ICE PRINCESS

In ICE PRINCESS Casey Carlyle needs a great idea for a physics project, one that demonstrates her knowledge and conveys her personality. Michelle Trachtenberg stars as Casey, a bright girl who loves skating but is more assured in the classroom than on the ice. For her scholarship project she incorporates her passion for physics and ice skating. The more time Casey spends at the rink, the more she wants to try being a competitive figure skater, much to the objections of Joan Cusack as her academic-minded mother.

This is a story of a girl with a dream, but it is also the story of two mothers with dreams for their daughters, both based on dreams of their own that did not come true. Casey's mother wants her daughter to become a brilliant scholar. Tina was once a figure skating champion who made a mistake that cost her a chance at an Olympic gold medal. She wants her daughter Gen to get the gold medal she could not have. She thinks she knows what it takes to survive in competitive skating.

Artist Paints Veterans' Portraits in Vivid Strokes

The portrait artist has been going to the Veteran's Administration Nursing Home and Care Unit in Denver to paint portraits of the residents and patients. Her work — done at no charge — has had an emotional impact on the veterans and the staff at the facility.
Jim Galloway, a 62-year-old Vietnam veteran, sits for two hours as Lincoln paints him in colorful strokes. Lincoln uses a small sketch book to sketch him in pencil before shifting to her easel. Galloway — balding, with glasses, blue eyes and a ruddy complexion — rests in his wheelchair under a blue, patterned blanket. When Lincoln is finished, Galloway says he's delighted with the portrait.
At first, it took a while for the vets to get comfortable with the idea of having their portraits painted. Now, recreation therapist Donna Lonergan says she has a list of vets who want their portraits painted. Lonergan says patients emerge from their beds to watch Lincoln work.
Surrounded by the daily activity of the nursing home, Lincoln paints intently, interrupted occasionally by people passing by making comments and asking questions. Her portraits are alive with color — bright greens, blues and purples highlight the nuances of her subjects' faces and their expressions. Lincoln says painting portraits has a certain magic to it.
Lincoln isn't stopping at the Denver veteran's nursing home. She hopes to get permission to paint portraits of wounded vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In the meantime, she's learning Arabic with the intention of someday going to Iraq to paint portraits of people there.

Airforce one

The "Air Force 1", a private airplane for president, is highjacked by some terrorists. All of passengers were taken as hostages include first lady and daughter. For all president, Harrison Ford stars as a president, had an opportunity to escape, but he doesn't escape from Air Force 1. Then he tries to rescue people and Air Force out of dangerous situation. After all he is caught by terrorists, and the moment he is about to accept terrorists' demand unavoidably, he defeat the enemies after another. The climax is the final scene that president and survivors escape from falling airplane.

I love action movies, so I watched this movie with breathless interest, but it makes me laugh at the same time. Because all of presidents in hollywood movies are always invincible men like a superman. That's true! They can manage everything in the movies. When it needed, they can be a superman, Rambo, Terminator and super smart person. Needless to say, this is very interesting, but it's unrealistic a bit.

Writers Strike Looms Over Hollywood

The Writers Guild of America is announcing Friday when the 12,000 film and television writers that make up its membership will go on strike. That could be as early as Monday. Carl DiOrio says there are two major issues in the talks — how the writers are compensated for DVD sales and the distribution of content over the Internet. The writers want their DVD compensation doubled from the 4 cents per DVD they receive now. The studios have balked at the request. For now, DiOrio says, the writers are not asking for compensation from content distributed on the Internet. But they want a deal in place for when the studios figure out how to make a profit on the Internet. The studios don't want a deal in place until they begin turning a profit.

If the strike takes place, in case of movies, the effects will be less obvious in the short run, since big-screen production takes longer. The strike probably won't affect what you see at the multiplex for more than a year. But the immediate effects will be apparent on TV, some networks will show reruns, while some are looking at programming that hasn't been on their air before.

