movies, tv, sport http://www.dregston.com/boards/list.php?17 Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:44:32 -0600 Phorum 5.2.7 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32876,32876#msg-32876 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32876,32876#msg-32876 Country Life, and it sounds like just my kind of movie. It's on its way--I haven't read Uncle Vanya yet, and am wondering if I should break my rule about always reading the book first. Since this is a take-off on Chekhov's play and not a faithful rendering, I think it's okay.

Anyone seen it?]]> JaneGS Reel Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:56:32 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32838,32838#msg-32838 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32838,32838#msg-32838
If you liked Farrell in Stranger Than Fiction, you will probably like this as well.]]> Patti Reel Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:54:04 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32836,32836#msg-32836 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32836,32836#msg-32836 In Bruges this evening.

If you haven't seen it is is a story of two Irish hitmen who are sent to Bruges after a hit goes wrong (one of them accidently kills a kid whilst assassinating a priest).

It was brilliant. Clever, funny and wonderfully written. The story of the hitmen in Bruges awaiting judgement on the disaster was great but the story interweaved several other things deftly, for example there was a... not exactly a homage (as it says in the film because there is a sort of film within a film), or a pastiche but a referencing of Don't Look Now. And that is mixed in with the theme of Bosch's depiction of hell. Heaven and Hell, in fact, encapsulated in Bruges.

It reminded me of a film called The Hit by Stephen Frears which is about British hit men in Spain and also beautifully done.

I am not sure if it is possible to make a great film about hitmen. It is a subject that has been done and redone and ovedone. And it is what you might call a histrionic subject. So to make a truly great film then I think you would probably have to make a truly realistic film about assasins which would then be hard to make entertaining.

Grosse Point Blank is at the least a very good hit man film. And I would class In Bruges alongside it. Maybe not quite great but definately excellent. Barely a missstep. Fine writing, excellent acting, clever directing and a beautiful setting.

The best of all is that the "fairy tale" setting of Bruges at Christmas is undercut both by the subject and the fact that the main protaganist is an ignorant philistine who hates being in this beautiful place, and sees it as a vision of hell worse than the Bosch depictions of hell that they see in a museum.]]> Spencer Reel Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:25:23 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32757,32757#msg-32757 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32757,32757#msg-32757
The Jolly’s friends and neighbors are country-folk. Many are obese, or look congenitally deformed. One fat woman with a strange sunken face sings a beautiful folk song, while neither she nor the musicians accompanying her show the slightest joy from their music. The local denizens refuse to pronounce their consonants, and “aaw..iiii” (alright) resembles the aaw...iii in ebonics.


As Ree starts seeking her father she is led further into the web of meth cooking, reminding us of the prohibition stills. Suspicious, taciturn people greet strangers with shotguns. Ree asks for help from her uncle, Teardrop (so named because of his tattoo). Teardrop is reluctant to help. He’s a thin, tattooed man, constantly snorting speed and taking deep drags off his cigarettes. He knows that searching for Jessup means trouble, and that his brother is probably dead. However, if Ree and Teardrop can come up with Jessup’s body, they will save Ree's house.

Ree is a tough heroine, surviving beatings and threats as she sleuths closer and closer to the truth. Teardrop, who didn’t want to help at first, also becomes an unlikely hero. He doesn’t want to know the truth, because, in the code of the Ozark clans, he must then seek vengeance. Teardrop may not have the same moral code as the rest of us, but that code that he does have is followed with staunch courage and surprising competence. He’s one tough dude, and his niece is pretty darned tough herself, shooting squirrels to feed her younger brother and sister between sleuthing expeditions.

It’s a very good film.]]> Bruce Reel Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:14:12 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32730,32730#msg-32730 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32730,32730#msg-32730 Patti Reel Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:21:08 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32621,32621#msg-32621 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32621,32621#msg-32621 BarbK Reel Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:17:11 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32574,32574#msg-32574 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32574,32574#msg-32574 Patti Reel Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:39:14 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32549,32549#msg-32549 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32549,32549#msg-32549
[www.youtube.com]


Cheryl]]> Cheryl Reel Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:01:12 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32521,32521#msg-32521 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32521,32521#msg-32521
I love tripe!!!

