Teaching film
Don’t know whether I’ll actually get to teach this next semester or not, but I hope at some stage to offer an elective – at Year 10 I think – of film studies. The first term I would call “Help!! The world is about to end”, and do things like The Core, Armageddon, Mars Attacks, Terminator 3, and maybe Thirteen Days (James’ suggestion) as a real-life example. On the way home today I had the idea for the second term: “Thieves, Crims, and Downright Scoundrels”: Hudson Hawk, Thomas Crowne Affair (the original I think), The Italian Job (possibly the remake; not sure); maybe Maltese Falcon. It would be so much fun!!
Three films in a night
We visited a friend’s place last night: they have mad surround sound and a projector, so we often do this of a weekend, and watch movies till late (well, I watch; James sleeps). Anyway, last night we got wise for the first time, and started watching a movie before 7! Very clever.
Showtime
Poor Robert de Niro. You’d think he could get better roles. It was funny, but not something I’d watch again. Interesting take on reality TV, since I would have guessed it came out at the start of the boom; although probably it’s been around longer in the US.
Judge Dredd
Stallone is a meathead. It was so Blue Screen… so angular… so Star Wars I was surprised to find out it was made in the mid 90s. Half the guards looked like they’d just walked off as extra storm troopers, and there was even a chase scene taken straight from the Forest Moon of Endor (Ewoks, remember?) and dumped into a bad-futuristic scene.
Men in Black II
Love it. Very funny. Tommy Lee Jones is a star.
Randomly Yours, Alex 