I just enjoyed Jean Claude Van Dammess movie, 6 Bullets. Maybe it’s the theme. Human trafficking. Sale of girls. Jean Claude Van Damme plays an ex Foreign Legion mercenary who rescues stolen children. Special effects. Lots of war and police and gangs and guns. The pathos of the parents is real and the acting, great for a fight action movie. But mostly it was the theme.
I couldn’t help but identify with the parents, played so very well by Joe Flanigan and Anna-Louise Plowman, who didn’t feel these men should be protected by the law since the lawlessness of such crimes reaches so high. The corruption in sex trade has always been in hidden places of power. Hitlers SS were drawn from the ranks of pedophiles. Those who steal and sell children, should they ‘protected’. Charlotte Beaumont, played the kidnapped little girl Becky Fayden so very well. Ernie Barbarash's direction brought out the best in everyone.
I am actually against the death penalty only because of the multitude of mistakes made by beaurocracies of state. Once a health ministry person insisted they couldn’t ‘find’ me, a doctor and listed as such. The provincial minister was much more responsive to the ridiculousness of this error and the attempted cover up. Using his resources he got to the bottom of the business and corrected it. But how often does some lowly person face a person in power, the individual and state scenario, so well captured in Jean Luc Picard's assimilation by the Borg. Caught in mistakes they then deny and lies. I rarely know that the mistake is truly made until I see the glaring signs of cover up and know that it's not just a 'little mistake' but something truly 'filty' if it needs a 'cover up". Insisting the ministry didn’t know where I lived so they could not ‘contact’ me was absurd. Thanks to our elected minister the absurdity was appreciated and the matter quickly and thoughtfully corrected. Do we trust such folk with the death penalty especially as too many times we learn an innocent man is imprisoned by the ''system". Thankfully the system works so very well most of the time but not always.
I’m not judging. I’ve made mistakes. We all do. I'm just don't so often make a business of 'cover up'. That only compounds an error and changes what might have been an 'honest mistake' into something wholly contemptible.
But stealing children and selling them into sex slavery isn’t just a mistake or a matter of business. It's wholly contemptible.
Jean Claude Van Dames tackles the tough subject. The interplay between the police chief, the embassy, and the security police is particularly complex and confusing as it no doubt must be in life. But I like the police inspector, played so well by Steve Nicolson, his character and his acting. The bad guys are good bad guys. I’m left kind of thinking that maybe in the rescue of children ‘vigillantism’ has it’s place. I thought the same when the movie Machine Gun Preacher recorded the life of the man who rescued the children in African stolen from their families to serve as child soldiers.
Only today as doctors we discussed how many people who are now immigrating to Canada bring tales from their homelands where war , corruption, slave trade and gangsterism were the norm. I’m a so fortunate to live in Canada. The gang wars building in Surrey right now might leave several more dead but some of my patients can talk of family killed by terrorists. The brother of my friend at last year's conference was kidnapped by Al Quada. At UBC when a strange man touches a student a national emergency is declared and shock troops are parachuted from all over the nation. I love our innocence.
Jean Claude Van Dame gets better as he gets older too. This is a very good action movie but so much more typical of his later work his action films grapple with critically important considerations. Thanks to Netflix I got to see this movie I might otherwise have missed.
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Nebraska - the movie
My friend, Anil, told me I had to see the Nebraska movie. I bought it today. Black and white. Could have been my brother and my dad. They had a trip like this the year before he died. Dad wanted to see something. There was no lottery involved. Just Dad wanting to go somewhere and my brother, Ron, taking him. It was a cross country trip like such trips could be with Dad. I travelled with him. Not a lot of words. He was military too, like this father. Didn’t waste words. Didn’t waste anything really. They’d seen a lot of waste in the war and had a lot of want in the depression.
The movie told the story of people. Farming people. Bruce Dern was great. But they all were. Acting parts we all grew up with. Anyone whose known farming people, that’s what they’re like. My friend, Anil’s farming folk are from half a globe away. I don’t think it matters. The small towns and the womenfolk. The minimalism of it all. And the big sky. God the sky was big when I was growing up on the prairies. The distances were immense. The spaces between people could be like that too. Especially when people had known war.
And history changes. The different memories. The lies and fantasies and the way the mind plays tricks. Old people. It was a movie of old people but young people too. Different now. Not the young people back then. Back then it was just about chasing somen and cars. Now it’s still cars but other stuff.
I loved the movie. Like I’ve grown to love my relatives and family as I’ve grown older. I really thank the folk who made Nebraska. They got a whole lot right about what I remember from my childhood. The last days with Dad were like this. The scene with the brothers all in the living room watching tv. I’ve been a kid in that room with Dad and his brothers. The women in the kitchen chattering away, a real contrast to the silences of the men.
I expect it will win the Oscars. Otherwise a hat and some love would do. All a man really needs is family, a place to call home and a new truck.
Watching this movie I missed my dad and mom, my farming grandparents and the uncles and their wives. I’m big city folk now compared to the last time I visited the farm. All the old folk are dead and us young folk are called old by another generation.
The movie told the story of people. Farming people. Bruce Dern was great. But they all were. Acting parts we all grew up with. Anyone whose known farming people, that’s what they’re like. My friend, Anil’s farming folk are from half a globe away. I don’t think it matters. The small towns and the womenfolk. The minimalism of it all. And the big sky. God the sky was big when I was growing up on the prairies. The distances were immense. The spaces between people could be like that too. Especially when people had known war.
And history changes. The different memories. The lies and fantasies and the way the mind plays tricks. Old people. It was a movie of old people but young people too. Different now. Not the young people back then. Back then it was just about chasing somen and cars. Now it’s still cars but other stuff.
I loved the movie. Like I’ve grown to love my relatives and family as I’ve grown older. I really thank the folk who made Nebraska. They got a whole lot right about what I remember from my childhood. The last days with Dad were like this. The scene with the brothers all in the living room watching tv. I’ve been a kid in that room with Dad and his brothers. The women in the kitchen chattering away, a real contrast to the silences of the men.
I expect it will win the Oscars. Otherwise a hat and some love would do. All a man really needs is family, a place to call home and a new truck.
Watching this movie I missed my dad and mom, my farming grandparents and the uncles and their wives. I’m big city folk now compared to the last time I visited the farm. All the old folk are dead and us young folk are called old by another generation.
