A proper gander at Fox News
SKT here. Before I get around to reviewing my weekend movies here a tale. I was doing a particularly fiendish dot-to-dot puzzle the other day when I got distracted by the news on an Australian network TV channel. There was a report about the biased war news reporting they’re getting on some channels in the US. They showed a clip from Fox News. It went something like this (NB this is from memory, so it may not be exactly as broadcast):
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[A male and female presenter ?each trying to out-smile the other]
Male news presenter: Good evening. I’m Chip Brady
Female news presenter: And I’m Malaysium Crudup. Welcome to Fox News.
[Titles: TARGET: SADDAM’S HEAD AND BRAIN]
CB: Later, a brief report on the un-American communists protesting in the US against The Godly Liberation Of Iraq. But first, Iraq has fired several missiles into Kuwait. Knowing Saddam, I expect the missile warheads probably contained kidnapped babies. And kittens.
MC: That’s terrible Chip ?Saddam clearly is the evil man President Bush has been describing all along. I’m so glad America and its citizen have never supported bad terrorist organisations.
CB: I’m with you there Malaysium ?not only is Saddam, by his own admission, not a Christian, he’s also evil enough to openly fire aged-missiles when faced with a conquering force.
MC: And laying land-mines. That really is the lowest thing a state can do. Land-mines should be banned across the world.
CB: [getting message through earpiece] Er…Malaysium, remember not all land-mines are evil, just Arab land-mines.
MC: Of course ?sorry. [quickly changing subject] The big question is: is Saddam now dead, or sitting in a bunker somewhere? Fiddling with children.
CB: Even if he is dead, Malaysium, his generals may still fight on, despite the fact that every other Iraqi adores the coalition forces.
MC: Later in the programme we’ll be showing footage of US forces giving grateful Iraqi prisoners water, Hershey Bars and some cool Harry Potter stationery. Our forces truly are a glorious gift from Christian-heaven aren’t they Chip? Let’s hope they manage to completely wipe out Iraq’s infrastructure in order to liberate those poor Iraqis.
CB: So long as they can still receive Fox News International of course!
[They both laugh uproariously. The glare from their overly-white teeth is blinding, though fortunately dulled somewhat by the poor-quality NTSC picture.]
CB: And now we go over to Jamal Hamass in Washington for a report on how all right-thinking Muslims in the US adore President Bush.
MC: [Not realising her mike is still on] Jamal ?what a funny name!
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I think that’s the gist of what was said, at least.
A cad and my awards
Spent four hours watching the Oscars last night ?phew! Enjoyed Michael Moore’s speech, and was chuffed he won. I’d not seen the nominations, so they were as much of a surprise to me as the winners.
Anyway, I watched three pretty good films at the weekend. Here are my thoughts for you:
Catch Me If You Can
Saw this at the cinema on Friday. It came out in the UK just before I left, with a fairly low-key release for a Spielberg film. It’s a fairly small sixties-set light-hearted tale, based on a true story, of a teenage con man (Leonardo DeCaprio). An FBI agent (Tom Hanks) spends years trying to catch him.
I thought it was excellent. It has the best opening titles I’ve seen in ages, and has a fine John Williams score that really adds to the movie. What might be a lightweight comedy in another director’s hands becomes more than that with Spielberg. There are plenty of nice touches that make this stand out from the usual fare. Christopher Walken is great as DeCaprio’s character’s downtrodden father. I was chuffed to see him nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
It’s as well that Leonardo DeCaprio seems to have lost his heart-throb status, since he’s a good actor, and screaming girls tend to make you forget that.
Five stars.
Road To Perdition
From the director of American Beauty, this is a gangster flick with (again) Tom Hanks. This time Hanks is a hit man for Irish immigrant gangster Paul Newman. Hanks’s son sees him ‘whack?someone and the film is about the consequences of that.
Newman is impressive considering he’s nearly 80! How he finds the energy to act at his age, along with making all those salad dressings and sauces, is a mystery to me. And Hanks is pretty good as a killer, which wasn’t a given following his many, many nice-guy roles.
It’s had comparisons to The Godfather, but I don’t think they help. It’s not that similar, or as good. It is good though - four stars.
Ghost World
This is based on a comic (graphic novel?) about two misfit girls fresh out of high school. They wander around moaning about everything and everyone and one of them befriends Steve Buscemi’s oddball character.
It has some very funny moments, and the two leads are really good. It seems to flounder a little at the end, though that’s not really a criticism since the whole film doesn’t have much plot as such.
Four stars.
All in all ?a damn good batch.