LONE STAR COLLEGE-MONTGOMERY

COURSE SYLLABUS
FOR
GEOGRAPHY 1303

WORLD GEOGRAPHY

CATALOG DESCRIPTION
Geography 1303 is a survey of human activity within the context of its regional settings. The course considers ideas such as economic development and the cultural, physical, and political, and political dynamics at work within each region. The course guides the student into thinking about human phenomenon from a spatial perspective. It emphasizes the understanding of place, region, and spatial connection.

CREDIT
3 hrs.

PREREQUISITES
None.

ADA STATEMENT
Students with disabilities who believe that they need accommodations in this course are encouraged to contact our division counselor Matthew Samford in F-338 (936-273-7341) as soon as possible to better ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.

PURPOSE
As the world has become increasingly interconnected through mutual social, political, economic, and environmental concerns and rapidly advancing technology, the need to understand geography and to be able to utilize geographic skills and perspectives has become even more critical. As educated citizens, reasoned decisions regarding issues like free trade and other matters relating to global competitiveness will require a sound understanding of foreign markets.

This course “introduces students to the geographical foundations of development and underdevelopment and to help us recognize the contributions that the study of geography can make to environmentally and culturally sustainable global development.” This in turn should place students “in a unique position to increase their understanding of the world and to use that knowledge to benefit themselves and others” (from the preface of the
textbook).

COURSE OUTCOMES
In completing this course, you will:
• Discover the scope, methods, and perspectives of geography.
• Define the relationship between geography and economic development.
• Account for the disparity among countries in the level of economic development.
• Explore the spatial bases of Europe.
• Compare and contrast the bases of economic development in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Identify the spatial bases as causes of Latin America’s pervasive economic underdevelopment.

REQUIRED MATERIALS

Texts:

Required: Clawson, Johnson, Haarmann and Johnson, World Regional Geography (Tenth Edition, 2010), Prentice-Hall. In the syllabus the book is referred to as “JHJC.”

Note: I have two copies of the JHJC ninth edition on reserve in the library; the tenth edition is a major reorganization and update, however.

Required: One pack of Scranton Form No. 882-E; you will need four of them for testing.

Optional: The Nystrom Desk Atlas. Note: This is not required, but it will help you study for the four map tests. If you have access to a recent-vintage atlas, it will supplement the map program in the textbook.

TOPICS
• Introduction to Geography.
• People and Resources.
• Physical and Cultural Components of the Human Environment.
• An overview of Economic Development.
• Europe.
• Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

PLAGIARISM AND CHEATING; FOOD AND PHONES

• Plagiarism and cheating will earn the miscreants a failing grade for the course.
• Snacks are allowed in the classroom but no cooked food, please.
• Turn off your cell phone and BlackBerry during class or set them to vibrate or whatever it is they’re supposed to do silently. Flagrantly ignoring the cell phone mandate could earn you an expulsion from the course.
• Laptop use? Go right ahead, but don’t use class time to play Solitaire online so as to distract other students. Your laptop is to be used for note taking exclusively.
• Tape recorders and video recorders? Knock yourself out—whatever helps you learn more effectively.

INSTRUCTOR
Gary Brown

OFFICE
A-220 G

OFFICE HOURS

MWF—7:00 a.m. to 8 a.m.; 11 a.m. to 12 noon.
T-Th—7:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.; 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

PHONE
• Work (936) 273-7324
• FAX (936) 273-7322
• e-mail garyb@lonestar.edu
• Web site: http://mcweb.woodstock.edu/~garyb/

PROPOSED CALENDAR:

Week of:
08/29 Topic One: What is Geography?
In-class material

Note: No class on September 5—Labor Day

09/05 Topic Two: An Overview of Economic Development and Globalization
Reading Assignment: JHJC, Ch. One, pp. 1-8; 17-24

09/12 Topic Three: People and Resources
Reading Assignment: JHJC, Ch. One, pp. 8-17

09/19 Topic Four: Physical and Cultural Components
Reading Assignment: JHJC, Ch. One, pp. 24-46

09/19 Topic Five: Geographic Dimensions of Development
Reading Assignment: JHJC, Ch. One, pp. 51-71

09/26 Test One: Topics One, Two, Three, Four, Five
The test will consist of objective questions and Europe place-name

09/26- Topic Six: Europe
10/17 Reading Assignment: JHJC, Ch. 4, pp. 212-269

10/24 Test Two: Topic Six
The test will consist of objective questions and Asia place-name.

