October 7th

It has been two years since the attack that started the current war between Israel and Hamas.  Except for that first assault by Hamas, it has been a one-sided war.  Hamas never stood a chance, and they knew it.  As usual, there have been constant calls for ceasefires and ending of the war.  That is not how wars end.  In World War II, the US required surrender from the Axis powers.  Germany didn't get to sue for peace after D-Day.  No, they had the choice of surrender or continued warfare.  The same was true with Japan.  Either surrender or the bombing will continue.  Hamas has refused to surrender.  Nor have the Palestinian people overthrown their bellicose leaders.  You do not get to start a war then cry timeout when it goes badly for you.  Ergo, the war continues.

Clearly, Hamas will not surrender, thus the war can only end when Hamas is no more.  Is that even possible?  It is quite a strategy that Hamas has and may yet succeed in letting them rebuild for the next attack on Israel.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

Harry Street (Gregory Peck) lies in a cot on the savannah beneath Kilimanjaro and ponders his life.  He finds now a good time to ponder as he is dying.  His wife, Helen (Susan Hayward), is upset by his dire prediction and fretful that it might be true.  Ignorant or uncaring of his wife's feelings, he blathers on about his impending death from gangrene before nodding off.  His mind travels back to his youth and the first girl whose heart he broke.  His drive to be a successful writer meant that he had to experience as much as he could.  He would be a wanderer.  In Paris, Cynthia Green (Ava Gardner) caught his fancy.  She was the love of his life, if only he had realized that sooner.  In fact, he met Helen on account of she looked like Cynthia.  So much left to write and so little time.

Harry is thoroughly unlikeable.  He is a worthless cad, a man blind to all that is in front of him.  He is so eager to absorb experiences about which he can write but learns nothing from his extensive experience with women.  Of course, the women aren't much better.  Cynthia is too afraid to tell him she's pregnant but brave enough to tumble down a staircase to miscarry.  Countess Liz (Hildegard Knef) is noxious, showing that Harry has terrible taste in women.  Or, more likely, he is willing to endure wealthy women.  Indeed, Helen is rich.  Has Harry parlayed his moderate fame as an author into several gigs as the kept man of affluent women?

The role did not suit Gregory Peck.  Harry is a lowlife, while Peck has the stature of an upstanding citizen of high morals.  Despite having been a heavy drinker in life, he offers unconvincing evidence of it in acting.  Serious and stern were Peck's bread and butter in acting.  Foolishness and high spirits are unconvincing.  Really, he comes across as a mediocre actor here.  There is something to be said for typecasting.  I was reminded of Arabesque, another film where he did not fit the role.

Skip.

Meg 2: The Trench (2023)

The Meg is back, and he has brought his little friends!  It has been five years since Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) fought the Meg.  In the intervening years, he married Suyin, Suyin died, and he is now the single father of teenaged Meiying (Sophia Cai).  He has also taken up the fight against oceanic polluters, performing wildly dangerous feats to provide proof to the authorities.  With his good guy character firmly established, the story can begin.   There is a captive Meg in a grand enclosure.  To make things more interesting, it has birthed several more Megs.  Yeah, it's fine, because they are training them.

Of course, going to the trench where the Meg was found is routine these days.  However, on this particular trip, the submariners discovered a secret mining operation!  Secret!  Sure.  The miners are not at all happy about this and set about killing Jonas' submariners.  Inevitably, the minisubs are rendered useless and the reduced number of submariners must walk to the mine.  So, they had suits that would withstand this pressure?  Okay, fine.  They manage to infiltrate the mine but are trapped. To save the day, Jonas swims from an airlock to another airlock.  No suit!  He's just that tough.  Sigh.

When the surviving submariners return to the surface, they must face armed mercenaries as they race toward the mainland.  Once there, the meg's little friends - doglike dinosaurs who prove quite good at running on land despite millennia spent deep beneath the ocean - charge through a beach resort, killing whomever they catch.  Sigh.

