In Cuba before the revolution, Batista’s men punish a Castro loyalist from a wealthy family by shoving him into a wooden cage and calling him a “rich bastard.”  Makes me wonder:  I thought Batista’s regime only snarled at the poor.  In Andy Garcia’s film The Lost City (2005), however, the rich clan of Fico Fellove (Garcia), who owns an elegant cabaret, contains a couple of leftist radicals who deem Castro’s goals absolutely worthy.  Then the truth hits.  Castro’s regime snarls at democrats.

Romanticized Havana becomes a lost city.  Fico, after all, loses his cabaret, and his radical brother commits suicide.  Moreover Aurora (Ines Sastre), the woman Fico loves, wishes to stay in Cuba and try to “help” her country (through Fidel’s Marxist means!) instead of following Fico to America.  The look that Fico gives a Communist security guard at the airport reflects his understanding of what bullies the reigning revolutionaries really are.

City is based on a screenplay by the Cuban novelist Guillermo Cabrero Infante, friend to Garcia and no fan of Castro.  Although focusing on pre- and post-revolutionary Havana is a fine idea, the film is obvious and somewhat calculated.  A lot of calculation, for instance, consists in the use of Aurora.  Too, the dialogue is unimpressive, and in the cast of characters is a peculiar, nameless comedian (Bill Murray) identified as The Writer.  I’m sorry it wasn’t a cameo.  Still the movie is involving, and personal.  Garcia not only directed and played the lead, he also composed The Lost City‘s music, some of which is dull but some of which sparkles.

Final word:  the film makes me want to read Infante.

The Lost City (2005 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So: Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender’s Game, is hated and insulted either primarily or exclusively because he opposes gay marriage.

Woe and damnation to someone with a different point of view!

“But Card doesn’t think gay marriage is a civil-rights issue!” someone might complain.  If that’s true, he’s right.  But, ah, again, we just can’t tolerate a different point of view!

Orson Scott Card at Life, the Universe, & Everything at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Internet can be a fairly good guide to which TV episodes of the Star Trek franchise are the worthiest to watch.  Some that have been touted by web contributors I’ve seen on DVD and was glad I did.

Star Trek: Voyager‘s “The Omega Directive” (Season 4), for example, held up well on a second viewing and not just a first.  Here, the starship’s crew are very much in the laboratory, with Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) working to destroy a particular molecule and the female Borg character (Jeri Ryan) working to stabilize it.  The latter is making an error, desiring that the dangerous particle stay intact since it represents Perfection for her.  In fact it seemingly represents a spiritual experience for a nonbelieving alien.  Although limited in drama, the episode is not at all boring—and not at all stale either, but gleamingly fresh.

Another real fan-pleaser from Season 4 of Voyager is “Hope and Fear,” which presents duplicity and vengefulness in addition to hope and fear.  (Get this: the fear belongs to Ryan’s Borg.)  A phrase like “sophisticated fun” was invented for this episode.  It’s not quite as intelligent as “The Omega Directive,” but it’s just as engaging.  And better acted.

I’d like to write about a couple of other Voyager episodes in the future.  The Internet has inspired me.

Star Trek: Voyager (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The boneheaded Live Free or Die Hard (2007) glorifies the slacker computer geek, believes technological wizardry to be all-powerful, and proffers an indestructible bore of a hero who’s overprotective of his teenaged (?) daughter.  There’s domestic terrorism too.  Ho hum. . . It’s well-directed by Len Wiseman except for his allowing Kevin Smith to overact, but . . . ugh!

Cover of Live Free or Die Hard (Unrated Edition)

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013) is  simply a sequel looking for a reason to exist besides making money and not finding it.  Along with having a no-account plot, this animated flick is so kooky and nonsensical it’s dumb.

Yes, the animation is splendid, but why do these movies always have to contain scatological humor?  (Wedgie-proof underwear?)  But that’s what kids like, the studios would say.  True, but trendiness is trendiness.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 (Photo credit: christianz1969)