Archive for the ‘Flicks’ Category

Well I’ve managed to resist the temptation to continue the David Blunkett theme from last week’s posts with a comment about his alleged afair with a married woman. Until now…

Normally I really don’t care about politicians’ private lives unless they happen to do something particularly hypocritical or dishonest; they’re only human after all. If someone in an important, stressfull position wants to unwind at the end of the day by kicking back with a Camberwell Carrot, or dresses up as a nun with an orange in their gob every Saturday night, good for them. I’d rather be governed by people with the usual range of human weaknesses, who can at least empathize with the rest of us, than a bunch of sanctimonious, repressed ivory tower-dwellers who consider themselves infallible.

However, I must admit to taking some delight to this particular Home Secretary having his privacy invaded. Especially after all his Christian moralizing (he’s a well known proponent of church schools — presumably ones that teach the Nine Commandments. Oh hang on, then there was the war too — make that the Eight Commandments).

Seems I’m not the only one not mentioning the allegations, with most of the mainstream media deciding to avoid treading on eggshells here (my excuse: too busy coding PHP. Their excuse: none/don’t like rocking the boat?). Channel 4 News’ daily Snowmail message did at least shed some light on their dilema:

Much discussion here about the revelations concerning Home Secretary D Blunkett’s relationship with a married woman. A lively exchange of views in the newsroom about whether covering this story is merely prurient, or whether it’s of legitimate public interest because of what it tells us about how the ruling class deals with such affairs and also how it’s all viewed by the ruled class. So, typical up-tight British prudishness and tabloid sensationalism? Or, how come Downing street says firmly that this is all a private matter for the (unmarried) Home Secretary, and yet it was Downing Street who took such a commanding role in a previous affair by a Cabinet Minister - ordering (married) Robin Cook, the then Foreign Secretary, to sort his life out. What’s the difference? The marital status of the men involved? A change in tactics of news management? Or a genuine change in attitudes?

Which reminds me, I went on a cracking boat party on the Thames last Friday, where I met a rather charming young woman who was a producer on Channel 4 News. (She told me, unsurprisingly, that Jon Snow is every bit as nice and funny as one would expect, and that he swears like a trooper). The boat set off from Festival Pier at 8pm, and we tootled up and down the river between docklands and Putney until 2am, by which time Chris had done a bit of DJing, and we’d all got wonderfully drunk. Huzzah!

Despite it being Friday the 13th, no one fell overboard, and the vessel stayed afloat until we docked; just as well really — given the number of new media types aboard, a sinking would probably have wiped out about a quarter of London’s Flash designers (no bad thing, some would argue!). That said, Simon, who was up from Cardiff for the weekend, did manage to leave his bag in the taxi on the way back to Chez Badger, meaning that we spent most of Saturday traipsing round the shops so he could buy replacement clothes, shades, dental floss etc…!

The upside being that we found ourselves in a Soho watering hole by about 6pm, before heading over to Shoreditch, where we spent a small fortune on silly-priced-but-oh-so-lovely cocktails. We were getting a bit peckish by about 10.30, so decided to head back here to grab a curry, and ended up watching the Adrian Lyne remake of Lolita on TV with a couple of bottles of Faustino. Hadn’t seen that version before, and it turned out to be better and funnier than I’d expected — wonder what Kubrick would have made of it had he made his version thirty years later? Mind you, even in 1997 they had to make Delores 14 rather than 12 as she is in the book.

I also had fairly low expectations of The Bourne Supremacy, which I went to see on Sunday, but it was actually very, very good — everything Bond films should be but aren’t. It’s not a particularly great plot, but Paul Greengrass’s direction was spot on, action-packed but taut and quite dark, and without over-reliance on the usual OTT Hollywood special effects. And it features one of the best car chases I’ve ever seen.

Well that’s more than enough for one entry here. I promise not to mention Blunkett for at least a week now (unless of course Lucy contracts rabies and attacks him, in which case I might allow myself a smirk).

