TV Tonight's 'The Second Coming' was pretty unreviewable, but Mark Lawson has a go:
"While evangelical Christians would doubtless be happier watching their Cliff Richard videos, Davies, though a professed atheist, never seems to be deliberately farting in church. The Second Coming is as distant from the territory of Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ and Serrano's Piss Christ as Manchester is from Jerusalem."This is the sort of thing which ITV used be known for (and Channel 4 for that matter) and made a real change from the endless re-runs of 'A Touch of Frost'. I really loved it, although I would have liked a bit more scope. Surely the son of God would have left his native Manchester or would have been forced to. What I will say is that the sections after Baxter's death ... about were it left humanity encapsulated ow I feel about all of this. Why should we believe in something supernatural when we hardly ever believe in oursleves?
Blog! Metafilter is to Windows as Freefilter is to Linux ... maybe ... or Does Matt Haughey know about this?
Film I now have a theory about Martin Scorsese. I think making a filmic history of gangs and gangsters in New York, and one of these days he’s going to do a Lucas and try and tie them all together, with ‘Gangs of New York’ at one end and ‘Goodfellas’ as the other. I hope he does because it might solve a few issues for me. Regular readers of my reviews will know I’ve never been friends with most of Scorsese’s gangster pictures. I’m probably the only man in the western spiral arm of the galaxy who doesn’t think the aforementioned ‘Goodfellas’ is a masterpiece, preferring his quieter more meditative pieces like ‘Last Temptation of Christ’ and ‘Age of Innocence’. Although I loved ‘Casino’, but I’m a paradoxical soul.
I think I liked ‘Gangs of New York’, possibly because it’s a mixture of the two. The gangsterism is there, but it’s underpinned by a kind of humanity. It’s certainly as good as anything he’s done. But it still won’t win an oscar. It doesn’t all quite fit together, and at some point you might feel like you’ve nodded off and missed half an hour. The motivations of some of the characters stop adding up and you’re left to let the film flow over you for a while until something happens which shocks you awake. This film could have been, should have been and probably was a lot longer. The couple of years in editing are all too evident.
Even at the running time it has it speeds past and I would have been please to have given it another hour so that it could make complete sense. For example its obvious we would have seen Di Caprio’s early years in the orphanage. They wouldn’t have hired a decent actor like Tim Piggot-Smith otherwise. And this happens time and again throughout the film. Really good recognizable actor given very little screen time. The footage we have here is the tip of the iceberg people. Don’t buy the DVD of this film straight away. There is bound to be a much better directors cut on sale six months later.
I think I liked ‘Gangs of New York’, possibly because it’s a mixture of the two. The gangsterism is there, but it’s underpinned by a kind of humanity. It’s certainly as good as anything he’s done. But it still won’t win an oscar. It doesn’t all quite fit together, and at some point you might feel like you’ve nodded off and missed half an hour. The motivations of some of the characters stop adding up and you’re left to let the film flow over you for a while until something happens which shocks you awake. This film could have been, should have been and probably was a lot longer. The couple of years in editing are all too evident.
Even at the running time it has it speeds past and I would have been please to have given it another hour so that it could make complete sense. For example its obvious we would have seen Di Caprio’s early years in the orphanage. They wouldn’t have hired a decent actor like Tim Piggot-Smith otherwise. And this happens time and again throughout the film. Really good recognizable actor given very little screen time. The footage we have here is the tip of the iceberg people. Don’t buy the DVD of this film straight away. There is bound to be a much better directors cut on sale six months later.
Film There is a certain type of film which unlike ‘8 Mile’ isn’t trying to be something it isn’t. It knows at the core it’s a B-movie, an entertainment which people won’t go back to too often but offers thrill whiles it’s on screen. The kind Spielberg used to make before he decided he was a proper film maker (‘Duel’); or Joe Dante. ‘Ghost Ship’ is one of these. Produced by Joel Silver and Robert Zemekis it’s like a big screen episode of a Fifties anthology series, full of mystery, minor terror and mugging.
