lightning strikes twice

Starring George Clooney

George Clooney plays Bob, a CIA agent with a lot of experience in the field, but a bit of a loose cannon.  There are the two princes who are seeking to be elevated into their father’s throne, and the two best friends who join an Islamic school when they are made redundant from their oil well job.  These three groups are linked in a sinister way, and two hours of film follow how this unfolds.
A clever political thriller, this film is a view into the world of international diplomacy and the middle east.  We see the political machine behind the drive for oil, that colours every aspect of America’s interaction with that part of the world.  And from the middle eastern side we see the dark spectre of the western world that seems to influence even the simplest parts of their life.  This gives us hints as to why the fundamentalism and extremism occur… and with the background provided by the film, its this extremism becomes somewhat understandable.
Not sure it was really an Oscar worthy performance from George Clooney though.  Competent but not spectacularly good.

8/10

starring Jet Li and Bridget Fonda

Very very far from Jet’s best work, the story is mildly compelling and the action is okay.   Jet is a Chinese operative (with the knack for Chinese acupuncture) who along with Bridget Fonda uwittingly becomes part of a French political power play.  Bridget wants to rescue her daughter, while Jet just wants to save his life.

6/10

A film by Sydney Pollack

I didn’t really know much about Frank Gehry (originally Frank Goldberg) before this film, but I’ve been to the Guggenheim in Bilbao so I’ve seen his work first hand. I also took a real architect along with me to the film to get an insider’s perspective too.

Anyway, the film is a documentary shot by his close friend Sydney Pollack. It covers a small part of Gehry’s childhood (building wooden cities from offcuts with his grandmother), his three years of driving trucks, studying art and then moving to architecture and his early years as an architect (where a client asked why his house was so adventurous but his professional work so staid, thus launching a new phase of his career).

There was also some criticism of his work shown in the film too… a very brave man was fairly articulate in describing why he could only be critical of Gehry.

Gehry was self-deprecating and self-indulgent at the same time, but it came across as a pretty good mix.  He is clever, but he knows it, and you wouldn’t ever want to deprive a man of self-knowledge.  I enjoy his architecture and think it will stand the test of time, but my architecture friend tells me that Gehry isn’t as highly revered in the hardcore architecture world… a case of tall poppy syndrome?

“If you ever want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, simply put it off” (Olin Miller)