The episode is called “What Kate Does” but finally gives us answers to what happened to Claire.
We start in the temple with everyone amazed to see Sayid alive. Well, everyone but Sawyer who is busy scoping his escape route. When Kate asks exactly what he has planned, Sawyer replies he plans to run. Cue the flash sideways of Kate running from the marshal.
We are where we last saw Kate, commandeering a cab by gunpoint with Claire as her unwilling passenger. As they make their getaway, that darn Dr. Artz gets in the way giving Kate a chance to look at Jack with puzzled recognition. Shortly after, the driver bolts and Kate dumps Claire before driving off.
Back in the Temple, Sayid thanks Jack for saving his life. The Others want to chat with Sayid, but Jack isn’t down with that plan. Just before Jack gets pummeled by some beefy body guards, Sawyer starts waving his gun around. His mission isn’t to save Jack but to leave the Temple. The others beg him to stay, but he walks out anyway.
Kate and Jin go after him.
Flash sideways: Kate finds a friendly mechanic who is more than happy to remove her handcuffs for $200. When Kate goes to change clothes, she opens Claire’s bag to find a Polaroid of the pregnant mom and some baby items.
Temple: Remember when Sayid wondered in the last episode what would happen to a torturer after he died? Well he found out. The Others shock Sayid with electric wires before sticking him with a hot poker. They claim it’s not torture, but a test. The Others tell Sayid he passed the test, but later reveal they lied.
Flash sideways: Kate, the courteous carjacker, goes back to where she dumped Claire to return her bags and ends up offering her ride to the house of the couple that planned to adopt Claire’s baby. It seems they forgot to pick her up at the airport.
Island: While Kate and Sayid trek through the jungle looking for Sawyer, they learn three important facts: 1) an Other lets it slip they know about the Ajira plane crash (and possibly the location of Sun) 2) There are still Rousseau-style traps all over the island 3) When you knock an Other out with the butt of your gun, he holds a grudge three years later.
Back in the Temple, Jack demands answers after learning how Sayid was tortured. He’s told that Sayid is “infected” and that he needs Sayid to take a capsule willingly. When Jack wavers on helping with the plan, the Asian man lays a major guilt trip on our favorite doc for getting Sayid shot and some of his friends killed.
Meanwhile, Hurley asks Sayid the question we were all wondering – “You aren’t a Zombie, right?” (Whew, cross that one off my mounting questions list.) Jack reveals to Sayid he didn’t fix him, but Sayid says he’ll still take the mysterious capsule if Jack recommends it because he trusts him.
Flash sideways: Kate and Claire discover the adopting couple has split up and they no longer want the baby. Claire decides this is a good time to have labor pains. In a later flash, we see Claire at the hospital where the doctor is her old pal Ethan. He says she can deliver her baby or have the choice of trying to stop Aaron’s early arrival. This kinder gentler Ethan isn’t prepared to plunge her belly with syringes like he did on the island saying “I don’t want to have to stick you with needles if I don’t have to.”
Island: Kate reveals to Sawyer she came to the island to find Claire so she can reunite her with Aaron. She consoles a sad Sawyer who blames himself for Juliet’s death and reveals an engagement ring for Juliet that he had hidden in his old Dharma digs. (Is there a Kay Jeweler’s on this island?) He tosses the ring into the sea.
Back in the Temple, the Asian leader reveals his name, Dogan, and tells Jack the secret of his leadership is to remain separate from his people because he has to make the tough decisions. Jack says he won’t give Sayid the pill until he knows what’s in it but Dogan refuses to say, so Jack pops the pill himself. Dogan forces him to spit it out, revealing it’s a capsule full of poison. Later, Dogan tells Jack he is trying to kill Sayid because a darkness is taking over him and that’s he’s seen this before – in Jack’s sister.
Over in the jungle, the Others catch up with Jin and the angry Other is pretty ticked and wants to kill Jin even though he’s “one of them.” Just before Jin gets shot, someone shoots the angry Other. Who was the gunman behind the grassy knoll? It’s Claire looking a bit crazed and like she had been to Rousseau’s hairdresser.
