I decided to mosey over to the Rialto in Newmarket to see a movie I'd spotted on their website. School for Seduction was due to start at 8:50pm and I was running a little late. Seems I wasn't late at all - due entirely to the fact I may be able to read maps, but the cinema timetable trips me up over and over and the movie doesn't start until *thursday* (!! arg.. I make this mistake about once a month.. it drives me bonkers) So I paid for the next movie, The Motorcycle Diaries which started at 9:15pm. Part of my movie-going-decision was based on time - I had to pick Simon up from work at 11:20pm and the movie didn't get out til then, so I txt'd him with news of my expected lateness and took my $2:80 flat white coffee (what a bargain) into the theatre. The Rialto theatres are really quite old, and really quite ugly and uncomfortable. Seats fold up, no leg room, noisey stairs for those girls and their tiny bladders. I've never understood that - why don't people go before they settle in for the movie? Imagine being on a "hike" in "nature" with these chickies, you'd have to be stopping and averting your gaze every 20-30 minutes. That's the trouble with the young women of today - weak pelvic floor muscles. Squeeze dammit - I hate that clomp clomp clomping of dumb-girl-shoes in the middle of a movie. _anyway_ The movie. What a good movie. Solid, beautifully shot - with a faded 50's palette and enough camera jiggling to really make it feel authentic/homemovie-ish. Driving home I was trying to figure out the word that connected me to this film, and I think I've decided that word is "intimate". There are tons of reviews online for The Motorcycle Diaries and lots of information about Ernesto "che" Guevara - I'm not even gonna attempt any explanations or thoughts or history or anything on the matter. I'd just like you to know this is a really good movie. The Motorcycle Diaries site (click "Traveling Music" button to hear some of the soundtrack)

DISCLAIMER: may or may not contain spoilers - I dunno, can't figure it out. yes, yes this post contains spoilers for the movie House of Flying Daggers - there, you were warned. Not that there are very *big* spoilers just.. you know, I don't want to spoil it for you in case you go to the movie and think she's going to live happily ever after or anything. I hate to tell you this *whispers David as the lights dim* but I've seen House of Flying Daggers already oh, I thought you might have.. did you enjoy it? meh, I dunno, I kinda skipped through it and it had subtitles yeh.. thats cos it's Chinese no.. it had *Japanese* subtitles so you watched a Chinese film with Japanese subtitles yeh - I hate subtitles. so, now you've watched the whole movie with English subtitles, what did you think? I thought that was truly *lame* really? you didn't like it? meh, no, it was lame. I want specifics, why do you think it was lame? mum, she died _three times_ well technically she only died *once* she should've died of *hypothermia* if nothing else maybe the snow kept her alive, slowed her heart rate kind of thing _mum_ she is very beautiful. meh. not your cup of tea? nah, not really. There is a lot of breathing in this film. No seriously, you can hear them *breathing*. I thought House of Flying Daggers was beautiful, theatrical, the fight scenes were at times wonderous - my favourite being the *rescue* of Mei by Jai in the forest while she fended off her four attackers. It was overly long, and although I *get* the whole repetitive thing, the movie managed to make that tedious even though it only repeated once. As with Hero, I think we lose a lot in translation - the movie looks like it's script should be more intricate/delicate and maybe it is but we just don't have enough words in the translator's repertoire to express the nuances - or maybe it's just a corny plot and that's what sells in Beijing. Or maybe it doesn't matter. Nice camera-work and computer enhancement. Lovely cinematography and fight choreography. The screen is saturated with colour - it's just damn beautiful to look at. As is Ziyi Zhang and Takeshi Kaneshiro who incidently, has the best_nose_EVA! House of Flying Daggers - view the trailer

I guess lately I've been noticing how generally unskillful a lot of actors can be. Yes I have an opinion on things I know nothing about. I bought a movie ticket! I went to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow a week or so ago and it shone like a beacon in this department. Maybe they all tried too hard or maybe they felt they needn't try at all. Left me thinking they'dve been better off gambling on unknowns rather than blowing the budget on the beautiful Jude and the uncomfortably-fitted Gwyneth. Don't even get me started on Ms Jolie and her eyepatch - pirates are *so* last year, Angelina. (I think Giovanni Ribisi must be offering "hire me for two movies, get one free" at the moment - he seems to be everywhere - sometimes I think he went to the Keanu School of Acting) The movie I ended up seeing was Finding Neverland, 8:30pm at the new Botany Berkeley. God that theatre's comfortable. Perfect seat, feet up on the handrail in front, lots of leg room for the slouchers amoung us, screen dead centre - and, unusually, an icecream - chocolate no less - and I don't really like chocolate so what's up with that? Pretty good evening so far, my shoes were off and I was happy and then, it got better; the movie started. And the skill of the actors cast in this movie began revealing itself - subtle, confident, a gentle steady hand. Johnny Depp - restrained, accented. Easily wore the intelligence and talent of the writer J M Barrie with a lonliness that left him when he shared scenes with the Llewelyn Davies family. Kate Winslet - widow with 4 ruff-and-tumble boys she worked very hard and with such grace to raise. Her mother, Julie Christie - stiff, domineering. The love for her daughter gradually shone through her sterness born of the period and situation. Dustin Hoffman - a playhouse owner, very similar if a lot quieter than the playhouse owner in Shakespeare in Love, with faith and love for Barrie and his talent, with - gosh, like.. hardly any lines, a small supporting role really and yet you knew when he was on the screen - a quiet command. They were all like that. Highly skilled, nicely cast, wonderful story of J M Barrie at the time he wrote the play Peter Pan. Oh, and don't forget the boys - four young boys playing the parts of George, Jack, Peter and Michael Llewelyn Davies. The young boy who played Peter, Freddie Highmore, has since been cast again with Johnny Depp, as Charlie in the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I dunno - how do kids do that kind of thing? act, I mean - in front of people - just the way the director tells them. Hell I can't even get mine to sit on chairs properly! The cinematography was lovely, some of the imagination sequences just so delightful; not too many of them and they were not overdone. The music was really good, too. This movie just got it right in so many ways without being bogged down with slop and sentimentality although it had all the ingredients to do so - that talented cast kept it real and touching. I don't know directing from my elbow but I'm sure that's all part of what makes this film well worth the admission price and then some. And yes, I cried, but no wracking sobs, and only near the end. Just a few great big fat teardrops for the bonds between the different characters. I was wrong thinking it was going to be overly sad - it's quietly delightful, and gently funny, sometimes sad, and touchingly hopeful.