Mirrormask, Review

I watched Mirrormask again as I was not very awake when I saw it before at the film festival. It is now out on DVD.
A young woman feels trapped in her life and conflict with her mother. She helps her parents run their circus but escapes to her room and doodles in her spare time. One night her mother collapses at a performance and has to be rushed to the hospital. It looks grim. That night when she goes to sleep and dreams she is trapped in the picture world she has created. The movie is an amazing combination of live action, animations and puppetry ala-Hensen. The evil queen looks remarkable like her mother and she is mistaken for the princess who has run away before. There are evil sphinxes demanding riddles, creepy spiders, and books that fly back to the library when they feel unappreciated. Helena can look through windows and see into her room at home, but when she does she is surprised to see herself there, but is it really her?
The Mirrormask is the "key"

I will rate this movie 3/5 acorns. The story is a bit confusing to follow, but the characters and animation as very fantastic.

Tsotsi and Pride and Prejudice Review

Tsotsi is a South African punk who raised himself and makes a living with his buds hijacking citizens. While running away from a situation he hijacks a luxury car, shooting the woman driver. He discovers a baby in the back seat and after stripping the car he puts the baby in a shopping bag and takes it home to his shack. Needless to say, this sets his life on a whole different course. He starts to look at other people and also his memories and thinks of so many possibilites. The DVD has 3 different endings, and any of them could have worked. The main actor and actress in this movie have little experience but play their roles very convincingly and with feeling. I will give this movie 3/5 acorns and half of a clive.

Internet Movie Database lists more then 8 versions of the classic, Pride and Prejudice. I remember the version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle from 1995, and the one from 1940 with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier. A co-worker said this one was the best ad the most romantic. It was great to see Donald Sutherland as Mr. Bennett and he does a great job. I enjoyed this version very much. It was beautifully filmed and full of life.
I will rate it 4/5 acorns.

Update on the retirement thing. The latest development is that once retired it is apparently against federal law for me to be employed by the same company. Not only that, but it is illegal from anyone at my work to discuss possible employment after retirement. So, there goes my idea of working as a fill in. I don't know if there are any other options other then trying to stick it out 4 more years, and work less. It's just hard to to my particular job if I cut back too much. And darn, Mr Darcy is taken.

The Weeping Camel, Neverwhere reviews

The Weeping Camel takes place in Mongolia. A nomadic family is camped while their sheep and camels give birth. The last camel to be born, the first from his mother, a white colt is rejected by her. I really thought it was going to be buzzards circling and didn't know if I should stick it through to see it. The family keeps trying to get the pair together, but mom is a real grouch and the colt cries pitifully. As a last resort, the two young sons ride off to get a violinist. Yeah, that's what I thought was the answer, too.



Neverwhere, is a made for TV 6 episode miniseries about a mild mannered business man, who's world is turned inside out when he aids a woman he finds bleeding on the side walk. She begs him to hide her from two really nasty dudes with a penchant for murder and torture. After this encounter he is ignored by taxi cabs, his friends and co-workers don't seem to know him and in his quest to correct his situation, he goes underground London to find a fantastic world and a quest.

The Weeping Camel is quite engaging. I will give it 3/5 acorns. Neverwhere had some interesting characters and concepts. It was dark and very TV-ish. I will rate it 2.5/acorns. It was quite dark and little slow in parts.

Dr. Cyclops 1940, Review

Ernest B. Schoedsack directed this film and also King Kong, and Mighty Joe Young. A group of young scientists trek into the wilderness for a chance to work with a brilliant scientist. Unfortunately they become the subjects of his experient which involves radium, the machine in the picture and some very dated, dramatic music. I expecially got a kick out of the really big wrench in the screen cap. He uses this machine to shrink his subjects to a foot tall. They don't like it one bit and fight back. Luckily the effects are temporary, but while small they are chased by animals and the mad doc himself.

I enjoyed this movie as I like mad scientist movies. I will give it 2.5 acorns, and no clive.

1940 was the year of Rebecca, The Philidelphia Story and the Grapes of Wrath.

