Movies, Music, Mayhem... and Math?

Its Sunday, January 23, 2011, I'm scared of Natalie Portman, and this is The Side. Its cold outside, but onward we go. I've got my money in for the NWA's Superbowl pool. This years party should be a blast. I really don' care much about football, but there will be food there, so GO TEAM!

On to stuff.

BAT-FLICK COMETH!!

The next Batman movie from Christopher Nolan is getting all set to go. The big news this week is the villain casting. Anne Hathaway has been cast as Selina Kyle (better known as Catwoman), and Tom Hardy has been cast as Bane. I don't have any real problem with either actor in these roles, although despite having a large portion of my brain dedicated at all times to things Batman, I doubt I will go see the movie. I like BATMAN BEGINS. I loathed THE DARK KNIGHT. I am going to have get won over in a big way to go see this next movie.

Let's look at this news, starting with the casting of Bane. You could actually make a decent case for Nolan "white washing" the villains in his films. Ra's Al Ghul originally hails from the Arabian peninsula, yet in the movie he was played by Irishman Liam Neeson. Well, no one had a problem with that be cause its Liam Neeson and he's just awesome. Now we have Bane, who is from South America. Tom Hardy is British. Now, if this was years and more years ago I'd be on my high horse yelling about movies staying true to the comics and so on, but now I don't really care anymore. Its an adaption. Things are going to get changed. Fans should stop griping about the changes that are made and just be happy that they are getting a Batman movie and hope its enjoyable. But still, this is kind of weird in casting. They didn't cast a Hispanic or Latino for the role? Really? I'm not saying that Hardy won't do great in the role, but this is pretty weird.

But let's move on to Hathaway. She broke out onto the scene with those THE PRINCESS DIARIES movies. She's done quite a bit of work in various roles. She's quite pretty and has definite acting chops. The role of Selina Kyle is perfect for her and where she is in her career right now. If she does well in this role, and i have no doubt that she will, she'll have expanded her fanbase out even further and demonstrated how broad her range really is. Before Heath Ledger was cast as The Joker in the last bat-flick he was best known as a former teen heart throb and then as a gay cowboy. Then he creeped everyone right the hell out with his portrayal of The Joker. He demonstrated his range and if he were alive today he'd be considered one of the top actors working. This role could be what really cements Hathaway as a great actress, as weird as that may sound. She's tackled all these different genres so remarkably well. Now its time to conquer another.

DATE NIGHT WITH NOZZ!

Actually got to go out with the Missus without the kids. Hootie Nozz (who still hasn't become a cyborg) watched the little terrors and even sprung for our night out as a late Christmas gift. We got out the door a bit late to make dinner at the Winchester (no the actual name of the place, that's the Red Dog Pub, but its our Winchester) so we agreed on grabbing a bit at one of the restaurants in the mall where we were going to movies.

I'm in line for tickets while the Missus was ordering our food at Johnny Rocket's. Took a bit to get the tickets as even though it was Friday night there was only one person behind the ticket counter. Ordering for me is easy: bacon cheeseburger plain and cherry Coke. So I get the tickets and plant myself over at the restaurant. It was the waitress's first night.

The Cokes were not Cherry. But they got changed fairly quickly.

We were waiting for our burgers knowing that we had just enough time to eat and get over to the theater. Well the burgers come out with everything on them. So, those got taken back. We're down to five minutes until the movie starts. I hate being late for movies.

The burgers come out along with check, which was knocked down quite a bit in price to make up for the mix-ups, so I'm not complaining, but the movie was going to star in a minute. The manager brought us a couple of foil thing-a-ma-doodles to wrap them up in and into the Missus's purse they went.

Why do women carry large purses? For smuggling cheeseburgers.

The Missus headed into the theater to find us seats. I grabbed a soda from the concessions stand for us to share and spotted an old buddy from high school. So i was temporarily torn between saying "hi" to my old buddy or getting into the movie. Sorry Leigh.

We watched THE BLACK SWAN which was the best movie I've watched in a long time. Excellent film. Natalie Portman was incredible. The scary thing is that I actually managed to keep up with what was hallucinations and what wasn't. It legitimately creeped me right the hell out. If you're on the fence about seeing it, and really want your head knocked sideways, go. The closest thing I've seen to this is PERFECT BLUE, which I love. So, five stars from me.

There was a bit of a break for me as I was overcame by Cherry Coke and that seemed to overcome the urinal, and flooding ensued. Its not a date night without flooding.

POLITICAL MATH

Paul Krugman did an piece about the healthcare debate and the move to repeal it, and basically a bunch of one-sided claptrap that included this lovely chart.



Thank goodness it wasn't a piece about education because that might be really embarrassing. Math has shown that Mister Paul Krugman is not smarter than a 5th grader.

MUSIC!!

Pete Yorn covering the Buzzcocks. That sounds kinda dirty.



That's it for Sunday. Remember: "Ask Nozz Day" is Wednesday, so send me any questions you might have that you'd like me to answer. Hit me up here, my Buzz, my Twitter, or e-mail me at martynozz@yahoo.com See y'all then.