Erin and I watched several movies while Beth was gone. 1st one was his choice, and eventual regret: Stealth. it weren't so bad, just low on octane. 3 elite flyers, cracking wise to each other while saving the world. sparks were sparkling between Jessica Whatshername and Josh Nobody, which meant that Jamie Fox was dead meat. but not before a fourth jet was added to their formation. sans pilot, as this one was of exceptional tech, it flew itself. but I certainly wasn't expecting things somehow to go wrong in a very HAL sort of way!!! indications were that their commander Sam Shepperd might be a bad nickel. the drone plane wasn't taking orders properly. it went renegade and in an attempt to get the plane back, Fox buys it. at one point the drone needs to refuel. it, or he, his name is Eddie, tries to attach to a fuel plane, but is cut off. that crafty AI intelligence shoots the end of the hose off and inhales the fuel. I think by this time Jessica has had to punch out at 35,000 feet, something Sam Shepperd did in The Right Stuff .yeah, in their attempt to bring Eddie back. perhaps Shepperd gave her pointers in how to do the scene. the whole way down she's talking away, reporting her progress. maybe she was on her cellphone. she ends up in North Korea. meanwhile, Eddie and Josh joust a bit. Eddie, no doubt feeling the need for a special effect, ignites the fuel spilling from the fuel plane. a ring of fire ensues that Josh avoids meetly but Eddie gets wounded. here we come to the dramatic crux of this tale. surely you know there had to be one. Josh somehow (deus ex plot device) convinces Eddie to come back into the fold. Eddie's on fire but Josh says follow me, then flies low and drops a bomb into the ocean, which drenches Eddie and quenches the fire. well done! now Eddie's a good guy again! further meanwhile as Jessica tries to avoid capture in terrible North Korea. Josh goes to Alaska for some reason, loses his plane, beats up a few enemy, and teams up with Eddie. Sam Shepperd definitely is a bad guy. stay with me for the super denouement. Josh/Eddie hop over to North Korea, locate Jessica. Josh and Jess are desperately running from a Korean helicopter with guns a-blaze. but wait! Eddie rises up in the air. the helicopter turns towards Eddie. kaboom, they blow each other up. Eddie!!! well, everything turns out okay for Jessica and Josh.

numero due was Sahara, which is code for Indiana Jones on the cheap. a rather winsome Matthew McConnaghey and his wisecracking buddy. their quest is, curiously, a Civil War warship that somehow found its way to Africa. I didn't get that part. the movie's from a Clive Cussler book. McC plays Dirk something. they meet up with WHO physician Penelope Cruz. she's investigating a plague. also involved plotwise is a Mali warlord and a slick French industrialist. what we discover is that those 2 are doing something or other, little foggy there, and there's an enormous amount of industrial waste. which is leeching into the water table, causing the plague. bad enough? no, because the pollution is causing a deadly algae to run down the Niger lickety split, whence the Atlantic, and NYC in a matter of weeks. Dirk, you've got to hurry!!! actually, McC and his sidekick were pleasantly funny, and McC and Cruz were remarkably chaste and the thing kinda held together.

finally The Matrix. which I'd already seen but Erin likes it. it aint bad, certainly it's got visuals. I recognize elements from a very early Arthur C Clarke story. that mildly modulated monotone of Agent Smith is a classic. was he Elronbd too? the 2nd one just about injured me, it seemed so pointless. mostly it just repeated the 1st one, and I totally tired of the fights. Erin showed me some flash movie take offs of Matrix that he found on the net, which pretty well take care of the series. the worst of these, that would be stealth, is still preferable to a Woody Allen movie.