New journal post over on www.rickiejosen.co.uk

Movie – Red Cliff

The trailer did it justice. Red Cliff is no, Last Samarai, the best of this genre and the only Tom Cruise film I really like, but it has all the essential ingredients; honour, 1000 extras in battle scenes, valour, family values, love etc.

The battle scenes alone make Lord of the Rings 3 look like Enid Blyton or maybe it’s just that I haven’t seen it for years. There is enough blood spilt in the first 30 minutes to keep a blood donor unit happy for months. It’s a shame they didn’t think of that centuries gone.

What makes this film very modern is that the two armies that have joined together to fight for a better world have a strategic thinker trying to out manoeuvre the huge force that they are fighting. He is there to forecast the enemy’s every move and be one step ahead.

As in every ancient, oriental film the bad guys have a much bigger army than the good guys combined together. This is because bad guys – dictators – rule by fear and soldiers don’t fight for honour, they fight for their survival.

The ultimate genius moment from the strategist comes when the two good armies split and the army that remains doesn’t have enough ammunition to fight the now seemingly bigger army. The strategist comes up with a plan to steel the enemies arrows by sending out empty boats knowing the enemy would fire arrows at will. They promptly pull the boats back with the confident knowledge they now have thousands of new arrows. Genius.

 The films moves at the right pace all the way through with enough heart in your stomach moments to keep your mind focussed.

8/10    Smile factor 8/10                                           June 19^th 2009

Movie – Looking For Eric

Although I momentarily forgot this came out today I was very much looking forward to seeing Looking for Eric. Ken Loach, British, football and humour were already fine virtues to make me part with my hard earned pennies and the United / Eric Cantona connections were simply the icing on the cake.

In my view, the proceeding trailers are a good indication of the film’s quality and I don’t remember the last time I wanted to see each and every film trailed. I cannot remember the name of any but I have no doubt some or all of them will be talked about here in weeks to come.

So I was even more like an excitable 6 year old being allowed to pay for her own candy in the store for the very first time by the time the of the opening credits. I wasn’t disappointed for a single second for the next 116 minutes of sheer joy.

All the cast were fantastic and I believe it would have been hard for Cantona to play himself, especially a heroic guardian angel version of his legendary status.

The only really sad part of the film came when what sounded like gun shots was the police raiding the family house thanks to one of the wayward teens of the single, down-on-his-luck, sometimes suicidal father. The sort of kids you want to throw out of the house and then move to another continent without telling them. OK that’s just me then.

The father was the one looking for a heroic figure when Cantona’s angel-like character came into his life and steered him back to a healthy, positive attitude. All his macho Postal Delivery colleagues rallied round too trying to cheer him up with just the sort of funny banter you would want in his position. The funniest was the one who had a self-help book for every occasion which was hilariously at odds with their solid, working-class, northern roots.

One of the best parts of the film was when our favourite Postie realised what a misery his kids were making his life and started looking after number one but the last 20 minutes or so are sheer genius.

The film started as 8/10 and my hopes of it staying there weren’t dashed thanks to the fast wit and sweet story, even when the local gangster tried to humiliate the star of the show.

8/10 (Would have been 8.5 but that would it put it in The Wrestler category. Is it also a film I want to see again and again? Quite probably).

Smile 9/10

Movie – Terminator Salvation

Finally, it’s here.  Not just a Terminator film but Terminator 4, without Arnie.

It had an odd start with a long list of boring credits, although not boring to those credited I guess, rather than perhaps a recap of the long story so far but then the music got VERY LOUD leaving the watcher in no uncertain terms that they mean business.

There’s definitely the impression that post block busting Arnie trilogy, T4 matters.

To get the girly quip out of the way, whilst no body, including me wants to pay good money to see anyone [woman] looking like they have been dragged through a hedge backwards by a Terminator, it was a bit much to see a lone Resistance soldier take off her hat to reveal long, glossy, worthy of L’Oreal advert, locks and perfect film star make-up. Really?

She was stranded with a 48 hour trek back to base but of course arrived looking perfect, joining the equally glamorous, heavily pregnant Doctor Connor, wife of the hero, John Connor. The planet had been wiped out by machines but the leading ladies managed to find just the right shade of red Chanel lipstick. Where do you buy that from when the world has been wiped out? The real hero of course is Arnie’s Terminator in the best film ever made T2 but I hear he’s busy doing other things now.

