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2.5.01 - 2.12.01 | ||||
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February 12th, 2001 
Hannibal was a miserable experience. I am convinced that the book had to have been one-thousand times better. On the strength of Silence of the lambs, it had a 58 million dollar opening weekend.If you want to go see it, don't read this. But I really don't care if I ruin it for anyone because as I said the other day, this sucked the big hairy dirty-old wrinkled beanbag. I had high expectations going into this movie knowing that Anthony Hopkins was playing Hannibal, and that Ridley Scott (Alien & Gladiator) had directed this. I saw flashes of brilliance in the beginning when there is a cool fire fight and car wreck where Julianne Moore ends up shooting a woman who is using a baby as a shield while taking shots from a mac-10 in the stomach of her bulletproof vest. The action of this initial FBI sting is filmed in the same distinct technique that the battles in Gladiator were filmed...I won't get into the technicals of it but it is similar to the way the Normandy battle footage is filmed in the beginning of Saving Private Ryan (another load of crap). This visual style pops up only one other time in the movie, when she's jogging but for only one cut, a shot of her legs??? It was confusing and I can only assume it was a mistake. Anyways, the operation went poorly and she is under intense scrutiny by both the FBI and the media...The thing is, she tried to call off the bust that was a joint operation of the FBI, DEA, and local agencies. One of the local yokels didn't want to stand down and forced them to go ahead (even though she...the ranking officer...said "no go") and paid for it with his life. What's really stupid is that everyone there heard what I did that she wanted to hold off and that this ass forced their hand by engaging in a firefight. Why then was it her fault? Why was she getting heat from the FBI and the national press??? Didn't anyone corroborate her story? It doesn't make sense. But this was where they needed to go with the movie because only Clarise in trouble could bring Hannibal out of hiding. We see Hannibal living life in Italy. He's careful enough to not even leave fingerprints on glasses he drinks from at outdoor cafes while at the same time flagrantly risks discovery by killing a person in order to obtain their position at the library/museum. Stupid. Gary Oldman wastes a performance under a mask of latex as the hideously deformed Mason Verger who under the influence of drugs, was mindfucked by Hannibal in the early days into butchering up his own face...pieces of which Hannibal fed to Verger's dog. Verger obviously has an axe to grind and has been planning revenge for over a decade. Verger manipulates a corrupt Ray Liotta into planting evidence to get Clarice suspended from the FBI...hoping this public distress will lure Hannibal. It does. However its another flimsy and unbelievable way of getting it done. Hannibal returns to the states where he engages in a cat and mouse game with Clarice. Verger's people are hunting Hannibal by simply following Clarice. Several scenes follow which I guess are meant to put some suspense in the story. Once, Hannibal comes to Clarice's hose while she's sleeping and gets close enough to touch her. He leaves a photo of her to let her know he was there and then makes her drive to some mall where he again gets close enough to touch her (the carousel shot from the trailer). There was no suspense in the entire movie...Especially when Hannibal was close enough to touch Clarice without her knowing, I never felt like she was in any real danger. Subsequently, Verger abducts Hannibal at that mall and plans to feed him to large hogs that he has had raised to be carnivorous and seemingly rabid. Obviously, Hannibal escapes but not without the help of Agent Starling (the movie has totally lost me at this point with nonsense like this). Hannibal, one of the most dangerous men on the planet, is being guarded by 3 Italian monkeys who get shot by Clarice but not before Starling herself is shot. As the tide turns, and with Clarice unconscious, Hannibal convinces Verger's assistant to dump his wheelchair-ridden body to the meat eating pigs. Now, wouldn't it have been more interesting, or effective, or just plain ironic if instead of having Verger's assistant dump him into the corral, the assistant ran off leaving Verger at Lecter's mercy. Where, to mirror the earlier nonsense of him feeding pieces of Oldman's face to the dog, he carves him up bit by bit and feeds him to the hogs slowly enjoying every moment of it. Maybe even making a deja-vu/seems like old times joke. Well, he takes Clarice to Ray Liotta's summer house in the middle of nowhere (so it takes at least 10 minutes for the police to get there in response to her 911 call) where he keeps her drugged. She wakes up in a black gown that shows off her little knockers...way too feminine for that original lezzbo, Jodi Foster. She manages in a drugged haze to make a call to 911. I