King Solomon’s Mines #2
Patrick Swayze was surprisingly good, although I wonder whether Quatermain was American in Haggard’s original. He looked surprisingly buff for a man who must be in his mid to late 40, surely, if not in his 50s. I don’t know why the girl was, but she was pretty average; the black guy, who played Mbosa (?? the one who turns out to be the king, anyway…) was really good.
I also didn’t realise that this was a telemovie, which is why it was so darn long – nearly 3 hours’ worth of it. And, not to spoil it too much, but they don’t even get to the mines until the last 15 minutes! It’s not really the point of the whole thing.
I think – I think – I might have to read this. Eventually. If only for comparisons sake.
Later edit: turns out I have seen the chick before. She played Dr Elsa Schneider, in the last Indiana Jones movie, which brings me to the other thing I meant to say – Alan Quatermain is basically Indiana’s father. Speilberg must have been a huge fan of Haggard.
Yo ho ho and a whole lot of rum
Yep, we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean part TWO yesterday. And it was GREAT.
Jack Sparrow was the same as ever – deceitful, duplicitous, and delightful. Once again Johnny Depp was magnificent. I heard a few days ago that ‘they’ (that nefarious they who seem to be behind everything bad… very X-Files) didn’t want Sparrow to be like he was, but someone said to give him a go (I’m sorry, how you can you ever doubt Depp and his ideas in a film?). And so we have Jack Sparrow, the bestest pirate in the innumerable seas.
Keira Knightley was mildly painful as always. She is only just bearable as Elizabeth. At least the accent is appropriate in this context… unlike as Guinevere…. Orlando Bloom was ok.
My one beef with this movie was Davey Jones’ crewmen. I can accept that they might turn into sea-creatures, but I wanted them to be more recognisably actual sea-creatures, rather than just barnacle-encrusted monsters. I did like, however, the number of different sea myths that could be put into this movie before being saturated and dumb. Davey Jones, the Flying Dutchman, the Kraken… very nice.
King Solomon’s Mines
Just went to the vid store. I had no idea that a new movie had been made of King Solomon’s Mines! With Patrick Swayze as Alan Quatermain! This might give me a feel for whether I should actually go and read the books… I have heard some dubious things about the worth of H Rider Haggard’s style… the story will hae to be pretty good, I think, to make me go read it. Just looked it up in Wikipedia (my respect for which as a general source of probably-true information has grown recently), and I don’t think I realised that the oldest Alan Q book was published in 1885…
Zoe is my hero
We’re re-watching Serenity. I love it. Zoe really is fantastic.
I aim to misbehave…
Huckabees again
Naomi Watts is really fatastic in this movie… for most of the movie, she’s only been a voice and the occasional face; now she’s onto the Existential Detectives, and she’s trying to figure out whether or not to be pretty…
I [heart] Huckabees
I wrote quite a long post, for me, about this movie, which I’m watching at the moment. It got et by the puter because for whatever reason, I lost the internet for a minute. I don’t think I can be bothered writing it all again. It involved:
— I’m watching it because of seeing it reviewed on The Movie Show, and David loved it.
— I’m watching it for something completely different from what I would usually watch, although it is a little bit like The Life Aquatic (but better)
— The cast is excellent. Dustin Hoffman is a legend, and so is Lily Tomlin; Mark Wahlberg is surprisingly good, and Jude Law plays a total prat.
— OK, the bit that I just watched, with the mud and sex and stuff – that was really damn weird.
— This is a really, really funny movie; I’m loving it.
We love trashy TV
I’m watching a bit at the moment, in between Stargate episodes, as J is mucking around somewhere. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is on one channel – I’ve written about it before; I do love its glorious trashiness (although I am still really not convinced by Nemo as some sort of nautical Raj, I do still love the “Call me Ishmael” line) - the Logies is on another, with some terrible dresses; and Law and Order is on yet the other commercial channels. Love Sunday nights.
Flight of the Phoenix
J will never let me live this one down. We didn’t see it at the movies because he was still too cut at Dennis Quaid for being a wuss in The Day after Tomorrow. I got it out, though, because I had always thought it looked good from the poster, and because the blurb said it was “action-packed”. Yes; well. It wasn’t toooo bad… Miranda Otto was ok, in her bit-part… ok, it was a really average movie. I would not recommend anyone to see it. However, I found out one reason why it seemed appealing and didn’t deliver; it’s a re-make. The original had Peter Finch, Richard Attenborough, James Stewart and Ernest Borgnine!!! Kat says it is fantastic, so maybe I will watch it tomake it up to mysellf… but I don’t think I will suggest it to J.
The Transporter
Watching it at the moment; stars Handsome Rob from the remake of The Italian Job. It only just manages to stay this side of Jackie Chan, but it is totally cool. It’s got the best-shot car chases since Ronin, and an awesome soundtrack too. Certainly manages to pack a lot into 80 minutes! The grease scene is brilliant. There’s a sequel just out recently – not sure if it’s out on DVD yet, hope it’s not too far away.
Films I saw in the holidays…
… which was a while ago now, but what the heck.
Batman Begins
Fantastic. So well filmed; Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman were great in support, and I barely noticed Katie Holmes (‘ray). And Batman himself – well, he was brilliant. Played the dark and brooding very convincingly. I am definitely looking forward to the sequel, because this Batmas – with all new and improved gadgets – is very entertaining to watch.
War of the Worlds
Yeh. Not convinced. Thinking back on the book, I’m wondering whether it is actually the book’s fault. HG Wells did not exactly write a book that could be easily turned into a movie; I haven’t read it in years, but I think he was writing with less of an idea to character development than to exploring the concept of alien invasion and its consequences for the world. As a result, any movie (and what I’ve seen of the 50s version, while being an intersting commentary on nuclear USA, was crap) has to have some people-stuff inserted by someone else, and I just don’t think it works – not and still calling it War of the Worlds. I think Tom Cruise was actually quite weak in it, but then the character itself didn’t allow for much. There were some cool effects.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Did I see it on holidays? Don’t recall; anyway. I liked it, in defiance of all the purists I think. The fact that it was started before Adams died made me feel a bit better about it. Yes, there were bits that were totally not in the book, but anyone who thinks those books could be successfull translated to the screen and be understood by total Adams-novices, which is a large part of the world, needs their heads read. I liked most of the insertions, actually, and I thought John Malkovitch was quite funny. Truly, though, Arthur was very enteraining, but for me the entire film was owned by Zaphod. He was perfect.
There was another movie we saw in Darwin, too, but I forget what it was…
Randomly Yours, Alex 