Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood
It beats a lonely rhythm all night long. Clint Eastwood's lost "official" movie as an actor is a subtle criticism on the urban thrillers of his career, particularly the Dirty Harry movies. Technically, it's a movie from last year, but I saw it in February - so sue me.

District 9: Neil Blomkamp
In South Africa there used to be a joke that went like this: "Why didn't those giant space-ships from Independence Day go to Johannesburg?" "Because they were afraid of getting hijacked." It wouldn't surprise me if District 9 was inspired by both lines of that joke. A great, original movie that's not that much of a commentary on Apartheid as many would believe it to be. Rather, it's a guided tour of the ills of modern Africa as a whole...

Up: Peter Docter
Fitzcarraldo with balloons? Not really. It dwells on the same theme but unlike Werner Herzog's operatic spectacle it's not madness that fuels Carl Frederickson's obsession; rather it comes from love for his wife, which is infinitely more tangible. Pixar will have to work hard to beat this one.

Inglourious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino
Despite not being helped by doses of brutality and violence this movie is a first-rate love-letter to the power of cinema - literally. The title should let you know exactly what you're in for since most of the people here, even the good guys, are ruthless "bastards", but it is the most sympathetic character, Shoshanna Dreyfus, who gets the last laugh. Startling, twisted, quirky, whimsical, delightful. The end chapter "Revenge of the Giant Face" is alone worth the price of admission.

(500) Days of Summer: Marc Webb
Tom falls in love with Summer, but from the start we know their romance is doomed to fail. A bitter sweet romance movie structured like someone remembering a love-affair this movie is non-linear, yet does not seem to use its structure as a bad excuse to confuse the viewer. Rather, emotionally, it makes perfect sense. And, despite being about a failed romance it can still be very cheerful.

Avatar: James Cameron
Flawed, but I liked it. Do better next time.

Star Trek: JJ Abrams
Pure fun. Nothing else.

Watchmen: Zach Snyder
This movie grew on me; the ridiculous violence is off-putting, as well as the gratuitous extended sex, but ultimately it is a haunting, complex movie, and impossible for me to hate. The graphic novel is probably better, and I'll get to it eventually.

Slumdog Millionaire: Danny Boyle
Another 2008 film seen this year (thank you, international distribution. A great movie with great performances. Jai frickin' ho. 

Invictus: Clint Eastwood
Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa and uses a sporting event played by a minority to bring a nation together. After years of political isolation by international sports bodies South Africa is finally allowed to play against other teams. Unfortunately after emerging from Apartheid their no good. Rugby is not a sport that lends itself freely to film-making but for many of us South Africans its the small details that would go over the head of everyone else that make the movie feel real. Eastwood has done better movies, but this one is still great.

With Roman Polanski seemingly destined to be extradited to California for an assured prison sentence my mind, wreathed in flame like the Eye of Sauron seeking the One Ring, turned towards his truest movie masterpiece, a beautiful, tragic mystery set in a forgotten era...

( As little as possible... )

They're showing Death Note on Animax again, and this time I'm watching it.

Can't...

...stop...

...watching...

...help....

Edit: Oh yes, I'm also writing again...

From the pen of Koos Du Plessis, every South African's favourite existentialist singer-songwriter, comes this Christmas carol called Somerkersfees, or Summer Christmas. Don't mind that it's in Afrikaans, it's just beautiful and simple.




Here's a rough, partial English Translation found on-line:

Welcome the silent night of peace here
under our Southern Cross
with voices from the ancient his’try
whisp’ring through fields of stars

Chorus:

Christmas comes, in our hearts
praise the Lord our God
give us the brightest summer’s Christmas
in our warm land, O Lord

O hear the church bells speaking softly
a language ages old
and hear the quiet fields that nightly
repeat the age old tale

It's a everything and nothing! It's a double-edged sword that's blunt on the one end and sharp at the other! Coming finally after years of anticipation Avatar both delivers yet fails to delivers. It is a success and it is a failure. On the one hand it delivers and creates a completely new world of awe and wonder that is tangible and that feels real and plausible even after you walk out of the theatre. Yet from a story perspective it gives us characters that are flat and average, card board cut outs, something you don't find easily in a movie by James Cameron.

( la vie en 3D )

Well, it seems that Thor has it in me because lightning struck my ADSL broadband again, so now I'm back to the dial-up. You won't be seeing much of me, subsequently, on anything for the next 6 weeks or so, but I can still be reached by e-mail.

Semantics time. Some people would define a "good movie experience" as just about any good movie, but me being me I tend to view the term as meaning something more than just an excellent or competently made movie. For me a good movie experience is something that, on some level stands out more than a movie that is probably better; it is something that skips directly to the top of the brain because some aspect of it make it original and different. This means that although you may have been deeply touched by Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers or more entertained by Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark you probably would remember Terry Gilliam's Brazil more fondly as an interesting, original but missed opportunity. This is not a "best of" or "favourite" movie list, but something else.

So, keeping that in mind, I will now list my favourite movie experiences, in no particular order.

