Open to ridicule ... The Hills Have Eyes 2. They've also got one hell of a cheek, forcing this nonsense on us again: a sequel to last year's remake of the 1978 Wes Craven original. Once again, we are out in the middle of nowhere. It's an eerie, isolated stretch of New Mexico desert where nuclear testing half a century ago created a feral gang of mutant hillbillies hiding out in their own underground network of tunnels, killing innocent incomers and raping the womenfolk to perpetuate their deplorable race.
Now a group of US National Guardspersons, an elite group of the very best looking young men and women, are sent out there to accompany some civilian scientists: they arrive to find the brainiacs all dead and soon they too are being picked off, one by one. One of the group is pigheaded; another is a total babe; another has a temper; another is a bit of an anti-war pinko who thinks the president "lied" — leaving us to wonder who will turn out to have the most gutsy resourcefulness and military grit. The satirical content is more or less forgotten. Pure genre-pic boredom.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF FOX
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Under pressure, President William Lai (賴清德) has enacted his first cabinet reshuffle. Whether it will be enough to staunch the bleeding remains to be seen. Cabinet members in the Executive Yuan almost always end up as sacrificial lambs, especially those appointed early in a president’s term. When presidents are under pressure, the cabinet is reshuffled. This is not unique to any party or president; this is the custom. This is the case in many democracies, especially parliamentary ones. In Taiwan, constitutionally the president presides over the heads of the five branches of government, each of which is confusingly translated as “president”
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