Mermaid Chronicles Part 1: She Creature, Review

I talked myself out of seeing A Scanner Darkly today and instead watched She Creature again as it was playing on SciFi Channel. I found it just as entertaining the second time around. It is a gothic monster movie of the Lovecraftian kind, dark, wet and fantastic. A couple of carnies hook up and steal a Mermaid from a crazed old man. They decide to take it back to American to make millions. The woman connects telepathically with the Mermaid and when a man from her less then stellar past threatens her, she dreams dark dreams and the man disappears. The mermaid spits out his ring and it is apparent to her that he has become lunch.

The ship mysteriously has been steered to an uncharted island. There is a lot of fog. As crew members vanish the Mermaid starts to look much healthier. Her secret is finally revealed.

I will rate this 2.5/acorns. I will also give it a clive (for horror and gore). It's not as gory as Dagon. I loved the costumes and thought the story was original. The actor who played Murdoch in Dark City is in this movie.

Tuesday

Komyo ga Tsuji, the current NHK drama was very good tonight. In this episode Oda Nobunaga alienates Akechi Mitsuhide's son-in-law and even the charming Saru with Kazutoya and Mitsuhide cannot return him to the fold. It is interesting to see another possiblity in the story about what kind of men Mitsuhide and Nobunaga are. In almost all the shows about Nobunaga, he is made out to be ruthless, heartless and a bit nuts. Akechi has always appeared like a sniveling coward, but I have never seen his story in depth.

I also watched Hidalgo again. I couldn't resist Viggo Mortensen

Today I went for a walk with a fellow knitter and her poodles. I got 7 mosquito bites in spite of the deet. Guess I'll have to re-apply! The stream was pretty and the woods cools and peaceful.

The Devil Wears Prada, Review

Meryl Streep is the devil in Prada. She is the top of the baracuda world of high fashion. Her word is law, no questions asked. She needs a new 2nd assistent and out of work Andy thinks she can take the job that "millions of girls" want for a year until she can find a job in journalism, her true calling. When she goes whining to Stan Tucci, who is very good as one of Streep's right hand men, he convinces her to take her job seriously.

The high fashion world in this movie is foreign to me, but I enjoyed all the costumes changes and I'm always impressed by women who can run in 4 inch stilettos. It is a cute story and no dogs or pidgeons are hurt in this movie.

I will rate it 3/5 acorns.

Dance

The Winter of the Dance entry on the Wish Jar Journal is a little movie that gave me a little burst of inspiration and an idea for another word on the elusive values bracelet. Dance. It says so much about living in the moment, letting go and taking chances.

The length of time that has gone by in making the bracelet is one of my personality traits I would like to change. I have difficulty nailing down my values, and don't like taking risks. I am "analysis paralysis" princess!

Can I become a better person surfing the internet? Or is it just another place to hide. Comes down to balance, doesn't it? Some of the answers aren't out there so I'll have to look inside myself.

Drama Haiku
I like the drama
Of morning and evening
It's worth living for.

Moanalua Morning and Ghost Dog, Review

It's been quite cloudy here and the doldrums of summer have not really started yet. The sun was peeking through the clouds in this view up Moanalua Valley from the parking lot of my meeting location. I have to figure out better settings on my camera for this time of day or work on my photo enhancment skills.


I watched Ghost Dog again. Forrest Whitaker is such a great actor, imo. He plays a man who is "saved" by a mobster when he is being beaten up by thugs while he is selling newspapers. This changes his life and he dedicates his life to this man, and follows the Bushido code of the samurai as he interprets it from the bookHagakure. He becomes a hit man for his master, and Ghost Dog to those in his community.
After 14 perfect hits, one goes wrong through no fault of Ghost Dog's or his master. But, the big boss insists that Ghost Dog die, or his master will. His code prepares him to think of death everyday and to not fear it. He will protect his lord with his last dying breath.
I am not a big rap fan, but the music fits this movie. Ghost Dog as a relationship with the rappers on the street who repect him and the music sets a nice pulse for the movie.
Ghost Dog has a Haitian friend who runs a ice cream truck in the park, speaking Haitian French over the loudspeaker advertising the benefits of ice cream, undaunted by the fact that no one else, including Ghost Dog, understands most of what he is saying.
He also shares books with Pearline and the daughter of the big boss, the two Japanese classics Rashomon and Hagakure.
This is one of my favorite movies. Forrest Whitaker directed one of my other favorite movies Hope Floats. I rate this 4/5 acorns.