Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass. You may recognise this combination of actor and director from a few films involving a character known as Jason Bourne. Oh wait but is this yet another Bourne film? I mean there’s espionage, interrogation, chase scenes and fast camera shots, how could it NOT be?

Well its not. The film known as the Green Zone stars Matt Damon as a U.S. Army officer hunting down some good old weapons of mass destruction. I’m sure Damon’s doing this for the kicks.

- Jason

Copyright Columbia Pictures

Salt, the movie that would be fittingly dubbed “Lady Bourne Identity”, has released its first teaser trailer this week. Angelina Jolie stars in this action-packed flick, that seems to be very Bourne-esk.

Jolie knows how to handle action movies, and the solid supporting cast of Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor seem to be capable of handling it just as well.

Have a look and tell me what you think!

LIKE A VAMPIRE

A writer friend of mine just told me that “I should stop talking about writing and just write…”. Well I am just like a new vampire born into the world with a different set of eyes and I’m excited with my new found senses, though I love my writer friend and respect all her unsolicited advice, I will still talk about writing. I just read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird and a paragraph  just really made me realize how to rearrange my daily routines as a photographer to a photographer/writer, quoting Lamott “If you’re a writer, or want to be a writer, this is how you spend your days–listening, observing, storing things away, making your isolation pay off. You take home all you’ve taken in, all that you’ve overheard, and you turn it into GOLD. (or atleast you try.)” I always have stored images through my camera for the past 10 years travelling all over the world, but now I have to develop more senses and listen more, look more, observe more, like a vampire.

NAIVE YOUNG MEN

My favorite movies and books has always been filled with dark characters, they fascinate me -vampires, psycho killers, assassins, gangsters, and junkies, because they live most of the time with no rules, Interview with the Vampire, Bourne Identity, Silence of the Lambs, Fight Club, The Godfather are possibly  my most favorite films ever.  In every walks of life there are characters that are out there waiting for writers to tell their stories –a brain surgeon, an architect, a hacker, an australian surfer backpacking, a cowboy from Ohio, a politician, a serial killer, a mother and his son, their neighbor, the prostitutes across the street, the homeless man on the other alley, the pianist living in the loft above the building and the dancers listening to his music and it goes on, their stories have been written hundreds of times in so many different versions and vantage points. If you list the names of movies about prostitutes, gangsters, doctors and serial killers, you will think maybe they are societies favorite characters, we pay to hear their stories.

The story of a naive young man or woman comes to the big city with big hopes of becoming a top model as shown in mainstream films “Zoolander” (2001), “Gia” (1998), “Stardom” (2000), the documentary “Picture Me: A Model’s Diary” (2009), the novel’s “Sex, Love, and Fashion: A Memoir of a Male Model” by Bruce Hulse, “A Model Summer” by Paulina Porizkova, “Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women” by  Michael Gross, TV shows like the recently cancelled CW series “The Beautiful Life” (2009), “America’s Next Top Model” (2003), and “Make me a Supermodel” (2008).

The story of a  naive young man or woman comes to the big city with hopes of becoming a top fashion designer, editor or photographer as shown on the films like “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006), “Bruno” (2009), “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People” (2008), books like “The Devil Wears Prada: A Novel by Lauren Weisberger”, TV shows like “Ugly Betty” (2006), and “Project Runway” (2005).

The story of that naive young man or woman who had arrived and now showcasing what validates them, like any other stories have some happy endings some don’t, like the films “Coco avant Chanel” (2009), “Rage” (2009), “The Versace Murder” (1998), “Eyes of Laura Mars” (1978), “Prêt-à-Porter” (1994), documentaries like “September Issue” (2009), “Fashion Victim: The Killing of Gianni Versace” (2001), “Valentino: The Last Emperor” (2009), “Unzipped” (1995), and books like “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History” by Maureen Orth.

NO OSCAR, PULITZER, OR NOBEL FOR FASHION

All the titles featured here are basically most of the information available out there as a general opinion that an outsider of the fashion world could access, collectively the public wants to see the bright and bubbly side of this industry, TV’s “Project Runway”, the hit comedy “Zoolander”, Lauren Weisberger’s “The Devil Wears Prada: A Novel”, tops for TV, Film and Books talking about the characters in a fashion house. Why haven’t any of the title’s mention here were critically honored and respected like the great movies about gangsters and lunatics? Why there are only few respectable books, films and tv shows out there that has more valid and real point of view about the fashion Industry, not merely caricatures. Something that will win the Oscars like Silence of the Lambs (film about serial killers) and the Godfather (film about criminals) or even a Nobel Prize.

