Makes me sick...

It's sad to read such news on its own.

http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3795596,00.html

But reading the responses is simply sickening! A few examples (translated from Hebrew):

"Good riddance! We don't need professors and academics! We need rabbis and mitzvahs observant jews!"

"Excellent news! All the left-wingers and Israel haters leave and only the good quality people stay."

"Those who leave this country are its enemies and we're better off without them!"

"Parasites and gentiles! God cleanses the land!"

Where are we going? Are these the "good quality people" that left behind to run the county? Since when reason and education became an anathema for this country's ideals? How can I, a reasonable secular person getting a higher education can live here, even if I wanted to? Let me guess the common response:

"Go away! We'll be just fine without you! Russian gentile swine!"

The atmosphere is definatelly a familiar one...

I really don't understand how the people behind such decent TV series like "Fringe" and "Alias" can create such horrible (script-wise) cinematic abortions like "Transformers", "The Island", "MI3" and "Star Trek". And now they are given more franchises and properties to ruin! Remember the names of evil: "Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman"

Post-Modernism in Literature Theory

This year I'm redoing my Literature Theory course at the university. I was shocked by the change in the sylabus of the tutorial for the course. Gone are Plato, Aristotle and Shklovsky, Lessing and Heidegger and Foucault. Enter Neil Gaiman, Max Brooks, Mary Renault, Dan Simmons and Harlan Ellison (google them - it's worth it). There are also screenings of Tim Barton's "Big Fish" and Blomkamp's "District 9". Apparently, it's called Post-Modernistic Literature Theory and seems they decided it would appeal more to the contemporary students. It's going to be an interesting semester.

As promised, here is a short review of the "G.I. Joe: Rise Of The Cobra" movie. Why short? Well, this movie is so stupid that I decided that the less I talk about the plot and the narrative, the less I'll be aggravated in the process. So I'll just go over the stuff I liked about it, of which is very little, and the rest.

The positive: I liked the music which accompanied the action nicely, but I came to expect such quality from Alan Silvestri. Also, Marlon Wayans was actually tolerable. I usually can't stand the guy. "Requiem for a Dream" was the only film in which he did any acting. Otherwise, he's just a poor black man's Jim Carry. Really poor. And really black.

The negative: The entire film. The rest of the cast either do absolutely nothing (a good thing in this case) or turn in a specially bad performance. Tatum Channing looks pretty and dumb. Not for a moment did I believe he was a real soldier. I still can't shake his image as a break-dancer from "Step-Up" or a gangster-wannabe from "Havoc". And he's not helping me in this movie. The female cast do nothing but look sexy in those tight black suits. And both are very capable actresses. Dennis Quaid - how mighty have fallen! He looks either drunk or very tired in every scene he's in. Or maybe both. I understand that he's bored out of his mind here, but must he bore me as well?! Mr. Eko/Adebisi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) - you have such charisma and screen presence otherwise, where did you hide it? Dr. Who/Second Coming of Christ (Christopher Eccleston) - WTF?! How hard can it be to play the Hollywood's token British/Scottish bad guy? Dr. Evil from Austin Powers movies looked better. Sheesh! And the very talented and finally apretiated Joseph Gordon Levitt was probably laughing behind his mask and make-up, which is probably why they needed to dub him.

But hey, you'll say that movies like that are not made for the acting or the plot. They are made for special effects and the action. Well, for me, this movie failed at that too. The action is not very engaging and the special effects look so cartoonish and unrealistic, that Transformers look like District 9 in comparison. I had more fun watching the cartoons based on the same toys franchise. In fact, the latest G.I. Joe: Resolute is one kick-ass cartoon I really recommend to watch instead of this crap. I mean, they actually have a bad guy making demands based on real actions instead of empty threats. They blew up Moscow, for fuck's sake!

Casual gaming makes some real progress!

I really enjoyed this albeit short, but real fun casual game. "Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses!" has nice little detective mystery story, well written and spoken dialogs and some very accessible and fun puzzles. Casual gaming really stepped up a notch since the stupid time-killers like Zuma, Luxor and Jewel Quest. This one feels like a very light mini-quest with some really nice production values. Recommended for everyone, regardless of what your usual gaming tastes are like. Especially recommended for gamers' wives and girlfriends and their mamas.

P.S.: Just don't confuse this gem with the regular Nancy Drew adventures series. It's abysmal, boring and butt-ugly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH4-b91zd2g&feature=player_profilepage

Cinema Judgement

Those two movies are guilty of being extremely moronic and wasting perfectly good actors, while being directed by otherwise capable filmmakers. Full reviews will come soon...

This article says it all...

Though I can't really put myself either on the right or left wing of Israeli politics, I do like smart and constructive opinions and ideas on both sides. This article is just outside those politics and speaks of simple facts that should be known, regardless of what wing you belong to.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3789007,00.html