10/24- Topic Seven: Australia, New Zealand, and Japan
11/14 Reading Assignment: JHJC Ch. 12, pp. 589-606; JHJC Ch. 10, pp. 538-559 (Japan)

11/14 Test Three: Topic Seven
The test will consist of objective questions and Latin America place-name.

11/21 Research Paper Due—November 21 is the Drop Dead Deadline

Note: Thanksgiving holiday is November 24-27

11/21- Topic Eight: Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.
12/05 Reading Assignment: JHJC Ch. 3, 142-183

12/12 Final Exam: Topic Eight
The final exam will consist of objective questions and Africa/Middle East place-name.

ATTENDANCE EXPECTATIONS

• Attendance will be taken on a daily basis, beginning with the second meeting. A student who has missed more than six hours of class is in a position to be dropped from the roll, though the responsibility for dropping a class belongs to you. For whatever reason a student is able to fly under the radar and exceed the allowed number of absences, under no circumstances will the grades of “A” or “B” be given to anyone who has missed more than six hours of class time.
• Remember that November 11 is the last day to drop and receive a “W.”

EVALUATION

• Testing: There are three tests, a research paper, and a final exam. Each is worth 20% of the final grade. The final letter grade is based on the ten-point scale, i.e., 90-100=A, 80-89.9=B, 70-79.9=C, 60-69.9=D, 59.9 and below= F. A final average of 79.9% is a C, so every point counts.
• Extra credit: There is no extra credit available; work hard on the assigned tasks at hand.
• Make-up Tests: You are expected to take tests on scheduled test days. If you are not in your assigned seat for a scheduled test, it will be so noted. No phone calls or emails are necessary; a test in your name will be carried to the Test Center in the C-building (second floor). You have until the end of the following day to take the makeup. Failure to follow this procedure forfeits your right to take a makeup test. No makeup will be allowed for the final exam.
• Cal Ripken Jr. “Iron Man” bonus points for attendance: 0 hours missed is worth 3 extra points, 0.1-1.0 hours is worth 2 extra points, 1.1-2.0 hours is worth 1 extra point to be added to the final average. For example, the student who has a 78.4 average after four tests and the research paper but maintains perfect attendance throughout the semester will end up with a B instead of a C.
• I allow students who choose to do so to prepare one 3” x 5” note card, front and back, containing as many class notes (but no map information) as possible, for use on a test. The notes must be tangential to the surface of the card, which will be checked before the test is distributed. No note cards will be allowed for use with make-up tests.

Power Point

mediapartII

2010-2011 Lone Star College-Montgomery Film Series

This upcoming year I’m going with themes–Alfred Hitchcock in the fall and “The Thin Man” in the spring. Saturday shows begin at 7 pm and the Monday ALL show is at 1 pm. Movies are shown in B-102 on campus and the cost is FREE.

Here we go:

Fall 2010 “Alfred Hitchcock”

Sept. 11, 13 “Notorious”
Sept. 18, 20 “Dial M for Murder”
Sept. 25, 27 “Rear Window”
Oct. 2, 4 “To Catch a Thief”
Oct. 9, 11 “The Man Who Knew Too Much”
Oct. 16, 18 “Vertigo”
Oct. 23, 25 “North by Northwest”

Spring 2011 “The Thin Man”

Jan. 29, 31 “The Thin Man”
Feb. 5, 7 “After the Thin Man”
Feb. 12, 14 “Another Thin Man”
Feb. 19, 21 “Shadow of the Thin Man”
Feb. 26, 28 “Song of the Thin Man”

Stop the presses: ‘State of Play’ works for me

Three out of four stars (Rated PG-13 for some violence, language including sexual references, and brief drug content) Running time: 127 minutes. Reviewed at The Woodlands Tinseltown 17 on April 17.

Newspapers and I go back a long time. Dating back to grammar school I’ve been reading a daily newspaper, impatiently waiting every morning at 5 o’clock for the paper to hit the driveway.

