Wow! So busy this past month. Well, I’ve got a lot to write about and many of those subjects deserve more time than I have now, so I’ll just start off with this look at a flick Alisa and I rented.

Watching Ocean’s Twelve was like watching the second Matrix film. The unique feel and focus of the original, the very things that made it great, are eschewed for what seems like one-upmanship on every front. Ocean’s Eleven is a brilliant work of subtle, sly wit and grace. Ocean’s Twelve just trips on its own overly twisting and turning plot, largely because it also tries to be too clever and absract in the telling. On top of that, Soderbergh doesn’t seem to realize that we all don’t really get it or connect with it, so his nudge, nudge, wink, wink treatment that worked so superbly in the first film falls flat. Very flat.

The film works best when it gets back to the basics of the original, which it rarely does, and focuses on developing the interactions of the characters and one well-developed heist. Otherwise, you get the sense that they skipped every third line of the script in an attempt to add quirk and film three movies at the same time. Many of the individual tricks and conceits probably would’ve made a great focused movie on their own, but together it’s just a mess. Caper films work when the audience feels like part of the team, not like the hapless detective or uptight owner of the stolen treasure.

Don’t bother with this one and just watch Ocean's Eleven again instead.

It’s been a very autumn winter thus far. Now things outside our window feel like they should.

I love reading comics and they mean a lot to me, but I am confused.

A little while ago I promised to discuss the superlative title sequence for Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. So, without further ado...

Gun control has always been a thorny issue for me (not that this makes me unique) because, at a fundamental level, I question the need for our citizenry to be able to arm themselves with weapons designed to maximize human death. But on the other hand, I understand the Constitutional issues and the idea that bearing arms is the only way to get a piece of the monopoly-on-violence pie of which the government has the biggest piece. History teaches us that an armed citizenry needing to overthrow tyrannical rule is not a ridiculous proposal. Hell, in Switzerland everyone has a gun, unless they go through a somewhat difficult process of returning it to the government.* But then something occurred to me today that kind of settled some of the issues for me, and I’d like to run it by you to see if I’m missing anything.

Has anyone ever heard of a drive-by knife-throwing wherein an adult was the intended target but a child was accidentally hit and killed instead?

I don’t think you hear about much of that. But, then again, I don’t really listen to the local news that often, so who knows?

*Though, they have rifles, not handguns or assault rifles, which I have little to no problem with.