- Hundreds of Venezuelan dissidents took to the streets in Caracas late last week to protest Hugo Chavez’s proposed reforms, which were submitted for a vote Sunday. I’m sure Hugo would call these people traitors (wait, he actually did call them traitors), but I just call them smart for opposing the abolition of term limits for a despotic dictator. The proposed constitutional changes were put to a vote Sunday, with officials saying that the results were too close to call, i.e. a photo finish. Opposition leader Julio Borges confirmed the close vote, meaning Venezuelans will have to wait a couple days to learn whether they are stuck with, er, get to have their despot, er, president around until about 2050, give or take a few miserable years of suffering. Opposition leaders have vowed to keep a close eye on the ballot counting, which they’d better do because Hugo Chavez is exactly the type of power-hungry despot who would fix a vote to give himself a victory. Such a win would give him the authority to move his country toward a socialist state, something his opponents are in fear of and greatly opposed to. Predictably, both sides are saying their polls show their side as the victor, but as much as I’d like to believe that the opposition will win, I just find it hard to believe that a powerful dictator like Chavez will allow the vote to go against him, no matter what unethical and underhanded means he has to employ. Stay tuned….
- So that was it, the Heroes finale…..what kind of finale, I don’t know. The series will return in 2008, but will it be fall 2008, spring 2008, summer 2008? With the writers’ strike, I’d say spring is unlikely, so it’ll be at least four months at a bare minimum before you hear or see much news from your favorite heroes. Let’s hope that last night’s episode wasn’t supposed to be a season’s finale of a truncated campaign, though, because clearly it felt like a fall finale and not at all like a mad-cap, frenetic season finale. Unlike last season’s finale, this finale wasn’t totally focused on New York. Sure, some of the episode took place there and that part of the action did set up the next part of the show’s run, but Odessa, Texas was ground zero on this night. That’s where Peter Petrelli, Adam Monroe and Hiro Nakamura were, picking up where last week’s episode left off. Hiro had stopped time and was charging at Adam/Takezo Kensei with one of Kensei’s own swords from 1671, but Peter, having the power to stop time as Hiro does, wasn’t frozen like everyone else at the Primatech Paper building and fought back. After Hiro teleported a few times to avoid Peter’s strikes, Peter finally got the upper hand and used his newest power, sending out electrical charges (gained from Elle, Kristen Bell’s character), to drop Hiro and un-freeze time. That left he and Adam to go to the lower levels of the facility to find the vial of the deadly Shanti virus the company had been holding since 1977. But even after Peter uses his powers to pry the massive safe door off, the challenges aren’t over. Arriving on the scene are Peter’s big bro Nathan and Matt Parkman, who zipped down from New York with Nathan using his power to fly and carrying Parkman on his back. In a brief moment of humor, after they land both agree, “We never speak about this again.” Inside the building, they find Peter and Adam, who have also had another interruption by Hiro in the meantime, but Hiro has again been neutralized by Peter. Parkman tries to finish what Hiro started by using his mind-control powers to talk Peter into attacking Adam, but again, Peter has the same power as Matt and is able to resist. It’s only when Nathan comes on the scene and talks sense into his brother that Peter listens. By then, Hiro has gotten back on his feet and confronted Adam, who confirms what everyone has been alleging, that he wants to use the virus to wipe out most of humanity, leaving only 7 percent alive and since he’s the one who would keep them alive through the healing power of his blood, he would be their hero, their god. He believes that humanity is so rotten and stuck in the same depraved cycle of existence that a catastrophe along the lines of God flooding the Earth in the days of Noah needs to take place. Hiro tells him he’s not God and ruins Adam’s plans by teleporting them both out of the vault, leaving the vial of the deadly virus behind, falling to the floor…..until Peter frantically rushes to the vault and uses another one of his powers to stop it in mid-air and keep it from hitting the floor. Where are Hiro and Adam Monroe? At episode’s end, we find out that Hiro has teleported them back to Japan, to the very same cemetery where, in a total rip-off of the series finale of Alias, he has left to immortal Adam Monroe trapped in a coffin, dozens of