Rubber

I very much enjoyed the film, "Rubber." It was directed by Quentin Dupieux, who, through a friend of mine, I found out is also a composer, is also known as Mr. Oizo and is responsible for Steak. I like him already. I love steak, preferably well-done with a side of broccoli and mashed potatoes.
His film, "Rubber," is not what I expected. Going in, I thought it was simply going to be about the exploits of a killer tire. I figured the requisite amount of mayhem would ensue--people would be run over by a tire, some dumb teenagers would find themselves in trouble, and a tad bit of nudity would be seen. Only one of those things happens.
"Rubber" did not follow the course I thought it would take and for that I was pleased. In the first five minutes of the film, Dupieux establishes that his will be no ordinary film and that the rules of "Rubber" will be different from what is expected. I appreciate his desire to follow a refreshingly different course and the humor with which he lets the audience in on his line of thinking.
"Rubber" manages to follow this course throughout the entirety of the film and, thankfully, does not slow down an hour or so into the proceedings. Although it is about a killer tire, it retains a good-humored nature all the way through.
"Rubber" will be released on dvd in the US on June 7, according to Amazon.com. Buy or rent it then. Thanks to the previous work of Quentin Dupieux, you may enjoy a nice steak to go along with it.

Just for the hell of it, here is a picture of the HOT Terry Farrell who played Jadzia Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

A Fun Quiz Freshly Baked In Our Ovens

Here is what is hopefully a fun Star Trek quiz. Don't worry--the questions are not all about "The Motion Picture." While it is regarded as one of the inferior Star Trek films, I readily admit that I liked it. You can submit your answers in the Comments section at the end of this post.


1. What is the name of Spock’s brother in Star Trek 5?
a. Sarek
b. Garak
c. Potok
d. Sybok

2. What is the name of Captain Archer’s dog on Enterprise?
a. Butters
b. Sybok
c. Arcos
d. Porthos

3. What alien race does Ilya from Star Trek-the Motion Picture belong to?
a. Cardassian
b. Deltan
c. Talaxian
d. Andorian

4. What practice does Ilya from Star Trek-the Motion Picture adhere to?
a. Vegetarianism
b. Telepathy
c. Atheism
d. Celibacy

5. Who did Jadzia Dax marry on Deep Space Nine?
a. Miles O’Brien
b. Geordi LaForge
c. Garak
d. Worf

6. What was Captain Sisko’s father’s name on Deep Space Nine
a. Jake
b. Brock
c. Joseph
d. Robert

7. What was Captain Sisko’s father’s profession?
a. Tailor
b. Doctor
c. Minister
d. Chef

8. What was 7 of 9’s human name?
a. Jennifer Ryan
b. Annika Hansen
c. Katherine Myers
d. Hannah Myerson

9. What 1979 detective show featured Voyager’s Kate Mulgrew (Capt. Janeway)
a. Starsky and Hutch
b. McMillan and Wife
c. Hawaii Five-O
d. Mrs. Columbo

10. What planet was Kes from Star Trek:Voyager from?
a. Ocampa
b. Kronos
c. Bajor
d. Hoth

11. What was Chekov’s first name?
a. Leonid
b. Anton
c. Dimitri
d. Pavel

12. Which doctor replaced Beverly Crusher for the second season of Star Trek: the Next Generation?
a. McIntyre
b. Welby
c. Pulaski
d. Bashir

13. What is the name of Spock’s mother?
a. Amanda
b. Katherine
c. Diana
d. Lydia

14. What was the name of Quark’s brother from Deep Space Nine?
a. Nog
b. Tron
c. Yoda
d. Rom

15. Who was the captain of the USS Defiant on Deep Space Nine?
a. Jake Sisko
b. Benjamin Sisko
c. Lando Calrissian
d. Mark Harris

16. What was the Cardassian name of Deep Space Nine?
a. Terok Nor
b. Gul Dukat
c. Elim Garak
d. Helio Cordor

17. What is the name of Worf’s son?
a. Benjamin
b. Matthew
c. Kahless
d. Alexander

18. What is Capt. Sisko’s favorite sport?
a. Basketball
b. Baseball
c. Football
d. Tennis

19. On Star Trek: Enterprise, what did Shran refer to human beings as?
a. Redskins
b. Dogs
c. Cannibals
d. Pinkskins

20. What alien race does Shran from Star Trek: Enterprise belong to?
a. Cardassian
b. Romulan
c. Jem’Hadar
d. Andorian

21. What late 70’s/early 80’s sitcom featured Deep Space Nine’s Rene Auberjonois?
a. The Jeffersons
b. Soap
c. Benson
d. One Day at a Time

