Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Lawfare › Kill-List Baseball Cards and the Targeting Paper Trail:
"Following the vetting and validation of targets, participants in the kill-list creation process also have an opportunity to vote on whether a name should be nominated for inclusion on a kill-list. In the Obama administration, Dan Klaidman, Jo Becker and Scott Shane have reported that this this debate and voting process was colloquially referred to as Terror Tuesdays. (Interestingly, during the Vietnam War targets were approved by the President at what become known as Tuesday luncheons, it seems Tuesdays are a bad day for America’s enemies)."

How can so many persons in positions of power go along with this? "Baseball cards"? "Terror Tuesdays"? And this line is especially rich: " On the one hand, many hands means many eyes, and impropriety may be discovered or reported by whistleblowers." I believe he says this un-ironically. Well I guess as long as there is some process and an extensive paper trail...

via @theharryshearer

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Ruby Cairo (1993)**
Starts off rather well and for the first hour is actually kind of engrossing. Then the lovely Andie MacDowell gets to Egypt and the movie falls off a cliff.
The Evil Eye (1963)**
Mario Bava tries his best to make a Hitchcock film with a limited budget, limited actors, and a very limited script. Still, watchable for the many Bava-rian moments.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Side Effects (2013)***
Slick, old-fashioned noir with the usual Soderbergh touches: strong acting, clean, modern production design, superb cinematography. Could have used some Hitchcock-ian humor and perhaps one more twist.

Friday, February 08, 2013

Elles (2011)***
Reliably explicit and frank French film concerning an uptight, upper middle class female journalist haunted by a couple of interviewees' sex lives. Juliette Binoche is very good.
Rescue Dawn (2006)**
Reliably quirky Werner Herzog movie about the survival of a US fighter pilot shot down over Laos in 1965. Some fine performances but some Herzog touches, such as near constant background music and an ending that goes on too long, drag the film down.