ARMED WITH SALIVA

The film “Zoolander”,  the novel “The Devil Wears Prada”, and “Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women” by  Michael Gross are the closest honest stories about this industry that I have read and seen, they are respectable in their own rights though they can only be achieved through comedy. Actor/ Producer Ashton Kutcher was almost close with his cancelled CW drama “The Beautiful Life”, with a better writer (his writers need to research more since most model booker/agents are overweight and balding) and actors this could’ve been a more watchable show. The major characters that has been told in relatively few stories about the fashion house are models armed with their good genetics, editors, fashion designers, photographers armed with their education, artistry and talents, the model agent as we see in “The Beautiful Life” episodes is armed with his “saliva”, a side of this industry that we haven’t seen, and what my new novel is all about. The “model booker/agent” is a word you wont find in a webster dictionary, but their “specific skill set” have been around since Cleopatra’s first trick. The two oldest profession in the history of man is prostitution and  politics, welcome to a world where everyone just want to sell something -a novel about the 9 to 5 business of selling people titled “NAIVE”. Read an excerpt of the novel below…

“NAIVE” (Excerpt) 1st draft CHAPTER IV – “MASTERS and PUPPIES”

I love my pet chihuahua, Queen Alexander, he’s a well-trained dog. I always bring him at work…

…People can’t help but wonder how I can be so successful in a career that you don’t learn in Harvard or even a small town summer school. One of those days while browsing a magazine and waiting for my meat-head personal trainer at the gym, After reading the article “Get Fit Slowly » Yep, I’m Obese” I bumped into an article called “How to discipline a pet, Training a puppy may seem easy. In reality, it requires focus, consistency, and patience” After reading the damn article it dawned on me, If you replace the words “puppies/doggies/pets” with models, “masters/owners” with bookers, “punishment” with sending them to less castings or ignoring them for a period of time, “maximum punishment” kicking them out of the agency or blacklisting their ass, “rewards” with good castings and more “quality time“. Thats one of the secrets to my success. But will I tell that to anybody, of course not! Because the moment my pet becomes a bankable “supermodel”, somehow we switch roles.

HOW TO DISCIPLINE A PET.
(Training a puppy may seem easy. In reality, it requires focus, consistency, and patience. Here are a few tips for disciplining a pet that may prove useful.)

If you’ve never trained a puppy
before, you’re in for a treat. With those bright dark eyes on you and a tail wagging like mad, your new little pet will be a lot of fun to work with. And how gratifying when it learns to obey your commands and respect authority. Disciplining your puppy becomes a matter of course with results that both animal and human can expect.

But the other side of the discipline coin is the hard work that will be needed to achieve these results. Puppies, like children, require consistency. You can’t train them one day and ignore them the next. You have to do it on a regular basis. Here are some guidelines to get you started down the road to an obedient pet with a satisfied master:

1. Set up a training schedule. Start while your puppy is still young, perhaps six to eight weeks old. Aim for fifteen minutes twice a day, about the same time each day, like after the morning and evening feedings.

2. Choose a disciplinary method and stay with it. Using a newspaper to tap your puppy’s nose when he makes a mistake is effective; so is using a water bottle to spray him. Some owners opt for a simple verbal response:
“No!” “Stop!” “Heel!” These are followed by pushing the puppy out of the offensive posture, such as squatting to urinate or chewing on a sock. Be consistent with whatever you choose.

3. Teach the puppy one thing at a time. Be sure that trick or habit is completely mastered before starting another one. It may take several weeks before the puppy knows what is expected and delivers the desired behavior faithfully.

4. Discipline through rewards, too. Discipline does not mean only punishment. Discipline means training that leads to a desired outcome. When your puppy performs as expected, reward him with words of praise:

“Good boy!”

“Good puppy!”

You may want to toss him a doggy snack as well. Be sure to do this the first several times your puppy does what you tell him, and intermittently thereafter. Positive reinforcement is an effective way to discipline a pet.

5. Have one family member be responsible for training and discipline. If more than one person gets involved, your puppy may become confused. Still young yet, a puppy may not be able to discern differing voice intonations or even some word pronunciations if children are giving commands. Stick with one person, preferably an adult, who can get the animal conditioned and serve as the primary disciplinarian until your pet is well trained.

Getting a puppy can be fun for everyone. But training him requires serious effort.
Ongoing discipline means a concerted commitment by at least one adult member of the family. Keep these guidelines in mind before getting a puppy, because if you can’t follow through, you may end up with a sad puppy and unhappy owners.

MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS OF THE MODERN AGE:

A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases and the Cure of Advanced Cancer. – Max Gerson. M.D.
Audition. - Michael Shurtleff.
Autobiography of a Yogi. – Paramhansa Yogananda.
Cosmic Voyage. – Courtney Brown. Ph.D.
Hands of Light: A Guide To Healing Through The Human Energy Field. – Barbara Ann Brennan.
Hatha Yoga Pradipika: Light on Hatha Yoga. - Swami Satyananda Saraswati.
Hero With A Thousand Faces. – Joseph Campbell.
Man’s Search For Meaning. - Viktor E. Frankl.
Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance. – Abraham Maslow.
Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing. – Jed McKenna.
Stranger in a Strange Land. – Robert A. Heinlein.
Tantric Quest. – Daniel Odier.
The Bible Code. - Michael Drosnin.
The Holographic Universe. – Michael Talbot.
The Lost Teachings of Atlantis. – Jon Peniel.
The Only Planet of Choice: Essential Briefings from Deep Space. - Phyllis V. Schlemmer.
The Starseed Transmissions. – Ken Carey.
Who Am I. – Ramana Maharishi.

