CINEMANIA:

Yes, that's me enjoying the hell out of myself. Unfortunately, this was while I was attending a major league baseball game last year. Sigh. And but so just a quick note about the underwhelming effect of viewing Over the Hedge, a new computed generated film by Dreamworks. It is a film with cuteness coming out the wazoo, to borrow an image from the film, but which has unfortunately left its brains in the dumpster. The film promises to have some cutting commentary on our consumer culture, and the detrimental environmental impact of humans on the small fraction of wilderness left in our midst, but quickly abandons these premises--perhaps the marketing people got involved at this juncture in order to point out the effect such critique might have on ancilliary sales of Mssrs.

At which time Ben and I take a break from the movie review business and turn our attention to some really important stuff. Like the new releases of Bruce Springsteen (We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions) and Neil Young (Living With War).

And So Dan:

I've been listening to Springsteen doing Seeger, and it is doing the trick. It's a wonderful album. Strangely, the only song that doesn't really work is We Shall Overcome.

At which time Ben and I bask in the glow of F.W.

United 93 (USA, 2006, Greengrass) AKA Flight into Obliviousness

The events of 9/11 were paradigm-shifting for many folks, an opportunity to take a closer look at the reasons that the world hates Americans and all they stand for.

And so there is little question that Ben and I, having wallowed in the delights of Ernst Lubitch's Trouble in Paradise, give outselves a dose of To Be or Not to Be (USA, 1942)

Ben sed:

I am pround to report that going into this I was smart enough to refrain from expectation. More precisely, I just knew that 2Bor-2B could never be as wonderful as TinP and with this knowledge I was not disappointed.

You know I always watch a film before I consult whatever accompanying materials there may be.