And while I'm in an area of great natural beauty and just spent the day in Brussels, which is as beautiful as you would expect any city built on the blood, bones, tears and gold of 20 million Congolese to be, the pictures I'm most excited about putting up are of my new Campers sandals. I had to throw the old ones out just before I left because they were stinky and coming apart after four years of nearly constant wear, and it broke my heart. My new "Helena Alta Bombay Negros" have mended my heart. Voilà.
I have seen some movies on planes recently, coincidentally all starting with "The," and would like to quickly produce mini-reviews before they all fade from my consciousness:
1. The Prestige. Well enough acted, though I remain unconvinced Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman aren't both made out of particularly attractive pieces of driftwood- the ladies, Michael Caine, and a David Bowie cameo made up for it. Great twists from Christopher Nolan, who did Memento and whose twists I enjoy.
2. The Departed. Not much good to say, outside of it being better than Gangs of New York and The Age of Innocence. A spectacularly well-cast bit of formulaic fluff that can only be explained as coming from the director of Mean Streets on the basis of cocaine's deleterious properties. And there wasn't nearly enough fucking Mark Wahlberg.
3. The Queen. I would have enjoyed it wholeheartedly if I didn't have an internal conviction it was a House of Blair/House of Windsor snowjob production timed to help us ignore all the Labour scandals and the fact Diana's brakes were greased. Helen Mirren was a treat.
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Haven't seen any of those 3 movies yet, though I think The Prestige is on our ziplist. I was thinking I didn't have anything to write about today, but I could give a little review of "The Island". There's that "The" again! Anyway, it was much better than I thought it was going to be..
I agree with The Prestige review and Mr. Nolan's fine work. I haven't seen The Departed yet and I'm not in a hurry. Helen Mirren did deserve her little statuette for sure though.
Yesterday on a day off, I watched '300' which was nice for its stylized violence. I wish I looked like that in my underwear. And I started Vol. 1 of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, the 70s tv show which I loved. Soap opera spoof, still ridiculous and charming.
I was curious about '300' because I have a soft spot for Spartans, but the marketing turned me off because it looked like the man in the posters was taking an epic shit.
That's the funny thing about marketing - it usually doesn't help and it very often hurts.
Dale's review just now is the nicest I have heard about 300. Supposedly those who like comic books will enjoy the artistic aspect but those of us who aren't into that won't find anything interesting to watch at all in it.
I love comic books, particularly Tintin. I thought about the Hergé museum in Brussels, but it will have to be next time . . .
Yes, 300 had lots of fantastic looking sequences but those same sequence also involved interesting ways to spear, behead and delimb people. Art of a particular kind I suppose.
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