]]> Margaret S Reel Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:45:57 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32371,32371#msg-32371 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32371,32371#msg-32371
[www.telegraph.co.uk]

[www.wired.com]

I was never any good with one, but I can't draw anything anyway. I did once get half-way through clearing the entire glass though.

Cheryl]]> Cheryl Reel Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:32:54 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32355,32355#msg-32355 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32355,32355#msg-32355
My only comment, and I thought I would post it here to see if others agreed: Spain seemed like a well-oiled machine compared to the Netherlands. Was I imagining it? They seemed to go right into position the moment they controlled the ball, with well-executed passes and maneuvers in moving the ball down the field. They generally seemed to have control of the ball more than the Netherlands, who seemed less organized overall on both defense and offense.]]> Yiyi Reel Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:35:54 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32295,32295#msg-32295 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32295,32295#msg-32295 Caroline Reel Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:40:42 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32122,32122#msg-32122 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,32122,32122#msg-32122
In related news, I was saddened to discover that in all the Toy Story toys that have made it to the stores in my town, there wasn't a single cowboy hat. Lot sof electronics, but not a single dress-up item.

Drat, a Jessie hat would go perfectly with the VBS costume I'm putting together. No time to order, and not needed enough to shell out much for.]]> LisaRS Reel Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:36:45 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31940,31940#msg-31940 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31940,31940#msg-31940
It's a shame Turkey's not in it this year. It was fun during the European championships, to watch Turkey's matches on a big screen in the city (there's a huge Turkish community in this city). Okay, all the cars being noisy long into the night got annoying after a while, but other than that, the atmosphere was fun.

So, who's going to win? How far do you think your country will go?]]> Tine Reel Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:17:13 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31718,31718#msg-31718 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31718,31718#msg-31718 Yiyi Reel Wed, 26 May 2010 12:16:21 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31715,31715#msg-31715 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31715,31715#msg-31715
My friend had a permit to attempt Denali last year, but his climbing partner died in the Andes over the winter, so he didn't go.

For those of you interested in climbing literature “In the Shadow of Denali” by Jonathon Waterman is one of the best climbing books ever written. Other excellent Denali books include –147 Degrees (or something like that) about the first Winter Ascent, and the notorious battling books “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and “White Winds”. The latter two are accounts of a disastrous expedition from the late 1960’s, when 6 or 7 people died. The books are differing accounts, one by the expedition leader, and another that is critical of his leadership.]]> Bruce Reel Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:39:10 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31634,31634#msg-31634 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31634,31634#msg-31634
Morris is the evil genius of British TV comedy. Most famous for The Day Today, a brilliant satire on news programmes which still makes me laugh when I spot the sort of hyperactive graphics it lampooned with brilliant accuracy. Then he surpassed it with Brass Eye, his series satirising documentaries.

The high point was the programme in which he ridiculed attitudes to paedophiles in the middle of a full on media driven moral panic. Of course it was hugely controversial and politicians queued up to condemn a programme that they had not actually seen. It was terrifyingly brilliant. He got a whole bunch of idiot celebreties to seriously condemn paedophile plots to control people's brains through television waves. [en.wikipedia.org] My favorite bit was when TV DJ Dr Fox seriously informed the public that paedophiles had more genes in common with crabs than they did with human beings.

So Morris was obviously just the chap to tackle suicide bombing. And the clips were very promising. The story is about four Moslems in the north of England who want to make Jihad but are ridiculously inept. They are joined by a fifth guy who is recruited by Barry, the English convert (and most fanatical of the lot) when Omar the leader and his extremely dim friend are in Pakistan training.

I was slightly disapointed. It being a film it could not sustain side splitting comedy thoughout its length. Bits of it were extremely funny. But, to my mind the element of realism which Morris uses to stitch a film length story together, never sat quite comfortably with the incredibly dark and brutal humour.

