Editorial - 31 March 2003

Ever been jetlagged without having flown ? I have. Happens a lot when we change from winterhour to summerhour. I keep missing that lost hour and it screws up my internal clock. Takes me a few days to get back on track.
Song of the week : "March Of Death" Zack De La Rocha and DJ Shadow
Oldie of the week : "Karma Police" Radiohead
Last seen movie : "M.A.S.H." : comments added soon
"Solaris" : Based upon the book by Stanislaw Lem this movie from Steven Soderbergh is an attempt in the scifi-genre. While this book had already been filmed in the early seventies (and it became an all time classic russian movie), this attempt is shorter (a little over 90 minutes instead of a whopping 3 hours) with a slightly faster pace. The original russian movie is incredibly slow and quite frankly boring. It's like watching the last twenty minutes of "2001" in a continuous loop. Not that bad, but not much fun either.
Soderbergh and George Clooney focused on the love-angle of the book, constructing a bizarre mix of lost and refound love and the questions asked. By stripping away a lot of the original elements they managed to make a movie closer to the book. Which isn't that strange as the story itself deals with a lot of themes that are strongly woven into eachother. Lessing the focus on one enhances the other. It probably won't work a second time and they got lucky, but it does give you a nice philosophical scifi movie. Albeit a little shallow and not on the heavy "let's discuss these themes ad infinitum" side. But that's what I like about it. No big explosions, no lasers, no starfighters ... only human emotions. Most memorable scene is when George Clooney wakes up and notices his wife sleeping beside him. The range of emotions his eyes, face and whole body goes through in a matter of seconds is enormous. He may not believe it himself, but the man can act.
Doing this week : Wish I could see a swiss-clockmaker to tune my internal clock back into shape.

Editorial - 25 March 2003

Worf asked me to put up a link to an editorial he wrote about our friends in the US (they're not all as dumb as Dubya). Being a co-founder of this domain I couldn't turn that request down. Especially when he has some good stuff to say. And let's hope I don't forget to update this link when his site changes ...

Editorial - 24 March 2003

As could be expected, the news-coverage of the second Gulf-war is heavily biased. Americans release victory-reports one after the other, only to rectify them within the next two or three hours and Iraqi television keeps showing images of blown up children, levelled houses and hundreds of shot down planes and captured american soldiers. The truth is usually found in the middle. Or does Bush really think we all believe the only american and british casualties seem to be from accidents with helicopters, cars and during gun-cleaning ? I don't think those "gloriously powerful" marines are that careless ...
Song of the week : "In A World Gone Mad" Beastie Boys
Oldie of the week : "Eve Of Destruction" Barry McGuire
Last seen movie : "The Hustler" : I have been a fan of Paul Newman ever since I was a little kid. There's something about his acting that's so firmly rooted in his own life that you immediately feel at home, like he's one of your friends. No matter whether he plays a young man in "The Hustler" or an old one in "Road To Perdition", he's part of your family. Well, at least, that's how I think about it.
Here he's a pool-shark : hustling people out of their money by pretending to suck at pool, billiard ... whatever is played on a green table with balls and a cue. Fast Eddie Felson is trying to get into the big league, playing games for big money in small rooms after the official tournaments. Plagued by a mob-like mentality from some big boys in the scene and suffering from a tendency to drink too much bourbon things are bound to go wrong. And that's not even considering the chance of love growing between him and another would-be alcoholic.
Beautiful black and white drama from the sixties with some amazing pool-matches. Getting nominated for almost all the big Oscars (movie, director, actor, actress, supporting actors ...) yet overlooked on all fronts except art-direction and cinematography.
"The Color Of Money" : Twenty-five years later Paul Newman reprised his role in a film from director Martin Scorcese, co-starring with a young Tom Cruise.
Selling alcohol and other items to bars for most of his life, one night Fast Eddie sees Vincent play eight-ball. Young, cocky and extremely talented as Vincent is, Eddie is reminded of his own younger days and wants to show Vincent the ropes : the real life as a hustler, the big games, the talented players, the tournaments. Can he bring this kid to greatness or will his efforts only display his own diminuished capacity for pool and the life he once had ?
In the hands of a great director as Scorcese newman gets the chance to add more flesh to a great character he must have cherished during the twenty-five years in between. Playing off well against a young Tom Cruise (oozing arrogance, but not up to his full potential and therefor sometimes annoying instead of cocky) this film complements the previous one very nicely. Colourful camera-shots, more intense pool-games and slicker camera-angles add an extra feel to this movie, needed to complement the character-development of Eddie. He's older, less at home in the pool-world, strangely out of date, yet still a grandmaster ...
As if they wanted to acknowledge their mistake twenty-five years ago, Paul Newman did win an Oscar for this performance as a leading actor.
Doing this week : I'll update the last movie-reviews within the next days. So re-check the last month or so. The backlog will be cleared.

