1. Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5 (or is it 3.0?) started off with a BANG Friday night! Amazing character-driven action show. With the latest episode, BSG proves that it’s still the best drama on TV today. Seriously. I’m not making it up. Even if you don’t like SciFi, you should still be watching this show. It transcends SF in the best way possible.
2. The Book of Daniel: Despite the controversy of two NBC affiliates (including one in my home state, KARK in Little Rock) pulling it, it’s NOT offensive. Well, not very, anyway. The thing that most uptight “Christians” (I hate to actually call them that) objected to — Jesus being a character in the show — I found the most compelling part of the show. The rest of it is mostly just a soap opera about a priest and the people around him (mostly his family). I thought, other than being a white guy, that Jesus was portrayed remarkably positively. I think I’ll give it a few more weeks, even though it conflicts with Numb3rs (one of the best dramas on TV) and Monk (a once-terrific show that may have jumped the shark).

Okay, maybe I should call this post a mini roundup.

Get Smart was always one of my favorite shows growing up. Don Adams was a comic genius. And Barbara Feldon’s Agent 99 was my second love (after “Half Pint” from Little House on the Prairie, natch). I think that show fueled my life-long love of the spy genre, though later spoofs (e.g., the Austin Powers movies) left me pretty cold. RIP, Mr. Adams.

On this edition of Ozarks at Large…we spend an afternoon with the defending world champion drum and bugle corps and get the latest on the study of the New Madrid Fault.

RSS FEED

WARNING: I added the above link before actually downloading the podcast. It turns out that it’s not really a “podcast” after all. Rather, it’s an RSS feed of links to pages where the shows can be listened to in a streaming WMA (Windows Media Audio) format. Blech. I sent them an email pointing out that such a beast isn’t a “podcast” at all. Hopefully, they’ll rectify the situation soon.

UPDATE 2005.08.26: Looks like they finally got it up as an actual podcast. Excellent! I’m downloading a stack of episodes now.

I hope that footage (apparently, they cut 48 minutes) shows up on the DVD release, since that’s what DVDs are for.

The acting is horrible — wooden and stilted. The best acting in the whole movie is from Yoda, who is entirely computer-generated (and much better done than the frog king guy from Episode I). I thought Yoda was really well done here. I loved watching him bust Dooku’s ass (for a little while, anyway), especially the Force quick-draw of the lightsaber and the acrobatics.

I like that they took every opportunity to show off Natalie Portman’s skin. I especially liked the way the tiger-thingy ripped her clothes into a Britney Spears-like costume for the climactic battle scene.

Having the guy who played Owen Lars in Episode IV play Owen’s father in this one was nice.

Why is R2-D2 flying? Why is C-3PO in it at all, and why does he have such crappy and annoying one-liner-type lines?

Playing the Darth Vader theme when whiny puss-boy Anakin goes on a tirade was a nice touch. Giving him the most famous Han Solo line was a stupid touch. It would have been better from Obi-Wan, who gets off some nice (well, nice for a Star Wars flick) one liners.

Why is Mace Windu the only one with a purple lightsaber? Is there any special significance to the color of one’s lightsaber other than the obvious one that the bad guys have red ones? Yoda’s is green, btw.

I didn’t like seeing Jango Fett’s face. I think they took away most (if not all) of Boba Fett’s mystique by doing this. He still has the coolest ship, though.

The Corinains (or however you say their collective name) were well-done.

If you see it, see it in a digital theater. The visual effects are fucking amazing in digital. I’d almost be willing to see it again just to see all that groovy effects work again on the big screen.

Lucas recycles too much from earlier movies. To wit: the execution scene at the end is much like Luke’s battle with the Rancor in Jabba’s palace, Anakin loses his arm by having it chopped off by the bad guy who’s trying to recruit him (and gets it replaced with a creepy chrome skeleton thing), the “disappearing bridge” thing (though it was handled differently), the space chase/battle through the asteroid field, etc. In each case (pretty much), Lucas got to remake a scene with immensely better efx is all.

IN SUM: It’s an EFX extravaganza with a little plot and some bad acting wrapped around it so they could actually call it a movie. Better than Episode I and maybe better than Return of the Jedi in some respects.