Reviews
Over the course of the year, I’ve reinvented our entertainment system. I won’t go into any great technical depth or rational for what I bought as I do that on another blog but I did want to describe how it has changed the way we entertain ourselves.
First I sold our old 37” Sony CRT TV which was only 8 years. Bought for £2000 and sold for next to nothing - £21! That’s the price for you pay for the progress of technology. I’m just glad someone wanted it as I couldn’t bare to take it to the tip. Bought a...
It's been a while since I've read an entire book. That is, a proper thick book with over 400 pages. However, I recently finished reading "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. It won the 1998 Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize. Its subtitle is "a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years".
Diamond sets out to explain why human history turned out the way it did. His thesis is that the big picture of history is completely a product of environmental factors and has nothing to do with racial capabilities.
He covers the early human disporas, the rise of food production and...
Back to blogging. First up, some of the more interesting movies I've watched in the last few months.
One of the best was Once Were Warriors.(Lee Tamahori, 1994) ..."a family descended from Maori warriors is bedeviled by a violent father and the societal problems of being treated as outcasts." Engrossing film but there's some very nasty violence. Highly recommended.
We just recently watched Crash (David Cronenburg, 1996). It's definitely "out there" as films go. I'd call it fetish porn with a plot. Weird people getting off on combining car crashes, mutilation and sex. Not for everyone but intriguing none-the-less. Don't ask me whether it's...
Wallace & Gromit rule! Great movie - everything you've come to expect from Nick Park. Will have to watch it on DVD to catch more of the in-jokes. Don't miss it.
I love the "Very Short Introduction" series put out by Oxford University Press. I've just finished reading the one on Political Philosophy. The topic sounds daunting but it's written in a very clear readable manner. The chapters covered are:
Why do we need political philosophy?
Political authority
Democracy
Freedom and the limits of government
Justice
Feminism and multiculturism
Nations, states and global justice
I found the last chapter on global justice particularly interesting. In contrast to cosmopolitanism, which is admittedly utopian, he outlines what I would consider a realistic vision of a world built on global justice:
"Political authority would rest primarily with nation-states, but they would collaborate...
A comedy/documentary following some activists that impersonate the World Trade Organisation and work to correct their identity through outrageous presentations at conferences and to the media.
It's low-budget and not particularly hard hitting but it is great fun to watch. I truly admire people with the gall to do stuff life this. I had a great laugh over the re:burger and the economic analysis of slavery was good too.
Don't buy the DVD. Either rent it or download it off the 'net. It's worth watching.
The Yes Men website is also a good browse. There are links to parody corporate websites of Dow and...
A unique fusion of Indian and Western traditions in this retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as a Bollywood film. It's fun and a bit corny - a snuggle-up-with-your-other-half movie. Aishwarya Rai is drop dead gorgeous.
One of the director's comments has stuck in my mind. Bollywood films, with their singing, dancing and fantasy sequences, are a celebration of life. I think that's true compared to other film traditions.
A chick flick, the whole chick flick and nothing but a chick flick. Nice fuzzy romantic comedy that explores the idea of two timelines. Decent acting. I particularly liked John Hannah. But I'm really not sure what point the film is trying to make. It's probably not the kind of film one should expect a point from!
The Piano Teacher is a french movie. A very french movie. It's deep, intellectual and metaphorical. Haneke likes to create the most emotionally disturbing scenes with the absolute minimum of movement and dialogue.
Erika is a repressed, harsh and icy piano teacher teaching at a famous conservatory. She has no friends or lovers, lives with her demanding mother, and finds relief through various sadomachoistic practices. Walter, a gifted student, enters her life and her world of perverse sexuality that rejects seduction.
To understad the film, you definitely have to listen to the DVD commentary afterwards. I wouldn't recommend it unless you're really...
Over last two weeks we watched the first five Star Wars episodes with the kids and today we took in the early show of "Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith" at the cinema. The kids loved it all and are full of Jedi knights and light sabres. Their favourite part is the Ewoks in Episode 6.
For all the faults you can level at the films(the inconsistencies no less), it's still an outstanding achievement in entertainment. Will anyone else ever get the chance to tell an epic story across six feature films? I'm sure it will be a long wait.
The title translates to "Love's A Bitch". Appropriate for a downbeat movie set in Mexico City that loosely links three storylines of love and tragic loss. The opening storyline is particularly violent and immediately gets you involved. All three stories are intense and well paced. The acting and filming is all good. If you like pain, this is a movie for you.
However, I found the movie quite fragmented as it tried to weave between storylines without adequately bringing them together by the end. It's confusing and lacks integration as you shift gears when the story switches. The thesis is that "you...
A straight-forward charming animation about a young witch growing up. It's one of the earlier films by Hayao Miyazaki. You can see his trademark of truly life-like child animation developing which he later extends in "Princess Monoke" and "Spirited Away". It's a bit odd in that you have completely Japanese characters in a totally European town and culture. Nevertheless, kids will love it and adults can appreciate the artistry.
I always find it a bit sad coming to the end of a novel you really enjoyed. If it's good, you don't want it to end. Even more so when the ending is so traumatic.