I don't regret going to see it. It was worth the admission price. But the side splittingly funny bits were more intermittent than I would have liked. And some bits did not work, I suspect because of over-research (he has been working on it for years apparantly). For example, Omar's bright, humorous and loving wife who has a job and who delightedly takes the piss out of his over religious and puritanical (and peaceful) brother by squirting a water pistol at him when he won't enter the same room as her because she is a woman.

How is it that she is so sanguine about Omar's intending suicide and killing spree? They have a little boy who Omar tells bedtime stories to. It doesn't make sense. My guess is that she is based on a real person or people, but to me there needed to be some clue as to how a woman like her could feel like that about things, and we are not.


So, a slight disappointment overall. But with some absolutely hysterical moments.]]> Spencer Reel Thu, 20 May 2010 11:31:52 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31603,31603#msg-31603 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31603,31603#msg-31603
To say this this movie is incoherent is an understatement. Let me put it this way, upon finishing it I went to Rotten Tomatoes to read some of the reviews, as reading critic's views of difficult films can shed enlightenment. Remarkably, reviews by major critics get basic major plot points wrong in positive reviews. Now that's incoherent.

The film might have been saved (as have some other Gilliam films) by at least some thematic consistency but that's lacking as well. Is the movie a paean to story tellers? Is it an exploration of free will? Is it a defense of Satan's existence in a benevolent universe created by a benevolent God? Or is it simply a film of apology and acceptance aimed as Gilliam's own children? Or maybe it was intended as "The Film In Which Terry Gilliam Embraced CGI" and minor things like plot and theme got overwhelmed.

All that being said, Ledger and Christopher Plummer are very good. If Plummer didn't get at least an Oscar nomination he was robbed. It says a lot about the homogenization of the modern Hollywood star that it's a few seconds into their scenes before you realize that Johnny Depp, Jude Law (especially) and Colin Farrel replace Ledger. Unfortunately Gilliam tries to treat the character's transformation as a running joke, something that would have worked if the part had been written that way originally, but Depp et.al. mugging for the camera comes across as macabre. I found Farrell the best, I think because to my mind he and Ledger display about the same level of what can only be called masculinity, and it's several notches above what Depp and Law can deliver.

I can't really recommend this one except as a curiosity. Rent "12 Monkeys" instead.

Cheryl]]> Cheryl Reel Mon, 17 May 2010 19:29:52 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31540,31540#msg-31540 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31540,31540#msg-31540 www.arsenal.com]

It is hard to get tickets and expensive usually, but my friend Carole rang me to say there was a women's match on, which was cheap and there were lots of tickets available. It was Arsenal Ladies against Leeds Carnegie. [www.arsenal.com]

I only saw the first half because my main motivation was to see the stadium properly and it was freezing. Not that I did not enjoy the football and was glad to have got a chance to see Rachel Yankey play. [en.wikipedia.org] She was very clearly the best player on the pitch.

But I had miscalculated how cold it was going to get once the sun went down and if I had stayed any longer I would have frozen to the seat!

The stadium is very impressive and would be quite a beautiful building if not for the colour scheme. Red and white with the green of the turf is... well, not to my taste.

Anyway, it was fun. They have a friendly tournament in the summer, Arsenal playing very big names like Rangers and Real Madrid. Carole went last year but I couldn't because I was in the middle of sorting out my dissertation.

This year I will try and make it though, and in July or August it ought to be a bit warmer!]]> Spencer Reel Thu, 13 May 2010 13:44:05 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31528,31528#msg-31528 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31528,31528#msg-31528
Our hero (I can’t remember any of the names because they are Swedish) is a reporter, convicted of libel at the start of the movie (he was framed by a wicked Capitalist), and hired by another Capitalist to solve the disappearance (and suspected murder) of his niece, forty years ago. The reporter slogs ahead, arranging clues around his frigid cabin in the Swedish woods.

