Coffin Surfer

Won tickets from a radio station and saw this last night. Fans of "The Long Halloween" and "The Killing Joke" won't be disappointed. I was wrong to doubt Ledger, he totally owns this entire movie as predicted since the trailer was released. Lots of innventive dark humor that pushes the PG-13 rating, as well as a great uneasy of feeling of helpless doom building throughout, easily the darkest superhero movie I can recall at the moment. One of the best action chase sequences I can recall as well. My only complaint is that Bale doesn't have enough to do but the movie really isn't about Batman though I don't want to spoil too much. Eric Roberts is great and has a bigger role than expected, a real nice surprise. Easily on par with Batman Begins though most will probably like this more.

Bubba HoTep -Coscarelli 2002 A great oddball premise made even better by the strange dignity that Coscarelli, Davis, and surprisingly even Campbell bring to the "out there" characters and script. A very enjoyable and funny movie with more heart and emotional weight than you'd expect given the subject matter; I can't say I've seen another movie that works quite like this one. I can also honestly say that I haven't seen a finer tribute to Elvis really.

Animal House 1978 The ultimate goofy fun comedy for me, really surprised this hasn't been took. A huge cast with everyone in top form and getting more than a few moments to shine.

I'm fine with that. While I'm here I guess I'll go ahead and make my pick since it has been 24 hours I think: Kikujiro 1999- Kitano A very funny and touching film with Kitano dragging unpredictable wierd magic out of a tired out simple premise. A stand out score from the always reliable Joe Hisaishi as well. A great scene with Kikujiro and the kid looking to hitch a ride with a "flat tire" con. Pure gold.

Milky is innocent, I completely over looked the Serpentine Draft rules cause I really didn't know what the fuck that meant at the time and didn't think anything of it; it has been a long week already and I'm not all there mentally at the moment. So I guess cheated myself, oh well. I really don't think it is that big of a deal.

Dog Day Afternoon 1975 To keep this interesting I'm gonna attempt to pick movies that have not already been drafted in the other thread. Can't believe this gem is still untouched. For my money Al Pacino is at his absolute best as Sonny, the stressed everyman turned bank robber. A vacant eyed John Cazale is also brilliant as his slow witted partner/side kick. The voice of Jack Skellington Chris Sarandon also gets to steal some scenes as Sonny's suicidal lover,"You Can't go to Nigeria, those people are crazzziee!". Probably funnier than most so called comedies and Sonny is one of the more interesting empathetic characters in film history, a very easy guy to root for and understand even if it is obvious he's doomed to fail.

Yeah, I'll give this a try.

"Cry Baby Cry" Really laid back and more mature than Lennon's previous dark psychedlic songs on Sgt. Pepper and Mystery Tour. The subtle "fades" gives the song a constant off vibe with lots of unresolved tension, McCartney's spooky fragment that leads into Revolution 9 puts it over the top for me. The atmosphere of the lyrics reminds me of the horror story "Turn of the Screw" and "The Innocents" film adapation for some reason. Very underrated song.

Land was a quality action movie and people just expect more from a Romero zombie movie. It wasn't as overall rich in substance and quality as Night or Dawn; it was just really cool set pieces and enjoyable characters in a fun fast paced movie. I personally have no problem with that though. Love the movie. Day has its place. Great looking zombies and carnage, probably the most nightmarish of the three no pun intended. Great opening as well. Too bad the dialouge was mind numbing and the characters were cardboard. "Martin" is the best horror movie from the 70's nobody talks about." It's more than that. It was a very interesting character study with a criminally underrated lead male performance. Whatever happened to that kid? I also enjoy the Romero's destruction of the "monster" myth or possibly the reasons why they were created.

Fun movie, more enjoyable than Doom but more than a few steps behind Raiders and Crusade. I didn't mind the alien and sci-fi elements since that was a part of the 50s mythos and pop culture just as the wierd Christian relics were a part of the Nazis mythos. All the 50s homage stuff was well done and really gave the movie its identity. Really liked the opening action sequence. Ford and Shia snooping around old tombs, running from KGB, and exchanging wisecracks was great stuff that really made the movie for me. Disappointed by the lack of Karen Allen as others pointed out, she just didn't have enough to do. Hurt's character annoyed me too, a waste of a fine actor. The Soviets lack the evil stigma of the Nazis or the Cultist though Blanchette was surprisingly hot(the butch military look is just what she needs) and did what she could with a confusnig paper thin character.

