, decisive and above it all…in short, he came off as more Presidential, and I think the voters perceived that.

What Was Different

I believe there was also something of a perfect storm of events and changes in the world that made this election different. Many of these were things the Republicans could not, or didn’t, account for. In the end, I think they make our democracy stronger. 

In previous election years, Republicans have made harsh and hateful statements, but then just denied them later on, and the “liberal media” just dropped it. This time around people were at these events carrying cell phones capable of recording the event, and many did. Then these things hit YouTube and blogosphere picks it up, and the main stream media finally has to acknowledge what was said. I wrote about a great example here where Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC) said, “Folks, there’s a real America. Liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.” When called on it, he simply issued a statement saying he never made these comments. Unfortunately, some of these old gray hairs just don’t understand these modern conveniences and the viral nature of things.

And we can only hope that this election seemed to be a repudiation of the politics of personal destruction. Like it or not, McCain ran a far more negative campaign, and Caribou Barbie was just plain mean. Certainly there was a segment of the population that loved it, but clearly those messages not only fall on deaf ears, but seem to have a reverse effect. Elizabeth Dole was in a hotly contested race in North Carolina. She had done a poor job representing the state, but at the end ran one of the sleaziest campaign ads I’ve ever seen. It played out on the Internet, and her opponent, virtually overnight, received hundreds of thousands of dollars from across the country, and in the end Liddy Dole lost her seat.

Obviously, the economy had an impact, and the dissmal approval ratings of George Bush made it a bad year to be a Republican, but they counted on the same kind of dirty campaign tactics, and it just didn’t work as well this time. I sincerely hope it is a sign of things to come.

I’m glad Obama had a significant margin of victory, as I am literally not sure the Republic would have survived having the Supreme Court appoint another President. I think early voting made a huge difference, as it made it a lot harder for Republicans to cage voters, and frankly, I give some credit to the blogosphere for getting out information ignored by the main stream media. Certainly much of it was trivial, but in a lot of cases, it was important information the voters should be able to access.

What’s Next

Democrats had better be prepared to govern. The people are now expecting results, and neither branch of government will have the opportunity to blame it on the other, as Democrats are clearly in control.

The Democrats seem to be making overtones of reconciliation to scumbag, Joe Lieberman. I don’t know who he pictures of doing what to whom, but they’d better be good. I don’t care if Lieberman continues to be allowed to caucus with the Democrats, but he’d better not hold a committee chairmanship. However, it appears Reid is prepared to give him one.

Pundits are now running around screaming that Democrats had better not “overreach,” or make changes too fast. I’m sorry. I have a problem with that, and believe this electorate won’t have patience for creeping change. The pundits are basically trying to tell Democrats to not do exactly what they were hired TO do. The electorate has clearly moved toward the progressive side of the spectrum on most issues, and they clearly voted on “Change.” That sounds to me like a clarion call for bold steps. That’s what America is known for.

The Republicans are lining up in the traditional circular firing squad blaming everyone but themselves. They are great at throwing their own under the bus, and this is no exception. Sarah Palin is their favorite target for scapegoating now. Caribou Barbie certainly did nothing to help the ticket. Oh, she excited the base, but were they going to vote for Obama without her on the ticket….NOT! She was a bad choice, she was unprepared and showed it, and she hurt the McCain/Palin ticket, but I think she probably helped down-ticket Republican candidates by getting out larger numbers of the base.

Frankly, she showed herself to be a vindictive and hateful person, but it seems lots of people in Alaska knew that already. She’s as corrupt, if not more so, than most Republicans, and this country would have been ill-served with her as a Vice-President, and I would have predicted the collapse of the Republic if she’d ever become President.

All that said, the campaign operatives need to shut up. It was a bad choice by John McCain, and he, above everyone else, gets to live with the consequences. His hopes of being President are forever over. Going around now making up stupid shit about her is unprofessional and just plain mean. I no longer want to hear it. I don’t care now, and never cared how much was spent on clothes and makeup. She was in the public eye, and of course the campaign needs her to make a perfect impression. I do care that she tried to circumvent public records laws in Alaska by using yahoo email accounts for state business. I care that she misused the power of her office to carry out personal vendettas, but that’s Alaska business. Leave that to them now.

Is Sarah going to be a force in Republican politics, and will she run in 2012? We can only hope, as it will dramatically improve the chances of continuing to expand the Democratic margin. Republicans have traditionally been a very disciplined bunch (a little less so this election, but servile to the party nonetheless), and I suspect this scorched earth policy regarding Palin is an effort by the Republican hierarchy to ensure that Palin can never re-emerge on the national political scene. 

As for the Republican party in general…I suspect we’ll see the religious right try to pull them even further to the right. In an article at Raw Story, David Edwards and Andrew McLemore write about a Fox News interview with Rep. Mike Pence:

When asked by Chris Wallace what “conservative solutions” the GOP would bring to their current minority-party status, Pence said social issues like “the sanctity of marriage” will remain the backbone of the Republican platform.

“You build those conservative solutions, Chris, on the same time-honored principles of limited government, a belief in free markets, in the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage,” Pence said.