Anyway, of course the film is aimed at men not super fans like myself so in that respect, a job well done.

Not to dwell on the time traveller issues but I’m not sure how Connor was on the planet the same time as his teenage would be father as I thought this was in the future, before Terminator 2 when he sent back a good terminator to protect his mother and to ensure he was OK and possibly before T1 when he sent back the father to impregnate his mother?

But as any Star Trekkie will tell you, who cares. Anything is possible with time travel; what we want is action, spectacular effects, intense battles and the good guy to win – but only after he has to make many personal sacrifices.

I liked the part about the Terminator/human character having a strong human heart and the bikes were pretty cool.

The best parts, however, were when they paid homage to T2 with an Arnie look-a-like, a snatch of the Guns and Roses soundtrack and at least one of the famous one liners.

They all made me smile with appreciation and certainly bought a little credibility to the film that probably took itself a little too seriously, like T1. Nonetheless it was fabulous to see another film in the series. Here’s to the next one.

8/10

Smile factor 8/10

Movie – Fireflies in the Garden

I had not heard of this film but was desperate to find an alternative to the banal movies that take over school holiday weeks.

It had Julia Roberts in it so I wasn’t too bothered about the story line but I already knew that her character dies in a car crash at the start of the film and the rest of the plot is about her grown up son trying to work out why he had such an appalling relationship with his father; why he loathed him.

It was one of those films that went back and forth in time but it was easy to follow as it showed the son as grown-up bearded, married writer and then back to a geeky child.

I don’t think he ever figured out why his father, played by Willem Dafoe – so I should have known he’d be a bad man, was so mean and yet at the same time adored his much younger sister. I also didn’t work out why his Mum’s younger sister, his Aunt Jane, his best friend since the childhood summer Jane lived with them, moved into his parent’s home whilst they went elsewhere. I guess because it was a bigger home for her much young children but I don’t recall it ever being explained yet it was pivotal when he went back there during the time of his Mother’s funeral.

It was mostly an easy-going movie with a few of those twists and turns that make a good story.

7/10

Smile factor 7/10

Diary – May 31st 2009

A couple of weeks ago I actually started looking at my Twitter account that I started last summer. Now I do a daily tweet to help spread the word about business so if my notes help someone or if it means I make a few new acquaintances, it’s all good.

Talking of business, last week I got word of a local temp contract that would be a perfect addition to my fast diminishing clients that have been ‘crunched’. I super sleuthed my way to speaking to the Operations Director who duly asked to meet with me. Having worked out what I could possibly wear out of the handful of business outfits I have with me (the rest if you remember are amongst my shipping that at the moment is still at large in New York). I remembered I have absolutely no suitable business shoes. I don’t want to buy anything as I already have ample of everything that I have spent a small fortune to ship. I managed to pull an outfit together before researching the company and preparing from my meeting the next morning. First thing on Friday, I emailed my now customary polite ‘I look forward to seeing you later’ confirmation message and within seconds my mobile rang. The Ops Director cancelled the meeting as they think an internal colleague can do the work rather than outsourcing to me. Without knowing anything about her, I have the feeling she won’t have the management experience to deal with the project (otherwise, she’d already being doing something similar) so I have a sense that I may well get called upon at a later date. Whether I’ll be in a position to take on the work then, who knows?

My concern anyway was being able to take all the time off I want to spend with Country Boy – when he ever gets here. I’m a little more confident of his arrival now that he has sent his passport to be renewed but it’s taken me being stuck in the UK for 6 weeks for him to do that. Should I take that as he’s not committed to coming over and keeping this thing between us going or just that he’s a bloke?

He did send me the words to the Kinks (his absolute musical heroes), ‘So Tired of Waiting for You’ which bought some tears to my eye but afterwards I wasn’t sure if he meant it in the sentiment I first thought or if he is indeed fed up and thinking of moving on. I know that he was planning to go to a www.meetup.com event in New York –similar to the one where we met last Christmas because I happened to catch the email invite which had him down as RSVPing yes.

Having said that, he has work commitments until the third week of June anyway.

 

Missing in Action 1

My blackberry that should have arrived last week hadn’t showed. If you remember my Blackberry was stolen on my first business day of arriving back in the UK on 20^th April. Amazon told me to let them know if it hadn’t arrived by Monday but I gave it an extra day, as that was a public holiday and filed my complaint on Tuesday.  On Wednesday they acknowledged my complaint. On Thursday they issued a refund which for some reason will take 10 days to get to me, even though when I paid for it the money was taken out of my account immediately, on Friday the Blackberry arrived. Oops.