SOME FAVOURITES (An introduction to the Author):

A Man For All Seasons (A Play) - Robert Bolt.
Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown.
Duino Elegies – Rainer Maria Rilke.
I Am Jackie Chan - Jackie Chan.
Illusions – Richard Bach.
Life of Pi – Yann Martel.
Lion of Macedon & Dark Prince - David Gemmell.
Microcosmic God – Theodore Sturgeon.
Perfume – Patrick Suskind.
Rainmaker – John Grisham.
Red Dwarf & Better Than Life – Grant Naylor.
Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie.
Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts.
Siva – Ramesh Menon.
Switch Bitch – Roald Dahl.
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho.
The Bourne Identity – Robert Ludlum.
The Celestine Prophecies – James Redfield.
The Doomsday Conspiracy – Sidney Sheldon.
The Godfather – Mario Puzo.
The Lost World – Michael Crichton.
The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett.
Twelve Angry Men (A Play) - Reginald Rose.

Before you fear any more FilmWipe fans our lists will come to an abrupt end tomorrow night when we will hit the world of film review full force with a weird of Aki Kurasmaki classic.  But before we do I have noticed that this Blog has tended to focus on the best of European and Art house film.  ”There is nothing wrong with that” I hear you cry.  And while I may agree with you there are 270 million obese burger eating junkies who have got the most powerful national cinema in the world.  So we will honour them and there meagre achievements.  I actually love Hollywood films so hopefully tonight will be a quick guide to everything that has been good in the world of the blockbuster this year.

I will start off with the taking of The Taking of Pelham 123. I am a massive Tony Scott fan.  anyone who has seen the Spy Game and Enemy of the State will know what a brilliant director he can be.  However i approached this film with some trepidation as a film about a train hijacking with John Travolta as a tattooed bad guy (frankly he looks like he has escaped from a leper colony).  Anyway the film is surprisingly entertaining.  Despite holes in the plot the size of the grand canyon.  However lets not focus on the negatives.  The film is brilliantly directed, performed wonderfully and speeds a long as fast as suicide bomber hijacking a train.

In my opinion the best hollywood film release of the year is Tom Tykwer’s the The International. The film is possibly the best blockbuster of the year.  Clive Owen is brilliant and gives a performance that surely will put any of this years Oscar candidates to shame.  Tom Tykwer is in the envious position of having directed a film that is beautiful to look at engrossing throughout.  By the end you feel like the mantle of intelligent action thriller has been stolen from the Bourne series and given to this stylish transnational thriller.

The other action thriller that stole the year was inevitably Star Trek.  JJ Abrams.  The film was simply brilliant.  Finally a Star Trek film that is enjoyable even if you hate sci-fi.  For all his critics i thought that Chris Pine put in the best performance by a young person this year.  His teen choice award nomination actually almost made the award credible, instead of the acne fest it currently is.  and he even gave Shatner a run for his money.   The story was a little far fetched even for Star Trek and the bad guy was played by one of the worst actors currently  floating around on the Hollywood circuit (Eric “I can’t act” Bana).  However this film was excellent.  The acting was generally very good.  The upgrades to the typical star trek sets were fantastic.  The story was enjoyable and more importantly it was gripping throughout.  Genuinely one of the top films of the year.

I Love You Man.  No I don’t!! But this is the best Hollywood comedy of the year.  Jason Segel is brilliant as the youthful Sydney File.  The bromance that is exhibited in the film is and makes you wish you had friends like this.  The only low point is Rashida Jones as the girlfriend of the girls guy played by Paul Rudd.  At no point can you understand why on earth he would ever be with her.  However, you laugh from start to finish.  Anyone who thinks that The Hangover was the funniest film of the year first of all needs to seriously question their life and possibly think about jumping into the Thames with a lead weight tight to their feet and secondly watch this film.

Duplicity.  I feel like i have committed a crime suggesting this.  But i genuinely enjoyed this film.  Clive Owen was spellbinding yet again.  Julia Roberts was hopeless.  The film as a whole doesn’t make a great deal of sense.  However, Tony Gilroy the director made a beautiful film that was visually stunning and entertaining throughout.  Roberts aside the film is brilliantly acted with the excellent Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson weighing in with strong performances.  This is a film of contrast but is certainly well worth watching.

Ed Lighthart prefers not be called Ed Lighthart. That’s because he has no idea who the hell Ed Lighthart is.

Three weeks ago, Ed stumbled out of a Seattle park in soiled khakis with $600 in his sock, no wallet or ID, and absolutely no idea what his name was or what he was doing there. Suffering from a rare case of total dissociative amnesia, he could recall almost nothing about his past. He couldn’t even remember a single ‘moustache ride’ joke. He was checked into a Seattle medical center while police published photos to see if anyone would recognize him.

And they did. It turns out that Lighthart is a real international mystery man with a story straight out of The Bourne Identity. Fluent in French, Spanish, German, and English, Lighthart has apparently travelled and lived all over the world, in cities like Paris, Vienna, Sydney, Bratislava, and most recently Shanghai. Along the way, he worked as a teacher, translator, and even as a chef, developing a reputation as a loquacious yet reclusive expert on European culture. Estranged from his family and without any close acquaintances, how or why Ed found himself stranded in Seattle with no ID and a sock full of cash is completely inexplicable…

That is, unless he really is Jason Bourne incarnate. Afterall, he does recall some sort of incident involving an assault in New York City. And with his language skills, shady work-history, and a moustache that out of hand, would you really be surprised? The only other explanation is that he’s just some asshole coming off a ketamine bender in the classiest way imaginable. While Lighthart (who prefers to be called Jon for the time being) struggles to piece together his story, take a look at this press conference from the other day:

(Special thanks to Fox News for this clip. With everyone else blowing this healthcare crisis out of proportion, thank god someone is paying attention to real issues)

Now, to come up with a top ten ain’t easy. But as a franchise, there’s only so many. So here’s the best of the best according to this Fireballed opinion. See these one after the other, and in that way, you get to get as totally sick as possible… leading to taking the next day off from work …and watch the next franchise. (See how I just figured that out? I’m just so cool that way.)

