Month: June 2010

1) Jaden Smith clearly actually KNOWS martial arts, and it shows, with the climactic championship square off way more convincing than the original.

2) His character, Dre, is taught by Jackie Chan, who IS martial arts.

3) Dre’s (Smith’s character) romance with a young Chinese violinist is utterly charming.

4) Michelle Yeoh, the greatest martial arts actress in the world, has a marvelous cameo in which she engages in a staggering display of control while squaring off against a cobra.

5) For those decrying a remake as sacrilege, I would point out that kung fu being the offense of choice in China makes way more sense to me than karate being the offense of choice in southern California.

PAD

Sheila O’Shea is an occasional contributor to this site and also happens to be my sister-in-law. Today’s her birthday and I didn’t have a chance to get her anything, so this attempted helpful posting is my gift: Sheila’s an unemployed paralegal in Atlanta and could really use some help with being employed. She’s bright, articulate, and also has experience as a copy editor, a notary and as a technical writer for a software firm. She also won a lip-synching contest for Duran Duran, for what that’s worth. So if someone in the Atlanta area is looking, drop me a line at padguy@aol.com and I’ll pass it along.

PAD

While watching the Tony Awards, in welcoming two of the cast members of “Glee,” they talked about the two actors’ Broadway careers. One I knew about, but the other I didn’t. So I did some fast checking. Then I went upstairs to Ariel’s room and said, “Where do you have that script book from ‘Hairspray’ that you got cast autographs on?” She pulled it out and I flipped through it, and then pointed to the signature of the actor who had portrayed Link Larkin, one Matt Morrison. I said, “Congratulations: You got Will Schuster’s autograph.” She shrieked.

And just now, during the Tonys, host Sean Hayes ran onto the stage in a full Spider-Man costume singing a very muffled version of “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” He then pulled off the mask and wondered how in God’s name Spider-Man’s gonna sing in that outfit. He may have a point.

PAD

A cliffhanger? Really? They ended the strip on a cliffhanger? I mean, if they can’t afford to keep the strip going in a market where story strips are almost a thing of the past, fine, I get that. But they couldn’t give the creators a sufficient heads-up that they could have tied up the current storyline rather than leave Annie and Warbucks separated? I don’t care if they brought in Mr. Am from nowhere and he transports her home. She deserved better than what they gave her.

PAD

Back in the days when I actually went into work in NYC every day, there was a big video arcade in Penn Station. And I would always stop on my way in to play “Dragon’s Lair,” which was big and new and splashy and right up front, with a television mounted above it so that passers by could see the game play. I have no idea how many quarters I plunked into that thing. And I managed to last longer and longer at it, moving through the set pieces with increasing ease, discovering little tricks along the way to maneuver through some of the trickier bits.

Continue Reading “Return to the Dragon’s Lair” →