Blue Winter, Pittsburgh, PA
Friday, March 14, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
In This America...
Elementary school pupils in Georgia are to be weighed twice a year under a new state law that requires schools to track kid's body mass indexes and post the aggregated information on a website.
Critics are says that the testing is a violation of the children's privacy and may be traumatic. "Sally, step into the office, step onto the scale, that's about as invasive as it gets," remarked State Senator Joseph Carter in a Feb. 29 interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Does the long arm of the government belong in our lives like this? Senator Preston Smith, a Republican from Rome, says no.
What say you?
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Smalltime
In this installment in the incompetent crook genre, Glenn Plummer plays Ben, a small time, but up and coming crook in the employ of The Dutchman. He is entrusted with a half million dollars worth of cocaine and instructed to hold on to it for a couple days in the desert until the buyer comes. Ben sees this as his opportunity to move up the ladder in the organization and be a big player.
What should be routine soon turns into a nightmare. Ben brings along his two partners, Jesus and Marty, who are constantly bickering. The next couple days in the desert prove to be Ben's unraveling.
The movie has tones of Tarentino in the witty dialog and violent narrative - drugs, amateur dealers, prostitutes... all intertwined into a fast moving and explosive ending. That being said we see overtones of Oliver Stone in the mysticism of an Indian shaman. And over top all of this is the desert. The desert is a pivotal character in the film. You can see it, smell it, and taste it. Several characters become lost in it for a time and try to extract something to drink from a drying stick plant. This movie works in the desert location. If the city was the setting it would have been a lame imitation of a hundred similar movies.
It was interesting to see Rae Dawn Chong , daughter of Tommy Chong, show up as the money collector. She has a great film presence. Look for her in the more well known Color Purple. Here she shows range with a role that puts her as an assertive and ruthless gangster.
Smalltime is currently out of print - with no plans to reprint. Keep a watch out for additional pressings as this is a must have for your dumb crook in the desert movie collection.
Friday, February 15, 2008
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