I've finished The Amber Spyglass which is last of the Philip Pullman "His Dark Materials" trilogy. It's been a long time since I've been so thoroughly engrossed in a novel. If you've ever enjoyed the fantasy genre, then I would highly recommend it. But it's not a hum drum fantasy story; far more imaginative than that! It blends adventure, modern physics, theology and cosmology. Fabulous.
I've read that...
A simple and biting film about two soldiers, one Serb and one Bosnian, trapped together in a trench between each other's lines. The situation gets complicated and the UN and media are soon drawn into it. Some may view it as a farce and a comedy but any laughter is pretty subdued when you know the violence, cruelty and bureaucratic games ring true. Intense and well recommended.
Finished reading the second book of His Dark Materials while off sailing. It suffers from the typical problem of being the middle book of a triology. It elaborates and progresses the main plot but doesn't stand well on it's own. However, it serves its purpose as I can't wait to read the third book. First I need to check a few things in the Genesis chapter of the Bible.
Northern Lights is the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy. After this trilogy came third in The Big Read last year I knew I would have to read it at some point so I finally finished this first book over this last holiday. Only took me two days because I became thoroughly engrossed in the storyline.
I'm not yet convinced it deserves to come in third place (beating Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy no less) but I'll reserve judging too much until I've finished the other two books. On it's own, it's a well written fantasy set in a...
It's a clever animation with lots of style. I'll give it that. Visually delightful and it's got many funny bits. A laugh for the kids. But the story is the bland "follow your dream and be true to yourself" variety. The dialogue is nothing better than a Saturday morning cartoon. It's also very, very American. I also saw "Shark Tale" a few weeks ago and it was similiar. Lots of style and in-jokes but lacking substance.
This got me wondering. Wouldn't it be fantastic to see this kind of clever computer animation done by an all-Indian or all-Chinese production company? I...
I'll give the new Dr. Who series a thumbs up. Good casting and a proper special effects budget are a good start. The storyline was as corny as ever but, hey, that's part of the fun. It's now firmly on my agenda for Saturday nights. Episode 6 is entitled "Dalek"!
All part of a proper education for the children...
Roger is a hopelessly cynical advertising copywriter with a razor-sharp wit who believes he has mastered the art of manipulating women. But Roger's seemingly foolproof world of smooth talk and casual sex unravels when he tries to help his desperate 16 year old nephew lose his virginity one night in New York.
Excellent script. Fine cast and acting. Unconventional cinematography. But above all, the dialogue really carries this film. An award winning independent film that's well worth watching.
Excellent French-Canadian film about a man coming to terms with his impending death through cancer and those who help him. The general metaphor of invading barbarians is repeated many times. IMDB describes it well:
"we develop tidy definitions of who we are and who we are not. Life then deals us changes. Change is experienced as a violation (invasion) and the source of change feels foreign and evil (barbarians).How we are ultimately changed by these invasions defines who we are."
Superb script. Humourous and touching but not at all saccharine. Highly recommended. According to a Guardian article, You have a 1 in 3...
A complex romance/drama set in 1930's Vietnam with a woman and adopted daughter loving the same man. It's French with English subtitles. Good entertainment and historically accurate.
As an old fan of Isaac Asimov, I was really looking forward to this film. I read tons of science fiction as a kid. It's probably a good thing that I don't remember the "I, Robot" book very well.
I did enjoy the film but I wouldn't rave about it. Visually, it was a treat and I watched the DVD a second time so I could pause it to have a good look at the scenes. The story is quite good and it's too bad the script didn't explore the ethics and issues of robots a bit deeper.
I can't quite put...
Catwoman has been pretty widely panned but I didn't think it was all that bad. It's standard Hollywood light entertainment. Big on effects, low on script. But watching Halle Berry in her Catwoman costume made it quite worthwhile to me.Gorgeous!
Meanwhile, my daughter really loved the film. Catwoman is a female super hero/villian and she finally got to see a woman that plays hard and kicks butt. It inspired R* to design her own catwoman mask and costume that she would like to make. That has to make it a good film.
It's interesting that in the end, Catwoman had to face a...
Finally saw this controversial film about the final days of Jesus Christ but I don't see what the fuss was about. Sure the scourging and suffering is brutal and graphic but I think Gibson went a bit over the top with it. I don't see how anyone could stand up after that! The attention to Biblical detail seemed good (I'm no expert) and I was surprised that the film was shot in Latin and Aramaic with English subtitles. Nice touch.
I can certainly see the impact it would have on a Christian audience. Now wouldn't it be really interesting to have other religious stories...
Managed to speed read this book in two days over my ski holiday. I had read the first Adrian Mole book (the diary of a 13 3/4 year-old) ages ago but hadn't kept up with the series. In this diary, he's now an angst ridden 38 year-old in the year 2003. It's easy reading and light hearted as you weave through his messy personal life and comments on New Labour and the looming Iraq war. I was engrossed enough to stay up to two am in the morning to finish it. Good fun and a recommended bit of escapism. Will...
