Crazy, Stupid, Schlock

All the signs were good. Cute title. Great reviews. Solid cast, including Julianne Moore who I really love (or at least loved deeply in The Hours....but come to think of it I'm not sure what else I've loved her in...hhmmmm). A rare kid-free night out at the movies and a movie Big Jay was reasonably happy to see though it is definitely on "my" side of the movie choosing ledger being a chick flick.

Before the movie even started I experienced two conflicting emotions. Happiness at being in the comfort of VMax, which has a huge screen and super comfy "couple" seats, and an ice cream in hand. Anger at the ridiculously cold air conditioning which was blowing a full scale icy gale above my head. I sent Big Jay out to complain and he was assured it would be turned down once the movie started (???). Well it was and it wasn't. The a/c kept cycling between freezing and off meaning I was constantly aware of being uncomfortable.

Anyway, I've put off talking about the actual film long enough. Maybe it's me but I feel like I've written a variation of the same review too often in recent years "good idea poorly executed". Basically it was the usual "love is tough but conquers all in the end" schmaltz. I can stomach that concept if it has something else going for it. I want some wit, some great dialogue, some brilliant acting, a "twist" that I don't see coming from five minutes into the movie. Something, anything...

"Crazy, Stupid, Love" had none of these things. The script was cliched, the acting and directing clunky and dull, the story uninspired and unbelievable. I didn't "feel" anything and I didn't believe any of the motivations in the storyline. It was just plain boring.

If it wasn't for Ryan Gosling's Jacob and Emma Stone's (my goodness she has beautiful green cat eyes) Hannah I would have been tempted to walk out. They were the only two characters I vaguely cared about, the only ones that were remotely interesting. Even the minor part of Hannah's friend Liz was more interesting (and had better things to say) than the major characters of Steve Carrell's Cal and Julianne Moore's Emily.

I just didn't "buy" any of it, it didn't say anything to me... I am so sick of unimaginative dross being hailed as something new and wonderful. Speaking of saying anything Big Jay is away for the weekend and I feel I might have a date with John Cusack and Ione Skye coming up...at least I know that Cameron Crowe could write movies which mean something to me.

Movie Review: Bridesmaids

Everybody is loving Bridesmaids and I wanted to love it too. I was out with mums from school, a rare week night outing, a chick flick...it felt so right. The woman sitting next to me (not a school mum) was laughing constantly and hysterically, making me laugh along; often I would stop mid-laugh realizing I was laughing because of my neighbour not because anything genuinely funny was going on.

Sorry, let's backtrack. The opening scene featured my favorite Blondie song "Rip Her To Shreds" and I felt I was going where I wanted to go with this movie. But I wasn't. Don't get me wrong it was OK, a big solid OK, but nothing more. I hate it when I see the potential of a film but the script just doesn't allow the story to be everything it could be.

And another thing, why two hours? Unless a film features hobbits, boy wizards and/or creatures from the planet Pandora there is no reason why they need to exceed 90 minutes, 100 minutes tops. There is nothing you need to tell me about the hilarious goings on of a bunch of bridesmaids that fills up 125 minutes.

While I love Maya Rudolph I found Kristen Wiig slightly annoying. Sure there were a lot of bang on moments but there were a hell of a lot of ho hum moments. I especially struggled with the relationship between Annie and sweet Officer Nathan Rhodes. Just didn't sit well with me, again I blame poor writing.

I'm also probably reaching the end of my tether with bodily function gags; the shock horror disgust factor is starting to wear a little thin. Enough already.

Bottom line: Bridesmaids is reasonable entertainment with potential to be much more so. Unlike a Snickers bar it just didn't satisfy.

Realisation

I've had a moment of clarity today. My life is no longer "Say Anything" or "Sixteen Candles" or "The Breakfast Club" or even "Reality Bites". It's much more in the neighbourhood of say "Ordinary People" or "Steel Magnolias" and heading towards "Cocoon" and "Driving Miss Daisy".

Hmmm....

True [S]Grit

Our date night movie on Friday night was True Grit. Oh! the blissful anticipation. The Coen brothers at the helm, Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges... it was a wealth of riches and the reviews were good, even from my sister.

So you know I really wanted to enjoy this film, I wanted to love it, adore it, worship the ground it's reels rolled on. But I didn't.

