Survivor

Well, things came to an end for Rupert last night as he was booted from the Pearl Islands. I'm guessing the emotional and mental strain of playing the game, added to the physical strain of being the main breadwinner of the group, really pounded him those last couple of days and he lost sight of what was going on with his tribemates. Of course, that doesn't account for what Sandra and Christa must have been thinking -- especially Sandra's weird toss-out vote for Jon -- but then, I never figured either one as a brain trust anyway.

The next big target -- if the remaining tribe members have any sense at all -- will be Burton. If he plans to fill in where Rupert left off as fisher-dude, he's going to have to spend a lot of time away from the tribe, which leaves a lot of time for the other tribe members to figure out that he's threat number one. Hopefully he'll goof up on an immunity challenge.

Elf

I think everyone who saw the trailers for Elf felt some trepidation at the idea. Will Ferrell is an incredibly funny guy when he's on (Austin Powers, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), but there's the Saturday Night Live curse with which to contend. A Night at the Roxbury is an easy target, but I don't recall anyone raving about Superstar either. So the question looms: can Ferrell carry a film by himself?

In this case at least, the answer is a resounding yes. Elf is one of the few modern Christmas films since A Christmas Story to venture into feel-good territory without becoming too treacly. There's a lot of stuff going on in this film, and some of the storylines feel underdeveloped, but Ferrell is a delight and Zooey Deschanel's singing voice is reason enough to buy a ticket. The shower scene is one of the gentlest and most charming scenes to come out of Hollywood in some time. Kudos to Jon Favreau (who cameos as a doctor) for creating a Christmas film that will become a staple of the season.

And damn if Ed Asner doesn't make a great Santa Claus.

The Matrix Revolutions

I was one of the (seemingly) few people who really enjoyed The Matrix Reloaded; I thought the Wachowskis were hinting at a really big and mind-blowing finish in which some (if not all) of the answers to the questions we'd been asking since the first film would finally be revealed.

Boy, the joke was on me.

Instead, the third film feels like an enormous cop-out, as if giving us any answers would have been too much trouble. Scott tells me that there is an explanation lurking back there, but I'm not buying it -- you can rationalize anything if you try hard enough. The Wachowski Brothers owed us something at the end of all the philosophical bullshit, and they failed. Also, I think the end of the war with the machines should have been an actual victory of some sort, not a brokered cease-fire made possible by Agent Smith's monkeying around. Much as we all love Agent Smith, when did the big picture become about him?