Flametoad

This weekend I watched A Scanner Darkly. This sci-fi(ish) movie came out last year and seemed to make a minor impression with geeks. I have very mixed feelings about this movie. On one hand, I thought the roto-scoping was nothing more than a gimmick. There’s nothing about the movie that wouldn’t have worked fine non-rotoscoped. I was also very uncomfortable with the heavy drug-centric content. I understand that it’s what the whole movie was about, and I’m not suggesting it should have been somehow changed. I’m just saying that seeing that kind of lifestyle–the utter wasting of potential–makes me uncomfortable. (Contrast this with a movie like Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, which I love. Or even Rolling Kansas, which was also funny. I guess I’m saying I like the carictures of druggies, not realistic crash-n-burn ones.) On the other hand, I have to admit there was a big payoff at the end. I’m not sure it made it all worthwhile, but it’s definitely a “whoa” moment. Clearly, we had to slog through all the distrubing imagery from the first 95% of the movie, because that’s what gives the ending the emotional punch that it does. One short conversation at the end give the rest of the movie meaning. In a way that’s really cool, but if you’re like me and squeemish about watching drug use, then it’s a high price to pay.

Now I have a dirty little secret to share. I’m hooked on a hispanic soap opera on Telemundo. Well…hooked may be putting too fine a point on matters, but I’ve been watching it regularly for about a week now. Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa is totally a cheesy soap opera (or telenovela, rather), complete with dramatic music and melodramatic expressions at the end of every scene. However, it has a few things going for it. First, it’s Zorro. I mean, come on! Who can resist? One of my favorite, most memorable Halloween costumes as a kid was Zorro. The other thing that makes it watchable is Marelen Favela. This is one seriously pretty lady. Telemundo and Univision are known for populating the screen with a parade of unnaturally beautiful women not found in the real world. Zorro certainly doesn’t break with tradition in this regard, but even so Ms. Favela stands out above the rest. In my humble opinion, she easily competes with Catherine Zeta Jones in her 1998 Mask of Zorro role. If you don’t believe me, just go to YouTube and type in “Zorro: la espada y la rosa” and you’ll see plenty of examples. Or you could just check out this one.

Now if I could only get my local cable company to carry the English closed-captioning advertised at the beginning of each episode. Only understanding about one word in ten makes it kinda hard to follow the nuances. I still haven’t figured out whether a couple people are good or bad, nor what’s up with the maid or the Indian woman.