I can't write a coherent review because I just have a bunch of random thoughts about it (it was so slow moving I had ample time to have random thoughts... and I had many):

* It was like a Jane Austen novel in the wild west. All that witty banter, so right in Pride and Prejudice, so wrong in True Grit.

* The sight of Matt Damon in western gear with those spurs.... oooh... um... what was I saying?

* Matt Damon was amazing, gorgeous, wonderful in Good Will Hunting.

* Jeff Bridges is very hard to understand. After a while I gave up squinting at the screen in the hope of understanding what he was saying.

* Jeff Bridges was very excellent in The Big Lebowski.

* The Coen brothers are capable of such wonderful filmaking: Raising Airzona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski... even No Country For Old Men. Why this?

* If you spend millions (many) on a high calibre movie hire someone to check the details. E.g. if a girl swims through a river behind a horse she will get out dripping wet; if a man gets shot through the back of his jacket, through his shoulder, there will be more than just a clean hole where the bullet went through... there will be blood on the jacket, at least there will be black gun residue.

* A 14 year old girl, no matter how feisty, will be raped quick smart when left out in the wilderness with a bunch of outlaws.

* This story would have worked much better as a dark tale, with the inheritent dangers built up and played out, rather than as a quaint period drama with an emphasis on beautiful [clean] costumes and flowery language.

Sorry Ethan and Joel, you've really missed the mark with this one and I can't believe this has received such glowing reviews. Did we all see the same film?

At The Movies with DKG

Feast or famine with me... and lately it's been a feast of films. So bear with me while I go all Margaret and David on you with a few quick reviews from the last few weeks.

District 9

I've been wanting to see this since it came out at the movies two years ago. I thought it was just a sci-fi alien thing but it proved to be so much more than that. If you haven't heard of it, the basic premise is that aliens have landed on Earth, above Johannesburg, South Africa to be precise. They are stranded and "the prawns" as they are soon referred to are forced to live in a refugee camp known as "District 9".

The film is presented in documentary style showing what happens when the MNU, the corporation charged with moving the aliens to a new camp further from the city, arrives to commence the forced evictions. Wikus van der Merwe is in charge but he soon ends up on the wrong side of MNU's wrath when he accidentally becomes exposed to the alien DNA.

On the surface this is almost garden variety sci-fi stuff, with aliens, guns, lots of things blowing up and being shot. The effects are good (Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame has producer credits, so you would expect quality on this front). The SA accents almost do my head in (you know how some accents just make your eye twitch?). The script is great and the performances (well mainly Sharlto Copley's as Wikus) are strong. But it's the underlaying premise which does it for me.

I've read about it being a commentary on apartheid but I think it's more a commentary on the treatment of refugees (change "alien" to "insert name of war torn country here" and you would have a very similar film). I think it's a very clever way of presenting these ideas; what us 80s kids would call thinking outside the square.

I found it entertaining, disturbing and much more palatable than, say tree hugging emotional manipulation like Avatar.

Date Night

A silly, fun movie, pure entertainment. Phil (Steve Carrell) and Claire (Tina Fey) are on a date night in the city when they take someone else's dinner reservation at a wanky restaurant. Mistaken identity soon turns into hilarious shenanigans.

Easy on the brain film, perfect for a cuddle in front of the teev. Includes extra bonus for the ladies: Mark Whahlberg spends all his screen time sans shirt (which is not as good as it may have been during the height of his Kevin Klein modelling career but certainly nothing to sneer at).

Never Let Me Go

I was lucky enough to see a preview screening of this last week. I have been anxiously waiting to see it for some months now, since I first found out a movie version of one of my favourite books was being made. The book absolutely shook me up and a movie version was an exciting and terrifying idea.

Perhaps because the author Kazuo Ishiguro also executive produced the end result was a very good visual interpretation of the book. Because the book reveals the story slowly, in stories from the past, I couldn't see how that could be achieved on the screen without lots of awkward flashbacks. Obviously they couldn't follow the book to the letter but for me the end result was wonderfully satisfying.

It is visually beautiful, a timeless England exquisite in its detail. All the performances, Carey Mulligan as Kathy H, Keira Knightley as Ruth, Andrew Garfield (the new Spiderman???) as Tommy, are perfectly restrained and just right in every respect.

It's funny to call it futuristic sci fi wrapped in a love story, which is technically just what it is, but there are no aliens, no guns, no explosions. For what it's worth I wanted to see it again the minute the credits rolled and I would recommend it to anyone, whether you are fan of the book like me (just those four words Never Let Me Go are enough to make my heart ache) or you are just a fan of beautiful, moving cinema.