Jenny picked this up the other day and we watched it. It didn't do much for me. The sets were lavish and it had some nice cinematography. Even Madonna wasn't as bad as I was expecting. But I just didn't enjoy the music and given that it's a musical, it failed to get me involved.
It was interesting reading up on Eva Perón afterwards and understanding the implications of some the scenes in the film. I didn't know anything about Evita before the film and film itself is just a caricature. Forget the film and just read the website about a remarkable woman at a...
It's rare that you find a really innovative film but Memento is definitely up there near the top. The plot is about a man, Lenny, who can't make new memories since the rape and murder of his wife. Lenny remembers everything before that event but his memory now only lasts five to ten minutes at a time. Lenny has only one purpose in life and that's to find his wife's killer and take revenge.
Christopher Nolan then uses this situation to explore lots of interesting questions about memory. How accurate is memory? How do you use memory? How can you remember to...
A charming film that's worth renting. The first half is a good comedy romance which gets you involved with the characters despite the bad English dubbing. Italians just move their lips faster than English speakers! In the second half, the characters are shipped to Auschwicz and the movie strives to blend humour with the tragedy of the Holocaust. Very tricky but it does pull it off for a heartwarming ending. Recommended.
I've been waiting for an opportunity to see The Corporation for months and finally managed to catch it at a local independent cinema. Overall, it was very good. Not as slick a production as the other documentaries I've been watching lately but I was very interested in the topic.
It covers the rise of corporations in society and how they eventually got the legal status of a "person". It then investigates what kind of a "person" a corporation is and concludes that it's psychopathetic based on numerous anecdotes. The anecdotes can be very gripping but I find anecdotes are a weak...
I'm not big on cop shows. Got really bored of the genre. However "Infernal Affairs" was just superb. Actually this is a whole trilogy out of Hong Kong. After "Infernal Affairs I", you get a prequel "Infernal Affairs II" and you finally get the sequel "Infernal Affairs III". I've seen I & III and thoroughly enjoyed both. No doubt the first movie is the best but III was worthwhile. Can't wait to get my hands on II.
The basic plot of I is about two moles. One mole works for a triad and has infiltrated the police. Another mole works for the...
Definitely not as good as the first film. Not by a long shot. Altogether, an uneven story and disappointing narrative. Too much over acting and the characters aren't as engaging. The plot seems to have been sacrificed in favour of gratuitous violence. The first film was superb at examining individual decisions to survival by violence. This film also asked questions about violence but failed to give any answers. It even flirted with criticims of the United States and the violence that country has committed towards other countries. But only flirt and it was totally irrelevant. That is the problem. The film touches...
Excellent film from the director of "Hero". This time it's set at the end of the Tang Dynasty. The same beautiful (and sometimes over-the-top) cinematography. The plot is enjoyably twisty but not as complicated and intriguing as the flashback narrative of Hero. Hero had too much flying around; I prefer the martials arts in Flying Daggers. It's still beyond credibility but not quite into fantasy. Flying Daggers is a better love story. However, it's a Chinese film and, as you know, Chinese films don't have happy endings. Highly recommended.
Superb Japanese animation from Hayao Miyazaki. This is the film he did before "Spirited Away" and shares much of the same style as that film. It's a wonderful cinematic creation from a fertile imagination exploring the man vs nature theme. One warming though. Yes it's animation but it's not a children's film. Lots of violence, blood and graphic war scenes. That said, I let my kids watch and they really enjoyed it. Like most animation, it can be a bit jerky and the lip-synch poor. It doesn't look like any computer animation was used. I found the ending satisfying but a...
I'm not too sure about this one. I enjoyed the movie but I wouldn't rave about it. Great sets and some good action. Didn't find the narrative and the acting that engaging. After the movie, I read up on Helen of Troy and Achilles and found out just how spartan (pun intended) this version of the story was. All the mythology is striped out and events presented as pseudo real history. Numerous things are left out and the ending is much different than the stories.
A few things I would change:
The proper marriage pact of the Greek leaders to Menelaus should...
Saw the latest and greatest film from Pixar last week. It's a no brainer; you gotta see it. It's hugely enjoyable and it's not just for kids. In fact I'd say it's a given that anything from Pixar is going to be worth watching.
Finally got around to seeing Super Size Me (a film of epic portions). It's a low budget video documentary about obesity in America and one of its sources - fast food corporations. In particular, Morgan Spurlock (writer, director, producer, actor, blogger), takes it upon himself to eat solely at McDonalds for one month and document it's effects.
It's an entertaining and fun watch. Rated 92% on Rotten Tomatoes so that's not just my opinion. Mildly horrifying as he elaborates on the scope of the problem but it's no big surprise. Very interesting that McDonalds dropped their Super Size options two months after...
I remember when this first came out and I made a mental note that I gotta see it. It's taken over 10 years but I finally watched it the other day. Simply another fabulous story from the strange mind of Tim Burton and wonderfully executed using stop motion animation. I wasn't too sure whether it would scare the kids but I let them watch it and they enjoyed it too. Great characters. Oogie Boogie is my favourite.