Monday, February 10, 2014
The Great Raid - the movie
The Great Raid, the movie, is based on the book, The Great Raid on Cabanatuan by William B. Breuer. Made in 2005 and directed by John Dahl it is a true to life depiction of the most successful rescue in American military history.
552 POW’s were still imprisoned in Luzon having survived the Bataam Death March after being captured when MacCarthur retreated, on orders. The allies would focus on Europe first before turning back on the Japanese. The years between were a horror for the POW's and the people of the Japanese occupied territories. The brutality and sickening perversity of the Japanese is legendary. 133 US Rangers and 250 Filipino guerrillas attacked 220 Japanese guards with 1000 Japanese troops nearby. Only 2 Rangers were killed. 2 prisoners and 21 Fillipinos wounded. Nearly a thousand Japanese were killed in addition to four tanks destroyed.
The movie depicts the resilience of the prisoners in the camp, the inhuman callousness of the sociopathic Japanese, the extraordinary bravery of the Fillipino guerrillas and the exceptional soldiery and leadership of the Rangers. In addition, the men and women of nearby communities and Manilla, who risked and sacrificed their lives to bring intelligence and aid to the Americans was shown. The priests,doctors and nurses were especially penalized by the Japanese. The movie is true to history. The action is exciting but not so distracting as the normal hollywood action thriller with modernized dialogue and innuendo. The historians touch is evident throughout. This required the most sensitivity and skill by director and actors.
Benjamin Bratt plays Lt Colonel Mucci , while James Franco plays Captain Prince. Joseph Fiennes plays Major Gibson. Robert Mammone plays Captain Fisher and Max Martini 1st Sgt Sid Wojo. Connie Nielsen plays Margaret Utinsky and Natalie Mendoza plays Mina. There are so many stars.
The cast is large. All the acting was first rate and moving. The movie also had footage from the actual events. It’s a military re enactment, really, but with an artists mind for action, romance and drama.
I’ve watched it twice now. Each time has been a truly richer experience. First, it was a war story with lots of action and play. This second time the characters stood out most: the people of the Phillipines, the episodes in Manilla, the guerrillas themselves, the fillipina nurses, the executions of the locals. First time round Lt Colonel Mucci left the most impression whereas this time round it was Margaret Utinsky. An amazing historical film with real depth.
It was truly inspiring, the story and the movie.
552 POW’s were still imprisoned in Luzon having survived the Bataam Death March after being captured when MacCarthur retreated, on orders. The allies would focus on Europe first before turning back on the Japanese. The years between were a horror for the POW's and the people of the Japanese occupied territories. The brutality and sickening perversity of the Japanese is legendary. 133 US Rangers and 250 Filipino guerrillas attacked 220 Japanese guards with 1000 Japanese troops nearby. Only 2 Rangers were killed. 2 prisoners and 21 Fillipinos wounded. Nearly a thousand Japanese were killed in addition to four tanks destroyed.
The movie depicts the resilience of the prisoners in the camp, the inhuman callousness of the sociopathic Japanese, the extraordinary bravery of the Fillipino guerrillas and the exceptional soldiery and leadership of the Rangers. In addition, the men and women of nearby communities and Manilla, who risked and sacrificed their lives to bring intelligence and aid to the Americans was shown. The priests,doctors and nurses were especially penalized by the Japanese. The movie is true to history. The action is exciting but not so distracting as the normal hollywood action thriller with modernized dialogue and innuendo. The historians touch is evident throughout. This required the most sensitivity and skill by director and actors.
Benjamin Bratt plays Lt Colonel Mucci , while James Franco plays Captain Prince. Joseph Fiennes plays Major Gibson. Robert Mammone plays Captain Fisher and Max Martini 1st Sgt Sid Wojo. Connie Nielsen plays Margaret Utinsky and Natalie Mendoza plays Mina. There are so many stars.
The cast is large. All the acting was first rate and moving. The movie also had footage from the actual events. It’s a military re enactment, really, but with an artists mind for action, romance and drama.
I’ve watched it twice now. Each time has been a truly richer experience. First, it was a war story with lots of action and play. This second time the characters stood out most: the people of the Phillipines, the episodes in Manilla, the guerrillas themselves, the fillipina nurses, the executions of the locals. First time round Lt Colonel Mucci left the most impression whereas this time round it was Margaret Utinsky. An amazing historical film with real depth.
It was truly inspiring, the story and the movie.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Star Trek
I am of a generation that embraced space travel as children. At my childhood birthday party we had space cadet hats. Star Trek, Captain Kirk and Spock were all part of that. The race for space with the Russians. The One small step for man. I was at 1967 Montreal world fair and the Russian space ship was the attraction as much as Buckie Fuller's geodesic dome. NASA was all things scientific and genius.
I've seen all the Star Trek movies. I've always liked the philosophy. Exploration without interference. Some one asked if Star Wars compared and really, no. It's a war story whereas Star Trek has always been Discovery. It was 90000 leagues under the sea in space. It was Columbus and yes there were fights but the fights weren't as important as 'going where no man had gone before.'
So I've got my tickets to Into Darkness, the latest offering. I've enjoyed all the television shows from Captain Kirk, (Star Trek - the Original Series) to Captain Picard (Star Trek - the Next Generation) to Captain Janeaway (Star Trek - Voyageur) and I 'm sorry I forget the name of the really good looking captain. (ah--Jonathan Archer) . I liked Deep Space Nine but it's a whole different experience to the ships. I liked the xenoraces in that Enterprise Star Trek series.
Of them all I've loved Seven of Nine and the Borg most. What a powerful metaphor! The Betazoid are another metaphor, the intuitive counsellor. And the great Scottish engineer. Then the hologram doctor. I liked the gorgeous woman doctor of the Picard series too but most of all I liked Bones of Captain Kirk era. I'm most a fan of Kirk and Picard but I like the Janeaway and Chicote too.
There's the flying apartment building theme with Data, the crew and all the different species they encounter and have a board. It's got a kind of 'Friends' tv flavour to it. At times the humor, especially with Spock and Data, is Seinfeld at it's best.
Q is fabulous: a god gone rogue.
And so many of the Star Trek series are explorations of the ethics and ideas of science and philosophy and even theology. The movie really celebrates diversity and tolerance. The paramilitary 'ship captain' theme appeals to me as a 'ship's captain' but it doesn't translate well outside to the greater world. That's a limitation and an asset.
Oh well, I've got the tickets for the first weekend of this latest Star Trek movie. The movies have been always stupendous. I'm teletransported. My imagination is stretched. I'm excited.