The Dilemma

Last Friday was our "date night" and there was no question that we would see The Dilemma (though we had a few prods in the direction of the The King's Speech, which is undoubtedly a fine movie). We both like Vince Vaughn (Clay Pigeons, Swingers, Made) and Kevin James (OK, we like King of Queens, sue us), Jennifer Connelly is a fine actress and Ron Howard, apart from being Richie Cunningham, also has a directorial history no-one can pooh-pooh.

It is sold as a hilarious comedy and that's what we were expecting. Well, it's not. It's a genre I have now decided to call "comma" - a comic drama. In fact it deals with some pretty heavy relationship issues: a marriage under stress due to work, stress, growing apart; infidelity in the aforementioned marriage; business stress; gambling addiction.

While certainly these serious issues can be presented in a comic manner in The Dilemma they really aren't. It's actually a pretty heavy movie with some mildly amusing moments. Even the scenes which possibly could have been a lot funnier aren't. Vince Vaughn's innate craziness is not as hilarious as it could be; for me it was more tension inducing than funny.

Even the overtly funny scenes, like those featuring Queen Latifah for example, aren't really funny because they seem out of place amongst the drama. The best darkly funny scene is VV's speech at the anniversary dinner and is almost worth the price of admission on it's own strength.
I tried to figure out why a movie like The Dilemma just doesn't hit the mark when a movie like PS I Love You does. Both comedies dealing with serious storylines; commas if you will. I can only suggest that the timing, the direction, the editing works in one and not the other. Certainly Vince Vaughn and Kevin James have the comedy chops but something just doesn't work. It's like you can put all the top ingredients into your cake but if you bake it in the wrong cake tin or at the wrong temparture or add salt instead of sugar you end up with something which just isn't right.

I didn't hate it, in fact I would say watch it on DVD or Foxtel or whatever in six months' time. I just couldn't recommend anyone running out and seeing it for full price.

The Outsiders

We watched The Outsiders last night. What an awesome film. A FIVE STAR CLASSIC!

Let's put aside the cast, made up of the who's who of '80s teen heart throbs (though how sweet was Rob Lowe as Sodapop Curtis? almost too pretty to be a boy - did I ever tell you about the time my friend M and I went in the live audience of the midday Ray Martin Show because Rob Lowe was going to be a guest... you know, when he was still sweet, before he came out as a sex addict - my god, he was good enough to eat, literally not figuratively).

Any old how, this movie is above and beyond just the cast, who are wonderful, despite their heart throb status. Seeing a young gorgeous Patrick Swayze made me a little teary.

The simple story, with a simple moral, is beautifully written, acted and directed. Just enough of everything and not too much of anything. These days there is hardly ever just the right amount; it's all either way over the top too much or annoyingly minimalist not enough.

So to end I'll just say, whether you're a greaser or a soc, be kind, be nice, love one another and stay gold.

The Loved Ones

Finally saw The Loved Ones on Saturday night. Just me and Big Jay... in the whole cinema. I'm hoping it's because we went to a 4:15 pm session on a Saturday afternoon and it's kind of a 9:00 pm session sort of film.

I loved it. Really, really loved it. It was just the right balance of horror and humour, with a good script, good acting and just enough gore and horror film dramatic tension. I was flinching and laughing and cheering in almost equal measure which was so satisfying.

Best of all it was just the right length, one and a half hours. Perfect. So many film lately just drag on and on, having little to say, just bloated on their own self importance. No! The Loved Ones says what it wants to say and then it ends.

However, if anything lets it down is the end. The very end. The second last scene is great; I was laughing and cheering. It should have been the end. But then it goes on for one scene too many. The piss weak scene. Sorry but it was.

Movie Review: Summer Coda

I won these preview tickets knowing nothing at all about this film.

Having seen it I still know next to nothing about this film.

I feel very sorry for whoever wrote and directed it, everyone involved really, because it is obviously a labour of love. It's just, sadly, a labour of love that is not very entertaining. It is slow as a wet week and boring.

Even the attraction of Alex Dimitriades and Angus Sampson were not enough to save this stinker. For the first half nothing happens at all, just lots of shots of Rachel Taylor looking dull and sad. A little more (emphasis on little) happens in the second half but to be honest we walked out towards the end because we were loosing the will to live so I don't actually know if there was even a conclusion or if everyone in the cast just fell asleep from boredom.

