One night last week, Gladiator was showing on TV. I used to love that movie — in fact, I think I owned it at one point — but I realized something this time around. I didn't want to see the ending, Connie Nielsen notwithstanding.

(Speaking of whom, watching Gladiator did make me wonder what she's been up to, aside from guesting on Law and Order: SVU a while back. Turns out, she appears in Battle in Seattle with Michelle Rodriguez and Charlize Theron. Yet another reason to try to see that movie.)

Then, over the weekend, my girlfriend rented a few movies. One of them I haven't exactly avoided, but haven't been dying to see: 300. I know, I know, Lena Headey. Period costume works for her, but somehow I just couldn't get worked up about a movie that could realistically be called More Than 300 Really Horrible, Bloody Awful Ways to Die.

So what did this make me realize? (Besides that my girlfriend really, really loves sword-and-sandal movies? To the point where we wrestled over the remote?) It's not the violence (although I admit the over-the-top spraying blood of BloodRayne made me queasy. Possibly that was the acting). No, it's the fact that sometimes if I know the ending to a movie up front, I don't see the point in sitting through it. … continue reading

Either the French Legion knows that Michelle Yeoh can kick their collective ass back to the Napoleonic era, or they are smarter than American audiences, who have yet to give Yeoh her due. I'm guessing it's a bit of both — but there's no doubt that Yeoh's formidable skills have earned her the Legion of Honor medal (Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur), to be given at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 3.

The French civil award is akin to the British honor of knighthood, minus those pesky monarchy complications: Since its establishment by Napoleon himself (no complications there, right? oh, wait a minute ...), membership in the Legion has been based solely upon merit without regard to birth. Yeoh received a similar award in 2001, when the Sultan of her home state in Malaysia granted her the honorary title of Dato.

The "Queen of Martial Arts" — who started off as a dancer and beauty queen — tends to be modest about her accomplishments (once referring to "her own little style"), but there's nothing modest about her ability to hold her own with just about anyone, from Bond to Jackie Chan. She also happens to be an easy addition to the "making 40 fabulous" list. … continue reading