Twin robots Skids and Mudflap are shown in a scene from “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”
‘We’re just putting more personality in,’ director says of Skids and Mudflap
The Associated Press
updated 10:11 a.m. PT,Wed., June 24, 2009
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LOS ANGELES – “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” introduces some 40 new mechanized characters of all shapes, sizes and even sexes — but it’s a pair of jive-talking ’bots that critics are singling out as more than just harmless comic relief.
Skids and Mudflap, twin robots disguised as compact Chevys, constantly brawl and bicker in rap-inspired street slang. They’re forced to acknowledge that they can’t read. One has a gold tooth.
As good guys, they fight alongside the Autobots and are intended to provide comic relief. But the traits they’re ascribed raise the specter of stereotypes most notably seen when Jar Jar Binks, the clumsy, broken-English speaking alien from “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” was criticized as a racial caricature. Read the rest of this entry »
Although this blog primarily deals with matters of national and international importance regarding politics, religion, culture, art and so forth — occasionally, we like to comment on popular culture.
Arguably the “biggest movie of the summer,” Transformers 2 is also the most soulless and mind numbingly awful, which is impressive considering the litany of cinematic trains wrecks we’ve endured the past 2 months: Wolverine, Angels and Demons, Terminator Salvation and so forth.
Like most relics of the 80′s, I cherish my nostalgic memories of watching Optimus Prime battle Megatron and his Decepticons while trying to transform my mangled, brutally worn out Starscream toy. This movie almost single handedly molested my childhood soul and tarnished those googly-tingly memories of Saturday morning goodness.
CAIRO — Iran’s most powerful oversight council announced on Monday that the number of votes recorded in 50 cities exceeded the number of eligible voters there by three million, further tarnishing a presidential election that has set off the most sustained challenge to Iran’s leadership in 30 years.
The government continued with a two-track approach in its showdown over the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even as the powerful Guardian Council acknowledged some irregularities in the June 12 election, it insisted that the overall vote was valid. At the same time, security forces stepped up their threats to treat protesters as criminals seeking to destabilize the country.
A group of as many as a thousand demonstrators at Haft-e-tir Square in central Tehran was quickly overwhelmed Monday by baton-wielding riot police and tear gas shortly after the Revolutionary Guards issued an ominous warning on their Web site saying that protesters would face “revolutionary confrontation.” Opposition leaders said the next move may be civil disobedience or a general strike. Read the rest of this entry »
By Robin Wright – http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1906049,00.html
A video posted on YouTube shows men trying to help a woman after she was allegedly shot in the chest in Tehran on June 20
Iran’s revolution has now run through a full cycle. A gruesomely captivating video of a young woman — laid out on a Tehran street after apparently being shot, blood pouring from her mouth and then across her face — swept Twitter, Facebook and other websites this weekend. The woman rapidly became a symbol of Iran’s escalating crisis, from a political confrontation to far more ominous physical clashes. Some sites refer to the woman as Neda, Farsi for “the voice” or “the call.” Tributes that incorporate startlingly up-close footage of her dying have started to spring up on YouTube. Read the rest of this entry »