I’ll never quite get it with these Republicans. The dirty little secret of conservatism is that they really don’t want limited government. They want to limit the scope of government to carry out programs they don’t like, but they can be counted on to expand the scope of government to carry out programs they do like. They want little government when it comes to social programs like Medicare, but plenty of government when it comes to warrant-less surveillance. They don’t want government to enforce equal rights protections, but loads of government enforcement of immigration laws. They want little government to rebuild New Orleans, but big government to wage war against whichever foreign dictator has pissed them off.

So, the truth is, they aren’t really against having big government, against government doing anything that might smack of progressivness. And whatever government is doing, whether they approve or not, they don’t think they should pay for it. Tax revenues are supposed to somehow magically appear. 

Republicans just don’t get it anymore. David Frum argues (in effect) that the Republican base is shrinking, and if the GOP doesn’t adjust to demographic realities it will go the way of the dodo.

The base is almost entirely white, almost entirely resident in the middle of the country, moderately affluent, middle-aged and older, more male than female, with some college education but not a college degree. Think of Joe the Plumber and you see the core of the Republican party.

 Obama captured nearly 60% of voters under 30. Republicans have painted themselves into a corner with wedge issues. Most Americans want to keep abortion legal, and, especially among young people, hard attitudes on homosexuality are softening. People don’t trust Republicans with their futures and their money. Republicans have been great at campaigning and sloganeering, but horrible at governing. And, it seems they just can’t help themselves. The minions are still in campaign smear mode, holding up every single thing Barack Obama does as evidence that he’s the bad guy. Now they’re complaining about Obama’s transition web site, for pity’s sake.

So I just see more of the same from Republicans. There won’t be any working across the aisle. They will treat Obama worse than they ever treated Bill Clinton. I just hope the Democrats in Congress grow a spine over the next two months.

Ballot Initiatives and Local Issues

I’m obviously not happy with the way votes went on the three anti-marriage amendments, but will save that for a story of its own. Here in Hillsborough County the biggest and dumbest jerk on the County Commission was replaced with a gay man. One small step in the right direction.

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I drove up Monday to Kings Mountain and spent the night there with Mom. We had dinner at a local landmark, Bridges Barbecue in Shelby. I asked, and it turns out they have been in business for 64 years. They cook a certain amount of pork (the only real barbecue meat) each day, and once that’s gone, they just close up. They start the meeting slow cooking the night before each. They also have the classic red barbecue slaw, and some of the best hushpuppies you’ll find anywhere. It’s the kind of place where you go and always run into people you know…especially my Mom.

Tuesday, I drove to Burlington for the Wednesday meeting, and Tuesday evening drove over to Greensboro to have dinner with a long time friend, Mark. We had dinner at a place in the downtown Arts Center. It was OK. A friend of Mark’s sat down with us, and we went through two bottles of wine talking about the election. Mark’s friend was a history major, so it was an intelligent conversation, even though he was a Republican. They were not showing the results in the bar in this place, and Mark does not have a TV, so I just turned on the TV long enough when I got back to the hotel room to see that Obama had won. It was sort of nice being uplugged from that.

The business meeting went very well Saturday, and then I drove back down to Kings Mountain to Wednesday and Thursday night. It had been fairly cool and rainy Tuesday, but the rest of week was just perfect fall weather. I washed windows for Mom Thursday, and we visited LeeAnn in the afternoon. I drove home Friday, and made pretty good time.

The fall leaves were beautiful and seemed to be a peak, so I took some pictures which you can see by visiting this page.

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Genres: Comedy and Adaptation; Running Time: 1 hr. 50 min.; Release Date: October 17th, 2008 (limited); MPAA Rating: R for language, some violent images, sexual content and some drug material.

Starring: Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro

Directed by: Barry Levinson

Lay and I went to see this movie Saturday night. The reviews are definitely not outstanding, but it was hardly a terrible movie. It certainly moved slowly in places, and a few parts were over-played. De Niro did a great job as the lead character. They did use a technique of doing fast forwards in the film. I think I know why the did it, but it really didn’t add anything, as was overdone to the point of becoming a little annoying. All-in-all though, I’d say the film is worth watching, but probably not until its out on DVD.

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Genres: Art/Foreign, Drama, Thriller and Crime/Gangster; Running Time: 1 hr. 51 min.; Release Date: July 18th, 2008 (limited); MPAA Rating: R for some violence, including torture and language.

Starring: Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Eduardo Noriega, Ben Kingsley

Directed by: Brad Anderson

I honestly don’t remember seeing previews for this film, but I was only in limited release, so I’m guess maybe it wasn’t shown widely here in Tampa. It certainly should have been. It was an excellent story that was well acted and well edited. Anderson even captured a bit of the Hitchcock style in that much of the films suspense, while very palpable, was subtle and just under the surface. This understatement, to me, often offers the most profound effect. The acting was immense, the landscape was immense, it was all great! There are a few graphic scenes which really make a strong point. There is no skirting issue, it is right in front of you. Emily Mortimer fit her role so well it was scary, it could be reality, as with Woody and Ben.

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