The Motorcycle Diaries. Perhaps movies are always better when they’re free, but I enjoyed this a lot. Certainly more than Age critic Jim Schembri, who apparently found it dull. I didn’t… I have no Che Guevara t-shirts, posters or other memorabilia, but his transformation from medical student to revolutionary was only part of the story. ... [More]
The Triplets of Belleville. French animation, with some very funny moments (especially from Bruno the dog), and some very dark ones too, which possibly make it too dark for kids, despite the PG rating. Keep watching after the credits (I wish we had.) Maybe don’t watch it if you don’t like frogs… Great stuff. Japanese ... [More]
Jeremy is so taken by the Knight Bus scene in Harry Potter 3 that he’s recreated it on the computer. He’s found a little applet thingy on the HP web site that plays various Lenny Henry Shrunken Head quotes periodically, and has that running while he plays Midtown Madness 2, in London, driving around a ... [More]
Bought that USB drive on Friday. Ate Mexican on Friday night with good friends. Saw Brett from Kath & Kim (Peter Rowsthorn) in the street on Saturday. Almost bought a house on Sunday. Also saw Spider-Man 2 on DVD. Probably lost a lot in its transition to the small screen. Merciless in its references to ... [More]
In The Cut. Unrecognisable Meg Ryan. Bleak, so bleak. From the Monster’s Ball school of bleak. Was there even a single lighthearted moment in it? If so I’ve forgotten it. I mean, Mystic River wasn’t a cheerful film, but managed not to be as depressing as this one. Interesting enough plot I suppose, but did ... [More]
Collateral: A very simple premise, but very well (if you’ll pardon the pun) executed. Max, a cab driver in LA starts off his night shift relaxed. Before long he picks up a passenger, Vincent, and gets caught up in a world he’d rather not be caught up in. Along the way you learn a lot ... [More]
Finally saw both volumes of Kill Bill over the weekend. Volume one… every martial arts film ever known meets The Holy Grail Black Knight meets Spaghetti Westerns. Maybe my sensitivity for such things is diminishing, or maybe it was because it was so completely over-the-top, but it wasn’t quite as violent as I expected it ... [More]
Madam Fang. A lovely expensive meal on Friday for our anniversary, and as what might have been the last chance to splurge before I got hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt the next day when buying a house (it didn’t happen — more about that later). The atmosphere was lovely, the service was excellent, ... [More]
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the making of their new album. But not just the usual sitting in a studio, bashing power chords kind of footage — this was a warts’n’all look at the group dynamics involved. The arguments, walk-outs, the laughs, the group therapy sessions, the bits where they ... [More]
Donnie Darko (DVD). That ending… whoa.
Some people are having problems believing the seagulls in Finding Nemo were saying “Mine!”. Apart from issues surrounding the operation of the human ear, some have ignored the evidence of how seagulls behave and the context of the dialogue. One person insisted that since they’re Australian seagulls, they must be saying “Mate!”. Yup, ‘cos Australians ... [More]
The problem with shopping on the Net on UK web sites is that prices in pounds make everything sound so cheap. So it was hard to resist the lure of three movies I kinda sorta wanted, at 8.97, 8.97 and 6.97 each. Bargains, every one! No, wait, that’s UKP, dammit. Multiply by three, pretty much. ... [More]