couldn't figure out Hannibal's game here. He had pulled the phone wire from the wall and Clarice somehow got it rewired. He sees on the phone in the kitchen that she made a call. Why work under time constraints? Obviously, he wanted her to make the call, but what I don't understand is why. He now only has 10 minutes to cook and eat Ray Liotta's brain...OOPS, gave that away too early. Still hazy from the drugs, She sits at the table where Liotta also sits. He is awake and talking, but definitely not all together "with it". However, even partially lobotomized, he does insult Moore fairly well. Anyway, Lecter pulls off Liotta's knit cap to reveal that his head has been sliced in two horizontally across his forehead. This confused me, Hannibal picks up a blade and begins to cut along the apparent incision and proceeds to lift the skull off revealing his brain. Obviously, the skull was already cut with the bonesaw in the kitchen, but then why did they show us Hannibal cutting him again? Stupid. Liotta is still awake while Lecter cuts slices of brain off, fries them, and then feeds them to Liotta. Its a ridiculous sight, and tihs movie is more like a Freddy slasher movie at this point than the psychological thriller the first one was. We never once see Hannibal mindfuck anyone in this movie except for Oldman's character in a fashback that happened before Silence of the lambs. Showing that much gore for the sake of some kind of visual shock is less effective than doing this more subtly. We don't need to see his exposed brain. Hannibal is cooking something mysterious, we see the cap STAY ON Ray Liotta's head...with maybe one drop of blood beginning to run down his face. Hannibal feeds him a bite of the mystery food, and then we cut to what is obviously cooked brain on Liotta's plate...It would get a much bigger surprise and reaction from the viewer at that revelation shot, and trust me, be just as disgusting without the blatant gory visual that is a little out of place...for its sheer silliness. At least my version hold some suspense. Is this meant to shock Clarice who has seen every forensic photo of Hannibal's equally repugnant past deeds? Ray Liotta is such a prick to her throughout the movie that its almost hard to imagine her feeling any real compassion or pity toward him (I don't). Maybe have him a close friend of hers so we don't feel like he deserves it. Let's get this over with, Clarice handcuffs herself to Lecter and we see Lecter with a cleaver ready to cut her hand off. The police arrive and we realize Hannibal cut his own hand off and got away... ...The most wanted man in america, #1 on the FBI top 10, a news story on and off for the last 15-20 years actually gets on a plane with his arm (missing a hand) in a sling and doesn't get recognized by anyone...THE END Julianne Moore is a fine replacement for Jodi Foster and gives a convincing performance where you forget that it wasn't her in Silence of the Lambs. However, Foster saw beyond the dollar signs and refused to act in a sequel that had a very substandard script. If "Sir" Anthony Hopkins had that same integrity, this movie would not have been made without some badly needed changes. Save your money and steal it on cable!-BT February 11th, 2001 Saturday mornings just got a little cooler... 
There's a cool live action show on Saturday's Fox Kids called Los Luchadores.
In the tradition of the Mexican wrestling movies that were so popular in the 60's and 70's, this show features 3 masked wrestlers who when not in the ring, fight battle the forces of evil. Wrestling movies in Mexico were as big and popular in their time as Bruce Lee movies were in Asia. Starring such great wrestlers as El Santo, Blue Demon, and Mil Mascaras, these movies portrayed the wrestlers as superheroes. Often brought in to help the police in battling the normal and supernatural, these wrestlers NEVER took their masks off. Whether wearing a business suit, fighting zombies, wrestling in the ring, or driving down the road, they always wore their masks. This tradition extended to their real lives as well. Back in the day, the true identity of a masked wrestler was the highest guarded secret. For decades, the true identity of greats like El Santo were not known but by a select few. Today, putting their mask up (and revealing their true face) as a stipulation for a wrestling match is common and several masked wrestlers over the last few years have been unmasked and gone on to continued success. Performers like Rey Misterio Jr., Psicosis, and Juventud Guerrera have been pressured to do this. However, during the height of its popularity, Mexican Wrestlers found an unmasking to be the highest form of disgrace in their profession. Los Luchadores is a half-hour show geared toward young children, and is extremely campy but fun. They've successfully capitalized on the popularity of wrestling and still paid homage to those old movies and masked wrestlers that have achieved a cult status. Don't look for any intricate plots or strong stoytelling, just enjoy it for what it is...children's entertainment.
