Checks and Balances....Remember them

In watching all of the press on Alberto Gonzales, I can't help but get a little frustrated. First off the guy is a terrible liar, secondly, Bush is backing him like he Michael Brown (Brownie on the streets son!), but most importantly, the executive branch seems to think our government is now a monarchy.

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I'm sure most people saw the press briefing last week, where Tony Snow went over the "deal" the White House offered to Congress in regards to interrogating Gonzales, Rove, and Gonzales's aide. The deal states that congress can interview them, but behind closed doors, not under oath, and with no official transcript......WHAAAAT! Seriously, does the White House think we are idiots (yes). Snow described the deal as being unprecedented, and I agree, it's very unprecedented. Unprecedentedly ridiculous. The deal the White House is offering has no teeth, and gives all of the above individuals the freedom to say whatever they want, which they do anyway. I'm sorry but if someone breaks the law, no matter how high up in power they might be, they aren't exempt from the law. The executive branch seems to think that.

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What Gonzales has been caught doing is shaping the judicial branch into a bunch of Bushies that will allow this trend to continue. This should bother everyone, no matter whether you're republican and democrat. Any other President would have been held accountable, but this Administration acts like they are beyond accountability. If this country sits back and lets this continue, then we might be headed towards a Monarchy.

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I hope it's fully uncovered the extent in which Gonzales was involved in this, I hope he's tried, I hope he's found guilty. If that were to happen, that my friend, would be unprecedented.

LOST: Expose'

Okay, Nikki and Paulo are without a doubt one of the worst mistakes in the Lost universe. They are stiff, their lines aren't that great, and they were introduced terribly. So when I heard that they had their own episode coming up, I was a lot less than excited. How would Damon Lindleloff and Carlton Cuse make these characters interesting? How could this episode not be total garbage?

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This will never be considered one of the top episodes of the series by any Lost fan, but it will go down as one of the biggest surprises. In the course of 40 minutes, Nikki and Paulo's entire back story and time on the island were fleshed out, and some how it managed to trick me into believing they might have been there the entire time. This was done through clever effects, and complete re-filming of old scenes to add to the realism that they were there. I especially enjoyed the scene where Paulo hid the diamonds in the bathroom of the Pearl Station while eavesdropping on Juliet and Ben. It makes the scene from the first part of this season where Paulo comes out of the bathroom not seem so horribly bad. I also appreciated the small jokes through out the episode, like Sawyer's line "Who the hell is Nikki", that might be one of the best things he's ever said. This eppy also did a good job featuring some of the background characters, while at the same time proving why the stay in the background, but it's a nice gesture, as long as it doesn't become the norm. I look at this episode a lot like the Bernard and Rose episode from Season 2. Not terrible, not excellent, but a decent diversion from the main story.

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One of the biggest things to happen in this episode had nothing to do with Nikki and Paulo at all, and that was Charlie's confession to Sun. This is a pretty big moment, probably playing a big role in the fate of Charlie. I don't expect Jin to take it lightly, because no matter what Sun said, he will find out.

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As a whole Nikki and Paulo's storyline was a bit contrived, and the spider element even more so, but it all paid off when they were buried alive. That alone makes their story interesting, if not a little bit disturbing. I would say that I would have like to have seen their story fleshed out a bit more, but that would be a lie. The Lost writers made a mistake with their characters to begin with, at least they finished them off with a respectable episode. Sure it was filler, sure it was campy, but it was surprisingly enjoyable and well put together. Now lets get back to the greater story.

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Next's week episode is titled "Left Behind", and it does not start Kirk Cameron (awwww), but it does have Juliet and Kate handcuffed together in the rain. Nuff said, until then......

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7.5/10
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TMNT= The Turltes are back!

I know I'm one of millions people who grew up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was a little young for the original comics when they were released, even though I eventually caught up on them. I grew up with the cartoon, kid friendly Turtles of the late 80's, early 90's. I lived and breathed Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. They were one of the cornerstones of my childhood.