Editorial - 21 March 2003

Yesterday's 20-03-2003 was another beautifully symmetrical date. Alas will this one be remembered as the day George Bush Jr. finally got what he, daddy Sr. and his buddies wanted : war. Don't matter that they ain't got the support from the UN, lots of other big and small nations and only some circumstantional evidence ...

I don't immediately buy it that it's all about oil. The first Gulfwar may have been so, this one's probably got an even more cynical reason : some sort of revenge and the opportunity to show their power. Britain and Spain are just tagging along, hoping to grab some spotlight. Not forgetting to mention Israël who now have the chance of secretely killing some Palestinians.

Well, guess we're all off for another go at "killing the dictator". If daddy don't succeed, wait 12 years and let the son try again. It even sounds too stupid to be a silly popcorn-movie. Reality sometimes is stranger than fiction. I'm having mixed feelings about it. I guess Iraq could be a better place without Saddam, but it's really bad it had to come to this to accomplish it. There will always be civilian casualties and I'm not that keen on the soldier's lives lost either.

Editorial - 19 March 2003

Been at home the last two days. Had to take some sick time. Didn't like it. Don't like what's going on either. Seems I'm disliking a lot of things ? But I still like most parts of myself (both physical and psychological), I like my girlfriend, most of my friends and family, my cat, you - the reader - and Sandra Bullock. Good enough ?
Song of the week : "Meneer de president" De Heideroosjes
Oldie of the week : "War" Bruce Springsteen
Last seen movie : "L'Ultima Bacio" : Time for something italian. Reviewed by some as the italian film-version of "Friends" this ought to be good. After all, it should provide plenyt of laughs, some good acting, entwining relationships and some moving scenes. It did. The story about a group of friends around thirty (some married, some bachelors constantly sleeping around, some considering having a baby) who look back upon their life and realisations so far. For some it's quite devastating and they decide to finally take that long planned trip to Africa. Will everybody follow ? Will the group split up ? It all looks even better than this sounds ... Watch it if you have the chance.
"The Ninth Gate" : Roman Polanski's latest attempt at a religious super-natural thriller stars Johnny Depp as a book-detective. Searching for a few surviving books supposedly written by the devil himself, he becomes entangled in an eerie web of deception and murder. Not knowing who's after him, Depp dives deeper and deeper into the satanic backgrounds ... perhaps even going too far.
Not exactly a great movie, but entertaining nonetheless. There are more disturbing movies about Satan, but this one has a european style to it - adding depth. Away from the Hollywood clichés of "End Of Days".
Doing this week : Recovering from some nasty personal stuff. Thank God (or any other deity like Allah or Buddah) I have strong support from my girlfriend or I'd go fucking nuts.

Editorial - 12 March 2003

Due to extreme e-mailtraffic trough our netconnection we're having difficulties updating and keeping the site online. I have managed to get some march-updates online, but all new ones will have to be posted later on. That's what you get for sharing your connection with others ...
Song of the week : "The Bitter End" Placebo
Oldie of the week : ---
Last seen movie : "Far From Heaven" : I previewed this movie last week and although it never became boring, it never grasped my full attention. Ten minutes into the story you can predict every single storyline and development. This should've been a good movie to watch, but it ended up being a collection of people trying to hard. It's never believable enough. Hardly the affectionate tribute to early fiftees movies from director Douglas Sirk.
"The Ring" : Flawless remake of a japanse horror-masterpiece. Probably too slow for most western people, the pace is picked up here and grabs you from the start. Usually mainstream horror-movies go for the cheap shock effects which let you jump out of your chair every 20 minutes. Not here. The director manages to keep the hairs in your neck pricking during the entire run. That's what I call getting your money's worth ... Never mind the silly plot or some of the average actors ... this movie does exactly what it's supposed to : give you the chills.
Doing this week : Sorting through boxes and boxes and boxes ...

Editorial - 7 March 2003

The week's almost over and I'm not even half way through all my stuff at home. Lots of it will have to be trashed 'cause I don't have the storespace myself. I'm sorting old books which will be sold, still gotta run through my pre-CD era cassette-collection and I'm officially calling myself a collector now. Only wish I had collected something useful in retrospect ...

Editorial - 3 March 2003

Welcome to the third day of the third month of the third year of this new millennium. Too bad it ain't the third millennium ain't it ?
Song of the week : "For What It's Worth" The Cardigans
Oldie of the week : "Moeidoenie" Belgian Asociality
Last seen movie : "U-571" : submarine-fluff. Starts off interesting, becomes tedious and finally after a gripping scene filled with actors hamming it up (how about that ?) ends kinda boring. Not worth the effort.
Doing this week : Cleaning up the last remains of my room in my parent's house. Sorting through all those piles of collected paper, books and random stuff will take a few days I guess. Bringing the boxes home will definitely add some flavour to the hallway. Guess I'll need new bookshelves.

darkman says sleep tight

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