After poking good-natured fun at the conventions of zombie films, the creators of Shaun of the Dead have targeted the action/buddy cop genre for their next cinematic deconstruction. The story follows an ace London cop who is transferred to a sleepy English village because his superiors fear that he’s making the rest of the force look bad. Naturally, a series of grisly murders commences soon after he arrives. Many of the genre’s staples are sent up here, including its penchant for hyperkinetic editing, the cheesy acrobatics of chase scenes, and the climactic gun battle (although I’m not sure if the creators intended their gun battle to seem as bloated and drawn out as those in the films they are mocking).

I still prefer the more arch humor of Shaun, but Hot Fuzz is a fine spoof and I’d love to see what they would do with a science fiction motif. In the meantime, I have a sudden hankering to add Point Break to my Netflix queue.

Roger Ebert, the film critic who transformed the lowly thumb into a pop culture icon, is recovering from cancer of the salivary gland.
He has had several surgeries, including a tracheotomy, and still bears many visible signs of his recent illness. Many of his friends have advised him to stay away from an upcoming film festival because his unusual appearance might be become fodder for the gossip rags. Here’s what he wrote in response:

Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. As a journalist I can take it as well as dish it out. So let’s talk turkey. What will I look like? To paraphrase a line from “Raging Bull,” I ain’t a pretty boy no more.

Hell, he should have me accompany him. Next to my rather unconventional looks, he’ll seem rather ordinary in comparison. I have Ebert beat both in terms of artificial bodily orifices and physical deformities, not to mention my assorted accoutrements like my wheelchair and vent. I’ll happily vamp for the paparazzi while he sneaks into the festival relatively unnoticed.

I just have one question. Will Jessica Biel be there? I’ll totally cover my own expenses if Ebert can score me some face time with her.

I received some sad news today. Doug Friauf, a colleague of mine in the disability community, passed away this morning from complications related to pneumonia. Doug was a fellow geek and I admired his soft-spoken articulateness on matters of access and equality. He had been struggling with some health issues, but I saw him at a committee meeting not too long ago and he seemed to be doing reasonably well. Goodbye, Doug. I wish I had known you better.

When did I give up on this season of 24? Probably during the episode where Jack Bauer wrangles the developmentally disabled brother of a suspect into a rendezvous with armed terrorists. I could almost hear the producers saying, “Hey, remember that movie Rain Man? Wouldn’t it be cool if we could work something like that into an episode?” It played out like a scene from a Lifetime movie–if Lifetime movies had more guns and terrorists in them. At this point, I don’t even really care if Los Angeles gets nuked again. I can watch a show jump the shark only so many times before I start rooting for the shark.

I experimented with Netflix’s streaming video option this afternoon. For streaming video, the quality is surprisingly good. I watched a bit of The Matrix and a few minutes of an Outer Limits episode. I didn’t notice any artifacting or skipping, and the image quality isn’t much below that of a standard television. All of the video seems to be formatted for a regular 4:3 screen, which looks goofy on my widescreen monitor. And the content selection is not terribly compelling, but I’m sure that will improve in time.

I have tickets to The Merchant of Venice at the Guthrie this evening. I’m in the mood for some good old-fashioned analog entertainment. And it will be a lovely evening for a walk.