Just a quick word on these movies.
Jennifer 8
Blind girls are getting murdered and the best witness is another blind girl. The investigating cop is suspected of being the killer. A little gory at times but quite good. Some scenes in Eureka (been there, done that) Heavy rain in those scenes which I am reliably informed is close to reality.
Monsters Inc.
CGI but cute as. Also clever. Worth a watch.
My kittens are six months old and had their little op yesterday, and rabies shots. They seem fine today, a little subdued, but still love me.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Oldies but goodies
All the trapped Chilean miners were rescued. It was a great success with international cooperation. I am in awe of the miners for surviving that ordeal and staying sane. They must be tough.
Having to watch the home stock of movies.
Sleepless in Seattle
Yes, again! It's the cinematic equivalent of comfort food for me. You know I love this movie so this time just a couple of safety warnings. Don't read a map while driving and don't approach, let alone pick up and open, an unattended backpack on the viewing deck at the Empire State Building. I lived in London in the 1980s when the Irish Republican Army used parcel bombs as the weapon of choice against the English, I know these things.
American Pie 1 and 2
These movies are great! Stupid, funny, gross and crass (Stifler) but so teenage. All about teenage relationships, that's a bit of a euphemistic way of looking at it. Finch is wonderful, also Jim and band geek Michelle (now in "How I met your mother" with Doogie Howser). Stifler has mastered being that awful guy everybody hates, and Stifler's mom - wow! Jim's dad is cringingly embarrassing. The soundtracks are fantastic, AP1 has a Bic Runga song, here's a link for you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xklmr6ey1V0&feature=related
and just for fun, one of my favourites, relevant to the movies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jJWQkVgDs4
Now I'm going to watch American Wedding.
Guess I had a little trip down memory lane there.
Having to watch the home stock of movies.
Sleepless in Seattle
Yes, again! It's the cinematic equivalent of comfort food for me. You know I love this movie so this time just a couple of safety warnings. Don't read a map while driving and don't approach, let alone pick up and open, an unattended backpack on the viewing deck at the Empire State Building. I lived in London in the 1980s when the Irish Republican Army used parcel bombs as the weapon of choice against the English, I know these things.
American Pie 1 and 2
These movies are great! Stupid, funny, gross and crass (Stifler) but so teenage. All about teenage relationships, that's a bit of a euphemistic way of looking at it. Finch is wonderful, also Jim and band geek Michelle (now in "How I met your mother" with Doogie Howser). Stifler has mastered being that awful guy everybody hates, and Stifler's mom - wow! Jim's dad is cringingly embarrassing. The soundtracks are fantastic, AP1 has a Bic Runga song, here's a link for you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xklmr6ey1V0&feature=related
and just for fun, one of my favourites, relevant to the movies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jJWQkVgDs4
Now I'm going to watch American Wedding.
Guess I had a little trip down memory lane there.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Nothing special
Scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Die Hard
Cheating again - reviewing all four Die Hard films. Not bad, entertaining in a blood, action and improbable special effects way. Watchable and funny, not as good as the Lethal Weapon quad.
The Informant
A strange movie, supposedly based on a true story. Matt Damon and Melanie Lynskey (name drop time - I worked with her parents way back) and a convoluted plot involving whistle-blowing, FBI, embezzlement and lots of lying. A waste of time.
The Good Girl
Watched this in a motel, interrupted by lots of advertising. Jennifer Aniston - acting! I was impressed. She is a disillusioned wife in some small town in the middle of nowhere, meets Holden (Jake Gyllenhall) an intense young would-be writer. They have an affair. The husband has fertility investigations, Aniston's character finds she is pregnant, you know how it goes. The husband's friend is a fun (read: weird) character. Watchable.
The Rose
Bette Midler as a Janis Joplin type rock star. She is tired and her manager (the lovely Alan Bates) keeps driving her. Thanks to drink and drugs, the ending is predictable. Midler can sing and act. Not a great movie, even the music is not memorable, except for that awful Rose song which every school choir sings.
Failure to Launch
Best scene - when the lovely Zooey Deschanel tries to buy a gun to shoot the mockingbird. Love the salesman.
Time for new movies, or even old movies, but definitely time for some good movies.
Die Hard
Cheating again - reviewing all four Die Hard films. Not bad, entertaining in a blood, action and improbable special effects way. Watchable and funny, not as good as the Lethal Weapon quad.
The Informant
A strange movie, supposedly based on a true story. Matt Damon and Melanie Lynskey (name drop time - I worked with her parents way back) and a convoluted plot involving whistle-blowing, FBI, embezzlement and lots of lying. A waste of time.
The Good Girl
Watched this in a motel, interrupted by lots of advertising. Jennifer Aniston - acting! I was impressed. She is a disillusioned wife in some small town in the middle of nowhere, meets Holden (Jake Gyllenhall) an intense young would-be writer. They have an affair. The husband has fertility investigations, Aniston's character finds she is pregnant, you know how it goes. The husband's friend is a fun (read: weird) character. Watchable.
The Rose
Bette Midler as a Janis Joplin type rock star. She is tired and her manager (the lovely Alan Bates) keeps driving her. Thanks to drink and drugs, the ending is predictable. Midler can sing and act. Not a great movie, even the music is not memorable, except for that awful Rose song which every school choir sings.
Failure to Launch
Best scene - when the lovely Zooey Deschanel tries to buy a gun to shoot the mockingbird. Love the salesman.
Time for new movies, or even old movies, but definitely time for some good movies.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Negative thoughts
Some very negative musings today.
