Blood Children Of The Good Fountain (Netflix 2)

[zrath]

This one took forever to put together!! But at least, I'm all caught up now.



Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker - Ladies and gentlemen, in 15 years, Alex Pettyfer will be the new James Bond!
I mean, look at this kid! He's handsome, he's athletic, he has a deep voice for a 14 year-old, and the chicks dig him.
Once people really get used to blond Bond, with Daniel Craig's ample assistance, this kid is a shoe-in for the role!
So yes, this film is a teenage James Bond flick. It's based on the "Alex Rider" series of popular British juvenile books,
and "Stormbreaker" is the first volume. It's pretty much a British production, with only two Americans in the cast:
Alicia Silverstone (wacky Californian nanny) and Mickey Rourke (evil bad guy with plastic face). The rest of the cast
includes Ewan McGregor (Alex's uncle, who's actually a spy and dies at the beginning of the film, setting the whole thing
in motion), Bill Nighy (hilariously dry in the M role), Stephen Fry (as Q), Andy Serkis (evil knife-throwing henchman),
Missi Pyle (amusingly-nasty German henchwoman), and Robbie Coltrane (bit part as the PM).
This film is aimed at a teenage audience, so the plot is a little wacky (though no wackier than certain James Bond films!)
and some adults may find the film a little boring. It does have some good action though, and Alex Pettyfer is very competent
in the role. The first fight scene involves him swinging a thick rope around and doing moves reminiscent of Jackie Chan.
The martial arts fights were choreographed by Donnie Yen, a Hong Kong film veteran.
One of the coolest sequences for me was when Alex walked into Hamley's, once the world's biggest toy store, to meet the Q
equivalent character and get his gadgets. I last set foot in Hamley's in 1981, so it gladdened my heart to see it again
after all these years and to see that it was still open, all its floors bursting with toys of all kinds.
You know how you sometimes think of what you would do if you had a million bucks or whatever? One of the things I would do
would definitely include a trip to London to shop at Hamley's. :D
It's not a bad little film and makes for good family fare.

The Fountain - Darren Aronofsky offers dazzling time-travelling tale of love and being unable to let go
From the director of "Pi" (which I haven't seen) and "Requiem For A Dream" (which I have seen and do not want to ever see
again, not because it's bad but because I find it deeply disturbing on many levels), "The Fountain" makes you think.
You gotta work at trying to understand what the hell is going on because nothing is handed to you on a silver platter.
Hugh Jackman seems to rubberband through time and space and we're never quite sure what is real or fantasy, and what is then,
now, or later. He is a man in love with a woman (Rachel Weisz) and utterly committed to not failing her.
Is he is a conquistador looking for the Tree Of Life? A doctor looking for a brain cancer cure? A bald man in a space bubble
headed for a nebula? The first two? All three? You're invited to draw your own conclusions as to this and other things.
"The Fountain" should be watched on a large screen, as some of the shots are truly spectacular and gorgeous.
I am miffed that my TV recently died and I had to watch this on my ancient 17" Sony instead.
If you're patient and like to think, you should derive some enjoyment from this film.

Children Of Men - The best non-nuclear post-apocalyptic movie I've seen in a quite a while
You've heard the Oscar buzz, you've seen the trailers, you know what this movie is about: no more children being born.
The film picks up 18 years after the last recorded human birth. The world has gone to shit. And somehow England prevails!
Or at least, the Island Nation carries on with a stiff upper-lip and an even stiffer truncheon. It has evolved into the
strict fascist state that so many works of fiction portray. All immigrants are rounded up, processed, abused and detained.
Some may get deported, but frankly it doesn't matter, considering the horrible conditions of the world outside the UK.
Somehow, a woman becomes pregnant and Theo (Clive Owen) is tapped by his ex-girlfriend Julian (Julianne Moore), a political
activist/terrorist, to help in getting her out of the UK and into the safe arms of the Human Project, an almost mythical
independent outfit dedicated to discovering the cause of the infertility plague and hopefully curing it.
Nothing goes as planned and the rest of the film is a rollercoaster ride through an insane dying world.
This film is so matter-of-fact and cinéma-vérité that it makes it all the more horrific. At times, I felt like I was
watching a modern urban version of "Full Metal Jacket", a brutal and honest portrayal of humanity at his lowest.
This film is a masterpiece of the genre, and shouldn't be missed. But it is scary. Rent it now.

Alpha Dog - based on the true story of Jesse James Hollywood, youngest man to be on the FBI's most wanted list.
This is a film about an error of judgement that goes horribly wrong for all involved, about dumb kids who don't know better.
The names have been changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty. Small-time drug dealer makes the incredibly bad
decision to kidnap the brother of a scary skinhead guy who owes him money. Then after hanging on to him for a day or two
(and the kid basically having a good time), makes the second incredibly bad decision to have his lapdog kill him.
The movie is shot like a documentary, mixing the narrative with interviews of the involved parties.
If high school sucked for you, this will bring it all back. It's well-done but unpleasant.

