Judy Davis is one of my favourite actors and has been ever since My Brilliant Career. She exudes intelligence and poise.
Her best performances include A Passage to India, High Tide, Impromptu, Barton Fink and Life With Judy Garland.
This picture was taken outside court during a recent libel case so I guess she is under stress but I think she looks splendiferous.
Mamma Mia!
I went to see this film with my mum and I suspect that I’m not the only one to do so. The last film I went to see with my mum was Titanic and I suspect the audience in the cinema then was the same composition as this one: overwhelmingly female.
Mammia Mia! is not a good film and for the first twenty minutes or so I was frozen in my seat thinking “why am I here? why? why?” Then there was the exhilarating “Dancing Queen” which culminated with the cast dancing on the dock and I told myself to just let go. So I did and from then on it was an enjoyable film.
The ending made me sigh more than a little (not the very ending in all its campy glory which was fabulous) because I really dislike happy endings equals weddings. In this case it didn’t matter who got married it just equals happiness.
Christine Baranski was the highlight for me. I have liked her since she consistently stole the show from Cybill Shepherd and she was made to sing “Does Your Mother Know?” Meryl Streep was just great – she is one of the greats and certainly doesn’t lack humour. I must defend Pierce Brosnan’s voice. He can’t sing too well but he’ll never be as bad as Ewan “foghorn” McGregor.
The only feminist thing about this film is the fact it was directed, written, produced, edited and designed by women.
Spider-Man 3
Bloody hell. I appreciate this film was going for the humour but it missed by miles. The clues were in the secretary’s buzzing of JJ and in the comedy French maître d’ but the nadir was Peter “Saturday Night Fever” Parker and that awful, awful “Fever” dance scene.
The humour wasn’t the worst thing about it. There was also the coincidence strewn plot: without knowing Venom’s back story just how is the casual viewer supposed to know Eddie Block was a Catholic but even knowing that doesn’t explain what Spidey was doing in the church tower. There were too many villains, Peter and MJ’s relationship was painful and useless and the acting was abysmal (except Bryce Dallas Howard and Thomas Haden Church).
And it was interminable and it had a retcon and it was rubbish.
Mr Blandings Builds His Dream Home
Often comedies of stupid behaviour strain my own considerable good humour but this I loved. It helps when it is impeccably played by Cary Grant (surely the best re-actor ever), Myrna Loy (and her big nose) and Melvyn Douglas (who I feel I have neglected).
It is daft and the characters are really too stupid to be successful at anything but it made me smile and laugh throughout. It slipped in a bit of preachiness re housing near the end but I’ll forgive it as I will forgive Melvin Frank and Norman Panama for letting Mr B tell Mrs B to be quiet for doing something as daft as all the other things he had been doing throughout.
Crash
I saw this ages ago but I don’t have too much coherent to write about it. It was heavy-handed and not that clever. I resent Matt Dillon’s character doing heroic things as if it redeems his rape of Thandie Newton’s character (a repulsive and stomach churning scene). Is it stretching to make the comparison with a soldier who is as brave as anything in the field but who rapes women the next day? Does risking your life for another cancel out other morally repugnant behaviour? I don’t think so but I’m not great on really deep thoughts.
Not Matt but Ryan.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #4-16 (Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Drew Goddard, Georges Jeanty, Paul Lee, Cliff Richards, Karl Moline)
I blogged about the first three issues and then stopped. I’m not clear why. Ahem, several issues later, I’m not actually convinced that I really like them though I wouldn’t for a minute consider stopping reading them. Buffy’s relationship with Satsu felt off to me. I know I am negatively influenced by the media coverage that Dark Horse encouraged and this definitely makes me sway towards thinking it was a cheap and sleazy gimmick except I love how they broke up which was nicely done.
The Renee thing? I’m bored now of this sort of thing, really bored. And please do something with Dawn, she is not a joke.
Jo Chen’s covers continue to amaze.
Runaways #25-30 – Dead End Kids (Joss Whedon, Michael Ryan)
I have at long last read Joss Whedon’s run on Runaways. I say at long last as if it’s my fault that it dragged over many months but I suppose it is true that in years to come no one will care what delays there were unless it is poor stuff anyway. Which this isn’t. By the end it was pretty darn good.
Xavin’s constant appearances as a man really bugged me so I was delighted when JW dealt with the issue across two superb pages. I am pissed off we didn’t see them kiss particularly since we saw Victor and Lillie (the one I think of as Caitlin from Heroes) kiss at least twice. I must say that Xavin as a woman drawn by Michael Ryan was gorgeous.
However, the run was messy and abrupt in parts but much better than I ever thought it was going to be when the delays hit.
Serenity: Better Days (Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, Will Conrad)
The least said about Adam Hughes’ covers the better though I give you the “Once More, With Feeling” soundtrack cover and rest my case. This was messy (again) and confused and frankly not very good. Shame.
Andy and I struggled to the end of the second season and we won’t be back for more.
Dull and, bizarrely, considering its subject matter, unimaginative with awful plotting and glaring errors in logic.
The series has managed to kill my liking for Greg Grunberg and is also responsible for the following:
So what was I watching?
This is Penny who will become our third cat when she is 12 weeks old (she is now five weeks). Our other cats are called Wash and Tara. Where do we get our names from?
Mad Men “Marriage of Figaro”
A relatively undramatic episode but we learned some interesting snippets.
Is this the last of Rachel? Or will she succumb to the Don charm? I hope not even though I like her character and Maggie Siff in the part.
The Chinese people in the office joke seemed flat both on screen and in my reaction to it. I don’t really get it. Though I did enjoy Rachel negotiating the chicken as she leaves the office.
I thought the Lady Chatterley’s Lover scene was very funny with great delivery of the “there’s a few good parts, that’s all…” line by Christina Hendricks.
It is notable that the most attractive characters are the most modern so I liked Helen.
It meandered to a close with Don’s moping not particularly gripping me.
Not, I suspect, anyone’s favourite episode and hopefully the worst.
A few more thoughts:
As a poster at TWOP said we were sold a musical comedy and for two acts it was one and then in the third it became a tragedy – a tragedy that felt rotten – now what we want and what we need are two different things – however, I didn’t need this, I didn’t enjoy it and it ultimately failed to work for me.
JW has lost my devotion – Buffy and Firefly were so great that I have spent my time watching the quite frankly poor Angel in search of those nuggets of cleverness and humour but they are few and far between. If Dollhouse doesn’t engage me after several episodes I’ll do a Pushing Daisies on it – life is too short to watch material that I don’t really like even if it is written by Joss Whedon.
And why was Penny’s death so damned passive? Might I be happier if she had died doing something? Might I be happier if Tara had died doing something?
Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
I don’t think Joss Whedon is my master now.
Here was me naively hoping that Penny was Bad Horse because surely she couldn’t be the least fully rounded character and the least important part of a love triangle and such a flipping cliché, could she? Oh, and dead. Dead. Oh, that is now really, really boring.
Purtek at The Hathor Legacy summarizes my thoughts.
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