My Thanksgiving weekend

So last night we drove Andy to the airport---5 hours later than expected---thank you JetBlue and south Florida weather. Which of course meant that he wasn't getting into New Jersey until like 1 a.m. or so. Naturally his mother wanted the obligatory phone call announcing that he had gotten in safely, and then another one that announced that he had actually made it back to his dorm room, which mean naturally that...we had some pretty staggered sleeping last evening. Which was even further interrupted by a phone call at 5:40am announcing that my beloved Broward County Courthouse was....uh...under water yet again.

Nope, we don't need a new building out there....all you registered voters.

Yes apparently ANOTHER water main broke and completely flooded the building. Cue the appearance from the local television stations. They say we'll be out today, but I'll be surprised if we show up the entire week.
More on that as details become available.

My Thanksgiving weekend was spent watching some movies, so let me give you a quick rundown....the less said about the Notre Dame game against USC, the better....although I will say that the Charlie Weis situation has been hilarious to keep a watch on. Everyone short of the ghost of Vince Lombardi has been rumored coming to South Bend over the course of the last 48 hours or so. Again, stay tuned.

1) Point Blank---you might remember a Mel Gibson movie from a couple of years ago called "Payback", where he played a guy who had been cheated and robbed by the mob (go figure), and was looking for some revenge.
Here was the 1967 original with Lee Marvin, which was sort of a psychedelic noir--I think I just made up that term. Anyway, here Marvin, one of the alltime great tough guys in movie history, is out to get the syndicate that done him wrong. He's helped along the way by Angie Dickinson--and may I just say that she was one smoking hot woman in her day---and a stellar cast that includes Carroll O'Connor & John Vernon. A solid crime drama, but might not be for everyone's taste. ***1/2
2) Badlands---a young Martin Sheen & Sissy Spacek are young serial killers (before there was such a thing) on the run in Montana & South Dakota in the 50's. They're so non-plussed about shooting and killing people, you'd think it was happening right now. Both are really terrific in their performances. Chilling. ****
3) Big Fish--a horrible title for one terrific movie. Albert Finney & Ewan McGregor play the same character at different times in his life as a young man learns to come to grips with his father's pending death and the legacy that he has left behind. What were thought of as fanciful stories may have been real life. A really spellbinding fantasy by director Tim Burton. One of the best films I've seen in a long time. *****
4) Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull--okay, here's the deal. If this was NOT an Indiana Jones movie, but just an action movie of its own---I might have really liked it. But Indy has set the action bar so high, I found myself somewhat disappointed---for an Indiana Jones movie mind you. Indy seems a little old and worn out, and I didn't particularly like the Shia LeBouf character at all. Russians, not as good as Nazi's in the bad guy department either. ***

Later,
Jeff