Greetings from Egypt ! I'm having my first big holiday in two years and liking almost every minute of it. The only thing that's hard sometimes is getting up before 4 AM to get to the busstation for the next convoy trough Egypt. But that's a small price to pay for the chance to see Abu Simbel, the Valley of the Kings, Luxor and so much more ...

Editorial - 22 December 2002

I've seen the new Bond movie "Die Another Day" (DAD) and to my surprise most critics have a good point by saying that it's a whole improvement from the last ones. More fun, more action, more gadgets ... and even more stupidity. That all adds to the fun. On the other hand some critics are complaining as usual about these films. That they are not believable, unfriendly towards women, filled with stupid characters ... and whatever more. In my book they are missing the point. Bondmovies are stupid. They are supposed to be unbelievable and sometimes grotesque. Any Bond-movie without an evil character plotting to conquer the world with some doomsday-device would be silly. You have to have these larger than life characters who will not kill Bond instantly upon capturing him. Nope, they'll want to do it slowly while they're making some last minute phonecalls with some asian or arabian country, therefor giving Bond enough time to escape. If I were evil, I'd shoot him point blank in the face.
Just look at Austin Powers. They are using all the Bond-cliches to the max. Funny how the same critics probably like those movies for the same reasons they dislike the Bond-franchise ...
So "DAD" is quite refreshing. Very big sets (an ice-hotel), silly chases (with hovercrafts and some kind of ice-jet), beautiful cars (even when they become invisible) and strong women ... This one might just rank somewhere in the top ten, maybe even top five of all Bond-movies ... Nice going Pierce, keep it up.

Editorial - 17 December 2002

Friday-evening we were expected to join some friends of Ellen in Maastricht (the netherlands). Having a quite fancy dinner with twelve people. There were rumours of putting the recipes online, so we'll see what happens. There might be some linking to that too.
Saturday was cleaning- and shoppingday as usual. Doing the dishes, buying food for the next four days (having no freezer sucks sometimes) and trying to give the vacuumcleaner a spin around the livingroom. For once I had to do some important shopping too. Since it was the birthday of Fred/Tsjerno aka "Don Enrique" there had to be a good gift. We all chipped in for a bigger gift (which is starting to become a real trend) that Bart/Bmac got so that was easy. But we still felt we owed the don a bit more since he did more than could be asked when we had to move suddenly. If you're reading this, that gift is waiting for you. I could've given it last saturday but there were a few reasons why I couldn't come to the small party kinda last moment.
Had a nice surprise too last weekend : an Xbox on a widescreen Sony TV rules. Fsck Playstation one and 2. Fsck Gamecube. X marks the definite spot. And Sega GT 2002 too. Peter/Franky and I knew it would be a cool thingie, but I for one sure underestimated it. It's not just cool, it's Icelandic cool.
Song of the week : "United States Of Whatever" Liam Lynch
Oldie of the week : "Ain't It The Life ?" Foo Fighters
Last seen movie : Considering the - in a way - quite packed weekend, there were no movies to enjoy or dislike ...
Doing this week : Trying to finish my work before leaving for Egypt the next two weeks. Yep, that's right. No Christmas or new year's parties for me. I'll be cruising the deserts of Egypt, the temples, pyramids and Nile.

Editorial - 12 December 2002

Too cold outside to say anything useful. My fingers are stinging from the cold, my brain's too frozen to think and tomorrow's gonna be friday the 13th. Which usually sucks.

Editorial - 10 December 2002

Had ourselves a first gaming afternoon. No computergames, but the old cardboard ones. Started off with Star Wars Monopoly and rounded up with Trivial Pursuit. Two big ones, taking almost 5 hours to play them without really finishing one. That way there were no winners or losers either. Worked out fine. See you in January for the next one ? With more people and shorter games this time ?
Song of the week : "The First Eviction Notice" The Lawrence Arms
Oldie of the week : "Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt " DJ Shadow
Last seen movie : "Rush Hour 2" : This one gave me the same feeling as the first Rush Hour : "Why am I not laughing aloud more ?" It has Jackie Chan and his still incredible fighting skills, Chris Tucker and his motormouth, flashy sceneries, big budget widescreen sets and lots of action, jokes and forward monumentum in the storyline. Yet, I'm just watching it, smiling occasionally. Not even a small sheepish grin now and then. I just don't get it. I should really like these two movies, but somehow I don't. Strange.
Doing this week : Counting the last days of this year. Just two more weeks to go.