BLADES OF GLORY

Chazz and Jimmy are two professional ice skaters. After getting into a fight on the awards platform, they are both banned from mens figures skating permanently. Three years later Chazz works kiddie shows, drunk, while Jimmy fits bratty kids for skates in a sporting goods store. Then Jimmy's personal stalker informs him of a fabulous loophole in the skating federation's rules. He can compete again, if he switches divisions. So Jimmy contacts his old coach but is unable to find a female pairs partner. Jimmy's search for a partner leads him to Chazz, and his coach convinces the two of them to form the first same-sex pairs team. The reigning pairs champions, the brother-sister team of Stranz and Fairchild see the new pair as a threat to their dominance and begin to conspire against Chazz and Jimmy. The pair threaten their sister Katie into spying on the new duo. In the process, she becomes acquainted with Jimmy and begins truly to care about him. Although Chazz and Jimmy are initially disgusted by each other, they eventually develop a mutual respect for one another. Chazz and Jimmy’s coach informs them that, in order to win the finals, they will need to perform a technique that has never been performed successfully before. The technique, called the Iron Lotus, is an extremely complicated maneuver that Coach developed years ago while he was still training pairs. However, it is also extremely dangerous.

The movie is funny and the scenes of figure skating with wit and ingenuity are amazing. The off-ice shenanigans, however, including a subplot involving Jimmy's infatuation with the younger sister of the reigning pairs champions, are sluggish and lose much of the momentum generated by the skating. But you shouldn't miss the last scene.

In Dallas, a Hip-Hop Plea: Pull Your Pants Up

Saggin' — young men wearing their pants with the waistband closer to their knees than their hips — has been around for years. But a growing number of adults are deciding they've had enough. In Dallas, an interesting mix of politicians, hip-hop artists and white businessmen are announcing a citywide campaign with a simple message: Pull Your Pants Up.
Deputy Mayor Dwaine Caraway's work life usually involves economic development, crime, housing-code enforcement and stray dogs. But the drumbeat of anger from South Dallas, the predominately black part of town, got so loud that Caraway decided to take a little detour into law enforcement work — fashion police.

Two weeks ago, Caraway called a news conference and proposed a new saggin' ordinance. Unfortunately for Caraway, lawyers then called with some potentially bad constitutional news. So Caraway backed off a bit on the legal front, but he didn't give up.
"The No. 1 mission is very simple: pulling up your pants. That's all we want," Caraway says. "We don't want to throw folks in jail because they wear their pants low. So we're going to make it man's law and not city law."
And here is where fate stepped in to rescue the deputy mayor's crusade. In his barbershop in South Dallas, a rapper named Dewayne Brown saw Caraway on TV. Brown is called Dooney, and Dooney was suddenly very excited because he had been thinking about writing a new song. He already had a title: "Pull Your Pants Up." Clear Channel has agreed to donate billboard space around town and Dooney designed a billboard showing him with his arms crossed, standing in front of downtown Dallas

Dallas is not the first city to confront saggin'. Shreveport, La., Atlanta and Stratford, Conn., have discussed passing laws. But Dallas is taking a different approach, trying for the hearts and minds of its young people.

Dan in real life

Widowed dad with three young daughters, Dan Burns (Steve Carell) is an advice columnist still mourning for his wife after four years. Beside his job and his children, Dan doesn't really have a life. While on his annual family vacation at his parents' house, Dan meets the woman of his dreams. Marie (Juliette Binoche) is everything he could dream of: beautiful, kind, smart, with a great sense of humor. That is until he finds out Marie is his brother's girlfriend, and she was on her way to join the family for the weekend when Dan and she met at the bookstore. Dan tries to force himself to forget about Marie, but everywhere he turns, there she is, and his brother Mitch keeps reminding Dan how lucky he is and what a fabulous catch Marie is. Driven by jealousy and self-pity, Dan acts out his frustration like a teenager boy.

Dan in Real Life gives Steve Carell a chance to showcase his dramatic skills. There are of course funny moments, but it is the emotionally charged scenes that set Steve Carell apart. He has a way to really touch your heart.