Dennis Hopper

Dennis Hopper has died. A legend during his lifetime, I think he will be remembered. There was always a lovable quality to his acting, mixed-in with the drugged weirdness and unsettling intensity. I loved him in Apocalypse Now and Blue Velvet. If you want to talk about screen presence, he had it in spades. He always struck me as a funny sort of bloke as well. Do I amuse you? We'll remember him. Vaya con Dios, Dennis..

Great film

Just watched To Die For, the Gus van Sant film starring Nicole Kidman. I love that film and I think Nicole Kidman does a great job in portraying the amoral ambitious Suzanne Stone. One of my favourite scenes is where her husband, played by Matt Dillon, holds up a child at a family party and also a hamburger. Referring to the burger he asks Suzanne if she would like one. She says in a too matter of a fact and snide way: “No thanks!” He then points to the child and says: “How about one of these?” Her answer is identical: “No thanks!”

Bringing up Baby

Just about to settle down and watch Katherine Hepburn and the great Bristolian actor Cary Grant in the madcap flick Bringing up Baby, a film that irritates and entertains in equal measure. I know people who admire both leading thespians but cannot stand to watch this frenetic comedy. I think the term used to be screw-ball comedy, a quaint genre at the best of times. I sort of like it though..

Films

On one television channel there were two back to back films starring Robin Williams. I was interested to see what type of film he was in these days. The first was a slighty tiresome and lame so-called comedy 'RV' or something like that. Not very good at all. The next was a Fargo-clone called 'The Big White' which was more interesting in parts so that was something. Ah well..

Scene from 'To Die For'

A scene from To Die For, in my opinion on of Nicole Kidman's best roles.

Blogging my way through life

I keep blogging/blagging my way through life. As I'm in-between jobs I have some time on my hands to dedicate to writing and that in itself is a good thing. I do love writing and find I never have to think hard about which subjects to write about, really. I read a newspaper article about Nicole Kidman and how on Facebook there are hordes of people organising themselves into groups to attack, denigrate and revile her. I find that quite strange. Why would you spend so much time and effort running down someone you've never even met?

I quite like Nicole Kidman and I love some of her roles. I think she's a good actress and a very attractive woman. Of course, being Australian like her, I may be be somewhat biased. I loved her in the Gus van Sant film To Die For, in which she played a calculating but sexy predator of a woman. I thought her performance was stunning.

I will be seeing her in Australia later this week so will report back on that. Of course, I sort of grew up with Nicole Kidman ever since Bangkok Hotel, back in the days when she sported a big set of red curls. I'm glad she got away from looney Cruise. Being with someone whose 'church''s creed involved little green men can't be good for anyone..

Film..Bond film

I can hardly wait until the new James Bond film is out. Later this month we will be treated to ‘the Quantum of Solace’, admittedly a rather cumbersome title for a film but there you go. I think Daniel Craig did a very good job in Casino Royale and I was impressed with the way in which the film’s makers re-invented the genre for a new age. It was fast, action packed and devoid of some of the cheesy sexist innuendo that used to abound in some of the classic films.

Weekend joyousness

It's nearly the weekend and all is well. Perhaps we'll go and see the Batman film. I'm not too keen on those superhero movies as I find the concept a tad infantile. Don't care about Super-,Spider- or even Worm Man but I heard that this latest Batman film is really good and also I wouldn't mind seeing Heath Ledger's performance as it's supposed to be truly stunning. I heard Michael Caine say that he was blown away by Ledger's acting in the scenes he did with him.

Or perhaps I'll just lounge around in the garden with a tall glass of something smooth and finally try to finish my book. For a number of years now I've been reading a Peter Sellers biography on and off. Granted, the tome numbers a healthy seven hundred plus pages but even so. Come on, Richard. Finish the darn thing already!

Dodgy film

Watched about forty minutes of the Nicholas Cage film 'National Treasure' over the weekend. What a dire turkey. More's the pity as it has some good actors in it as well. You can just see they wanted to reproduce that 'Sahara' feel with the headstrong lead character and his cheeky grungy trusty sidekick. Within seconds I started rooting for the bad guys. What is it about Nicholas Cage's performances these days that makes him so insufferable? Not quite as irritating as Tom Cruise but he's getting there.

No Country for Old Men

Just posted a review of a film I saw last week in the Watershed art cinema here in Bristol. We went to see No Country for Old Men, the latest film from the Coen brothers. I really enjoyed this hard-hitting film. It seemed like a return to the sparse style of films such as Fargo and Blood Simple. A sense of brutal beauty permeates this film and some of the characters are extremely imposing. A great new film by this talented pair of film-making brothers.

