Elizabeth 2: Electric Boogaloo

Australia's News.com reports that Cate Blanchett will reprise her role as England's Virgin Queen in Elizabeth: Golden Age. She will star opposite Clive Owen who will play Sir Walter Raleigh, and the movie will explore their relationship.

The original is one of my favorite movies, a rich and layered historical drama. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by the almost simultaneous release of Shakespeare in Love, which also featured Joseph Fiennes and took place in Elizabethan England (albeit a little later during the Queen's rule).

I'm curious to see what they do with this one. Of course, unless they bring back the stellar acting talents of Eric Cantona, it just won't be the same.

Tom Cruise is crazy

OK, so that title is really more suited to The Superficial. But I could not pass this one up. Check out the transcript of Tom's appearance on the Today Show (or skip ahead to page 2 for the rambling rants about psychiatry and drugs). Really looking forward to the release of Tom Cruise's History of Psychiatry. Sounds like it'll be a fascinating read!

God, I hope someone's got their top scientists working on a way to reverse the brainwashing, because I'm afraid Katie has very little time left before she's completely lost to the world.

UPDATE: Well, not only is old Tom an expert on psychiatry, apparently he's also the Dark Lord of the Sith. Now that's good stuff.

Begin-ning Again

Forget George Clooney. Forget Val Kilmer. Forget Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carrey, Uma Thurman, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris O'Donnell, and Alicia Silverstone. Even (dare I say it?) forget Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer. This is the definitive Batman movie. Any trace of the campiness and unintentional comedy the Batman movies descended into under the hand of Joel Schumacher has been wiped away completely. This is a dark and violent movie, and I loved it. Christopher Nolan and David Goyer take the Batman story and lay it bare, giving us a reasonable explanation for every part of the Batman mythos. Granted, it's still a comic book movie, and some suspension of disbelief is required, but it's easy to understand what drove Bruce Wayne to become Batman, and how he actually reaches the point where he can do everything Batman does. We're given a scientific basis for all of the gadgets on the utility belt, and shown how Wayne becomes such a great warrior, and these scenes give the movie an air of reality that underlies the comic book story and really makes it work. As for the cast, Christian Bale was terrific, Morgan Freeman was great as inventor Lucius Fox, and Gary Oldman made an outstanding Jim Gordon. I thought Liam Neeson did well, but I couldn't help thinking of Qui-Gon Jinn for the first hour of the movie, since he was basically playing the same role. Michael Caine seemed a little wasted in the role of Alfred, but he didn't have much to do. And Katie Holmes... well, she just seemed a little too young to be out of college, much less an assistant D.A. But aside from a few casting missteps, Batman Begins is a great movie. Two thumbs up, five stars, whatever. Go see it.

Summer's Here

And the first book on my list is Something Rotten, the fourth in the Thursday Next, Literary Detective series. I've written about this series before, but the basic premise is that Thursday is a member of a special police force in an alternate England who can enter books to correct changes caused by things like by other people illegally entering the books or characters escaping from the books. It's difficult to explain, especially when I add that time-travel and a vampire hunter are involved, but what I really love about these books is all the clever wordplay and smart literary references to all periods of popular fiction. For instance, as you can tell from the title, Hamlet (the character, not the play) plays a major part in this book, and towards the beginning, Thursday brings him out of his play and into the real world, at which point she has to convince him to stop speaking in iambic pentameter so that the average population will be able to understand what he's saying. It's a fun book, but you still have to think a little bit, which is why I'm liking it.

I refuse to go through this weekend without seeing Batman Begins. Don't know what's taking me so long.

More Coldplay

Is Coldplay the new Jesus? This article is funny.

And while on the subject, I keep seeing all those lines Chris Martin's drawn on his hand and can't help wondering if he's joined Storm Shadow and Snake-Eyes in the Arashikage ninja clan. Hell yeah, G.I. Joe nerds! Give me some love!

Speaking of nerdiness, I'm knee-deep in Disc Two of the Scrubs: Season One DVD set, and damn, that is some funny stuff. It makes me a little sad that I didn't start watching the show until this year, but on the flip side, I get to enjoy catching up by watching large batches of episodes all together. The cast has such great repoire.

