Momentarily breaking in to offer an amusing, 'net only mockumentary.

For those of us entranced by Spellbound, Wordwars and Wordplay (the quirky competition genre)...Unflinching Triumph...a surprisingly engaging doc about the cutthroat world of 'staredown'.

As a person who can barely out-stare my dog, I was moved and inspired by the story of Phillip Rockhammer's rise to the elite of his sport.

Seriously, the film is well made and the associated web sites are really, really good.

Wow. What isn't a sport?

Wait, you said it's a mockumentary? So it's a joke? Whew.

That said, I couldn't understand what Andie saw in Blaine, and I kind of hated the ending.

I didn't hate Blaine, but i wanted Andie to end up with Duckie. you know the original ending had her ending up with him and the test audiences didn't like it and so they changed it, right? (run-on sentence much?)

my favorite brat pack movie is The Breakfast Club and always will be. so many quotables.

A joke, but a very well-told joke. So much so that one never sees the wink.

a surprisingly engaging doc about the cutthroat world of 'staredown'.

Heh. Emmett was having a staring contest with Matilda this morning.

"Blink, damn you!" he said in his most James T. Kirk manner.

(Not to be confused with his moist James T. Kirk manner.)

(Charlie Hunter used to be in a SF band called James T. Kirk. They only played covers by James Brown, Thelonius Monk and Roland Rasheed Kirk.)

(Charlie Hunter used to be in a SF band called James T. Kirk. They only played covers by James Brown, Thelonius Monk and Roland Rasheed Kirk.)

That is awesome on several levels.

That is awesome on several levels.

Then they got a cease and desist from Paramount so they changed it to TJ Hooker: Thelonius Monk, James Brown and John Hooker.

That's even more awesome.

I'm in awe.

I have seen The Prestige, and though it's been out for eons, I feel the need to whitefont:

OK, first off, the performances were excellent, and so many great actors. This, in fact, was my first problem. After having about eight "Holy crap, it's that guy!" moments (including Andy Serkis, bless him), I found myself suspicious of Borden's assistant. After the second or third time I saw him on screen, I thought to myself, "Why can't I tell who the actor is? You can see everyone's eyes but this guy, why don't they want us to... oh, hell." So that was my first reveal.

So then I found myself thinking, well, why are there two of him? And here comes the second part, which I admit is some kind of timeline confusion on my part, but... so we see Angier going to see Tesla, to get a "machine like he built before." So, Tesla builds the machine, we see what it does, badda bing. So here's the thing.... I come to the conclusion that Borden had already used the machine! That's why there was two of them! In hindsight, WTFF?!? Apparently, I smoked the good crack before going into the theater. Anyway, so then it was very clear to me what Angiers was doing. I admit I didn't see the house of horrors in the basement coming, but there you are.

So, the "prestige" at the end? Yeah, saw right through it. I actually left the movie feeling a little bit angry. Not because I saw through it (though on a technical issue? really? bad suspension of disbelief, no biscuit), but angry because I didn't end up siding with either of them. Yeah, ok, neither of them were great guys, but even when there's two antagonists in a story, you end up protagonizing one of them. But no! And Jackman as the bad guy! I mean, sure, playing against type, that's great, but damnit Hugh!

I just don't think it was the movie I was expecting. That's not a bad thing, by any stretch, but I'll need to see it again to know if I love it, and I'm not sure I can actually watch it again. Now, off to go back and read the whitefont.

eta: btw, how is it that even in the manliest of men's clothes, Bowie looks like a drag king?!?