Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Conditions: A Little Chilly

I Want My MTV

The gall is amazing. Some asshole who has spent years at the wheel of one of the many drones circling over the middle east while firing off missiles, has given an interview about how stressed he is.

Brandon Bryant says he was sitting in a chair at a Nevada Air Force base operating the camera when his team fired two missiles from their drone at three men walking down a road halfway around the world in Afghanistan. The missiles hit all three targets, and Bryant says he could see the aftermath on his computer screen – including thermal images of a growing puddle of hot blood.

“The guy that was running forward, he’s missing his right leg,” he recalled. “And I watch this guy bleed out and, I mean, the blood is hot.” As the man died his body grew cold, said Bryant, and his thermal image changed until he became the same color as the ground.

“I can see every little pixel,” said Bryant, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, “if I just close my eyes.”

- openchannel.nbcnews.com/

Yeah see I don’t have a lot of sympathy for that when it involves “see every little pixel”. What about those who were actually on the ground? The guys who survived the attacks, or the ones who had to clean up the blood? This guy apparently flew missons that killed about 1,500 people, and he has no clue how many of them were actually enemies. I have no words for that.



Film Review: Furious 6

I never thought I would have to write this, indeed it’s a hell of a shock, but the latest barrage in the Fast and Furious franchise turns out to be, against all odds ...a wildly entertaining and well made film. I know. You’re skeptical. I was too. But in the end, one has to be honest, and as the credits rolled, and the absolutely packed theater let out a well-earned round of applause, I had to admit to myself that this film really worked. Well they have had 5 films worth of practice.

This time the story is back to the old framework of someone being in trouble, so everyone else drops what they’re doing in order to drive like maniacs to help out. Michelle Rodriguez’s character is resurected from her funeral in like Fast 2 or something and is discovered being the #1 (amnesiac) henchman to the big bad Shaw, who is busy stealing components in London for some device he wants to sell that could electronically blind a country for 24 hours. The Rock, still bulging his way around the world as a one-man law enforcement agency (albeit one that is far too dark for me – his interrogation technique consists of beating the crap out of a prisoner until he talks. I did not find that funny), has a meeting with Vin Diesel, who does all this so easily now, and the team subsequently assemble to fight for Michelle, and a hearty helping of pardons all around. In order to get those pardons the team will have to do... basically the same shit they did that got them in all the trouble in the first place. Gunfights, brawls, street races, crashes, car chases, the carnage escalates very rapidly, climaxing in an all-in extended rolling action sequence involving several desperate fights in and around a cargo plane trying to take off down a seemingly 30 mile long runway.

What makes this movie work is the combination of actors who are now very comfortable in their characters and in their relationships with each other, director Justin Lin who really knows how to construct a terrific action sequence and let it run while also knowing the best way to let these characters click together as both a family and a team, and a plot that delivers all the basic solid story points that allow it to be familiar and comfortable, while still delivering thrills and surprises. You know, there is some magic to be found in this film, one of those special and rare occasions where the combination of plot, actors, director, and music sparks together in some way that just makes the film really “pop”. There are a couple of action sequences in this film that were genuinely amazing, but always just within the slenderest of margins from being totally ridiculous (yes, even the freeway catch). But also there is time taken to let the characters have actual scenes with each other, scenes that really work. I particularly found some surprisingly poignant drama in the characters of Gisele and Han, doomed since the 3rd movie but, well, one always held out hope that perhaps the powers that be were just going to ignore Tokyo Drift and let the cute couple have a happy ending. But no, however the seemingly forgotten inevitable end was not only brought back but actually executed well.

I don’t know precisely why this time it all clicked together considering how plodding and distasteful previous films have been, but there you go. Nice to be pleasantly surprised. Especially in this summer of misery. Four vrooms out of five.



- Peace out