Leister Debuts in Loss

CARMEL, IN — Former Blitzkrieg FC midfielder Mike Leister made his debut tonight for his new team, BW3, but was unable to do much to prevent an 8-4 loss in their first game of the summer session. "Wow. I forgot how much running is involved," said an upbeat Leister following the match. "My match fitness is a long way off, and so is my comfort level with the ball, but there were a few bright spots." Leister said he felt like his new teammates seemed to be pretty high quality guys, which may be a reference to his brief stint with the RU4Soccer squad during the late winter and early spring of 2004. His well-publicized unhappiness with that team led to his short stay and hiatus from the game for the past 14 months. Gone is the platinum blonde hair and about 10-15 pounds from his days in Cincinnati with the storied Blitzkrieg squad of the mid-90s, but he obviously has not lost his passion for the game. Judging by his postgame smile, he's obviously glad to be back on the field. And one bright spot for his new teammates: a rare appearance on the scorer's sheet. In a bizarre sequence, Leister sent a free kick towards the goal which bounced in the box, and due to a wild goalmouth scramble, squirted through untouched into the net. "By all rights, that never should have gone in. Definitely not the prettiest goal I've ever scored," Leister commented. "It's all for fun anyway. I had a good time tonight, and I look forward to getting back out there next week and playing again." Certainly, the fans will be waiting to see what comes next as BW3 takes on the mighty Need 4 Speed squad next Tuesday night.

Rethinking the new Coldplay

So I've spent a lot more time listening to X&Y, and while I still feel a little disappointed by it, I'm ready to admit that my inital review was pretty harsh. The more I listen, the more I notice some subtle touches that make it a good album. From the Beatle-esque strings on "What If" to the quoted guitar part from Oasis' "Wonderwall" in the coda of "Low" to the U2-flavored bassline in "White Shadows" to the Radiohead-quality chorus of "Twisted Logic"... Coldplay may be borrowing heavily form their influences here, but they've managed to blend it into a pretty cohesive combination. And I've become obsessed with "Fix You", which I still think will be the monster single from this disc. I sat down and figured out how to play it this morning, and over the past three days, I've probably listened to it 50 times. Even though my initial impression was that it was "created in a pop music lab or something," it's still impossible to get out of my head. Also, I caught Coldplay's MTV special, and the songs hold up very well live.

I've been checking out a lot of movie scores from the library lately, which has allowed me to try a pretty wide variety of films. Today I listened to Diamonds Are Forever, part of recent collection of remastered James Bond scores. Listening to it has really made me aware how heavily the score for Pixar's The Incredibles leans on the Bond films. A song from each soundtrack played back-to-back on my iTunes today, and I couldn't tell where one track ended and the next began.

I picked up a book called The Man in the High Castle from the library the other day. It's written by Philip K. Dick, who also wrote the stories which were eventually turned into Blade Runner and Minority Report. This story takes place in the late 60's in North America, but in a world where FDR was assassinated in the 30's and Germany and Japan went on to win WWII. The story takes place before a backdrop of Cold War-type relations between the Japanese and Germans. Good stuff.
UPDATE: I finished the book last night, and the end was a little disappointing, devolving into an existential discussion involving the Chinese i-Ching, which plays a pretty major role in the book. Still, I enjoyed it overall. On a side note, it's a shame that such an interesting book has to have one of the ugliest covers in the history of book publishing. (Click on the link above to see what I mean.) I have no idea how a headless, armless torso relates in any way to this story. Maybe it's just too high concept for me. ;)

Fett TV?

USA Today has a report on the American Film Institute's star-studded Tribute to George Lucas last night, and tucked away near the end of the the article was this little gem:

"[Harrison] Ford was approached by Daniel Logan, 18, who played young Boba Fett in Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Lucas said Logan's character may be included in his live-action Star Wars TV series, which is in the works."

No surprise there, as Boba Fett's always been a fan favorite, and since his job as a bounty hunter requires him to travel around the galaxy, there should plenty of opportunities for cameos from some more well-known faces.

