Million Dollar Sticky.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’…  ummm maybe a better question would be ‘Who doesn’t?’  I think the idea of winning a tonne of cash is probably appealing to a vast majority of the world’s population.   The truly independently wealthy aside, I think most of us would probably consider it a life changing event to be handed one (or several) million dollars in one hit…. and gaining the sum by winning a quiz show as compared to earning or inheriting it a rather exciting appeal.  When Millionaire first started in Australia I used to watch it occasionally… it’s always interestng to see how your own knowledge base differs from what the producers may consider ‘general knowledge’. 

For example Mr K would kick ass at news, current events, politics, finance, sports and entertainment… whereas I on the other hand would totally bomb out on the first $1000 question if they were to ask me something like : ‘Who is the captain of the Australian Cricket team?’   This is a perfect example of a question I am totally unabe to even make an educated guess at, because I quite frankly couldn’t give a shit.   I’m more music, literature, history, arts, travel, culture, geography and science.  Mr K just summed it up by saying that he’s ‘the outside 20 pages of the newspaper and i’m the rest of the inside pages’ – which I thought was an interesting way of looking at it. 

Anyway I was just wondering who hasn’t at some point thought about what it would be like to get on one of those game shows and then speculated as to what they’d do if they somehow managed to win a small fortune?  Last night we watched the movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire‘ which I think it may well be the best movie I’ve seen since ‘Juno‘.  The trailer doesn’t really show much of what the film is about but it’s basically the story of two brothers who lose their mother when they are quite young (about 5 and 7) and follows them as they pretty much raise themselves in amongst the depressing landscape of Mumbai’s slums. 

They manage to survive a number of awful poverty related adversities and a young girl, Latika, also becomes intrinsically involved in their story until they become separated.  The main character Jamal, having survived his tragic childhood to be a young man who works as a lowly assistant (tea trolley guy) in an Indian call centre.  In an attempt to find Latika – his lost childhood friend whom he has never forgotten –  he manages to get himself on the Indian version of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’.


I won’t spoil the story for anyone as I highly recommend going out to see it if you haven’t already.  It’s been nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars along with a swag of other nominations so it’ll be interesting to see if it gets the nod.  The story was engaging with characters full of depth and emotion and the actors (even the children) were impressive.  I’m not normally one for being overly empathetic with fictional characters in movies but this film had me sucked right in to every dramatic step of their story.  I absolutely loved this film and will definitely be buying it when it’s released on DVD..   so that every time I start to feel that my pain filled life is just shite – I can watch this movie and remember just how wrong I am. 
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I like talking about nothing – it’s the only thing I know anything about.

Sigh… I am happy to finally report that my back pain has settled back down to it’s usual dull roar so I feel I can do crazy crazy stuff again – like turning my head or picking up the kettle!  Will wonders never cease!  I really did enjoy going to the Cirque du Soleil on Sunday but honestly if having a night out can cause three days of grief it’s just not worth it  🙁

I’ve still been taking it relatively easy today hanging out with the increasingly restless Small Child.  The school holidays, I fear, are destined to be a time of boredom for him being an only child and all.  We’ve read some more of his Geronimo Stilton books, played a little Wii, watched some Spiderman II (he got bored of it thankfully and skivved off to do something else).

So now after a full day amusing the Small Child he is now safely ensconced in bed for the evening and I’m amusing myself with a heatpack and one of my favourite movies – An Ideal Husband.

I think I should have very much enjoyed living in an Oscar Wilde play… speaking excessively witty nonsense to extremely wealthy and equally witty genteel wastrels all day iong.  Though knowing my luck I’d end up as the conniving Mrs Cheevely or the uptight and demanding Aunt Augusta from The Importance of Being Ernest – another fantastic Oscar Wilde play that was made into another very amusing film.  Such great casting in both these films… Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Minnie Driver, Frances O’Connor, Judi Dench, Julieanne Moore, Reece Withersppon… they’re all absolutely fabulous.  So much so, that I shall have to watch the later in the morning I dare say.  🙂

Halloweenie.