Fortunately for the reporter, a Goth computer hacker, who helped frame him for libel and who, as a young girl, incinerated her rapist father, decides to help him. The computer hacker is a bisexual named Lizbeth, who is being sexually abused by her parole officer, until she turns the sexual abuse tables on him. Fortunately for our hero, she is also a computer wizard, a genius at sleuthing, and can wield a golf club better than Elin Woods.

The two team up, and when Lizbeth isn’t zooming around Sweden on her motorcycle, she enjoys nothing more than typing away on her Apple Laptop, or spending a quiet afternoon digging through corporate records, finding clue after clue.

The movie is something of a hodge-podge, with long, anticlimactic sequences. But snappy editing, fun music, and a good performance by Lizbeth make it feel short and snappy. It’s not great, but could be called "a fun thriller", if one’s idea of fun is rape, murder, and Nazi shenanigans.]]> Bruce Reel Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:10:25 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31236,31236#msg-31236 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31236,31236#msg-31236 Margaret S Reel Sat, 17 Apr 2010 06:40:52 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31215,31215#msg-31215 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31215,31215#msg-31215
My other thought, after watching about 40 minutes of "Walk The Line" while on vacation is that, no offense to Joachim Phoenix, the rave reviews suggest that most film critics never watched or listened to Johnny Cash in their entire lives. Reese Witherspoon manages to get June Carter's accent right but neither of them sound, speaking or singing, anything like Johnny and June and I found that just too distracting to ever get into the story. I know some other Dregstonians liked it pretty well so I suspect that not enough time has passed for those of us who grew up on his music to forget his sound well enough to make a biographical film successful? Although it has to be said that I found Phoenix's portrayal of Cash as dour and humorless impossible to reconcile with the man who sang songs like "Egg Sucking Dog", "I'm Gettin' Swallowed by a Boa Constrictor", "Everybody Loves a Nut" and "The One on The Left".

Cheryl]]> Cheryl Reel Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:37:32 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31169,31169#msg-31169 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31169,31169#msg-31169
I can't wait until Saturday for the first viewing.I know, I should get a life....]]> Caroline Reel Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:08:49 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31161,31161#msg-31161 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31161,31161#msg-31161
Yrs aff'ly,
Linda]]> LindaFern Reel Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:55:06 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31145,31145#msg-31145 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31145,31145#msg-31145 www.guardian.co.uk]]]> Linden Reel Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:16:49 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31132,31132#msg-31132 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,31132,31132#msg-31132 other middle east country, they never say. It features Tom Hollander and James Gandolfini.

It is funny and disheartening all at once.]]> Patti Reel Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:21:13 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,30944,30944#msg-30944 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,30944,30944#msg-30944
In other words, Tiger was as guarded and private as ever. One group of people he failed to apologize to was the women with whom he had affairs. They, it appears, are non-persons to Tiger – mere Sirens whose only significance is their temptation of Odysseus. Tiger wishes he had resisted temptation for the sake of his wife, his family, his business partners and his reputation – but never does he suggest that he mistreated his lovers by refusing to acknowledge their humanity. Instead, he despises himself (supposedly) for making love to them.

In addition, the interviewers never asked the questions of interest to Tiger’s fans. If I were interviewing Tiger, I would have asked, “Your golf game has always been characterized by confidence bordering on arrogance. In fact, a lot of great athletes are arrogant – and their talent and their self-confidence are insuperable. Do you think the humility you are now expressing might hurt your game?”]]> Bruce Reel Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:35:32 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,30887,30887#msg-30887 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,30887,30887#msg-30887
So I didn't expect much musically out of the device. But I soon tried out the iTunes store and found myself taken in by the ease of getting music on the spot, delivered to my pc/iTouch. There were any number of singles I had heard over the years that I remembered I wanted, yet didn't feel motivated to buy an entire CD to get. One night after I had made a start at getting a library of tunes built up I was looking in the iStore at a CD that I had missed in the past by a group I liked, I realized that I had no interest at all in buying the actual CD, I just wanted the download. Without my noticing it, I had made the switch; I no longer wanted the old medium. It occurred to me that I might never buy another CD again, that if I could get it as a download, I would definitely pass the actual CD up. It was such an unexpected thought I nearly fell out of my chair.