Film

Tonight, after work, we are going to see the new Coen brothers’ film ‘No country ofr old men’. I am really looking forward to it. I hear it has received quite a few award nominations already. I have been a fan of the films of the Coen brothers ever since ‘Raising Arizona’ and this pair of directors have given me lots of hours of cinematic pleasure. I just love their style and I hope tonight’s film will prove a return to their best form.

Films galore

Found this great looking film site run by a mate in Queensland. He deals with lots of great films, giving insightful reviews and more. The site also features great film poster images which seem to jump from the dark pages. I really enjoyed browsing his site. If you like films do have a wander over to his blog and have a look.

Coen brothers

Watched ‘Oh Brother, Where Art Thou’ again on the free film channel Film Four, and once again enjoyed this imaginative flick. They must have a real love for the stories they tell and it shows in the many diverse themes these directors choose to depict.

John Torturro must be one of their favourite actors. He was fabulously downtrodden in ‘Barton Fink’, creepily on the money as Jesus, the pederast bowler in ‘The Big Lebowski’, and he always brings out a fine performance in whatever he does.

I love the surreal humour and light touches that the Coen brothers adopt in their film repertoire. I think my all time favourite film of theirs must be ‘The Big Lebowski’, although I’d rather not have to choose as each of their films can be considered unique in their own right.

My fondness for these films started back in the dark ages with ‘Raising Arizona’ and continues to this day. I hope they keep on making many more of these wonderful movies.

The Emerald Forest

This morning I spent a very lazy few hours in bed watching the John Boorman film The Emerald Forest. Starring Powers Boothe and Meg Foster, this stunning film is set in the Amazon rainforest where the Powers Boothe character’s young son is snatched away by an indigenous tribe, the Invisible People, leaving his parents to search for the boy for an agonizing ten years.

The young boy is raised by the tribe, marries a girl from a nearby tribe and is initiated into manhood by way of an ordeal involving imbibing the local hallucinogenic and entering a trance in which he discovers his totem animal; an eagle soaring high above the dense green foliage of the rainforest.

I’ve always liked Powers Boothe’s taciturn style of acting. I’ve only seen him in a few films, among which his spooky role as Jim Jones in the two-part drama depicting the Jonestown mass suicide. There seems to be a strange darkness behind that steely gaze which works well on the screen.

At one point an extremely annoying German press photographer accompanying Powers Boothe on yet another search for the lost boy is attacked and disposed of by the cannibalistic tribe of the Fierce People. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

As the story develops, father and son are reunited under very difficult circumstances, deep in the forest. It soon appears that the new boy’s life is with the tribe in the rainforest and the dad just needs to accept this inevitable fate.

The scenery as depicted in this beautiful film is engrossing and awe-inspiring and it is fascinating to get a slight insight into the life of the tribe of indigenous people living in the Amazon rainforest.

It’s not a recent film but if you’ve never seen it, it is well worth checking out.

Two flicks

Watched two films this weekend: One was The Departed, the other was About Smidt. I enjoyed the latter but was very bored with The Departed. There was not one likeable character in this bleak sordid story and it seemed just another one of those films with little men, high on testosterone, running around waving a gun and over-using the F-word.

The dialogue was appallingly poor and it was pathetic to see how these male characters needed to be artificially reinforced with ‘effing and blinding’ to a tedious extent. I was disappointed as I really like most other films by Scorcese. The Departed was a witless and graceless exercise in male posturing. Perhaps it’s because I’m a man myself but I’m getting fed up with the vast number of films crowded with loud men portraying utterly predictable behaviour and totally lacking any interesting female characters. What a bore.

Much more to my liking was About Schmidt, starring Jack Nicholson. Beautifully filmed, slowly and elegantly told, this story of a man losing his wife shortly after retiring from work and faced with a complete nincompoop for a impending son-in-law was moving and insightful.

Black humour and little touches of light-hearted brilliance made this film something unusual. Nicholson’s role was testament to his versatile acting skills. Kathy Bates was convincing as the overly sensual mother of the nincompoop. I’ve never wanted a Winnebago and certainly do not want one after seeing About Schmidt, but I laughed as Nicholson’s character drove it around town as if it were just an ordinary car rather than a ridiculously sized monster-caravan.

A human story where the acting didn’t get in the way of the story, About Schmidt is an ultimately uplifting story about life, love and loss. Nice one..