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So, naturally when they announced they were doing a new movie, I got nervous. The new animated series that came out a few years ago wasn't terrible, so I wasn't completely freaked out. Even though Hollywood sucks when it comes to resurrecting nostalgia. However, Christopher Nolan did a very nice re-imagining of Batman in 04'. The question was, would the new Turtles be more Batman, or total crap. The answer.

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Move over Batman Begins, or at least make some room. The Turtles are freakin back.

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The best part of the movie, was the fact that the main focus was on the story of the Turtles. What I mean by that is, this movie operated like a true sequel to all other Turtle stories that have happened before it, combining the best aspects of the comics, and the original cartoon series. The only thing borrowed from the new series is the fact that April O' Neil isn't a reporter, and that's cool, because April was always kind of lame before hand.

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The movie picks up after the death of Shredder, and the brothers have grown apart. From there the plot mainly focuses on the dynamic of the Turtles with a paper thin arc about villains from another time, blah blah. What's important is, the nature of the Turtles were kept in tact, they fight some foot clan, and save the day. There is also an extremely well done storyline throughout the movie about the longtime rivalry between Leonardo and Raphael, and when it boils over, it's freaking awesome. I was geeking out like I never had before.

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All in all, TMNT made me feel like a kid again, and that's a hard thing to do. Hopefully they don't dumb down the dark overtones in the sequels like they did in the 90's. So far though, the Turtles have started back on a strong note.

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8/10

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LOST: The Man From Tallahasse

One of Lost's most interesting elements of back story, is how John Locke ended up in a wheelchair. There were many different theories that developed over the years, and a lot of people wondered if the question would ever be answered, well it was, and how did it stack up to the hype built around it?

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Well, in my opinion, it wasn't the craziest way he could have been injured, but it made complete sense within Locke's back story, which is the most important thing. It also set up one crazy reveal at the end of the episode, that changes the complexion of the island, and how far reaching the powers of the Others are.

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The conversations between Locke and Ben were awesome, and what I thought was the most intriguing part about this entire episode. I can't wait for more dialogue between these two characters, because each actor plays the role like they were born too. In fact, all of the character interaction in this episode was really well done. Kate trying to reason with Jack, and Jack trying to hide his emotions was good stuff, and even Sayid, who had a very small part in the episode, played a key role with his "you look just like your mother" line. The implications of that building storyline will be huge for the show. If I was a betting man, I would say that Alex and Danielle will be reunited in the season finale, but that's just my guess.

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The other big thing about this episode, was the concept of "the box" introduced by Ben. Damon Lindleloff is on record saying that the box is only a metaphor, but the mystery is what it's a metaphor of. Is it the monster, is it a representation of the power of "him". We will know by the end of season 3. The kicker was the end of the episode, when Ben showed Locke what came out of the "box" for him, and it was none other than his father, the same man who pushed him out of an 8 story window. What this means, and how the Other's were able to track him down is still a mystery, but isn't such a stretch of the imagination considering the amount of info the Other's have on the Lostees.

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What made this episode so great was the fact that it had twist and turn, on top of twist and turn. it's hard enough to come up with one solid climax for an episode, but to have 3+, now that's some good writing. The writing team of Lost has picked it up in the second half of this season. Their true test comes next week however, when they try to make sense of the messes that are Nikki and Paulo. If you ask me, the only way to make us like them, will be to make us hate them more.

That eppy is titled "Expose" and will have some old favorites showing back up. That should be cool at least. Until then....

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9/10

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LOST: Par Avion

A large part of the Lost community has a crazy amount of affection towards Claire. I think she's a pretty good character when she's not screaming "my baby" all of the time. Unfortunately for her she says that a lot. The good news. In this episode she only drops "my baby" one time, and actually happens to get a little bit developed as a character in the process.

