Pieces Of Eight

Conditions: Shiny

The Mob.

For years now it has been known that a certain newspaper had hacked into peoples voicemail accounts in order to get the scoop. And yet it's only now that all hell has broken loose. A famous newspaper has been shut down, various executives are resigning in disgrace, and Ruper Murdoch, the great news tycoon himself, is canceling huge take over deals one minute, and grovelling for forgiveness the next. What is going on?

Hinton's resignation came just hours after Rebekah Brooks, a former News of the World editor who currently oversees News Corporation's British newspapers, also stepped down.

Murdoch shut down News of the World last week. The firestorm over the scandal also has forced Murdoch to abandon efforts to push through a multi-billion-dollar bid for British Sky Broadcasting, a satellite television company.

As News Corporation announced the public apology, the 80-year-old Murdoch visited at a London hotel with the parents of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old British murder victim whose phone was hacked by News of the World. A lawyer for the family described Murdoch as "very humbled" and "very shaken" as he offered his apology.

Brooks has agreed to testify before the British parliament next week about the phone-hacking and police bribery scandal. Murdoch and his son, James, who heads News Corporation's international operations, will also testify before parliament next week, after initially refusing to do so.

In the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun a probe into whether News Corporation employees tried to hack into the phones of victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and their families, or tried to bribe police for information.

- voanews.com

I have to say, I don't really get all the hysteria that's been sweeping this along. I mean, yeah it looks like they did something illegal, and I'm not cool with that, but is it actually worth this much drama? This kind of witch hunt? Did someone get killed out of their phones being hacked? I suspect what we're really seeing is the mob turning against the rich and powerful. When it was just actors and politicians getting hacked, no one cares. Screw them, they're rich. But hack the phone of a little girl, or a victim of some monstrous crime, and suddenly it's Heads Will Roll. It's depressing. It's essentially mob rule, where the law is only really important if the victim is photogenic enough. That ain't justice.


Film Review: Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides

Who'd have thought a amusement park ride could have been stretched to a multi-billion dollar 4-film franchise? Well clearly Disney did, as did Jerry Bruckheimer, running this thing for all it's worth. The previous director proving too busy, they picked Gerry Marshal who has delivered up a simpler and Jack-oriented movie for the fourth outing. And thank goodness, too, because the tangle the last two movies got into were quite annoying. This time Captain Sparrow is tasked with finding the Fountain of Youth, on behalf of Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and his daughter played by Penelope Cruz. And since she has a thing with Captain Sparrow the scene is set for hi-jinks galore. Add in Geoffrey Rush again who is also after the Fountain on behalf of the British admiralty, and the Spanish armada, and you've got a fast paced film filled with fights and chases, with Jack weaving about in the middle somewhere.

Playing Jack again seems to suit Johnny Depp well, it's a fun character who has a well-hidden depth and a basic method to his madness. I'm not really sure if Sparrow himself knows exactly what is going to happen next, or is winging it along with everyone else, but I think the key to these films is to not concentrate too much on the specifics. Always a good idea when there are mermaids about. Ian McShane as Blackbeard is essentially on one single note. He wants the fountain because someone is going to kill him, and he'll kill anyone who gets in his way. That's fairly simple to understand, at least.

The music is pretty solid, the direction is pretty solid, the fight sequences are well done, but perhaps without the flair of earlier films, and the film pushes on to it's conclusion. It's not exactly fantastic, the newness rubbed off a long time ago, but it is at least an improvement over the labyrinth of the last two outings. Three and a half bottles of rum out of five.


- Peace out