Everything I have read about Team America: World Police makes me more eager to see it. A film in that opens with Thunderbirds-style puppets accidentally destroying Paris as part of an US anti-terror operation and offends Sean Penn to the point of releasing a statement to the press is worth a viewing. This report worries […]
Read MoreOur former colony across The Pond preserves the tradition of duelling suitors in its own special way: “The parking lot of C & W Auto Glass was the scene of a violent automotive encounter Monday, when two Godfrey men repeatedly rammed vehicles in a quarrel that broke out over the affections of a woman… “…The […]
Read MoreI used to have reservations about Ute Lemper as a singer, but on Radio 3 this afternoon, performing with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, she was stunning. I’m sad that I missed the Hebrew and Arabic songs she began her show with. Apart from an abortive attempt to read Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone—I gave […]
Read MoreHello, loonies of Libertarianism. This is good irony. It is funny, sharp, and original. It has a serious underlying point to make. This is bad irony. It is flat, smug, and tired. Somehow it doesn’t score a hit against crap British celebs making crap records for charidee. David Carr, you win this week’s Prêt-à-Porter Award […]
Read MoreAs I predicted, the pull of Blade: Trinity was too strong and Leasey and I went along to see it last Saturday. It turned out to be both very entertaining and utter rubbish. The plot is thinner than a 15-year-old on a catwalk; Parker Posey couldn’t act her way out of a parking ticket; and […]
Read MorexXx: he’s meant to be the USA’s hip-and-happening answer to Britain’s 007. Problem is, you can’t afford Vin Diesel for the sequel and you’ve blown most of the budget on Samuel L Jackson, Willem Defoe, and exploding helicopters. So who do you get to play the last hope of freedom and democracy? A short, fat, […]
Read MoreHi, I’m on the set of Meet The Underwater Smoking Tanngoliabees with director, Hiram Czeapli. Hiram, there’s already a tremendous buzz about this star-studded, sprawling ensemble piece. Perhaps you could tell us why this of all your works has attracted so much pre-release media attention. Well, although The Smoking Tanngoliabees has a lot in common […]
Read MoreRecently I expressed some concern at the look of the new film adaptations of the Earthsea novels by Ursula Le Guin. She’s not a happy bunny either, as she explains at Slate, under the title “Whitewashed: Earthsea How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books“.
Read MoreEven when disagreeing with me, anti-war Backword Dave has always shown commendable respect for the moral basis of my pro-war Leftie stance. Yesterday, however, he cited the words of Yoda, a Muppet no less, in criticizing Tony Blair’s foreign policy. If Tony reads it he’ll probably have to resign.
Read MoreIt’s been said before that big studios often release the same story two or three times within a couple of years: Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, Armageddon and Deep Impact, The Others and The Sixth Sense. Over at Apple’s trailers site, the latest Hollywood obsession seems to be women dealing with the disappearance or reappearance […]
Read MoreFollowing on from my review of Bridget Jones 2 a new correspondent—not our friend from Switzerland—has just emailed me the following message, entitled “Sincere apology”: “Damian I’m sorry. I should never have doubted you. I thought you just a tirading loon, venting an unfulfilled spleen. But you were right. BG2 is truly awful. Can you […]
Read MoreIt’s late. I’m knackered. If I write at length now I will probably annoy someone with my abuse of English. I’ll just say that I’ve come back from seeing the remake of The Manchurian Candidate with a couple of (Left-leaning Cambridge don) friends. We all agreed that it was as if a bonkers anti-globalisation conspiracy […]
Read MoreA Jerry Bruckheimer Production 45 MINUTES starring Aaron Eckhart as George W Bush and Don Cheadle as Tony Blair [“I’m telling you, Steve, the sidekick has gotta to be black.”] [Urban skyline. Dusk.] TOUGH STREETS. NEED TOUGH COPS. DETECTIVE GEORGE “DUBYA” BUSH—HE’S WRESTLED WITH DRINK. HE’S WRESTLED WITH DRUGS. HE’S WRESTLED WITH THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. […]
Read MoreBridget Jones II is so bad on so many levels that it will be difficult for me to keep this post deservingly short. If you’re in a hurry, read my title. [But first, in answer to Eric’s thoughtful enquiry, I have not been following anything like my usual routine lately. That, my being ill over […]
Read MoreOver the weekend, Judith told me that a feature-length adaptation of Brideshead Revisited is being planned. For this version, the Catholicism will be toned down. This is the sort of thing Evelyn Waugh might have written into a satire of Hollywood. [“Waugh’s a man? Is he some kind of faggot?!”] Maybe we can petition to […]
Read MoreIt’s time for the Razzies to start presenting an “Orson Welles Award” for film careers that have had the steepest fall from an early peak. [Michael Brooke will be round here in a minute to tell me off for caricaturing Mr Sherry.] Apart from giving film bores a truly interesting challenge (choosing Madonna for Worst […]
Read MoreChristopher Reeve is dead. The obituary on Radio 4 is already taking the “de mortuis nil nisi bonum” approach a bit too far by claiming that Reeve “avoided typecasting”. I, for one, remember his Henry V with profound admiration. Good lad, though, as Will Rubbish would say.
