Tag: Life

Bush warns on terror – I remember various pundits commenting on the ‘gung-ho’ style of President Bush, and that how it sometimes seemed he was always itching for a fight. Has he just proven them right?

So – nice weekend. Dinner at brother-in-laws (gorgeous roquefort and leek tart followed by perfectly cooked fillet steak), some shopping at IKEA (new store in Glasgow), and we watched America’s Sweethearts at the cinema. Film was OK but it was just good to be out of the house. Still not fully over my cold/fluey thing and I missed a party on Saturday cos of it.

Still this week has:

1. NBA live on BBC (Knicks vs Wizards – Jordan is back!)
2. Soprano’s series three on Channel Four.
3. WPC DD’s passing out parade on Thursday, followed by several drinks in the pub.
4. Halloween party on Wednesday – fancy dress ALL day!
5. Early bonfire night BBQ on Saturday.

Sheesh! I’ll be knackered – can’t wait!!

Xmas shopping. Jeepers. Watched Hannibal, and The Beach. Hannibal was OK… was a more ‘traditional’ thriller, but again Hopkins excels as Lecter. Julianne Moore was good, but didn’t bring the same vulnerable side of Starling into play much. The Beach was… OK… but so far detached from the book that I can understand why a lot of people didn’t like it. I think it was a bit soft, and too ‘Hollywood’. The love interest wasn’t required as the book isn’t about that at all, and Mister Duck was sadly absent from most of the film. Had potential, failed to deliver. That aside a quiet weekend, honed my skills further on Gran Turismo A-Spec in preparation for a matchup. The Big Chuffer actually thinks he will beat me!! Muwhahahahaha..

Quiet weekend. Relaxed. Did some packing (27th July can’t come quick enough now). Spent Saturday wandering round shops and garden centres (exciting, huh..) dreaming about our new garden, and what we are going to do, we figure we’ll need to get about 3 acres to fit in the pool, basketball court, etc etc.

We also rented three movies, the type we never really got around to seeing at the cinema.

1. Unbreakable: Hmmmm, strange, watchable but strange.

2. Girl, Interrupted: Excellent, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen Winona Ryder in anything and I’d forgotten how good she is. Angelina Jolie was, as she was rewarded, mesmerising, playing the powerful yet powerless Lisa.

3. High Fidelity: disappointing after the book, but still an easy going, watchable film. John Cusack is his routinely excellent self, but still gives me the impression that he is waiting for ‘the’ script. Like he is holding something back. It’s almost like he is… acting. Does that make sense?

I’m not going to write any more about school shootings in the U.S. The BBC are of the same opinion as me, ban the guns, and stop rolling out the ‘guns don’t kill people, people kill people’ argument, it’s just plain insulting. One thing this kind of tragedy does give is a sense of perspective, but it is worrying how easily we forget and move on these days, no longer do these sort of events linger in the news. Front page one day, almost forgotten the next. Have we become so self-centred that we don’t care what happens our fellow man?

Movie info from IMDB
Movie reviews from Metacritic

Nice pace, intelligent handling of the ‘issue’ behind the story. Acting was solid by all main characters. If you enjoyed American Beauty you should enjoy this. If you want an exciting film go elsewhere. If you want to be treated like an intelligent adult who doesn’t need every single step and twist of a tale to be made blindingly obvious then I would highly recommend it.

Catherine Zeta Jones was better than I thought, last saw her in Darling Buds of May – she has come far. Benicio Del Toro was outstanding took me a moment to place him, having put on a few pounds since Usual Suspects.

Jury Service starts tomorrow. Not expecting anything juicy, and obviously I won’t be discussing it here, but for some reason I have an urge to watch Twelve Angry Men.