Yet when I poll my students as to whether they read a newspaper, typically only a few hands go up. Several students routinely sit in class checking their BlackBerry, while others catch the news online later on in the day or they don’t follow the news much at all.

That in a nutshell explains the current dismal state of the newspaper industry. Several dailies have gone under recently and now even our local daily combines the business section with city and state news on certain days. Advertising revenue has dropped dramatically, partly because of the recession but in larger part due to competition with the online Craig’s List.

Going back to “The Front Page” in 1931, the magic of newspapering has been well represented on the silver screen. “Citizen Kane” was Orson Welles’ thumb to the eye of media mogul William Randolph Hearst, while Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell played married reporters for laughs in “His Girl Friday.” Oscar-winner “All the President’s Men” still serves as the gold standard of cinematic excellence portraying Woodward and Bernstein’s expose of the Watergate scandal.

Now there is the new political thriller “State of Play,” which reminds me a lot of “The Parallax View.” Based on a recent BBC mini-series, scruffy Washington Globe reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) covers the nighttime murder of two people in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C.

Then a train hits a congressional staffer—suicide is offered as the likely cause—except she was the lead researcher on Congressman Stephen Collins’ (Ben Affleck) special committee investigating an unscrupulous security contractor with dealings in Iraq (think Blackwater).

And wouldn’t you know it—Collins and McAffrey were college buddies, McAffrey still has a thing for Collins’ babe wife Anne (Robin Wright Penn), and Collins was having an extramarital affair with the now deceased staffer. Immediately both cable television and the blogosphere jump into action.

Collins is a presidential aspirant, so an alleged dalliance with a staffer is fodder for the ratings. Chris Matthews weighs in with his nonstop motor mouth, and even Lou Dobbs pauses from his usual rants at illegal immigration and factory closings to give his two cents worth.

But let’s not forget those stodgy newspapers—the Globe has been acquired by a conglomerate and the prickly editor (Helen Mirren) wants to boost daily circulation. She orders both Cal and the young upstart blogger Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) to get the scoop.

The plot has more twists than a soft pretzel. But the heart of the story revolves around this unlikely merger of the past—Cal drives a 1990 Saab, wears clothes that would be refused by the Salvation Army, keeps a bottle of whiskey in his desk drawer, and combs his hair like Shemp Howard—with the present, represented by Della and her forever-blogging ways.

Though the story is outlandish, it’s Crowe’s terrific performance that carries the movie. While his accent sometimes wavers between the South Bronx and South Australia, the Oscar winner is compelling to watch on screen and his off-beat character as multilayered as the Sunday edition.

‘Hannah Montana’ wigs out in Tennessee

Three out of four stars (Rated G) Running time: 102 minutes. Reviewed at The Woodlands Tinseltown 17 on April 10.

I keep a favorite cartoon on my office door penned by Mike Peters for his “Mother Goose and Grimm” comic strip.  In it a lady at the Daily Planet points her finger at Clark Kent and yells, “Hey…wait a minute…you’re Superman!” followed by the caption, “Clark Kent makes the ill-fated decision to wear contacts.”

I see great similarity of that cartoon with the extremely lucrative “Hannah Montana” franchise.  While I’ve never watched so much as one minute of the popular Disney Channel series or seen the blockbuster Hannah Montana 3-D concert movie last year, I really find it incredulous that an aspiring pop singer can put on a blonde wig and maintain an alter-ego personality unbeknownst to anyone except her family and close friends.

Now we have “Hannah Montana: The Movie.”  The usher warned me—“this place has been overrun with little girls.”  No problem—I’m a veteran of similar fare, having previously endured Britney Spears’ “Crossroads” and Mariah Carey’s “Glitter” along with Lindsay Lohan and Ashlee Simpson movies, too.

Into the mega-stadium I went, the only adult male sitting alone amongst a packed house of overly excited pre-adolescent girls with their moms and a few scattered dads, and some teens, including the young lady sitting next to me who text-messaged during the entire movie.

We meet Miley Cyrus, playing Miley Stewart, who in turn is the superstar pop singer Hannah Montana when wearing a blonde wig from the Early Dolly Parton Collection.  “She’s the most popular teenager in the world!” says her publicist (Vanessa Williams).

