Not Really Caring

Conditions: Bloody Cold.


The Crumbling of Tony Blair

As the British inquiry into the Iraq war continues to drone on, we were yet again treated to former Prime Minister Tony Blair under the spotlight, giving evidence to the inquiry regarding how exactly Britain ended up in this mess. Let's see how he did.

The former Prime Minister told the Iraq Inquiry on Friday that his cabinet were aware from early 2002 that they had endorsed a policy that would probably lead to an attack on Iraq.

But Lord Wilson, who was Cabinet Secretary from 1998 until 2002, and Lord Turnbull who was his successor, have both told the inquiry that this was not the case.

Lord Wilson claimed Mr Blair told his cabinet in a meeting in April 2002 that "nothing was imminent".

Echoing evidence given by other Downing Street officials, Lord Wilson described a lack of official Cabinet meetings in those crucial 15 months before the invasion in March 2003.

I don't think anyone would have gone away thinking they had authorised a course of action that would lead to military action.

- news.sky.com/skynews/

You know, there's a line in a movie that goes "Power don't come from a badge or a gun. Power comes from lying. Lying big, and gettin' the whole damn world to play along with you. Once you got everybody agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain't true, you've got em by the balls." I believe that sentiment sums up the Iraq war nicely. However, what it doesn't cover is what happens when that power starts to leak away. So far it seems to me the cockroaches are scuttling as fast as they can.



Film Review: The Green Hornet.

I guess superhero movies have been around for a while now, so we should expect more and more variations on the superhero theme. The Green Hornet is your anti-anti-hero super hero. Based on the comic book that apparently pre-dates Batman, and so therefore came up with the concept first, the Green Hornet is a kid born into wealth, who loses his parents and decides to fight crime using the family fortune to devise some cool gadgets. The difference is that the Green Hornet has almost no skills himself, only attitude. That and he owns a newspaper that he can use to talk up how great the Green Hornet is. The actual fighting is done by his unnamed sidekick, named Kato, who builds the gadgets, dives the car, and fights the bad guys. Seth Rogan is in the title role, and is pretty well cast as a madcap stoner Bruce Wayne, as you'd expect. Kato is played by Jay Chou, his first english-speaking role. The two have an uneasy relationship on screen, with Kato basically the entire brains and brawn of the operation, but thrust into the background by Seth Rogen's sheer force of personality.

The plot revolves around the crime gangs in L.A being run by this one guy played by Christopher Walz, who's going through some kind of midlife crisis, and is trying to make himself scarier. Faced with the Hornet blowing up his various drug labs, he basically starts shooting his minions. In fact, I really don't get the bad guy in this film. Both nonthreatening, and yet getting crazier by the scene, Walz seems a bit wasted overall. But the real problems really come down to Seth. I liked Seth in Pineapple Express, he was spot on in that film. But unfortunately here he seems to be playing the same character, only now a wannabe playboy heir who's got a ship on his shoulder. Obnoxious, loud, unfunny, he's taking enormous risks in his quest to take on the criminal underworld, but doesn't really seem to care. It's difficult to really care about any character in this film, they seem entirely cut off from any possible bad outcome that could happen to them. Plus Rogen is a millionaire playboy who enjoys partying, and it's physically impossible to sympathise what that kind of person at all.

Cameron Diaz is cast as a secretary/reporter who's basically here to give Rogen an idea of what's he's supposed to do next. Another wasted opportunity, as is Edward James Olmos, who's the chief editor of the newspaper, and is routinely ignored by Rogen in the handful of scenes he actually gets. No, this is a truly different kind of superhero movie. One where the hero doesn't really care, doesn't really have to try too hard, and no one else has much of a clue either. Two knobs out of five.


- Peace out