Headin' elsewhere...

There doesn't even seem to be a point in addressing Dubya's plan for a so-called "surge" - some tragic mistakes just stand out glaringly enough on their own. And as the news over the weekend out of Iraq went from stunningly bad to even worse with the decapitation of Saddam's half-brother (boy, is that an unfortunate irony), I'm turning elsewhere. Most of the Press today will be focused on Obama's exploratory committee announcement. I'll instead offer up a few quickie reviews as this morning's Seattle snow turns to slush, taking with it so many unknown snowmen.

Sarah and I did a dinner and movie on Saturday. We chose "Children of Men" starring a terrific Clive Owen and a uniformly strong cast. It's cut from the same post-apocolyptic cloth as "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (my choice as Best Novel of 2006) - lots of bleakness layered with enough hope to make it hugely entertaining. I was most struck by the masterful staging of the battle scenes. Not since "Full Metal Jacket" have I seen a movie that captured "war" in such a harrowing and chaotic way. But the allegorical aspects of the movie really set it apart. Alfonso Cuaron is one of those uber-cool Mexican auteurs. See it. My rating - an A-minus.

Dinner-wise, we went to Volterra in Ballard - a well-reviewed newish "contemporary Italian" place with a dark red interior that looks borrowed straight from the Playboy Mansion collection. We were pretty hearty and tried a wide enough array to say...bunk. Middling to at-best passable food, no original flair, perfunctory everything else. Order a pizza instead. My rating - a C-minus.

And I don't think I ever gave my take on "The Departed" which we saw a couple weeks ago. An instant crime classic. Jack Nicholson over-eats the scenery but he's Jack and no one can stop him now. Matt Damon isn't getting the accolades, but he carries the movie front to back. Claire Forlani looks like she's aged about 20 years since she was the Next New Mz. Thang back in the late 90s - her role is by far the most confused and inauthentic. Scorsese still can't write chicks, know what I mean. And it's overlong by about one-and-a-half extra plot twistees. But if you like noir and can take a few bloody, violent deaths, you need look no farther than this ride. My rating - a strong B-plus.

Hope your own thumbs are up all day. Rock on.