Read MoreI saw Collateral some time ago, but haven’t got round to writing about it, have nothing original to say, and feel slightly let down by Michael Mann (who is a god). It’s not that it’s a bad film; it is, in many ways, superb, but, like others who’ve seen it, I think that Mann or […]
Read MoreTalking of Catholics and movies, Maoi recommends Imelda at “Firecracker Philippines“, the UK’s first Filipino film festival, which runs from tomorrow, Fri 24Sep04, until Sun 26Sept04. The promoters promise “Six of the best recent film [sic] from the Philippines—five of them UK Premieres!”
Read MoreJust back from Leasey’s where she didn’t have to strap me into the harness to watch a chick flick starring Cher. With my psychosexual make-up, the incantation “Winona Ryder plays a Jewish girl who desperately wants to be Catholic” is more effective in overwhelming artistic judgement than “Halle Berry runs around wearing a leather catsuit […]
Read MoreI don’t believe that adults find it harder to learn than children; just that adults find it harder to be wrong. Learning is about being wrong over and over again until you are almost right. As I get older I find it harder and harder to make things that I’m happy with. There are presently […]
Read MoreJust back from seeing HellBoy with the Anonymous Economist’s posse. It was the perfect reverse of my experience with Riddick. That one was supposed to be expensive rubbish; this one was a Hollywood blockbuster that the critics had given us permission to like. They were wrong again. It was so empty and lazy that I […]
Read MoreI suspect that I enjoyed and admired The Chronicles of Riddick so much primarily because I expected so little of it; I hope I don’t diminish anyone’s pleasure with this rave. Do not read about this film. See this on the big screen while you still can. It has been surprisingly unpopular and I only […]
Read MoreI am in a UK airport branch of Dixons. I am trying out the keyboard of an ultra-portable notebook computer to see if it’s large enough for me to touch-type on. An American tourist approaches with his eleven-year-old-looking son. He smirks at his offspring and then says to me: “That’s small enough for you to […]
Read MoreI’ve just added the fierce and furry Hak Mao to the ‘Blogroll. (And, if you don’t write something soon, Timbeaux, I’ll be de-rolling you. How can I read a ‘Blog that isn’t?) Hak comes from the land of my favourite bread: Vogel’s. It’s the anti-Nimble. The ingredients of Vogel’s are harvested from the hearts of […]
Read MoreNorm beat me to ‘Blogging new ‘Blogger Eric the Unread’s brilliant attack on linguistic determinism this morning. I have looked over Eric’s first post and his third post and they both made me laugh, but I don’t want to read anything about The Village until I’ve seen the film, so, as far as I’m concerned, […]
Read MoreI met up with the Anonymous Economist for the first time in ages yesterday when we nipped out for a post-work cinema trip. We agreed that what we saw was excellent, but we disagreed about the title. I think “The Bourne Supremacy” is a terrible name for a novel or a film or even a […]
Read MoreOn Monday evening I took a brief and long-planned break at a busy time to have dinner with friends in a good local French restaurant, Bruno’s Brasserie. The food was excellent. The company was lovely. The only flaw in an almost perfect evening was the nightmare that followed. In it, Michael Moore was firing a […]
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