What was I saying? …Oh, yea. Bar none, the best Action Genoirs of our time. Is Genoir a word? No. But I don’t care, so here we go…

NUMBER 10 – ITALIAN JOBBERS

Minis on a Mission. Fun to watch, (not so much Walberg). They used 90 MINIs in this film to catch all that action. And screwed up all 90. Yea, nice.

NUMBER 9 – GONE IN 60 SECONDS’EZ

Mustangs leaping. No sense whatsoever, but enough crashes and complete destruction to keep you re-filling you chip bowl. And her name was Eleanor. Nice.

NUMBER 8 – FAST AND REALLY, REALLY MAD

Young people ruining the city,… um, cities, in every way possible. Plus, girls everywhere. Oh, and girls. Did I mention girls? Nice…………. girls.

NUMBER 7 – MATRIXES

Dark, dreary, sexy, fast and rubber. Both on the cars and on Trinity. Plus, enough CG to have a Cardiac Arrest. A CG Cardiac Arrest, of course. Nice.

NUMBER 6 – TRANSPORTERS

Cars, Karate, a nasty girl with machine guns and no clothes. Yup, that’s a movie for us. Oh, and really silly over-the-top chases that make no sense. Nice.

NUMBER 5 – BOURNES

Gritty, fast, mind-blowing chases with hardcore brutal endings. No punches pulled here, just the raw real deal. Ouchy. Oh,…. nice.

NUMBER 4 – JIMMY BONDS

Every kind of chase in just about every kind of car. Fun, exciting and full of Bond. James Bond. Always leaves you shaken, not stirred. Nice.

NUMBER 3 – MAD MAXED

Lots of room in the outback to fully destroy any car, truck, bike or any moving object. Super cool cars, cool badass bad guys and dust. Lots of dust. Ni… cough, Nice.

NUMBER 2 – TERMINATORS

Metal grinding metal. Self aware Harleys, buxom Terminatrixes and yes, a badass Ford Pickup driven by Arnie. ‘Nuf said. Nice.

AND NUMBER 1 – BATMANS

The Tumbler. Nice.

So there….

*I have had a few people ask about the Monopoly tourney. I did, in fact, win the second game. Score stands at 1-1.

Another “snapshot” of our day. Wish I could show you everything (like the toga’s and “olympic games”), but I forget the camera at times…

Today we “traveled” to Greece. I used blue and white to decorate our dining room table with and also borrowed an authentic Greek shawl from my friend, Mary. And, of course, who DOESN’T read Aristotle over breakfast? He was Greek, afterall…and you just haven’t LIVED until you read The Politics. (heavy sarcasm).

Feasted on a “greek” omelette for breakfast and greek treats all day. (Don’t know how greek the hash browns were, but hey…I was hungry…)

I just had to throw in a picture of the plate they brought Miss K for breakfast when they found out we were on vacation. Too cute! Nothing Greek about it, but adorable.

We even bought a rack of lamb to BBQ for lunch, but were so full from breakfast and snacks that we couldn’t eat it. Looks like we will be enjoying it next week!

Miss K also got treats this week for her vacation! I found this great puzzle at TARGET in the dollar bin (it doesn’t cost much to keep kids entertained and happy!) and it kept Miss K and Sean busy for quite awhile this afternoon. She loved pointing out the trees, boats and fishes.

As for entertainment, I have had quite a few emails asking if we watched MAMMA MIA or My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Those two movies were veto’ed by my husband rather early on. He rarely says “no!” to something, so when he does….I listen! I then tried to get “Zorba the Greek”(one of my readers recommendations) from Netflix, but it wasn’t available. So…I was left up to my own devices……and THIS is what we are left with.

Why you ask?? A portion of it was shot in Athens…so….this was as good as it got. Lame, I know.

My husband looking very Greek in his blue shirt and aviators on our way to dinner (no real reason for this picture except I think my main squeeze is a cutie. Shameless, i know).

We headed to GEORGES, on 2nd, for dinner with friends…

And of course they show up in blue to match the day….because they’re just cool like that.

We talked, laughed and plotted how to change the world. A wonderful evening to top off a great day.

HOPA!

Tomorrow-Brazil!

(and yes….each comment counts, so knock yourself out!)

Vädret har varit bättre idag, så jag har tillbringat dagen i Ottonträsk där jag jobbat med räcket på pooldäcket. Har gått riktigt bra idag och nu börjar det verkligen likna nåt. Men det var inte något man smäller upp på en kvart. Det ska ju vara ett “kryss”-räcke vilket leder till att det blir en väldans massa vinklar som ska mätas och sågas ut. Men när man väl fått fram en mall att gå efter rullar det på. Imorgon ska jag fortsätta och då bör räcket bli klart. Sen återstår att göra några hörnbord till badtunnan. Sen är det klart!

