Cyborg

"I like scars--really," says a girlish, love-starved refugee in "Cyborg" (citywide), trying to woo the bloodied beefcake hero with a little idle flattery about his battle blemishes. This movie too, jam-packed with clockwork bits of the old ultraviolence, is mostly for people who like scars--really.

I miss Oscar. There, I've said it. With his funky aviator specs and his now politically incorrect use of the word "babe," there is no way Oscar Goldman could have made the 30-year leap from "The Bionic Woman" to NBC's great new noir remake "Bionic Woman." (So sleek and hip it doesn't need a "the."

In David Andrews' last television series, "The Antagonists," he played a defense attorney. When he was cast, the producers were unaware that Andrews is a former lawyer. He was practicing law in San Diego when, at the age of 25, he experienced what he said was a "midlife crisis." He quit, divorced his wife, sold his car and decided to become an actor.

The ads are right--"American Cyborg: Steel Warrior" (citywide) really is "the ultimate science-fiction battle of the new year," at least given the dearth of other science-fiction battles in competition since the Rose Parade. It's also the quintessential "Terminator" rip-off of the new year. And, as far as shoestring-budgeted, Israeli-made movies with "American" in the title go, this one's unqualifiedly the tops since Jan. 1.

It doesn't do windows or check the oil, but a robot introduced Wednesday at a Sacramento-area Shell service station pumps gas and takes credit card data while drivers stay in their cars. Like the nearly extinct human gas station attendant, the "customer interface center" at Shell's Smart Pump moves up to the driver's window, asks what grade of gas to pump, takes credit card information and gives a receipt.

After blocking a drug treatment center from taking over a defunct hospital in their neighborhood, Lake View Terrace residents were startled to see the vacant buildings suddenly wrapped in razor wire-topped fences and barred windows. What about the public hearings, the environmental reviews, the City Council debate that should have preceded such a radical metamorphosis? But that's Hollywood.

In his Oscar-nominated documentary "Streetwise," director Martin Bell took a compelling, sometimes heart-wrenching look at the youthful runaways and street kids who haunt downtown Seattle. Bell has returned to Seattle for his first feature film, "American Heart," currently shooting there with Jeff Bridges and, as Bridges' son, Edward Furlong of "Terminator 2."

With the Oscars less than a week away, there's no better time to slip movie references into our daily lives than now. Even in sports. After a throttling Saturday at the hands of Oklahoma, Texas Tech Coach Pat Knight delivered a curious movie reference during the postgame news conference. Knight, whose team crumbled thanks to the 40-point, 23-rebound performance by Sooners sophomore Blake Griffin, shook his head in disbelief as he spoke. "Have you guys ever seen the movie, 'The Terminator'?"

As the growing number of otaku (American fans of anime) can attest, animation in Japan is very different from what Americans are accustomed to seeing. In the United States, virtually every feature has followed the upbeat musical comedy model Walt Disney established in 1937 with "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Nuanced acting and lip-sync dialogue bring the characters to life as individuals.