It would be very interesting to try and make it into a broadway musical. I'm sure it could work.
I love short films. They take a simple idea and explore it. They take risks. They push the envelope of the media. They're punchy and out to challenge you. As a format, they're also hard to make since every shot and every word counts. A good short film is a very beautiful thing.
Cinema 16 is a compilation DVD of 16 short and student films by British Directors. Sure, there are some films in the collection I didn't like but quite a few are award winners and are well deserving. The collection includes "Boy on a Bicycle" which was Ridley Scott's first...
There are three reasons for sacrificing your life: love, friendship and an ideal. This is the premise behind "Hero" and each case gets illustrated. It's a beautiful film although in a rather cliche way. Lovely scenery. I particularly liked the way the story is told as three different flashbacks. Each flashback is a different version of what may have happened. It kept me really involved and guessing what was really going on and how it was going to end. However, as with so many Chinese films, it's a tragic ending. English subtitles. Recommended.
German movie based on the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment (read more about the experiment here) but this movie takes the experiment much further. Twenty ordinary people are divided into twelve prisoners and eight guards and asked to play these roles for two weeks. The story is centered on one of the prisoners, Tarek Fahd.
The drama is intense as behaviours escalate to the flims climax. Plausible and topical given the prison abuses in Iraq. Worth watching (thanks Jennifer for the recommendation).
Park your mind and prepare to feel good. It's a sickly sweet romantic comedy cuddle movie. Don't start analysing how crassly commercial and shallow it is or you'll stop smiling. Fine acting and well made, it's ok for a Friday night rental. Better still, use it for foreplay.
This German film won Best Foreign Language film in 2002. It's about a well off German Jewish family that leaves everything behind in Nazi Germany and survive as poor farm hands in Kenya. It's based on the autobiography of Stefanie Zweig and is told through the eyes of her as a little girl. Great story, well acted and beautiful cinematography. Highly recommended.
It's described in the IMDB review as a "moderately interesting drama" and that's a pretty good summary. Would be interesting to compare this to the 1958 version but I haven't seen it. Michael Caine certainly carries the film. If you like his movies, you'll probably enjoy this film. It inspired me to quickly read up on Vietnamese history (since 1885) and it's just stunning what the country has been through over the last 100 years.
It's rare that a sequel is better than the first movie but it's certainly true with Spider-Man 2. It's a great summer movie that finally has a bit more substance than just special effects by delving deeper into the dilema of being a super hero. Great entertainment.
Fantastic and deliciously self-referential film. A screenplay that you could talk about for hours in a film studies class. I need to watch it a second time. I've never cared much for Nicolas Cage but his performance is superb in this film. Highly recommended.
I thoroughly enjoyed this retelling of the classic fairy tale. Bright and fun for both adults and the kids. Its cast particularly well. Recommended.
A young Catholic man in Belfast discovers he has an incredible ability to get women pregnant. His services come into great demand attracting the attention of the IRA and causing great difficulty in his romantic interest. Excellent plot. It's bound to keep you smiling and entertained for 96 minutes. Good caste, well acted, nice pace, stylised cinematography and a fun script if you can get past the strong Irish accents. Recommended.
Superb sequel. Not quite as magical as the original but great entertainment. There's less character development and dialogue and more action. The pace is fast and doesn't give you enough time to soak in all the in jokes and fantastic imagery. Will definitely have to watch the DVD as well. I've noticed that Shrek 3 and Shrek 4 are also planned.
I've been trying to figure out what's wrong with this movie. I mean, it's ok as movies go and the historical context behind it is very interesting but the movie is just done wrong. It's too theatrical. Too Hollywood. Too stylised. The acting is a bit pushed. It feels like a made-for-TV movie. The production values just weren't right for the story. It needed to be darker, grittier and more real. Blah.
Enjoyabled movie but it's missing something. The cinematography was excellent. The acting was fine. I just didn't find the story that engaging. Only good for those that like a swashbuckling sea-going yarn.
My cousin was in town visiting so besides strolling around Blenheim Palace and Camden Market, we also went to see Jerry Springer - The Opera at the Cambridge Theatre in London.
It was excellent but certainly not everyone's cup of tea. First, it is really opera. There is a large talented cast and the singing could be thunderous sometimes. Much of the singing is prolonged profanity and extremely rude (listen to it on the website). It's great that I can claim this as my first real opera experience. Second, it really is in the format of a trashy Jerry Springer show. David Soul makes a perfect Jerry...
Finally finished reading this book by Laura Ingalls Wilder aloud to the kids. In terms of a children's story, I found it to be a bit of a slog. Not very entertaining compared to something from Roald Dahl but that's just me.
However, it's a great snippet of history and provides a charming account of frontier life. The narrative is simple and clear. Most important, it held the children's attention and gave them a glimpse at how different life was back then. That itself opens up all kind of conversations. We had a good talk about the conquest of America and...
This isn't a film for everyone. It's a slow film about two strangers gradually falling in love but never consumating a relationship. Both are vistors to Tokyo alienated by a strange culture. Although it's a Hollywood film, it's got all the feel and production values of a small independent film. Realism reins. Life moves slowly.