Bara typiskt att man skulle åka på en förkylning. Har fått nysattacker med jämna mellanrum under dagen och det rinner ur näsan. Riktigt onödigt. Bort, bort!

Nu ikväll har jag tagit tag i att programmera om multifjärren, Logitech Harmony 525, och det har väl gått sådär. Inga problem att lägga till nya tv:n men när man uppdaterar fjärren har programmet förmågan att “glömma” vissa inställningar. Riktigt irriterande när man testar och det inte funkar även fast man just lagt till dessa inställningar. Nu funkar det iaf överlag så jag har lagt ner trixandet för ikväll.

Tror nästa jag ska ta å dra igång en film. Blev ingen igår då jag blev så otroligt trött, så en ikväll vore väl trevligt. Tror nästan det blir första filmen i Bourne-serien, Bourne Identity.

Director: Wes Anderson

Genre: Dramedy

Summary: Three brothers travel to India to find themselves during a spiritual journey, and also reconnect with their estranged mother. As with all of Anderson’s films, various things go comepletely wrong.

Impressions: This movie was kind of crazy for me since it was set entirelly in India and I don’t watch a lot of Bollywood movies. Not that this is anything like that genre, but it made me realize I don’t watch enough movies with Indian influences. The basic premise itself is promising, and the underlying reasons for the actions of the three brothers is logical and relatable.

Their father died, leaving them without any great words of wisdom or sense of how to relate to each other without him present. Their mother separated from their father and then abandoned them to live in India. “A generation of men raised by women” (as Tyler Durden says in Fight Club), they don’t know how to function socially without a guiding maternal hand.

They bicker constantly until the defining moment of the film, a moment that takes the film from funny, clever and awkward to surprisingly serious in far less time than I would have expected. After that, they begin re-evaluating lives and relationships, culminating in a flashback and a reunion. One thing I will say about Anderson’s movies is that he always manages to craft interesting, flawed, unique characters. I wanted to learn more about these brothers because he made me want to. I’m sick of one-dimensional characters like (the first person I thought of) Jason Bourne from the Bourne Identity series.

However, the fatal flaw of this film is that it’s everywhere. Too many loose ends, unexplained coincidences, convenient or inconvenient oddities that occassionally add to the film but too often instead boggle the movie viewer’s mind. I wouldn’t watch it again, but I’m glad I watched it once.

3 out of 5

Actioner about an evil bank arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray tomorrow.

Two of director Tom Tykwer’s previous films – Run Lola Run and The Princess and the Warrior – feature their respective heroes robbing banks, so it’s probably no surprise that The International, his latest effort, centers around a pair of noble lawmen trying to bring down a corrupt banking institution. But unlike those earlier exceptional works the film fails hard, thanks in large part to first time screenwriter Eric Singer’s disrespect for mundane details.

The hero this time around is Louis Salinger (Clive Owen, Children of Men), an Interpol agent with a deeply personal vendetta against the International Bank of Business and Credit, a corrupt worldwide corporate leviathan that, beneath its legit activities, caters to money launderers, gangsters, political revolutionaries, and other criminals.  With the help of New York Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts, Eastern Promises), Salinger pursues his crusade around the world, inevitably finding his integrity and his morals compromised along the way.

Ostensibly aiming for a more cerebral approach than the decade’s legion of Bourne imitators, Singer’s complicated script routinely gets lost in its own complexities. The Bank’s elaborate scheme – controlling the sale of Chinese missile launchers to conflict zones around the world, thereby positioning the Bank to have unfettered manipulation of global debt – demands the viewer’s attention but ultimately collapses under a tangle of narrative shortcuts and obfuscations. As a Bank employee (Armin Mueller-Stahl, Avalon) explains at one point, the difference between truth and fiction is that “Fiction has to make sense.” But Singer ignores his own logic, and as a result the story grows littered with paradoxes and conundrums that fly in the face of real world, “truthful” logic. It’s never fully explained why Whitman, a New York ADA, is allowed or even able to gallivant around Europe on the trail of European criminal activity. For that matter, what kind of villains would employ a hitman with an obvious, easily discernible disability? And how is Whitman able to get a hold of a top secret CIA dossier when the agency is supposed to be heavily involved with the Bank’s activities? 

Perhaps the most egregious jettisoning of logic is the film’s central set piece, staged in a life-size scale replica of the Guggenheim museum.  Salinger engages in open warfare with a slew of Bank-employed hitmen brandishing automatic weapons, even as clusters of innocent bystanders run and hide for their lives. The complete absence of first responders and security guards is so conspicuous and so completely out of tonal sync with the rest of the movie – loud, dumb and overly drawn out to the point of tedium – that the film’s momentum fully grounds to a halt. Like a daydream during a Poli Sci lecture, the entire sequence is a bit of fluff that ruins the impact of the heavier content taking place it. 