The next episode in the (sniff) final season starts today at 9 p.m. It looks like we’ll find out what happens when Kate meets Claire in the taxi. The episode is called “What Kate Does.” Deliver a baby, perhaps? She did on the island, after all. If the characters are fated to repeat the same major moments, maybe she’ll find herself delivering Aaron off-island as well. I just hope she’s smarter about being on the lam than she was last week. I mean, seriously, I would not wait in line for a cab if I had just beat up a U.S. marshal and was trying to make an escape.
We’ll be recapping and theorizing tomorrow morning, so come back and post your thoughts and ideas.
And you can re-watch the second half of the premiere starting at 8 tonight. Fingers crossed for a pop-up version!
Could this video from Comic Con hold clues to tonight’s Kate-centered episode which plays off a season 2 episode?
I fancied getting a tattoo in my younger days but I never could decide what I loved enough to have permanently tattooed on my skin. I gotta say had Lost been around 20 years ago, I would have strongly considered this Dharma tattoo (via Pop Candy). And it glows in the dark!
Hold on, maybe it’s not too late. Who’s with me? We could head down to Ybor City this weekend.
Here’s a look at what’s new in stores and on video store shelves, both Blockbuster and Netflix, plus what new High-Definition re-issues are coming out:
The Stepfather (Sony, 102 minutes, Unrated, Blu-Ray and DVD): This tepid, toothless remake of the 1987 cult classic waters down everything that the first film did right.
This is yet another PG-13 reboot of a formerly hard-R classic, and it suffers significantly in its attempt to pander to a wider audience, ie dumb teen-agers who will gladly fork over $10 for crap just to escape their parent’s house and possibly score some heavy petting with the girlfriend.
Don’t be fooled by the “Unrated Director’s Cut.” This puppy doesn’t gain any blood, skin or bad taste by pretending to lose the PG-13 label. It’s just awful, regardless of its rating.
Dylan Walsh, best known for his role as Dr. Sean McNamara on FX’s “nip/tuck,” tries to fill O’Quinn’s shoes. Walsh has been around awhile - bad B-moviephiles will remember him from 1995’s woeful “Congo” – but he’s no Terry O’Quinn and his acting range doesn’t transition as well as O’Quinn’s did to menacing evil.
Walsh is about as intimidating as dandruff, and his portrayal of David Harris (changed from the original’s Jerry Blake) is cartoonish and utterly unconvincing. Walsh snaps too quickly, always seems to be staring too intently and gives multiple tequila shots to his new stepson too easily to seem even remotely responsible.
Director Nelson McCormick is a TV veteran as well, having only recently helmed the theatrical “Prom Night,” also a remake of a much-better 1980s slasher pic. The writer on “Prom Night” was J.S. Cardone, who also scripted this “Stepfather” remake. For those who need further evidence of his inability to write anything worthwhile, see “The Covenant.”
Cardone and McCormick combine forces to create a longform emo music video that wastes too much time focusing on the brooding, military school badboy son of Walsh’s next victim. The son is played by Penn Badgley, best known on the CW’s “Gossip Girl,” whose acting ability is relegated to pursed lips and woe-is-me pouting glances.
Other notable TV stars in the cast – Sela Ward, sleepwalking through the role of Badgley’s mother, and the once hot Sherry Stringfield of “ER,” who plays Ward’s sister’s lesbian lover.
Couples Retreat (Universal): It’s not terrible, but it’s not terribly original either, or incredibly funny. Vince Vaughn does his thing, which is smart-acre wisecracks. Jon Favreau does his thing, which has increasingly become playing loutish brutes, a near-180 from his breakout role in “Swingers.” Jason Bateman does his thing, which is geeky cuckhold. Oh yeah, there are some female leads too, but none are really allowed to shine outside of Malin Akerman, who transitions nicely from “Watchmen” to an adult-oriented comedy. This one is worth a rent, but keep your expectations low.
Bronson (Magnolia): One of the Six-Shooter Film Series, this violent, vibrant portrait of a career criminal, based on a true story, is electrifying and fresh. “Bronson” is unique and original, laced with edgy wit and gory bravado. This is one to seek out.
Heist (Echo Bridge): A bank heist thriller featuring a cast of relative unknowns that doesn’t deviate from familiar themes.
Army Wives – The Complete Third Season (Disney): The third season follows families coping with relationships strained by their commitment to the U.S. Military.
Gary Unmarried – The Complete First Season (Disney): Jay Mohr stars as a divorcee trying to find his way back in the dating world. Somebody please give this guy a series with the same bite as his failed Fox sitcom “Action!”