Already friends and family have gone and are waxing poetic. Everyone is afraid to tell because there's so much mystery and suspense. I've avoided trailers and such. I'm going to see this free of influence.
Just me and my love of all the folk who bring me Star Trek , the ultimate space wagon train.
Addendum - the movie was spectacular!!!!!!!! Best part is the cast was like the blood grand children of the originals.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I've seen all the Star Trek movies. I've always liked the philosophy. Exploration without interference. Some one asked if Star Wars compared and really, no. It's a war story whereas Star Trek has always been Discovery. It was 90000 leagues under the sea in space. It was Columbus and yes there were fights but the fights weren't as important as 'going where no man had gone before.'
So I've got my tickets to Into Darkness, the latest offering. I've enjoyed all the television shows from Captain Kirk, (Star Trek - the Original Series) to Captain Picard (Star Trek - the Next Generation) to Captain Janeaway (Star Trek - Voyageur) and I 'm sorry I forget the name of the really good looking captain. (ah--Jonathan Archer) . I liked Deep Space Nine but it's a whole different experience to the ships. I liked the xenoraces in that Enterprise Star Trek series.
Of them all I've loved Seven of Nine and the Borg most. What a powerful metaphor! The Betazoid are another metaphor, the intuitive counsellor. And the great Scottish engineer. Then the hologram doctor. I liked the gorgeous woman doctor of the Picard series too but most of all I liked Bones of Captain Kirk era. I'm most a fan of Kirk and Picard but I like the Janeaway and Chicote too.
There's the flying apartment building theme with Data, the crew and all the different species they encounter and have a board. It's got a kind of 'Friends' tv flavour to it. At times the humor, especially with Spock and Data, is Seinfeld at it's best.
Q is fabulous: a god gone rogue.
And so many of the Star Trek series are explorations of the ethics and ideas of science and philosophy and even theology. The movie really celebrates diversity and tolerance. The paramilitary 'ship captain' theme appeals to me as a 'ship's captain' but it doesn't translate well outside to the greater world. That's a limitation and an asset.
Oh well, I've got the tickets for the first weekend of this latest Star Trek movie. The movies have been always stupendous. I'm teletransported. My imagination is stretched. I'm excited.
Already friends and family have gone and are waxing poetic. Everyone is afraid to tell because there's so much mystery and suspense. I've avoided trailers and such. I'm going to see this free of influence.
Just me and my love of all the folk who bring me Star Trek , the ultimate space wagon train.
Addendum - the movie was spectacular!!!!!!!! Best part is the cast was like the blood grand children of the originals.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
February Morning
Another miracle morning. Awakening. Gilbert whimpering at the door. Needs to be let out. I dress before following. No rain. Not like yesterday's downpours but not like the day before sunshine. Just a dreary February morning with low hanging clouds obscuring the mountains. The air is fresh though . Spring fresh with sea air scents and sounds of seagulls overhead. There's spring in the air. I saw my first crocus on Sunday. Promises of summer and heat returning. Reading Peter Newman's Company of Adventurers there are bits of journals from the 17th and 18th century by Churchill. 42 foot walls and alcohol that freezes. This is the horror of the north, post scurvy. When drinking pine tea keeps one's teeth from falling out but the winter freezing 80 below temperatures are perhaps a bit better than the flies and mosquitoes of spring and summer that block the sun and filling the nose and throat. What horrible conditions to live in and I'm whining with a bit of chill and drizzle. I lived in Churchill even stayed in igloos but was thankful for my modern parka and off course the mosquito repellent I smeared myself with all spring, summer and fall. Here, the cold is English in it's chill and the rain no more deplorable than Scotland. We're just another northern clime habitable and growing more so with global warming apparently.
It's another day. I'm thankful for these, more with age. I take less for granted. Pleased with health and friendship. I'm glad to work. I've devoted my life to work and sacrificed so much to study and knowledge. I've served and been served in my living, breathing and imbibing my profession and career. It's consumed me and been all consuming. The times changing and knowledge suspect, work abhorred, learning denigrated. Politics is all. We huddle in groups of insiders and outsiders. It's high school all over again. But we are the teachers. The principal and vice principals are somewhere in our midst but even they know that that Death is above all. I'm am seeking God while there is time. A life spent healing bodies and minds I prepare to meet my maker. This third of life a legal mire of last minute shenanigans with the real wonder of what lies beyond. This can't be all despite the propagandists. I wake each morning and it's the most powerful metaphor for life after death ever to be given. But those that deny and lie and lie and lie won't even accept their daily resurrection. Mine's a blessing though I wonder when the rapture will come. I'm such a heathen and my work undone. So long I've thought that this life of being a healer and forgiver was a product of a last life's karma where I 'm convinced I must have slaughtered many to necessitate the patience and fortitude I've demonstrated this time round. Orubunga. My ass bit by myself and I'm so quick to say I'm not the biter. Such a silly world we living in. DNA shows our differences as minuscule but everyone celebrates the smallest variation of uniforms like adolescent girls.
I'm the fool and the king of my own existence. I'm the alpha and omega, Jesus says in Revelation. I am all says God. I'm reading A Secular Age by Charles Taylor and the history of the Picts. It's the new Pax Americana and I'm fascinated by the parallel concerns of empires and how those who are beurocrats and others in the grand scheme lack any vision of the whole thinking their details upper most. I'm at least away of what is above my pay grade and know I'm the gnat on the elephants ass scream left , right, left and then taking credit for a turn in the path. We spend such time bowing to other gnats. Significantly significant insignificantly significant. Free will in the determinism of fate. My thoughts a voice over on this cartoon of life. The real world that other place of dreams where I gather in groups with ancients, young and old and meditate. There are picnics there and flying. I had a boat there last night. Unusual craft, rested hidden beneath the surface only to come above when I put on full throttle, then sank beneath the surface when I stopped. I believed my computer was water proof yet when I went to work in the morning the office computer mother board suddenly died. The ins and outs having strange Carl Jungian synchronicities.
But I must live in 'group think', the shallowest of Kardashian reality tv pleasure seeking pain avoiding status revelling money grubbing hollywood sensationalism. If I step outside this world even a tad there is a scream and I'm surrounded by the aliens of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. So many of us identify with zombie movies. Those are the road rage incurring fools we meet daily on the road without the rocket launchers of Falling Down. Vampire wars with Buffy as protagonist are celebration of light and dark encounters. The 'Lightness of Being,' the great Chzeck novel comes to mind as with ever greater lightness we leave the gravity and seriousness of pompous pretensions.