Not an Australian film that will be replacing Muriel's Wedding in my affections, I'm afraid.

Movie Review: My Year Without Sex

No, this is not a documentary about my life... [Is it mandatory that every married woman around my age pretends she doesn't have sex? At least it's a common theme hinted at amongst the people I know... A little sad I think...]

This is the new-ish film from Sarah Watts who made the wonderful Look Both Ways about five years ago. I was immediately attracted to this because it stars Sacha Horler who I enjoyed so much in the film version of Praise.

This film is so Australian it was almost painful to watch; so close to the bone. Like The Castle in it's honest look at Australian family life but not funny, well a little funny.

It's a look at a very typical Australian family dealing with life and what happens when mum gets sick. It's small, sweet, sad, tender, beautifully written. The entire cast is great but the two child actors are particularly good.

Thumbs up.

Movie Review: The Girl... the Hornet's Nest

Poo.

Not much more to say. If you're a fan of the books stay away from this rubbish.

Given it is a very dense book with lots of characters and lots of stuff going on I think this is a poor translation to screen. The book was a wonderful rollercoaster ride, the movie is a cobbled together piece of crap.

If I hadn't read the book I would have made no sense of it at all.

Also, very bad translation. Not only were there spelling mistakes but even I, with my non-existent knowledge of Swedish, knew that the translation did not match what was being said. Also numerous instances when white type appeared on pale or white backgrounds making it impossible to read.

Piss poor effort.

PS I have to give it to the Swedes though. I love that they use actors who look like real people, i.e. not perfect. They actually look like normal people, bad hair, bad skin, wobbly body bits. They haven't been polished and air brushed till they sparkle. How wonderful!

Away We Go

I watched Away We Go this morning (planned to watch it last night but fell asleep watching Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel - is there anything more annoying than those chipmunk voices? oh the pain!).

Loved it! Just the sort of little movie I enjoy thoroughly. Not a huge amount to say. Just a gentle look at modern life. Great characters, great soundtrack, strong dialogue, beautiful scenery.

Special mention for Maya Rudolph who was superb and for the entire Montreal sequence which felt very right and brought a tear (or 20) to my eye.

Very surprised that this was a Sam Mendes effort. I still haven't forgiven him for American Beauty (I know I'm the only person on Plant Earth who hated this film).

The Beginning of the End

When I think back to the moment when I went from being a sweet, goody-two-shoes, library monitor child to a blue haired, penis-shaped-earring wearing, running-away-from-home, moving in with a household of skinheads at 15, teenage nightmare, I think I can trace it back to a day in 1980 at the old Bondi Junction Cinema when I saw the movie Foxes. It starred Jodie Foster but for me the big star was Cherie Currie. She played the tragic, bad girl Annie and she changed my life.

For me seeing that movie and falling in girl love with Annie/Cherie Currie was the first step on the road to teenage rebellion. I hadn't thought of that movie and that moment and that time in my life for a very long time. It is funny how such an important moment (and believe me, I knew it was an important moment the minute I came out of that cinema, feeling punch drunk and knowing at a certain level that nothing would ever be the same again) became a blind spot in my memory.

What brought it back into close perspective recently was getting an email from Popcorn Taxi about the upcoming movie The Runaways. I had seen bits in the entertainment media about this movie but hadn't registered much except that it starred that blank faced Kristen Stewart (who seems to have all the personality of a damp kitchen sponge, from what I have seen of her on the teev). I almost deleted the email outright (though Popcorn Taxi have delivered tasty treats in the past, lately there hasn't been much to interest me) but seeing the name Cherie Currie triggered something. An actual lightbulb moment!

The event they were advertising was a preview screening of The Runaways with a live, via satellite, chat with Cherie Currie (actress and member of the actual Runaways). Seeing that name opened a floodgate of memories and I sat shaking at my desk, remembering so clearly coming out of that screening of Foxes 30 years ago and feeling the foundations of my life shift under my feet.

So on 7 July I'll be dragging my long suffering sister to this night of nostlagia, if that is even the right word for it. I don't know anything about the band The Runaways and I didn't know Cherie Currie was in it, so this will be something of a learning experience as well.