Although Thursday night usually means chilli night, I got confused and had a tuna salad (slimline Badger) at 6pm this evening. This was upsetting enough on its own, but then I discovered that chilli night had been transformed into succulent steak night. At least I was able to participate in the other parts of the Thursday night ritual — drinking beer or wine and watching a DVD. Tonight’s flick was Buffalo ‘66, starring Christina Ricci and (director/co-writer) Vincent Gallo, which is apparently six years old, but new to all of us. A low-budget, “arthouse” (urghh) film, and well worth viewing if you get the chance; I’ll just be lazy and quote the précis from Channel 4:

The wolf-eyed Gallo stars in, writes, scores and directs a disturbing, yet often darkly funny romance-cum-dysfunctional family portrait that is largely drawn from his childhood memories. [Jesus! - Badger]

It all kicks off with ex-con Billy Brown (Gallo) leaving county jail. He’s told his parents he’s married and has a prestigious government job; but both are lies and so he ‘kidnaps’ tap-dancing teen Layla (Ricci) and forces her to pretend to be his spouse. Back at the folks, nothing seems to have changed: mum (Houston) is still glued to the TV while dad (Gazzara) remains as lecherous as ever. Encounters with numerous other socially challenged characters in grotty settings (bowling alleys, bus stops, back streets) ensue…

Christina Ricci was great, despite the fact that her youthful looks sometimes make watching her playing such sultry roles feel like a guilty pleasure… Doesn’t seem that long ago she was the cute, cool little kid in the Addams Family, but now she’s, well, certainly grown up. The film’s supporting cast, including Anjelica Huston, Ben Gazzara, Rosanna Arquette, and Jan-Michael “Chopper” Vincent were also excellent.

Gallo’s someone I’ve not been able to make my mind up about yet; saw an arty documentary about him a while ago (and if memory serves me correctly, directed or written by him too) which was so sycophantic/pretentious that I was left with the feeling he could only be some sort of invented persona, an alter-ego invented as a joke that perhaps got out of hand. And recently he’s had some publicity with his supposed Republican leanings, which are guaranteed to garner him some column inches. Lord knows, but he was very good in this.

I know it’s been ages since my last post, and I would have written something before now, but what with campaigning for UKIP* and then partying in Albufeira**, I’ve hardly had a minute to spare…. Still, it’s time to get back to posting regularly again, and of course I can’t let the death of one of the most influential actors ever pass without adding my own small tribute.

Although perhaps best known for his piano duet with a dwarf in The Island of Dr Moreau, Marlon Brano was actually nominated for an Oscar for his role in A Streetcar Named Desire, in what was only his second major film appearance.

He soon became a household name thanks to his magnetic performace in 1954’s On The Waterfront. Brando brought a new realism to the screen thanks to his use of the Stanislavsky “method” acting technique, and spent six month perfecting his mumble prior to shooting. In On The Waterfront, Brando played Terry Malloy, a young New Yorker whose vision of opening a waterfront bistro are thwarted by his pinko, trade unionist friends. In the end, knowing his dream of running a bar will never be realised, Terry has no option but to inform on his friends to the the House Committee on Un-American Activities, a scene which saw Brando utter perhaps his most famous lines:

I coulda had class. I coulda been a bar tender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am. Let’s face it.

Brando’s next great performance came in Rebel Without A Cause, a landmark film of 50s rebellion in which he starred with Peter Fonda. He played the surly leader of a violent outlaw motorcycle gang, iconically dressed in black-leather jacket, shades, white t-shirt, skin-tight jeans and boots — a look later adopted by California’s gay community.

Unfortunately Brando’s talent was largely wasted during the 1960s, acting in a series of flops. It wasn’t until 1972 that his career was revitalised by The Godfather, winning his second Oscar for the role of Mafia boss Don Vito Soprano. Later that year Brando and actress Maria Schneider courted controversy with their feature-length commercial for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.