Dante’s Inferno (Anchor Bay): This animated “epic” is basically one long promotional commercial for EA/Visceral Games latest role-playing videogame of the same name. The hook is that multiple artists were recruited to create different visions of Dante’s classic meditation on the Underworld and all the horrors that await the wicked.
The Time Traveler’s Wife (Warner Bros.): It’s a sci-fi love story as Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams (love you!) star as time-crossed soulmates fighting fate and wormholes in an effort to hold on to true love.
A Serious Man (Universal): The Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan, go back to their roots, mining dark humor and their Jewish upbringing, to tell the story of a physics professor disenchanted with his life who sets out to make sense of it all.
SGU 1.0: Stargate Universe Season 1 (MGM): The latest Stargate series gets gritty and raw, a la Battlestar Galactica, as it jettisons a group of scientists, civilians and soldiers through the gate onto an ancient ship far from Earth. Robert Carlyle and Lou Diamond Phillips topline.
Serious Moonlight (Magnolia): Meg Ryan goes dark (and funny) in this edgy, alternative rom-com where kidnapping and mental torture are the quickest way to a straying husband’s heart. With Timothy Hutton and Kristen Bell.
High-Definition Re-issues:
The Running Man (Lionsgate): Probably not what author Stephen King envisioned, this is the future as told through the eyes of Arnold Schwarzenegger as he battles the ultimate reality show in a cartoonish struggle to survive and win his freedom.
Hard Rain (Lionsgate): Also known as, Christian Slater’s return to the well, which had run dry. Following his stellar action-turn in “Broken Arrow,” Slater tried to catch lightning twice as an armored car driver trying to save his town from a gang of thieves trying to steal millions during an improbably bad thunderstorm.
The Phantom (Lionsgate): God love you, Billy Zane. As The Phantom, the serial superhero of yesteryear, Zane dons the tights for this above-average comic book flick that is most notable for its introduction of Catherine Zeta Jones.
Drop Zone (Lionsgate): Remember when Wesley Snipes was a movie star? Yeah, me either. But this so-so action thriller had the misfortune of coming out at the same time as Charlie Sheen’s skydiving heist picture “Terminal Velocity.” Don’t remember either of them? You’re not alone.
There had been speculation that “Lost” would end on May 18, but the network has announced the finale will air May 23 from 9 to 11 p.m.
That’s a Sunday. It will be preceded by a recap. Recaps are popular and apparently necessary for “Lost” fans.
Will fans be happy to finally learn all the secrets of the complex sci-fi drama, or will they be sad that it’s all over?
No more “Lost” chat rooms. No more endless speculation about what it all means. And there’s the risk that the ending won’t be satisfying.
I don’t know how the island sank, but I am beginning to doubt the bomb did it.
Damon Lindelof hints in an Entertainment Weekly article to pay attention to the underwater island for clues to when it disappeared. He points out New Otherton/the Barracks – we get a nice view of the playground. We also see the famous foot.
The Barracks did exist pre-1977, when the bomb went off, but I’m not sure we know when the statue crumbled. This could be key to figuring out when the island vanished.
I went into journalism, not physics, so maybe I’m off base here, but wouldn’t a bomb have left everything in ruins? And can it actually sink an island whole? Doesn’t seem likely (but neither did time-traveling bunnies). I keep thinking about the scene when the island disappears in the Season 4 finale. It looks like the water swallows the island whole. Could someone (independent of the bomb) have tried to move the island only to hit a snag, resulting it in becoming submerged?
My other problem with the island sinking when the bomb goes off is it wipes out compelling characters and decision-makers. Ben, Widmore and Chang are all dead. If Chang dies, there’s no Miles. There may or may not be a Penny – she was born off the island, but we don’t know what year. Eloise is pregnant when the bomb explodes, so no Faraday (which makes my head hurt, because if Faraday never existed, how does Jack know to explode the bomb in the first place).
And I just like having Ben around.
It was a busy Saturday night for the Bay area arts community. Here are some photos from the four openings I made it to.
I started the night off at Cafe Hey where Victoria Skelly and Emily Labit Fingar had a two person show.
“Cowboy Catharsis” a series of block prints by Victoria were great.