( What the fudge! )

“You see, Agent Mulder, I do not have any like for you. You are a millstone around my neck... a burden... like life is a burden to the donkey Balthasar in that dopey Bresson film. I am a G-Man, a government man with no position officially listen on public record, yet with a mansion and a yacht at Harties, and unfortunately for you I'm pretty dangerous. Now, when you say you want to tango with me, you want to go to the mattresses, get down and dirty, take the gun leave the cannoli, then I can only say to you what the famous director Ingmar Bergman told me twenty five years ago, which was ‘Get off my back, get off Fårö, or I’ll have you thrown in military prison.’ Now, the first segments you can probably ignore, but just pay attention to the last two words. Military prison. Not a nice place, even on Christmas. Now, put down those cookies, walk out of the front door, and leave Santa to us.”

No, this is not faked.

The worst type situation is the one where, no matter what choice you make, you're going to end up being a bastard one way or the other...

Well, my story "Prison Diary" was rejected by the editor (well, actually the co-editor and not the editor himself) of the publication I submitted it to. Since it's my first submission I can't say I'm too pleased, though realistically I kind of suspected it would.

The letter said (more or less, I'm typing from memory) "I think I'll pass on this. The story did not grab me at all. Best of luck placing it elsewhere."

Ouch (I doubt he meant anything malicious with the last sentence, but it certainly is blunt).

That said, I could not help but have some misgiving about the rewrite I sent in. I chopped and edited so much that I wonder if the telling did not, maybe, get damaged in some way. I suppose my best next step (other than writing something else) would be to re-evaluate the rewrite. Or just write something else.

....than winter-temperatures in the summer.

It's the talk of the South African town! It's stupendous! It's unbelievable! It's a musical event so disastrously off-key you'd expect to only find it in outrageous satire! Last Friday South Africa played off against France in a rugby game we lost; and who can blame our team? At the beginning of the match the guy who sang (I have no idea who he is or where he's from, and neither does anyone else!) both of the South African national anthems (yes, we have two) seems to have put in little or no practice at any point of his musical career, which could only be troubled or brief.

Familiarity with neither anthem is required. To be honest... I'm not sure if I'm supposed to laugh or cry.


Hey, that's two Doctor Strangelove parody titles in two weeks.

The Criterion Collection, for those of you who don't know, is a series of NTSC DVD releases that could reasonably be considered some of the best DVD Editions out there. From their (sometimes) highly artistic custom made cover designs to their menus they are treasured by DVD collectors. The covers, in particular, are sometimes very good and would even sometimes make sense only to those who have watched and loved the films a million times. Here are some of my favourite covers.



Not that this post is about existing covers, really. It's about fake covers. It seems that at an on-line forum, for a year or so, a group of people had been creating fake Criterion Covers for movies that are either in the "collection", or should be (or some are just parodies). If you have an interest in movies and graphic design than this link is for you. I can spend hours on these pages (and they're over a hundred!) without getting bored. But I'm going to bed soon.

But first, my choice of the best fake covers under the LJ Cut. The New Hope one is obviously a parody. ;-)

( Bored but talented people )

The Link. Please note, some of the covers are decidedly, erm, R-Rated, so it's adults only. Off course, the better you know your movies the more you'll enjoy this. Also, remember, this is graphic intensive as well.

...or is LiveJournal really quiet these days

(not counting Bradley's and rii's journals)

Ah, the trailers are appearing for Clint Eastwood's next directorial effort, INVICTUS, the story of the 1995 Rugby World Cup told through the eyes of Nelson Mandela. Magic times, says I. I hope it's as good as it looks.

As some of you know I partake in the ancient and otherwise misunderstood ritual of Pub Quizzing, where we go to a local bar, get drunk and see if we can answer a bunch of ludicrous questions whilst being totally intoxicated. We do so on a regular basis, but occasionally we decide to remain sober and go to the regional finals where there's a lot of good money and a pile of cash to win. Today, in Boksburg, a suburb of Johannesburg, was the finals, and our team, Knersus en die Haasbredies, went to compete against 19 other top teams of the region.

We did not expect to win. We went just to show our faces; call it honour, or luxury (taketh thy pique). An hour into the game we actually did not REALISTICALLY think we still had a chance. We got some of our lowest scores EVER on certain categories. We just fought to finish in the top five (like we did earlier in the year).

Then, essentially, the same bad luck that dogged us at the beginning decided to dog the other teams, putting us all on, more or less, equal ground. In the final two categories we managed to do VERY WELL in but got the same points as another team, meaning we had to play off against it for the top prize. We could barely believe it. After our rotten start we did not believe, actually, that we could end up on top!! The pressure was mounting and we all began to feel very stressed because second prize was just a crate of Savanna (they sponsored the event - duh). 

We had to answer five questions. We knew four of the answers; they didn't. We won.

I usually play for fun, but I needed the money, actually, and can only thank God (literally, not as an expression) that we won. We got R12000 which is about R1500 dollars US, and we're splitting it 7 ways. Just in time for Christmas, too! 

Here's the pictures taken afterwards.
( It's dry, but you can drink it )

...I would like to apologize to the international community for this local beer commercial.

Yes, it is him.

Forgive us.

Johnnicles is back from the Eastern Transvaal. Hopefully I did not contract malaria.

Well, as some of you may know, I'm leaving for a week in the Eastern Transvaal. It's in the malaria zone, but I've been there before without contracting any tropical diseases. I will only be back by Sunday.

And today I touched an elephant, a giraffe and a lion, and got the photos to prove it; all this after stumbling by accident onto the set of the British TV series Wild at Heart. Life can be pretty awesome sometimes at random intervals. I'll post the pics eventually.