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Channel 4 tonight - 12.10!

 

Friday night on the train home is movie night. I pick something up FROM the DVD rental place just across the road FROM the Zürich Hauptbahnhof. There wasn't much new and interesting last Friday, so I tried this:

Now I remember the old series (this is apparently a pilot film of a new series that hasn't come here yet - not even the pilot has made the TV here).

I confess to thoroughly enjoying it. I always liked the basic storyline of "Galactica", and this has retained it and has given it a harder, grittier edge. The main characters are very well done, especially Adama. Starbuck and Boomer have changed sex, but I don't find that a problem. A CHECK on the web revealed that the USA is most of the way through Season 2! Hope it does make it here.

 

Layer Cake - superb British gangster movie

 

Tones - before dumping NTL due to them being unspeakably bad i watched a few episodes of the new Battlestar Galactica and must confess it was quite enjoyable - certainly quite slick.

Other things recently seen: Mr and Mrs Smith (on dvd HAVING already seen it at the flix - not bad, but could have done more with it i think, some witty remarks and some pretty entertaining action, but ultimately a little hollow perhaps. Keeping Mum, Brit Comedy - OK, but nothing great. Skeleton Key (not my choice) - completely dire so much so that i can even be bothered to say why, it just was.

 

Somebody loaned me this:

I have good (although now vague) memories of the original (Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey) film, and I usually find remakes to be lacking. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this updated version. The actors are generally excellent - Meryl Streep is brilliant as a mixture of doting mother and the entire crooked Bush administration, and Denzel Washington does a good job as the bewildered soldier with the messed-up head who realises that things are not what they seem but can't quite figure out why. The end is suitably cliff-hanging, if requiring a bit of suspension of disbelief (would they really expect a marksman to make a difficult shot with a rifle he hadn't held before and whose sights he had not personally adapted to his own vision?). But quibbles aside, it's worth seeing.

 

In the final big shootout, can anyone EXPLAIN why the good guys' body armour works and the bad guys' doesn't? Were the bad guys perhaps fobbed off with cheap stuff FROM the US forces in Iraq?

 

Watched the Spongebob movie last night. Very funny film. The usual 'for kids but works for adults too' kind of thing. Some very funny bits in there. Get it for your kids if you need an excuse!

 

Viu-hah-hah-taja (Flashe-he-r). By far the funniest film ever - nothing even comes close. So funny that several people have died FROM excessive laughter while watching it.

 

Went to watch Walk The Line at the weekend. The Johnny Cash 'biopic'. Must say I was a little bit dissapointed. Positives first: The acting and singing was great. Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix were both excellent and its scary at some points how accurate Phoenix is. You catch yourself squinting at the screen wondering if it really is Johnny Cash. He really has him down.

Anyway its hard to put my finger on why I didn't like it. I think the problem was the film wasn't that well done. Just seemed to go on a bit and wasn't done with that much imagination really. For such a great character they didn't make much of him. I think maybe I'll read his autobiography for a better insight.

Worth watching for the lead performances which are excellent but they don't quite carry the film enough to make it great.

 

Watched The Corpse Bride last night. Another Tim Burton produced stop motion animation in the mould of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Good stuff and amazing that it is all done using stop motion as oppose to CGI. The puppets are brilliant. Great that people are still using this technique.

 

On the subject of stop-motion, I finally saw this on Saturday night, the night before it won the Oscar:

I think the last time I laughed out loud in a film was in Park's "Chicken Run". (Not sure what this says about me). This is brilliant stuff; as the "New York Times" review put it, the most amazing feats of stop-motion animation are tossed off casually. In addition, Gromit should have an Oscar of his own - it's a mark of Nick Park's genius that a plasticine dog with no dialogue (and no mouth for the dialogue) can be more expressive than most Hollywood stars. It's all done with the eyes and that marvellously mobile brow. Again, to quote the NYT, "Move over Chaplin and Keaton, make room for Gromit". Of course, Wallace is Wallace, and he and the minor characters are also brilliantly done.

The story is wildly, implausibly silly, but then that's the nature of W&G and thus it has always been (and hopefully forever will be). Apparently Park was pressured to have Wallace voiced by a well-known American actor, but thank goodness Park and partners politely, but firmly, refused. Phew!

In short, great stuff and roll on the next one.

 

Watched Ride With The Devil on BBC2 on Saturday night. Ang Lee film about the American civil war with Toby Maguire starring. Every Ang Lee film I watch I like him more. Really is a good director. This film was nothing really special but he manages to develop characters and get alot out of a subject making it a really enjoyable little gem of a film to watch. I'm impressed with Maguire aswell. I think he's done some really good films now and obviously works well with Lee as evidenced by the excellent 1997 film, The Ice Storm.

 

Not a film, but Charlie and Lola!

Childrens tv at it's best

BBC1, MOnday - Friday

15:25 - 15:35

 

As In Heaven

Saw the Swedish film As In Heaven. Gets a strong imdb rating despite being in the original language. It gives a good picture of small village country life and the rewards FROM singing. Recommended for the musically inclined.

 

Watched "Good Night, and Good Luck" and found it very interesting. A good black and white production that shows a different light on the witch-hunt years in America. Worth a look, in my opinion.

Also saw on Film4 a film that I hadn't seen before and was not expecting to like much... and ended up liking it quite a bit. It's called "The Green Mile". You probably have all seen it so I won't bother you with details...

Also watched "The New World" recently. What a disappointment... nice story told in a way that I found pretentious and boring... the best thing the movie has is the beautiful landscape shots.

Jack

 

Bought a couple of DVDs cheap which I'd not seen quite a few years.

Watched Gremilins and Interview with the vampire the other night and enjoyed both muchly.

Gremlins two tonight I think

 

Watched Flight Plan at the weekend. What an awful film. The blurb says its a 'Hitchcock style thriller' but its so obviously trying to generate tension its embarrassing.

 

My daughters gave me the boxed set of the three "Back to the Future" films. Always liked them.

 

YAY!

They had these on (subtitled) in my regular drinking hole on the big screen. Made a nice back DROP for a few halfs the other night.

 

I think they're hilarious, especialy the second film, with Marty and Doc desperately trying to avoid their other selves.