URLs du Jour

2008-11-17

Make of this single anecdotal datapoint what you will: while driving around our local malls this past weekend I saw plenty of traffic and packed parking lots. I have memories of four previous recessions, and this doesn't look like them, at least not yet.

  • Although no Pun Salad readers are idiots, you might know someone who needs an answer to this question: Are you an idiot to keep paying your mortgage? (Via Instapundit.)

  • Jim Manzi refutes arguments that the Big 3 automakers deserve a bailout because, gee, this time they're on the verge of getting their act together. Honest. Real Soon Now.

    On the same topic, see Skip at Granite Grok and also Kip Esquire. There's no excuse for the bailout.

  • Monty Python fans will want to check out "Ancient Greeks pre-empted Dead Parrot sketch", a news story about a 4th century joke book:
    The 1,600-year-old work entitled "Philogelos: The Laugh Addict," one of the world's oldest joke books, features a joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died, its publisher said Friday.

    "By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!"

    The Cleese/Palin version still seems funnier somehow. The book's website is here. (Via GeekPress.)

The Incredible Hulk

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)

[2.0
stars] [IMDb Link]

My comic-reading days are long past, but even back then, I was never a huge fan of The Incredible Hulk. I never found him too sympathetic or believable. [You mean less believable than those other guys, like Spider-Man and Iron Man? Yes, that's right.] Unfortunately, that carries right over to today's superhero movies; I passed on the 2003 Ang Lee Hulk, and I only picked up this one because of the decent reviews. Eh.

The movie picks up shortly after Bruce Banner has been transformed into the on-again, off-again green-skinned monster, and has escaped his captors to live a quiet life in Brazil seeking a cure for his condition. Edward Norton plays Banner well, Liv Tyler appears as his girl Betty Ross, William Hurt is General "Thunderbolt" Ross, Hulk's nemesis and Betty's dad. Tim Roth plays the villain Blonsky, a soldier tasked with returning the fugitive Banner, who becomes obsessed with his target, eventually demanding and receiving his own superpowers, which doesn't turn out well at all.

In its favor, the movie has a number of recognizable inside gags: Betty buys Bruce some purple stretch pants; Lou Ferrigno appears as a security guard; Stan Lee has his usual cameo; the late Bill Bixby shows up on a Brazilian TV rerun of "The Courtship of Eddie's Father". When in Brazil, Banner has an amusingly tough time mistranslating a classic line from the old TV show. (No spoilers, but it's the third one here.) There's probably more I didn't pick up.

This movie is also not the best advertisement for the sanitary practices in Brazilian soda bottling plants.


Last Modified 2024-02-01 5:15 AM EDT