Hannibal sucked big hairy ass...Tomorrow, before I try to erase it from my memory, I'll tell you why it was such an abortion.-BT February 9th, 2001 I haven't decided whether I want to see Hannibal or Saving Silverman tonight. Anthony Hopkins is a fat-assed windbag, and Jack Black rules, so its a toss-up for me. If you haven't seen High Fidelity yet you're really out of the loop. Mooseknuckle Island... Geez, between Temptation Island and Survivor, primetime seems to be sporting a lot of cameltoe lately. Its going well for me though. So far they've eliminated the old, the ugly, and the men. If I could get on Survivor and stay on the show through at least the first half of the episodes, I'd be set for life. These people have no idea...I'd have stolen anything unique to the show I could get my hands on and sell that shit on ebay. I almost every shot of the show I see something I could get good money for. I bet you could sell signed baggies of dirt and leaves...so long as they came from the campsite. I'd also sell signed photos of myself and he others (obviously hooking up with them after the show ends). One of the guys on the show could easily attain instant cult status really quickly by wrestling a crocodile and feeding it to the tribe...it doesn't have to be a huge one, but everyone would definitely remember you for being a bad ass if it was over 4 feet. The women on the show are much better looking than last years batch. I'm finding it hard to pick a favorite at this point. Right now I'm liking Amber and Elizabeth. Jerri is a bitch (but she's hot) and Kimmi with those big knockers of hers is cute but lets see how she looks after half the shows have aired and she's lost that little bit of extra fat. Stile has 3 more Schwarzenegger prank calls on his site... (arnold 5) (arnold 6) (arnold 7) On to celebrating the misery of others... Does anyone really think Sean Combs (aka 'Puff-Daddy' or just 'Puffy') was not directly involved with that shooting incident he is currently on trial for? Is this trial going to be another example of how money and celebrity equates to special and biased treatment for these criminals? Like in the cases of Robert Downey Junkie...er, um, I mean Jr. and OJ Simpson, There is a chance that Puffy might actually weasel an innocent verdict, or be treated differently than if anyone else did this same crime. I'm surprised that someone out there hasn't just totally become frustrated and served up some old-fashioned street justice on those two. Combs deserves to spend time in jail and serve the maximum sentence to provide as an example that this shit is unacceptable and will no longer be tolerated...no matter who you are. And what the hell is Jennifer Lopez doing with this degenerate? I am beginning to suspect she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer and maybe needs someone more competent to start making the big decisions in her life for her. If she was using him to get her music career off the ground, mission accomplished, move on to dating a member of the human race again. Why is she lying that he didn't have and/or fire a gun...she's starting to look bad with two eyewitnesses now putting puffy both at the scene with a gun...one of these two confirming that he also fired it. J-Lo should distance her fat ass from this and him. She has both the number one movie and album in the country right now. I know any press is good press, but maybe this is an exception to that rule. Random dirty nudie images for the wrestling fans of Gorgeous George from her infamous half-hour internet movie...-BT (gGeorge 1) (gGeorge 2) (gGeorge 3) (gGeorge 4) (gGeorge 5) (gGeorge 6) February 8th, 2001 I totally forgot I had these... These are photos I took of Scott Hall actually being handcuffed and arrested in the Tampa Airport Marriott a few years ago. The story essentially was that he seemed to be loaded...drunk, and/or high??? when he showed up at the hotel. Unfortunately for the Marriott, they were out of rooms and wouldn't give one to Hall. He got pretty loud and obnoxious, and actually also extremely entertaining and funny. They're blurry because I kept the flash off when I took them...I didn't want anyone to catch me clicking away. I originally held these out of some misplaced respect for the man... He's still one of my favorites, but he's fucked up so many times, and I'm beyond caring at this point. 
