Who Asked You ... Movie Review - District B13

Distrtict B13

Directed By: Pierre Morel ("The Transporter")
Starring: David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli

Everyone has heard of the Hollywood action flick. Most have heard of Hong Kong action pictures. But when was the last time you heard of a French action pictures.

If your answer is 'no' then you are probably in the majority. There have been successful (and good) French action films in the past such as "Le Femme Nikita (Nikita)" and "The Professional (Leon)". The one common thread among almost all successful French action-adventures has been producer and sometimes writer sometimes director Luc Besson.

Besson, who only just gets more attention for his films in American than he does for his ill-fated celebrity marriage to Milla Jovovich, is the auteur behind the Jason Statham vehicle "The Transporter" and the not nearly as good as it should have been "The Fifth Element". His films are typically high on action and low on story. His common themes include principled yet highly flawed heros fighting for what is right often under vigilante conditions. His female characters tend to be quite strong and yet at the same time still be damsels-in-distress. In others words, nothing new to American audiences.


In the case of "District B13" there is something fairly new about the use of Parkour as the dominant style of fighting/stunts. Parkour is the French discipline/martial art/extreme sport of fluid movement through complex obstacles at the highest possible speed. You may have seen stories about it on the likes of Dateline NBC a few years back. Specifically, this makes for a great deal of climbing, jumping, dodging, and bouncing at a very high speed. This discipline is used to great effect in the film to bring an overwhelming level of freshness and coolness to what could have otherwise been a very stale and cookie-cutter movie. David Belle a co-star of the movie is, in fact, the discipline's co-creator.

I won't get into the acting, plot, or social message. They are not the point. This film is great fun and will be an eye opening experience to action fans who are tired of the same old same old.

Thoughts from a weekend of sports watching

Soccer

Yes, I watched soccer this weekend. A surprising amount of it in fact. The US, Italy, Ghana, France, Brazil, Korea I saw all of these teams in action. I have to say that I did find it entertaining though slow and a bit too low scoring for my taste.

Someone pointed out to me that all of the Italian players looked like that not-quite-trustworthy greeter at the Olive Garden.

I did learn some things about soccer:

When a typical footballer does something that is against the rules he commits a “foul”. When an American player breaks a rule he commits an “Act of imperialist aggression that must be checked for the good of the free world”.

FIFA rules stipulate that whenever a player has a legitimate chance to score “offsides” must be called. This is a cryptic penalty that mainly just provides the opposing team an opportunity to rest and prevent being scored on. This is done to keep scoring down because FIFA scorekeepers cannot count beyond 4.

Female soccer fanatics are equivalent to rock star groupies. Want proof? Check out the "most emailed photos section of the World Cup website.

Soccer players hate shirts. Whenever a soccer players scores, wins, loses, almost scores, or has a significant thought his first inpulse is to rip off his shirt. In fact, throughout the game, players will often tug on each others jerseys. This not to cheat or establish position. It is sportmanship. As if to say, "I know this horrible shirt bothers you so let me comfort you during our contest." A beautiful sentiment indeed. Maybe this is why women like soccer players.


Hockey

I have been really impressed by the quality of play I have seen while watching the Stanley Cup Finals. I’m no fan of the Edmonton Oilers or the Carolina Hurricanes. Heck before I started watching this series I could name no more than four players on either team. However the play has been fast-paced, exciting, and surprisingly hard hitting. With the NHL’s new rules in place (actually it is more because of their actually ENFORCING old rules) these games have been exceptional.

There hasn’t been any fighting but that is fine by me. Fighting is for the regular season. Fights are fun to see now and then. However in my honest opinion the “fans” who think it is not a true hockey game without a fight are simply rednecks.

I know the ratings for the finals have been low. They have been low enough to be joked about by the likes of Jay Leno in fact. But I think that is to be expected considering last year’s lockout and the general invisibility of the NHL nowadays.

But if the quality of play stays this high I’m sure the NHL will return to a place of prominence in American sports before long.

The most interesting thing I saw was just before game 6 on Saturday night. Traditionally in games where United States and Canada-based teams face off both national anthems are sung. I was first taken aback when I noticed that about half of the Canadian crowd in Edmonton was SINGING ALONG to the “Star Spangled Banner”. Impressive. Then came time for “Oh Canada”. The ENTIRE BUILDING erupted in song for this rendition so much so that halfway through the song the official anthem singer simple stopped and held up his mic.

Carolinians valiantly tried to mimic their Canadian counterparts tonight but just quite couldn’t duplicate the impressive sign of respect and patriotism.

Local Race for the Cure sets a national record

Congrats to all who participated.

Local Race for the Cure sets a national record

See......I have a right to be stressed.

©2001 Bill Hall

Many IT professionals feel traumatized by the daily grind
Matthew Lynn
BLOOMBERG NEWS
06/04/2006

If your screen freezes, try ignoring it. As that report you've spent a week working on gets chewed up by the hard drive, shrug and forget about it.

Whatever happens, don't call the exhausted souls in the information-technology department. They are too stressed out already. The last thing they need is you shouting at them.

According to a survey released this month by Dublin-based consulting firm SkillSoft, 97 percent of IT professionals feel traumatized by their daily work. Indeed, 80 percent of them get tense just thinking about going to the office.

Poor them.

Whether IT is really the most stressful occupation on the planet is something we could all have an interesting, if nervous, conversation about. What appears beyond doubt is that workplace stress has turned into an epidemic.

Why is that? After all, as the world becomes wealthier, and as billions get invested in new technology, you might imagine our working lives would get easier, not harder.

In reality, work has become so psychologically demanding because we choose to make it that way.