All I know right now is that I need to get my hands on a copy of Foxes. In equal parts I desperately want to see it again and I am terrified of seeing it again. I am so scared that actually seeing what is potentially (undoubtedly!) a very poor 80s teenage angst piece of schlock will shatter the exquisite feelings I remember from that time. Is it best to cling onto the memories or watch it again and re-examine it from a 42 year old perspective? What do you think?

Listen up Alanis Morissette

This is fucking IRONIC*. Precious.

What a movie. What a story. What can I say about it?

Hard work. Actually hearing and understanding Precious, hard. Emotionally, hard.

I'm just not able to do social realism like I used to. Perhaps it's parenthood. The horrors inflincted on children are too hard to watch as "entertainment".

Performances are mind blowing. Even Mariah Carey is outstanding in her small role (who could have guessed). Gabourney Sidibe as Precious is understated and raw.

* To state the obvious, it's ironic because to name a child Precious and then treat her like garbage, like much less then human, is the ultimate irony. Don't you think.

Happy Anniversary, Lloyd and Diane

It's the twentieth anniversary of my all-time favourite film Say Anything.

My sister sent me this link and it brought a tear or two to my eye and a pang to the black, twisted chunk of coal I call my heart.

Thank you Cameron Crowe for this cinematic gift. Lloyd Dobler is my favourite human, ever.

When I take a moment to think about it, it breaks my heart to dwell on the fact that he is not real.

Life is not fair.

Not for those with a weak stomach

Last Thursday my sister offered to babysit so we took the opportunity to sneak out for a movie.

My choice, so we went to see Daybreakers, the semi-Oz production starring Ethan Hawke and Willem Defoe as well as a few Aussies including Sam Neill. I love a vampire story so I couldn't resist. It had received some OK reviews so I had pretty high hopes.

I enjoyed it, pretty much. It had some good ideas, vampire-wise; but basically it was The Matrix with vampires. There was quite a bit of gruesomeness, with vampires going batshit on each other (blood supply is running out and when vampires are starved of blood they get really nutso, who would have thought!). I love that sort of stuff so I was happy.

While there was plenty of blood and guts and exploding blood suckers there was little by way of acting. Claudia Karvan was truly awful, striding around her scenes looking like a plank of wood with a face painted on it.

Overall I'd say see it if you're a vampire lover like yours truly. Otherwise, stay well clear.

Highlight Reel

We watched Couples Retreat last night. Wish we hadn't.

Nothing much to say about it because it was so horribly dull. The occasional smirk was the best we could manage, and even that felt odd because the whole thing was so unfunny, un-anything really.

For me that's disappointing because I'm a big fan of Jon Favreau/Vince Vaughn, especially as a team. Swingers and Made are two of my all time favourite movies. And if you haven't seen Vince in Clay Pigeons you must do so, right now.

Anyway, Couples Retreat was a very non-memorable movie but it did leave me with a new term which I love: highlight reel. Have you heard it before? Do you know what it refers to?

It's the fantasy movie you play in your head while you're either doing the deed or indulging in a little self love (Ed's Note: put: "euphemisms masturbation" into Google and enter a whole new world of funny). Highlight reel really tickles my fancy, so to speak, because I certainly have some favourites (I'm nothing if not a creature of habit) on regular rotation.

Just thought you'd like to know.

West

I went to bed early last night hoping for some much needed sleep. Instead I stayed up much later than necessary because I got hooked watching an Australian film called West.

I believe it would be called "gritty, Australian drama" in reviews and it was both gritty and very Australian.

The "west" refers to Western Sydney, where this story is set. An area which is on my doorstep but which I don't really know at all.

I really enjoyed this well written, well directed, well acted little film. It was a great big smack in the face with a slice of social realism.

It was what I like in a film: a good, simple story, nicely told, with a final scene which makes you go "aahhaa". This story went a full circle and it was elegantly done. A small gesture in the last moment making everything click into place. I so admire that in a script.

Daniel Krige, the South African born writer and director, doesn't seem to have done anything else after this 2007 production which seems a shame as he seems to have some real talent.

Avatar

Who knew it was so fucking hard to see a movie these days? Avatar was sold out at Imax and all the Gold Class sessions on the day we wanted to go. So we had to settle for a VMax session (i.e. bigger seats and a huge screen). It was still good.

The movie needs to be discussed in two parts. A) The Visual and B) The Story.