February 7th, 2001 I've put up more images of some of my older artwork for viewing. Temptation Island made my "can't miss" list with their first episode. It just gets better and better...the chicks on that show are smokin' hot. Arnold Schwarzenegger has publicly voiced interest in entering into the California political scene. An actor from hollywood entering the political arena? Sounds familiar, although this seems a little different to me. I like reading quotes like this: "I saw in the last 10 years that I’m getting much more pleasure out of [helping people] than making money and making movies. And it’s increasing my desire to do that." Schwarzenegger said he had movie obligations through 2004, "But I would sacrifice my, you know, $20 million a picture and all those things and forget about that to step in." Schwarzenegger said he would not take campaign money from special interests. He’s wealthy enough to finance his own campaign Click these links for two of the Arnold prank calls (complete with hilarious animation) that stileproject.com has on his site. (arnold 1) (arnold 2) And now on to the daily celebration of the misery of others... 
I seem to remember an interview with Mimi Rogers from several years ago alleging that Tommy Boy wasn't as much of a man's man as everyone thought.
What I'm wondering is if he goes both ways, or bats for the "Yankees" full-time.
I've never been that much of a fan of Nicole Kidman...even though she's a tall redhead...two things I like.
I'll also never forgive them stealing three hours of my life away with that brutal Eyes Wide Shut...That fucking piano drove me insane.
As long as I'm trashing his movies, Mission Impossible parts 1 and 2 both sucked ass...What happened to John Woo? Such a shame that Scientology wasn't able to save their relationship...maybe they didn't contribute frequently enough. Tomorrow, Puffy and J-Lo...-BT February 5th, 2001 The XFL had its debut this weekend and they put on a really solid show for it being their first attempt. Jesse Ventura's commentary was all right and he said some very interesting and confrontational things, but he left something to be desired compared to what I heard from Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross when they switched over to the Chicago/Orlando game in the fourth quarter. I am guessing that NBC would prefer to use Ventura for his name recognition even if Ross and Lawler call a better game. Obviously football players for the most part aren't natural actors, and maybe shouldn't be doing pre-recorded segments...that, or only work with those who are comfortable in front of the camera and speak english somewhere above the mush-mouthed ebonic level. It seemed to me that a lot of critics went at these games this weekend wanting to hate it, and already had their mind made up and picked at the negatives. There were many more positives. I think for obvious reasons, it can only get better. Players only had a few months to get back into "game shape" before the start of the season. I wonder how attendance will be throughout the season. I am eagerly expecting to see a few of the on-field cameramen get crunched between players and the ball...or other players. It will also be interesting to see if money and the $2,500.00 bonus associated with winning will be a factor in the halftime speeches and confrontations between opposing players or teammates...for a kicker, winning almost doubles their payday. The NFL will definitely benefit through scouting XFL talent, and using the innovations of the XFL with the game and its presentation that work well...letting the WWF and NBC foot the bill and the risk of being "experimental" and "edgy". My bet is that sooner or later The WWF will hire Paul E. for the booking of their shows, and will purchase the ECW name and library. The WWF would make a fortune selling 5 years worth of ECW highlights. The rumors I've read of the WWF doing an ECW invasion angle is interesting. Consider the amount of talent that has signed with the WWF from ECW over the last year or two... The Dudley Boyz, Tazz, Raven, Lita, Rhino, Justin Credible, Tajiri(?), Al Snow, Jerry Lynn...even guys ranging from Kaientai, Benoit, Malenko, Saturn, Jericho, Austin, and Cactus Jack all worked in ECW at some point in the past. I can't wait for Shawn Michaels to return to wrestling part time. He is one of the all time greats and is among my all-time top 10 personal favorites along with guys like Ricky Steamboat, Macho Man, Scott Hall, Bret Hart (even though he became a miserable fuck), Rob Van Dam, and Rick Rude...to name a few. Speaking of RVD, why isn't he signed with one of the big two yet??? Its starting to Irk me. When is Bischoff/Fuisient going to take the reigns and start getting their hands dirty in improving WCW? I enjoy a lot of what WCW is doing and some of their superstars are doing well in their current roles like The Cat, Scott Steiner, Luger, Mike Awesome, and Lance Storm. At this point, I could do without guys like Nash, Rick Steiner, and Buff. Speaking of losers, click the banner below to see a picture of Tammy Sytch's (Sunny in the WWF) adult corrections inmate I.D. card. I'm proud to be a vulture preying on the misery and public humiliation of others... So its now available on 11 and 15 ounce mugs as well as a variety of shirts. -BT 
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