The Good German - aka George Clooney Gets His Ass Handed To Him, A Lot
Iconoclastic genre-hopping Steven Soderbergh serves up a heapin' helpin' of film noir with a dame that's nothin' but trouble.
It's 1945 in Berlin and the war is over. Clooney is a military journalist sent to cover the Potsdam conference and gets
mixed up in some shady business courtesy of his sadistic asshole of a driver, played by Tobey Maguire, who happens to be
the keeper of his old German flame, Lena (Cate Blanchett in full-on Marlene Dietrich mode). Berlin is a mess: the Americans are
looking for Nazis to prosecute and for rocket scientists, and the Russians also want the rocket scientists
Clooney loses almost every fight he gets into. Oh yeah, the movie is in black and white, and Thomas Newman delivers a
retro-riffic score for the proceedings. The Sibling remarked that the whole thing reminded him of an Orson Welles film.
It'sh fun shtuff, shweetheart, shough not quite up to Humphrey Bogart shtandard.
A disclaimer in front of the film says that it "was modified to fit your screen", when actually the movie was shot in 4:3.
It was modified so it could be shown in theaters, then modified back for DVD, so it's actually the correct aspect ratio.
That's why there's no widescreen DVD. Weird, non?

The Good Shepherd - long and slow, yet somehow interesting
Matt Damon plays a character patterned after the founder of the CIA. The Cuban Invasion by way of the Bay Of Pigs has just
failed and he is tracking down the leak that caused the failure. We see, through flashbacks, his early years in Yale
pre-WWII, his recruitment into the OSS, and later the CIA, his marriage to his wife (Angelina Jolie) and other things.
No flashy cars, no flashy gadgets, no flashy dashing suave double-oh agents galivating around the globe.
Directed by Robert DeNiro, who pops up a few times. Also stars Michael Gambon (always awesome), William Hurt, Keir Dullea
(I did not recognize him, I'm still not sure who he was), Alec Baldwin (who keeps getting better), Billy Crudup,
John Turturro, Timothy Hutton, and Joe Pesci (blink and you'll miss him!).
This movie feeds my Sibling and I's taste for political dramas but it was not quite as tasty as "Thirteen Days" or "Munich".
It's 3 hours long, so prepare snacks and drinks.

Africa Sucks double-feature: Blood Diamond and The Last King Of Scotland
Oh boy...
You know, some movies make me wish I REALLY was a large civilized felinoid creature from outer space.
And these are two of them. Humans can really be complete evil bastards.
In "Blood Diamond", you've got the whole diamond cartel thing and the tinpot warlords brutalizing the populace.
In "Last King", you've got looney-tune dictator Idi Amin Dada and his terror reign in Angola.
They're both very good movies, and Forest Whitaker deserves every inch of his Oscar for his potrayal of Idi Amin.
I hadn't even seen the movie and I was rooting for him to get the lil' golden statue, just from seeing the trailers!
But man, these movies make me want to go to Africa and clean things up. Impossible, I know, but the desire is still there.
"Blood Diamond" centers around a man (dependable Djimon Hounsou) torn from his family to dig up diamonds for the local
warlord. He finds a big one and tries to get himself and his family out of the country with help from a South African
mercenary-smuggler type (Leonardo Dicaprio). It's a harrowing odyssey, as you can well imagine.
Also stars the delectable and luscious Jennifer Connelly (droooool...) and High Priest Imhotep (aka Arnold Vosloo).
"The Last King Of Scotland" is about a young man (James McAvoy, aka Mr. Tumnus from "Narnia", ladies) fresh out of medical
school who decides to go somewhere in the world to make a difference, and escape his oppressive parents for a while.
He spins a globe, closes his eyes and puts a finger down. And finds himself in Uganda shortly before the civil war that
ended with General Idi Amin Dada (Forest Whitaker) in power. A chance encounter with the General results in the doctor
becoming his private physician and getting progressively sucked into the power-mad rock'n'roll lifestyle of the despot.
Idi Amin is frightful to behold, going from genial benign ruler to insane murdering monster at the flick of a switch.
Bipolar? Manic-depressive? AH!! Try MOTHERFUCKING BATSHIT INSANE!!
The film also stars Gillian Anderson (who seems to have lost a lot of weight) and the delicious Kerry Washington
(Alicia Masters, The Thing's blind girlfriend in both "Fantastic Four" films).
Rated R for lots of nastiness. Not for the squeamish.




o/~ Idi, Idi, Idi Amin
Most amazing man that you ever seen
He be the general, the president, the king of the scene
Idi, Idi, Idi Amin o/~

Comments

[araquan.livejournal.com]

o/~ Idi, Idi, Idi Amin
Most amazing man that you ever seen
He be the general, the president, the king of the scene
Idi, Idi, Idi Amin o/~


I have that on tape somewhere around here...

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

OMG, I am not the only one who remembers that song? Here I had hoped it was just a 70's nightmare.

[lionex92.livejournal.com]

I have the LP of "The collected broadcasts of Idi Amin" which leaves me in hysterics everytime I listen to it.