Initially you do wonder what Gabriel Burne is doing there, and did Julianna Margolies leave ‘e.r.’ for this? It’s distracting. But from initial, very shocking scene it’s very difficult not be looking at the screen. Characterisation is a minimal, and the tension is laid on thickly. You know it’s hackneyed, and that you’ve seen it before (you really have, it’s a remake and the plot of ‘Event Horizon’, but it’s a zippy little thing and for some reason deeply engrossing. And I have to say I didn’t see the twist coming (this from the guy who worked out ‘The Sixth Sense’ from the trailer).
Initially you do wonder what Gabriel Burne is doing there, and did Julianna Margolies leave ‘e.r.’ for this? It’s distracting. But from initial, very shocking scene it’s very difficult not be looking at the screen. Characterisation is a minimal, and the tension is laid on thickly. You know it’s hackneyed, and that you’ve seen it before (you really have, it’s a remake and the plot of ‘Event Horizon’, but it’s a zippy little thing and for some reason deeply engrossing. And I have to say I didn’t see the twist coming (this from the guy who worked out ‘The Sixth Sense’ from the trailer).
Film Just before seeing ‘8 Mile’ I was listening to a radio review laud it for all the ‘gritty realism’. ‘Nil By Mouth’ had gritty realism. This is the Hollywood version. Yes, there are beatings, shootings and drub abuse, but director Curtis Hanson has brought a slick feel to them, dragging them into the mainstream, sanitizing them in a way for teenagers. This is supposed to be the semi-autobiographical story of Eminem’s early years.
Actually it’s ‘Krush Groove’ for the naughties. For anyone not aware of that opus beyond the reference in ‘Dogma’, this was an Eighties celebration of rap music which followed which followed a Run DMCian group on their path to fame via the corrupting influence of the record companies, featuring a host of genre stars including ‘The Fat Boys’ as comedy relief. Rewatching a bit of this movie puts everything ‘8 Mile’ is supposed to be in some kind of perspective.
Weirdly it also has the structure of a standard fighting arts film in the mould of ‘Rocky’ and actually clearly ‘The Karate Kid’. It begins with a fight (in this case rapping) which doesn’t go to well, and the sportsman (in this case Eminem’s character, Rabbit) has to train throughout the film until he is able to take on his most powerful of opponents in the final scene. In those films montage sequences feature shadow boxing, here we see Rabbit hunched over a desk memorizing rhymes. At some point in those films he will be betrayed by a close friend (check), romance some girl (check) and find himself beaten up (yup). Unfortunately this leaves you in little doubt as to who will win. Gritty realism is not this predictable. I was also reminded for some reason of ‘Coyote Ugly’ but let’s not go there.
Actually it’s ‘Krush Groove’ for the naughties. For anyone not aware of that opus beyond the reference in ‘Dogma’, this was an Eighties celebration of rap music which followed which followed a Run DMCian group on their path to fame via the corrupting influence of the record companies, featuring a host of genre stars including ‘The Fat Boys’ as comedy relief. Rewatching a bit of this movie puts everything ‘8 Mile’ is supposed to be in some kind of perspective.
Weirdly it also has the structure of a standard fighting arts film in the mould of ‘Rocky’ and actually clearly ‘The Karate Kid’. It begins with a fight (in this case rapping) which doesn’t go to well, and the sportsman (in this case Eminem’s character, Rabbit) has to train throughout the film until he is able to take on his most powerful of opponents in the final scene. In those films montage sequences feature shadow boxing, here we see Rabbit hunched over a desk memorizing rhymes. At some point in those films he will be betrayed by a close friend (check), romance some girl (check) and find himself beaten up (yup). Unfortunately this leaves you in little doubt as to who will win. Gritty realism is not this predictable. I was also reminded for some reason of ‘Coyote Ugly’ but let’s not go there.