Ah, but Miley’s father Robby Ray Stewart (Billy Ray Cyrus, her real life father) is concerned that the good life in Beverly Hills is going to her head. 

Oh, you mean like Miley having a catfight with Tyra Banks in an exclusive shoe store over a pair of high heels that ends up in all the tabloids?  Or Miley stiffing her best bud Lilly’s sixteenth birthday party at the Santa Monica Pier? (My twins are lucky to get the party room at McDonalds.)

Robby Ray pirates Miley away on a private jet bound for a music awards show in New York—she actually complains about the size of the bathroom on board—and sets down in her hometown of Crowley Corner, Tennessee.  “We’re taking Hannah Montana away from you,” he says.  In other words, Robby Ray wants Miley to get away from the spotlight and return to her country roots—for two weeks, or at least until the next royalties check arrives in the mail.

Miley’s country roots aren’t too shabby.  Grandma’s spread dwarfs the Ponderosa. Plus there’s a young hunk ranch hand named Travis (Lucas Till) who had all the girls in the audience screaming in adoration.

The table is set for rest of the movie.  Miley meets a boy, Robby Ray meets a woman, a developer plans to build a mall and destroy the ambience of Crowley Corner—still undiscovered by Wal-Mart and evidently not wired yet for cable television, since none of the natives can figure out that Miley is really Hannah Montana.  Of course Hannah finally shows up to belt out some songs at a fundraiser.

In other words, it’s a pretty dumb, predictable story, at least to a suburban sophisticate such as myself.  But for a ten year-old girl, the target audience, “Hannah Montana: The Movie” is good, clean G-rated fun without so much as one wet kiss.  Yee-haw!

‘Adventureland’ is an amusing coming-of-age tale

Three out of four stars (Rated R for language, drug use, and sexual references) Running time: 106 minutes.  Reviewed at The Woodlands Tinseltown 17 on April 3.

In 1976 I sold dictation machines for an office equipment company, trying to save enough money to attend graduate school.

Totally out of my element and comfort zone of life, I befriended a small cadre of rival salespeople who became my support group for failure.  We would meet at Denny’s for coffee a couple of mornings a week and exchange dead end sales leads while gabbing mostly about women and sports.  Then lunch would roll along and we’d all call it a day and go home or head back to the office. 

My total sales commissions for two months of futility amounted to $12.

That’s why salesmen in despair movies like David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” and Barry Levinson’s “Tin Men” are personal favorites.  While I flopped miserably at that line of work, the experience helped pave the way for what eventually became my career—only in my case I took the extended scenic route.

It’s also why I enjoyed “Adventureland,” the new coming-of-age comedy that opened this past week.   Writer-director Greg Mottola (“Superbad”) based the story on his experiences as a young college graduate working for a summer at a low rent amusement park in Long Island while he weighed his career options.

We are introduced to James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg of “The Squid and the Whale”), just graduated from college with plans to spend the summer 1987 in Europe and then onto Columbia University to study journalism.  The problem is his father has been demoted and the money isn’t there to pursue either venture.

Stuck with his parents in suburban Pittsburgh, James has to go to work—oh, the agony—to help underwrite the cost of his own graduate school education.  James obviously spent too much time in the library reading Kant because he has no discernible job skills—“I’m not even qualified for manual labor,” he laments. 

Ah, but there is one employer of last resort in town—Adventureland, a run down amusement park run by a married couple named Bobby (Bill Hader) and Paulette (Kristen Wiig).  There are two job opportunities: games or rides, so stated on different color employee t-shirts.  James wants to work rides, which is light duty, but Bobby places him in games—“You’re more of a game guy.”

Except that the games for the most part are rigged so that no one wins. 

But the heart of the story is based on James coming out of his pot-smoking cocoon existence and learning about life in the real world.  He interacts with the wacky employees who have more of a day-to-day outlook rather than any goals or plans.

One such employee is the four-eyed egghead Joel (Martin Starr) who astutely puts things into perspective: “We are doing the work of pathetic morons.”

Another is the brooding Em (Kristen Stewart of “Twilight”).  She maintains a secretive romantic dalliance with the married maintenance worker Connell (Ryan Reynolds), who claims to have jammed with Lou Reed.  Virginal James falls for Em, who carries a load of emotional baggage from the tragic loss of her mother two years earlier.

