Saw this a couple months back and was unimpressed. Aside from the opening, most of the action is poorly imagined, the "weapons" are obviously CG, and the virtual blood flies everywhere without ever, somehow, managing to stain the floor. The end effect is a a whole lot of people doing strenuous gymnastic routines in front of a green screen with no real sense of choreography or kinetic impact.

About the only reason to see the movie is to watch Sho Kosugi gleefully chew scenery because the rest of it is made-for-cable level writing and plotting that ends up being nonsensical even on its own comic book level of storytelling (Ninjas can track you across a city by smell, but they can't hear helicopters thundering down a mountain valley?).

Also: "V For Vendetta" was not perfect, but it was a better Alan Moore adaptation than "Watchmen."

For an Oscar? The film was entertaining enough, good casting and some flashy direction, but the plot was nonsensical. I have no idea why some people keep pushing this as an Oscar contender, except for the fact that they're desperate to have a crowd-pleasing "Dark Knight"-style nominee to get people to tune into the Oscar broadcast after last year's snoozefest.

The interest in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was more of a novelty for most people who were not already involved with Asian cinema, and even then, it only represented a very specific sub-genre. It doesn't really surprise me that the movie didn't kick off a renaissance of Asian imports to America any more than subtitled films from any other country.

(True story: I went to see "Brotherhood of the Wolf" at a theater in Austin; the box office had a sign posted in the window for the showing that said "WARNING: This movie has subtitles.")

In addition, the Weinsteins pretty much killed the goose that laid the golden egg, optioning reams of classic and contemporary Asian films then dithering because they couldn't figure out how to sell them to a mainstream audience, eventually either releasing a butchered version in theaters or simply dumping films to DVD (or both). I love how the classic "Sha Po Lang" was retitled "Killzone."

And to be honest, I've been puzzled about some of the films that critics have championed as having a shot at the mainstream. "The Host"? Even by Asian standards, that's a movie that leans heavily on the melodrama button and exhibits pacing atypical of most Western thrillers (not to mention political commentary that will fly over the heads of most of the audience). Frankly, some movies simply aren't mainstream no matter what language is spoken.

Finally, while I applaud the work of NYAFF and other festivals, they create a rather unique problem. Being an Asian film buff, it's a little annoying to be reading rave reviews of a movie for a year as it tours the global film fest circuit, then maybe six months later it opens in LA and NYC for a limited run (where most people have already seen the film at the festivals), and then _maybe_ six months after that a DVD might be available.

I hate to say this, but after telling me how great a film is -- if only I'd been able to fly to Oslo or Toronto or wherever to catch it -- I'm not willing to wait years (if ever) to see an R1 release when I can obtain the movie on a Hong Kong or Korean or Japanese DVD with English subs.

BTW, I second the recommendation of "Good, Bad, Weird." Absolutely fantastic movie, and definitely on my "best" list for the year.

I'm really, really tired of an application that simply renders text and graphics sucking up 1GB of memory if left running for a day.

And America is becoming a mirror of the Village. "Indefinite preventive detention" would have doubtless brought a rueful smirk to Patrick McGoohan's lips.

...which states are Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman, Joe Lieberman, Harry Reid, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and John McCain from? Because it isn't Texas, and if we're going to start ejecting states based on their nominated public officials, I think we can add a few more to the list.

...then speaking on behalf of Austin, we'd like to secede from Texas and rejoin the Union. We'll be like a city-state in a sea of red...

Seriously, though, Perry is a clown, but if you lose Texas then you'll also be losing a large chunk of the videogame industry, SXSW, the best theater chain in America (Alamo), and really the only good source for Tex-Mex food. So there is a downside.

"Unlike similar documents that have shown up on the state level, there's no mention of support for the Constitution, or opposition to the income tax, or even the United Nations. But it does hit on the two right-wing hot buttons of abortion, and especially immigration....So mainstream conservatives can easily see themselves in this document, because it doesn't conflate them with principled civil libertarians of the Ron Paul persuasion."

The abortion issue has resulted in the bombing of clinics and the murder of doctors, while immigration has yielded those weekend warriors tooling around the border, armed to the teeth, ready to shoot "illegals." So yeah, those are the groups you'd probably want to focus on.

If some conservatives have a problem with that, then maybe they shouldn't be trying to mainstream the most fringe elements of the movement.