July 05, 2003

Idler Yet has a recap (with links) of the Davis recall and the race for Governor of California. (via Instapundit --yes, he is back.)

And Idler Yet offers a movie review:

Dozens of reviews of Schwarzenegger's new movie, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines were clearly written before anyone set foot in the theater. For your typical scum-of-the-earth movie critic, of course, pre-judging this one is a no-brainer. This is a second sequel after a long wait, like Godfather III; Arnold is getting old, time to take him down; and the California election story supplies the hook: he needs to go into politics, because with this turkey his movie career is over, blah blah blah. (And there's no downside to trashing it. No critic ever lost face by slamming an sf action movie.) Well, it's all a crock. I just saw the movie, and�don't worry, no spoilers follow�while it lacks the dark gloss Cameron gave the first two, it's not a let-down, but a good solid thriller that establishes its sympathetic characters economically, moves assuredly, and after a too-familiar first twenty minutes makes several clever additions to the overall Terminator story-line. Arnold doesn't look his age either, and made me laugh with some frumious new facial expressions for the sf humanoid he plays and is. If you like this sort of thing, as Mr. Lincoln said, this is the sort of thing you will like. I certainly enjoyed it. But I only mention it here to make the point that it's going to be a big hit despite any pissy reviews you've seen, and therefore Schwarzenegger has options. He will be able to finance five more years of movies if that's what he wants to keep doing. If the recall election gets postponed to March, if it looks like he'll have to take on the popular Dianne Feinstein, he can pass the governorship up. But if he decides to go for it regardless of opposition, he'll have a winner's momentum behind him.
Posted by Greg Ransom