Film ‘Catch Me If You Can’ fulfills my theory about Spielberg in recent times. Whenever he’s trying to make a point about something (‘Armistad’, ‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘AI’) his films are great to look at but not fabulously entertaining. When he’s just trying to make everyone happy and make the audience leave the cinema smiling rather than thinking, he’s on the game and you know your in for a decent show. This is one of those films.
I’ve always had a few issues with Leonardo Di Caprio. He’s a highly overrated performer, but he has that all important onscreen charisma, something which is all important in the part of a trickster. You have to instantly believe that he would be seventeen year old able and capable of doing these things and he pulls it off for the most part. Once again, Tom Hanks essays the straight man, a part he seems mostly comfortable in.
But there is a skism in the storytelling which hurts things slightly. Its about half an hour too long. When the story reaches its natural end in story telling terms it continues and shows us a bunch of stuff we don’t need to see, which could have been conveyed in the final information cards. When you see it, you’ll know what I mean. It feels tacked on, Di Caprio doesn’t look at all comfortable in them. But perhaps I’m being to harsh, because I always like films to have a definite end …
I’ve always had a few issues with Leonardo Di Caprio. He’s a highly overrated performer, but he has that all important onscreen charisma, something which is all important in the part of a trickster. You have to instantly believe that he would be seventeen year old able and capable of doing these things and he pulls it off for the most part. Once again, Tom Hanks essays the straight man, a part he seems mostly comfortable in.
But there is a skism in the storytelling which hurts things slightly. Its about half an hour too long. When the story reaches its natural end in story telling terms it continues and shows us a bunch of stuff we don’t need to see, which could have been conveyed in the final information cards. When you see it, you’ll know what I mean. It feels tacked on, Di Caprio doesn’t look at all comfortable in them. But perhaps I’m being to harsh, because I always like films to have a definite end …
Literature John Donne's steamiest poem 'On His Mistress Going To Bed' translated into Finnish. According to the re-writer: "In my opinion Donne translates into Finnish clumsily and poorly—all the subtlety is gone, and whereas the original is coy and veiledly risqué, the end result in Finnish is jarringly vulgar." Well at least you gave it a go.
News From this weblog, 27th September 2002:
"Looking at The Dossier in pdf format why do I discover someone's degree dissertation? I was actually waiting for compelling evidence, and whilst this makes sober reading, I'm still on the fence. The reason being that unlike a dissertation there isn't a section detailing sources (a good 30% of the final mark). Listening to commentators on the day was published we found plenty of supposition but nothing to pin point how all of this was gathered. Also, the word 'conclusion' occurs only once. There are plenty of statements like:From Channel 4 News website last night. This is almost the sound of history repeating, although the previous effort hasn't been outed as plagarism. Still made me shudder though."Subsequently, intelligence has become available from reliable sources which complements and adds to previous intelligence and confirms the JIC assessment that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons. The intelligence also shows that the Iraqi leadership has been discussing a number of issues related to these weapons. This intelligence covers:It would be nice to know who the reliable sources are and what makes them reliable. We are told what the intelligence covers, but we aren't given specific instances. Let me put it this way. In film going terms what we have here is the equivellent of a friend telling you that the new Vin Diesel movie is a classic and you should go and see it but not actually telling you why. That's OK because it's just a film. It's £3.50 (or £7.50 in Paris). Here we are talking about going into war. Lives and governments are at stake. For that kind of thing there has to be some accountability and trust that when given the full truth the general public will be able to make a constructive choice. If were going to de-stabalise a whole are of the world I want to really know we're doing the right. I want to know that whoever's telling us to do this knows what they're talking about ... [Abode pdf reader here]"
Confirmation that chemical and biological weapons play an important role in Iraqi military thinking: intelligence shows that Saddam attaches great importance to the possession of chemical and biological weapons which he regards as being the basis for Iraqi regional power. He believes that respect for Iraq rests on its possession of these weapons and the missiles capable of delivering them.
