So full of Fail, it is a Win

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWOzUzJd6wM

The ghost of Andy Kaufman

Sacha Baron Cohen is doing Andy Kaufman's bit. For those who don't remember, here' the big Kaufman picture:

Andy strove to reverse the whole idea of the entertainer entertaining the audience. He turned it all around and made the audience entertain him. He did it by inciting a reaction. He turned the whole world into a show for his personal amusement. We didn't pay money so he could entertain us. We paid money so that he could do something to make us entertain him. So he sat there and read from a book while we watched. Or he sang along with the Mighty Mouse theme. Or he spoke gibberish for two hours. Until we went crazy and reacted… which entertained him.

The trouble was, most of the time, it was funny to Andy but not to us. Andy's ultimate mistake was that he locked the rest of us out. But then again, I don't think he worried about it.

Cohen is doing the same thing, especially in his upcoming movie, Bruno. (And who can forget Borat?) The difference between Cohen and Kaufman is that Cohen has figured out how to perfect Kaufman's idea, and let us laugh and be entertained too.

Can't wait for the new movie.

In the meantime, enjoy an old clip of "Bruno" at a Christian rock festival.

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks theme played on baritone guitar.

History of LOLcats

It began oh so long ago.

Poor Glenn Beck

Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters beat the living daylights out of Glenn Beck. So mean! All he did was lie about them! Is that so wrong? /sarc off

An engineer's guide to cat yodeling

The funny stuff starts at about 1:10.

Put that thing on vibrate

Gibbs Let Off Hook By White House Press Corps Cell Phones (VIDEO)

They keep screeching that Obama is coming to take our guns. But it looks like it's our cell phones they're REALLY after.

Star Trek reincarnated, not just re-imagined (spoiler-free review)

 

Ain't no place for a bathroom break in this one! All due respect to the other movies, this one was more enjoyable than any other Trek film. The action was nonstop, and it seems to me there were more genuine beats of humor and emotion than in any other Trek movie. Seeing a younger cast bring Trek to life is something, forgive me, that no other Trek movie has been able to accomplish, since each previous film featured a cast already aging beyond their roles.

Nearly the entire cast was perfect in giving new life to familiar characters. And the ones who didn't quite make it there did well enough. Special kudos to Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban. (Simon Pegg's Scotty is there strictly for comic relief, but it works. Zoe Saldana's Uhura... well, Uhura has more to do with the plot than the character ever had before.) And I have to say I think taking a character that almost was never known (Captain Pike) and making him the moral center, the inspirational impetus, a father figure for Kirk, was a smart move. He gives one of the best speeches in the first part of the film. Bruce Greenwood brings it home. I'd kind of like to see more of him.

And yeah, Leonard Nimoy is in it. I won't give it away by saying too much about him. But yeah, he gets several applause moments.

The bad guy? Not quite Khan level, but he services the plot all it needs, since this movie isn't about the bad guy -- he's just there to kick the story along. The movie is about meeting our favorite, iconic characters for the first time, again. If Abrams & company are smart, the NEXT one should be about the bad guy, the same way the Dark Knight was about the Joker.

Nitpicks? Yeah, a few. But the thing is, the movie was so much fun that I really didn't give a shit about the problems with it. There are some logical inconsistencies, some spatial inconsistencies, and so forth, but I absolutely did not care.

The special effects by far blow away anything in any other Trek, but we expected that.

A sci-fi masterpiece? No. Just a really, really good sci-fi action piece with all the familiar elements reincarnated (not just re-imagined) for the next generation. This really isn't your father's Star Trek, as the adline goes.

I will be seeing it again next week in IMAX.

Dom DeLuise RIP

Dom DeLuise passed away last night.

I met him at Maggiano's at the Grove in L.A. once. He was in a party with a few people from CBS, and we were sitting in tables side by side. When I was done, I went over to him and said, "By the way, I just wanted to thank you. You sat there the whole time and not once did you come bug me for an autograph. I can't tell you how nice it was to enjoy dinner without a bunch of autograph hounds interrupting me."

He laughed.

I made Dom DeLuise laugh.

That was enough for me!