Yes, it's pretty much a showcase for Bill Murray. The acting and script is good. The film has a certain charm to it but don't expect great entertainment.
My expectations were pretty low of this film as it seemed to have passed quietly through the cinemas. However, I love Tim Burton films and had to see what he had done with this one. His films are always rich saturated productions that are quirky and surreal but tell a good story.
I wasn't disappointed after all. It was thoroughly Burtonesque and I'd recommend watching it. Check IMDB for the plot.
Tonight I went and saw Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. If there's one movie to watch this year, this has gotta be the one.
I don't think you can watch the film without various emotions swelling in you. I felt amazed, horrified, angry, sad and ashamed. He paints a devasting portrayal of Bush, the American system and the tragedy of the Iraq war. But I was ready to agree with him before the film started.
Thinking about how the film was constructed, I do feel he dwells too much on emotive footage rather than constructing and backing up his arguement. Maybe too many facts would...
A quiet delightful movie. A harassed desperate modern Korean mother drops her spoiled son to stay with his frail traditional grandmother who lives in a remote village. She's mute, bent over and poor. The rest of the film is a slow character study as old and new ways of life clash but family love prevails. The kid is a right brat and their relationship keeps you interested for the whole movie. Recommended.
Finally got around to watching this satire of fame and thought it was brilliant. Very entertaining and at the same time hits on the dark themes of press manipulation and the theatrics and fallibility of the legal system. Particularly impressed with how versatile the cast was, especially Catherine Zeta-Jones. She's fantastic in it.
We dumped Sky Movies several months ago. Figured that it was £154 a year going down the toilet as we just didn't watch it. They showed lousy movies at the wrong time. We still have Sky but just a basic package. Actually given how little TV we watch, I'm not even sure that's worth it.
But this month I signed up with the MovieTrak DVD rental scheme. It's excellent. For only £8 a month, you create a long list of movies on their website that you want to watch. They send the first DVD to you, you watch it and send it back....
Battle Royale was our latest selection for our Foreign Film Night. It's based on a series of books by Koushun Takami. I enjoyed the movie but the book sounds even better.
It's a simple plot. In the near future, Japan passes a law to control it's unruly youth requiring that a single class is selected each year to kill each other on a remote uninhabited island. The last survivor gets to go home hence the tagline "can you kill your best friend"? The action starts quickly as 42 Year 9 students soon get to grips with their situation.
Yes, it's a very...
The book is subtitled "A provocative view of the way money works". It's in the same format as the other Fragile Earth books; a collection of numerous mini-essays around a single theme. I don't think the format worked that well since money is quite a complex issue and there are many interconnected concepts that need more indepth explanation.
It's a good "taster" book for covering a wide range of ideas and insanities. For example, the concept of GDP is badly flawed as an economic measure and a way of measuring progress. Money that loses value over time to encourage economic activity. The...
Watched the Kill Bill Vol. 1 DVD and then had to go out and see Vol 2 at the cinema. A wronged women (The Bride) seeks her revenge and boy does she get it. Violent. Very violent like previous Tarantino films. Lots of blood and bodies in the first film. Great sword play.
Tarantino pays hommage to numerous martial arts films right down to David Carradine playing a bamboo flute (remember Kung Fu anyone?). The cinematography is quirky with the use of black and white, slow motion and japanese animation. That makes it so much more interesting than a standard Hollywood action flick....
I recently finished reading this book aloud to R*. Before starting it, all I knew was that it was a classic children's book about a black horse. Well, that's true but I was impressed to find out that it's really a morality story. Many of the morale lessons are directed at animal welfare but there's plenty of dialogue lecturing about social morality and how to treat our fellow man. This is constantly illustrated through the stories of the owners of Black Beauty, especially that of Jerry Barker.
What makes it particularly interesting is that it was written in 1877 and...
YATCM or "Yet Another Tragic Chinese Movie". Just what is it with Chinese movies? By far, the majority of the one's I see are tragic tales. Maybe it's just Chinese art films but still it must say something about the culture.
The plot is simple. Two neighbours discover that their respective spouses are having an affair and are drawn together. Stylistically, the film is a feast. It's set in 1960's Hong Kong. It dark, hot, humid and cramped. The film is very slow. Minor expressions and eye glances are all important. The chongsams are wonderful. The mood is tantelizing.
But nothing...
Finally got around to watching this latest Bond film - the twentieth - the other night. It's a typical (yawn!) Bond film that delivers what you expect from a Bond film. I find the formula very tired and with the obvious use of computer graphics, it's lost it's wow factor compared to the early films.
Why would secret agents surf to an enemy beach? Looks good but makes no sense. But Bond films don't really have to make sense do they? My hopes got quite high after they tortured Bond for fourteen months and he started to work outside of...
A boy's socialist mother falls into a coma. She wakes up after the Berlin Wall has fallen and Germany's reunification. However, to avoid exciting his Mom and giving her another heart attack, the son contrives to hide all that has happened and that nothing has changed in East Germany. There's further subplots with a nurse he falls in love with and the father that abandoned him.