Eash print is relief-carved from “Sintra”, a plastic composite material then hand printed on paperboard
A block of carved Sintra
The little seed that grew
Emily Labit Finger
Glass collage
My next stop on the night was the new Tempus Projects space. Atlanta artists Mario Schambon and George Long where showing. Both of these guys had fresh work and a knack for good conversation.
They were both also impressed on the amount of events going on in area in one weekend.
George Long’s paintings.
Here are two of Mario’s scultpures. I will have to head back and get photos of the rest of his work.
This piece really reminds me of an Alberto Giacometti.
Next stop was over the bridge to Central Ave in St. Pete for the opening of the BlueLucy and Vitale Brother’s work spaces. I can not wait for this strip of artist shops and workspaces to be fully opened.
BlueLucy
Chad and Phillip had a selection of new and old works up on the wall of their new diggs.
Vitale Art Studio
The Vitale Brothers space was jammed pack, like a normal Vitale event.
It was a little hard for me to get shots of any of the work on the walls.
I did score a shot of this newer Bask piece hanging next to Dj Mega, who was providing music for the evening.
I have no idea what sport the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition represents, but it can’t be Olympic swimming.
Whatever. Grown men should get past just looking women in bikinis. But we can’t. We’re just nearly-evolved animals.
Brooklyn Decker, wife of tennis star Andy Roddick, has been unveiled as the 2010 Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover girl. The announcement was made on “The Late Show with David Letterman” last night.
The 22-year-old has been married to Roddick since April. She will join past Swimsuit edition cover gals such as Bar Rafaeli, Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum.
I could write more, but a picture is word a thousand words. Some of them are unprintable here.
Ellen DeGeneres makes her “American Idol” debut Tuesday.
Here is Fox’s latest promo for the new judge:
A Serious Man
Stars: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff
Directors: Ethan and Joel Coen (“No Country For Old Men,” “Fargo”)
The plot: In this black comedy set in 1967, Larry Gopnik (Stuhlbarg) is a suburban husband and father who teaches physics at the local college. He balances his belief in reason with a dose of faith and strives to be a good man. But he begins to question everything when his life quickly falls apart, beginning with his wife leaving him for his best friend, a student trying to blackmail him for a better grade and someone trying to anonymously sabotage his shot at tenure.
Bottom line: It’s a retelling of the Book of Job, with humor. This movie is very, very funny — if you’re the sort of person who likes your comedy black with no sweetener. At this point, most Coen Brothers fans compare the pair’s movies only against their previous work—that’s how well they have carved out their own genre, beginning in 1984 with the outstanding “Blood Simple.” While some are lesser lights than others (“The Man Who Wasn’t There” ) they are always interesting, even if befuddling (“Barton Fink,” which I still don’t quite get). “A Serious Man” is not their best film, but it’s still better than most films released last year, and kudos for the Academy Awards folks for acknowledging that. Go in expecting to laugh but not to be uplifted. And then you’ll find yourself still thinking about what it all meant days later.
Extras: A decent documentary with behind the scenes footage of the film production, plus information on the film’s locations.
Quote: “Please. Accept the mystery.”
106 minutes (R for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence)
Watching The Who perform during halftime at the Super Bowl Sunday, it occurred to me that, even down to The Two, this band defines rock ‘n’ roll in a way no other band does.
Arrogant, stubborn, and not so much laughing in the face of reason as punching it in the nose, The Who never stumble when they can fall flat on their arses, and they never succeed when they can obliterate the competition.
U2 was the perfect choice for the post-9/11 Super Bowl, while Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers showed just how powerful stripped down rock ‘n’ roll can be.
But while just about any other band would be honored to be there, The Who played as though the pleasure was all ours.
No matter how bald and jowly Pete Townshend gets, he continues to attack his guitar with a vengeance. He may not have smashed his Fender Sunday night, but it probably still needed medical attention afterward.
Daltrey is, quite simply, the greatest rock singer ever, tough, dramatic and still capable of pinning you to the wall with that howl – half victorious, half righteously angry – that climaxed “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
In short, The Who played Sunday night as though there had never been a better band before them and would never be a better band after then. And for those 12 minutes, if was hard to argue.
Some Super Bowl ads were good. Others were funny. And some were just blah.
But Internet search engine Google earned top marks for its “How to Impress a French Woman” commercial in the sixth annual Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review. The commercial followed someone using Google to find the right connections for a relationship in Paris.
In a measurement of brand effectiveness, conducted by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. the Google commercial was ranked No. 1.