I really enjoed all the Romero Dead movies, even Day and Land, but this was embarrassing. The documentary gimmick was pretty pointless since the film is very cartoonish and cheesy in execution while the social commentary is heavy handed and nausating. Crap effects and zombies as well. Little zombie carnage and bad jump scares a plenty from a guy who always seemed above this sort of crap at even his worse. This was a made for Sci-Fi Channel level production in every aspect. Based off the interviews, my guess is Romero just wanted to have fun making a low budget movie and didn't really care if it was good or not.

At the Gates Opeth Agalloch (early) Ulver Emperor Death Carcass

Yeah, I remember that. Howard at his best was a glorified garbage man on offense and a solid athletic defender, now he's just lazy shit on both ends. As I said than he is not the type of guy you can run an offense through and he has been an embaressment the last half of the season and in the playoffs. It is easy to pick up points when you have somebody like Dirk drawing attention but now he isn't even willing to do that, mising wide open lay ups and the like. Now I will admit I was wrong about the Kidd trade for the time being, but he was playing fine until Avery started pulling him from games and bitching at him to score.

I like Civil Rights and I like Guns and he stood up for both when they weren't fashionable, I don't understand the hate this man has recieved in recent times. He had balls to spare even if you can't always agree with him. Ben Hur, Ten Commadments, Omega Man, and Planet of the Apes are still fun badass movies. The Wayne's World 2 cameo was great as mentioned, probably the only good thing in the movie outside of Walken actually.

Great List. Good to see Schuldiner and Patton get a mention. Schuldiner was a fantastic gutiarist and often more expressive than given credit for.

I'll avoid Miles, Beatles' member, Prince, Bowie and the like though they are favorites: 1. Yoshiki (X Japan) 2. Steve Wilson (Porcupine Tree, Blackfield,...etc.) 3. Toby Driver (Kayo Dot) 4. Jaki Liebezeit (Can) 5. Diamanda Galas 6. Wes Montgomery 7. Tim Buckley 8. Bill Frisel 9. Ben Monder 10. Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth)

I love the ingenius plan of using slow Dampier or a crippled Dirk to trap Kobe while Gasol and Odom are left open under the basket not once or twice but all night. These close losses aren't because of meltdowns it is because the other team makes adjustments while Avery motivates...

Ok, this isn't cute anymore. Your "dumb act" may not be an act it seems. I never denied the existance of name discrimination and I will glady will kiss your white ass if you can find me a quote, however I certainly object to the assumption of your initial post that most blacks in this country are disadvantaged because of their name. Not only do most blacks have European names but the Fryer and Levitt study showed that the economical outcomes are not any worst for those with ethnic names. As far as many blacks being discriminated from jobs by name goes, you should probably read the full paragraph since it points out the short comings of the study you based that assumption on. "To sum up, Bertrand and Mullainathan suggested that racial discrimination may affect the likelihood of being interviewed by some companies. However, it is unclear whether discrimination in some interviews leads to worse economic outcomes overall. Fryer and Levitt asserted that outcomes, as the authors define them, do not appear to be worse for those with ethnic names after controlling for social background. Only a small percentage of employers in the Bertrand and Mullainathan study seemed to discriminate based on name. Thus, that number of discriminatory employers may not be sufficiently large to affect job market outcomes across the board. Additionally, some employers may be attempting to infer underlying productivity from ethnic names. In the end, ethnic names appear to serve as a hindrance in the labor market, but the exact extent has yet to be conclusively determined." I will certainly quit now, because there is nothing more left to be said. Sorry friend, you have been contradicted. Get over it.