I'd call it a poignant comedy that takes another look at socialism. Eventually you learn more about the son as he rewrites history for his mother. No, it's not a spell-binding great film but...
I thought this was a great little book. In 135 clearly written pages it effectively gives you a good framework for thinking about globalization in all it's many facets. It puts it into a historical context before moving on to four major dimensions of analysis: economic, political, cultural and ideological. It ends with chapers on the challenges of globalism and the future of globalization.
The writing is somewhat academic in nature. Manfred Steger is a Professor at Illinois State University. But it's clear and concise and doesn't ramble. It's a very complex topic and he keeps the narrative succinct. I found...
I've been reading The Hobbit (Tolkien) to R*. We're on Chapter 10. It's considered a children's book but the language and sentence construction makes it pretty hard going when you're reading it aloud. I can get pretty tongue tied and I consider myself pretty good at reading aloud. I've even got a fair repertoire of voices which are fun to invent. I've scared the kids sometimes to the point where they insist that I don't do the voice. Gollum is fun to do.
Watched the DVD. Great movie although rather horrific. As described by IMDB:
A Polish Jewish musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto of World War II.
And it's amazing that he did as it's based on a true story. Any film about the holocaust is bound to be emotional and invocative but it tells the story of survival in a unpatronising and realistic way. The fact that he's a pianist isn't that central to the film but acts as a theme to hold the story together. Recommended.
This is my favourite album over the last few months. I'd describe it as a fairly mainstream rock album (drums and guitar but dashes of orchestral instruments) with sad and reflective lyrics. It flows really well although some might find it monotonous. Not a dance or a summer album. Great to crank up loud on a cold rainy day.
We watched "City Of God" last night as part of our regular foreign film night. Superb film. It's one of the best foreign films I've ever seen. The story is engrossing and well told despite reading subtitles. It's not beautiful, arty or funny. It's raw, violent and real-life.
The reviews are all great. Watch it. It's a must see. And don't miss the special feature on the DVD too.
Purchase Amazon US or Amazon UK
Good film. One of those films you need to think about. It explores the pain and injustice in modern Chinese society through the extraordinary steps two individuals take to own the same bicycle. It's poignant in how critical the bike is to each of them. And like almost every Chinese film I know, it ends tragically. Subtitles in English but there isn't much dialogue. Excellent cinematography. Only recommended if you're enjoy world cinema.
I enjoyed this quirky but beautifully animated film. It's very slowly paced. The time is used to introduce you to characters and for you to get to know them. There's almost no dialogue so time is spent just living with the characters. Together with the highly stylised animation, this builds up a great atmosphere.
The plot is rather bland and a far cry from a Hollywood script. It's not pretty and some scene are somewhat grotesque. Some also might find the extreme caricatures offensive but I thought they added great humour to the film. Our children watched it with us and...
At only 100 pages long, this is a very approachable and digestable book by Noam Chomsky. It's subtitled "The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda". It seems to be a minor update to this speech from 1991.
The first chapter examines the lesson of the Creel Commission of 1916 concluding that "state propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect."
The next chapter entitled "Spectator Democracy" traces how the current use of propoganda became rationalised and instituitionalised as an essential element of our modern version of democracy. This is a false democracy where...
An entertaining film but certainly not for everyone. The plot:
"After her release from hospital following treatment for self-harming Lee Holloway gets a job as a secretary to a lawyer, Mr Grey. It's not too long before she begins an affair with him but he suddenly loses interest. She now has to fight to regain the relationship which had been based on masochistic submission... "
Yep, not your regular plot. It's actually quite a slow film as it all concentrates on their evolving relationship. The acting was excellent and the masochistic scenes are not gratuitous. It's tricky tackling a topic involving...
We watched this movie as part of our monthly Foreign Film Night gathering. Don't bother watching it. I like its quirkiness and it has it's funny moments but the story and plot just never gets anywhere. By the end of the movie, you're left thinking "What was all that about?". There's better ways to spend your time.
I bought this radio for Jenny as a Christmas present. It's excellent. Didn't have to crack open a manual to get it to work which is always a good sign. It autoconfigured itself and easy to use. The reception is crystal clear and there's lots of stations to choose from. Good-bye FM; hello DAB!
The radio also includes digital output and you can upgrade the firmware via a USB connection. Turns out the product is based on the Frontier Silicon Chorus FS1010 processor. It's an entire platform on a chip with 150Mhz DSP, 384K RAM and a load of onchip peripherals. Kind of bizarre...
We listened to this BBC Cover to Cover audio book over the holidays and it was brilliant. We're not alone thinking this as it won a golden Smarties award in 2000. William Nicholson is also known for writing the screenplay of Gladiators but this is his first attempt at a children's story.
It's essentially a fantasy adventure of three children on a quest. If successful, they will completely change the nature of the dreadful society in which their family despondently lives. Deeper than that, it's primarily an attack on conformism among children and the dangers of following a group (see interview...