22. On Deep Space Nine, what is the military arm of the Dominion called?
a. Jem’Hadar
b. The Kahless
c. The Sith
d. Ten Forward

23. What comedienne plays Guinan on Star Trek: the Next Generation
a. Wanda Sykes
b. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss
c. Whoopi Goldberg
d. Esther Rolle

24. Who is Guinan?
a. Chief Engineer on Voyager
b. Cardassian tailor on Deep Space Nine
c. Ship counselor on Picard’s Enterprise
d. Bartender in Ten Forward

25. Every 7 years, Vulcan males must endure…
a. T’Pol
b. Kahless
c. The Gik’Tal
d. Pon Farr

26. Which of these 1970’s tv shows did William Shatner not guest star on?
a. Hawaii Five-O
b. Columbo
c. Starsky and Hutch
d. Barnaby Jones

27. What is Chakotay’s ethnicity?
a. Japanese
b. Polish
c. American Indian
d. Filipino

28. Who was Chakotay’s ex-lover and member of the Maquis?
a. B’Elanna
b. Lava
c. Daxea
d. Seska

29. Which Star Trek: Voyager character was a Federation operative, spying on the Maquis?
a. Neelix
b. Tuvok
c. T’Pol
d. Tuvix

30. A used napkin from which Star Trek actor was given to Sheldon by Penny on The Big Bang Theory?
a. Leonard Nimoy
b. William Shatner
c. Patrick Stewart
d. Scott Bakula

31. What Klingon delicacy is essentially live worms?
a. Targ
b. Gik’Tal
c. Jak’Tahla
d. Gagh

32. The first Star Trek convention took place in 1972 in what city?
a. Los Angeles
b. San Francisco
c. London
d. New York City

33. The Bajoran spiritual leader featured on Deep Space Nine was:
a. Gul Dukat
b. Ezri Dax
c. Kai Winn
d. Elim Garak

34. Louise Fletcher, who played Kai Winn on Deep Space Nine, won an Academy Award in 1975 for which her performance in what film?
a. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
b. Network
c. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
d. Love and Death

35. What musical instrument was one of William Riker’s prized posessions?
a. Guitar
b. Violin
c. Trombone
d. Trumpet

36. What birthday gift did Dr. McCoy give to Admiral Kirk in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan?
a. A vintage pocketwatch
b. A antique pair of reading glasses
c. An antique lamp
d. A vintage toaster

37. What character would Data sometimes play in the holodeck?
a. Tarzan
b. Mike Hammer
c. Hamlet
d. Sherlock Holmes

38. Which of the following characters was not a member of the Maquis?
a. Chakotay
b. B’Elana Torres
c. Tom Paris
d. Ro Laren

39. Who was Gul Dukat’s illegitimate daughter on Deep Space Nine?
a. Ro Laren
b. Guinan
c. Natima
d. Ziyal

40. Which of these is a Klingon weapon?
a. Gik’tal
b. Bat’leth
c. Ba’al
d. Phlox

41. Which species is known for their blue ale?
a. Romulan
b. Ferengi
c. Klingon
d. Cardassian

42. What is it called when you rub a Ferengi’s lobes and provide him with a sense of pleasure?
a. Dai-Mon
b. Umlaut
c. Aldi
d. Oo-Mox

43. What is the name of Dr. Beverly Crusher’s son?
a. Leonard
b. Daniel
c. Wesley
d. Matthew

44. Where is Starfleet headquarters located?
a. Seattle
b. San Francisco
c. Los Angeles
d. San Diego

Oliver Stone Gave Us All a Hand

For several months now, I have appreciated the fact that director Oliver Stone recorded a dvd commentary track for his 1981 horror film, The Hand. The Hand was his second film. Five years after The Hand, he directed Salvador, followed by his other more well-known and socially important films such as Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Nixon, and W. I admired the fact that Stone took the time to comment on the making of The Hand while not making fun of it and not apologizing for his involvement in the film. The Hand is about a man, played by Michael Caine, who loses his hand in an auto accident. Soon after this accident, Caine's disembodied hand takes on a life of it's own and kills people. What's not to like about that?
Anyway, I would like to thank Oliver Stone for recording a commentary track for this and not trying to distance from one of his early films. Let's all rise and give Oliver Stone a hand!

