3 Films and a Rant

This weeks been fairly dull. Not really done anything except work and watch a few films (I'll tell you about then in a minute).

But just for a second I want to rant about ITV's formula 1 coverage. What was it about? 4 laps to go, two cars almost touching as they fight for the lead. They're coming up on traffic, the climax of the race, the battle of the season so far and what do they do? They cut to a 5 minute commercial break! by the time we're back, they've passed the traffic and we're on the last lap. We've missed 3 of the tensest laps in formula one for years. I've accepted that there's going to be commercial breaks during formula one, but surely they could USE SOME COMMON SENSE where they put them. And it's probably worth saying to all the companies that paid to advertise at that point that every single person watching just hated them for existing so they wasted their money, whoever they were.

Right, now I've got that off my chest:
First film I want to talk about is a new cinema release I saw with some friends Tuesday night, The Interpreter, with the marvellous Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman. It's about (and I know you'll die with shock when I tell you this) an interpreter played by Nicole. She works at the UN and seems to speak about a hundred different languages. She overhears a discussion in a language from her home (African) country about an assassination attempt and tells the police and Sean Penn's character takes it on. I don't want to ruin the plot for you, but the rest of the film deals with the result of overhearing this conversation and it's links to Nicole's home country. It's a tense thriller, beautifully acted. But more than that, it deals with the question of diplomacy vs war/violence, still an important question for the world (and the US and the UK in particular) to be thinking about.

Second film I saw before that on DVD. Kevin Smith's (of Dogma, Clerks, Chasing Amy fame) latest film, Jersey Girl. When this came out it suffered from the fact that both Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were in it so suffered with gigli comparisons, but that was unfair, especially since the main female lead is Liv Tyler and Jennifer Lopez is only in the film for a few scenes, because this is a fantastic film. For those of you who don't know Kevin Smith's films, they are incredibly geeky(possibly why I love them). They're about people who make comic books, they're full of Star Wars references, they're geeks films. This film isn't. Actually it is, but not in the same way. It doesn't reference any other films or comics and Jay and Silent Bob (characters that have appeared in some way or another in all of Kevin Smith's previous films) don't make an appearance. This is about what happens when the geek has to grow up. Ben Affleck used to a big promoter in the city. He was very good at his job. But, when his wife died in childbirth he ended up losing his job and moving from the city to New Jersey, moving in with his Dad and taking a job working in drains and driving a cart. 8 years later, his daughter (again a performance from a kid that isn't annoying) is older and he wants to move back to the city. And that's what the film's about. Ben Affleck (who is really good in this film) has to come to terms with the fact that he's not going to be the big promoter with the big apartment, famous friends and a $100'00 a week salary. He has to let go of his younger mans dream and accept the person that he's become, and the truth that what he is, is actually worth more than he wanted anyway.
Surprisingly, most of Kevin Smith's fans didn't like this film, and I'm guessing that's because they still dream of being actors, film makers, rock musicians and don't want to admit that, for most of them, there's going to be a day when they realise that they're never going to play Wembley Stadium, or get a film released, even if deep down they know that already. Personally, I loved the film. Sure I'm a geek. Sure I'd love to play Wembley stadium, write a film or a book. But I'd just as happily wake up one day with someone I love (especially if they happen to look like Liv Tyler), with the kids sleeping (or more likely downstairs watching tv) and with a wry smile, realise that that was worth more than all the dreams I have now.

The final film is Dog Soldiers. I watched this last night. It is a great film, if you like werewolves, a bit of gore and a bit of horror. It's a sort of mix between Alien, Predator, Evil Dead and Zulu. There's no depth to the film, no hidden message. It's just a great ride. Tense, jumpy and fun, with no CGI in sight.

So that's been my week. 3 films and an annoying formula 1 race. And I don't even like formula 1 that much.