feet below ground. There’s no apparent way to escape, but since he’s immortal, Adam is stuck there for eternity, it would seem. It’s the same fate that befell Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin) in the finale of Alias when he attained immortality but was pinned beneath a massive pile of rocks in an underground cave and left there alone to suffer forever and ever. Unimaginative details aside, the show did have some, um, explosive developments, both literally and figuratively. Back in New York, Sylar and Maya are waiting on Mohinder Suresh as he returns to his apartment, with Sylar revealing that he’s snooped through Suresh’s computer and found out about the new cure for the virus that has been created using Claire’s blood. Sylar demands to be healed so he can get his powers back, so off he goes to Suresh’s lab along with Molly, Suresh and Maya. He makes a point of reminding Suresh that the same spot where he now works is where Sylar killed Isaac Mendez, and the massive mural of an exploding Manhattan on the floor is a definite reminder of Season 1. Problems arise when Molly offers to find Maya’s brother, Alejandro, so Maya can know that he’s safe. When Molly reveals that Alejandro isn’t anywhere on Earth, Maya realizes it’s because he’s dead and she leaps up and charges at Sylar, who fires a bullet into her chest, killing her….for the time being. After Mohinder insists on testing Sylar’s blood and finds out that he has the same strain of the virus as Niki (more on her shortly), Sylar demands that Mohinder use some of the antidote containing a cocktail of his blood and Claire’s blood to revive Maya so that Sylar can be sure it’s what he needs. The antidote works and Maya is alive again (damn, we really could do without her, why couldn’t she stay dead), but just then Elle arrives on the scene, looking to stop Sylar. Elle is out to prove herself because her father, Bob, the head of the company, has ripped her for her handling of Claire Bennet’s situation and banned her from doing any more work in the field. H.R.G. twists the knife even further by telling her how her father ruthlessly experimented on her when she was a child, so Elle decides to do some good for once. She goes to stop Sylar and uses her power to chase him off via some electrical charges. Unfortunately, Sylar escapes and although Mohinder thanks Elle for saving he, Molly and Maya and calls her a hero, Sylar escapes and in the episode’s final scene, he injects himself with Mohinder’s antidote and regains his powers, as we see when he uses telepathy to move a can of spinach from across the alley where he lies into his hand. He declares, “I’m back,” a development that is obviously one of the foundations for the episodes ahead, whenever they came. I mentioned H.R.G., whose role in this episode is to strike a deal with the company to return to work for them in exchange for his family being left alone to live a normal life. He goes back to Costa Verde, Calif. to tell them the news and in the process, to stop Claire from her avowed crusade to bring down the company. The Bennets are thrilled to see their dad/husband alive but heartbroken when he reveals the agreement he’s made with the company. Also heartbroken is Micah Sanders, down in New Orleans with his mom, Niki. They go on a mission to save Micah’s cousin Monica (another character we could do without) after she was captured trying to recover Micah’s stolen backpack from some neighborhood thugs. By the time they find Monica, one of the thugs has set an abandoned building on fire with Monica inside. Niki confronts him and knocks him out, but when she goes inside to rescue her niece, Niki is trapped inside as Monica escapes. The building blows up with Niki still inside, her fate very much up in the air according to an interview with series creator Tim Kring that’s up now on tvguide.com. Also in life limbo is Nathan Petrelli, because his story didn’t end at Primatech headquarters. Once Peter destroyed the virus, Nathan, Peter and Parkman arrange a news conference at the local police station. Just as Nathan begins to reveal his secrets and those of the company, an anonymous assassin shoots him and Nathan goes down, apparently about to die in his brother’s arms. At the same time, Angela Petrelli, Peter and Nathan’s mother, receives a phone call and though we can’t hear what’s said on the other end, she replies that what happened was “inevitable,” which we’re supposed to believe means Nathan being shot and killed. As with Niki, Kring promises that Nathan’s fate is undecided, left to be fleshed out once the writers’ strike ends. So for now, that’s where all the heroes stand, frozen by a strike that not even their super powers can overcome. So until some undetermined time in 2008, that’s all….