No one would deny that stress is everywhere. SkillSoft talked to 3,000 people to come up with its conclusion that handling the computers frazzles the nerves more than any other job, Kevin Young, managing director of SkillSoft, said in a telephone interview. "That is true right across different industries. The speed of change just gets faster."

In the SkillSoft survey, the IT jocks came out at the top of the pile. They were followed by medicine and engineering. Yet, according to a paper presented to the British Psychological Society earlier this year, librarians suffer more from stress than any other occupation.

It is hard not to sympathize with all of them. IT workers have to wrestle with technology that never seems to get more reliable or user-friendly. If our cars were as wonky as our computers, we'd all keep a spare horse in the garden just in case. Librarians have to deal with people who don't bring their books back on time, or maybe fold down the edges of the pages. (Well, maybe most of us could roll with those punches, but they are very gentle souls, which is why they didn't become firefighters or hedge-fund managers.)

The rankings may well be meaningless. Everyone is under pressure at work.

Why are jobs becoming more stressful all the time? There are three reasons:

First, hyperactivity is now a badge of honor. In the modern office, there is little place for the people who puts their feet up on the desk, push back the chair, and stare at the passing clouds for a few minutes. If you aren't rushing around like a hamster on steroids, the boss thinks you are lazy. You will be downsized before you've had a chance to say "mañana."

Stress has been built into the DNA of office life.

Next, we have created an ever more demanding, 'round-the-clock business culture. Shops are always open in many countries. The call center will take our orders in the middle of the night. The markets switch from one time zone to another. As consumers, that's great. We can get anything we want, when we want it. As producers, it's not so great. We have to be plugged into the working world all the time -- it is hardly surprising we feel under pressure.

Yet, most of us participate in the economy both as consumers and producers. So while we've benefited as the former, we have suffered as the latter.

Lastly, we have forgotten how to be polite and considerate when dealing with our co-workers, suppliers or customers. In the SkillSoft survey, IT workers cited bullying behavior by managers and colleagues as among the reasons they felt so stressed.

Yet, work is so stressful because we've chosen to make it that way.

Maybe it's time we all just relaxed a bit. And perhaps even stopped shouting at the IT department -- I'm really not sure they can handle the strain anymore.

Who Asked You ... Movie Review - United 93

United 93

Directed By: Paul Greengrass

Starring: Major James Fox, Staff Sgt. Shawna Fox, 1st Lt. Jeremy Powell, Greg Callahan, Rick Tepper, Tobin Miller, Ben Sliney, Rich Sullivan, Tony Smith

Approximately a year ago I posted on this blog my thoughts on the documentary "9/11". This remarkable film provides the most poignant and unbiased view of the event of Spetember 11th, 2001. I still feel that anyone who wants to truly mean it when they say they will "never forget" should see this film.

When I heard that Hollywood was producing the first non-documentary film involving the events of 9/11, I felt it was too soon. I feared that this was going to be an attempt by a movie studio to cash in. Thankfully after seeing "United 93" I can say that those fears would seem to have been unwarranted.

What "United 93" does is show the audience, in 'real time' or something close to it, the events of 9/11 that were not captured on CNN cameras or by individuals on the ground in New York. As the title would indicate the primary thread of the film is the event onboard flight 93. However secondary plot streams chronicle the ordered choas (or maybe chaotic order) of the Federal Aviation Administration's National Air Traffic Control Center, the air traffic control centers in New York, Boston, and Clevland, and a military command center.

The events shown are based on the actual accounts of individuals involved on the ground and the 9/11 commission's conclusions of what happened on the plane.

What the movie does not give you is what you would expect from a Hollywood movie based on this subject. No character development. No backstories. Nothing intended to give us a closer connection to any of the characters. No patriotism. No "go america go" or "USA!" moments. No veiled political messages (watch for Oliver Stone's forthcoming "World Trade Center" for that). The film's director/writer clearly understood that the story was dramatic enough already.

The film also doesn't go out of its way to make us feel one way or another about the terrorists themselves. The script does not portray them as evil nor does it make any effort to make them sympathetic. The hijackers are shown as they likely were scared young (18-23 year old) zealots. The most interesting portrayal is that of the lead hijaker who appears to be older or at least more mature than his counterparts. Despite this maturity he also appears to be the most hesitant to do what he does. In one brief moment he is shown calling a loved one before he boards the plane and saying a final "I love you". Perhaps he was hesitant because unlike his partners, and most suicide bombers, he had something to live for. As an audience member, even though you know what will happen you cannot help but hope that he will have a change of heart.

Many moments in the film stand out. When the passengers kill a terrorist for the first time the audience I saw the film with actually applauded.

When the passenger make progress in storming the cockpit you can't help but hope for them, even though you know what will happen.


When the director intercuts scenes of both the passengers and the hijakers praying you can't help but ponder deeper issues.

Perhaps most poignantly, the film gives us heart-wrenching scenes of several of the passengers calling their loved ones to say a final goodbye. The passengers had little time and not everyone had access to a phone. How would you handle a situation like that? When facing almost certain death and with the opportunity to make only one phone call, who would that call be to? These are questions that ate hoisted upon the audiences shoulders during what may have been this somber film's saddest moment. Who would you call?

United 93 proves without a shadow of a doubt that mystery is not needed to create suspense or excitment. Even knowing exactly how the story would end I literally discovered that my heart was racing during much of the experience of watching this film. Alfred Hitchcock once said something to the effect of, "Suspense is when there is a bomb under a man's seat, and everyone knows it but that man." This film may be the greatest example of that truth of cinema.

Plenty to do plenty to see

Some random shots from a Saturday out and about in St. Louis