I'm am drinking coffee and boiling eggs. Todays sustenance for the morning. It's a wonder of the modern world that I have produce from half the globe away and fresh farm fare when I want it. I 've heat in the form of propane and diesel and light from electricity, clothing from a variety of sources and will walk to a car that joins a veritable hoard going into the city where more and more create and play. Industries devoted Xboxs and entertainment. There is so much leisure for so many. Though I work 60 sometimes 80 hours a week the average work week is 30. On the books its 40 but I'm talking billable hours and those in major corporations and government have extraordinary benefits and pensions that kings could not afford a hundred years past.
Last year I studied in Mexico, Athens and Florida and visited Ottawa for family. Thousands of miles on jet planes alone travelling with my little cockapoo, Gilbert on a West Jet. Other than that I was sailing in the straits, driving into Northern BC and back and forth to Seattle. 99% of people, as Buckminster Fuller was fond of saying, travelled no more than a hundred miles from their birthplace at the turn of the 20th century. Jared Diamond in his latest book about Traditionl Societies describes the tribal folk as killing all strangers and avoiding change because of superstition and safety. Today I am meeting strangers daily and haven't killed a one while I've friends I've known since childhood and regret I have so little time from work to enjoy their company.
it's a truly amazing world we live in. My little dog greets the day with enthusiasm. We've walked. I've meditated and he's napped again. Now there are eggs and a shower and fresh clothes and the invariably rush to get to work. Thank you Jesus for this day. May the God of all saints be celebrated in all today. May I remember always that I'm creation and co creator but not the centre of the universe or the end. I am beginning. I am process. Jesus is alpha and omega. Today I'll be a good Tuesday hopefully. Praise and thanksgiving. Help me be more forgiving and loving and wise and serve you and all I meet with greater tenderness and respect. Thank you for this day.
It's another day. I'm thankful for these, more with age. I take less for granted. Pleased with health and friendship. I'm glad to work. I've devoted my life to work and sacrificed so much to study and knowledge. I've served and been served in my living, breathing and imbibing my profession and career. It's consumed me and been all consuming. The times changing and knowledge suspect, work abhorred, learning denigrated. Politics is all. We huddle in groups of insiders and outsiders. It's high school all over again. But we are the teachers. The principal and vice principals are somewhere in our midst but even they know that that Death is above all. I'm am seeking God while there is time. A life spent healing bodies and minds I prepare to meet my maker. This third of life a legal mire of last minute shenanigans with the real wonder of what lies beyond. This can't be all despite the propagandists. I wake each morning and it's the most powerful metaphor for life after death ever to be given. But those that deny and lie and lie and lie won't even accept their daily resurrection. Mine's a blessing though I wonder when the rapture will come. I'm such a heathen and my work undone. So long I've thought that this life of being a healer and forgiver was a product of a last life's karma where I 'm convinced I must have slaughtered many to necessitate the patience and fortitude I've demonstrated this time round. Orubunga. My ass bit by myself and I'm so quick to say I'm not the biter. Such a silly world we living in. DNA shows our differences as minuscule but everyone celebrates the smallest variation of uniforms like adolescent girls.
I'm the fool and the king of my own existence. I'm the alpha and omega, Jesus says in Revelation. I am all says God. I'm reading A Secular Age by Charles Taylor and the history of the Picts. It's the new Pax Americana and I'm fascinated by the parallel concerns of empires and how those who are beurocrats and others in the grand scheme lack any vision of the whole thinking their details upper most. I'm at least away of what is above my pay grade and know I'm the gnat on the elephants ass scream left , right, left and then taking credit for a turn in the path. We spend such time bowing to other gnats. Significantly significant insignificantly significant. Free will in the determinism of fate. My thoughts a voice over on this cartoon of life. The real world that other place of dreams where I gather in groups with ancients, young and old and meditate. There are picnics there and flying. I had a boat there last night. Unusual craft, rested hidden beneath the surface only to come above when I put on full throttle, then sank beneath the surface when I stopped. I believed my computer was water proof yet when I went to work in the morning the office computer mother board suddenly died. The ins and outs having strange Carl Jungian synchronicities.
But I must live in 'group think', the shallowest of Kardashian reality tv pleasure seeking pain avoiding status revelling money grubbing hollywood sensationalism. If I step outside this world even a tad there is a scream and I'm surrounded by the aliens of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. So many of us identify with zombie movies. Those are the road rage incurring fools we meet daily on the road without the rocket launchers of Falling Down. Vampire wars with Buffy as protagonist are celebration of light and dark encounters. The 'Lightness of Being,' the great Chzeck novel comes to mind as with ever greater lightness we leave the gravity and seriousness of pompous pretensions.
I'm am drinking coffee and boiling eggs. Todays sustenance for the morning. It's a wonder of the modern world that I have produce from half the globe away and fresh farm fare when I want it. I 've heat in the form of propane and diesel and light from electricity, clothing from a variety of sources and will walk to a car that joins a veritable hoard going into the city where more and more create and play. Industries devoted Xboxs and entertainment. There is so much leisure for so many. Though I work 60 sometimes 80 hours a week the average work week is 30. On the books its 40 but I'm talking billable hours and those in major corporations and government have extraordinary benefits and pensions that kings could not afford a hundred years past.
Last year I studied in Mexico, Athens and Florida and visited Ottawa for family. Thousands of miles on jet planes alone travelling with my little cockapoo, Gilbert on a West Jet. Other than that I was sailing in the straits, driving into Northern BC and back and forth to Seattle. 99% of people, as Buckminster Fuller was fond of saying, travelled no more than a hundred miles from their birthplace at the turn of the 20th century. Jared Diamond in his latest book about Traditionl Societies describes the tribal folk as killing all strangers and avoiding change because of superstition and safety. Today I am meeting strangers daily and haven't killed a one while I've friends I've known since childhood and regret I have so little time from work to enjoy their company.
it's a truly amazing world we live in. My little dog greets the day with enthusiasm. We've walked. I've meditated and he's napped again. Now there are eggs and a shower and fresh clothes and the invariably rush to get to work. Thank you Jesus for this day. May the God of all saints be celebrated in all today. May I remember always that I'm creation and co creator but not the centre of the universe or the end. I am beginning. I am process. Jesus is alpha and omega. Today I'll be a good Tuesday hopefully. Praise and thanksgiving. Help me be more forgiving and loving and wise and serve you and all I meet with greater tenderness and respect. Thank you for this day.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Sons of Anarchy
I just watched the 4th Season of the biker drama series, Sons of Anarchy. I watched the first three seasons when I bought them at out door booth at Sturges North in British Columbia.
