Movie Review: The International

"The International" stars one of my favorite actors, Clive Owen, and Naomi Watts in what is supposed to be an action packed thriller/mystery movie. However, this movie missed the mark. I only give it a 2 star rating.

For one, I found Clive Owen's character to be empty and unlikable. He wasn't particularly good at what he did, and you didn't really root for him. The same was true of Naomi Watts' character. More character development, or at least some reason to like these people would have been nice.

And then, the end of the movie doesn't fit with what it seems to be building to. Basically, it just fizzles at the end. For 90 minutes, they actually built up a decent movie, but the last 20 minutes were just stupid.

Don't waste your time with this one.

All About Image

First off, I apologize that I had to use YouTube Videos here. I know some are against YouTube, but it is the only place where I can find and embed both videos.

Last night, President Obama threw out the first pitch at the All Star Game. Now, here is a video of the "Image President" in action:



You can tell from this, that he barely got it to the plate. But it's difficult to tell because of the odd camera angle. I've never seen a 1st pitch thrown with this camera angle. Normally the camera used would be from behind so you can see the results of the pitch. What do you want to bet that Obama's crew made sure Fox didn't use that angle because they knew the result wouldn't be pretty...heck the throwing motion wasn't pretty.

By the way, talk about controlling image. This morning, I found a video where it showed the pitch from a farther out camera angle, and you can see even more clearly how bad it looked. Tonight, I can't find that video anywhere. Coincidence...I think not! But I digress.

I will agree that he "may" have made it to the plate, but just barely. Frankly, it's embarrassing when our athletic, young President can't throw a baseball 60 feet. So, one of my knew voting criteria is...will they be able to throw out a good first pitch? I'm willing to consider extenuating circumstances, such as injury or age. But, as a rule, I want my President to be able to throw a strike. Obama should use that big lawn of his and get out there and work on his pitching, so that next time he gets asked to do this, he'll do a better job.

Here's a reminder of what it looks like when our President throws a good 1st pitch. No tricky camera work here.

Who's Your Dictator?

I thought that was a catchy title. But, I am going to pose this question...Is the United States close to becoming a dictatorship under Barack Obama? Certainly Presidents have overstepped their bounds before...Andrew Jackson comes to mind. However, Barack Obama seems to be taking this to an extreme.

First, I'd like to cite 2 quotes from a speech he gave today announcing his nominee for Surgeon General. Obama is talking about Health Care Reform.

"Don't bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen,"

"I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone," the president said. "Inaction is not an option."

Some may say that those 2 quotes are "showing leadership." To me it sounds bullyish. However you slice it, members of Congress, including Democrats, have serious reservations about the President's Health Care Reform Plan. Remember, they don't need Republicans to get this done.

The people of this country elected their representatives to do a job, and for the first time since Obama got elected they are doing it. They are taking a critical look at something the President is proposing and saying that they don't like everything in there. But, rather than try to work with these members of his own party, Obama is acting like the school yard bully and putting people on notice.

The 2nd point that I've been meaning to address, and this goes more to the point of whether or not we are becoming a Dictatorship, is all these czars President Obama has been appointing. The number I've seen is 34 czars. For those of you who don't know, the President can appoint these czars without Constitutionally required Congressional approval and they report directly to him. Often, they have as much or more power than Cabinet level positions.

By appointing czars, Obama is able to more quickly enact sweeping changes at the federal level, because he doesn't have to go through the normal red tape. While I despise the overgrown government, the bureaucracy does serve one purpose...it stops the government from overreaching too quickly. Obama has taken a privilege that Presidents typically use for 4-5 positions and extended it to everything from a car czar to an executive pay czar. Obama has essentially set up a parallel government beholden to no one but him.

Look, I really don't know what Obama's plan is with this. I have my suspicions, but I don't want to sound too conspiratorial. What I do know is this...Obama only won 53% of the vote, yet he's operating like he won 75% of the vote. He's arrogant and I think he believes the American people will let him get away with whatever he wants, just because he sounds good when he asks for it. As Americans we need to send Obama a message. To do this, we need to call our Senators and Representatives when we don't support what they are doing and let them know how we feel. In 2010 and then 2012, we need to send a message with our vote. So far, the U.S. is not a Dictatorship, and it's up to us to keep it that way.

Movie Review: Valykyrie

"Valkyrie" boasts an solid cast as it tells the story of the German resistance against Hitler during the 2nd World War. This resistance was led by Claus von Stauffenberg, portrayed by Tom Cruise in the movie. Based on what is on Wikipedia, the movie appears to be somewhat accurate, though you can never truly trust Wikipedia.

I actually enjoyed this movie more than I expected to...I ended up giving it a 4 star rating. Tom Cruise has been growing more annoying, but he was surprisingly ok in this movie. The rest of the cast was pretty good as well, including Eddie Izzard, the famed British comedian turned actor. Also, any movie with Terence Stamp is generally made better.

I thought Bryan Singer did a terrific job in telling this story. The scenery was perfect and the suspense was really well done. I really liked how they started the movie in German, but then during mid paragraph began to transition to English. Bryan Singer is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors.

I just can't complain about too much in the movie...if not for my disposition against Tom Cruise, I may have given this 5 stars.