Senate I Want to Believe-The Senate's Social Thread and Secret Society Roundtable

I actually went to see it on yesterday afternoon.

Don't tell us your reaction to the movie or anything. No one wants to know whether it's any good.

My only real problem is getting the layer of rice thin enough, because it sticks together too much. When I roll it, I wind up with a monster-sized roll, no matter what I do, and then it just falls apart when I try to pick it up with chopsticks.

Kimball Kinnison

That's exactly it--making the whole thing compact enough so that it holds together while you cut it and then later when you try to pick it up and eat it.

Ha, sorry about that. I was sitting down to dinner and just posted quickly. Anyway, I thought it was good. Not the best (Raiders and Last Crusade just cannot be beat), but it was very well done. Some very good references, and it had the feel of the old serials that the Jones movies are based on. Also, Cate Blanchett makes Communism look good. Sign me up, tovarich. Karen Allen still looks good. Ray Winstone does well with Harrison Ford. Hell, even Shia LaBeouf, everyone's favorite whipping boy, was good in this movie. And then there's Harrison "I'm the only one to make it out of Star Wars with a great career" Ford. Neither the years nor the mileage have made him lose his edge as Indy.

Great visuals, great dialog, great acting. Ranks #2 so far this summer (right behind Iron Man).

Amen to that. I can never seem to get it right, unless I try to make one of those reverse rolls, with the ride on the outside.

Now onigiri, rice balls, those I love making, and I can do a fairly decent job.

Mr44, what's the verdict on Indy 4? I'm seeing it tonight.

Yep. I would agree that review. Especially about Iron Man.

Indy was a decent fun movie, but not the best movie of the franchise.. There was enough plot points to probably make 3 more movies, but most ended up being under-used. Still, worth seeing.

Thanks JFT and Mr44. That's good enough for me. The Indy series doesn't carry as much fanboy baggage around with it as Star Wars, so people can go in with contained expectations and come out satisfied.

Opt for the Greg Dean method:
[image=http://reallifecomics.com/comics/2008/20080523_2001.png]

That cartoon is so true.

There were a couple of things that bothered me about Indy, each having varying degrees of "annoyance ratings." Still, I think if this were any other movie, that expectation wouldn't be there, and it would just be an enjoyable summer film.

That sounds about right, and it is much better than Temple of Doom if only because they didn't include two of the most annoying tag along characters in a major motion picture.

I have a new rating system for the Indiana Jones movies. Here it is: describe the movie's central artifact. The less time it takes you to explain it, the better the movie is.

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Artifact: old testament holy relic. Attempted misuse invokes wrath of God.

2. Last Crusade

Artifact: new testament holy relic. drinking out of it extends life/heals wounds. Removal from temple where it is hidden causes destruction of said temple.

3. Temple of Doom.

Artifact: pile of magic rocks. Have some kind of power to do something. Say the right words and they get very hot. There's something about tearing people's hearts out of their chests, too, but not sure how that fits in. And then there's the turning children into zombies. Do the stones do that, too? Not sure.

4. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Artifact: skull of extradimensional beings who live in the space between spaces. The skull has been removed from a gold city, for reasons unknown. For reasons also not known, the return of the skull launches an extradimensional craft that returns to its own dimension for reasons that aren't clear, destroying the temple where it has been hidden for many centuries and also flooding several square miles in the process. The temple is protected by people who seem to have been walled up inside it for a long time. Oh yeah, the skull creates a psychic connection with anyone who looks into its eye sockets, for reasons that aren't clear, driving some of them temporarily insane, for reasons unknown, unless of course they are just pretending to be insane, for reasons that don't seem to make sense. For reasons that aren't clear, anyone who returns the crystal skull to its skeleton will be punished by death, or maybe this only happens if the skeleton doesn't approve of the person who returned its skull. But that isn't clear, either. The extradimensional beings are part of a hive mind, but there's no reason you need to know this, nor do you need to know about the magnetism or the conquistadors.

My only nitpick on Indy 4 is the loss of tension during one of the chase scenes which is the result of too much obvious cgi. Otherwise I liked it a lot. I was humming the Indy theme when I left the theatre and bought an Indy hat from Blockbuster.

My 10K post thread. Come see if I name-dropped you.

I enjoyed Indy IV. It's better than II, but worse than III.

The UFO launching was just awesome.

The reviews for "The Love Guru" are a lot more funny than any of the trailers I've seen.

Example:

It's somehow less amusing than it should be, which might sum up "The Love Guru" in its entirety but only at the risk of grievously understating the movie's awfulness... No, "The Love Guru" is downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again.

Lol Mick LaSalle:

When Myers is funny, he's funny. And when he's not funny, it's not for lack of trying.

I haven't seen Love Guru and don't intend to see it, but I can't possibly be the only one who thinks that Jessica Alba is the Anna Kournikova of Hollywood.

I need some ideas, and I thought I would turn to some of the more creative Senators for help.

My brother-in-law is currently serving in Afghanistan with the Utah National Guard. Last week, I shipped off a care package to him (from my brother and me, together). However, because a of a problem with my old laptop computer (which was given to him to take with him), I need to send a new care package ASAP with a replacement power supply. I ordered the new power supply (actually, I got 2), but since it was supposed to take 2-3 weeks to arrive, I decided not to wait to ship the package last week.

I ordered the power supply on Wednesday and shipped the care package on Friday. The new power supplies arrived on Saturday.

Does anyone have some good suggestions for me? The last package had everything from spices (garlic salt - by request) and imitation bacon bits (the real stuff's not allowed) to book 1 of the Dresden Files, and a collection of 9 Bond films I converted for his PSP. I also included a few minor toys (bouncy balls, sets of marbles, etc) for him to give out to Afghan children (he works in intelligence, specifically with the children). The one major restriction that we have is that we can't send him any toys that have pictures on them, or that are otherwise representations of anything that is, was, or might have been living.

Any thoughts?

Kimball Kinnison

For the children, blank writing paper or multi-colored construction paper along with markers and colored pencils. The bonus is that depending on how much he interacts with a specific group of people, he'll have lots of pictures to bring home as well.

For him, I'd add magazines of any kind that are allowed. Gun's and Ammo, Motor Trend, Premiere, etc... Garlic salt is a new one for me though... is that for the mess hall or does he eat a lot of MRE's?

You can't go past candy bars for the kids.

The one major restriction that we have is that we can't send him any toys that have pictures on them, or that are otherwise representations of anything that is, was, or might have been living.

Why is that?

Those would be restrictions put in place by the host nation.

Particularly within the Pashtun-Sunni Hadith, (or body of oral tradition that are passed on from generation to the next) depictions of the living or once living are prohibited according to concerns of idolatry.

A result is that a subject could actually be put to death for blasphemy. It's an extreme result that isn't typical, but a more pressing concern is that the dozens of "Hanna Montana" coloring books that seem like no big deal to soldiers would filter throughout the country and cause concern or unrest.

Ahhhh..I see. This can be an informative little place at times.

After seeing The Dark Knight a second time, I declare it to be the best movie all summer, and perhaps the best I've seen in years.

Just absolutely perfect. Good mix of action, drama, and social commentary. Great acting all around (especially from Ledger and Eckhart). And the special effects just felt real. Never took you out of the experience.

And when I say perfect, I don't just mean the perfect Batman movie, I mean a perfect movie.

The Dark Knight is indeed a great movie. It should get best picture.

I remember a while ago when we first found out Heath Ledger was going to be the Joker. Everyone was like, "Oh, him? Great, there goes all the hope I had for this movie."

I remember that too.