Steppenwolf and Animals, playing on stage that weekend, will forever be associated with that time.
The Hell's Angels were there along with the RCMP. Alot of Vets had ridden in too. I loved best the Vets Run that week. Made me proud to own a bike and ride with those Canadian guys who'd served in Kandahar.
Sons of Anarchy is this drama series with lots of motorcycles. I ride a Harley Davidson Electraglide. It's almost mandatory that we watch Sons of Anarchy. It's like ranchers watching Bonanza except the Sons of Anarchy are the bad boys. They really are. The women are 'old ladies'. It's a weird 'matriarchy' with adolescent emotionally stunted men and biker mommas. Lots of cultural and gang innuendos but the police forces come off looking shady and the town of Charmings, California business men don't look much better.
It's part of that new 'family' as God cult in Hollywood these days. Following on the "Breaking Bad" tradition where dad is a chemist turned meth lab criminal. Mafiosa adolescent thinking. The kind of stunted emotional growth spiritually bankrupt material we have come to expect from Hollywood. Lots of questions about the 'message' and really questionable 'ethics' and 'morality'. It's Dirty Harry except the bad guy has the glock and the message is always the same, me. I don't know if it's got any 'reality' to it but it's way better than the pathetic 'reality shows'. I sometimes watch the really good bike show where the family makes choppers and I like especially the two guys who blow up things as "myth busters'. This has a little of that kind of feel but in addition it's really great drama. That's mostly the product of the really great acting and characters of Katey Sagel and Maggie Siff.
I confess I love Hollywood for all the special effects and especially all of the variations on chases. It must be the dog in me but something about chases in movies and tv gets me going. Sons of Anarchy has one of best of all, a Hearse chasing a Harley Davidson Motorcycle. Not just a great and novel chase scene but marvellous symbolism even the stuck up European movie makers would envy.
Life is cheap in Charming. Revenge is what it's all about. Might is right. There's no elevation of the soul. This is knuckle dragging low brow brute crime drama made magnificent by creator Kurt Sutter.
Charlie Hunnan plays the protagonist "Jax" Teller whose mother is Gemma Teller Morrow played by the Oscar award deserving Katey Sagal. Jax's girlfriend is neonatal surgeon Tara Knowles played by the talented and truly beautiful Maggie Siff. Ron Pealman plays Clay Morrow, Gemma's partner the motorcycle gang pres and the step father of Jax. Episode to episode we see Jax twisting and growing while Clay gets rawer and rawer.
In the background historically is 'John" , Jax's father, the Vietnam Vet who began the motorcycle group and died questionably when he wanted to keep it out of the downward crime spiral of the Irish Republican Army. The boys are fighting black gangs and mex gangs and each other and just generally being robustly juvenile with all manner of great motorcycle riding scenes. The real drama though revolves around Gemma a conspiring mother hen. Tara, brilliant and "loyal in love", a trule sensitive getting harder, is brought into the orbit of Gemma and Clay by her love for confused bad boy Jax.
The show is a surprisingly complex entertainment with enough 'guy' stuff and 'girl' stuff to keep a highly mixed audience. At times I feel like I'm watching the very best afternoon soap opera with Jerry Springer somewhere in the wings conspiring with Oprah then next thing I'm transported to the best guy drama expecting Schwartzenagger, Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis to suddenly ride up on motorcycles to join in the latest Glock and Rocket Launcher fray.
Alright I'm hooked. 4 seasons. There's another to go and maybe one more. All the characters are amazingly drawn and cast. It's unfair just to mention the core ones because the sub plots with Jax 's friend Opie and his Porn Star girlfriend, the dirty land developer, the pot head police chief in love with Gemma but dying of cancer, the scarred cool cat Cartel leader, the lonely intellectual US attorney, they're all really fascinating characters. Rich and diverse personalities. Great bikes.
I love it. But it's not real. It's Hollywood's fascination and promotion of the criminal. It's the make a buck off the James Dean illusion, it's their fantasies of 'noble savages'. What it comes down to is a lot of damaged people hurting alot of people and Hollywood the most damaged of all. But God it's fun to watch. I 'm reminded of my first microscope and my fascination looking at the bugs in some dirt water.
Sons of Anarchy certainly appeals to the psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist in me. Makes me think that there's a lot more work for us in Hollywood than all the country could afford. As for the Sons, I love their bikes. I love the tattooed old ladies. I especially love Gemma and Tara.
Steppenwolf and Animals, playing on stage that weekend, will forever be associated with that time.
The Hell's Angels were there along with the RCMP. Alot of Vets had ridden in too. I loved best the Vets Run that week. Made me proud to own a bike and ride with those Canadian guys who'd served in Kandahar.
Sons of Anarchy is this drama series with lots of motorcycles. I ride a Harley Davidson Electraglide. It's almost mandatory that we watch Sons of Anarchy. It's like ranchers watching Bonanza except the Sons of Anarchy are the bad boys. They really are. The women are 'old ladies'. It's a weird 'matriarchy' with adolescent emotionally stunted men and biker mommas. Lots of cultural and gang innuendos but the police forces come off looking shady and the town of Charmings, California business men don't look much better.
It's part of that new 'family' as God cult in Hollywood these days. Following on the "Breaking Bad" tradition where dad is a chemist turned meth lab criminal. Mafiosa adolescent thinking. The kind of stunted emotional growth spiritually bankrupt material we have come to expect from Hollywood. Lots of questions about the 'message' and really questionable 'ethics' and 'morality'. It's Dirty Harry except the bad guy has the glock and the message is always the same, me. I don't know if it's got any 'reality' to it but it's way better than the pathetic 'reality shows'. I sometimes watch the really good bike show where the family makes choppers and I like especially the two guys who blow up things as "myth busters'. This has a little of that kind of feel but in addition it's really great drama. That's mostly the product of the really great acting and characters of Katey Sagel and Maggie Siff.
I confess I love Hollywood for all the special effects and especially all of the variations on chases. It must be the dog in me but something about chases in movies and tv gets me going. Sons of Anarchy has one of best of all, a Hearse chasing a Harley Davidson Motorcycle. Not just a great and novel chase scene but marvellous symbolism even the stuck up European movie makers would envy.