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This episode reminded me a bit of Hurley's from a few weeks back, in the sense that the flashbacks don't connect so much to the island story going on, but still manage to do good things for the characters. It was nice to see a darker side of Claire and the demons she dealt with in her past. She feels it's her fault her mother is in a coma, and didn't find out her father even existed until right after the accident. Oh yeah. Her Father just so happens to be Christian Shephard, who just so happens to be Jack's father. This was hinted at last season when Jack's Dad and Ana-Lucia when to Sydney. Jack's Dad dropped by the old Claire homestead, but she wasn't there. I'm curious to see what the new revelation of Jack and Claire being siblings will have to do with the overall story of the show. I have been reading some crazy theories that place a great deal of importance on the Shepard family in connection to the island. If any of those theories are true, then be expecting some Star Wars like events to be upon the Losties.

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On the island there were two plots going on simultaneously again this week. On the beach Claire had the idea to tag one of the migratory birds with a distress message, only her plan is messed up by Desmond who has to stop it so Charlie won't get killed in the process. In the end, Claire figures out that something is up with ol Dezzy, and he tells her about his abilities and Charlie's imminent demise. The other storyline continues to follow the quest to rescue Jack. Locke and Sayid continue to be at each others throats and Patchy reveals some more interesting info about the Others, and how they choose people to live with them. He tells each one of them why there aren't on the list, and that they are flawed human beings. He starts tell Locke that he thought he was paralyzed, but he's interrupted before he gets it out. A few moments later they come to the Other's perimeter fence. They are unsure what to do, so Locke tosses Patchy through it. Patch says "Thank you" and then his head basically explodes. I'm thinking he said thank you because he probably would have been killed by his own people if he would have been brought back (he gave answers to the Losties, and he killed Mrs. Klugh). Sayid then discovers some leftover C-4 in Locke's pack, and everyone wonders what he is going to do with it. (I know, I know!) They eventually move on and get over the fence by placing a tree over the top of the pylon and climbing over. Finally they make it to the Other's camp, know as the "barracks". They sneak up on the Otherburbs, when Kate sees Jack through the bushes, and he's running right towards them. What happened next was a great use of framing, as Jack stops suddenly and catches a TD pass from Zeke (a.k.a Mr. Friendly, or just Tom). Jack tosses the ball back, laughing and seeming to have a good time. He catches another pass and spikes the ball, gets flagged, and then promptly penalized 15 yards on the kickoff.

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This episode was solid all the way through, but when that ending hit, it punched through to the next level. What is Jack doing? I have no idea really, but I'm excited to find out. Next weeks episode should a doozy of doozies. As we will finally find out how Locke got in a wheelchair, and maybe get a little more insight as to what's up with Jack. It's called "Man from Tallahassee". Should be awesome.

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9/10

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300 is a good movie.Real good.

It's true. 300 is awesome. I saw it over the weekend in a near sold out Sunday afternoon show. That's right, a bloody, R-rated movie almost sold out on a Sunday afternoon in the bible belt. There's hope for the movie industry yet. As a matter of fact, that is a good way to describe the feeling that 300 gave to me as a film. It's so refreshingly different, and doesn't feel like any movie I've ever watched before (with the exception of Casshern, but 300 didn't suck).

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I won't go through the story, except to say that, like the name applies, it's about the 300 Spartans who fought with their King against the entire Persian army in what history calls the Battle of Thermopylae. 300 isn't historically accurate by any means, instead it's based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller (of Sin City fame). The movie does Miller's work justice 100%, it's beautiful, it's bloody, and it takes no prisoners. Gerard Butler plays King Leonidas perfectly, and with intensity and passion. He's the perfect King of the Spartans. The other acting job of note is by Rodrigo Santoro, who plays Xeres. What's so shocking about the role is the fact that it's the same guy who plays the abominable Paulo on Lost, somehow however, he is pretty good in this role.

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The Battle scenes also delivered on every level imaginable. Switching between slow motion shots and real time, the brutality of the fight and the skill of the Spartans was a fun thing to watch. The Spartans were a well oiled machine, and had no fear of death. That came across well on film.

