In a bizarre twist, the groupd decides to jump down a 1,000 foot cliff. They make it using the Rambo method, but somehow the wolves are down there awaiting them. I guess these wolves can fly?

Bad movie

I give this movie a thumbs up for offending both conservatives and environmentalists. Well done for that!

I felt the film was too dumbed down from the original, and could have used more intelligent comedy and a deeper, longer plot full of details.

At least the mice were cute.

This isn’t a new problem, the easy to discern conflict-of-interest and appointees. In fact, it’s become one of the more disgusting tropes with this generation of politician. Dick Cheney, after all, is who we have to thank for the corrupt privatization of the military, and after pushing through the privatization scheme (yes, I say scheme because of what followed) with no business experience, and without a degree in business he suddenly becomes Halliburton’s CEO, a company that directly and immensely benefitted from a policy he pushed through. Billy Tauzin and Big Pharma, these examples are many. What IS infuriating about what Ferguson exposes, isn’t just the corrupt game of manipulation many of these appointees engaged in (the Bush Admin practically personifies this conflict of interest) it’s the deceit that’s most bothersome of all.

If a person has a current consulting job for say, Goldman and they push through deregulation that’s immediately taken advantage of Goldman, regulations that now allow for previously ILLEGAL conduct to become legal; hence the problem with prosecuting these people. Since this reality has become too common, laws need to be changed and precedent needs to be established. This conduct needs to stop, the revolving door between regulator/industry man. Imagine if a police detective during his off hours took part in the VERY crimes he was investigating, would you call foul on anyone for pointing this out? No you wouldn’t, in fact you’d praise the person for bringing such corruption to light. The perception of these white collar criminals needs to change; people get angry at mafia ties in waste disposal and the use of mob tactics to coerce extra garbage payments, yet we’re supposed to treat the people exposed in this documentary as if they’re different? Like I said, the point isn’t someone’s past, it’s their present conflict of interest which goes undisclosed that really matters here. There are MUCH more stringent restrictions based upon jury duty than there is on overseeing the giant amounts of wealth and opportunity for abuse and theft of the United States economy and this needs to change.

The fact is, when this system collapses yet again we’re going to have ONE more opportunity to make meaningful change, and one of those changes is that white collar financial corruption gets treated with the response as blue collar, mafia-esque corruption. Laws need to do more than just be placed on the books, they need to be enforced and we the people need to demand the proverbial detective not be engaging in the same criminal acts when he’s not in our employ.

1. Mayor Bloomberg was the only person I have heard properly put blame on the homeowners as well. They were stupid and greedy in many cases and the media has given them a pass, enthroning them on the pantheon of North American victimhood. The grape harvester making 17K per year and wanting a $300K home is as greedy as Fuld.

2. It would have been nice for the film to point out that 99% of the bail out has been repaid.

3. The film does not say that Bearns and Lehman shareholders were wiped out; it leaves the impression of no payback and that is simply wrong.

By the way, this movie is complete crap. Total ripoff of “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”.

Also, from an interview with director Mike Leigh:

Was alcohol an intended theme throughout Another Year? Especially for Mary?

Well, you know, alcohol is not about alcohol. It’s about pain; the pain that drives people to drink. Of course, there are different kinds of drinking in the film. I mean, Tom and Gerri, they simply drink in a moderate way and they drink in a pleasant way. But people like Mary and Ken, you know, this is a serious alcoholic problem because these are people in pain. So it’s about the pain; it’s not about the alcohol as such, of course.

But most importantly, my concluding point in my review was that alcohol is not really Mary’s addiction. Mr. Leigh’s comment states it plainly enough.