Why is it necessary for Hollywood to remake movies like Yours, Mine, & Ours?  It wasn’t that great of a movie when Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda made the film in 1968.  It’s especially sad Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo are doing such boring tripe.  They are, both of them, very good actors.  Rene Russo especially is capable of so much more.

Link:  Harry Potter passes $400 mln at world box office

It’s only the second week since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire opened worldwide and already it’s approaching the half billion dollar mark.  When you consider the film will easily gross $250 to $300 million in United States alone, one can bet this film will surpass $1 billion in worldwide box office and make J. K. Rowling even more rich than she is already.

I’ve been reading several of the news stories about President Bush’s desire — if that’s not too strong a word — to bomb the al-Jazeera news network.  Let me just say I have my problems with al-Jazeera.  In many ways I think they are enablers for some of the dysfunctional behavior in the Arab world.  However, since when do we start bombing groups and organizations just because they say, print, or do things we don’t like?  Especially in an allied country like Qatar?  If this is true it’s just reprehensible that a president of our country would even discuss the idea.  I just hope it isn’t.

This is quite humorous.

I can relate, but for me it’s a Conservative Christian mother.

Link:  Senator urges Bush to explain Iraq war

Senator John Warner (R-VA), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, thinks President Bush should engage the American public with FDR-style "fireside chats" to explain the Iraq war.  The attitude that this will solve the problem follows along the same thought process as Jeff Jarvis, who thinks the president’s problems are more of a PR issue than any real problem.  I think neither of these ideas would work.  It’s disingenuous to compare World War II to our current war in Iraq.  They are nothing alike on many levels.  What will the president tell us that we don’t already know.  Contrary to what you read on Jarvis’ site, and especially in the comments of his other Iraq-related posts, we know there are schools open in Iraq, we know there have been free elections, and we are well aware Saddam Hussein in no longer in power.  However, will the president talk honestly about the 2,000 dead soldiers, will he talk about how Iraqis are struggling to feed their families, get them proper medication, and find work.  Of course not.  Being honest with the American people is something few presidents have been capable of, and certainly not this one.  It’s not an issue of explaining or bad PR.  It’s the fact that every reason the president used to take us to war have been proved grossly false.  It’s the fact that now we’re there, and can’t leave, our leadership is failing.  The American people are far from stupid.  A few PR moves by the president will not make them love the war in Iraq.

I had a lot of trepidation about seeing this film.  Many of the reviews that came out when it was first released did not lead me to believe this was a very good adaptation of H. G. Wells science fiction classic, and if you’re a Wells traditionalist then you will agree with them.  On the other hand, if you’re looking for a film that takes a classic science fiction story and updates it to a 21st century, post September 11 world, this is the film for you.  There are real moments when this film is downright terrifying.  Scenes in which people are running down a street as one of the Martian machines rises above them reminds one too much of the pictures we’ve all seen of the attacks on the World Trade Center.  It’s hard not to be emotional.  Some might find fault with that.  Fault Stephen Spielberg for setting the film in New York City and creating scenes that remind us so much of that terrible day, but I think it lends a hard-core emotion to the film.

While the film is non-stop action and terror from the moment the machines appear I have to say this is probably the most viscerally emotional film Tom Cruise has ever done.  As a dead-beat dad who’s rarely in his children’s lives he has to step up and not only face this horrific terror, but also be the father his children need.  And the kids are just fantastic.  I often feel like Dakota Fanning is getting way too much exposure these days.  I mean, is she the only child actor out there!?  However, in this film she shows the kind of acting chops most adults would envy.  You really feel the terror of this child as she faces world-changing events.  Then here is Justin Chatwin, simply fantastic as Cruise’s teenage son, who wants nothing more than to seek revenge against the machine that have attacked his world and killed millions.  The range of emotion he shows is palpable on the screen.  The most heart-wrenching scene in the movie, I think, is when Cruise’s character must finally let his son go, let him discover for himself all the horrific events he, as if father, has been trying to protect him from.  In a sense he has to let his son become a man. 

It’s not often you find such emotional baggage in a science fiction film, but that’s where it hues closely to Wells’ classic.  If you’ve ever read the novel, and if you haven’t you should, Wells is very good at making you feel the terror of an alien invasion.  While Spielberg and company have certainly taken creative license with some aspects, they have kept the human drama intact.  For that reason, this version of War of the Worlds earns high praise from me.  It takes back Wells’ classic novel from the campy 1950s film.  If you normally skip Tom Cruise films, then you need to pick this one up.  You won’t be sorry.