• Despite having way too much work, I made time to go see The Prestige, because it's a film by Christopher Nolan. I thought his Batman Begins was the best of all Batman fims. Insomnia was a little dull, but still a good movie. Memento was sheer genius, and I've lost count the number of times I've seen it. I had high hopes for The Prestige, and was not disappointed. The film, much like a magic trick, is a delicate balance. The trick is putting in enough clues to make the viewer have an idea of what's happening, but not so many that the viewer figures it out too early. Sadly (just like The Sixth Sense) I had everything figured out before the end, but managed to enjoy the film quite a lot anyway. I wish I could detach myself from movies like this enough to get fooled, but it doesn't ever seem to be...
The Prestige is a film about rival magicians (played by Hugh Jackman & Christian Bale) and their ever-escalating obsession to be the best. Along the way there are some surprising turns, shocking twists, and clever casting (David Bowie?). This is one of my favorite films this year (despite being inexplicably slow in parts). I was surprised to see that it was based on a book by Christopher Priest, who wrote the totally brilliant book The Affirmation which I read years ago. To say I'm dying to read the original novel after seeing the movie is an understatement.
• Speaking of totally brilliant books, I've been reading my new DC Absolute Edition of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. The volume is absolutely beautiful (looking much like Destiny's tome!) and has raised the bar for future Absolute releases. I've read that eventually all Sandman books will be given the Absolute treatment (four volumes in all) and hope that this includes the Death mini series... Chris Bachalo's stunning art would be amazing when blown up to a larger size! Highly recommended.
• In other movie news, I finally ended up renting Bride & Prejudice (the Indian remake of Pride & Prejudice) so I could see the brutally hot Aishwarya Rai in an English film because, well, damn...
I'm not much into musicals, but having the delicious Miss Rai around made up for a lot of cheesy song and dance numbers. One surprise... Naveen Andrews has a notable role that is very different than the brooding Sayid on Lost.
• As if Washington State's absurd "Say WA Campaign" wasn't embarrassing enough... Seattle has a new campaign of absurdity all its own... "Metronatural" for which they spent a hefty $200,000 and SIXTEEN MONTHS to come up with. And now they're going to blow $300,000 promoting it, which is odd, because I'd spend $600,000 to erase all traces of it ever existing (assuming I had $600,000 burning a hole in my pocket). What the heck does "Metronatural" say about Seattle? How is "Metronatural" going to inspire anybody to see Seattle? It's utterly bizarre, and sounds badly dated. The sad thing here is that Seattle is a remarkable city with a lot going for it, and I worry that "Metronatural" may actually have the opposite effect of scaring people away.
• My ENORMOUS PHONE is starting to go flaky, which means it's time to look for a new mobile. That's kind of a bummer, because I thought I'd have time to wait for Apple's iPhone to debut. But with no release date in sight, I've had to look elsewhere. At first I wanted the beautiful new Motorola KRZR, but that was before I found the ultra-sweet LG Migo...
How cool is that? It looks kind of like Shrek! So I get all excited and am determined to get one when I read on and find out that it is a phone for kids, and doesn't allow you to dial anything except four pre-programmed numbers and 911. How crappy is that? So now I am going to have to find something else. Bummer.
• After watching a few snippets of Kylie Minogue's Showgirl concert on BBC America and writing about it, I decided to take up the advice in my reader comments and rent the DVD. It was... uhhhhh... interesting. Mostly because Kylie is a very entertaining performer... but more so because the show has obviously been created for an audience of women and gay men. There is so much man-candy piled on her stage that I turned at least 10% more gay just from having watched it...
There's also quite a bit of Kylie's remarkable =ahem= assets shown as well, so all is not lost...
OMG! Aren't those red shoes just like totally the most fabulous thing ever? I'd kill or die to have the calves you need to pull off that look!
Uhhhhh... okay... maybe that would be 15%...
I love comments! However, all comments are moderated, and won't appear until approved. Are you an abusive troll with nothing to contribute? Don't bother. Selling something? Don't bother. Spam linking? Don't bother.
PLEASE NOTE: My comment-spam protection requires JavaScript... if you have it turned off or are using a mobile device without JavaScript, commenting won't work. Sorry.
Atom Entries Feed Comments Feed
Okay, I’ll concede that Aishwarya Rai is brutally gorgeous….