Admittedly, abstract displays of socioeconomic malevolence are nigh impossible to display within a two-hour movie without boring the audience straight towards the exits.  But it’s disappointing all the same that Tykwer takes the easy way out and conveys the Bank’s evil through intermittent exhibitions of extreme violence. The murders of Salinger’s colleague and of a sympathetic political candidate are loaded with viscera, but the Guggenheim sequence contains more blood and gore than some low-budget horror films. By comparison, acts of violence against the Bank’s personnel either occur off camera or are downplayed with minimal detail. It’s a disingenuous, at this point clichéd trick: rather than explore any moral ambiguity, the filmmakers sanitize violence against evil men by isolating the audience from it (even as they are brutally subjected to garish displays of wrath against the innocent). Loaded with detail on one end and gore on the other, such issues never rise above the muddle.

Given such a situation, it’s sometimes possible for a film to become redeemed through its performances, but that’s not the case here, but the casting is starting to feel a bit knee-jerk: misanthropically violent, European settings, political intrigue – this thing could only star Clive Owen.  If you’ve seen Closer, or The Bourne Identity, or Shoot ‘Em Up, or Children of Men, or Sin City, then you know exactly what to expect – staring laser beams, gravelly voice, snarling, blah, blah, blah.  The lovely, reserved Watts’ presence serves as a reminder of the vastly superior Eastern Promises (in which she starred opposite Viggo Mortensen, a bona fide actor), and while she’s an incredibly beautiful and talented she’s also miscast as a workaholic civil servant.  Still, the film’s most interesting idea is its villainy, and the villains dominate their screen time: Brian F. O’Byrne shines as the intense yet nondescript hitman, and Ulrich Thomsen exudes sinister, dispassionate charisma as the Bank’s mastermind.

Finally, something about the music. While  The International marks the first film where Tykwer doesn’t participate in screenwriting duties, he did once again compose his own musical score (along with frequent collaborators Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil). Sadly, this disappoints as well. The theme to The Princess and the Warrior was a haunting, ethereal work, and the riveting score to Run Lola Run remains a masterpiece both among soundtracks and the techno genre as a whole. What a shame, then, that the score to The Internationalgenerates no impressions one way or another. For any other director, such a venial flaw would not be noteworthy; but in light of his previous successes, Tykwer’s perfunctory musical effort only serves to dampen the film’s energy even further.

Undeniably the most mainstream of his films, one can’t help but wonder if The Internationalwould have been a stronger picture if the director had assisted Singer with the screenplay or taken the time to tailor it to his signature filmmaking style. Instead, moviegoers are left with a fragmented, derivative genre picture that its own director couldn’t reconcile.  Considering the crucial sociopolitical relevance of the subject matter, there’s still a good story in there somewhere – but if Tykwer can’t be bothered to find it, we shouldn’t be expected to look.

- Stephen Kabel

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

(Note: An earlier version of this review originally appeared for the film’s theatrical release.)

So over the past week i have managed the unusual feat of watching multiple films, so here goes some quick reviews!

The Bourne Identity –  Despite having seen it before, this was once again excellent. Sorry Daniel Craig, you may be Bond, but you’ll never be Bourne. enough said.

Eden Lake – I like a good horror film, me. Although having seen a few i find it increasingly hard to be as scared by them as i used to, and it seems makers of modern horror films are aware of this and the chosen remedy is to just make you incredibly uncomfortable by presenting very realistic situations that turn quickly in to a just as realistic nightmare. definitely not a bad film, and does what it does very well, but i certainly didn’t like it…

Dan in Real Life: I thought it might be good sunday morning watching, turns out its not really good anything watching. Steve Carrell is as likeable as ever but Dane Cook is a twat, the situation is unbelievable, majority of characters are just half formed which completely ruins any chance of the intended emotion-stirring set pieces this film clearly relied on actually working at all, and just when you think the films coming to a nice close (or might even redeem itself) it just kinda stops. meh.

Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood is clearly still a very talented man despite getting on in his years. This film hinges completely on his performance and suffice to say he is utterly perfect. That aside however theres not a lot to the story and it rolls along quite slowly and the supporting cast are at times a little questionable in acting quality (only a couple of them had ever acted before…). This is however highly recommended, in a kind of twisted ‘feel-good’ film kind of way. 

and heres a bonus couple of films i saw recently:

Catch and Release: This film got slated at the box office, and didn’t do too well on dvd either and i fully understand why. It doesn’t really make sense, isn’t overly beleivable is predictable and doesn’t really  go anywhere. I did however really enjoy it. I like the characters, like the setting and i guess like the idea of reinvention, whichever way you go about it. Kevin Smith acting is something he should certainly do more, Timothy Oliphant is consistently good i think (with a noteable baldy exception) and Juliette Lewis sparkles (as she often does) as a slightly crazy person. this is good slightly hungover sunday morning watching.

Resident Evil – Degeneration: I like the resident evil films. there, i said it. well okay the second one was sh*te, and the third didnt even try to link in to the games i love so at all, but was still good, and the first one rocked. This fully CGI animated affair however had mixed reviews so i got it on Lovefilm out of curiousity. Not sure what i was expecting but its just like watching a continuous cut scene from one of the games. its not visually amazing, the story isn’t incredible and taking out the actual gaming part from a game, well, we turned it off after 20 mins.

 Posted by Sam

This is not a news flash to me.

Or to you, either, if you regularly read this blog.

It was however, a mild revelation as I nearly told my entire nerve block story to a clerk at my local resale shop.

