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China: Out of the Fire and Into the Frying Pan

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Barely recovering from news of their products being contaminated with lead and formaline, comes another issue that creates more heat and tension for China. According to American officials, China has successfully infiltrated their computers in the Pentagon last June.

More than a thousand computers had to be shut down in order to go through complete checking and cleaning. Said officials also asserted that they were almost 100% certain that the hackers came from the People’s Liberation Army of China since these people had previously demonstrated skills that could pull the act off.

Although China has denied any connection with the said activity, the situation does not look good for them. Hacking into the Pentagon system obviously has very grave consequences. For example, UK hacker Hary McKinnon who claimed to be searching for extra-terrestrial evidence in the government system has seven felony counts against him. If convicted, he could be looking at 70 years behind bars.

Germany is also claiming that their system has been hacked by the Chinese people.

What does this spell for the future of China?

Balls of Fury – Review

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Balls of Fury
I love these goofy sports comedy flicks: “Dodgeball”, “Beerfest” and now “Balls of Fury”. At first glance, I gave “Balls of Fury” a resounding beh, but then Christopher Walken appeared on the screen and I exclaimed a resounding eh?, followed by a far more resounding zeh! Okay, so “zeh” isn’t really something people scream with joy, but I don’t think I use the letter “z” on my keyboard enough and I want to get my money’s worth. As silly as it is, “Balls of Fury” is one of the better comedies I’ve seen this year and made all the better with an additional helping of sweet ping pong action to keep things fast and fun.
Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is a washed-up pro ping pong champ hired by FBI agent Ernie Rodriguez (George Lopez) to enter an exclusive table tennis tournament run by Triad crime lord Feng (Christopher Walken). Daytona is way off his game, however, and seeks tutelage from one of the greatest ping pong players in the world, Master Wong (James Hong). With help from Hong’s adopted daughter, Maggie (Maggie Q), Daytona gets in shape just in time to enter the tournament…where he discovers that losing a game means losing his life.
There’s a lot of good comedy talent assembled for this flick, though they may fly over some people’s radar. James Hong stole a lot of the show in this movie as the blind ping pong master. If you haven’t seen any of the man’s movies then there’s a better chance you’ve heard some of his voice-over work (he was the Mandarin in “Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go” and Delong Wong in “Jackie Chan Adventures”) and he’s just an all-around funny guy. Diedrich Bader manages a small supporting role as “Gary”, but I won’t spoil it for you. He’s another talented comic both on screen and doing voice over roles (he’s Oswald from “the Drew Carrey Show” and Hoss Delgado on “Billy & Mandy”). Robert Patrick also manages a brief cameo at the beginning and he’s always funny because, hey, he’s Robert Patrick.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything Dan Fogler has ever been in, but the man plays a pretty good heroic slob character. Christopher Walken is of course funny in everything he does because he’s freakin’ Christopher Walken. I’ve never been a huge fan of George Lopez but he plays a pretty funny supporting character. The bit in the hotel room between him and Fogler was comic gold. Thomas Lennon (“Reno 911”) shows up as Fogler’s arch nemesis, Karl Wolfschtagg, and while I’m not a big “Reno 911” fan I can’t deny the guy was a riot.
“Balls of Fury” has a very wacky sense of humor and not so much in a “Naked Gun” sort of way but more in a “what the hell are they doing that for” sort of way. It hits its mark mostly with false alarm humor, where it leads you into a joke you think you see coming and then blindsides you with an even better one right when you least suspect it. And it does this frequently. I felt this was both its strongest point and its weakest. Toward the end of the movie you start to grasp the “false alarm” strategy which makes them a little predictable at times. I also felt they bypassed a good opportunity with the showdown between Daytona and Wolfschtagg, but I won’t go any further in-depth on that.
The film has a great cast, some very well-timed and well-conceived jokes and a plot that works in its all-out craziness. And even when the movie isn’t funny, the ping pong tricks (fake though they are) can be really cool to look at. Definitely a good way to end the Summer movie season.
Grade: B

DVD Releases For Tuesday August 28, 2007

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Well, it’s Tuesday & you know what that means. No, not reruns of “Scrubs”, the release of this week’s DVD releases. Aren’t you excited?! To be honest, it’s not a great week but we’ll always have Blades of Glory, eh?
Here there are folks, the DVD releases for Tuesday August 28, 2007:
Air Guitar Nation
Blades of Glory
Friday Night Lights: The First Season
Heroes: Season 1
Kickin’ It Old Skool
The Last Day of Summer
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Treat
A Night At The Roxbury
The Odd Couple: The Second Season
Return To Halloweentown
Samurai Jack: Season 4
Shredderman Rules!
Year of the Dog
So, what are you going to be watching tonight?

JLA Casting Rumors Surface – Superman, Flash, and Manhunter cast?

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There are strong rumors making their way across the web about the casting of the JLA film. Word has it the movie may end up being motion capture animation ala Beowulf – we’ll have to wait and see on that one – but the casting rumors are as follows:
Superman – Tom Welling
Flash – Ryan Reynolds
Martian Manhunter – Lawrence Fishburne
If this is true, it’s absolute dream casting as far as I’m concerned. We’ll have to wait and see…