Google edged out fellow “A” grade advertisers including Denny’s, Audi, Volkswagen, Dodge and Snickers. With three auto spots scoring in the top five, automakers surprised viewers by creating memorable ads that broke through the clutter.
“This year’s Super Bowl featured several effective ads, making the Review an exciting learning experience for the students,” said clinical professor of marketing Tim Calkins, who leads the event (more than 50 students were grading the commercials as the spots aired).
“The overarching goal for Super Bowl advertisers is a successful ad that resonates with their target audience. Based on our framework, Google really embraced the key elements of a winning Super Bowl commercial with both its sentimental and practical execution.”
With the pre-game buzz surrounding Focus on the Family for its anti-abortion sentiment and U.S. Census, which used government dollars, the panel thought the ads fell flat and didn’t live up to the strategic framework. Other advertisers that received low marks from the panel included Honda and Bridgestone.
Associate professor of marketing Derek Rucker, who also leads the Review, noted, “Companies now need to leverage the buzz to increase their ROI (return on investment). Turning the advertising into consumer action is the next step and the best companies know that. The marketing departments will be working overtime for that reason.”
Unlike other popularity-based reviews, the Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review uses a strategic academic framework known as ADPLAN. The acronym, developed by Kellogg faculty, instructs viewers to grade ads based on attention, distinction, positioning, linkage, amplification and net equity.
To learn more about the Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review, visit www.kellogg.northwestern.edu.
President Barack Obama mandated a close game—and he was taking about the Super Bowl, but it could have been his health care package.
Here’s a transcript of Katie Couric’s interview with Obama during the pre-game show:
KATIE COURIC: Yesterday, you said in front of the DNC Winter Meeting, quote, “Just in case there’s any confusion out there, I’m not going to walk away from health care.” But specifically, how are you going to move forward?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, what I’ve been doing is consulting closely with the leaders in the House, the leaders in the Senate on the Democratic side. And I want to consult closely with our Republican colleagues. So, they’re gonna be coming in to the White House next week. And what I want to do is to ask them to put their ideas on the table. And then after the recess, which will be a few weeks away, I want to come back and have large meeting with Republicans and Democrats to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward.
But part of the reason that people need to understand why we can’t back off on this—one of the major insurers in California just announced that in the individual market, they’re increasing their premiums by 39 percent. That’s a portrait of the future if we don’t do something now. It’s gonna keep on beatin’ down families, small businesses, large businesses. It’s gonna be a huge drain on the economy. We’re gonna have to do something about it. And I think we can.
KATIE COURIC: So, you’re inviting Republicans here to the White House. Does that mean, Mr. President, you’re willing to start at square one?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well I think that what I want to do is to look at the Republican ideas that are out there. And I want to be very specific. “How do you guys want to lower costs? How do you guys intend to reform the insurance market so people with preexisting conditions, for example, can get health care? How do you want to make sure that the 30 million people who don’t have health insurance can get it? What are your ideas, specifically?” And if we can go step by step through a series of—these issues, and arrive at some agreements, then procedurally, there’s no reason why we can’t do it a lot faster than the process took last year.
KATIE COURIC: You say that jobs are your top priority this year. In retrospect, do you wish you had waited on health care until the economy grew stronger?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: No. Because keep in mind, jobs were my number one priority last year. That’s why we passed the Recovery Act. To make sure that not only did we put $300 billion worth of tax cuts into people’s pockets so that there was demand and businesses had customers. That’s why we provided over $200 billion in assistance to states, so they wouldn’t have to lay off teachers and cops and fire fighters. And that all supported maintaining the jobs that we had.
That’s why we moved forward on infrastructure and clean energy and a lot of job creation. And having taken those steps very quickly at the front end, at the beginning of the year, it was important for us also to start looking at these issues that middle class families have been struggling with for decades now. And do I wish we could have done it faster? That it hadn’t been so painfully slow through the legislative process? Absolutely. But it was the right thing to do then. It continues to be the right thing.
KATIE COURIC: Speaking of the legislative process, when it comes to health care, people watched the sausage being made. And quite frankly, it made them pretty sick to their stomachs. Your White House was in the middle of all these negotiations, all these special deals, that were—
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I’m not—
KATIE COURIC:—given to certain Senators.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: That’s probably not a right characterization. But—
KATIE COURIC: Well, you aware of them.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: What is absolutely true is that getting something passed through Congress with 535 Members is hard. It’s especially hard in something as big as health care. It’s gonna be true when we try to get the financial reform. So that we don’t have the same kind of “too big to fail”, bailout nonsense that we had last year. Each of these issues are huge complicated issues. There’s tons of special interests and lobbyists out there.
