Playing Catch-Up Again

So as you might be able to tell if you look to the right side of this page, I've continued my recent kick of watching lots of movies (or at least lots more than I have in some time). And the result has been rather underwhelming. While I didn't expect the likes of Terminator and Angels & Demons to wow me, I had high hopes for Up in the Air. And while it was "good", I actually despised the ending so much that it seriously crippled my appreciation for the movie as a whole. Without giving anything away, it has one of those endings which make you re-examine earlier events in the film and realize that they don't make a whole lot of sense. Very disappointing. Still, given that as of this morning it got nominated for 6 Golden Globes (including Best Picture) I appear to be in the minority. As a side note, it was nice to see that my 2 favorite films so far this year (Inglorious Basterds and 500 Days of Summer) were also nominated for Best Picture.

I've got tickets to see Avatar in 3-D at the Navy Pier Imax on Friday. I initially bought tickets to it with the idea that it would be a fun, mindless sci-fi action movie. Now, however, after seeing Ebert give it his most glowing review ever, IGN come pretty close to that as well, and it too getting a Best Picture Golden Globe nomination, I would have to say that my expectations have definitely been raised. I can't really argue with the people who say that the previews do not look promising, but my response is this: please name me one feature film James Cameron has directed that isn't good (at least in the last 25 years)?

I'm still following the health care debate closely but I don't even really know where to start with that. Four months ago I wrote (of Democrats) "if you sit there and worry about every opinion poll and detrimentally alter the bill to fit the popular mood of the hour, you've got a good chance of ending up with a spectacularly crappy bill. And that's what'll get you killed in the election next year." Sadly, this looks to be exactly the route that they are following. I've seen the focus since that time shift dramatically from "we need to pass sweeping health reform that will ensure that every American is covered and that costs are kept down" to "we need to do everything in our power to pass something so it doesn't look like we've just wasted an entire year." Other than the actual Senators currently out pushing it, I don't know a single person that likes the current Senate bill (though, since it seems to change almost daily, I'm not even positive what the "current" Senate bill incarnation is).

Ironically, about the only that Republican-leaning and Democrat-leaning voters can agree on these days is that this bill is terrible. If they pass it in its current form, it will basically achieve nothing they set out to do other than (maybe) insuring a few more uninsured. It will do nothing to increase competition or keep costs from sky-rocketing, and they didn't even make an attempt at litigation reform. And even for the extra people who will be covered, with the amount that the bill's going to cost it will almost undoubtedly end up being far cheaper if the government just sent those people a check every year for the rest of their life and told them to buy their own insurance from a private insurer. And that's before they end up adding all the inevitable pork that will go in via the amendments that will be necessary in order to get this thing passed. As low as my expectations always are for the Democrats to be unified when they control Congress, I really stand in awe of their ineptitude right now. It reminds me of watching the Bears this season. You can learn to take the losses. There's no shame in just flat-out getting beat. What is so hard to swallow is when you don't get beat; you beat yourselves. I am constantly reminded of the Lewis Black joke: "The Democratic party is a party of no ideas, and the Republican party is a party of bad ideas. So you got the Republican standing up saying 'I've got a really bad idea' and the Democrat stands up and says 'and I know how to make it even worse'." Or, to paraphrase Lyle Lanley, "Y'know, a Democrat in power is a little like a mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it and danged if he knows how to use it."