lightning strikes twice

This exposition of family and tribal life before western colonisation of Central America is brutal and brilliant.  The cinematography and the bare story line are more than enough for an engaging and gripping two hours at the cinema.

Quickly, the story follows a young warrior and his attempts to get back and save his family after their life is turned upside down by marauding invaders from the city.

I doubt I’ll ever watch it again, but I was certainly engrossed by it.  I’d like to see The Passion of The Christ now too.

Fifty Degrees Below follows Frank, a researcher who has been displaced from his home by a freak flood in Washington DC, and is at the center of American efforts to combat global warming. In the meantime, he has also come onto the radar of the intelligence agencies and their “markets”. His new nomadic lifestyle that relies on getting back to nature provides him some defence and enriches his senses.

The quality of the writing in this book sneaks up on you. It’s been quite a while since I’ve really read a science fiction book, but in the first couple of hundred pages I was sorely disappointed — the standard of the prose and dialogue seemed more at the level of The Da Vinci Code than anything else, and throughout the entire book the “love” story is equally as bad. But over the course of the story, while the writing mechanics improved slightly, it was the vision and the plot that really made it compelling and in the end very enjoyable. There’s much to be learned about the environment too — a great deal of research has gone into making this accurate and informative.

Starring Johnny Depp, Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas, Willem Dafoe

A crazy, over stylised, visually rich and ridiculous story about El Mariachi, a guitar wielding gunslinger, and his personal vendetta against General Marquez, a rogue military leader who killed his wife and daughter.  When Johnny Depp, a freewheeling CIA agent, steps in and offers El Mariachi a chance at revenge, and the story starts getting a little convuluted.

A little rambling and with more than a few plot holes, this film is fun, and the locations are beautiful slice of Mexico, but it didn’t quite nail it.

7/10

Albert Einstein:

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life,
when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.

starring Will Smith

The true story of Chris Gardner and his rise from homelessness while caring for a toddler, to a multi-millionaire stock broker.

As a film, it was okay — in my memory vaults I suspect it will rank about the same as Will Smith’s Ali… vaguely compelling story, lots of effort on his part in the acting, but something just doesn’t pull it all together, and that Will Smith winning smile is just beneath the surface so it’s a little hard to believe.

6/10

Andrew Bogut leads the Bucks over the Bobcats – 27 points (12/15 shooting, 3/4 free throws), 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks and only 1 turnover.  Good going!

Along the lines of Brian Goorjian’s story, Mark Cuban has a motivating post on Bobby Knight:

You said, and Im paraphrasing: “Everyone has got the will to win, its only those with the will to prepare that do win”

Inez and I got some last minute tickets to Field Day, so after a relatively quiet NYE 06/07 we hit the domain on Jan 1 to party with our friends, and about a million Paris Hilton/Kevin Federline wannabes.

Good fun in the end though, dancing in the rain to The Presets was just about the highlight, but Ajax was also pretty good. Would have liked to have seen Jamie Lidell.

Great insider stuff here (from slamonline.com):

Its seems that many NBA players often come down with food poisoning, Kirk Hinrich being the most recent example. Food poisoning is somewhat of a rare occurrence for most people, so I was wondering if there is a particular reason why NBA players are so vulnerable. Should NBA teams travel with their own cooking staff? –David Scott, Harvard, Ill.

Let me see if I can explain this gently. These guys are young men with lots of money who finish work close to midnight and everyone likes to wind down after work. With the old Bulls of the ’80s and ’90s, we used to call it “flu.” Guys will be guys. Guys like to go out, have a good time and enjoy their life. We all did the same thing. And then you have to come to work early the next morning. Until Kirk suffered the groin injury, he never missed games. I never remember anyone as sick on a regular basis than Michael Jordan. But he never missed games as well. Given I was exhausted after eight hours of sleep, I admired what those guys could do. I think part of being a great athlete is being able to play with “food poisoning.”

Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael García Bernal

This film tracks a story crossing the world, where the simple lives of a couple of kids in Morocco suddenly affects and influences people all over the globe.  The nanny in the United States whose son is being married in Mexico, and the deaf mute school girl in Japan whose father owned the gun at the center of the misfortunate accident.

The major themes of Babel are interconnectedness in a culturally diverse world, the frailty of comfort and the constant proximity of chaos.

A very worthwhile film.

9/10