Photography Judging the PhotoBloggies was a heart breaking experience. With only three days to decide I suddenly felt myself being terribly harsh with my selections, especially in the catagories with many enrants. I rule of thimb was whether something made me jump slightly, or in a few seconds showed me something about the world which I hadn't noticed before. I would love to be able to introduce you to some of the lovely things I've seen but I'm sure there is some kind of secrecy clause, so perhaps another time. I'm haunted by the time the Booker prize came from a heavily controlled BBC studio and Selina Scott was going from table to table. She strolled up to one woman and asked her who she thought would win, only to be told "I'm one of the judges ...."
Music Just to prove that people do win these competitions, I was a reviewer of the week at The Collective and won a CD, The Faint's 'Danse Macabre'. I'll offer a review when I've listening to it, but in some ways it's worth buying just for the design on the cd itself, a matt black with glossy black writing on it. Or ...
"Zaphod's attention however was elsewhere. His attention was riveted on the ship standing next to Hotblack Desiato's limo. His mouths hung open.From: 'The Restaurant At The End Of The Universer" by Douglas Adams. This is the review of 'Lost Highway' which led to the shiny disc.
"That," he said, "that ... is really bad for the eyes ..." Ford looked. He too stood astonished.
It was a ship of classic, simple design, like a flattened salmon, twenty yards long, very clean, very sleek. There was just one remarkable thing about it.
"It's so ... black!" said Ford Prefect, "you can hardly make out its shape ... light just seems to fall into it!"
Zaphod said nothing. He had simply fallen in love.
The blackness of it was so extreme that it was almost impossible to tell how close you were standing to it.
"Your eyes just slide off it ..." said Ford in wonder. It was an emotional moment. He bit his lip."
Photography Absent again tonight. This time because I was tapped as a judge for the PhotoBloggies. Deeply amused and humbled. I mean what the hell do I know?
Music A bit of a treat because of my absence due to a wierd working week: Rolling Stone Magazine on the lost album by The Beatles.
Film Good, positive review of 'DareDevil':
"The action scenes in DD are right up there with the best of them, who knew the guy who wrote GRUMPY OLD MEN could direct such cool hard-core action. The stunts are very cool and the GCI digital-stunt-doubles work best when it's set in the dark, as almost all of DD's action takes place at night… there are many shots of DD leaping thru the night sky silhouetted by the moon that are very impressive!"This is going to be a busy year ...
Music SPIN Magazine asked the Foo Fighters and N.E.R.D. to review last years singles. As you know I've always been a fan of needs bad language and wrong headedness so this is a dream. Here's what Dave Grohl had to say of Shakira:
"(She) sounds like she's got a f*ckin' booger in her throat that she's got to cough out. She's like sex education in junior high where you see the cartoon diagrams of a penis entering a vagina; it's just caricatures of sex. That's how I see Shakira. Does that make any sense?"Interesting to see people with their own way in music trying to comprehend something so entirely other ...
Geography Rambling in London:
"London is a great city to go walking in. You can stroll by the river Thames along the popular Thames Path, or follow a network of lesser-known waterside walks. Or you can wander in a wealth of green space, from the famous Royal Parks to large semi-rural areas like Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest, and an uncountable number of other parks, gardens, nature reserves and woodlands."[related]
Architecture You've seen the film, now live in the apartment:
""I want to do a modern look with an element of retro -- 'modern retro' I call it -- which is a modern clean look," says Mr. Kashin, who currently lives in a small, two-storey loft at Yonge and Eglinton. "The element of retro I want to bring into it is with rugs, with appliances, that whole '70s look done in a modern way. Like Austin Powers but scaled down ... It's in right now and it's a lot of fun."Unlike the films ...
News I don't think their is much I can say about yesterday that wasn't already said in the places I linked yesterday [Google News, Metafilter, Slashdot]. It's pretty incredible that our media seems less concerned with the train crash in Zimbabwe than whether our sportmen should play there...
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