h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Saw Pirates 2. I'm not a big fan of the first one, it was okay... but because of the hype and everyone telling me I should go and see it, I went and saw it. Brilliant stuff. Total leave your brain at the door entertainment. Captain Jack is the man, love that swagger, and Bill Nighy is a cool baddy. The cannibal island scenes are smart and the three way fight on the waterwheel is fantastically choreographed. Ignore the woodentops that are Kiera and Orlando, bite hard and rise above the sentimental padding of the lost father and son moments and close your eyes whenever that fellah from the office is on screen, but apart from that, sit back end enjoy. Let the movie take you. And if you sit through ALLLLLLLL the credits at the end of the movie you are rewarded with a little extra scene. Not much, and considering the credits are almost as long as the film, possibly not worth it. But if you're there then you may as well. NOt a fantastic film, but I enjoyed it.

I actually quite liked War of the Worlds when I saw it recently. Mind you, I was half cut.

Saw Corpse Bride as well. Much more impressed with that.

we saw superman the return last night.... we almost had a marital breakup over our differing opinions.. he went off to bed early sulking

i liked it a lot... great special fx and brendan routh is excellent as superman.. hes very much a christopher reeve clone, and i think brings justice to his memory... although where was the IN MEMORY OF CHRISTOPHER REEVE i think he deserved a credit, but i didn't see one...

i actually preferred gene hackmans lex luther more comical.. and didn't like lois so much either.. again not so comical... but i felt superman himself was 99% as good...loved the ending scenes as he swoops along cruising the heavens and looking everybit like his predicessor

also found it a little over long... now onto him outdoors he disliked it quite a lot... hated the new superman he only accepts c. reeve as the one deserving of the role...he felt the new one is too young, although i counterargued that reeve was possibly getting too old to play the immortal slowley aging superman!!!! well as i said his career was cruelly cut very short, and things have to move on, and in my opinion this new superman is a damn good replacement

i rate it 8/10 him outdoors 6/10... he won't be getting any tea tonight

"Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" is a documentary about the infamous collapse of the 7th largest company in the US. It was better than I expected, well produced and directed and IMHO pretty balanced (unlike, say, a Michael Moore "documentary").

Of course, the facts themselves are pretty damning, with the "corporate philosophy" amounting to a complete lack of moral, ethical or legal behavior in pursuit of the almighty dollar. Actual voice recordings of Enron energy traders cackling about the hardships they inflicted on California, via shutting down power plants to drive the price up, are chilling. It reminded me of "The Sopranos" characters laughing about their recent "whacks".

The scope is staggering - previously respected accounting firm Arthur Anderson (now defunct) looked the other way, as did major law firm Vinson & Elkins, plus most of the large international financial firms - Merrill Lynch, Citibank, etc. Not to mention the US government - W received lots of campaign cash from Enron, and the head of the SEC had been recommended by Enron's chairman.

Thousands of employees and investors are still hurt, but at least the greedy execs have generally been convicted. And the lawyers ended up with the money, as usual.

"looking every bit like his predecessor"

I am certain that they chose the new superman primarily for his uncanny similarity to Christopher Reeve. However, I don't know if he played the part well as I have not seen it yet.

oh without a doubt afgncaap he is a clone.. which says volumes about reeves popularity... i don't understand why they didn't credit him the public are very sentimental about reeves, rightly so he made the part his own same as johnny depp as captain sparrow...

but i think routh is a great replacement and evoked all the old memories of the older films, back when i was much younger

Why would you want Luthor to be comical, he is meant to be a villain. That is what was wrong with the originals, Luthor just didn't make a believable villain for someone like Superman.

"Rope" was made in 1948, starring Jimmy Stewart, and is an overlooked Hitchcock gem. The plot is typical Hitchcock suspense, with a murder of an acquaintance by two young affluent male friends in the first scene, just for kicks. Then a party takes place in the same apartment, with the corpse ... present.

Hitchcock employed an interesting technique for the filming, basically one long take for the entire movie, so its "real time", like a play, but with lots of camera movement. Actually, the camera held only enough film for ten minutes, so he would zoom in on something like an actors back (a dark suit coat), change film, then zoom back out.

I did enjoy the extras on the DVD I watched, especially the "Making of ..." (titled something else). In particular, the planning that went into each 10 minute take was necessarily extremely detailed.