What's That in My Cup?

I am currently enjoying a cup of Vietnamese coffee. It is not so much like the one you might get at a Vietnamese restaurant which is served with condensed milk and the metal thing over the glass with the coffee grounds in it as in the photo to the right of this post. Today I am drinking a VinaCafe Ca Fe Hoa Tan instant coffee. It is pretty darn good.
Ca Fe Hoa Tan is making my mouth happy.

Movie Review: Breaking Point (1975)

There are three things which can turn a movie from good to great: a unique storyline, wonderful usage of location shooting, and plenty of female pubic hair.
Breaking Point (1975-Sweden) has all three of these ingredients. Directed by Bo Arne Vibenius, who also directed the more well-known, Thriller: a Cruel Picture, Breaking Point tells the story of an office worker, played by Andreas Bellis—in this film his name is given in the credits as Anton Rothschild, in Sweden who, in the first five minutes of the film, kills a woman. Why we do not know. After that scene, we find that this man has what appears to be a dull job at an office where one of his female co-workers flirts with him by unbuttoning her blouse right in front of his desk. That never happens to me.
At some point during his work day, he walks down to the city subway and sees a beautiful young woman, played by Swedish actress/model Barbara Scott. He follows her to her house and proceeds to ask her to strip. “Strip you,” he says to her. She does. They have consentual sex and you realize why the Swedish title of this film is “Pornografik Thriller.” Yep, it has erections, 1970’s full nudal frontity…..not bad really. This kind of work break is much more fun than sitting in a boring breakroom eating a candy bar.
Earlier in the film, we learn that, because the city has become ravished with crime against women, the government is giving the population vouchers for free handguns. We learn this from a cool tv report that Rothschild’s character and his fellow office workers are watching. You take your voucher to a gun shop and you get your free gun. Of course, the crime that sets this government handgun program in motion is the one committed at the beginning of the film by the protagonist played by Mr. Rothschild.
After his daliance with the subway woman, he goes to a gun shop to claim his government issued handgun. He also has encounters of a sexual nature with two more women---one of which lives outside the city so he rents a car to go see her. This is where the wonderful usage of location shooting comes in. I would love to see this film either in a theater or on a remastered dvd version. Many scenes in this film where filmed in the Swedish countryside. The opportunity to see mid-70’s Swedish city life and the Swedish countryside in the same film was a treat.
Also occurring in the Swedish countryside is the most memorable, but not the best, sex scene in the film. It involves the man’s rental car, a very forward woman, and a gear shift. “Not the best one?,”you ask. Well, the gear shift does make it a strong second place.
I strongly recommend this film as it creates a fantastic sense of insecurity. I wondered throughout the film, “What will this guy do next?” It is not predictable at all. I love that.
I am sure that a lot of people would find the film offensive and be put off by our lead characters’ exploits as the film follows him through his, mostly sexual, dalliances. In between his interesting sexual encounters he takes time, while at home, to masturbate into a coffee cup, take this cup to work with him, and serve coffee in it to the woman who had unbuttoned her shirt in front of his desk—ok, this has to make you want to seek out this film. I was not sure why he did this, however, I was just fine with not understanding his every action during the course of the film. Vibenius seems to be saying to the audience that the lead character’s actions will be strange, but enjoy it for what it is. He is not supposed to be a great guy. It is a wonderful acheivement in simplicity and confrontationalism without being confrontational. It asks the audience to watch what this man is doing but it does not tell the audience what they should be feeling about him or his actions. It is definitely not for the easily offended, however, for those who seek out films that are non-mainstream and disturbing, Breaking Point will do it’s due dilligence in being both disturbing and entertaining.

A Thought on My Way to McDonald's

The words you speak and the way you choose to speak these words have a great deal to do with the way people will speak of you. Spock did not say this. I just thought of him when I wrote this.