The Hot Mess

Conditions: Cold Again, Some More

The Mess Gets Messier

Julian Assange has holed himself up in the Ecuadorian embassy, in his latest move to avoid going to Sweden for his trial.

It remains unclear if he will leave the building and, if he does, how he will do so without being arrested. British police are stationed outside the embassy, ready to arrest Mr Assange if he leaves the building.

The Australian entered the Ecuadorian embassy two months ago and has been told he can stay as long as he needs to as a diplomatic stand-off continues between Ecuador and the UK.

Ecuador has granted him political asylum, but Britain is determined to extradite him to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations.

- abc.net.au/news/

The issue is that Sweden will then send Assange on to America, where he could face the death penalty for all the Wikileaks stuff. Now I don't know about you, but I’m starting to become sceptical of this. Would the American authorities really execute an Australian because he released secret US diplomatic and military cables? Isn't this a tad unlikely? Is this really about Assange standing up to tyranny, or is this all just a drawn out mess over a guy running from the law?


Film Review: Iron Sky

Well here’s a curious thing. Space Nazis on the dark side of the moon use a modern cellphone taken from a black astronaut (sent on a mission to the moon in order to help re-elect President Palin) to jury-rig their massive armada in order to launch an invasion of Earth. Played out as a crazy screwball comedy, the conclusion sees an Earth fleet of various scientific vessels (secretly armed to the teeth) square off against the Nazi space fleet of flying saucers, space-zeppelins towing meteors, and a giant flying nuclear-cannon.

So when it comes to madcap and crazy films, this is really out there. The problem is the tone. Despite the crazy scenario, it’s just not funny. Remember in Space Balls when we go on board the evil Dark-Helmet’s ship, and before anyone even says anything it’s already funny? Well that tone, that feel, is basically completely absent from this film. Everything is played out completely serious. And it turns out there’s something about Nazis that makes them simply not funny. Something about the uniform and the jaw and the weapons, and I guess the whole WW2 thing.

The Americans come off pretty badly too, with President Palin hitting every cliché in the book faced with the prospect of war with space Nazis. Arrogant, stupid, aggressive, ugly to the core. So, evil Nazis, stupid Americans, a nonsensical plot, and no real humour to speak of. And adding to the problems is a distinct lack of someone to actually root for. The closest is the black astronaut, who bumbles his way through the film, and eventually ends up in the hero role. So as the two armadas destroy each other, the U.N turning into the Royal Rumble, the Nazi moon base getting reduced to rubble, and nuclear war breaking out across Earth, we sit back in our seats still looking for some laughs, or even a smile or two, to creep out from under the mess. I'm still waiting. One salute out of Five.


- Peace out