It’s almost like I’ve lost my filter to a certain degree.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not seeking out people to narrate my life story to. In most cases, I have somehow stopped answering “fine” when things are not “fine.” I can still buck it up and, in appropriate situations, i.e., the office and other pertinent places, pull from my inner abilities to act the “part” and smile as I say, “I’m okay, and you?” All the while, barely under the surface of my skin, I am trembling in pain and fear and anguish praying I make it through the bold-face lie without breaking down into a sobbing pile of human flesh.

I don’t consider that a lie by omission. I consider that common courtesy to not inflict my wounds onto another’s being.

In some cases, I have taken that too far. This is where we return to the nerve block story.

I know I have written about my surgeries before, so I won’t regurgitate them now. I have mentioned that I was left with some chronic pain as a result. Unfortunately, about six months into the pain, I stopped keeping those closest to me abreast of the situation. Truthfully, I stopped listening to my own body and managed to lie to my own darn self.

Suddenly, an additional year had passed without me telling the truth about the level and/or consistency of the pain. It took a random excursion to the bowling alley which adversely impacted whatever previous surgical injury occurred, amping up the pain level to near “ripping-my-skin-off” on a scale of “hangnail” to “fourth-degree-laceration-labor-trauma.”

[May I interject here that for some I thought it would be a good idea to listen to the Rocky soundtrack while writing this. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to locate the tracks as they had been moved off to a DVD to save room on my computer. Honestly, with the exception to the Fanfare that we all know - there's not much else about the album I like. Think I'll switch to a tested and true stand by for motivational music - The Bourne Identity Soundtrack by John Powell. Also, a great addition to your iPod for a workout session. I lost fifty pounds to it a few years ago! See? No filter...]

Subsequent to the bowling incident, a cartoonish lightbulb went off in my head.

“I am only 41. My Nana is 96 and going strong. Do I really want to live another 55 years with this level of pain in the area of my body where I spend approximately 75% of my time – seated?”

The answer was a resounding, “hell no.”

I placed a few calls, had some much delayed second consultations by fresh doctors and the result was medication (which, honestly, only makes me not care as much that I am in pain, but does not take the pain away) and a nerve block in the pudendal nerve. (Google it. I dare ya. It’s a fun nerve to have f’d up for the rest of your life, huh?)

I won’t go into the TMI details of the procedure here only because I have rehashed all or parts of it more than even I care to – Best Friends, Sister, Mother, Co-workers, Cousin, Facebook followers, and nearly the innocent by-standing resale clerk.

(SHOUT OUT ALERT – Hubby was there through it all and, I must share – TOTALLY AWESOME for me. Couldn’t have asked for a better Man to help me through this. Thanks, babe!)

Why am I writing all of this?

Oh, yea – I’m an open book.

I am in a blessed place where I can no longer live multiple lives – co-workers see me one efficient, organized way; best friends see underbelly and internal organs; husband sees only the parts of me that I think won’t make him want to leave me; family of origin sees grownup, finally put together adult; and I get left with compartmentalized heart muscle and brain tissue that is getting increasingly difficult to keep track of without slipping and allowing some crossover.

It has taken quite some time to take action on this knowledge, yet I believe I am there.

Mostly.

Let’s just say that my filter used to be constructed with low-grade, gray granite. Now, it resembles tye-dyed mosquito netting.

Quite an improvement, I think.

Had a hot date with the husband to watch Taken a few days back and I must say, it was surprisingly good. Taken is your typical, no nonsense, action movie where Liam Neeson went around beating the living daylights out of everything that moves. The intro was a little slow, but once the fun started, the action sequences were tight and somewhat realistic, so all in all, it was thoroughly enjoyable. (I have a weakness for these swashbuckling, one-man-show CIA super agents)

Thanks to Luc Besson, Neeson’s character is like James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer all rolled into one incredible fighting machine. I particularly loved the sequence where he stabbed 2 metal sticks into the Albanian mafia dude’s thigh (who abducted his daughter) and proceeded to electrocute him senseless.

But underneath the carnage and destruction, the movie actually has many important messages that parents should drill into their kids. It’s like the ultimate parenting guide (or propaganda). When Kirsten turns 16, I’m gonna make her watch this with my own running commentary in the background.

Lesson 1: Going on a road trip across Europe with friends will result in abduction.

I’m pretty sure at some point she’s going to want to travel with her friends to whatever is the next big travel destination in 2018. I’m going to instill a rule where there will be no traveling alone until she turns 24 or gets married (which should not happen before she’s 24 anyway).

It’s a catch 22. If she goes with a bunch of girlfriends, there’s no way any of them will be able to put up a fight in the face of imminent abduction. (Don’t believe the Alias female Kungfu fighter nonsense) A bunch of adolescent girls on a holiday is like spreading honey on your chest. You can’t be surprised if a swarm of killer bees sting the crap out of you.

But if she goes on a trip with some adolescent male friends (we all know what teenage guys have on their minds 24/7), I can bet my life that there will be some hanky panky going on when she’s halfway around the world. Not an appealing prospect as far as I’m concerned.

Lesson 2: Don’t talk to strangers, especially if they are handsome and French.

