No, uh, he's not even behind the box, he's barely obscured by the box.

You know it…you love it… you sometimes even read it… the Mustard!

The AFI just came out with their list of top 100 movie quotes. This list is open to debate but I can’t fault most of the choices one way or another with one notable exception: “Love means never having to say you're sorry” is #13? That’s the 13 best movie quote ever? It beats out “Rosebud”? It beats out “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”? It beats out “They call me Mr. Tibbs”, “Bond, James Bond”, “We’ll always have Paris”, “Round up the Usual Suspects”???? What the hell are these people on? Nevermind that the quote is one of the dumbest and most asinine things anyone could ever possibly say but for god’s sake, #13? Is Ryan O'Neal finding time in his unemployment to be on the AFI selection committee? Cause holy hell I can’t find any other reason for that getting there.

So remember how I was saying the Mets aren’t sucking? Nevermind.

Way to go NHL Players Association! After refusing to accept a salary cap and having the entire hockey season canceled, what did you do? You accepted a friggin’ cap! Why couldn’t you have caved in about a year ago and not ruined the future of the sport?! Brilliant job, jackasses.

Holy crap, if I hear one more of these stupid goofy cutsie celebrity couple names, I’m going to lose it. Bennifer, Brangelina, TomKat…. the people who come up with this crap need to be mauled by rabid cougar.

Ok, lot of hostility going on there. I’m better now.

Moving on I present to you, #4 of my Top 5 Most Anticipate Movies of the Summer:

BATMAN BEGINS

Holy sweet jefe, was this a great movie! This started out as possibly the lowest of my 5, but damn, it’s since shot straight to the top! Honestly, this is the best movie I’ve seen this year, period. Yeah, I know, not a whole lotta Oscar worthy pictures have come along so far, but still, this was phenomenal. Any worries I had going in were proved completely needless. I loved, loved, loved the buildup this movie had. You don’t even see Batman til halfway through and I didn’t care at all! The slow burn was great up to the sweet payoff. I also love the way they portrayed Batman. I was scared to death that Batman was gonna show up and start showing off Matrix-like kung-fu fights. Not a chance. He moves through the shadows stalking his criminals, scaring the crap out of them until suddenly jumping out and beating them senseless. You’re actually seeing the action from the point of the view of the criminals as Batman takes them down, confused, shaking and unfocused. They’ve finally got Batman right in this film. He’s not the campy, colorful, joking putz that Schumacher turned him into the past two films. He doesn’t dress like a bat to show up at charity auctions with an eff-ing Mastercard! He dresses like a bat to scare the living piss out of criminals! Which is what this movie shows. Hell, this movie is a scary movie in and of itself. Little kids would be balling their eyes out at some parts of it. I love it! Please God let them keep this up through the sequels. Everything about Batman’s arsenal and tactics are explained here unlike the other movies, and they all make sense which is amazing considering the stuff he does. Christian Bale plays a perfect Bruce Wayne, the cocky rich playboy in public. But as Batman, he’s even better. The scene where he’s interrogating a crooked cop who he has hanging upside down over the side of a building suspended from a rope, is one of my favorites in the movie. Everyone in this movie does a great job. Cillian Murphy as Dr. Crane/Scarecrow is phenomenally creepy. Gary Oldman as Sgt. Gordon… finally we have a Gordon who isn’t some lazy ass who sits around waiting for Batman to solve all his problems! He’s an active policeman, one of the few honest ones in the city, and it’s about damn time he was shown that way. Michael Caine as Alfred is exactly as he should be, supporting Bruce but conflicted by it. Liam Neeson is so much more than I was expecting in the movie. He’s such a good actor and he’s fantastic here. Ditto Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox who had a bigger role than I expected and I’m damn happy about it. Hell, even Katie Holmes, who I was sure would stick out like a sore thumb, does a good job. While I would probably still have preferred to have the Harvey Dent character in this role, she plays her character exactly as needed, the steady, level-headed foil to Batman’s emotional, action-oriented mindset. The only minor quibble I may have with this movie is Ken Watanabe. He’s only in the movie for like 5 minutes! It’s nothing more than a brief cameo rather than the major part I was expecting him to play. Ah well, still a great movie. The last scene could also be one of my favorites but since the reviews I’ve read have all been missing this, I’d like to point something out. ...... POSSIBLE SPOILER BUT NOT REALLY JUST DON'T READ IF YOU WANT TO BE COMPLETELY SURPRISED…… the Joker reference in the final scene, while possibly setting up the sequel, is actually a reference the Batman: Year One graphic novel by Frank Miller which ends very similarly (Great novel by the way, if you want to see where this movie really came from). Ok, so that’s enough, stop reading and go see this movie already!

News and Notes:

Currently writing the strip and will hopefully start Ep. 5 in the next week or so.

Meeting Bruce Campbell tonight!!! Mwa ha ha ha!

Back home for the bro’s graduation. God, I feel old.

George Romero made another “Dead” movie. I’m rather intrigued…

Alright you chowdah-heads, until next time:

“After all these years, are you still afraid of me?”

”Well, remember on Thanksgiving when I said your turkey was dry and you picked me up and shook me?”

”Well, then, don't say that.”