plus, the likely future obama chief of staff looks a lot like alexander siddig, aka dr. bashir from star trek: deep space nine.

siddig will def play emanuel in the obama movie of the future.

UPDATED: 11/5/2008 at 5:50 p.m.: sean has pointed out that emanuel also looks like robert downey jr. a normal person would have probably made this comparison first (downey is objectively WAY MORE FAMOUS than saddig). but i’m a freak. whatever.

in this version of the classic thriller, kevin spacey buys an oversize house in las vegas, while an aged brad pitt looked at his 401k yesterday and had dinner with richard fuld.

for ignoring this blog over the course of my fab chicago trip. and now i’m going to california this weekend. too much.

anyway, i give you a bunch of amusing links sent by my friends.

jesse: Facebook Items Guaranteed To Be Lies

jesse, again: watchmen movie posters

andy: a pretty NASA pic of the milky way over ontario. yes i realize ontario is a large province, but that’s all i got.

just got to reading some rotten tomatoes reviews. thoughts:

1. the fact that this movie is rated lower than wall-e is shameful. a crime against humanity. etc.

2. of the 12 reviewers who gave it the rotten rating, 9 are from new york. i realize that more reviewers probably live in new york, but 75%? plus, in the top crtics section, the only negative reviews were from the wall street journal, new york magazine, and the new yorker. i have a message for all of new york: GET OVER YOURSELVES. i literally will never trust anything you ever review again. and as for you new yorker: i liked your obama fist jab cover, but now you’re dead to me.

if people ranked movie trailers, this might be the best one i’ve ever seen.

i am going to review it, sort of.

i’m not going to go into any sort of detail about why i liked this movie, but i just wanted to get on the record saying that THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR, AND I THINK I MIGHT JUST QUIT ACTION/SUPERHERO MOVIES FOR THE REST OF THE SUMMER, MAYBE FOR LIFE.

these are the only reasons i can imagine people would say they didn’t like this movie:
1. you are trying to seem like you haven’t been swayed by the death of heath ledger.
2. you want to be “different.” (you probably dress ironically, in some way)
3. you have no soul.
4. you have no taste.
5. you want to be punched in the stomach and the mouth.

really, those are the only things i can think of.

taking into account the giant line we had to wait in to get into the movie (45 minutes before start time) and the fact that every showing was sold out tonight, i predict that dark knight EASILY manhandles spider-man 3 at the top box office opening weekend ranking.

i’d also like to mock the idiots who came to opening night of the biggest movie of the year 5 minutes before it starts. and then they get all indignant about having to sit in the first row. obviously you had the foresight to buy the tickets in advance, but not enough to show up 15-30 (or 45) min early? way to be.

anyway, go see dark knight. easily and unequivocally a 5-star film.

going to the 8:30 showing since the 7pm was sold out ON TUESDAY. do you think 7:30 is early enough to get there? i just don’t know.

i won’t review this because it probably won’t affect whether you see it or not. unless it’s terrible, then maybe i’ll say so. i leave you with this amazing image, courtesy of sean.

i’m exhausted after mounting a spirited defense of hancock, but i just need to acknowledge on this blog the fact that i saw hellboy 2. what everyone else has said is pretty much correct: it’s got a solid plot with beautiful visuals, although i think del toro indulges himself a little too much in his aesthetic talents. selma blair (michigan alumna!) can be pretty awful at times, and i totally called how the bad guy would be defeated.

some notes about myself and the previews:
1. i really dislike punching (but yay for swords).
2. i don’t find big monsters scary or interesting, but god help me if earth is ever attacked by small but numerous creepy crawlies. i’m not even scared of individual spiders and bugs, but when they attack en masse … gross. kind of reminds me of the red ant scene of indiana jones, which was by far the scariest.
3. is it just me, but is death race (below) the exact same movie as running man, but with cars? and for the record, i think running man is one of the governator’s best movies to date.

4. between death race and babylon a.d. (below), there are a lot of movies preaching “it’s kill, or be killed.” this looks terrible.

5. lastly, michelle yeoh needs to stop playing female ninja warriors in american movies (babylon and the mummy 3). girl, you’re better than that.