“Adventureland” is not an outlandish comedy like “Superbad.”  Uneven and downright bumpy at times, it’s a reflective look at life in the 80’s, backed by a terrific soundtrack—“Rock Me, Amadeus” and the like—and enough chuckles to justify two hours of your life.

Better to go the 3-D route for ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’

Three out of four stars (Rated PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language) Running time: 94 minutes.  Reviewed at The Woodlands Tinseltown 17 on March 27.

“Can 3-D Save Hollywood?” asked the Wall Street Journal in an entertainment story last weekend.  Movie ticket sales have dropped over the past decade, particularly last year when the economy turned south.  So studios and theater chains are looking for a new hook to pump up their profits.  The same thing happened in the 1950s when the advent of television sent the motion picture industry reeling (bad pun), but with limited effect.

According to the WSJ story as many as 45 3-D films will be released in the next two and one-half to three years, so keep those funky 3-D glasses handy, folks.

The newest 3-D entry is the DreamWorks Animation “Monsters vs. Aliens,” a funny though sometimes violent spoof of 1950s science-fiction fare.  First I sat through the 2-D version, which was playing on three screens at our local multiplex.  I was underwhelmed by what I saw comparing the movie to animated titans as Disney-Pixar’s “Finding Nemo” and “Cars.”

Then I watched the 3-D version and was blown away by the production quality.  There is something magical about watching a well-made 3-D feature film—even one with a less than stellar script—to listen to the ooh’s and ahs and giggles generated by kids in a sold-out theater, all wearing their 3-D glasses.  With “Monsters vs. Aliens” there were plenty of them, at least enough to justify the extra bucks to see the 3-D version. 

The story opens in Modesto, California, where spunky Susan (voice of Reese Witherspoon) is about to marry local TV weatherman Derek (Paul Rudd). On her wedding day, a giant meteor strikes Susan.   Lo and behold, during the ceremony Susan grows uncontrollably to 49 feet—thus bringing to mind the schlocky “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman” of yesteryear. 

In comes the government to the rescue—we’ve been hearing that a lot lately—and Susan is detained in a secret military installation commandeered by General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland).  It seems for the past 50 years or so the government has been sequestering away a variety of monsters. Susan—now named Ginormica—meets each of these lovable critters.

There is a one-eyed, dimwitted light blue blob of Jell-o named B.O.B. (Seth Rogen); a diminutive half-man, half cockroach known as Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (Hugh Laurie); the Missing Link (Will Arnett), sort of a Creature From the Black Lagoon clone; and finally the giant Mothra-prototype Insectosaurus that emits a strange noise like the guitar riff from the Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now.”

The General promises the long-detained quintet their freedom if they will do battle with an invader from outer space, the four-eyed (literally), six-legged Galaxhar (Rainn Wilson).  The military cannot stop Galaxhar with its arsenal, so the President (a funny Stephen Colbert) gives his approval to the plan.

San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge do not fare well in the resultant battle, which is truly spectacular to watch in 3-D.  This is a mild version of “Mars Attacks,” toned down but violent enough to earn the film a PG-rating.

Coming soon on the 3-D horizon: coming attractions featured the next “Ice Age,” Disney-Pixar’s “Up,” “Battle for Terra,” and “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.”  The latter’s plop of spaghetti falling from the sky earned the biggest “ewww!” from the young audience.

‘I Love You, Man’ funny enough to recommend

Three out of four stars (Rated R for pervasive language, including crude and sexual references) Running time: 105 minutes.  Reviewed at The Woodlands Tinseltown 17 on March 20.

A scheduling quirk forced me to take a pass on the Julia Roberts adventure-thriller “Duplicity” to see instead the bromance comedy “I Love You, Man.” 

First things first—I had no idea what a “bromance” was until my much more hip wife explained it to me.  MTV has been airing a reality show called “Bromance” described at Imdb.com as: “Guys compete in a series of challenges that test the limits of male bonding for a chance to become part of a reality star’s entourage.”  Huh?

