I've seen a spate of movies recently. Casino Royale I saw with my sister as part of our ongoing Bond movie tradition, started a decade ago during a bored week in India. Man, there are a lot of Bond movies. It's a good brand. And I liked Casino Royale, as much as or more than a lot of folks have. I even thought the opening title sequence was elegant and rhetorically effective.

Also loved Stranger Than Fiction, which has some stuff in common with Adaptation, although evidently if you say that to someone who's taken one screenwriting class he'll talk your ear off about how different they are and how you can't even begin to comprehend all the in-jokes and meta-jokes and subtleties of Adaptation unless you've read McKee's Story, etc. I liked Adaptation -- little did I know I wasn't qualified to like it! Stranger Than Fiction has some stuff in common with it, just as eXistenz and The 13th Floor and the Matrix flicks have something in common, and The Truman Show and EdTV did.

Stranger is a kinder film than Adaptation. I can't remember whether it's a funnier one. I might be turning into a Will Ferrell fan, since I adored Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Borat is basically exactly what you expect if you read the hype. It is cruel, it is funny, it has ethics implications, etc.

Sacha Baron-Cohen, who plays Borat, is one of the folks in the Salon sexy men list, and one of the items that doesn't strike a chord with me. Evidently Stephen Colbert has quite the following and I can understand that.

Currently listening to Bunnie Huang's lecture on reverse engineering, and wishing I could be there to see Seth's talk next week.