WHY DO THEY RUSH TO WORK WITH A CHILD RAPIST?

Friday is the one day I actually look forward to opening my mailbox. I pull open the little metal door and like a glittering jewel in a rubbish heap is my slice of periodic heaven – Entertainment Weekly. Last Friday’s issue was a DOUBLE ISSUE – with a look at all the movies to come this fall and winter. Hooray!!!

There are a plethora of movies, as per usual. Some of them are bound to be the year’s best, as Oscar season is creeping ever closer. As I scanned through December’s offerings one piqued my interest more than the rest. A little “Oscar Buzz” stamp was next to this movie – good. It’s called Carnage – cool. It stars Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, and John C. Reilly – awesome! Where in lies the dilemma? The director. Roman Polanski. Seeing his name was like finding a roach in the main course while dining at Le Cirque.

He is so skeevie to call him a scumbag would be a compliment. This is a person who drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl, and then slipped out of the country (in the fashion of the truly innocent) to avoid prosecution and jail. If he were in any other industry he would be shunned like the pariah he actually is.

I have never watched a movie of his and I never will. It’s unfortunate because they are supposed to be superb. What I would really like to do, however, is to not watch any other movies of the actors who work with him. But then my movie selection would really be limited. I just can’t comprehend the motivation behind all these talented actors who flock to work this vermin. I mean really?! Is getting an, or another Oscar that important? If I hear any of these people in Carnage crow about his “genius”, or “vision”, or some such crap, I think I’ll barf.

And only in the entertainment industry does he actually get supporters. When we were teased by his imprisonment in Switzerland, people in "The Industry" suggested that this be dropped! The gall and temerity of this is appalling. Who gives a crap if it’s decades later? He committed a crime and needs to pay! Why not ask that the prosecution of other rapists of young girls also be dropped?

So I say to you Hollywood elite – combine your collective powers and shun this wretch! Put aside your artistic drive, and put forward your integrity! Don’t let him make another movie again.

I HATE GREG HEFFLEY

Time for another brain dropping from yours truly. This time I am going to put my “Mom Hat” on. I am constantly amazed, and annoyed, at how often I have to wear this hat.

I hate Greg Heffley - the main character in The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. That is, until I watched the movies. My son absolutely loves reading these books – that alone makes them a worthwhile investment. But in the books Greg is absolutely atrocious, and I am counting on my abilities as a parent to overshadow what my son is reading.

When I read the books, all I see is a selfish, purposefully underachieving, devious, brat. While occasionally there is a charming nugget into the inner workings of a middle-school boy’s brain, I can’t sympathize with him at all. Every embarrassing thing that happens to him fills me with joy.

Since my son loves the books, he of course, wanted to watch the movies. I watched the first movie with him a few months ago, and wasn’t overly impressed with the movie itself. I was amazed, though, to find Greg a sympathetic, picked upon boy. And Isaac thoroughly enjoyed the movie, which is amazing, as he normally can’t sit through anything that isn’t Phineas and Ferb! (A delightfully eccentric Disney cartoon with Penn and Teller-esque, main characters, in that one speaks and the other doesn’t, who are inventors. But that’s for another blog!)

Sunday night we rented the second movie, “Rodrick Rules”, to watch as a family. For anyone who doesn’t know, Rodrick is Greg’s older brother who is constantly picking on Greg, and going out of his way to get him in trouble. And while some of the parental antics were a bit “Hollywood-hokey”, this movie was quite enjoyable.

As much as I despise the Greg Heffley on paper, I will continue to buy the books so my son will be more inclined to read; but, ironically, I wait with bated breath for the next movie.

Battlestar Galactic was Robbed

I just finished watching all of Battlestar Galactica on Netflix last Sunday night. As soon as our subscription to Netflix through our PS3 was set up (the awesomest thing, BTW!), and we found it, we started watching. We began with the Pegasus episodes, as Ben had missed those in the first go-round, and was still hankering to watch them. That broke the levees, because I hadn’t seen the original mini-series. So that was next. And then it was three hours a night, almost every night, for the past two-and-a-half weeks. And I was sobbing like a baby at the end – again.

It also brought me back to the anger, however idiotic, at the complete rejection of this series by people who hand out rewards for quality entertainment. Even though I can cry at the at the remotest hint raw emotion (I blame the two children I bore because I wasn’t this way before them) this is a powerful show.
The narrow vision of those who judge and hand out rewards is prominently on display, because this show was never recognized in any category. The acting is superb, the effects awesome, and the sci-fi element of the premise enhances the drama. Even though this is a “space” epic, the “epic” part of this categorization is more important.

I became enamored of the series starting, it think, with the second half of the second season. And just before the third season started SciFi (now the stupid SyFy channel) had a BSG-athon the entire week before the first episode of the third season. And since Ben and I hadn’t seen them, we immediately turned into zombies for a week. There were rock-paper-scissor tournaments to determine who would drop off and pick up Isaac at daycare, and hankies had to be within reach to wipe away the glaze of drool that accumulated on our chins. Towards the end of the week, we were setting the alarm for 5:00 a.m. so we wouldn’t miss the beginning of the following day. (Having DirectTV in a time zone other than EST meant we had to get up early) This time around, I was so grateful that I could watch as much, or as little, as I wanted. And there were a few episodes that I had missed, like “Razor” about a woman who lost her humanity. And I watched them all, from start to finish, each night until last Sunday.

The only way the Emmys can rectify their egregious error- and since Buffy the Vampire Slayer got a nomination, it is an egregious error - would be to create a new award category. Sorry We Fucked Up probably wouldn’t work, but something that conveys the sentiment.

Battlestar Galactica is a powerhouse show. I was completely invested in the lives of the people of the Twelve Colonies, and felt a sense of loss when it came to an end. That is storytelling at it’s best, and it deserved recognition.