A) The visual is fucking amazing. Really. Stunning. Especially in 3D it is a beautifully imagined and drawn world. A feast for the senses. I enjoyed every minute of watching Avatar, even the last, unnecessary half hour or so when my frozen Coke filled bladder was screaming in agony.

B) The story is dull dull dull. The cookie cutter, regulation, miss-matched lovers, love story. Nothing new here. It always baffles me when people spend a gazillion dollars producing a huge movie that they can't spare a few thousand for a decent script writer, someone with - let's go out on a limb here - a bit of imagination, a bit of talent, some balls.

The thing that is most telling about how I think is that I was on the side of the "bad guys". I'm not a big fan of nature. It's OK but from a safe distance. Nature is full of things that bite you, sting you, give you a rash and/or spread disease. I prefer mine in a zoo or a postcard. If I was king I would probably just concrete everything and paint it green. Nice, neat, controllable.

So from this point of view I did not find Pandora such a great place. Sure the flowers were pretty but fuck, they were sitting on all that wonderful energy and I will take energy (to fire up my tv, my air conditioner, my hair straightener and all my other cool electric stuff) over pretty flowers and giant noisy flying lizards every single time. I knew I wasn't on the side of the angels when I was hoping for the cool nasty military robots to win the battle at the end. Also when I was day dreaming about how badly those damned Pandorians would be smashed when Earth sent up the next contingent - let's send up Rambo and Bruce Willis and see how well those tree huggers get on...

As you well know, there IS something wrong with me!

A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever (or not)

[Yet again] I won some tickets to the preview of Jane Campion's new film Bright Star (thank you http://www.kidspot.com.au/). So yesterday afternoon, after Marianna's ballet concert, off I went with my mum to WBJ.

This movie polarised me somewhat. On the one hand it is a stunningly beautiful movie. Every scene, every frame is mesmorising in its opulance and gorgeous detail; the light and shadows, the textures of fabrics. The film is beautifully cast and the actors all do a wonderful job, though I did find Abbie Cornish a tiny bit stone faced at times.
On the other hand it was as slow as a week of wet Sundays . The action moving along like a snail on valium. It was also a good 20 minutes too long in general. Another point on the negative side of the ledger for me was that the actor playing Keats had a remarkable resemblance to my ex-husband, which was unnerving at times.

Maybe I find it hard to relax into a slow paced movie these days, maybe it was because I went to see it after Marianna's ballet concert (and had already been sitting down for numerous hours). Whatever the reason I did get restless, like a few others in the cinema around me, including the young man who kept falling asleep next to me.

Anyway, I could probably sum up by saying I loved it and it annoyed me all at the same time. Watching it was like a plate of Nouvelle Cuisine - all beauty but little substance. Maybe I'm just a cynical old cow that has trouble with these old fashioned, pure love stories. As Tina Turner put it all those years ago what's love got to do with it?...

I'll never forget the first time I saw Pulp Fiction. Wow, that film just knocked me around and upside-down; it was such a different way to tell a story. I loved that the audience had to think, had to be somewhat intellectually active, if only to connect the dots and put things together. It didn't follow the usual formula of spoon feeding the viewer with the story in a linear fashion.

At that moment I knew that Quentin Tarantino was not your usual film maker. Reservoir Dogs had given us a hint but Pulp Fiction was his masterpiece.

Since then he has dithered around, never really producing anything which has impressed me at all. With Inglorious Basterds I had some slightly higher hopes.

Let me start by saying that anyone who is lactose intolerant should stay away from IB because it is, at times, so cheesey you may have a terrible reaction.

I wanted to really love it but I didn't. It has potential and Quentin has an amazing imagination but it just doesn't sizzle. There are simply too many lame bits, bits that fall short, bits that are plain stupid.

Like The Producers this is a Nazi slapstick comedy of sorts. But it's a very black comedy and I thought it didn't find the right way to straddle the two ideas; the funny and the horrific. While I laughed at times and was horrified at times I left feeling very unsatisfied.

The close ups of Brad Pitt did send me on a trip down memory lane to a time when I first glimpsed him in Thelma and Louise and thought "that guy is gorgeous, who is he?" and then in Kalifornia when I knew he was going to be somebody. To be honest I felt a little sorry for him, he seemed uncomfortable, not sure of who he was supposed to be.

Anyway, I'll be interested to hear what others thought of Inglorious Basterds. Maybe my expectations were too high.