Saw this DVD last night. I rented it after seeing how highly rated it was on IMDb. Sure enough, it deserves the rating. It's a fast-paced twisty detective film set in 1950's LA but it's also a good character study. Amazingly, the twists and turns in the movie are far simplified compared to the book which is supposed to be excellent.
We watched Whale Rider during one of our regular Foreign Film Nights. Superb film. It certainly deserves all the awards its won. The review on IMDb sums up the plot well. What truly amazes me is that Keisha Castle-Hughes who plays the 12 year old Paikea was simply plucked from a classroom in New Zealand. She had no training but her acting was superb. Good script. Good pace. Good acting. Beautifully filmed. A great story. Worth watching.
I recently finished reading this book. I don't usually read self-help books but it seemed to be well recommended. It brings together many ideas I've heard before and explains a good way to think your way through any fears you may have. Worth reading. I've written up a summary of the whole book.
I went and saw this this afternoon (yeah - seems weird to go to a movie in the afternoon!). It's quite a big let down. Sure, it's got lots of effects and style but substance is missing. Much of it is just a 3rd rate Hollywood lets-fight-the-bad-guys-with-big-guns type of movie with shlock dialogue glorifying human foibles. What a waste!
The first movie was excellent with ground-breaking cinematography and innovative adaption of the wire-flying martial art film techniques. I also thought it was pretty brave using such a hardcore sci-fi plot in a mainstream movie. The whole issue of reality could have...
Just finished reading this book. It's full of many interesting points and arguments but at only eighty pages it isn't able to back up it's allegations very well. For that, you would have to follow-up with the numerous references to original sources. Nevertheless, it is damning of globalisation and the doctrine of neo-liberalism. It's well worth reading as an introduction.
I used to believe that globalisation was a good thing. How naive! I've slowly changed my mind after a lot of reading from various points of view. Unfortunately, it's a very complex topic and well beyond the interest of the vast majority....
This is my latest CD purchase and what I've been listening to lately. I discovered them after one of the tracks was used to demo a 14,000 watt system at a HiFi Show. It's heavier than a lot of stuff I've been listening to of late but it's very good. Listen to the sample of "Sing Along" which is very catchy. I really like their rendition of the old Jefferson Airplane number "White Rabbit". That's taking me back! Sounds like they would be excellent to see live with their percussion instruments including Airpoles, Anvil, Backpack Tubulum, Doulum, Drumulum, Dumpster,...
So you think you know all the issues facing the planet? I just finished reading this provocative little book which has 66 mini-essays on the myriad of ways we're screwing the planet and the developing nations. Obviously it sacrifices depth for breadth but it's easy to read and a great book for raising your awareness. I cringed at a few of the broad statements but there are references and further readings to back it up.
Yes, it does leave you feeling rather dismayed. Ignorance is bliss isn't it? Read it for yourself and figure out whether you can do anything. Buy...
Got together with some friends for another foreign film night and we watched City Of Lost Children by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro. Very strange film but a great feast visually. Often surreal, certainly enjoyable and nothing like a Hollywood film. If you like an offbeat film, it's worth watching.
I've just finished reading Change Activist: Make Big Things Happen Fast by Carmel McConnell. I first ran across it in the Microsoft library and thought it looked interesting so I bought it for my holiday reading.
It's quite hard to describe the book. It's essentially a pep talk to get you to be your own change activist working within the corporate environment and aligning your passion, principles and purpose. It's written in a very conversational, email style of partial sentences which is a bit disconcerting. I didn't find the book particularly well structured but the narrative is easy to digest...
Picked up this book in the Tate Gallery bookshop a few weeks ago and have been reading it: "Century: One Hundred Years of Human Progress, Regression, Suffering and Hope". It's a small, very thick picture book (1236 pages) of the last century. It's a fascinating browse. There's about ten pictures for every year and a write-up for each picture explaining it's context. This mini-edition is less than £10 which makes it a bargain or there's a larger edition for about £30. Some pictures are humourous while many are disturbing and chilling. It leaves you in a bit of awe...
Saw this last night. Not a great film nor a clever film but certainly entertaining if you've ever liked a pirate film. It does the genre justice. Lots of action. Good special effects. A romance and a happy ending. It's what Hollywood does best. It needs a big screen and wouldn't be so good on a TV.
We got together yesterday with a few friends for a foreign film night and watched a DVD I recently picked up in the US: Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. It's been winning numerous awards including an Academy Award and it's been a massive success in Japan. It's at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and 98 on Metacritic.
Anway, it lived up to it's reputation and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. It's well worth watching. Superb animation and characters. Great story. Even if you've never enjoyed anime, you should give it a try. Highly recommended.
"...and other sorry excuses for the state of the nation". I recently finished reading this book. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot. It's a very biting satire of things American that you can smirk along with and empathize with Michael Moore's anger. I found the first two chapters the most interesting ("A Very American Coup" and "Dear George"). He describes how George Bush and his cronies stole the US election, their corporate connections and questions their actions in office. The remaining chapters are all interesting too and highlight all kinds of anomalies such as how a seventeen year old American...