EXACTLY! Well, that was disappointing. I know you have yet to make a convincing argument or support any of your claims with anything resembling evidence or facts but damn..... You must be one hell of a teacher, your 70% black class is lucky to have you. Most of the time I don't have kids in my class who claim they are arguing with me, but are actually proving my point for me. Did you even read the full article? Wow. So your point was that a small percentage of employers may be discriminating against a small percentage of black people with ethnic names but not nearly enough to inflict lasting damage on their economic situation? Sorry, somehow I got the impression your point was that name discrimination was having some sort of significant impact on "many black people." Sure, the mere existance of any form of discrimination is troubling and in a perfect world none of it should exist but if we're talking minimal if any overall impact than what is the fucking point?

"So maybe, just maybe, one shouldn't name their son D'Qon." Damn straight. There's a chance he might to have to post 5 more applications than Brad on the internet before a firm responds to his resume...maybe.

EXACTLY! Well, that was disappointing. I know you have yet to make a convincing argument or support any of your claims with anything resembling evidence or facts but damn..... You must be one hell of a teacher, your 70% black class is lucky to have you. Bertrand and Mullainathan themselves admited to their findings being inconclusive with unexplained variables. I personally find it interesting that the obviouisly ethnic but sexy named "Ebony" got more callbacks than some of the more qualified "white sounding" names. Hmmm, maybe "ethnic vs. white" is the wrong study for name discrimination.

Damn, another hyped prospect falls. Yeah, Lee was looking a litttle like Hearns did against big punchers. Wlad is the only Steward fighter that learned how to hold, though not before getting stopped by Brewster.

My point about the "European" thing is that Hazim and Aisha are hardly a fair representation of the black labor force in America. As far as "disproving" or any "proving" there have only been two somewhat differing major studies on the subject. I'm certainly not saying that name discrimination doesn't occur from time to time but there doesn't seem to be much evidence at the time of an institutional block forever fucking "Hazim" from birth. A pretty fair look at both studies and what they could mean: http://stlouisfed.org/publications/re/2006...hnic_names.html "To sum up, Bertrand and Mullainathan suggested that racial discrimination may affect the likelihood of being interviewed by some companies. However, it is unclear whether discrimination in some interviews leads to worse economic outcomes overall. Fryer and Levitt asserted that outcomes, as the authors define them, do not appear to be worse for those with ethnic names after controlling for social background. Only a small percentage of employers in the Bertrand and Mullainathan study seemed to discriminate based on name. Thus, that number of discriminatory employers may not be sufficiently large to affect job market outcomes across the board. Additionally, some employers may be attempting to infer underlying productivity from ethnic names. In the end, ethnic names appear to serve as a hindrance in the labor market, but the exact extent has yet to be conclusively determined."

"Let's review... This time we said almost the exact same thing, and this latest post completely contradicts what you already said on the subject..." Eh, you spoke of two different name trends that started in different parts of the century as if they were the same thing. "...but somehow I'm "kind of wrong." Whatever." Because as I said in the last post, despite these trends the vast majority of American born "blacks" still have European first and surnames; especially among boys. http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/publ-rel/html/aababy.htm A single study but you can probably find more data that supports similar trends.

I don't want to make a big deal from this and drift from the topic further but your actually kind of wrong. Post Civil Rights there was a reasonable size "push" of neo-African and Islamic names, but your actually thinking of the more popular "created names" that can be traced back as far as World War II and continue to be very common. Even than, the overwhelming majority of common "black" names are still mostly British or French in origin regardless of your personal experience, yes, even the more well known stereotyped ones are combinations of European names(say hello to "Leroy Jackson" everyone). You don't have to teach at a majority "African American" school to be familiar with any of these names, not to stereotype but even the most isolated white American can know this from casual sports watching. I'm familiar with the study you referenced and it is a little flawed to say the least; though I don't want to get into that. Obviously there is discrimination of all kinds at the work place(sexism and personal complaints actually toped racisim considerably according to Equal Opportunity Employment) but I think the study you are referencing was simply poor in execution and thought. I again apologize if you found the "American" comment insulting but I was actually sincere and curious. I try to be as vague about myself as possible but I got a chuckle at the private irony of "your real live black people" gesture if not for how over the top and defensive it was. I wll post on this subject no more.