Another year, and another SAW.. the fourth installment in the series did, again, remarkably well despite reviews proclaiming the acting was worth less than a made-for-TV movie, and the graphic violence was some of the worst torture porn that ever appeared in the big screen..
My niece saw it and said it was definitely gory.. the audience in the theater winced and bobbed their heads up and down as the heavy metal torture scenes played out--at least this is what she told me. I didn't see it. And probably won't..
I had enough of SAW with the second installment for a variety of reasons. First off, you could tell it was going to be a quickly produced Halloween staple. The speed of the production was evident with the lack of acting ability of the cast. I'm not an actor.. don't proclaim to be one. But I also don't audition for films. The actors in the SAW films don't know enough to stop themselves..
Maybe we can start picking actors in the SAW franchise films like we choose reality show contestants. They could submit their most graphic acting scene, they could be judged by a panel, and maybe even everyone can vote. Maybe Americans could even vote on how they wanted their actor to die.. what type of torture, how many minutes of a scene should it go on.. All that.
Regardless of my lofty ideas for future cast placement, what is clear is how this franchise changed over time. In 2004, the original film was truly original. Low budget, story line, interesting twist ending. Gore, definitely, but it's a horror film. As it continued, however, the obvious lasting affect was much stronger than Rob Zombie's HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES or the DEVIL'S REJECTS.. what Zombie tried to do on purpose was done without much fanfare by SAW's creators..
The violence that gets splashed on the screen is realistically gory.. Almost borderline obsessive in detail.
The script and casting is poor.. Leaving the assumption that the creators are simply making quickie gross out films dubbed "horror porn", "torture porn" and even "gore-nography" by reviewers..
Not to sound prudish.. but maybe too much is now too much? SAW IV will no doubt next year equal SAW V.. By the time we get to SAW X .. will be have enough?
Does this art imitate the violent life we live in? Or maybe, are viewers just happy it's not them being tortured in brutally sadistic ways?
Perhaps we all know a movie gets to be enough when even FANGORIA magazine writes"Beyond that, though, itis more than fair to ask what another installment will have to offer that the other films haven't already given us. Clearly the filmmaking team can come up with endless ways to torture their victims physically, but this particular brand of psychological torment has pretty much been played out."
Played out maybe.. But consistently popular definitely.
Families and homes in ruins .. evacuations .. natural disaster meeting modern day society. It sounds like Hurricane Katrina but could not be further from it.
The wildfires in California have no name like Katrina. Hurricanes are named.. wildfires cannot be. Multiple fires in California this week made for heart wrenching TV--though I think the internet proved once again to be a better source of information.
But through the week, it was apparent that the media wanted another Katrina. A new 2007 version, this time the natural calamity that the government couldn't respond to was fire.
But that could be further from reality.
Katrina and the wildfires are separate in all ways. The government responded quick to the wildfires. President Bush was on scene faster.. Local and state leaders did a million times better job than Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin.
Though there was a red-faced embarrassment when FEMA pretended it was conducting a press conference, the embarrassment pales in comparison to the national embarrassment of an agency that could not get 50,000 people food for days.
California handled the wildfires with exceptional professionalism. They had a disaster plan for decades for this very situation.
New Orleans, at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, never had a plan for a Hurricane though storms form in the Gulf every year. Instead, the politicians took advantage of people for years.. a corrupt system led people into further poverty with no hopes of getting out.
This is not Katrina. I don't care how many in the media will compare ... this is not Katrina.
Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images/Justin Sullivan. Photo from Arrowbear Lake, California
Arguably one of the dullest presidents in modern history with intriguing comments that he told a reporter needed to be supressed until after his death..
Gerald Ford, the man who took office after the shameful demise of Richard Nixon, said Bill Clinton was a woman-chasing sex addict, that Rudy Guiliani would face Hillary Clinton in 2008, and that America was not ready for a female president..
The story, as being reported in today's NY DAILY NEWS, exclusively reports comments Ford spoke to DAILY NEWS Washington Bureau Chief Thomas M. DeFrank.. DeFrank's new book set to rock the political world--in a way that a quiet mild mannered Gerald Ford never could.
All the news unfit to print for Saturday, October 27, 2007
FEMA's Fakery
With wildfires raging in California, destroying homes and lives, shattered ruins of possessions and families were able to look on at a disaster organization creating a new disaster .. man made and packaged for the world to see: A fake news conference.
As if FEMA's reputation after Katrina is not bad enough, maybe they should get Brownie back to do a heck of a job again..
