Daily Archives: February 26, 2008

Fourths for Fast and Furious Franchise?

Musings

So how did it escape my attention for so long that a fourth entry in Universal’s Fast and the Furious franchise has officially been given the greenlight? Rumor has it that Vin Diesel, who has Babylon A.D. on tap and may or may not get that long-rumored, dream-project Hannibal flick off the ground (I’ll believe it when I don’t see it in theaters), will come crawling back to the series that first made him a household name, reuniting with Paul Walker. (Shirts will be optional, I feel certain.) Third flick director Justin Lin is also tentatively slated to return, along with Jordana Brewster, while 2004 Miss Israel Gal Gadot will apparently slot in nicely as the requisite bikini-chick eye-candy, according to FilmStew and others. No word yet on Bow Wow, alas, but knowing Universal I’m sure there already exists a treatment for a proposed spin-off featuring his Tokyo Drift character.

I’m trying to figure out why I should care, and am even posting on this… oh yeah, maybe because Babylon A.D. was originally supposed to release this weekend, and has now been pushed to August 29. That’s what sparked all this. Sigh…

Bush, Obama Make T-Shirts

Amusements, Politics

I’ve been traveling a lot lately, and while flying through Washington’s Dulles airport, stopped to snap these admittedly too blurry photos from a presumably duty-free gift shop.

The first, above, celebrates the end of George Bush‘s presidency. Not that Dubya would have occasion to ever glimpse it, but it has to be somewhat weird when the city in which you live (when you’re not clearing brush) has racks of T-shirts calling you out and celebrating your scheduled departure.

The second is more of the celebratory-populist vein. The natural, consumerist extension of the get-on-the-love-train affection for Barack Obama I somewhat get (“Barack & Roll,” it says above), but… referenced in the form of an AC/DC visual gag? Very strange, indeed. Oh, and not pictured, from the same storefront walkway: the 16-inch, disturbingly lifelike Hillary Clinton nutcracker. (Seriously.) When I think about China manufacturing stuff like that, and what sociocultural conclusions they must draw from it, it amuses me to no end.

Cinematheque Hosts Oscar Shorts

Screenings

The American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre presents a limited engagement of all of this past year’s Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning live action and animated shorts, in two separate programs, March 6 through 13. The winners for Best Live Action Short Film, France’s The Mozart of Pickpockets, and the winner for Best Animated Short Film, the UK/Poland co-production Peter & The Wolf, screen alongside acclaimed nominees from Canada, Russia, Denmark, Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland, Belgium and France. The engagement kicks off on March 6 with both programs in the 616-seat Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre; on all other dates, the programs will take place in the 83-seat Spielberg Theatre. The live action shorts will screen at 7:30 p.m. each night, followed by a 10 p.m. program of animated shorts. The historic
Egyptian Theatre is located at 6712
Hollywood Boulevard,
between Highland
and Las Palmas,
in Hollywood.
Tickets for all scheduled screenings are available through Fandango, but for 24-hour recorded information on tickets,
directions and more, phone (323) 466-FILM or visit the Cinematheque’s eponymous
Web site by clicking here.