Protector (1998), according to IMDB, is made for TV, and called Valentine's Day. It is full of nudity, and boasts a pretty impressive cast including Rae Dawn Chong, Mario van Peebles, Randy Quaid, Ben Gazarra, and a lovely and talented Zehra Leverman, who I was not familiar with, but has several credits at IMDB. IMDB calls it an Action/Drama/Romance/Thriller. It is actually a Mafia vs good cop/bad cop story, and a fairly good one, but has more than enough nudity and simulated sex to fall into the soft core genre.

We have two anonymous models showing breasts, Rae Dawn with clear and well lit breast exposure, and Zehre showing pretty much everything over and over. van Peebles is the good cop, trying to get a high ranking mafia boss to turn states evedence. Without giving the plot away, he trusts some of the wrong people. Rae Dawn is his ex wife and district attorney, and Randy Quaid is his partner.

IMDB readers are very harsh at 4.0/10, but totally missed the point that this is a soft core with a strong cast and way more plot than the norm. C+.

I like the movie, although the odds are you will not. It's a gabby Southern Gothic political scandal thing, with the usual Tennessee Williams characters, long poetic speeches, dark family secrets and blatant symbolism. I guess I sort of have a weakness for this kind of Americana. The DVD is weak. I re-watched the film because I wanted to, and because I thought I could improve my earlier images. I really couldn't do much. I upgraded a bit, especially the first two, but the DVD video transfer is somewhat sub-par, and the sound is downright atrocious.

• Irčne Jacob (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
• There were three other obscure naked women in the film and the deleted scenes. See my captures in the Feb 11, 2000 edition.

An interesting sidebar. I've been reading the video store trade magazine and I've noticed that for most films, rental income is almost exactly as high as domestic box office, and it tracks closely among all categories of film, from box office hits like Unbreakable to specialty fare like Pollock. Some examples: 

Of course, I chose these as the best examples, but the general rule holds true except for two categories: (1) youth-oriented movies with an R rating do better in video. Kids seem to have less trouble renting The Gift or Saving Silverman (or getting somebody to rent it for them) than they do getting into the theater.  (2) small children's movies don't do anywhere near as well as rentals. I'm not sure, but I think this is because parents will purchase their kids' favorite movies rather than rent them. As I remember, it's worth it, because kids can watch the same film dozens of times.

Some examples of these cases:

Excluding these two categories, here are the surprise hits and misses of the past months

and

A little more baseball. Some more interesting aspects of the 2001 season.

What is the best offense in the majors?

The Mariners

They scored nearly 500 runs on the road. More than the Rangers, Indians, Oakland, or any of the other better-known high-powered offenses.

Many of you laughed when I said that the Mariners had the best offense in the majors last year. Nobody is laughing now. The 116 wins lent them some credibility. This year their offense was so good that even their pitchers' park wasn't able to dampen their offensive stats by that much, and they led the majors in total runs scored, despite playing in that pitchers' park. 

How good were they? They improved their offense despite losing the best offensive player in the American League. 

Boone took up the slack in the middle infield, and Ichiro, after only one season, now leads all living players in "most hits in a season". He had the highest single season total since 1930, 9th highest of all time, and he broke the rookie record by 9. That record lasted for 90 years, and was held by Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Take a guess who led the American League in RBI's on the road? Giambi? A-Rod? You'll never guess.

Mike Cameron. 

Cameron knocked in 74 runs on the road. Also hit .310 with 18 dingers on the road. That's how good the Mariners are. Their obscure players are leading the league in important things.  Do you think of Cameron as a 150 RBI man? 

By the way, Bret Boone tied for fourth in road RBI's on his way to leading the league overall. When your second baseman knocks in 141 playing in a pitcher's park, you have a helluva team already, because the journeyman second baseman will knock in 50 in the same circumstances..

Three Mariners were in the top seven in the league in hits on the road. Edgar had his usual season (.423 OBP, 116 RBI). Ichiro had his 242 hits, leading the league in that and in batting average. Olerud knocked in 95, and had a .400+ OBP. Remember again that half of this occurred in their pitchers' park. These lads can play. They scored about 440 runs at home, by the way, their opponents scored only about 280 in those games! They came close to leading the AL in runs scored at home, despite playing in the toughest park in the league to hit in!

What is the best offense in the National League?

The Padres

No kidding. Yes, I know they suck, but that's not the fault of their offense. 

Their offensive brilliance is totally hidden by their home park. They led the NL in runs scored on the road, but they were almost dead last in runs scored at home. They scored about 320 at home, 460 on the road. Their road total exceeded any other team in baseball except the Mariners.

Nevin and Klesko would be acknowledged offensive superstars in a different park. Nevin finished 7th in the NL in slugging pct on the road - ahead of Todd Helton, not to mention Piazza and Pujols. If you knew before reading this that Nevin was a better slugger than Helton, you're a lot smarter than I am.

Of course, the Pads had the second worst pitching in the league (based on road ERA). They allowed the Pirates pitching staff to be slightly worse, but perhaps they can pick up Lima in the off season and close the gap.

Who has the worst pitching staff in the majors?

Our hapless Texas Rangers

They can hit, but they allowed 968 runs. You can't really blame The Ballpark. They allowed 490 at home 478 on the road. They allowed more road runs than anybody in the majors, and would also have allowed the most runs at home except that the Colorado Rockies are still around. (The Rockies allowed 531 at home, despite having one of the best pitching staffs in the NL. They allowed 375 on the road, 4th best in the league. You have to love the Rockies' stats. Hampton was 14-13 with a 5.41 ERA)

Who has the best pitching staff in the majors?

Take your pick: Braves or D-Backs

The Braves allowed fewer runs. The D-backs allowed fewer earned runs. Both races were neck-and-neck, could have been decided by a single game. Either answer is good. The Mariners are good, but aren't as good as you think, because of the effect their home park has on their stats. They allowed 277 runs at home, but 350 on the road. Their ERA on the road was a normal, human 4.05. (D-Backs 3.46, Braves 3.53)

A Diamondback led the NL in ERA on the road. Do you know who?

Schilling? Nah, he was way back at fifth.

Unit? Nah, a mere second.

The winning answer is Miguel Batista.

By the way, 8 of the top 15 were from the Braves or the D-Backs, including all of the top five.