Some weekend films

My Noel, darling man that he is, is a bit of a nut. Those of you who know him will cheerily agree with me - but you won't get away with saying it, like I can.

Anyway, he likes to hire a few DVDs at a time, because our local place has special deals where it's cheaper to rent 3 new releases plus a couple of weekly ones. The problem is, he always gets 3 overnight ones, and always M or M15 rated films. So, we have to watch three movies in one night, or else try to occupy the (movie-loving) children so that we can watch a couple during the day without them seeing anything too grown-up.

*sigh*

This weekend it was Vantage Point , The Bucket List , and Jumper.

So memorable was Jumper that I racked my brains this afternoon trying to think of the 3rd film we watched, then finally asked my B, who remembered "the boy who fell in the water!" I suppose you could say it's hard to remember a film when you see two on an otherwise busy day... but nah, it's just not that memorable. The characters were a bit blah, and several of them kept making decisions that just didn't make sense in their established persona. The scenario of the conflict (a war between "jumpers" and people called, I think, "paladin") wasn't set up well enough for me to grasp what the bell was going on.
It was a very interesting concept, though, and I quite enjoyed the first part where the young bloke figured out his nifty ability to teleport himself wherever he fancied... but after the fun of that wore off, the blah set in.
Oh, and NOT good to watch while curious little girls hover about asking questions about people dying and guns and such...

The Bucket List was all lovely and feel-good and Nice. Jack Nicholson kinda freaks me out (how does he DO that?) but he is, of course, brilliant. And whatshisname... Morgan Freeman... I always forget his name... is, too. It was actually really refreshing to see the portrayal of a relationship between two older men. I do get pretty peeved at the general stereotype of men as macho, distant, unemotional types. It's nice to see something different - whaddya know, it isn't only young women who have friends to be there for each other and laugh and do stuff together! Well done, Hollywood.

Vantage Point was another awful choice to watch during the day with the kids up. However, the main comments we got was "why is he doing that again?" and "ooh she's getting ANOTHER ice cream!", as the events kept replaying from the various points of view. Noel got a bit annoyed with the repetition but I really enjoyed it. I liked the suspense-but-not of knowing what was about to happen but trying to figure out more of how or why it was going to happen. I was completely hopeless at any of the figuring, but I enjoyed trying nonetheless. :) And I was completely tricked - as I always am by tricky twisty plots.

That's been it of late. I have been watching far fewer DVDs because I work on the computer in the evenings now (I'm working as an online researcher for the UK service Any Questions Answered), which totally eats up all my movie time. Such is life.

Reality TV

is taking over the world.

And it's driving me mental. Can somebody please make the evil empire of reality TV just. go. away. Please?

I shouldn't be watching television anyway, I know. However, if there were a few less hours of Crap-ality TV going on maybe I *could* watch it without frying my brain so much. Plus, if there were more good dramas or even good soaps being made, there's be more work for up-and-coming twenty-something Sydney actors... :-)

Speaking of TV, I was thinking today that soap operas (I don't follow Neighbours or any of those amazingly scary American ones, but will admit to regular viewing of Home and Away) are almost little self-contained lessons in scriptwriting and acting. You get half a dozen examples of how NOT to do it, interspersed with a few lovely talented people who provide a good contrast and carry the show... Quite fascinating sometimes, don'tcha think?

And you know what - my eldest daughter can spell, write and read the word "television". This week for her homework she wrote a story: "My dog watches television." (Yes, in Term 2 of Kindy, one sentence constitutes a story!)

I'm too busy being fabulous....

Oh my goodness me.

I am listening right this moment to the new Eagles album.

*sigh*

It's called Long Road out of Eden, but goodness I think I'm in Eden right now. New Eagles music... Don Henley... Timothy B. Schmidt (sexiest bass player ever!)... "Busy Being Fabulous"... "I Don't Want to Hear Anymore"...

You see? It must be good, if it inspired me to blog for the first time in so long!

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In other news...

I'm really fascinated by the WGA strike in the States. I've been following it on John August's blog , Craig Mazin's and Ken Levine's.

It will be so fascinating to see if it really does "shut down" Hollywood, and if they can stick it out for long enough for the producers to even care.

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Speaking of Ken Levine... Noel recently bought a box set of the entire 11 seasons of M*A*S*H (written by, amongst others, Levine, who apparently never sees a penny from the years and millions of sales of the show!). He is up to Season 6 I think. I have been watching bits and pieces. I love the show, I just can't watch that much of anything the way Noel can! And if I have to listen to Major Hoolahan's screeching voice for much longer I might just go completely insane. But Hawkeye, oh Hawkeye. There can never be too much of the charming Major Pearce.

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I snuck out for a rare night to myself last night, and completely wasted it by seeing Good Luck Chuck. I thought it was going to be a really funny, sexy kinda comedy. Well, there was lots of sex, and there were lots of jokes! Some of them were funny actually. But... eh. Waste of time.

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Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.

Alice Walker