Recently finished a book called Flying Tigers — the story of Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group (AVG). If you recall, they were the mercenary fliers who, in shark-nosed P-40s, defended Burma and China at the beginning of World War II. A few of the more or less interesting things I learned:

– Their kill ratios were probably inflated, although still quite good.

– The John Wayne movie was wildly inaccurate.

– Most things considered, it cost China about $75,000 for each Japanese airship the AVG destroyed — one of the few times in warfare when the things doing the destruction cost less than the things destroyed.

– The movie Air America was about an air transport group started during the cold war by Claire Chennault.

Tonight, we went to the cinema and paid the price of admission for only one movie. So we weren’t expecting to see seven movies:

Singin’ in the Rain

Clear and Present Danger

Jurassic Park

Starship Troopers

Beauty and the Beast

Orange County

and Sleepless in SeatleThat’s right folks, King Kong dazzled us, made us laugh, and reminded us of every movie we’ve ever seen before. I’m not sure if any of these effects were intentional save the first.