soapbox

After Ultraviolet the other week, I was kind of nervous about picking another science fiction movie to see this weekend. However, V was much much much better.

Of course, that’s could be taken many ways, compared to absolute zero, liquid nitrogen could be considered much much much warmer. V though was actually good although perhaps not quite the same as the first Matrix.

I won’t give away too may plot points or tell you whether the Guy Fawkesian villan/hero succeeds in his goal, instead I’ll just give you the one little nit-picking issue I had with the movie. Natalie Portman’s character goes through huge development to become a real heroine and then does very little with it. That’s it, my only complaint about the movie.

Which shows you how it is possible to make a good sci-fi action adventure. (even if ultraviolet did have like 75% of the same plot.)

In case y’all haven’t heard about it yet, you absolutely must read this story about an amazing confluence of events that happened last Wednesday night in a little town called Seguin, just a little ways outside of San Antone.

In short, although this may sound too strange to be true, here’s how it went down:

First, the gate of a cattle trailer popped open, strewing cows across I-10 and drawing state troopers to the scene. A truck full of illegal immigrants from Mexico sped through the scene, darn near clipping a few troopers and prompting a chase that ended in a wrecked truck and a foot pursuit that required the assistance of the local Seguin cops, who arrived on the scene, only to park their cruisers over some dry grass beds, resulting in two burning cop cars. A picture of a burnt-out Seguin police cruiser can be found here, but I don’t know how long that will persist.

Read as a commercial, this would go something like:

Fine for driving with an unsecured load = $500
Price of cattle lost in resulting crash = $2500
Costs for passage across the border = $100
Stolen pickup truck = $10,000
Two burnt-out police cruisers = $60,000
A confluence of events that could only happen in central Texas = Priceless