And each legislator, they think they’re doin’ what’s best for their state or for their district. And what we have to do is just make sure that it is a much more clear and transparent process. I’ve got to push Congress on that. We’ve got to make sure that we’re watchin’ out for that. But the end producy, the actual agreements that were come to on health care are ones that I’m absolutely convinced benefit millions of people all across the country.
KATIE COURIC: But did some of these special deals, Mr. President—
PRESIDENT OBAMA: They didn’t help.
KATIE COURIC:—sort of get it passed at all costs, turn your stomach, too?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: They did not help. They frustrate me. But, you know, this is a democracy. Look, I would have loved nothing better than to simply come up with some very elegant you know, academically approved approach to health care. And didn’t have any kinds of legislative fingerprints on it. And just go ahead and have that passed. But that’s not how it works in our democracy. Unfortunately what we end up having to do is to do a lot of negotiations with a lot of different people. Many of whom have their constituents best interests at heart.
But cumulatively what ends up happening is it ends up looking like each individual Senator, each individual legislator—is just lookin’ out for their own thing. And don’t have the larger public interest at heart. My job is to make sure that we stay focused on that larger vision of how do we lower costs for Americans over the long term.
KATIE COURIC: A lot of people, including Democrats, wrote to me saying, “You campaigned on a slogan of change you can believe in. But their lives and the ways of Washington,” they wrote, “haven’t changed at all. What would you say to them?”
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, it’s not true that they haven’t changed at all. Let’s just take, we’re sitting in the White House here. Every single person who comes into the White House now is posted on a website, so you know every visitor to the White House. That’s never happened in the history of the Republic. We are eliminating lobbyists from boards and commissions that have significant power throughout Washington. That hasn’t happened in a previous Administration.
There’s more transparency on something like the Recovery Act and how taxpayer dollars are being spent than there’s ever been on a project of this size and scale. So, here in the White House, actually, we have instituted a whole range of changes that give people a lot more confidence in what we’re doing. We haven’t done as much as needs to be done. So, for example, on earmarks—what people consider to be pork projects.
What we’ve said is, “Member of Congress, if you’re gonna introduce a project that benefits your district, you should post it on the internet so people can see it, before you vote on it. And we’ll put it on a centralized website.” But all these things take time. I mean, you know, you’re not gonna transform a culture in Washington or anywhere else over the course of a year. You just gotta keep on chipping away at it, and that’s what we’ve tried to do.
KATIE COURIC: Chris from Falls Church, Virginia writes, “Mr. President, I lost my house two years ago and I’ve been out of work for a year. Can the Federal Government really stimulate the economy enough to start creating new jobs any time soon?” Without getting into too much policy speak, what would you say to Chris?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I’d say to Chris—I know how tough it’s been. I’d say that we are seeing the corner turn on the economy growing again. Last year, at this time, the economy had contracted, had shrunk by six percent. We know now that last quarter it had grown by six percent. That’s a good sign that companies are starting to pick up hiring again, because they see the opportunities to go out there and make money.
It’s not happening as fast as we’d like. And that’s why there’s still some things we can do in terms of tax credits for small businesses. Taking some of that TARP money that’s been repaid and giving it to community banks, so that they can lend it to small businesses. Giving job credits to small businesses for hiring. Potentially, a million small businesses out there could get $5,000 for each employee they hire this year. All those things, I think, are moving us in the right direction. And my hope is, is that for folks who are unemployed, they’re gonna start seeing concrete improvement in their own lives in the next few months.
KATIE COURIC: A cab driver told us to tell you he is scared to death of the deficit. And Congress couldn’t even establish a bipartisan commission to study the deficit, because Republicans were afraid it would raise taxes and Democrats were afraid it would cut spending. You can understand why people are not only afraid, but so frustrated.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yeah. Well it’s important to remember that actually, the majority of Democrats did vote to set up this commission. What happened was you had seven Republicans who had been cosponsors of the bill, who decided not to vote for it.
