Kiss The Girls

Another movie that disappoints in the final reel! It starts off well enough with Morgan Freeman portraying Dr. Alex Cross, a DC-based forensic psychologist/detective, who volunteers his services, when girls start to disappear in North Carolina.

One of the unlucky girls is his niece, Naomi (Gina Ravera--remember her from "Showgirls"?). The lucky girl, who escapes the mysterious "collector" is Dr. Kate McTiernan (Ashley Judd). Kate is tough as nails, as a vigorous kick-boxing scene demonstrates to us.

Drs. Cross and McTiernan sort of figure things out, but the big letdown is how dumb they and the plot get toward the end. No need to spoil it for you, but any movie goer would realize that a name actor, who has had several lead roles, would have to play more prominently in the story than you are first led to believe.

The mad slasher sequence at the end is a true insult. Here, Kate is cowering in her kitchen as the bad guy comes back to kill the one that got away. Which is it? Is she a hard-ass kick-boxer or a quivering woman in danger??

The NEA and Another Reason Why Politics Doesn't Work

How long have the Republicans talked big about cutting Government spending? What better and easier target--if largely symbolic--could there be than the beleaguered National Endowment for the Arts?

Indeed, the GOP pledged to do away with the agency entirely, in its Contract with America.

At one point in the summer, it did look as if it was all over for the NEA. After a few conference committee meetings, though, the NEA was back to business as usual.

So what's the beef? Just this: If the Republicans can't even muster the will to kill an agency supported only by the intelligentsia and literati, but certainly not by most Americans, how on Earth can they ever take on the big prey like the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and the like?

Politics as usual, regardless of the party.

"Rent," Public Health, and PC

In the hit musical, "Rent," an HIV positive transvestite picks up and seduces another man. This "Angel" is portrayed as a kind and caring man, and his new partner should consider himself lucky. Uh, what about the HIV?

There is another romance between an HIV-positive male former druggie and an HIV-positive teenage girl current druggie. Must be true love.

That such a laissez-faire attitude toward AIDS prevention doesn't prevent "Rent" from being hailed by the theater crowd is not surprising, but merely tragic. Political correctness is now more important than life itself, in these circles.