Tag: film and tv

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Horrible, horrible film…horrible bosses

I am getting quite down about the lack of good summer films. Apart from “Bridesmaids”, I haven’t seen one film that I can recommend this summer.

Harry Potter was the same as the other 6 but with a stupid ending that should have been taken out. Putting Emma Watson in a Burberry mac does not make her look 19 years older.

Horrible Bosses had unbelievable potential. we have all complained over bad bosses at some point. The first 5 minutes were pretty clever. The 3 bosses ranked in brilliance, from the funniest/most convincing-Kevin Spacey and followed by Jennifer Anniston to Colin Farrell.

Colin Farrell was not funny. In the film, he has a comb over, spends his work day taking naughty things and doing naughtier things in his office. Shock. Horror.

He’s Irish too, you know?

Oh, yes, well then, he has to be funny.

Jennifer Anniston plays a nymphomaniac. Say it again.

See, it doesn’t work. She is Rachel from friends. Nice girl. Typecast. Her own fault.

Kevin Spacey was funny, to begin with. The “Gam-Gam” scene is quite funny.

But, that was it. Once, the interesting aspects of the horrible bosses were dispensed with, the film falls into madness(and not the funny kind) involving the 3 main characters, desperately trying to be the main characters in “the Hangover.”

It doesn’t work. It’s not funny. The Hangover wasn’t that funny, to begin with so why emulate it?

I mentioned the general cr$%ness of this film on twitter and was told that the film “was to a certain taste”

I agree. Anyone who likes this film has a “no sense of humour” taste. Go click here and watch the short preview, everything that could be perceived as “funny” is there for you. http://rozz.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/horrible-bosses.jpg

Don’t say I’m not good to you, just saved you €9 and a bag of pick and mix. You owe me big.

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The Killing on Channel 4

I am constantly proclaiming that I don’t really watch that much tv but looking at my recent posts, you wouldn’t say that!

The Killing is an American version of some Danish crime-mystery-Twin Peaks type TV affair. Apparently, the Danish was much better, darker and the lead character wore better, wooly jumpers. Bloody women. Has to always be about the clothes…

The Killing that i am transfixed by is the American one showing on Channel 4, we are up to episode 4 out of 13 and is rather excellent. It covers a 20 day investigation into a murder of a teenager girl.

Let me warn you that is slow beyond slow but worthwhile. Each character is interesting. Each episode ends with another piece to the puzzle.

The channel 4 website is being awfully sociable and interactive at http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-killing You can vote on you think the killer is and even debate the merits of Linden’s jumpers.

Go catch up at channel four.

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Bobby Fischer against a world that thinks chess can cause a mental illness

Last weekend was rather nice.
I got to spend my birthday weekend in the company of Gareth, Marion, Terry and Simon, of course!
Gareth took us to the place where the “cool people hang out”, namely “The Twisted Pepper”.

It was pretty groovy inside but was not overly impressed with the coffee. The coffee has fancy names and we were given samples of different ones. I don’t really care for filter coffee, preferring an americano or an espresso. So, maybe that’s why I didn’t like the ones we chose.
After the cafe bar, Simn headed off to some loud, sweaty, warm rock gig which was not our scene at all.
It was his, he got to relive his teenage years, shouting and jumping around.
The rest of us headed off to the IFI, under great protest from Gareth. The food is good there. The films are great. The staff have always been “meh”. They must train them in that way. They act moody and try to get rid of you by giving dirty looks and over charging you.
The film we agreed on was “Bobby Fischer against the world” It was odd that I was watching this and not Simon. He loves chess, playing in the Jewish Olympics for Ireland when he was a young lad. Instead, he was jumping up and down wildly and missing out on a film about the greatest ever chess player in the world.
I knew nothing about Booby Fischer but assumed he had won millions of world championships.
He has only won one. Then, he got all annoyed by the pressure and refused to play anymore, growing a big, mad beard and becoming a pain in the bottom for the US and Japanese government.
I enjoyed the film, I didn’t think I would as chess is not my friend. It made me sad though. Because the film reckoned that chess can cause mental illness. They tried to prove this by getting some chess obsessive to repeat this throughout the film. They also used cunning tactics like showing animations of possible chess positions flying in and out of a man’s brain.
Bobby Fischer had a very disturbed upbringing and showed clear signs of mental illness from a very young age.
It wasn’t the chess.
It was the world.

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Nicholas Cage, a girl who grows wings and the problem with young, Irish women

Since, opera floated right out of my life, I’ve became very attached to an item called TV. For the first time in years, I went to Xtravision and rented some DVDs out. They’re doing a really appealing deal where you can rent 2 new releases for 2 nights, 2 drinks and a popcorn for €10. Pretty, pretty good.
So, I went for Black Swan and Bad Lieutenant, pulled the curtains in the sitting room tight and sat back ready to be entertained.
Hmmmm.
Problem was that Terry had been raving about Bad Lieutenant since forever and seeing as Nicholas Cage rocks and Terry is normally correct in these matters, the standards were set high! Don’t get me wrong, the film was good but it was not amazing, excellent or even hilarious.
I laughed slightly at 2 bits, I enjoyed it but I felt like I had seen it all before. Get this-a cop goes bad. He takes illegal drugs. He blackmails bad guys. He does naughty things to even naughtier people. The other characters are rubbish, bad acting and impossible to be sympathetic towards. In short, Nicholas Cage saves the film. I didn’t like the iguana and lizard that rambled throughout the film that symbolised Nicholas’ character’s mental state. In fact, I think the ending was quite mainstream and predictable.
I’ve seen a film like this before. Similar to the Town or the Departed but not as slick.
Or maybe, I’m just a grump.
The second film was Black Swan. Very disturbing. Unnerving. Odd. But vaguely fascinating. Natalie Portman was truly excellent but the film couldn’t make up its mind. Was it a thriller or a wacky, off the wall, all in the head similar to American Psycho? Certainly not as clever as American psycho, where you never quite believed what was going on yet you did somehow. When Natalie’s character, Nina takes a jump at the end, I was left feeling thankful that it was all over for her and for us.
The last film was called His and hers. We recorded it on Sky, so it was free, free, free! Ish.
It started off on a bad note, the basic premise is that this documentary filmed loads of different women from the age of 4 up till 80+. The women spoke about the men in their lives-their fathers, their sons and their boyfriends and husbands. The interesting thing about this film was that all the women were incredibly traditional and Irish. They worshipped the Daddy. They met their “man” at a young age, yearned for a wedding ring and children. The young women came across as being insecure, immature and unappealing to me. However, the women started to get interesting when they got to about 40+. Their relationships, their take on life, their sense of humour came out. The film ends with the wives being left without their husband, their life partner that have grown to love. A perfect circle of life comes about. The film is beautifully shot with moving music and complete honesty. I really liked it and I don’t know why. It made me reflect and created conversation between the two of us. It entertained in a simple way.
Go get it.