Continuing on the Oscar path, Gale and I took in "The Lovely Bones" at Regal last night. A grand total of 4 in attendance. We saw this because Stanley Tucci took time from his AT&T voiceovers to garner a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He put on a toupee, talked funny and, in general, gave everyone the skeeves. Mark Wahlberg and the always yummy Rachel Weisz starred as parents of the 14-year old girl who Tucci killed.

Quite frankly, this was one of the most bizarre movies I've ever seen. It was directed by Peter Jackson. And, if you watched "Lord of the Rings", you know going in, the movie is gonna be at least 30 minutes too long. And it was. Tucci, as the killer, is revealed quickly, so the entire movie is spent hoping someone can point out he's not only a suspect, but indeed, the perpetrator.

However, after the girl is killed, we go off into these metaphysical segments. You see, the girl is in limbo, because unlike Mark McGwire, she can't quite give up her past and refuses to look forward. As in look forward and go to heaven. Instead, she ends up in limbo, and I guess because the Pope says there is no limbo ("In heaven, there is no limbo..."), they called it "the in-between". So, when she ends up in the in-between, she does a lot of running. Across fields of amber waves of grain, and then goes further. And then further. Lemme tell ya, the in-between kinda sucks. I can't tell how you get to heaven. If you're supposed to come to grips with your death or if the earthlings you left behind are at peace with your demise. Either way, let's get to a quicker conclusion.

Susan Sarandon also starred as the grandmother. The only reason I mention this is she was the film's comic relief. However, it was placed in such a weird position in the movie, it just generated a huge WTF with me. And there's so much more, I've barely scratched the surface of the oddities of this flick.

It's been a long time since I was completely baffled by a movie.

Meal of Links

Esquire reveals their Alternative Oscars. Biggest Waste of Talent: Luis Guzman in "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3". If you saw it, you would agree.

How to live to 100. I'd like to raise a practical question: Do you want to live to 100?

"Zoolander 2"? It's coming. Apparently 9/11 didn't prevent me from seeing this in the theater.

The last 4 minutes of Air France Flight 447. Lengthy read, but worth it.

Vanity Fair has an article on the making of "Raging Bull". Marty was hesitant to make it.

When k.d. lang was country. Didn't last long, but she was good.

John McCain. Sill campaigning.

"Uncontrollable Urge"/Devo (at the Olympics)



Exercise Yard

The latest medal winners for the US. Huh? In Nordic Combined?

Visitor

26 Across: Quarterback Roethlisberger (3 letters) Answer: Ben