The Dendy on George Street in BrisVegas is closing down.  Yes after years of being the rare shining beacon of independent and foreign films in the cultural vacuum that is Brisbane they are closing their doors.  So tonight instead of being led down the garden path of American traditional candy grabbing myself and Yale went to the Dendy for a special Halloween double feature showing of ‘The Exorcist‘ and ‘Carrie‘.

 

I had to check as I couldnt remember the release date of the Exorcist, but it was apparently filmed in 1973 and I’m pretty sure I would have seen it in about 1986-87 and vaguely remember being alarmed and shocked by some of the concepts in the movie which was probably not difficult given that I was a good little Catholic schoolgirl at the time (can you see the cha-ching on my halo?)  The Rotten Tomatoes guys seem to think that "The Exorcist has withstood the test of time, and it still has that renegade feel and the power to shock." but I think they’re way off base on that one judging by the audience’s reaction to most of the film.  There was more laughter at the pea soup and bone crunching neck swivelling than any other reaction and I don’t personally recall any noticable sensations of foreboding, suspense, impending doom, fear or even drama for that matter.  It was all a bit ho-hum really.

I think we’ve become a bit immune.  The effects look quaint and old fashioned, the foul language is no worse than any number of teen flicks these days (a la American Pie genre) and the violence looked like a kindergarden spat compared to something you might see at the cinema or even on TV these days.  So old and jaded are we.

Unfortunately I had to pike on ‘Carrie’ my back just wasn’t up to sitting still through a second movie in those ancient cinema seats, so I’ll have to make it up to Yaleman by finding a copy of it to inflict on him.  Might try and find The Shining while I’m at it ….. Jack Nicholson – now there’s a scary dude I don’t care what decade it is 🙂
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Virgin Territory….. should have remained so.

Oh dear.  I saw a film called the Virgin Territory today and to be honest I hadn’t seen a trailer for it, had heard nothing about it but was watching only because my friend, MD had passed it on to me.  For the first time since being subjected to the cinematic excrement affectionately known ‘Reno 911! Miami’, I found myself watching a movie thinking… this may well be worse than Breaking the Waves

Perhaps if I’d done a quick Google search or watched a trailer online I might have spared myself the totally wasted 2 hours of unadulterated crap that Virgin Territory turned out to be.  For I think I may have given it a wide berth if I’d known that it was released in Italy under the name ‘Decameron Pie’ and released in France under the name of ‘Medieval Pie’.  But alas, I’ve no one to blame for my not having looked it up BEFORE I sat through it.  I do have one question though… how did they get such a fantastic actor such as Tim Roth  (of Pulp Fiction, Rob Roy and Four Rooms fame) to be a part of this complete drivel?  The mind boggles…. perhaps it was some sort of contractual obligation thing or perhaps it is as we suspect and all those even remotely connected to the film indutry are all on crack.

Anyway, I’d advise people to avoid this crap for it hasn’t even any pretty period frocks to redeem itself and I found the most satisfying thing about this movie was being able to click on the ‘delete’ button at the end of it!

Vahina… Vahiinnaa…. Vahhiinnnnaaa!

Watched a weird arse movie last night…. The Ten.  Don’t think it ever came out in the cinemas that I can remember…. might have snuck through with a few sessions at the Dendy or the Schonell or something but I don’t remember seeing it at the mainstream cinemas.

Still not quite sure what to make of it.  There was a phenomenal cast – Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder, Adam Brody, Gretch Mol, Oliver Platt, Famke Janssen, Ken Marino, Rob Corddry, Liev Schreiber.  It is based around ten little short stories each loosely connected to one of the ten commandments.  Some of the characters reappear in more than one segment in a way that has you thinking … ‘where is this going?’ and ‘how are they going to tie this all in together?’.  Taken independently the scenes are positively absurd which I found hilarious.  Well I thought it was funny… not sure it would appeal to everyone’s sense of humour (given that I’m generally known for being humourless).

Worth checking out if you’re up for something that isn’t typical cookie cutter Hollywood crap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlKgqZw06Nc .