Bewitched beSucked
Sunday, June 26, 2005
I urge everyone to please ignore those pangs of nostalgia and to not go see the Bewitched movie. 41 years after the original series debuted on TV, movie producers at Sony Pictures are trying to capitalize on that nostalgia by bringing you a movie that reeks from Will Ferrell's overacting. I think that the reason why he was so popular on Saturday Night Live was because you only got him in small doses. Sitting through an hour and forty minutes of Will Ferrell's immature and puerile acting is too much. This was a great opportunity for Ferrel to show that he can do comedy without resorting to loud, obnoxious physical humor, but once again we are left with the same old schtick. Sitting through this movie felt like sitting through a skit on SNL that wasn't going anywhere and wouldn't end.
On the other hand, Nicole Kidman performed wonderfully. She lent credibility to her character and was believable. I think that this shows that you just can't put a great actor with a mediocre one and expect great things. Other actors can only lift you so far.
I give this movie 2 ½ stars.
[* * ½]
Posted byJ. R. Guinness at 7:23 PM 0 comments
Government interjections into marriage.
Friday, June 24, 2005
There is a prevailing opinion among several members of our society who feel that they are being disenfranchised by our government wanting to define what constitutes a marriage. This opinion is that the government should not regulate marriage at all and that there should be no interference within marriages by the government.
I think that this is a very interesting stance to take. Especially, since that was the rationale used to justify the spousal privilege of not being compelled to testify against your wife/husband. It was believed that testifying against one's spouse undermined the integrity and value of families. A certain group of people benefited greatly from this privilege: the mafia.
One of the other consequences of having a society where the government does not interfere with marriages is that no one could be prosecuted for spousal abuse anymore. If a woman or a man reported to a peace officer that their spouse physically assaulted them, that peace officer (under the mentality that the government should not interfere) would not pursue any action against the offending spouse.
This is not a hypothetical situation that is being described here. This is not the paranoid fantasies of someone who is seeing the worst possible outcome of future decisions. This actually happened. Peace officers refused to bring action against spousal abusers because of the belief that the government should not interfere with or regulate marriages.
Unfortunately, we are often too short-sighted to see the ramifications of obtaining what we want. The best course of action is moderation and negotiation with concessions on both sides.
Posted byJ. R. Guinness at 10:20 AM 0 comments
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