Bad cold. Coughing and nose blowing, and blech.
The passing of Lloyd Bentsen. The most memorable line was Bentsen’s VP debate with Quayle in 1988: “Senator, I knew Jack Kennedy, and you’re no Jack Kennedy.” This Sunday’s Meet The Press showed a clip of Bentsen’s “showdown” with the NRA, where he was brandishing a (undoubtedly unloaded) machine gun and he’s noting that he knows weapons having served in World War II, but he was obviously not with the NRA because, well, such weapons kill… There’s likely not going to be another Lloyd Bentsen again.
A NY 1 story on a fortune cookie factory in Brooklyn.
NY 1 also covered various stuff on APA Heritage Month.
Saw “Mission Impossible III” on Sunday, despite the sniffles and the coughs. The sound system was loud enough to pretty much made it so that no one heard my coughs (and I barely heard others’ coughs or whatnot).
The blow-’em-ups were good enough. I don’t care for Tom Cruise, but I had to see it because it’s a J.J. (“I made ‘Felicity’/’Alias’/’Lost'”) Abrams movie. It had the hallmark Alias moves: the plot that makes no sense, but the wild ride of a journey; the tension of duty versus love; and the impossible is possible. And, of course, that trademark Mission Impossible gag, from the tv series: Your mission should you choose to accept it (as if Jim Phelps wouldn’t)… this message will self-destruct in five seconds…
Cruise was Cruise. Okay. Not so bad. His character Ethan Hunt has his witty moments. Billy Crudup – ooh: “Priceless” man of the Master Card ad pitch. Philip Seymour Hoffman – come on, it’s Philip Seymour Hoffman. Quite the villain. Laurence Fishburne. Is The Man. (of course. And, at least, none of that Matrix stuff). And Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Myers, and Maggie Q picking up the rear, with Michelle Monaghan as Cruise’s love interest.
Maggie Q threw in Cantonese (yeah! J.J. Abrams has this thing about China/Chinese dialects, at least he certainly did in Alias). Jonathan Rhys Myers was either playing an Irish-American or an Irish guy working with the Impossible Mission Force – his accent wasn’t making sense (well, he is Irish in real life; personally, it was nice to see him play a good guy after the – umm – scariness of his role in “Match Point.”). And, Keri Russell – she was cool. It would’ve been nice to have seen more of her.
It was a good movie. A solid B. Could’ve been a B-plus, if I didn’t feel that it was an obvious play on Alias (article on Slate) – I mean, really, the IMF team’s home base tech guy was a play on Alias’ own Marshall (but Benjy’s a Brit/naturalized American, so it’s funnier). I don’t feel that J.J. Abrams has a negative bias about China (as the article I linked above wonders), but he’s certainly has an interest, and he does the tricks of the trade very well (for a more positive look, here’s a Slate review on the movie.). Ethan Hunt’s no Sydney Bristow either.
Mind you, I didn’t like the first Mission Impossible movie (what they did to Jim Phelps was sacrilege) and skipped the 2nd movie. But, I liked the third movie. Good matinee movie.
