Call me a heretic - I actually enjoyed "Over the hedge" as a sharp first-contact story with many riffs to classic SF movies and memes. It also managed to very successfully undercut many of its overt themes - like human waste leading to prosperity for the animals (and in the end saving them via the mystical gathering capabilities of a caffienated squirrel) despite all the "human waste is bad, and bad for the animals." Shatner as the possum was priceless.

Given the director's rather deft hand at earlier romances, one may wonder where and when that plot twist got introduced.

Oddly - there was a review where the reviewer pretty much hated the movie, and it was obvious that the man had a HUGE chip on his shoulder about stuff that made soldiers look reasonably good, etc. as he went out of his way to complain about Tyree's "understanding of Bush's foreign policy", etc.

Predictably enough, when comparing the alternatives at the end for the "luckless guy" who gets dragged to this chick flick, he said if you'd won the toss and gone to see "From Paris with Love." - you'd have lost anyway.

Me, I haven't seen D.J., but "From paris" rocked.

I know, I know. "Former" marines.

Yup.

Yet, the movie makes a point, with the very opening lines, of stating that once a marine, always a marine.

It also shows Sulley considering the troops at the station, and the commander, to not only be typical examples of what he cherished, expected, and valued in a marine, but in some cases considered them to be above average.

...and they were later all shown to be sociopathic, order-following robots.

In a mostly CGI movie where every thing in the story and screen were choen by the storywriter, producer, director, and editor (Cameron) ....

and besides, the whole BASIS of the parable, when talking to the saints that no-one would get better than anyone else who came later, was that he had every right to hand out his salvation as he saw fit to anyone who came seeking it, just as a landowner had the right to pay his money as he saw fit to anyone seeking a job.

The guy who came early was satisfied with his lot until he was overcome by envy that someone else was getting a "better deal"

Pick your booksellers wisely.

My iPhone is loaded up with classics (Mark Twain, Kipling, tec.) from Project Gutenberg, and (science fiction)eBooks from Baen books.

Baen makes a point of not using DRM, and allowing several formats including the epub format used in the iPhone app "Stanza". Two of the formats are also HTML and RTF.

Cinematically only if you ignore that little thing called STORY (cue 70-minute takedown of Phantom Menace...) and characterization, as well as consistent internal logic.

C'mon, to call the bad guy a cardboard cutout was an insult to all geometric characters, be they two dimensional, lines, or points.

RE: Liberty - sure, and the story could have been told in a "go with the natives and kick out the evil humans" meme - but couldn't they have used a culture more like the french or russian colonialist movements that actually did just "take what they wanted?" Look at the meta-story - the metaphorical story being told via referents. Did they HAVE to use language that obviously made the "mercenaries" and corporate types US? Did they have to imply through that that WE were responsible for 9/11? Use the "mercenary" title as a fig leaf all you want but the movie clearly state "once a marine, always a marine..." - and Sculley clearly found the "ex" marine mercs worthy of respect when he first got there - so he didn't think they were dregs, misfits, and barracks scum.

The homeschoolers I knew best were wiccans - an ex teacher and an ex-navy guy turned consultant - who wanted their kids to learn more than was available in their local school system.

In all fairness (though it's not AS obvious if you didn't read the intro chapter in the book written by Orson Scott Card - adn used as backstory for the main characters) - The psycho - SEAL started out as a hard charging, but good man, who fell apart under mental disorder due to the environment PHYSICALLY affecting his mind.

... and yes, I'm perfectly aware of the "war is bad, peace is good" message in that movie - especially the extended and book versions. I'm just saying the HUMANS in the movie were not quite the charicatures they seemed in the original release, despite the aliens being so.

"Soldier" is a movie that, cheesy as it was, keeps popping back into my head.

Soooo....

Was making "W" just putting bush in a fantasy context to make Bush look worse, or did he really think Bush was evel and was putting him in the same kind of humanizing context as he now intends to put Stalin and Hitler?