Further, she explained, there was another reality show titled “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF” in which the promiscuous socialite auditioned young ladies to become her new BFF—that’s Best Friend Forever, for the uninitiated. 

This modern day lingo is so confusing to a Truman baby (as in Harry S).  I’ve maintained a thirty-year close, trusting friendship with a buddy in North Carolina—he calls me “Mr. Bowes” and I call him “Mr. Pitney,” names we adopted from a series of radio commercials in the early 80’s for the postage meter company.  Yet I’ve never thought of our relationship as a “man-crush.”  That sounds rather violent to me.

In the movie “I Love You, Man,” we are introduced to late 20-something straight arrow Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd), a Los Angeles realtor.  He proposes marriage to the fetching Zooey Rice (Rashida Jones of “The Office”), who immediately hits the cell phone to inform her network of gal pals.

The problem with Peter, however, is that he has no close male friends—not a dude, bro or homeboy to be found.  Someone has to be his best man for the upcoming June wedding.  An acquaintance sums up Peter’s plight with, “I honestly believe that his best friend is his mom.”

Peter auditions men to see if one might emerge to become his best dude and serve as best man at his wedding.  While that doesn’t like enough to justify the liberation of ten bucks from your wallet, it is.

After a series of hilarious “man-dates” arranged by Peter’s gay brother Robbie (Andy Samberg), Peter has an innocent encounter with the slovenly Sydney Fife (Jason Segel, the same actor who displayed his private parts in Judd Apatow’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”). 

They meet at the open house of Lou Ferrigno’s mansion.  If Peter gets a healthy commission check from the sale of the Ferrigno estate, he can buy a tract of land and build a dream home for Zooey—or something like that. 

What drives the movie is the bond that forms between this modern day Odd Couple—stick in the mud Peter, matched with the hang loose Sydney, who will remind many of Bill Murray’s offbeat character in “Caddyshack.”  Sydney, purporting to be an investments broker, lives in a small house complete with a “man-cave” featuring a bong, drum set, guitars and amps, and his self-designed “masturbation chair” (don’t ask).

The script from director John Hamburg and Larry Levin is formulaic, but the laughs flow from the manly man things that Peter discovers as his friendship with the complete opposite Sydney grows.  One thing they have in common: a complete adoration of the Canadian rock band Rush.

This is Judd Apatow material with Apatow nowhere to be found.  But it is funny.

Rock-filled ‘Witch Mountain’ is hardly a gem

Two out of four stars (Rated PG for sequences of action and violence, frightening and dangerous situations) Running time: 99 minutes.  Reviewed at Cinemark Market Street on March 13.

In 1975 Disney released a science fiction adventure movie called “Escape to Witch Mountain,” starring Eddie Albert as a nice old widower who befriends two orphans with paranormal powers.  At the end the two kids take off in a flying saucer. 

That was followed several years later by the sequel called “Return to Witch Mountain,” memorable only because it starred Bette Davis in a rapid descent—call it a nosedive—from her illustrious film career.

Neither title resonated as classic children movie fare—certainly not in the “E.T.” bracket—but that doesn’t appear to have deterred the Magic Kingdom from reaching down deep into the well again.  Now we have “Race to Witch Mountain,” not quite a remake of the first two but the story remains the same.

This time the action shifts to Las Vegas, where ex-con cab driver Jack Bruno (former professional wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) picks up two mysterious (aren’t they all?) teens named Seth (Alexander Ludwig) and Sara (AnnaSophia Robb).  Off they drive into the desert, pursued by Department of Defense employees mimicking the Keystone Kops, led by the sinister Henry Burke (Ciaran Hinds).

Seth and Sara are illegal aliens of the extraterrestrial variety, arriving in a flying saucer now being stored in Witch Mountain, a government facility probably funded by a Congressional earmark.  They’ve come to Earth on a mission to save their planet 3,000 light years away, pursued in turn by some oversized alien enforcer that looks like the Creature from the Black Lagoon after taking some serious anabolic steroids.

First things first, however—thirty minutes into the movie and dim bulb Jack still hasn’t figured out their identity, this coming after overt displays of power that no human could possibly perform.  One involves Seth zapping himself out of the cab during a high-speed chase to stop a Chevrolet Avalanche head on. 