This time, the White House admonished FEMA for holding a fake news conference on the wildfires. The agency actually had arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of independent reporters Tuesday and ask questions of Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the agency's deputy director.
FEMA also set up an 800 number for real reporters to call in. When they did, they were able only to listen to the agency's "press conference"..
We've all had dumb bosses in our life.. but doesn't this absolutely without question, unequivcally take the cake?
A disaster agency.. using its employees to pretend they are reporters .. asking softball questions while seriously bad wildfires burn acre after acre..?
This is worse than Katrina! At least then it was only Brownie pretending to do a heck of a job. This time employees were used in the fakery!
We do know FOX NEWS covered it .. I am not sure how many other new agencies did.
When I was ten years old, the Gulf War stormed into my life.. It was on TV, we studied maps in my grade school classroom of countries we never heard of before. We fretted to our teacher--now deceased God rest his soul--that Saddam Hussein may reach the United States with his weapons of mass destruction..
We were worried children. Just as kids back in the Cold War as Billy Joel sang about.. Heads under their desk in an air raid drill.
Does the news contribute? Yes. Are there things to truly worry about? Definitely. It's just too bad kids can't worry about tests and school work, as opposed to the needs of the world that they can't change, fix, or often handle.
I was a worried child.
Our kids come to age earlier and earlier each generation.. Soon childhood as we know it will be dead...
From the Associated Press: "O.J. Simpson is getting his fake Rolex watch back. The timepiece, seized earlier this week by attorneys for Fred Goldman, was ordered returned to the former football star after it was determined to be a knockoff made in China"
William Widmaier, 65, and Joseph Alullo, 54, were friends from their days together on the police force.. They both worked for a company named Loomis as armored car guards.. They were both shot dead this week by Mustafa Ali.. He executed both men without saying a word, according to reports..
Both men were married.
Both men had children.
Both men now dead.. Not for much money.
And where you go.. after this .. money will not be important.
God bless these two men. I pray there is a heaven so they can both be there tonight...Guarding humanity..
This story simply struck me this week...Had to write something.
William left a club with Kate Middleton. Reports say that they were pursued in their car by paparazzi...
Eager to snap a photo. No matter who gets hurt.
They killed a Princess.. They destroyed lives. But those pictures sell.
Do these rabid photographers have any shame?
Reports of the William/Middleton incident say that the reported foamed at the mouth for snapshots while pursing the couple by car, motorcycle, and even on foot.
If only they could see themselves. Take a photo of themselves.. Watch their behavior for cash.. for that prized photo ..
Do they not realize their photo led to other photos that were released this week? Those of a car mangled and crushed in England.. blood on the side and wall.. Princess Diana dying inside at the time the photos were taken..
Will they not be happy until another celebrity succumbs to a horrible fate?
...All while the bright light of that final snapshot blinds the eyes of the dimming star.
Ron Paul, in his 70s, being propped up by the generation of the newth.. The new youth. The younger population that puts its entire life story online, but demands privacy.. The society of young online rebels that broadcasts by blogs, new free net radio, You Tube, and Myspace.
How far can Ronald Paul ride these coattails of the new found online revolution is still anyone's guess.. but the dramatic reporting of more than $5 mil has rocked the Republican field, and the entire campaign. ..
Now if these people would only vote next year. If they do, it's going to be a first. The new come of agers need to express their voice in something more than FTP and HTML. It's time to take go viral at the voting booth..
Carol Anne Gotbaum may have accidentally choked herself to death while handcuffed in an airport holding cell ..
Shock tonight at her death.. her crime? arrested Friday at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix after she became irate when gate crews refused to let her board a flight for which she was late...
All the news unfit to print for Monday, October 1, 2007
Breaking story from Yemen: Major volcano eruption!
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A volcanic eruption off the Red Sea coast of Yemen spewed lava hundreds of meters into the air Sunday evening and at least nine people were missing at sea, Canadian naval officials said.
The eruption occurred on Jazirt Atta-Ir, an island about 80 miles from Yemen, the Canadian navy said in a statement.
HMCS Toronto was conducting a search and rescue operation, at the request of the Yemen coast guard. At the time of the eruption, the NATO fleet was sailing north towards the Suez Canal, the statement said.
Navy spokesman Ken Allen told Canadian Press lava was spewing hundreds of yards (metres) into the air, with volcanic ash also rising 300 yards (metres).
In an e-mail from Toronto, he said the entire 2-mile-long (3-km-long) island is aglow with lava and magma as it pours into the sea
Random rakings
Arguably one of the dullest presidents in modern history with intriguing comments that he told a reporter needed to be supressed until after his death..