KATIE COURIC: But some Democrats didn’t support it, correct?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, no, of course. But think about this. You’ve got seven Republicans who were cosponsors of the bill. It was their idea. And when I said, “Yes, let’s do it.” Suddenly they decided to say no. That’s indicative of a lot of posturing. And on this issue. And what I think the American people want is just an honest assessment of the situation.
Now, the honest assessment is this. We had a big structural deficit even before the recession. The recession made it much worse. We’re not gonna solve this overnight. And we don’t want to either raise taxes or drastically slash government spending while the economy’s still fragile. If Democrats and Republicans come together in a sensible way, putting everything on the table, not trying to position themselves politically ahead of time, then there’s no reason why we can’t start putting in place some serious measures that will start driving the deficit down long term.
The biggest thing, the most important thing that we can do on deficits, and I would say this to your cab driver and everybody else. Is to get a health reform package passed. The package that we put together. The Congressional Budget Office says will cut the deficit by a trillion dollars. Even in Washington, that’s real money. If we can start bending the cross curve on health care, that’s the most important thing we can do to deal with the deficits long term.
KATIE COURIC: Have you ruled out trying confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in New York City?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I have not ruled it out, but I think it’s important for us to take into account the practical, logistical issues involved. I mean, if you’ve got a city that is saying no, and a police department that’s saying no, and a mayor that’s saying no, that makes it difficult. But I think that the most important thing for the public to understand is we’re not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush Administration handled them all through 9/11.
They prosecuted the 190 folks in these Article III courts. Got convictions. And those folks are in maximum security prisons right now. And there have been no escapes. And it is a virtue of our system that we should be proud of. Now, what I’ve also said is that, you know, it’s important for us to recognize that when we’re dealing with Al Qaeda operatives, that they may have national security intelligence that we need.
And it’s important to make sure that the processes and procedures we approach with respect to these folks are not identical to the ones that we would use if we’re apprehending the local drug dealer. And that’s why we’ve put in place some very particular ways of dealing with these issues that ensure our security, but also still uphold our due process.
KATIE COURIC: Are you talking about reading them the Miranda rights? Their Miranda rights? In other words, like Abdul Matallab, who was read his Miranda rights? A lot of people are very upset about that. Because he was giving information to the F.B.I. Then his rights were read to him, and he clammed up.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, that’s actually not what happened. What happened was he clammed up, and after we had obtained actionable intelligence from him, that’s when the F.B.I. folks on the ground then read him his Miranda rights. But keep in mind, Richard Reid was read his Miranda rights five minutes after he was arrested, under the previous Administration. Some of the same critics of our approach have been employing this policy for years.
KATIE COURIC: Having said that, should the practice of reading suspected terrorists their Miranda rights be reviewed?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Absolutely. Everything should be reviewed. And what we’ve done is we’ve said, “Let’s have the best interrogators around.” Some of those, by the way, are going to be F.B.I. officials. Some of them are gonna be police officers who are very good at their jobs. Some of them are gonna be national security experts. “Let’s put together teams that are in charge of the interrogation process. Because we want to make sure priority number one, when these kinds of events happen, have we gotten all the information we need to ensure that there’s not gonna be any additional attacks?”
KATIE COURIC: But you have not ruled out New York City as a venue?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: We have not ruled out anything. We will make a definitive judgment based on consultations with all the relevant authorities.
KATIE COURIC: All right. And finally, a Super Bowl question. I know you have said that you are rooting for the Saints a bit. You’re impressed by what Drew Brees has done for New Orleans. But I’m gonna let you show off your sports knowledge for a moment. Who do you think will win and why?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, I think the Colts probably have to be favored. Mainly because they’ve got perhaps the best quarterback in history. I mean, Peyton Manning is unbelievable. And you know, they’ve got a team that has complete confidence in him. Everybody knows the system. There’s enormous continuity with that team.
So they are tough. I do have a soft spot in my heart for New Orleans. Mainly because of what the city’s gone through. Over these last several years. And I just know how much that team means to them. And I got to know Drew Brees when we shot a commercial for having kids get more active and get off the couch. And he’s just a class act. Terrific guy. Wonderful family. But I would say that the Colts have to be favored. Now, one other factor that I have to confess here is that when my Bears went to the Super Bowl several years ago, it was the Indianapolis Colts that beat ‘em. So I probably—
KATIE COURIC: Got an axe to grind.