The late seventies saw a couple of great Brando performances, first as Superman’s father in Superman, then as Colonel Blake in Robert Altman’s Apocalypse Now, but by now his health was failing. In retrospect Brando’s strict adherence to the Atkins diet probably didn’t suit his metabolism, and his weight soared to over 400lbs, confining him to dressing in a muumuu. However, the star still managed to withstand the gruelling 2 hours in make up it took to transform him into Jabba The Hut for 1983’s Return of the Jedi, a role he approached — literally — with relish.

Sadly from then until his death, Brando descended into an eccentric and reclusive lifestyle, emerging only occassionally to allow audiences a glimpse of his formidable talent, such as in the role of Dr Moreau. Nevertheless, Marlon Brando will be remembered as one of the most important actors of all time, and his death comes as a sad loss to the world of cinema.

Before anyone flames me for taking the piss out of the dead, I do actually think Brando was a really compelling actor, and did some great films. But he was also quite an odd-bod.

Anyway, what else have I been up to during the hiatus? Well, obviously watching England snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again, thanks mainly to Sven’s visionary 8-0-2 formation. The man has the tactical nous of a walnut. Unlike Otto Rehhagel, who knows how to make the most of what he’s got.

Plus there was my long-running saga with NTL, who decided that having two phone lines and a broadband cable line operating in one property was beyond their capabilities. To cut a five-week story short, first “engineer” (didn’t actually look old enough to drive the van) turned up on the Friday, made a mess, and left.

After he’d gone I realised I couldn’t use my broadband connection; when I tried to phone NTL to complain, I found he’d also knocked out the main phone line. After listening to muzak for half an hour, I got through to faults at 3pm, who told me an engineer would be round between 4 and 8pm that evening to fix the problem. Not too shabby, I thought. Waited in until 8pm, but no sign of the engineer, so I called NTL back only to find that all their “customer service representatives” knock off at 8pm.

Phoned again to report the fault on Saturday, only to be told that an engineer wouldn’t be able to come over until Monday. To make matters worse, the company that were meant to be delivering a new washing machine that day were trying to phone me on the dead line, so that got cocked up too.

The next “engineer” arrives Monday lunchtime, and manages to fix the problem within 5 minutes. Great! Unfortunately, after he’s gone I realise that in the process of fixing the first phone line, he’s buggered up the other one! So that’s another half-hour wait on the phone. It wasn’t until Tuesday that NTL finally got everything working again… a trained monkey could do a better job.

Well now the football and tennis are over, the weather’s gone crap, and everything technological is working properly, I’m running out of excuses for not posting more regularly. Better go and find some nonsense to post I guess.

Notes
* I am of course joking about the UKIP — I’d rather stick rusty needles in my eyes help Tan Man and his filthy, xenophobic BNP-Lite party elected to any positions of power (as some readers may know, I have my own personal reasons for hating Kilroy-Silk that pre-date his UKIP involvement, and will give him the damn good thrashing he deserves should I ever see him in person).

** Sadly I’ve been working my arse off in front of the computer and not sunning myself on the Algarve. Nor am I the sort of moron that likes to smash things up when I drink — I tend to just giggle a lot and then fall asleep.

Someone arrived here yesterday having Googled for information on a UK DVD release of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Well, sorry, there isn’t one — least not one I can find. Strangely, it’s only available in the UK on video, or as an import from the US on (Region 1 NTSC) DVD for a silly price.

OK, maybe it’s not exactly a mainstream film, but Terry Gilliam, Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro aren’t what one would call unknowns either… And as for some of the other crap that gets dredged up and slung out on DVD, well, Battle of the Planets Mega Boxset anyone? Pah! Still, good to see that Amazon are plugging another Depp great, Ed Wood on their front page.

So basically if you want to get Fear and Loathing on DVD, I suggest you buy yourself a cheap DVD burner (only about £20 more than the import) and download it off eMule (it is out there). Not strictly legal, but certainly justified.

Went to see Lord of the Rings with Si, Dan and Tom tonight, and have to say it was awesome… the special effects were seamless and spectacular, the visuals stunning, the casting spot-on, the pace and attention to detail just right… we went for a drink afterwards and were all rather awestruck. An epic.