Just discovered that you can download the State Of The World 2002 PDF for free from the WorldWatch Institute. Good reading. You can also download earlier editions and numerous high quality articles and papers as well. Great resource. Also check out the Matters Of Scale pages for some great comparisons like this one on Factory Fish Farming.
I picked up this book at the book shop in the Eden Project and read it while on holiday. It's an excellent little book subtitled "an explosive account of the food we eat today". (Warning: reading about the food you eat can make you feel sick!) It's consists of 46 very short chapters covering a wide range of topics written from a UK perspective. As you can imagine, it's disconcerting stuff and it's inspired us to join the Soil Association (which has a great website) and review where we buy our food and what we eat. Highly recommended.
We watched this DVD of a Japanese movie while on holiday. I really enjoyed it. The premise is that at a station between Heaven and Earth, case workers have one week to help the newly arrived dead to find one defining moment of their life to take it with them to Heaven. All other memories are erased. The movie follows twenty-two people trying to make up their mind and two case workers helping some of them. It's a slow, thoughtful movie but I thought it was fascinating. Of course, you can't help starting to think about what single memory you...
Just watched Happy Times by Zhang Yimou. Chinese film in Mandarin with English subtitles billed as a bittersweet comedy. I'd recommend it but as with almost all Chinese films I find there's more bittersweet than comedy. Poignant. Zhang Yimou also did "Judou" and "Raise the Red Lantern" starring Gong Li. Both are fantastic although my favourite would be "Judou" as I can still remember how beautiful the photography was.
Finally finished the latest book in the Harry Potter series! Overall, I think the stories have been getting better and better as the series progresses. Thoroughly enjoyed it although now it's an interminable wait until the next one. That's what I hate about a series - waiting for the next one. By the time the next one comes out, I'll have to reread this one again. Meanwhile, R*, has been on a marathon listening session. She finished all 18 CD's of the audio version of the "Goblet of Fire" as fast as she could. She was pretty mesmerised for a few...
After reading the book, we followed up with renting the video of "The Wizard of Oz". The children watched it yesterday. Wow, it's a lot different than the book. I really think it's poor when a movie changes the ending of the book. In this case, the movie implies the adventure was just a dream while the book implies it was real. The book is definitely much better.
Just finished reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night. The story was rather slow to start but enjoyable none-the-less. The ending was great! Never would have guessed it. It's getting a rather dark and scary though for young children! Good thing R* will be much older if they ever make it into a movie. Don't see how they could fit it all in.
Jenny and I recently finished listening to the audio cassettes of this book. It's the second book in the series again read aloud by Nathaneil Parker who is excellent at doing a variety of voices. Good but not as good as the first book. It's a simple crime adventure story using the same characters. Fun and enjoyable but don't expect too much. Meanwhile, I've started reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
So we've started on a new spoken word CD series listening to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. We have now discovered just how effective this is for passing time on long car journeys. It's good for at least two hours. R* is addicted. I've read the book but my memory needs refreshing as I haven't read the book that comes after it yet. The series is 10 CD's long so that means we've got 6 more hours of driving we can do! :-)
Went and saw The Matrix Reloaded last night. I would tend to agree with most of the reviews - it's still a fun movie if you like the genre but not as good as the first movie. Great fight scenes but they drag on a bit. Excellent effects. Not sure the erotica really works. Spectacular freeway car chase/crash scene. The plot gets stranger (spoiler). It's worth going to see and if you do, make sure you stay until the end of the credits as they show a trailer for the next movie. I hear X-Men 2 is better.
Finally finished reading my first technical book since I left Microsoft. It's "Cascading Style Sheets, The Designer's Edge" by Molly E. Holzschlag. I know, I know. It's not the most exciting topic but necessary if I'm ever gonna get this website looking half decent. Not a bad book but not great. Reasonable if you want to learn CSS but you can pick up most the information you need on the web rather than buy this book. The before and after pictures are useful. Chapter seven is very good where she goes through in detail how to reconstruct a table-based site...
I've been reading the Wizard of Oz to the children. Didn't realise it was first published in 1900 and there are thirteen other books about Oz written by Baum and more after his death. Certainly the story differs in quite a few details compared to how I remember the movie (made in 1939 and one of the earliest major colour films). For one thing, Dorothy's shoes should be silver and not red. Have to watch the movie again. Check out these other criticisms. And here you can read the entire text.
Took the kids to see Jungle Book Two this afternoon. Very much recycled material; feels like someone in the marketing department came up with this as a quick way to make more revenue for Disney. Very little plot, poor script, nice animation and many of the old songs. Well, the kids liked it and we pretty much had the theatre to ourselves.
During our holiday driving we've been listening to the Artemis Fowl audio tapes read by Nathaneil Parker (complete and unabridged recorded on 6 cassette tapes - 7 hours). The story is superb and the reading is excellent. Very hard to navigate when listening to such a good story - you don't really care about arriving at your destination; you just want to hear what happens next! It's aimed at older kids but it's great for parents too. I highly recommend this recording and both Jenny and I can't wait until the kids go to bed tonight so we can listen to the...