Life is cheap in Charming. Revenge is what it's all about. Might is right. There's no elevation of the soul. This is knuckle dragging low brow brute crime drama made magnificent by creator Kurt Sutter.
Charlie Hunnan plays the protagonist "Jax" Teller whose mother is Gemma Teller Morrow played by the Oscar award deserving Katey Sagal. Jax's girlfriend is neonatal surgeon Tara Knowles played by the talented and truly beautiful Maggie Siff. Ron Pealman plays Clay Morrow, Gemma's partner the motorcycle gang pres and the step father of Jax. Episode to episode we see Jax twisting and growing while Clay gets rawer and rawer.
In the background historically is 'John" , Jax's father, the Vietnam Vet who began the motorcycle group and died questionably when he wanted to keep it out of the downward crime spiral of the Irish Republican Army. The boys are fighting black gangs and mex gangs and each other and just generally being robustly juvenile with all manner of great motorcycle riding scenes. The real drama though revolves around Gemma a conspiring mother hen. Tara, brilliant and "loyal in love", a trule sensitive getting harder, is brought into the orbit of Gemma and Clay by her love for confused bad boy Jax.
The show is a surprisingly complex entertainment with enough 'guy' stuff and 'girl' stuff to keep a highly mixed audience. At times I feel like I'm watching the very best afternoon soap opera with Jerry Springer somewhere in the wings conspiring with Oprah then next thing I'm transported to the best guy drama expecting Schwartzenagger, Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis to suddenly ride up on motorcycles to join in the latest Glock and Rocket Launcher fray.
Alright I'm hooked. 4 seasons. There's another to go and maybe one more. All the characters are amazingly drawn and cast. It's unfair just to mention the core ones because the sub plots with Jax 's friend Opie and his Porn Star girlfriend, the dirty land developer, the pot head police chief in love with Gemma but dying of cancer, the scarred cool cat Cartel leader, the lonely intellectual US attorney, they're all really fascinating characters. Rich and diverse personalities. Great bikes.
I love it. But it's not real. It's Hollywood's fascination and promotion of the criminal. It's the make a buck off the James Dean illusion, it's their fantasies of 'noble savages'. What it comes down to is a lot of damaged people hurting alot of people and Hollywood the most damaged of all. But God it's fun to watch. I 'm reminded of my first microscope and my fascination looking at the bugs in some dirt water.
Sons of Anarchy certainly appeals to the psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist in me. Makes me think that there's a lot more work for us in Hollywood than all the country could afford. As for the Sons, I love their bikes. I love the tattooed old ladies. I especially love Gemma and Tara.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Netflix TV
I've just watched the first season of Jericho on Netflix tv. I've been sick so I've had time lying about and enjoyed immensely the ability to program my entertainment with this brilliant series. No commercials. Easy download. I love Netflix. Cheap at $8 a month. I've loved tv series I bought in DVD but the cost of $40 or more a season was relatively prohibitive. That said, Sons of Anarchy was well worth the price when we got it at Sturges North and watched it in the RV rainy nights after a Harley run.
When I first got Netflix a few years back the selection of movies was limitted and I only watched a couple before dropping out. I've seen a lot of movies over the years being somewhat of a movie buff. Tuesday 1/2 price movie at the theatre was a regular event some years. Now it's only the movie that's a must see big screen event like the recent Men in Black that gets me out to the theatre. Some movies are cultural events and seeing them early in the first week at the theatre allowed one to be able to talk about them. Woody Allen films were like that a few years back. Then there's Kidman's Australia which really needs a truly big screen to appreciate it. Australia is that big a country. Otherwise we like to stay at home with the dog and watch DVD.
I'd watched an episode of Jericho on tv and never watched it again. The commercials disrupted the 'flow'. However, watching the series over a week has been like reading a great book . The characterization, the sub plots and sub stories have all been so alive this way. I realized too that commercials have caused television story telling to have to be 'dumbed down'. Jericho has alot more happening than alot of the mainstream tv. Ironically lack of commercials can kill a tv series but equally commercials can kill a great tv show.
Thanks to netflix I'm reviewing tv series I've not 'caught on' too because without the commercials complex character stories like Jericho are really extremely intriguing. The fast pace thriller aspect is maintained without the interruption too.
I'm hoping that tv series and movie series find a better way to 'make money' to make the money they deserve. The acting and writing of these has never been better. Other venues seems to have sorted this out. I don't mind paying the monthly rent for this sort of quality. I imagine however all manner of things that could of gone the 'commercial' route like 'educational lectures' at Univeristy interrupted every 5 to 10 minutes by a jingo. Maybe with the health care crisis surgery can interrupted for a 'word from the sponsor'. I recently had the experience of a video commercial board over a urinal and thought while I missed the opportunity for my own thoughts I preferred commercial in the washroom to commercials in my livingroom.
Just as Frank Lloyd Wright asked that architecture consider the environment it was in an ahead of his time ecological consideration, high quality marketting really needs to get on board with better ways of selling without abusing the potential 'customer' the way commercial disruptions of entertainment have.
Netflix is a great antidote.
I don't have much time in my schedule for tv or movies as is. I suspect though I watch at least a couple of hours a day of some sort of entertainment making me one of those roughly 20 hour a week sorts. Perhaps that's a lot by some standards, less by others. Whenever I'm sick though or recovering from an injury or overworked tv series and movies are a favourite distraction and entertainment.
Thanks to Netflix though I can better program the content - indeed I could watch more 'discovery' channel easily if I was so enclined. Frankly I do watch a lot of history and science material but nothing beats a good tv series for 'comfort food enjoyment'. Jericho did that like Friends and Tudors did it, like some of the HBO mini series have too.
Probably having watched so much Jericho this last week I'm a little post apocalyptic and more attentive to the BBC news about world terrorism. Certainly Sons of Anarchy didn't affect my desire to do crime, if anything it made me more against it, but it did affect my desire to ride my Harley. Just seeing the bikes on the open road was invigorating. "Friends" always takes me back to medical school days, nostalgia of student friendships that is always enjoyable. I appreciate the friends I have today more as a result of the relationships depicted in the Friends series and in Seinfeld too.
Netflix lets me choose the tv I want to view. I confess, if I'm eating alone at home, I prefer to watch tv , a half hour, rather than watching a movie which can have me infront of the screen for an hour and a half limitting the available choices for the evening after that.