Thanks to theforce.net for the link.

"Lifestyle Music"

That's how Thom Yorke of Radiohead once referred to Coldplay's music. Cuts twice as deep when you consider the fact that Chris Martin has publicly referred to Radiohead as a band Coldplay looks up to. I've listened to X&Y enough times now though that I'm starting to agree with old Thom. It's not a bad album necessarily, but it's certainly not a great one either. The songs occupy a sonic space somewhere between U2 and Radiohead (borrowing heavily from both bands along the way), but it's like anything dangerous or inventive that you might find in either of those bands' music has been pasteurized by the Coldplay filter. That sounds a little more harsh than I mean it to, because I think X&Y is mostly an album of growth for Coldplay, as they struggle to find how their sound works with their relatively new massive stardom. Several tracks on the disc, "Fix You" in particular, sound as if they were designed (not written, but created in a pop music lab or something) to become huge hits, and likely will. But overall, I think I'm disappointed by how harmless the whole album is. The only song that deviates from the Coldplay formula is the bonus track, "Till Kingdom Come", that was written for Johnny Cash. Ironically, it's one of my two favorite tracks, even though it seems like it was tacked on as an afterthought. Really, I wanted to hear the band try new things, and instead, it seems like they took fewer chances this time.

Now here's a rarity: an intelligent and crowd-pleasing idea from a TV executive. Somebody at Fox's DVD division finally got smart, and is releasing several collections of the X-Files mythology episodes. Now you can watch the conspiracy theories and all the Cigarette Smoking Man you can handle back-to-back, without having to wade through a lot of annoying (and let's face it, often pointless) standalone episodes. Don't get me wrong, some of my favorite X-Files were standalones (the episode with Luke Wilson as a sherriff in a town of vampires comes to mind), but all those full-season box sets seem like a huge time investment for a show that was kind of disappointing when it came to giving out answers. At least maybe this way I can watch fewer episodes and try to make some sense out of this whole thing before the next movie hits theaters.

Gorging in the name of...

Spent the last three days on the road with the magazine's photographer shooting an incredible amount of photos for our upcoming Roadtrip Food feature. Basically, this involves driving to some of the smallest towns in the state to take pictures of large amounts of fried food and sugar, and then eating said food after the restaurant owners twist my arm. OK, maybe there's not so much twisting, but it's hard not to feel guilty when they say the food's going to go to waste. In the past three days, I have pumped an insane amount of crap into my body. Here's the tally. Day 1: 1 corn dog, about 20 onion chips (1 onion chip is basically half an onion ring), 1 peanut butter milkshake, a few bites of a Wagon Wheel sundae (vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, caramel, banana slices, whipped cream, and a cherry), 1 fried chicken drumstick, 3 fried green tomatoes, and 1 order of cheese grits with red-eye gravy (chopped ham, coffee grounds and brown sugar). Day 2: 1/2 of a gigantic "garbage" omelet (scrambled eggs, a heaping portion of shredded cheese, ham, potatoes, and mushrooms) with hot sauce, 3 pieces of french toast, 1 coney-style hot dog, 1/2 of a pork tenderloin sandwich (see photo), a medium twist soft serve cone, and some homemade potato chips. Day 3: 4 beef enchiladas, tortilla chips and salsa, 1/2 of an elephant ear (basically dough rolled flat and fried with sugar sprinkled on it), 1 chocolate milkshake, another 1/2 tenderloin sandwich, 3 chicken wings, and 1 large Coke (notice how I restrained myself today). Of course, then I followed that all up tonight with a trip to Zoobilation, a fundraiser for the Indy Zoo where loads of local restaurants set up booths throughout the zoo and serve samples of their food. I ate at about three booths and then gave up and turned my attention to making fun of all the fake-baked trophy wives from Carmel. I did run into Rupert from Survivor though, so the night wasn't a total waste. (At this point, those of you unable to pick up on written sarcasm might want to re-read that last sentence.) Needless to say, I'm giving my stomach a rest by fasting this weekend, as we have two more trips on Monday and Tuesday to finish shooting the story. I could try to restrain myself, but really, where's the fun in that?