But, I’ve seen “Bride & Predjudice”, and…well…unfortunately beauty and acting ability do NOT always go hand in hand…
Yeah, but is English her native language? I’ve seen a few of her Bollywood films and think that she’s pretty fantastic. Of course, I may be blinded by her goddess-like beauty…
🙂
I think blindness is the only reasonable explanation. 🙂
Ohhhh, I need round up some of my girl friends to see The Prestige. I sorta have a Liz-Hurley-ish feeling toward Christian Bale. And Batman Begins is one of my favorite rainy-day films. I also enjoyed Insomnia. (I never saw Memento…shhhh…)
Speaking of Insomnia, thank goodness I already have it (it’s 1am here in Chi-town!) or the Kylie Minogue concert pics would have given it to me. Heck, *I* feel more gay, and I’m a girl!
Aishwarya has a young Liz Hurley thing going on, I think. But she is gorgeous in her own right.
And Kylie is gayer than gay, and oh-so campy. But I would commit murder to have her ass.
Acting ability has absolutely nothing to do with how attractive a woman is 🙂
And on the Kylie subject, it amazes me constantly that gay men are her biggest fans when she is so amazingly gorgeous. Thank God we men don’t care about talent 😀
Adena… Well, the millions of movie fans in India who have made her the country’s most popular movie star must all be blind too. 🙂
Diane… The Prestige is not a good showcase for depth-of-acting, because both Jackman and Bale really only show one emotion… obsession! But they do a very, very good job of it!
Mooselet… Most guys would kill to have her ass too! Oh, wait a second… that’s not what you meant… 🙂
Tony… Kylie may not have the best vocal talent, but I am amazed that she manages to actually sing the entire show while doing some pretty intricate choreography at the same time. As an entertainer, she’s pretty amazing. Sadly, there’s only two or three of her songs that I would ever want on my iPod, but her showmanship goes a long way to make up for that at her concerts. The fact that she’s scorchingly hot doesn’t hurt either! 😛
Aishwarya Rai is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. I googled pictures of her once, because I just could not believe how gorgeous she is. Seriously.
Do Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale take their shirts off in the movie? Because, dayum, I’d totally pay for that. Yummy.
Is she really that short as they say? 😛 Kylie I mean 😉
The Prestige was excellent, but I also had the broad sketches figured out – the only element that threw me was the concept of the man ????? the ????? knew he was ????? every single fucking ?????. That blew me away.
BBC America? Where do you find these networks? I don’t think my TV channels go up that high.
When I first read Metro-Natural I thought it was a theme for Gay Seattle (seriously), trying to get gay tourists.
-Bride and prejudice. I’ve seen it because I like the story. (Jane Austen et “Orgueil et Préjugé”).
-Shrek phone is great. It’s amazing !
-Kylie. I’ve seen her concert. I didn’t like it. She has not a great voice, men are too gay. Ok, she’s gorgeous. Ok, she sings and dances at the same times. Ok, I love her shoes too… But it’s not enough. It was not a highly emotional moment.
I prefer Depeche Mode. 😉
Metronatural?
Is that kind of like an Earthy Metrosexual? Like, the clothes are all hemp but well tailored?
David…
You DO realize that you are speaking of the millions of fans who, after an aging movie star dies….take to the streets and RIOT!? Burning buses, stoning people…etc…
(and…um….I’ve seen my share of Bollywood movies. They all basically are the same story. “Girl meets wrong boy. Girl falls for wrong boy. Girl does not listen to her ever wise father, and continues to see wrong boy. Wrong boy goes insane, and nearly wipes out girl’s entire family. But, they all escape. Girl tearfully tells father that he was right all along, and she should’ve listened to him, and stayed away from boys, and just stuck to her schooling.” Throw in a large dash of singing, and enough color to make you dizzy, and there you have a Bollywood movie. They can’t be THAT hard to act in. 🙂 )
Karla… No doubt! Aishawarya Rai has a natural beauty that is in a class of its own! Hmmm… I think Hugh Jackman has his shirt off but I don’t remember Christian Bale, to be honest. I CAN say that none of the FEMALE characters take their shirts off! That much I know for certain. 🙂
Malin… I guess so. Everybody around her looks taller, but they are all moving around and stuff, so it’s hard to tell (plus Kylie wears heels!).
Avitable… At first I had the idea switched, but that all changed after one scene, and I knew everything. I marked out your comment because I don’t want to bve responsible for the lynch-mob that would hunt you down if you spoiled the film for them! 🙂
Jeff… Dunno. It’s on DirecTV, and is just a channel like everything else?
Neil… Apparently, a lot of people have that impression. I have no idea what the gay scene is like in Seattle, so I don’t know if gay tourists will be disappointed or not!