I like that it's on my laptop too. My Mac Air is just fine for viewing. The Apple cube and tv seemed over priced and didn't have what Netflix has in comparison.
When I first got Netflix a few years back the selection of movies was limitted and I only watched a couple before dropping out. I've seen a lot of movies over the years being somewhat of a movie buff. Tuesday 1/2 price movie at the theatre was a regular event some years. Now it's only the movie that's a must see big screen event like the recent Men in Black that gets me out to the theatre. Some movies are cultural events and seeing them early in the first week at the theatre allowed one to be able to talk about them. Woody Allen films were like that a few years back. Then there's Kidman's Australia which really needs a truly big screen to appreciate it. Australia is that big a country. Otherwise we like to stay at home with the dog and watch DVD.
I'd watched an episode of Jericho on tv and never watched it again. The commercials disrupted the 'flow'. However, watching the series over a week has been like reading a great book . The characterization, the sub plots and sub stories have all been so alive this way. I realized too that commercials have caused television story telling to have to be 'dumbed down'. Jericho has alot more happening than alot of the mainstream tv. Ironically lack of commercials can kill a tv series but equally commercials can kill a great tv show.
Thanks to netflix I'm reviewing tv series I've not 'caught on' too because without the commercials complex character stories like Jericho are really extremely intriguing. The fast pace thriller aspect is maintained without the interruption too.
I'm hoping that tv series and movie series find a better way to 'make money' to make the money they deserve. The acting and writing of these has never been better. Other venues seems to have sorted this out. I don't mind paying the monthly rent for this sort of quality. I imagine however all manner of things that could of gone the 'commercial' route like 'educational lectures' at Univeristy interrupted every 5 to 10 minutes by a jingo. Maybe with the health care crisis surgery can interrupted for a 'word from the sponsor'. I recently had the experience of a video commercial board over a urinal and thought while I missed the opportunity for my own thoughts I preferred commercial in the washroom to commercials in my livingroom.
Just as Frank Lloyd Wright asked that architecture consider the environment it was in an ahead of his time ecological consideration, high quality marketting really needs to get on board with better ways of selling without abusing the potential 'customer' the way commercial disruptions of entertainment have.
Netflix is a great antidote.
I don't have much time in my schedule for tv or movies as is. I suspect though I watch at least a couple of hours a day of some sort of entertainment making me one of those roughly 20 hour a week sorts. Perhaps that's a lot by some standards, less by others. Whenever I'm sick though or recovering from an injury or overworked tv series and movies are a favourite distraction and entertainment.
Thanks to Netflix though I can better program the content - indeed I could watch more 'discovery' channel easily if I was so enclined. Frankly I do watch a lot of history and science material but nothing beats a good tv series for 'comfort food enjoyment'. Jericho did that like Friends and Tudors did it, like some of the HBO mini series have too.
Probably having watched so much Jericho this last week I'm a little post apocalyptic and more attentive to the BBC news about world terrorism. Certainly Sons of Anarchy didn't affect my desire to do crime, if anything it made me more against it, but it did affect my desire to ride my Harley. Just seeing the bikes on the open road was invigorating. "Friends" always takes me back to medical school days, nostalgia of student friendships that is always enjoyable. I appreciate the friends I have today more as a result of the relationships depicted in the Friends series and in Seinfeld too.
Netflix lets me choose the tv I want to view. I confess, if I'm eating alone at home, I prefer to watch tv , a half hour, rather than watching a movie which can have me infront of the screen for an hour and a half limitting the available choices for the evening after that.
I like that it's on my laptop too. My Mac Air is just fine for viewing. The Apple cube and tv seemed over priced and didn't have what Netflix has in comparison.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Morning Glory - the movie
I laughed and I cried. I laughed crying and cried laughing. Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Dianne Keaton make this film about a young producer trying to pour life into a dying tv show an unforgettable masterpiece. Patrick Wilson and Jeff Goldbloom add even more to Morning Glory, a film directed by Roger Michell and written by Aline Brosh McKenna.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Green Zone
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001338/
A great war and intrigue movie starring an amazing Matt Damon as rogue American soldier. It's a story about the search for the disappearing WMD. Director Paul Greengrass. Screenwriter Brian Helgeland. Based on book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, who was Washington Post Bureau Chief in Bagdad and is now National Editor.
The question that is addressed is 'trust'. Whose going to trust America is doing the right thing or the good thing. When Caligula ruled Rome Romans and others listened because the emperor controlled the army but was Caligula good and right. Some would say power is right. Thereafter whoever has power defines what is 'good'.
I can't forget 9-11. Bin Laden terrorists supposedly are the cause. Bin Laden is Saudi. Then suddenly 'invade Iraq' is the solution. Kill Saddam Husein yet Saddam Husein isn't related to Bin Laden. There was this huge "leap of faith".
There is also no doubt now whatsoever that there was a cover up. All the people who were supposed to ensure against a 9-11 scenario appear to have been promoted. The investigation simply never addressed the obvious questions. But to question 9-11 is to be unpatriotic. I think it's horrible that people died in 9-11 and I don't hate firemen. I just don't like liars. It's the way my mother raised me.
Now we'll still looking for Bin Laden and the so called Weapons of Mass Destruction. Great movie.
Was Saddam Hussein killed because he knew Dick Cheney was hiding Bin Laden in Texas?. Anything can go missing in Texas. I wouldn't be surprised if they found Elvis and Kennedy's real shooter were being held by Halliburton in Roswell.
I thought I'd never say it, but American politics make Harper and Ignatieff look like Canadian good ole boys. They might have sex with moose or burn blacks in Prince George but they'd never tell the kind of fibs American presidents do. Either that or Clinton really didn't know what he was doing with Monica was sexual.
It sure makes prayer more attractive. Great movie.
Hair of the Sasquatch
http://www.hairofthesasquatch.com/
http://vfs.edu/faculty.php?id=6&staff_id=117
Rodger Cove is a screenwriter and film maker who taught courses at the recent CanWrite 2010 Conference. I had the pleasure of attending both, one on structure and storytelling while the other was on the new media. Both were excellent. Rodger seemed like a traditional young college professor and taught all the conventional material one would hope to cover in these areas. His special insights went beyond this to the cutting edge. That was all on the surface.