Editorial - 2 December 2002

For those who missed the Foo Fighters in Brussels (and I'm sad to say I'm one of them - trying to stay on a low budget due to cashflow-issues) here's an extremely nice picture of the stage and front rows ... taken from the Studio Brussel website so the copyright isn't mine, but theirs. And until the Foos show up on stage at a big festival over here during the summer, I'll have to stick to the videos on the free DVD which came with their last album.

Song of the week : "Still Waiting" Sum 41
Oldie of the week : "Rapper's Delight" Sugarhill Gang
Last seen movie : "Insomnia" : after creating a masterwork as "Memento" it isn't easy to come up with something, so why not remake a little scandinavian gem ? That's what Christopher Nolan did - resetting the story in Alaska where you have 24 hours of daylight in the summer - creating the perfect atmosphere for a story of two police-detectives in trouble with Internal Affairs, sent off far away to investigate a murder. Al Pacino is in superform as the detective trying to solve what first seems te be an easy puzzle for him, but makes him sink deeper and deeper into the darker corners of his mind. Without sleep and feeling guilty he's caught in the web of Robin Williams in yet another bad guy part. Guess he's a little fed up with the children's parts right now. Very good movie, highly recommended.
"Changing Lanes" : nervous revenge-movie like "Falling Down". Less racially inspired as that one, digging deeper in the ethical behavior of man. "Hominus lupus est" again : man is a wolf to his fellow man/men. When driven too far some might tend to respond irrationally and escalate the situation. Some nice cameraviews in the beginning and decent acting from Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson. Too bad the ending tries to be raw and based on reality, yet spins the usual sugary Hollywood ending feel to it. At least you can pretend the slight open ending is different than what the producers would want you to believe.
"Splash" : sweet sunday-afternoon classic starring a young Tom Hanks and Darryl Hannah. Darryl is a mermaid who saved Tom's life from drowning when he was a kid. Down on his luck as twenty-something he returns to that beach. Upon meeting eachother again the mermaid decides to follow Tom to New York. Off course they fall madly in love and some bad people want to get their hands on "a real mermaid" ! But hey it's Disney so never mind that, it'll all work out fine.
"Hard-Boiled" : often reffered to as John Woo's masterpiece. One of his last films before he went to Hollywood to make movies like "Broken Arrow", "Face/Off", "M.I.2" and "Windtalkers". Some say he sold out, but in my humble opinion the debate's not out on that. He may have chosen a new style for "Windtalkers" but that was intentionally and all the others are still filled with glorious shots, slow-motions, ballet-like fighting without the Matrix-style ... And more importantly : there's a storyline western people can understand. I have seen some chinese and Hong Kong movies before, I'm no complete stranger to their line of storytelling, but what the hell is this movie about ? Sure, you get the feel of it all and there are even some scenes with dialogue but oh boy ... most of it is just shooting and shooting and shooting without end. Usually I like lots of action, but two hours straight is just too much. Especially without a coherent storyline. This is a movie for Hong Kong fans only. In it's genre it's very very good, but not immediately for Hong Kong newbies. Chinese audiences don't care a lot about the storyline, they want immediate action. Good action, very well set, glorifying the human body (martial arts) and man's inventivity (guns and bombs). That's one of the reasons why most chinese directors are unbelievably good as action-directors, yet most of the times lack the skills of helping an actor do his or her best work. In a way they're like Hitchcock : actors are cattle. Usually they just perform their scenes and mumble some dialogue. And why not ? They know they'll look extremely cool thanks to the director. Most Hong Kong vilians are way cooler and perhaps therefor scarier than their western counterparts. It's a completely other society than ours, not better, not worse. Just different. No easy compairing.
Doing this week : Still getting the backlog of reviews out of the way. That'll teach me watching all those movies all the time ...

darkman says sleep tight

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