Say, what's the big idea?

A beautiful, sunny, cloudless morning for the walk to work today.

This presents a slightly odd problem though - what music should I listen to?

• happy bouncy stuff to complement the skies?
• slightly depressing stuff as a contrast to make me appreciate the day more?
• acoustic music - does that fit better with the day (it seems more natural or organic, like the sun)?
• heavy, distorted guitars and roaring vocals, for the opposite reason?
• stand-up comedy?

As I have an mp3 player these days, with about two thousand tracks on it, all the above options (and more) are available to me without much hassle.

What did I go for in the end? Random (or Shuffle as Sony insist on calling it) - just no way to decide.

You were only supposed to blow the bloody review off! #9

The Italian Job (not the stupid remake) is a classic film, particularly amongst old car anoraks such as myself. It's right up there with Bullitt and the original Gone in 60 Seconds.

I'd seen bits of TIJ here and there, and played the (actually quite good) Playstation game, but had never seen the whole film.

It's fantastic, of course, and not just for the cars.

I've seen it dismissed quite a few times as merely a thin plot leading up to a great car chase, and even as a giant Mini Cooper advertisement (which it unintentionally is) but it's definitely got more to it than that (something it shares with Bullitt in my opinion).

There are some very memorable lines (as referenced in the title of this review) and some great characters. Benny Hill's Professor Peach is hilarious, but his character's mother is even better, completely mad. Noel Coward's Mr. Bridger is another standout, and you can't forget about Charlie Croker!

Most of all (like many old films), it's a record of a different era in every way:
The social attitudes of the sixties;

• Charlie Croker's attitude to women;
• British jingoism;

the filmmaking style of the time;

• virtually all shot on location;
• real Italian traffic jams(!);
• sixties camerawork and editing;
• wanton biffing of expensive cars off ridiculously scenic precipices

and most importantly, the material objects of the sixties;

• the cars;
• computers in their infancy;
• the cars;
• sharp threads;
• the cars;
• crazy lingo;
• the cars;
• rotary dial telephones;
• the cars.

(all the car links are different)

If you love old cars, watch this.
If you love Britain, watch this.
If you love the sixties, watch this.
If you don't love any of those, but you love a good laugh, watch this.

Unfair review #8

About Schmidt is the last film I saw. It's good and bad, in pretty much equal measures.

Good:

• Jack Nicholson playing the old man he actually is (or would be if he lived in the real world, not Hollywood).
• The many little moments of comedy, most of them recognisable from real life.
• The deep sadness of the main character.

Bad:

• The lack of direction in the story - it meanders, seemingly as if it was made up on the spot. This can't be the case, as it originated as a novel, but it seemed that way to me.
• The deep sadness of the main character - I know I've got this as a good point, but even with the final scene of the film, I found it rather unrelenting, and (I'll admit) a little bit overwhelming.
• The length. ***SPOILER*** This is the longest World Vision child sponsorship advertisement I've ever seen. ***SPOILER***
  

I really can see the appeal of the film - it's a rare and accurate slice of what life really is for a lot of people - but overall, it just isn't for me. Do not watch this if you like your movie-watching experience to be all about escapism.

I'll watch it again when I'm 60 (hopefully the holographic re-dub will be out by then).

Anthropology today

The first in an occasional series.

Here's something I've struggled with for a long time: individuals vs. groups. Allow me to explain: it seems to me that many humans spend their time and effort doing their utmost to be as different as they can from any other human.

The riceboy bolts more and more things onto his car; the goth bolts more and more things onto his face, all in an effort to set themselves apart from the rest of the crowd.

What is the result? Rather than standing out, they become more and more like the rest of their group (whatever that may be). I'm no different - all the time I buy things and do things that literally millions of other people do, all to try and individualise myself.

Even those cultures that supposedly celebrate diversity really don't. Look at the hippies - "be whatever you want to be, man, take it easy, do what you like - but make sure you smoke dope and have long hair or we'll ostracise you, you square."

It seems like we all want to be unique, but never really can be. Just as well, too - if you end up too different from the people around you, things can go bad.

Far from being depressed by this, I find it a hopeful thing - if humans can continue to strive for something that all the evidence points to as being unreachable, we might just get somewhere.

This has been brought to you by the letter "#".

Unfair review #7

I would like to briefly evangelise about Fatso - if you are considering joining up with an online DVD rental co. in NZ, this is the one to go for. If you're not considering joining one, have a think about it.

They sent me a movie called Amores Perros the other day. The translation is supposedly "Love's a bitch" - I thought it would be "Love Dogs", but what the hell do I know?

Not only is this a fantastic movie, it's actually three separate fantastic movies, linked together in quite subtle ways. I suppose a comparison with Pulp Fiction could be made, as it is similarly non-linear, but this would be unfair.

PF is great, but there's something cartoony about it - stylishly ultraviolent it may be, but the characters lives and deaths don't really affect me that much. They're interesting and amusing, but not really involving.

AP, for me anyway, was much more pathossy (o no you din't). I was sad, I was angry, I was calmed, I was tense, I was relieved, all along with the people on screen.

What people too! Everybody in this movie, without exception, looked fantastic. I don't mean they were beautiful necessarily (although a few definitely were), they just looked very very interesting.

I spent the whole movie thinking it was set in Brazil - turns out it was Mexico.

This has not diminished my appreciation, although it has made me feel just a little racist. They all look the same to me anyway though (dogs, I mean).