I’m no longer chained to my laptop.

Missing in Action 2

Talking of lost in the post, the $500 cash that I had sent by secure insured mail to my friend in the US, Jersey Girl, who kindly agreed to pay it into my US bank account still hasn’t arrived.  I had the cash ready for my return trip and it wasn’t worth exchanging it back to sterling. The birthday card with gift card I sent in exactly the same way to Country Boy a few days later turned up in the usual week or so. I’ve been told I have to wait another couple of weeks before filing the claim on that one. Let’s hope if turns up before then though I suspect it’s sitting with customs for no particular reason.

Lazing on Sunny Afternoon

It was another glorious sunny and warm weekend, even more so than last week but as much as I love the sunshine and embrace it like any other Brit, I don’t like the heat and take care to be comfortable when enjoying any sunny English days.

I enjoyed strolling into the city on Saturday to the sound of the must listen-to Jonathan Ross on Radio 2 in my ears but also to avoid having any meaningless unwanted conversations with strangers as I walk along Broad Street. I went into Birmingham  Museum and Art Gallery first having missed out last week with the lovely distraction of the Pride parade. In particular I wanted to see the Obama’s People exhibition which turned out to be a collection of photographs of his staff. I was fascinated and read almost every word of each profile next to the portrait. The best thing was that it felt like I was back in the US for at least an hour. But is it art?

I guess I’d conclude that the pictures of Washington were slightly better than mine from trip last Christmas.

Afterwards I decided to see more of the gallery with a view to coming back most weekends to see more over the summer – a little like I did when I was here last summer. I loved the Birmingham through the age’s exhibit in particular the gorgeous kitchen from 1961. Very much in tune with the current marketing campaign for Marks and Spencer125 year celebrations and I was beaming both with my memories of the incredibly similar childhood kitchen, although ours was toxic blue rather than their more serene red and also thinking of what my next kitchen Stateside may look like. I’d just be happy with this one. By now I was ravenous but saw a few more exhibits, in particular how Birmingham rebuilt the Bull Ring shopping area into what is now the extraordinary ‘Bull Ring’ complete with state of the art purpose built Selfridges before settling into the Edwardian Tea Room – a place that could be a lot more alluring than it is but it still attracts me each time I visit.

Movie – AwayDays

Football. Fashion. Music. 1970s.

What’s not to like?

Initially these 4 words were enough to draw me in but upon reading the story line, I felt the violence was going to be too much for me but there was nothing else on so I was forced to see it.

It was set in Liverpool which meant it could be only based on one of two clubs although I guess in 1979, that could have been any club in the country. It wasn’t quite 70’s so the music was more post punk than Marc Bolan or The Sweet.

The fashion element was purely  about the right anorak and Adidas trainees which I guess I was too young to have any real memory of  and although I do recall the pretty boy, post punk art school look, post punk but pre new romantic which I don’t remember being as particular popular amongst football hooligans. But I wasn’t there.

There is no way this film can be released in America as they would barely understand the Liverpool dialect never mind words like ‘trainees’, ‘ trackies’ and ‘divvy’. I did, mostly owing to my loyalty to early Brookside when the fourth TV channel was introduced in Britain.

The best music in Britain came from Liverpool and I don’t mean the Beatles. Echo and the Bunnymen, Wah! (Pete Wylie), Teardrop Explodes, A Flock of Seagulls, Icicle Works and later The Coral. But the only band to be featured were the Bunnymen and the film makers made a definite decision they weren’t going to play anything from the mainstream and I, a huge music fan circa 1981 onwards, didn’t recognise a single track although could clearly hear Ian McCulloch’s distinct vocals. Every track sounded like Joy Division who did feature along with The Cure and Ultravox (with original lead singer John Foxx), not Liverpool bands but the music easily suited the dark and mysterious vibe of the film.

The violence was all football gang related from the days before security, alcohol bans, smoking bans and fighting bans. It’s hard to believe football was ever like this but actually it was nothing to do with the beautiful game. Just violence for the sake of violence and indeed no football was shown in this film as if to prove that very point. I for one would never have survived a match in those days and I value my life more than my football team. I still wouldn’t go to away matches now, which is what the film portrays, especially after a particularly unpleasant visit to Peterborough a few years ago. Even if it was supposed United fans that caused the aggravation within my block.

