The Political Eight-Ball: all the answers you need are a mouseclick away.

The Political Compass: you can see where you stand compared to other greats such as Ghandi, Stalin, Hitler, and Thatcher. Pretty thought-provoking, actually. I'm more liberal than I thought!

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Bend It Like Beckham is a movie that The Hottie and I saw advertised last year during our Great British Tour 2002. It took literally a year to make it across the pond, and here it is to ride the Big Fat Greek coattails to stardom.

Of course, I thought it was interesting without the BFGW comparison, but it's hard to ignore once the media gets started; an ethnic girl tries to please both her family and herself, falls in love with the wrong kind of guy, and there's a big ethnic wedding.

Let's look past that and see why I'm willing to go pay full price for this movie. FULL PRICE. It's that good. A small disclaimer: I love Indian movies. Anything out of Bollywood makes me giggle. I *am* wary of non-traditional (if that's possible) Indian-y films that have the ability to degenerate into stereotyping ad nauseum. Since that doesn't happen here, it's a great change of pace. It's hard to find a fun, good movie that is neither cheezy nor sappy that might appeal to more than a single demographic. Whether this does or not is up to America en masse, but I hope it does well...it really deserves it.

It's so fun!

Plot: You know what? They summarize better than I do this time. "Set in Hounslow, West London and Hamburg, the film follows two 18 year olds with their hearts set on a future in professional soccer. Heart-stopping talent doesn't seem to be enough when your parents want you to hang up your football boots, find a nice boyfriend and learn to cook the perfect chapati."

Of course wacky hijinks ensue!

What I found nice in this film was that any and all situations were never too broadly played. The parents are complex, real people who have to decide when to be parents and when to be friends with their daughters. The extended family is so fun and excited in the wedding preparations and celebrations that you can't help but grin as the grande matriarch gets up to dance in the living room. She might be old, but she's still got it! Their suspicion of the 'other' is a dynamic and ever-changing feeling, just like in real life.

My only regret is that I didn't see this movie about 15 years ago. (That's a scary thought, in retrospect.) If I had, I'd be a total soccer-fiend, as well as having the bonus of being in shape! The soccer matches are some of the most fun I've seen onscreen in a while, and even the practices look fun. When you like what you do, it's not work--it's fun; these girls had fun thru the entire movie. And a note on the second lead, Jules: she's a Natalie Portman lookalike. She was in The Phantom Menace as the Amidala imposter, and it's said that their moms couldn't tell them apart. I *knew* she looked familiar!

Go see this movie. It's fun, it's sweet, I found myself grinning like a loon thru the entire thing (a nice change from the previous movie) AND the credits at the end are a hoot. You've never lived until you hear the Hindi version of "Hot Hot Hot". Oh yeah. It's got great music. GREAT.