Failure to Launch
I watched parts of this again as BH was watching it. Here are some more comments. The music was good. Zooey Deschanel had a great quirky role. McConaughey's character was pathetic. At the family dinner he tried to put the blame elsewhere, never once considering that it was his behaviour that might have driven his parents to the measures they took. Later he says: "you could have just told me". Yeah right, that's easy to say. Typical male behaviour (okay I'm generalising but it's my blog, I'm allowed to). How do you do that "shifting the blame" thing? I'm a woman and a mother and naturally I assume that I am responsible for everything, and if anything, anywhere, goes wrong, it is quite likely to be my fault. Blame-shifting must be carried on the Y chromosome.
Another really creepy thing, especially in light of recent sad events which I will cover in a moment: the friends set up a meeting between Paula and Tripp and the tech geek sets up multiple cameras in the room. They watch developments on his laptop in a cafe, then hook it up to the large screens in the cafe for everyone to watch. Wrong. Which brings me to:
Tyler Clementi, R.I.P
This is the young man who committed suicide after his room mate Dharun Ravi and a friend, Molly Wei, filmed and broadcast him having an encounter with another man. Ravi and Wei have been charged with invasion of privacy. They may be charged with committing a hate crime, and isn't being a peeping Tom a crime, even a sex crime? It could be cyber stalking. What they did is not exactly murder, maybe not exactly manslaughter, maybe it is being accessories to the crime of suicide. I wonder what will happen to them. Maybe something minor, perhaps that same slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket that Roman Polanski received.
Here are a few ideas: first something I hope has happened already - expel them from Rutger's University. If that does not happen it says a lot about Rutgers' attitude to bigotry, bullying and homosexuality. Apparently Tyler reported the first such incident to the college authorities, I wonder what their response was? Next, maybe a prison term but I have a far more creative idea. Supervision. Constant supervision - all the time. Maybe by webcam but I think supervision by a person, maybe a series of parole officers, would work. The only non-supervised time would be brief bathroom visits. Supervised computer use, a bedroom shared with the parole officer, that same company in class and at social events. Even with their own family. It's a punishment that fits the crime - they caused Tyler's death by invading his privacy, so let's take away theirs. At least it should prevent them doing it again. Cruel and unusual? So is what they did to Tyler Clementi.
There may be the argument that they didn't realise how serious their actions were. That won't fly - they were university students, not 12 year olds. Even if it was intended as a stupid prank, I think it should be dealt with harshly. There is a lot of talk about cyber bullying, here is a high profile chance to do something about it.
How strange is it that homophobia is condoned in a supposedly advanced civilisation. It's time to look at the Christian values so dear to America. I would have thought one would be tolerance. If you don't agree with homosexuality, pray for those "afflicted", don't cause their deaths. Doesn't the Pledge of Allegiance, which children recite every day, have something to say about this? Oh yes:"Liberty and justice for all".
Let us hope Tyler did not die in vain. He is a martyr to the cause of respect, tolerance and freedom - that last supposedly being America's most important value.
Failure to Launch
I watched parts of this again as BH was watching it. Here are some more comments. The music was good. Zooey Deschanel had a great quirky role. McConaughey's character was pathetic. At the family dinner he tried to put the blame elsewhere, never once considering that it was his behaviour that might have driven his parents to the measures they took. Later he says: "you could have just told me". Yeah right, that's easy to say. Typical male behaviour (okay I'm generalising but it's my blog, I'm allowed to). How do you do that "shifting the blame" thing? I'm a woman and a mother and naturally I assume that I am responsible for everything, and if anything, anywhere, goes wrong, it is quite likely to be my fault. Blame-shifting must be carried on the Y chromosome.
Another really creepy thing, especially in light of recent sad events which I will cover in a moment: the friends set up a meeting between Paula and Tripp and the tech geek sets up multiple cameras in the room. They watch developments on his laptop in a cafe, then hook it up to the large screens in the cafe for everyone to watch. Wrong. Which brings me to:
Tyler Clementi, R.I.P
This is the young man who committed suicide after his room mate Dharun Ravi and a friend, Molly Wei, filmed and broadcast him having an encounter with another man. Ravi and Wei have been charged with invasion of privacy. They may be charged with committing a hate crime, and isn't being a peeping Tom a crime, even a sex crime? It could be cyber stalking. What they did is not exactly murder, maybe not exactly manslaughter, maybe it is being accessories to the crime of suicide. I wonder what will happen to them. Maybe something minor, perhaps that same slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket that Roman Polanski received.
Here are a few ideas: first something I hope has happened already - expel them from Rutger's University. If that does not happen it says a lot about Rutgers' attitude to bigotry, bullying and homosexuality. Apparently Tyler reported the first such incident to the college authorities, I wonder what their response was? Next, maybe a prison term but I have a far more creative idea. Supervision. Constant supervision - all the time. Maybe by webcam but I think supervision by a person, maybe a series of parole officers, would work. The only non-supervised time would be brief bathroom visits. Supervised computer use, a bedroom shared with the parole officer, that same company in class and at social events. Even with their own family. It's a punishment that fits the crime - they caused Tyler's death by invading his privacy, so let's take away theirs. At least it should prevent them doing it again. Cruel and unusual? So is what they did to Tyler Clementi.
There may be the argument that they didn't realise how serious their actions were. That won't fly - they were university students, not 12 year olds. Even if it was intended as a stupid prank, I think it should be dealt with harshly. There is a lot of talk about cyber bullying, here is a high profile chance to do something about it.
How strange is it that homophobia is condoned in a supposedly advanced civilisation. It's time to look at the Christian values so dear to America. I would have thought one would be tolerance. If you don't agree with homosexuality, pray for those "afflicted", don't cause their deaths. Doesn't the Pledge of Allegiance, which children recite every day, have something to say about this? Oh yes:"Liberty and justice for all".
Let us hope Tyler did not die in vain. He is a martyr to the cause of respect, tolerance and freedom - that last supposedly being America's most important value.
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