Ok, Erasmus apologizes for the tumbleweeds blowing across the old Encomium Moriae here. He's been up to his earlobes in verb forms as he wades through a massive translation project. Some things briefly noted in the interim.
- 50 First Dates was substantially better than its ads appeared. While the premise is dingy—Drew Barrymore is a fetching Hawaiian lass who's developed a case of amnesia Mementoensis and hasn't developed Guy Pearce's self-tattooing skills yet—the movie takes the premise seriously and sticks to it reasonably well. Adam Sandler is fine. Erasmus is no fan of his (and was one of the few who came away from Punch-Drunk Love unimpressed, it seems) but has enjoyed a few of his movies. Rob Schneider's stoner shark-bait kanaka maoli is funny but his accent seemed Puerto Rican or Mexican half the time. Nevertheless, overall, placet. And the walrus trainer gets an ave.
- The Dead Zone and Monk are back and welcomed. Neither's in quite top form yet, although the former's eerie "Collision" had a couple of the creepier moments of episodic TV I've seen since the X-Files' heyday, with Johnny's flashbacks, the girl lurking around, and burn traumas. The latter seems to be relying a little too much on Adrian Monk's neuroses at the expense of the clever plotting which is their hallmark. But still:Placet placetque. (And nice to see Ajay "Samir Nagheenanajar" Naidu on Monk.)
- Dodgeball is pretty much what you'd expect from the ads. Which is, in Erasmus's case, good enough. Erasmus would have given the script another polish and cleaned up the ending a little bit, but it was still a very solid second-tier farce along the lines of Stiller's Zoolander, Vaughn's Old School, or Sandler's Happy Gilmore. Erasmus always enjoys Rip Torn, Stephen Root, and Christine Taylor. And the cameos are pretty funny. Special recognition to the send-up of ESPN's obscure-sports broadcasts. Gary Cole and Jason Bateman are pretty much spot-on, though Bateman could have been even more over the top and still dead-on satirically. Made Erasmus want to go watch Toby Huss & Orlando Jones's extended basketball-game call scene on the Bedazzled DVD. Placet.
- The Confusion by Neal Stephenson is a big, fun read like his Cryptonomicon or its predecessor in the Baroque Cycle trilogy, Quicksilver. For anyone who enjoys historical trivia and the history of science (including a fair amount of the dismal science), Stephenson's your guy. He's weaker on character and personality than ideas and window-dressing, so Erasmus doubts people will be reading him as a classic belletrist 100 years from now. But for big, fun, erudite page-turning fun—Tom Clancy for people with graduate degrees—you can't do much better. Ave.
With thanks for your patience and in hope that the Follies will play again soon, Erasmus remains,
Yr. obdt. srvt.