- Hayden Christensen has never been confused with a good actor. Anyone who saw him act in the recent Star Wars trilogy could see how wooden and robotic he is and that he’s so far from believable on screen that the two of them aren’t in the same zip code. So it’s really not surprising that his new movie Awake will put many moviegoers to sleep despite the fact that one of Christensen’s co-stars is the über-hot Jessica Alba. Problems plaguing the film include bad acting (obviously), a weak script and a plot so obvious you’ll have it figured out before the opening credits are done. Christensen is Clayton Beresford, a billionaire who is in surgery when his anesthesia fails and he regains consciousness only to hear a plot to kill him being discussed. Is it family members, business associates, greedy doctors or someone else who wants him dead? Even the nice idea of having Jessica Alba around to nurse you back to health following surgery isn’t enough to hold your interest throughout an ultra-brief 78-minute movie. Also giving the picture a weird vibe is Christensen narrating through much of it, including during scenes showing him on the operating table. All in all, a thoroughly missable and bad movie, one that should be soon swept aside by the bum rush of holiday films and releases hitting theaters later this month.
- If manic, hyper-frenetic Scandinavian alt rock is your thing, then the Hives have always been the best musical choice for you. The quintet is back with a new album, The Black and White Album, clearly a nod to The White Album (1968) by The Beatles and The Black Album (2005) by Jay-Z, although clearly the Hives’ energetic brand of rock isn’t really connected to either artist. Still, the group that rode to garage band trend to the top along with the White Stripes and is nearly as well known for its two-toned outfit style as for its music manages to branch out a bit musically on this album while still keeping the fun, manic vibe from its previous offerings. Lead singer Pelle Almqvist is in top form, belting out off-kilter lyrics and styling his way through tracks that barely leave him time to catch his breath. The album’s lead single, Tick Tick Boom is typical Hives style, three minutes or less of three-chord thrash with witty lyrics. Songs like You Got It All….Wrong and Well All Right! keep the tempo up, setting up an infusion from the hip-hop world with popular producer Pharrell contributing two tracks, including the funk tune T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S., which is one of the few times the band strays from its familiar style on the album. The rest of the disc is back to normal, with a few diversions but nothing that should keep fans of the group from enjoying the album. The Hives clearly know who they are, what their strengths are and what their fans want, because they’ve given it to them one more time, except this time it’s a 45-minute album, substantially longer than their previous offerings. Although it’s easy to see all of the crappy albums being released (yup, I’m looking right at you, Jordin Sparks) and overvalue the quality of the non-sucky ones like this one, The Black and White Album is definitely worth listening to and illegally downloading, er, um, buying…..
- Believe it or not, it’s been 25 years since the release of that child-molesting, plastic surgery-having, feminine-voiced freak job Michael Jackson’s Thriller album. Most hail it as a legendary album, but personally I’ve never been down with Jackson’s music or his act. But to mark the anniversary, there will be a special-edition re-release of Thriller containing remixes, rarities and previously unreleased material, as well as a bonus DVD. No word on whether purchasers of the release will also get a complementary nose job and child molestation courtesy of Jack-O, but even if those “bonuses” were part of the deal, I’m passing on this album. I don’t care that Kanye West, that loser will.i.am of the abominable Black Eyed Peas or the problematic Akon will be a part of the project either. Actually, it’s ironic that Akon will be a part of the project, what with a man who had simulated sex on stage with a 14-year-old at a concert helping an (alleged) pedophile celebrate a milestone in his career. If synchronized dancing, sequined jackets, dudes wearing one glove, black men turning into white women and (alleged) child molesters are your thing, then Feb. 12 is when you can pick up this very “special” release. For the rest of us, it’s a date to be wary of and one that can’t come and go too soon.
- You’re not going to believe this, but an Amtrak train has crashed. Yes, it is shocking, right up there with a Miami Dolphins loss, an O.J. Simpson arrest, pictures of Britney Spears with no underwear on and W. mispronouncing the name of the leader of a foreign country. This particular Amtrak crash occurred over the weekend in Chicago, with the offending train plowing into the back of a freight train and crushing a boxcar under one of its wheels. Thankfully, most of the passengers aboard the train walked away injury free, but 71 people were taken to local hospitals for treatment. Of those 71, five were in serious to critical condition. The injuries occurred when the force of the crash hurled passengers into the seats in front of them. Personally, I think Amtrak needs to go ahead and line the inside of all of its trains with bubble wrap, foam padding and also to pass out mandatory crash helmets to every passenger, because crashes of their trains happen so often that riding them is a life-or-death decision. Best wishes to all the injured South Side passengers, maybe once you’re out of the hospital you all can join up for a class-action suit against Amtrak…..
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