And yet. I must have at least 300+ CD's. Ripping them, even if there are some I just pass up, is going to take a long time, especially as about 160 of them are in a CD changer, awkward to handle disks in and out of once they have been loaded. Once I do, then what? The argument is strong to get rid of the old CD's at that point and free up badly needed space, and yet. One never knows, after all; suppose the MP3 device is lost or erased; suppose the backups are inaccessible or lost as well. The battery is sealed in an iTouch; it's supposed to be good for 1000 charges, then you have to send it back to Apple for. . . whatever they do to it. doesn't actually sound that longlasting if you are using the device every day.

There are some other problems with the tech. I find that music is miscategorized by Apple. I had to add categories for classic rock, Christmas, Early music, bossa nova, and Old Time, for example. Then I had to change its own characterization of a CD to fit--a little annoying. One of my favorite things to do on a lazy Sunday morning is to put the CD changed on random & listen to what is in effect my own private radio station. It took a while to figure out how to make shuffle do the same thing on the iTouch & even then there are some issues. My ISP keeps dropping my connection, so downloads can be haphazard (although the store seems to remember that I haven't downloaded something I've bought & will let me try it again several days later).

Still, it's convenient to carry my music library in my pocket. I've got about 1900 cuts on it & about 190 CD's to go. I think I can do it easily in the 20G+ of memory I have left on the device.

But then, there are the LP's! I have several hundred. Haven't listened to any in 10 years or more; the turntable isn't even hooked up at this point--no room. I tended not to buy CD's of LP's, although that rule slipped over time. But a lot of the classical ones never made it to CD, that I can find. And just as I don't want to buy a download of a CD I have, I don't want a download of an LP. . . if I can find a way to rip it as well. Now it gets confusing. You can get a USB turntable that will rip to your PC (or even your iTouch directly, but I'd rather store it in both places), but they are a bit pricey, plus it seems wasteful to buy *another* turntable for a one-time use, in effect. You can go to DAK & find that the sound will be better if you out it to your PC's line in & rip it that way, via a gizmo for $60 which doubles as a small electronic mix board if you need one. Ah--but laptops don't have line in's. Well, Dak will sell you an external sound card that does. . . but at that point you begin to approach the price of the USB turntables. And you still have to make sure your old turntable still works, too.

To top it all off, I have cassette tapes, mostly copies of the LP's but a number of commercial ones, that could stand a transfer as well. I could do that with the DAK gizmo--if it works as advertised. Maybe I could do it with some of the USB devices as well. Hard to say without using it.

Then--what to do with the vinyl afterwards? Hate to face the thought of dumping it, it's almost in antique status by now. Hate to keep using up the space for it, as well. Hate to throw out working stereo gear that has served me faithfully for decades. Hate to see it cluttering up the place. Decisions, decisions.

And we haven't even gotten around to figuring out how to transfer the old VHS tapes to DVD, much less the old Beta!

Technology. It's a brave new world, all right.

kk]]> Snarkhunter Reel Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:58:01 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,30876,30876#msg-30876 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,30876,30876#msg-30876

****Spoilers Below*****






Hachiko is based on a true story of a dog in Japan, who after his master's death waited faithfully at the train station for years for his return. I remember hearing the tale before, and am glad to see it brought to new audiences.

[en.wikipedia.org]

I'm pretty sure if something happened to me, my cat would quickly transfer his loyalties to the next person who filled his food dish.]]> LisaRS Reel Sun, 14 Mar 2010 06:27:54 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,30852,30852#msg-30852 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?17,30852,30852#msg-30852
Enjoyed both movies but have a question. The outcome of what happened in Picnic at Hanging Rock I thought was vague. There were suggestions about it but other than reading the book it was based on and researching further I was wondering if anyone had an opinion or knew anything about this. It was based on a real life incident as I remember.]]> Katlyn Reel Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:40:03 -0600