So I've just returned home from a showing of Last Kiss, the new Zach Braff flick -- which, PS, pales next to Garden State -- and I'm excited to report that not only does Braff's character drive a Prius throughout the movie, but the car actually gets mentioned in the first two lines.
As the film begins, the lens is focused knee-height at a number of women (with very nice legs) walking at a crosswalk. The camera then pans up very slowly to focus on the front of a black Prius -- Toyota logo very much visible. As the shot continues to move up, two main characters -- Michael (Braff) and Jenna (Jacinda Barrett) -- are seen seated in the car.
Jenna says something to Michael to the effect of "What are you thinking about?" And Michael replies, "I was just thinking how convenient it is for me that it's considered hip to drive a $20,000 hybrid car." Or something like that. I only managed to scribble parts of that second line on my napkin -- I didn't know I would be taking notes for a blog post! (Though I suppose now I can write the ticket price off on my taxes ... right?)
The dialogue continues on ... though off the topic of the car entirely. I'm actually not quite sure why that line was in there. It reminded me of that awkward dinner conversation on Alias last spring. I wonder if Toyota had some sort of product placement deal.
In any case, I'm not sure anyone else in the theater even noticed. But it's great to see a hybrid car being put front and center on the big screen. I just wish it could be a little less contrived. And that we didn't have to announce out loud that it's hip. Because I'm pretty sure that just knocked it down a few notches on the hip-o-meter.
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caniscandida Posted 6:23 pm
16 Sep 2006
"The new Zach Braff flick" strikes me as a bit other-worldly. Who in the world is Zach Braff? From the picture on the side, he looks like the love-child of Keanu Reeves and David Duchovny, but, alas, not so cute as either. Why in the world does he have such an ugly name?
Lovely that his character drives a Prius, and finds it praiseworthy. At least I have heard of those. Priuses, I mean. But really, where I live, NYC, is one of the only places in the US that one does not need to own a car, so it would not surprise me at all if many of my neighbors had never heard of Priuses, or knew little or nothing of their virtues.
Of course, I do not own a vehicle of any description, and have no intention of buying one, and in fact pray that the day is far far away when I may need to buy one.
Anyway, good for the hybrid industry, I guess, and well done, Sarah, for having that handy napkin at the ready. By all means, try out that clever lower-taxes tactic.
Still, I mistrust people with cowardly, compromising, non-committal biblical names, named for minor biblical characters, such as "Zach" (Braff) and "Josh" (Hartnett). However cute. (You reach a certain age, and the cuteness does not stop you thinking: that is when you know you are old.) (But then again, that is not the end of the world. Believe it or not, new vistas open up.)
And why in the world are monosyllables considered sexy? Anyway, at least "Matt" (Damon) and "Tom" (Cruise) are named for somewhat more significant characters. And the bisyllabic "David" and "Michael" and "Daniel" are persistently popular. And "Samuel" (always however reduced to "Sam" or, in more cuddly fashion, "Sammy") has recovered lost favor.
But what about such major but unsexy names as "Moses"? What about "Abraham"? What about "Isaiah," or "Jeremiah" (well, OK, the Brit form "Jeremy" works for some), or "Ezekiel," or "Elijah"?
"Jake" is a popular name for male dogs. God knows why. Are there now little boys also being named "Jake," short for "Jacob"? With boys, "Jacob," the third-generation patriarch, re-named "Israel," is respectable. Shortening it at once to "Jake" is cowardly.
Girls' names are a whole different game. Parents feel cowardly and weirdly conservative when naming their boy babies, but feel open and free and creative when naming their girl babies. God knows why. Well, I have an idea, but let us pass on that for now. Meanwhile, be assured that "Sarah" does not at all fit the fashion that I am referring to.
On Blythe Danner: Her performance as the mother in Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" is stellar. Along with several of Woody Allen's movies, this is definitely a way to learn about classic Brooklyn, really the Athens of 20th-century America. Also, there is the sequel, "Biloxi Blues," when the Brooklyn boy is in the Army and is sent to Mississippi.
I have no idea what the excellent Blythe Danner is doing in this way-too-fast-moving vehicle about cute kids in cars. Not that I have anything against cute kids. But is she so hard up to pay for take-out? Hopefully, her part amounts to something.
Another magnificent performance by a shigtzah as a Jewish mother is that of the late Italian-American Anne Bancroft in Harvey Feierstein's "Torch Song Trilogy." Everybody knows her, from an earlier classic performance: Koo koo ka choo, Mrs. Robinson.
For some reason, Brooklyn-dialect language coaches have always been in demand. I just saw, for like the twentieth time, one of the greatest comedies of all times, "Victor/Victoria," shown on PBC here in NYC, in which Lesley Ann Warren steals every scene she is in, as a Chicago gangster's moll, as well as a Chicago burlesque performer. But does she speak Chicagoan? Does she sound like she is from the Midwest? No no no. She is Brooklyn through and through. Gott wisst es, ich weiss nichts.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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Wells Posted 3:28 am
17 Sep 2006
The fuelcell Equinox has a driving range of 200 miles, no mileage champ no matter how fueled. Even subcompact fuel cell cars have this same limitation. The 2-door Honda FCX will go only 190 miles on a tank.
There are dozens of impracticalities with fuel cell technology, from hydrogen gas production, distribution and storage systems to vehicle manufacture and safety features, questionable energy inefficiencies, etc etc.
Biofuels are ideally applicable in the hybrid drivetrain, but not fuel cell.
GM hybrids also fall short of expectations. Their electric motor drive systems do not propel the vehicle as much as 'assist' a standard internal combustion engine and transmission. It is important to make this distinction between the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape hybrid and the hybrid system in GM Silverado and Saturn VUE. The Toyota/Ford hybrid can run entirely on electricity, whereas GM hybrids cannot.
It matters not how 'cool' a fuel efficient car may be. GM is marketing their vehicles on 'cool', but are they being disengenuous? Are they purposefully failing to advance the more practical technologies in order to maintain a market dominance? The answer is, they're GM. We should expect nothing more.
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