Rate G, directed by John Whitesell, with David Arquette (Gordon Smith), Michael Clarke Duncan (Agent Murdoch), Leslie Bibb (Stephanie), Joe Viterelli (Gino Valente), Sonny Talia (Paul Sorvino) and Bob the Bull Mastiff (Spot, aka Agent 11), running time: 100 minutes.
It's got a dog, a child and a bunch of screenwriters working overtime to show how clever they are pandering doggy-done-it jokes. Spot is on the lam from Sonny Talia (Paul Sorvino), a buffoonish mob boss, who wants revenge for the testicles removed by Spot's teeth. The dog takes refuge with David Arquette, a buffoonish mailman who hates dogs. More joke opportunities are added because Arquette is also doing a spot of child minding in order to get into the pants of Stephanie (Leslie Bibb), a single-mom neighbor. Ultimately, despite a number of good sight gags and situations, John Whitesell shows the limitations of a sitcom director in a medium too big to handle.
PHOTO: WARNER BROTHERS
June 9 to June 15 A photo of two men riding trendy high-wheel Penny-Farthing bicycles past a Qing Dynasty gate aptly captures the essence of Taipei in 1897 — a newly colonized city on the cusp of great change. The Japanese began making significant modifications to the cityscape in 1899, tearing down Qing-era structures, widening boulevards and installing Western-style infrastructure and buildings. The photographer, Minosuke Imamura, only spent a year in Taiwan as a cartographer for the governor-general’s office, but he left behind a treasure trove of 130 images showing life at the onset of Japanese rule, spanning July 1897 to
One of the most important gripes that Taiwanese have about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is that it has failed to deliver concretely on higher wages, housing prices and other bread-and-butter issues. The parallel complaint is that the DPP cares only about glamor issues, such as removing markers of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) colonialism by renaming them, or what the KMT codes as “de-Sinification.” Once again, as a critical election looms, the DPP is presenting evidence for that charge. The KMT was quick to jump on the recent proposal of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to rename roads that symbolize
On the evening of June 1, Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) apologized and resigned in disgrace. His crime was instructing his driver to use a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon. The Control Yuan is the government branch that investigates, audits and impeaches government officials for, among other things, misuse of government funds, so his misuse of a government vehicle was highly inappropriate. If this story were told to anyone living in the golden era of swaggering gangsters, flashy nouveau riche businessmen, and corrupt “black gold” politics of the 1980s and 1990s, they would have laughed.
In an interview posted online by United Daily News (UDN) on May 26, current Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was asked about Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) replacing him as party chair. Though not yet officially running, by the customs of Taiwan politics, Lu has been signalling she is both running for party chair and to be the party’s 2028 presidential candidate. She told an international media outlet that she was considering a run. She also gave a speech in Keelung on national priorities and foreign affairs. For details, see the May 23 edition of this column,
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