Been too busy to post until now. Sean Daly told me this blogging stuff is addictive and this one proves it.

Yesterday started with the usual early morn stuff, followed by a bizarre double feature: September Dawn  is one of those "inspired by true events" flicks that probably won't inspire much rebuttal since not many folks will see it to make any offense worth taking. That was followed by Day Watch,
the sequel to Night Watch (go figure), a Russian fantasy of shape-shifting vampires seeking -- I'm not making this up -- the Chalk of Fate.

September Dawn tells the story of Missouri and Arkansas immigrants to the West in 1875 through Mormon country. Mormons apparently didn't like Missourians because of what a few did to the church's founder, Joseph Smith.
Jon Voight plays the mayor/bishop of a Mormon community who orders the massacre of those really nice outsiders, apparently on the command of whatever god is speaking inside his head.

I knew the Mormons in this movie wouldn't be nice when the guy playing Brigham Young turned out to be General Zod from Superman II (Terence Stamp). Then somebody had their testicles nailed to a barn door and it was on; My Lai had nothing on these spiritual avengers. September Dawn is violent, dubious and probably won't help Mitt Romney's presidential hopes.

I wasn't kidding about that Chalk of Fate in Day Watch; a white chunk that can change the future if the right people write the right things. I suggest starting with a script that makes sense. Great visuals and really cool subtitles stunts aside, I'd rather watch Baywatch.

Today I knocked out the complete Ocean's Thirteen review running Friday on page 2B. Editor Sharon Fink thinks I write better when I'm just waking up and grumpy. Actually, I stay grumpy when I'm wide awake but the writing isn't as good. Check it out.

Then it was off to a screening of A Mighty Heart, based on the kidnapping and decapitation of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Angelina Jolie
is solid as Pearl's pregnant, worried wife but the movie works better as a study of how manhunts operate in countries without constitutional civil rights. The movie isn't a political statement, but an almost-thriller in the vein of Costa-Gavras' MIssing.

It's also a risky release in the summertime (June 22) when smart drama about international events aren't high on moviegoers' wish lists.

Then it  was off to WTSP Ch. 10 for the weekly TV gig, talking about Ocean's  Thirteen and Surf's Up (see earlier postings) followed by the first meeting of an eight-week class I'm teaching for Eckerd College.  Didn't have my A-game going but maybe nobody noticed but me.

Tomorrow I'm taking a day off. How does a movie critic relax? By fighting the crowds at Universal Studios Orlando, of course, seeing how movies are really made (don't they have a sarcasm emoticon I can plug in here?).  Have a cabana by the resort pool rented for Saturday, and of course there's a poolside movie showing that evening.

I'm a sick, sick man.

Don't forget to check the earlier posts and leave comments about your worst movie theater experiences and your favorite drug-induced movie freakouts. Or is that favorite theaters and worst freakouts?

I'm going to bed.