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There is some controversy around 300 that I feel is very undeserving, and that's the crap coming out of Iran. Nowhere in the movie are the Iranian people disgraced. If anything they are looked at as vicious and brave fighters, just like the Spartans. The war they were fighting was like any other war over battling philosophies. Xeres is the only "bad guy", and his character is beyond any racial profiling, god-kings are kind of on there own level. So get over it, it's a movie, and it was a graphic novel first. I didn't here anyone crying when it came out in 1998.

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If you like action movies, epics, and Sin City, then you will no doubt dig the crap out of 300. Go check it out.

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9/10

LOST: Enter "77"

I know this episode came on over a week ago, but I came down with a case of the flu/spring break and didn't feel like typing much, in fact, my will to do just about anything besides sleep and take dayquil was pretty low. With that said, Enter 77 was one of my favorite episodes of this season. It was a Sayid episode, which are always my favorites, and it gave some answers and hints to big island mysteries.

The flashback was about Sayid's time in Paris sometime after he left the Republican guard, and I'm guessing sometime before he went to Sydney (I guess it would have to be now wouldn't it). Sayid was working in a restaurant when he was discovered by another Iraqi man. The man claimed to love Sayid's cooking, and that he would love for him to come down to his restaurant to consider being his chef. Sayid agrees, but it turns out to be a trap. The man is actually the husband of a woman that Sayd had tortured in his past. Sayid denies this over the course of the episode, but in the end he admits to the woman that he did indeed torture her, after she tells him a well written tale about kids torturing a cat. Naveen Andrews tears it up in everyone of these scenes, proving that he is still won of the best actors on Lost, and television in general. He puts a lot into his characters and it shows.

On the island, Kate, Locke, Sayid, and Rousseau are still following Locke's compass bearing. They come across what looks to be an old barn, complete with livestock and messed up kitty-cat (just like the cat in the flashback). Sayid tries to approach the barn quietly but is shot by our old friend with the eye patch. Patchy's name turns out to be Mikhail Bahkunin, and he claims to be the last living member of the Dharma initiative. I'm still calling him Patchy though. Patchy takes Sayid inside and stitches him up, and all the while continues to explain how he came to be part of Dharma, that the Others have a submarine, and how the Initiative was wiped out. During this time Locke wanders off and messes with Patchy's computer equipment. Which seems to consist of only a computerized chess game. Locke plays until he wins, but winning opens up a Dharma Video Prompt. The prompt explains how the food drops are ordered, and how the Others communicated with the outside world before. It also says to "enter 7-7" if there has been an incursion by the hostiles. OK, skipping ahead a little bit. Sayid figures out that Patchy is really an Other pretending to be a Dharma member. Sayid knocks him out and he and Kate explore the rest of the Flame station. In the basement they find protocol books, and one of the surprising finds of the episode, Mrs. Klugh. When they go back upstairs Patchy has escaped and has Locke at gunpoint. To try to get out of the situation, Klugh orders Patchy to shoot her and he does. So just after we meet Mrs. Klugh again, they kill her. Which I was glad to see. She was a terrible actress and character on top of that. Once, Patchy is commandeered again, the Losties regroup and get ready to head out. Patchy claims that all he said about Dharma was true (I believe him) and that he will kill Sayid if he gets the chance (Foreshadowing?). Rousseau comes back out of the jungle, and Locke meets up with them to say that he Entered 77 before he left the station, then boom! It goes up in flames. Sayid's not happy and Locke looked strangely satisfied. At least the cat survived.

There was also a little B plot on the island about Sawyer playing Hurley in ping pong to get his stuff back. It was good filler, but nothing mind blowing. It was nice to see Sawyer wonder where Nikki and Paulo came from, I wonder the same thing (we'll find out in two weeks). Things should start picking up on the beach fairly soon as well.