Once again, Jonas is called upon to kill the Meg.  No, make that three Megs.  No problem.  He has 4 explosive-tipped hastily-made javelins that he can fling at a Meg while he races around the bay on a Jetski.

The Meg was fun.  This is garbage.  Clearly, Li Bingbing (Suyin) read the script and asked that her character be killed off.  Statham should have gone the same route.  Hard pass.

Penny Dreadful (Season 1)

Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) is a famous explorer.  However, his trekking into deepest darkest Africa has been put on hold while he seeks his daughter, Mina Harker.  Mina has been abducted by something foul and supernatural.  As such, Murray has assembled a team of specialists to face the threat.  Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) has a way of knowing things, a sensitivity to the spiritual.  Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnet) is an American marksman who happened to be on tour in England when Miss Ives recruited him.  He has a dark and mysterious past, but proves to be a stalwart ally.  Sembene (Danny Sapani) looks to be an African tribesman with deadly knife skills who serves as Murray's butler.  There must be a story here, but it is not revealed.  Finally, requiring a doctor to examine the corpse of a vampire (?!), Murray recruits Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway).  Can this band of heroes find and rescue Murray's daughter?

Of course, there are other figures in London.  Frankenstein's creature (Rory Kinnear) demands a mate that will be like him.  Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney) has taken an interest in Miss Ives, Ethan, and even Ethan's lover, Brona (Billie Piper).  There are many subplots to allow development of every character.

Here is what The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen could have been.  Penny Dreadful creates an excellent blend of dark horror with calls to Dracula, Frankenstein, and Doran Gray.  Entertaining and engaging.  Highly recommended.

End of Watch (2012)

Los Angeles Police Officers Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Zavala (Michael Pena) were in hot pursuit.  Suddenly, the car they are chasing crashed into a fence.  The suspects jumped out and opened fire.  Taylor and Zavala shoot back, killing the suspects.  Back at the police station, Taylor filmed himself while getting ready for the day.  He was taking classes for law but chose filmmaking as an elective.  As such, he has a camcorder with him most of the time.  The two officers have only just returned to duty; it is SOP for officers involved in a shooting to be taken out of rotation while the incident is reviewed.  It is clear that Taylor and Zavala are the hotshots of the department.  The story follows them, much of it viewed from Taylor's camcorder or the bodycams on the officers.

This is like a long episode of Adam 12 with a lot more gunfire and profanity.  Beyond the comradery of the two cops, the story follows their relationships as well.  Taylor and his new girlfriend, Janet (Anna Kendrick), get the most attention.  There are also the ongoing clashes with a brutal and violent drug cartel that has expanded into L.A.  The movie is at sometimes light and fun but also has extremely dark and violent moments.

Good popcorn fun.  Recommended.

Another Shutdown

In his first term, President Trump presided over two shutdowns.  One lasted for 3 days and the other for a record-breaking 35 days.  Here is yet another opportunity to determine which agencies are really needed and which can be disbanded.  Do we really need the Department of Education.  It was only created in 1979 and education outcomes were better before its creation than since.  It has already undergone some trimming, but elimination would save more money.  What about the Department of Housing and Urban Development?  Another relatively new agency (1965), it doesn't appear to have improved that which it was created to oversee.  If the agency hasn't found a way to prevent urban decay and homelessness despite billions in funding and 6 decades of experience, maybe it isn't possible.  Oh, but how much worse would it be without HUD?  Let's find out.  Department of Labor should be abolished.  Another money pit that generates regulations that discourage job creation.  Department of Transportation is yet another government expansion from the 1960s.  What does it do?  They show up after a train derailment or a plane crash and grandstand.  As if the companies wouldn't endeavor to prevent such incidents themselves; derailments and plane crashes are terrible for profits.  Oh, but it makes it appear the government is doing something.  We'll regulate against derailments and crashes.

The US has a $37 trillion national debt and thinks it doesn't need to cut anything.  Even with the government 'shutdown,' the debt is still growing.  It is time to look at the successes of Argentina's pruning of its bloated government and the benefits that have followed.