PRESIDENT OBAMA:—will still have (LAUGH) a little bit of an axe to grind.
KATIE COURIC: And you’d like to issue an executive order, I understand, mandating a close game.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Mandating a close game. We had a great game last year. And I’m hopeful that we’ve got the same kind of game we had with the Cardinals and the Steelers.
KATIE COURIC: All right, President Obama again, thanks so much for talking with us. Appreciate it.
Surrogates
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
Directed by: Jonathan Mostow
Run time: 88 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Format: Blu-Ray
The Lowdown: In 1968, author Philip K. Dick asked the question: Do androids dream of electric sheep?
That book spawned one of science fiction’s greatest cinematic visions, “Blade Runner,” which took the position that synthetic life forms might want nothing more than to be human.
If you consider many of the sci-fi films since Ridley Scott’s opus first drew rave reviews as a modern-day classic, the question of who dreams what has been spun on its ear. These days, it’s not the robots who want to be human so much as the humans who dream of living life unencumbered by moral choices or consequences, ie becoming a robot.
Recent movies like “Avatar” and “The Matrix” have shown the freedom that can come from living a virtual life.
“Surrogates,” the latest Bruce Willis-starring vehicle, imagines a world where most people no longer leave their homes. Instead, they plug in and experience life vicariously through a ‘surrogate,’ an artificial synthetic humanoid through whose eyes and cerebral cortex the human host feels joy and pleasure, but not pain. At the end of each day, the surrogate comes home, plugs into a charging port and its human wakes up and moves about his or her house.
As the movie begins, someone has found a loophole to inflict pain on both a surrogate body and its human host by burning out the eyes and turning the human brain to liquid jello.
The first surrogate-human host murder comes at a time of great resistance. Most of the planet has retreated indoors and bought into the surrogate life. It’s a booming business. But small factions of rebels have gathered together and created sovereign colonies where surrogates aren’t allowed; and they have rallied around a leader known as The Prophet. The creator of the surrogate technology, Older Cantor (James Cromwell), has gone into seclusion. And even law enforcement is now populated almost entirely by surrogate officers instead of real people.
Willis’ character, Tom Greer, appears in two forms. His surrogate has a laughable hairpiece and is capable of surprising strength and agility. His human body looks more like Willis today, aged and bald. Greer’s wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike) has embraced the future and seems unhappy when unhooked from the machine that allows her to experience life through a surrogate. Tom and Maggie harbor resentment and remorse from the death of a child. They barely connect in their human forms.
With all these issues at play, you might wonder how director Jonathan Mostow finds the time to fully explore so many big ticket ideas. He doesn’t. Much of “Surrogates” plays like a fairly routine sci-fi action flick – “The 6th Day” mashed up with “Johnny Mnemonic.”
There’s little discussion about the ethical choices that come with living life vicariously through an autobot. There’s no discussion about the impact that such a decision might have on families, both the married parents and the kids, none of whom would ever truly interact in a meaningful way.
The big mystery about why someone wants to kill a surrogate’s owner by killing the surrogate gets lost in a bunch of hooey about man taking responsibility for his own creations, yadda yadda yadda.
Those types of philosophical debates are what added resonance to movies like “Blade Runner” and “I, Robot.” The exploration of conflict between the human and the synthetic is key to making meaningful science fiction. Even a movie like “A.I.” Spielberg’s flawed attempt to weigh in on the discourse, still had enough foresight to consider the ramifications when flesh and fantasy collide.
And minus the one big action scene about 20 minutes into the movie, “Surrogates” is a lifeless affair, bogged down by kind-of cool visuals, neo-noirish dialogue and an aching want to be so much more than it is.
Plus, Ving Rhames gets the award for worst fake dreadlocks ever put to film.
Is it a total waste? No, absolutely not. It’s entertaining enough, much like other, lesser films already mentioned (cough cough, The 6th Day, cough cough), but it’s not a movie that’s going to “Wow” you.
The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes.
Nudity – No.
Gore – No.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – Synthetics or man, you decide.
Buy/Rent – Rent it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Audio commentary, “A More Perfect You: The Science of Surrogates” featurette, deleted scenes, music video, “Breaking the Frame: A Graphic Novel Comes to Life” featurette.
On the Web – http://www.chooseyoursurrogate.com/
Release Date – Jan. 26, 2010
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