So overall this was a very answeriffic episode. In true Lost fashion though, they follow answers with more questions. What we did find out was huge though. I'll run it down:

- The incident is called the Purge by the Others. Apparently it was when the Others overran the Dharma Stations. I guessing they either assimilated the old members or killed them.

-The Others are not the Dharma Initiative

- The Hatch explosion severed the connection to the outside world.

- There are submarines

I'm sure there are a few other things I missed, but these are some pretty solid answers, and hopefully they will keep coming over the next few weeks.

Enter 77 was an awesome episode, and it should quiet the no answer naysayers for a couple weeks. The next episode is called "Par Avion" and it's a Claire episode.... So until then.

9/10

Don't stop, please don't stop.

I've heard plenty of commentary on Scooter Libby that has described him as a scapegoat for the entire Plame Leak Investigation. I agree that he has become the fall guy, but he still deserves what he's getting. He didn't testify with a gun to his head, well, not in the court room anyways. What I found so funny about Ol' Scooter, was how quickly his former friends jumped to discredit him, Friends like Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. Libby was once capable of being Cheney's top aide, and all of a sudden he's an idiot. Doesn't add up to me.

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If this is where this case stops then without a doubt Libby got hosed, a hosing he deserved albeit. Not only would he get hosed , but so would the American public. Why? Because Libby only heard the guns shots, he didn't fire the gun. Who fired the gun? Karl Rove and/or Dick Cheney, and until it's found out who leaked the name, the grand jury needs to keep on firing indictments. I say this more so for the Principal behind the leak, and not so much the leak itself. If our own Vice-President proves that he is above the law, then what's left of the constitution will have another corner ripped off of it.

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The Judicial and Legislative branches of government have become so weak since September 12th, 2001. They no longer have any teeth. The executive branch has gained so much power that it's bordering on something Americans of this generation have never known, and that's absolute power. So Grand Jury don't stop at Libby, if you do, then you're doing the country a strong disservice.

LOST:Tricia Tanaka is Dead

What I love about Lost is the mythology and the mystery behind the storylines, and the good characters that set them up. What I have never been a big fan of, is when the writers throw in a "feel good" episode to lighten things up (like the golf course episode from season one). So with that said, I was expecting to not like this episode very much at all, but for some reason, I found myself really digging it.

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Hurley is one of my least favorite characters on the show, mainly because of his lack of depth, and the fact that he is only used for comic relief. The writers didn't change that for this week, but what they did do was add to the reasoning of why Hurley acts the way that he does, and that's because he has scared almost the entire time on the island. His attitude is how he compensates for it. This episode also helped to reveal the root of Hurley's weight problems was when his father left his family when he was a kid. His father, played by Cheech, magically reappears after Hurley wins the lottery, and Hurley wants no part of it.

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After this episode was over I found myself liking Hurley's character a little bit more, He's still the comic relief guy (his stuff with Sawyer and Jin was great), but finally after 2 1/2 seasons we get to see what makes him tick besides the numbers.

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The van angle was silly, but it was a nice change of pace, and not a bad way to split up two converging storylines (Jack/The Others and the Kate/Rousseu/Sayid/Locke expedition). The only thing that bothered me was how quickly Sawyer moved from one storyline to another, meaning he wasn't at all bothered by the fact that Jack was still out there. I know the beer had something to do with it, but still. I'll reserve judgement until I see how they have him react when he finds out Kate is going after Jack. I did however, enjoy the 1000 pop culture references Sawyer made. Calling Charlie Jimeny Crickett might be the best name he's called anyone so far.

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The episode closed with a nice lead in to next week, with Kate being the one to finally tell Rousseu that her daughter is on the island. All in all, this was a filler episode that had some good stuff in it and added to the depth of Hurley. It won't win any Emmy's but it wasn't a bad way to spend an hour on a Wednesday.

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7/10

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Next week things WILL pick up. It's a Sayid episode titled "Enter 77", and we will meet our friend "patchy". Until then......

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Oh and watch Heroes in between. It's good stuff.