The only non-football match violence was remarkably when a gang member knifed his own 30 year- old family man team leader. No one reported him and he attended the victim’s funeral clearly without all his marbles and then went on to inflict more unreported damage. I guess they were all a card short of the full deck particularly the star of the show who dreamt of the day until he could join ‘the pack’.

Thank goodness those days are over and we are just left with the beautiful game.

6½/10

Smile 8/10 for the music                                                                                                               May 22^nd 2009

Movie – State of Play

Like ‘Is There Anybody There?’ I missed this but managed to see it on the last day. A big perk of currently staying within 5 minutes walk of the cinema.

I didn’t know much about the film having not seen the TV series of the same name except that it had a political plot and an all star cast; Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Helen Mirren.  All had brilliant characters to play and it was much better than a political drama because it was based in the Washington Post’s news room. Something I’m always interested in as my first career was in publishing.

That made it extra enjoyable although the twists and turns of the story had me hooked until the very end. And I meant the end.

The underlying story was that of a reporter (Crowe) was uncovering a story that could break his old college friend the Congressman (Affleck) whilst under pressure from his typical brash English Editor (Mirren). Add in the fact that the Congressman was having an affair with someone was now dead and the reporter had a crush on his wife. The only thing I found strange was that for some odd reason the distinguished reporter did not disguise himself when meeting with dangerous contacts in dark alleys alone.

A final twist was kind of expected but I was still hooked.

7½/10

Smile Factor 6 ½ mainly for the terrific English editor portrayed by Helen Mirren.

                                                                                      May 19^th 2009

Movie – Angels And Demons

Love Tom Hanks. Love Angels.

So this had to be checked out even though I had no particular interest in the Davinci Code, book or film.

I was told it was faster paced and that was true. The Tom Hanks’ professor character was bought swiftly in and I’m now beginning to recognise the stylish trademarks in Ron Howard’s films. The plot moved swiftly to Rome which was the star of the show. (Sorry Tom) Having been to this great Italian city briefly I immersed myself in every scene although I couldn’t help wincing at the carnage and destruction.

It’s a bit of a mystery thriller but with enough action to keep me completely interested and just when I thought it was all over, there were plenty more thrills and spills to come.  I just love that in a film; value for money.

Of course Tom and the cast were spot on although I wondered why they had an Irish Catholic priest in the shape of Ewan McGregor.

7.5/10 Extra ½ for Rome

Smile factor 8/10

If Will Smith is 4 President, then Tom Hanks is 4 Chief of Staff

Movie – Is There Anybody There?

The newest Michael Caine has the now fairly tried and tested story or an older gentleman befriending a youngster. With Caine it could have gone one of two ways; the perfect English gent who liked his sheets just so or the miserable old git. Choosing the latter perhaps meant easier laughs although I was quite taken aback at how old he looks. He probably played a character similar to his own age but was that his real face or make-up?

Based in a fledgling old people’s home , as they would have been called in the mid 1980’s, that the parents of the aforementioned youngster run with a great deal of emotional and financial stress. When the newly widowed Caine character arrives in his old Campervan, he had to be convinced to stay with the assortment of characters that you would expect within the eccentric English elderly.  The sort of people that could tell a story or two from their long lifetimes  as pointed out by the young mother in trying to tell her young son how privileged he was by living with them. And they do make you laugh in the process.

His surroundings could only enhance his fascination with death and all things morbid. His hunting of ghosts and signs of life after death dumfounded our elderly gent resident who set about trying to give him a more positive outlook on life leading to the inevitable bond.

All the mini stories were a cross between a soap and a British kitchen sink drama. The old guy was a magician in his glory days and accidently chopped a finger off whilst performing for the residents as a birthday surprise for the young boy. The father (David Morissey) had a wondering eye and was generally a big girls’ blouse whilst the mother (Anne-Marie Duff, Shameless)  did her very best to keep marriage, family and business together enduring many obstacles.

It turned out to be quite a delightful English film that moved along nicely.

Sir Michael Caine has reportedly been bemoaning the lack of parts for older actors lately but judging by the refreshing familiar mature faces in the home, they all had a part here.

7/10

Smile factor 8/10                                                                                                             May 12^th 2009