Laurence… Depeche Mode is amazing in concert… but I have to say that Kylie’s Showgirl set was amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it outside of Vegas!
Miss Britt… I have no idea. I don’t think anybody does. The only thing that comes to mind is that it is a METRO city area that has bits of NATURALNESS sprinkled in?? It’s bizarre, really.
Adena… Have you seen Monsoon Wedding? I agree that many Bollywood films have similar plotlines, but there are some real gems in Indian film that are well worth checking out!
I suffer from the same condition you do; I can guess the end of every movie. I finally just watched “The Usual Suspects” last year and knew within five minutes who Kaiser Soze was…still, it was a good movie.
And I thought the same thing you did when I saw “Bride and Prejudice”…erm, well not the same thing; I mean that I was intrigued to see Naveen Andrews role.
Karla–for the ultimate in Christian Bale hotness, check out Batman Begins (when he is training to be a ninja? I die a little every time I watch that) and American Psycho (only Christian could play a serial killer and stil make me want him baaad). The Machinist is a great flick, but Bale is scary-skinny. Hm, that reminds me that I have Equilibrum from Netflix. I should watch that today.
He also gets it on with Ewan McGregor in Velvet Goldmine, but he looks like he’s 15 and it’s more disturbing than anything.
Hugh Jackman kind of makes me go *yawn*.
And their acting abilities? Psht, who cares. 😉
Dave, I am wondering your stance on Famke Janssen? She currently holds the spot in my heart of the one girl I’d go bi for.
I watched Bride and Prejudice, too. Sorry, even having her in it couldn’t save the movie for me. Just too painfully cheesy.
hmm, I think I could get away with using that phone there. I don’t have more than 4 people I call anyway. 😀
“Say WA”, that was the dumbest thing I ever heard, I’m embarassed to live next door to them.
Aishwarya Rai, that bitch is HOT. I’d be gay for her! And those shoes.
Memento was one of my FAV films.
I just bought a new cell phone. I did the research, checked user opinions (Amazon.com, epinions, and others), checked reviews by Cnet, Zdnet, PC mag, and all the tech sites.
I ended up with the LG VX8300 (just released in Aug ’06). Primarily because of the navigation system (which I activated today because I’m going on a trip). For the hubster and others I bought the Samsung 870a. (Buy one, get one free offer through Verizon.) We have the Family Plan so I needed all 5 anyway.
I don’t know what carrier you have, but I’ve always had Verizon (7 years now) and always make out like a bandit for renewal time. I bought 5 phones, retail total was $1045 … paid a total of $60-something and it was shipped FED-EX for free.
It also has VCast, but I already have an iPod so didn’t need the music feature. You can buy a chip for it (optional), headset, extended life battery, etc.
So far, it’s had the best reception of any other cell I’ve had. And I’ve gone through Nokia, Motorola, and another LG.
Good luck deciding!
I am also Verizon… mostly because it has the absolute best coverage for some of the rural areas I have to travel.
The PROBLEM with Verizon is that they are always the last to get cool phones and features, and it gets annoying. Back when I was phone shopping two years ago, other carriers offered Bluetooth on practically every phone. Verizon had TWO phones with Bluetooth, and neither of them allowed me to sync with my Mac or use data connection for internet access.
And their service is so closed. They disable phone features that compete with services they charge money for and I HATE that. If I could get Verizon network quality from ANY other provider, I would dump their asses based on that alone. 🙁
I’ll check out the LG VX8300, thanks!
Sayid AND Miss Rai?! I’m so renting that.
Bride & Prejudice, Bend It Like Beckham, The Guru have been sitting beside my TV for MONTHS now.
I’m just plain jealous of everyone right now who has time to watch movies or read.
Excuse me, my evil step sisters are yelling at me to do the dishes, make lunches, fold laundry and put Omar to bed.
Thankfully I have this amazing ass and great ankles working for me.
🙂
If you liked Memento, did you ever see Primer?
Dang, now that is a film I am *still* thinking about a couple months after watching it. Takes about 20 minutes to get hooked and then if you’re a little confused after watching it the first time, go read some explanations on IMDB and try not to watch it again. It’s one of those. 🙂
Metronatural-you can camp here and still have a place to plug in your hairdryer.
no life… without wife!
Personally, I think that phone looks a bit more like a bright, lime green Pikachu than Shrek.
I forgot to add that, like Mooselet, I also think that Rai bears a (in my opinion, strong) resemblence to Elizabeth Hurley. At least in that picture you posted she does.
Thanks for reviewing Kylie’s concert. Got to watch that. And the man candy, well, WOOOF