Pride & Prejudice & Fighter Jets

I’ve always admired Roger Ebert as a critic not so much for his record at recognizing good movies, (note him dropping the ball with early Peter Jackson) but the fact that he is a damn good essayist. Love or hate him, it’s hard to argue with the logic in his reviews, and when he's funny, he's hilarious.

To wit, check out this excerpt from his review of the latest film Stealth, the smart, coming-of-age tale no doubt adapted from a Jane Austen novel:

"The meeting [of terrorists] is in a skyscraper that is still under construction. Computer simulations show that if it falls over, it will kill a lot of people on the ground. Amazing what computers can do these days."

Not since Marty DiBergi recited the sad, critical reception of each Spinal Tap album have I laughed this much at a critique. ("This ponderous, pretentious collection of rock psalms is enough to prompt the question, 'What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap, and couldn’t he have rested that day too?'")

One film that will definitely be amazing is Scorsese's new documentary on Bob Dylan, No Direction Home. The newly released trailer is any fan's dream, and shows the mostly reticent - or incomprehensible - singer in some pretty funny situations: "They're booing me! I can't stand it!" If it's anything like the classic Wilco documentary, I'm in.

After plotting out my fall and winter schedules, I notice I have 17 and 14 hours of classes per week respectively. This leaves an abundance of time, any suggestions for filling it? I plan to get a head start on Law Revue - I'd like to be able to issue some sort of guarantee, like, "if you don't laugh, you get your money back!" But I've learned that a guarantee to a lawyer is like carrion to a vulture.

I’ve also been scanning the new hockey schedule looking for any possible Vancouver-Calgary matchups I can attend. I’m sure some friendly Cowtown fandom will be tolerated. It’ll simply be good to watch some hockey instead of enduring more terrible FOX coverage of the NFL. CBC had their reasons for ditching Chris Cuthbert, but he’s still better than Madden. Please tell me he won’t be filling in:

"He really turned that breakaway from something, into something new!"