Handsome guys are usually up to no good, so avoid them like the plague. If you must talk to boys, choose those ugly-ass ones with pock-marks, buck-teeth and giant, geeky specs. Better still if they are with their mothers and speak only Mandarin.

handsome french guy = bad

geeky guy = good

Lesson 3: Don’t make the sexytime unless you want to get sold off to prostitution and die.

I couldn’t help but notice that the two girls ended up with very different fates. Amanda, the promiscuous one, ended up DEAD after OD-ing on drugs. Kim, on the other hand, who showed some restraint in having her cherry popped too early, was rescued by her super spy of a father who went on a rampage across the whole of France.

Kim was saved thanks to the fact that she was certified 100% pure (exact words from the movie), so if you’re reading this eventually, Kirsten, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MAKE THE SEXYTIME until you get married. Your father will hunt down the unfortunate chap who is responsible for the deed and after he’s done, the poor fella will wish he was the Albanian dude who got electrocuted.

Here’s a list of my 100 favorite movies.  This isn’t a list of the 100 greatest movies of all-time, just my 100 best of all-time.  I include a few old movies – keep in mind that I’m only old enough to remember movies from the mid-70s on, plus older ones that I’ve seen on TV.

The list is kind of random – I’m sure there are some I’ve forgotten, I don’t like horror movies or mafia movies, and I do like action movies even though they’re not always the best reviewed.  I include action, drama, comedy, sports, documentaries, and a little bit of romance.   So here are my top 100 movies of all-time.

1.       Bourne Identity (and Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum)

2.     Return of the King (and the Two Towers and the Fellowship of the Ring)

3.       It’s a Wonderful Life

4.       Stripes

5.       Terminator (and Terminator II)

6.       Raiders of the Lost Ark

7.       Rocky (and Rocky II)

8.       The Fugitive

9.       Memento

10.     Point Break

11.     The Wizard of Oz

12.     Back to the Future

13.     Airplane

14.     Slap Shot

15.     Risky Business

16.     Animal House

17.     Braveheart

18.     Forrest Gump

19.     The Graduate

20.     Stir Crazy

21.     The Game

22.     The Vikings

23.     Star Wars (and the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi)

24.     Silver Streak

25.     Hoop Dreams

26.     The Firm

27.     Planet of the Apes

28.     Fast Times at Ridgemont High

29.     Surfwise

30.     The Da Vinci Code

31.     An Inconvenient Truth

32.     Vision Quest

33.     Swingers

34.     Kramer vs. Kramer

35.     First Blood

36.     Bad News Bears

37.     Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

38.     Patriot Games

39.     Tequila Sunrise

40.     Borat

41.     Kurt and Courtney

42.     Sicko

43.     The Dirty Dozen

44.     When We Were Kings

45.     Die Hard

46.     E.T.

47.     Caddyshack

48.     Clear and Present Danger

49.     Back to School

50.     Jagged Edge

51.     Ghostbusters

52.     Basic Instinct

53.     King Kong (1933)

54.     A Beautiful Mind

55.     Trading Places

56.     Lethal Weapon

57.     Enemy of the State

58.     Naked Gun

59.     When Harry Met Sally

60.     Minority Report

61.     Elling

62.     The Pelican Brief

63.     New Jack City

64.     The Lion King

65.     Awakenings

66.     Wall Street

67.     No Way Out

68.     Good Will Hunting

69.     Back to the Future III

70.     Sneakers

71.     Casino Royale

72.     Splash

73.     Dead Poets Society

74.     Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

75.     Speed

76.     Jaws

77.     Rain Man

78.     True Lies

79.     War of the Worlds

80.     Rocky III

81.     Close Encounters of the Third Kind

82.     Miracle

83.     Octopussy

84.     U.S. Marshals

85.     Platoon

86.     Paycheck

87.     Time Bandits

88.     John Q.

89.     Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

90.     Hangover

91.     Wedding Crashers

92.     Sixth Sense

93.     Sex, Lies, and Videotape

94.     Déjà vu

95.     Breakfast Club

96.     Iron Man

97.     Jackass

98.     Stand By Me

99.     Office Space

100.   Spy Game

Honorable Mention:  Coming to America, This is Spinal Tap, Shawshank Redemption, Total Recall, Ocean’s Eleven.

Title: First Daughter
Author: Eric Van Lustbader
Category: Fiction, thriller

Worth It? Only if it’s on the $5.00 sale table.

The Nitty Gritty: The ATF’s Jack McClure is a super agent haunted by the memories of his dead daughter. When assigned to find the President-elect’s kidnapped daughter, Jack realizes that death of his own daughter is tied to both the kidnapping and a national conspiracy—one with grave consequences. As he races to find the truth, the conspiracy becomes more intricate and the players more powerful.

The Good: A plot with tell-tale signs of modern day times, like the influence of the Christian right on the president and his administration.

The Bad: The tie between Jack’s daughter and the conspiracy seems silly at best. The slow reveal of the unknown bad guy is disappointing and his link to Jack’s past is a far-fetched. Weak attempt at symbolism. Secondary characters

The Ugly: This book is poorly written and fails to deliver. No wonder Jason Bourne book fans aren’t happy about Van Lustbader replacing the series’ now-deceased, original author Robert Ludlum.

Soon-to-be-released Van Lustbader Reads: The Bourne Deception