Steven Spielberg’s "Artificial Intelligence AI" is one of the worst movies I have seen so far. The most impressive thing about this film is how it can get more worse and worse with every minute. There is no end to it - after half of the tragedy one thinks that there could be an end to it, but Spielberg just adds more unrealistic things to it. It's a Sci-Fi movie, but that does not mean that it doesn't need to explain anything. It is also a fairy tale, but still the director could have tried to entertain at least some of the grown ups sitting in the audience.

Humans are the cruel ones, the first build up artificial intelligence and then they kill the machines, who all seem to be very nice and full of feelings - although they do not have, only the little boy has. Still these robots talk and act as if their primary mission in "life" would be the protection of the weak and forgiving their destroyers. Oh please Steven, tell us about the Christians in ancient Rome if you want to bring tears in our eyes, but don't come up with a miserable idea that you manage to develop into a great failure.

And then, at the very end of the whole mess, when the aliens hang around and the story has long crossed the point of no return, Spielberg gives the child, that has gone through suffering and pain, a single day of happiness. That's it. I assume this should tell us something about being human and life in general. But it doesn’t. It only tries to induce some sentimental feelings in the audience – without succeeding.

The issue of the machine that wants to be human was treated much better by other films, foremost of all "Blade Runner" but also "Bicentennial Man" was an acceptable movie, that is also suitable for younger audiences. Watch those, but avoid AI. (0/10)

Keane by Lodge H. Kerrigan leads from the first moment into the world of a mentally disturbed person. A man looking for his kidnapped daughter. He is nervous, he is insecure, he tries to think and the more the movie follows him, the less it is clear, how much this person can be trusted. Was the daughter really kidnapped? Does he have a daughter at all? Did he maybe kidnap a girl?

William Keane appears to be a drug addict and a mad man – but is he really or is he just a person that needs help? The movie does not gives answers to this – it just leaves us with William, of whom one gets more and more afraid. When a woman, who lives next to him, starts trusting him and asks him to care for her daughter for a while, the audience just waits for the inevitable tragedy to happen. Every situation that Keane is confronted with offers a possible mistake to be made, a crime to be committed.

Kerrigans movie offers a look into the instability of the mind without giving explanations. It shows a hopeless world and a short flickering of a light at the end of the tunnel – without being pathetic. It takes the audience from a different angle and leaves no other opportunity than to let us be guided by our feelings, as no reason is visible – truth and background are missing. Keane does not need to commit any crime; we do that for him in our fearful minds, while watching the movie.

An extraordinary different movie. (9/10)

Most of you know this video (which I found here) anyhow already – it is my Easter present to my readers. The song was written by Burt Bacharach, who wrote many lovely songs and is sung here by the White Stripes, a band that fascinates me since I heared them for the first time. The video was directed by Sofia Coppola, who directed The Virigin Suicides and Lost in Translation - two beautiful movies. The girl dancing is Kate Moss, I hope you know enough good things about her, so that I do not have to introduce her.

I wish you all happy Easter, in which ever you are going to spend it. I am off to Hanko.
Cheers! Georg

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Protect the pope! Danger is brewing from Germany, his own home country. I am here in Finland and don't know any other way to help him than to raise my weak voice in this article. It is cruel and of course the root of the problem is again the Island: the Great British nation. There it is where they make fun about gods representative on Earth and all his fellow believers.

I talk about "Popetown", a British cartoon series that German MTV plans to show from May 3rd on. The series was produced by BBC, but the British broadcasting company did not dare to put it on air. Wikipedia writes the following: Popetown is a controversial animated sitcom following the life of Father Nicholas, who lives in a Vatican City parody referred to as "Popetown". The series was originally commissioned by the BBC in the UK, but was dropped from scheduling without a screening in the wake of protests from Roman Catholics.

Britain in the last minute prevented itself from what we all need to be afraid of: hurting the feelings of the Roman Catholics.

Yesterday the online version of German magazine "Der Spiegel" collected reactions from German officials on popetown:

• Secretary General of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), Markus Söder, a person that I admire in a very special way, stated: "German TV is no place for such a series. [...] It is about time to protect religious symbols by law.". Söders party is part of Germanys current government.
• The spokeswoman for human rights(!) and humanity(!) of the Christian coalition in German parliament, Erika Steinbach, was not happy that the series depicts Jesus Christ and the pope in denigrating ways. Airing the program would be a unbearable insult towards all Christians.
• The German commission for youth media protection (Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz - KJM) wrote an open letter to MTV, in which it proposed to check after the airing of the first issue of Popetown. What exactly they want to check is not clearly said in the article, but it seems the item of discussion is whether there should ever be a second issue of popetown on German TV.

I share a deep understanding, that a humorous TV series is one of the biggest threats towards an organization that is completely and seriously committed to teaching the only evident truth, as it it revealed in a several thousand years old book.

Soon it is not necessary anymore to envy the US-Americans for their progress on intelligent design, the religious influence on politics and the election of a god-fearing president. We start to slowly walk along the same path by selling TV censorship under the headline of youth protection and humanity. Naturally avoiding the question who protects youth from enforced church service by their parents or from compulsory religious education in German schools.

Jello Biafra once sang "MTV get off the air" and nowadays should be surprised to hear the religious right in Europe joining in his chanting. I always liked that song, but for the moment I hope MTV stays on the air and keeps a strict line towards providing a religiously disturbing program.

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I just read in a German news service, that the Polish author Stanislaw Lem died today.

Lem wrote books of which most are accounted as Science Fiction novels, many of them comedies. But saying Science Fiction makes pictures of Star Wars and Battelstar Galactica come to your mind - that is definitly not Lems realm. For him Science Fiction was a medium to transport his own thoughts about mankind, society, science and technology. Many of his books are funny, but always intelligent and full of irony about humans. Besides novels he also wrote non-fictional books, of which are at least some very easy to read and interesting.

He maybe is best known for his novel "Solaris", which made it twice into movies, once filmed by a Russian (Andrei Tarkovsky) and once by an American (Steven Soderbergh) director. Both films are good and worth seeing, but I say the Russion version is an exceptional piece of art.

"Golem XIV" (it is a shame that this book is out of print in English language, I only found it available in German) was the most fascinating book I read from him and is since then one of my all-time favourites. It is the story of an artificial intelligence that gives lectures to humans. He deconstructs mankind and all its weaknesses in a friendly way. This book is full of deep, new thoughts, Lems intellect is dripping from every page and it is an adventure to read it.

Stanislaw Lem was one of the few authors who was not afraid to write about complex issues and he always did it in an entertaining and readable way. I can only recommend to read his books and to let his thoughts impress you.

P.S. Finish subTV shows today (Wednesday, 29th March 2006) at 20.00 Soderberghs Solaris movie with George Clooney.