Jack of Harts

I just watched Oblivion today. I know it’s fashionable to dislike Tom Cruise, but I can’t think of a single movie I’ve seen him in and not liked. I can now count Oblivion in that number. It starts several decades after a war with aliens. We kicked their asses, and took out most of the Earth while doing it. Mister Cruise plays a technician cleaning up the mess we left behind when the rest of humanity moved to Titan. Kinda like Wall-e, only with a lot more gunfire. Seems some of the aliens went feral on the Earth and are messing up our mopping up routine. Our protagonist’s job is to keep repairing the defense drones protecting humanity’s last remaining installations on Earth. They aliens keep taking them down, you see. There’s a lot more to the story, but that’s the fifteen-minute intro in a few sentences. The story keeps one engaged all the way through to the end. It was a thoroughly enjoyable movie to watch with some good special effects, some fun fighting scenes, and some good male-oriented romance. A bit of kissing and such mixed into numerous rounds of kicking alien ass, you know. All in all, a fun movie and I’m glad I picked it up. I watched it on a tablet via Vudu, with a nice speaker bar attached for better boom booms. Flawless experience except for the latency issues of watching over the networks that sometimes happens. Gonna try to the download and watch method next time. Gotta use that 64 gig SD card for something, you know…

The Weinstein scandal rocked our culture in many ways this year. We found out there is sexual misconduct in Hollywood. Raise your hand if you were surprised by that. What actually did surprise me is how many people suspected it but said nothing. In that, Seth MacFarlane stands out as someone who said what he could, when he could. On stage, no less. I dearly hope that Hollywood is able to clean this up. I’m not optimistic, mind you, but hopeful. That scandal hit Washington as well. Who knew there was a hush fund to protect congressmen? Who even suspected? Those in entrenched in the power structures of Washington and Hollywood use their positions to make certain they can require something most of us common people consider a clear and present evil. That a man or woman, boy or girl, can be forced to sell their body to get a job. That is wrong. That is evil. I am sorry that it has to be said at all. But this is one reason the common people detest Hollywood and Washington. We see the culture of corruption there, that claims so many who go there with hopes and dreams. We see it and we hate it, with a deep and abiding passion that many inside those gilded halls do not understand, even now.