On a completely random and strange note, I've begun using the name of Jaime Moreno, DC United's star striker, as a curse, in the vein of "Jesus Christ!" Why would I possibly do this, you may wonder? Well, the reason is twofold. One, it's far less blasphemous, if that sort of thing bothers you. Personally, saying "Goddamn it" doesn't make me bat an eye, but I feel some sort of strange Catholic guilt about taking Christ's name in vain (all the more strange because I'm not now, nor have ever been, Catholic). Must be all that Sunday School trauma sticking with me. The second reason is that shouting "Ay! Jaime Moreno!" when something upsets me has a vaguely Latin flair, and makes me seem very worldly and sophisticated. I've noticed many ladies giving me the eye after just such a curse. Although it's quite possible they may just be looking to see who's the crazy person in the room. Either way, they're still checking me out...

Hey, senior citizens can fight Nazis too!

ComingSoon.net is reporting that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have approved a script for Indy 4. It's just waiting for Harrison Ford's (at right, looking every bit his age, and for that matter, a bit like Dubya) approval, and for time in Spielberg's schedule. He's already got two movies ahead of this in the directing pipeline. They better figure it out quick, though. Wait too much longer and it will end up being called "Indiana Jones and the Search for the Best Early-Bird Special in all of Sarasota."

ComingSoon also has news about the long-rumored Simpsons movie, which seems to be moving into production. I hope this is being made as a thank-you to all their die-hard fans, because they're about 10 years too late to cash in on that puppy.

New Coldplay and White Stripes tomorrow. I've already got Coldplay pre-ordered from the iTunes store, which means I get two extra songs. Reviews seems to be mixed. MSNBC says it's a snoozer, New York magazine liked it, Rolling Stone says it never takes off, and The Times Online? Um, let's say cautiously positive. As for Jack and Meg's new one, I'll wait until I hear another song. "Blue Orchid" is a decent song, but their albums have been pretty hit-or-miss for me.

Cellular dependency

Sometimes having something break is a good way to make you appreciate the everyday technology you take for granted. My cell phone battery died yesterday, and it took me a few hours to track down the right replacement model at a Verizon store in town. In that time, not only was there no way for anyone to get a hold of me other than my email, but I couldn't access my address book to figure out anyone's numbers to call them. At this point, the only number I remember off the top of my head is my parents, and that's only because I had to memorize it growing up. The first thing I did today was write everything down... on paper.

My former co-worker and email buddy Grant Wahl has an excellent interview with the #1 US goalkeeper, Kasey Keller, up at si.com. Kasey had a monster game yesterday against Costa Rica, preserving a slim 1-0 lead with four huge saves before the offense managed to put a couple more in the net, giving the US an important three points in World Cup qualifying. They head down to Panama Wednesday night, and a win there would pretty much seal up a trip to Germany next summer.

The folks behind Lost have put together a pretty sweet website based off of the fictional airline that the castaways were flying on when they crashed. There's plenty o' secrets hidden inside, including a video preview of Season 2 which begins in September. Here's how to see it.
1. Go to the official Oceanic Airlines website.
2. At the bottom, where it says "Travellers," enter Hurley's unlucky lottery numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.
3. Click the "Find" button.
4. Click on the row numbers on the flight's seating chart that match Hurley's numbers.
5. Don't blink.

Thanks to Kristin at E! Online (by way of my friend CJ) for the tip.

From Galactico to... the Galaxy?

David Beckham's been all over the US for the past week. On Tuesday, England played Colombia at Giants Stadium, so Becks hit all the New York press stops. Then he jetted off to LA, where he opened the American version of his David Beckham Academy in conjunction with Anschutz Entertainment Group (who also happen to own a few MLS teams). Not by coincidence, at his press conferences in both New York and LA, Beckham hinted that he would be interested in playing in the US when his contract with Real Madrid ends in two years, which got Tim Leiweke, president of AEG, salivating over the idea of Beckham playing in LA for the Galaxy. And before you go thinking that's a ridiculous dream, take a look at this photo. J.Lo and Beyonce? You don't think this guy has dreams of making it in Tinseltown?