Not to mention that when Seth and Sara talk, they always inject the cabbie’s name: “Jack Bruno, the vehicles behind us are indicating a pattern of pursuit,” or “Jack Bruno, it is understandable that you scared and confused given the turn of events.”

Finally a chase ensues between the cab and a flying saucer through a mountain tunnel in which, you guessed it, the cab escapes but the saucer collides with an oncoming freight train.

At that point Jack is still clueless.  Then Sara does a levitation trick with some loose change and he finally gets the picture.  Oh, did you know that Sara also reads minds?  Problem is with Jack she doesn’t have much material to work with.

Jack and a comely astrophysicist named Alex (Carla Gugino) try to help the two aliens return to their spaceship, fending off government agents, mobsters, the alien enforcer, and a gathering of costumed space cadets at a UFO convention.  There’s lots of gunfire (nothing hits), loud explosions, and more high-speed chases.

Of course “The Rock” gets to display his wrestling talents, taking on the alien enforcer as though he was tangling with Triple H.  The Samoan Drop might help him do the trick.

Note:  The movie marks the return of the two young actors from the original.  40-something Kim Richards, aunt of Paris Hilton, plays a waitress, while Ike Eisenmann appears as the sheriff.  His father was “Cadet Don” on Channel 13 back in the 1960’s.

For the initiated ‘Watchmen’ is worth the time

Four out of four stars (Rated R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity, and language) Running time: 162 minutes. Reviewed at Cinemark Market Street on March 6.

When the seventh and final installment of the “Harry Potter” series was released to the public at midnight on July 21, 2007, a gent that I teach with—call him John—was there at a bookstore to purchase his copy. 

He proceeded to read the book and gave me a full report the following Monday as to its contents.   There are people like John that enjoy science fiction adventure stuff such as “The Matrix” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogies.  I’m not one of them.

So it didn’t surprise me when I asked John on Friday if he was familiar with the “Watchmen” series that had been made into the movie I was going to see later that morning.  Of course he was familiar with it, going one step further by rattling off the details as though he had just read the thing.  John told me about the superheroes story set in 1985 with Richard Nixon in the White House and the United States about to go to nuclear war with the Soviet Union. It piqued my interest. 

Zack Snyder of the gore-fest “300” also directed “Watchmen,” so I knew the graphic violence would be there on full display. 

My enjoyment would have benefitted by reading the Wikipedia description of the DC Comics series released in 1986 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen).  As far as the storyline of the graphic novel series is concerned, “Watchmen” skips few details in its lengthy (162 minutes) adaptation.

But let me make this disclaimer—if gore is not your thing, steer clear of this one. 

As described earlier, the setting is October 1985.  Yes, Tricky Dick is still occupying the White House with his cabinet officer Dr. Henry Kissinger, scheming to defeat the archrival Soviet Union in the Cold War.  The world seems dark and dreary, similar to that shown in “Dark City.”  Many 1985 icons appear—“The McLaughlin Group” gives commentary and analysis, Lee Iacocca is there offering his K-car and a rebate check, and get this—Vietnam has given up the fight and joined the United States. 

The brutal murder of a superhero/vigilante named the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) brings back together a gang of masked, spandex-clad superheroes called the Watchmen.  One of them, Rorschach (Jackie Earl Haley) wears a mask that looks like an evolving inkblot.  He suspects that there is a plot to eliminate the old gang and in turn the rest of the world.

Only one Watchmen has superpowers, that being the (literally) all-blue, out of this world Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), who parades around in his birthday suit and takes up occasional residence on Mars (don’t ask).

There’s also the hottie Silk Spectre II (Malin Ackerman), Dr. Manhattan’s former squeeze but now taking up residence with the dweeb Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson).  That leaves Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), who in his daytime job is the wealthy industrialist Adrian Veidt.  Even the uninitiated can figure out he is up to no good.

The resultant violence is laid on thick—there is both a street riot and prison riot, blood flows freely, hands are amputated, a head is split in two with a meat cleaver, bones are crunched, and glass—lots of glass—gets broken with chilling effects. 

Mixed in among the violent action is some heavy-duty philosophical mumbo jumbo that quite honestly flew over my bald noggin.  I’ll likely see “Watchmen” a second time during spring break when I have the time.