The Best Medicine

The show must go on.

Movie studios in China and Hong Kong have begun work on projects about the mystery illness Sars.

Two separate films about the respiratory syndrome, which has killed at least 219 in China and 204 in Hong Kong, are due to begin shooting, reported Screen Daily.

Hong Kong's Mandarin Films is producing The City of Sars, directed by Steve Cheung, which is due for release as early as July.

Billed as a comedy drama, it will interweave three stories centred around the rise of the illness.

One is a love story about two people who meet when they are forced into quarantine.

The second revolves around Hong Kong's medical workers and their struggle to cope.

The third involves a businessman who attempts to catch Sars after the illness makes him bankrupt.


Me, in brief

Sorry I haven't been posting for a while. All is well in Maison d'Skob. My wife is back from business travel and I actually was busy last weekend with friends taking me out for food and attempted cinematic enjoyment. Caught "Xmen 2" on Sunday. It was O.K. The opening scene of Nightcrawler teleporting around the White House to assassinate a generic-looking president was best action bit in the film, even if it made me flash back to seeing Technicolor-washed TV images of Bugs Bunny seeking up behind Yosemite Sam and pulling his hat over his eyes. It's all in the presentation.

In the end, the film is kinda boring. Evil mutants seem to have more fun than good ones. Lots of potential that's chipped away at but never mapped. Allusions to "a war between mutants and humans" are made, but it never comes to pass, along with missed commentaries about widespread persecution and terrorism fears. The baddie Mystique stole the show with her blue skin, agile flips, no-bullshit anger toward humans, and her barely-there outfit (Honestly, you'd think she'd shapeshift into a Versace, or even a polar fleece during the final battle in the frigid wastes of Canada). The film's uber-villain is wasted and appears won't be back for a sequel. "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" makes a guest appearance.

It's almost pointless to rag on a film that made something like $86 million dollars in opening weekend. You're just going to get pushed over by the mob going in for the next showing, a group wondering what you're mumbling about as they stock up on popcorn and Diet Coke. I think of it this way: it's a film that becomes its own attractor or repulser. You either like films based on comic books, or you don't. Yet, I just don't get how everyone would be so against mutants. Roger Ebert noted in his review of the first "Xmen" movie that, in this media-savvy age, mutants would be the next celebrities. If the body-altering Dennis Rodman and Pamela Anderson can be, why not a guy who can mentally move giant metal plates?

Still, it was fun to see Nightcrawler on the big screen.

P.S. I'm kinda dreading the new "Matrix" movie. Let me rephrase that: I'm worn out from all the hype. I'm tried of hype, in general...from the "Matrix" films to Harry Potter to the aforementioned "Xmen 2". If I was a technical genius, I'd invent a device where once I saw the movie, I wouldn't have to see any ads or commercial tie-ins again. I'd have some kind of immune system for overzealous adverts, fighting off infections of images and other promotions.

Well, until they mutate and my anti-hype widget is rendered worthless.