For one thing, the Technicolor camera was the size of a set of bunk beds, elevated to about 6' off the stage, and dragging cables everywhere on the floor. The actors had to be careful to step over them without breaking their movement. Furniture, walls, etc., had to be slid in and out to make a path for the monster. Jimmy Stewart was asked about rehearsal, and grumbled, "The only thing that got rehearsed was the camera." Hitchcock proudly showed off his set that allowed all this, with many movie luminaries visiting during production.

WARNING - SEMI-SPOILER:The screenwriter made an interesting point about the murder shown in the opening scene. He thought it should have only been alluded to, leaving the audience not entirely sure if there was really a body in the chest, and raising the tension at the near opening of the chest. He thought this was Hitchcock's plan, but then decided Hitchcock had a failure of nerve. I tend to agree the original plan was better.

xanatic i preferred the more comical lex luther as in the earlier supermans... i found spaceys villain a touch too nasty.... although he is still the same old land crazed lunatic... its based on a comic book aimed at the younger market.. teenage boys mainly.. so the old luther was probably more in keeping with the comics....

like i've always maintained its personal preference.. even my husband has different views...

Saw Lost in La Mancha on BBC 4 last night. The documentary of the destruction of Terry Gilliam's movie "The Man who killed Don Quixote"

Very good but heart-wrenchingly painful to watch - especially when the storm arrives on Day 3 and things go from unimaginably bad to catestrophically terrible as the sets and equipment literally float away.



I also was bored the other night so rented "Doom", based (loosely) on the computer game. Not much to write home about. Deserves some small credit for bucking a few horror movie deliberate clichés but it truth it conforms to most and steals liberally from other, better movies.

I was dissapointed to be limbered with the mutation story rather than there being a portal to Hell itself, rather than merely the place becoming "hellish" because of mutations. The FPS sequence is a nice touch but hardly elevates the rest of the film.

See it only if you don't want to engage brain.



Now Film Four is FREE - I shall be recording Infernal Affairs 1 tonight to see later.

Also have the remake of Assault on Precinct Thirteen to watch - I'm not expecting great things.

"Saw Lost in La Mancha on BBC 4 last night"

Looks like I bought my Freeview box a day too late!

Looking forward to lots of things on Filmfour in the next week - Internal Affairs, Lost In Translation, Road To Perdition, Wolf Creek, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing and Dead Man's Shoes.

Wathced Seabisuit last night.

Rather good - had me in tears, as well as whooping for joy at the appropriate bits.

Keep an eye out, BBC 4 tend to repeat things - especially late at night. La Macha might be on again if you are lucky.

CARS .... i wasn't keen i must admit, but i did enjoy it...fantastic animation/pixar, typical moralistic storyline, loved the funny slant in that EVERYTHING is a car, even the flys are mini cars with wings. i knew it would be good.. i just didn't think i would like it personally... but i did

also seen THE FOG [remake] on dvd.. not a patch on the original but not such a donkey as i thought.. the imdb has dire ratings across the board for it.. but it wasn't entirely dreadful...

and THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE on dvd....oh god i probably shouldn't have watched it seeing as my all time most frightening film is the exorcist...[well i'm that age group]

the actress was brilliant and so creepy as she maintained all those gruesome positions..... it made my skin crawl.. i had to have the landing light on all night.. i can watch wolfs creek, hostel, the hills have eyes etc and sleep no prob but anything exorcist like terrifys me.. oh and wasps too!!!

Bought Brazil today on dvd. £3.99 in HMV

Caught the last half hour of 'Tron' today on TV. What an excellent film it seemed. Stunning scifi part cartoony visuals set inside a computer. I mean these visuals were so artistically done with real life actors like Jeff Bridges and David Warner. Seemed like it was quite emotional too and philosophical. I shall get hold of this film and watch all of it

.

I watched Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire last night.

It was a bit better than the first three, but not much. Don't think I'll be bothering with any more of these.

RF

Wolf Creek on Film Four - Damn fine (based on RL) movie - usual scenario vehicle breaks down miles from anywhere - nutter comes up and offers assistance...tho what possible reasoning did the 2 girls have for dumping the Ute and returning to find *another* car...???

The machinist with Christian Bale is on later this evening.

Meant to see it at the cinema but never got around to it.

The Trueman show is on Ch4 tonight at 10pm. I love this film. A guy gradually discovers real life is not what it seems.