10.28.2006

Departed

Gail and I went to see "The Departed" last night. We both thought it was an excellent movie. It's been reviewed saying it's not Scorcese's best; that's faint damnation of course. It's just a solid action film with a bit of over-the-top Scorcese edge in places. (The scene where Jack Nicholson is throwing fistfuls of cocaine into the air over the bed in preparation for the black call girl to go down on his girlfriend? Good fun, but gratuitous.)

I don't like Leo DiCaprio much. But even I thought he was good in this.

The thing that I couldn't stop looking at, though, was DiCaprio's firearm. This movie is all about killing each other with guns. Lots of guns. Everyone is going to kill everyone else, all the time, with a gun. So you'd think the gun thing would be scrupulously researched.

DiCaprio carries a Walther PPK/S in the movie. This is a .380 caliber semi-auto that holds seven rounds. It's the same gun James Bond carried.

The PPK/S is a beautiful gun (as guns go). It's relatively small, it's nicely rounded, and it's super stylish.

The problem is, it's a .380 caliber - it doesn't have horsepower. It's the same size bullet as a .9 mm, but it's got half the gunpowder. So its kinetic energy on target is low - there are lots of stories of .380s either not piercing automobile windows, or going through a windshield and hitting the target (human) without enough energy left to pierce it.

The PPK/S carries an adequate but unnecessarily meager seven rounds. It's sometimes used as a backup weapon (some call it an ankle gun), but as a primary, everyday, concealed carry, must-kill-the-Guineas-from-Providence gun... it sucks. Just not what any self respecting badass in a murderous south Boston gang is going to carry. It's like mowing a golf course with a Sears push mower - it will either take a long time to do it, or you'll just die in the process.

Everyone else had big guns. Or they had small guns with big personality. There are lots of really small .9 mm and even .40 and .45 cal weapons the props department could have given him. But they're not as pretty. (See Warthog or Kahr for example.) These are high caliber and usually hold seven to 12 rounds.

And that concludes 'Guns at Breakfast' for this Saturday morning.

10.24.2006


Stevens Pass this morning. First snow I've seen. (DOT needs to buy some web cams of a more recent vintage...)
click pic

10.23.2006

Don't be a douche

Jack Black making fun of those anti-piracy spots Hollywood's producing.

10.22.2006

Fall days: temps up, leaves down

Went for a ride today up I-90 to exit 34, then to Dorothy Lake Rd. Went out across the middle fork of the (which river was that?) then took a right and it got good and muddy.

I was with a friend who shall remain nameless for if this person's family knew (s)he had a motorcycle, well, they'd know(s)he was having some fun I guess.