He and a friend made an internet movie serial, the Hair of the Sasquatch. This is really Rodger Cove. I won't go so far as to suggest he likes hairy Italian women but I would recommend that anything he does is worth the price of admission. I wouldn't be fooled either by his clean cut looks and serious demure. He's definitely got a touch of Fellini about him.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The Horseman
Last night Laura and I watched a trite and frivolous movie called, From Rome with Love. That was definitely a chick flick. "The Horseman," Laura said, "is definitely not a chick flick." It's raw violence with the feeling one gets watching a bloody heavy weight title boxing match. It's an Australian movie and very un-American. The pansy American's are forever using bigger machine guns and missile launchers in their vigilante movies. The good ole days of Charles Bronson are replaced with arsenals of weapons to make up for the obvious decline in manhood. Not this Australian killer. It's big on fists, knives and ballpeen hammers. It's definitely weak on guns. In fact the gun isn't considered very manly. Why use a gun when a lead pipe has so much better action.
That said, the movie's other redeeming bit is that it's probably the best expose of the porn business since Nicholas Cage's 9 mm. Today's business makes Playboy look like approved elementary school viewing in comparison. Not a pretty movie. Not a pretty subject. It's directed and written by Steven Kastrissios, starring Peter Marshall and Caroline Marohasy
Saturday, June 19, 2010
The Book of Eli
Denzel Washington is utterly superb in this amazingly contoured post apocalyptic drama. While at first it's reminiscent of Road Warrior it gains momentum and depth as the drama of a town and it's inhabitants unfolds around the incredible journey of this man with a mission. The ending is beyond anything I could have imagined or hoped for.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The Angel and the Badman
This is a beautiful movie. The acting is superb. The drama of a gunman meeting a Quaker family. The Friends belief that a man can only hurt himself and shooting another hurts the shooter. These are important beliefs and ideas. Today they're more associated with Gandhi but they're part of the story of the Wild West.
Starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Deborah Kara Unger. Director: Terry Ingram. Writers: Jack Nasser and James Edward Grant.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Shutter Island
They made a movie about you. Only you know who you are. Run!
Director: Martin Scorsese. Novelist: Dennis Lehane. Screenwriter: Laeta Kalogridis. Starring: Leonard DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley, Max Ruffalo, Max Von Sydow, Michelle Williams
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Legion
This isn't Charleton Heston. I don't think it will be Billy Graham approved. I doubt the nuns would allow the Pope to watch it given his age. The nuns would watch it. It's postmodern apocalyptic Christianity at its finest. 12 guage shotguns, machine guns, rocket launchers and angels. I'll never be able to trust a granny eating steak again. It goes beyond vampires and Dawn of the Dead. Unbelievable action! Fascinating writing. Good story. Rivetting. I loved it. Even a baby born on a battlefield. What's not to love about that!
Incredible acting by Paul Bettany, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Adriane Palicki, Kevin Durand, Jon Tenney, Willa Holland,Kate Walsh, Percy Walker, and Dennis Quaid, and Gladys Foster. Director: Scott Stewart. Writers: Peter Schink and Scott Stewart.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
From Paris with Love
John Travolta is an American 007. This is another thinking man's Swordfish. A regular Vin Diesel-Bruce Willis-Mel Gibson-Clint Eastwood type action film. The very best kind! Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays a classic newby side kick . I loved this film. Great writing by Luc Beeson and Adi Hassak tying drugs, espionage and terrorism all together with a very sexy ribbon. Kasia Smutniak is terrific. Director Pierre Morel is truly amazing. It just came out on Shaw TV and DVD. It could only have been better if I'd seen it at the movies.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Extraordinary Measures
This extraordinary movie starring Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell was written by Robert Nelson Jacobs. Jacobs has done for Muscular Dystrophy what Beautiful Mind did for Schizophrenia. Writing a captivating moving story about scientific discovery isn't easy without car chases, hot sex and terrorists. This movie directed by Tim Vaughan does just that. In a real life race against time it shows the inner workings of basic research, represented by Dr. Stonehill, played exquisitely by Harrison Ford, as it interfaces with venture capitalism. Brendan Fraser plays both CEO and father with mother Keri Russell of children dying from an incurable disease. The passion of these parents infuses the intellectual coldness of pure research and finance. A touching and inspirational tale full of suspense and in depth acting. A must see right up there with Invictus and Blind Side.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
It’s Complicated
This chick flick with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Marten is marketed to bitter unforgiving women. Man leaves self obsessed woman for younger woman. Man comes back to now ex wife and has an affair with her. She thereby trumps the original marriage breaker.Old woman beats young woman. She then destroys the husband who has come back to her and their family. Such sweet revenge.
Finally, she's supposedly the good mother. In the end all her kids are with her. It looks more like fear than love. She has the big house and gets the architect. It's such a cold hearted superficial movie whose only redeeming feature is Alec Baldwin's sensitive portrayal of a three dimensional character. American woman at it's worst. Reminded me of the Guess Who song. It's only wrong if the man does it.
DNA evidence shows a third of children aren't their father's in the increasing patrimony suits. Affairs take two. Jesus said, he without sin, should throw the first stone. She is definitely a stoner in this movie that celebrate marijuania promoting it as the solution for the geriatric set. But it's all vengeance. Family and community are secondary to the self centered individual. The culture of narcissim at it's ugliest, disguised in a veneer of fine food, wealth and 'sex in the city' clothing.
The new world order – Hedonism becomes Shedonism :"You've come along way, Baby" - "She who has the most toys wins." Thank you Hollywood!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Disgrace
John Malkovich's performance is sheer genius in this post modern South African allegory based on the novel by Nobel prize winning author J. M. Coetzee. The new apartheid is contrasted with the colourless world of mother and child. Terror and humiliation beyond an eye for an eye dominates the primitive tribal rule. Malkovich with utter realism plays Professor Lurie who seduces a college student, played by Natalie Becker. Later, he cannot protect his own daughter Lucy, played by Jessica Haines. Jessica Haines brings new insight, depth and toughness to the white woman in a Africa role, earning her place alongside Katherine Hepburn and Meryl Streep. It is a must see.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Young Victoria
What a truly refreshing movie. So uplifting. A great romance. A truly wonderful slice of history. The Court of England at it's finest. People, just noble people, in lovely clothes and lovely surroundings. Doing their best. Family. I loved Albert Hall in London. Victoria and Albert were such a support to education, the arts and sciences. This movie is simply captivating. So much is in the characterization. The actors and directing catch every subtle detail. It was beautiful. Who said history was dull!
The movie was written by Julian Fellowes, directed by Jean-Marc Vallee and starred Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria and Rupert Friend as Albert.
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