Film Review : The Interpreter

When you see the words "a cracker of a twist" on a film poster it can only be a bad thing.

You either spend the entire film trying to work out what the twist will be, only to be disappointed when it is finally revealed, or worse still you wait for the twist and it never comes.

The Interpreter's 'twist' fell squarely into the second camp. In fact I'm not too sure if there was really a twist at all.

The film was a slow burning thriller about a plot to assassinate a corrupt African dictator at the United Nations. Nicole Kidman did her best Ice Queen routine as the titular interpreter, and Sean Penn was his normal damaged self as the FBI agent tasked with stopping the assassination. (Bizarre fact : this is the second film involving Sean Penn and an assassination I've seen in the last week!)

The film had some good moments (eg the opening scene and the bus ride) but in the main it was a bit too slow and a bit too syrupy. They tried to make us care about the fate of the victims of this imaginary dictator, and imho they layed it on a bit too thick. All in all the film, like Nicole Kidman's character, left me a bit cold.

My rating is ***

Another game, another defeat

Well, the Brighton Spares lost again on Sunday, going down rather heavily 49-91 to Holbrook, who were taller, stronger, faster, fitter and more experienced than us. Apart from that we were fairly evenly matched!

It's important for us to remember that we are playing well out of our league at the moment, and we can't be expected to suddenly be able to compete with teams that have been playing together for years.

It was a frustrating night personally, as again I couldn't make much headway against their very tall forwards. Most of the talent on our team is in the guard position - in fact I would probably say that 5 or our best 6 players are guards. This means that I get more court time than I would probably otherwise warrant, which is great, but I need to work harder to contribute more offensively.

I've uploaded a few more video clips to www.brightonspares.org.uk to remind ourselves that we can sometimes look half decent!

Film Review : The Assasination of Richard Nixon

Last night I say the above film at the UCI in Norwich. It's based on the true story of a guy called Sam Bicke, who's life was going off the rails in the early 70s. His marriage had fallen apart, and his job as a furniture salesman was forcing him to live what he saw as a dishonest life. He blamed his plight on the breakdown of American society, and by extension on the Watergate and Vietnam tainted President.

The film was a sombre tale of a man going off the rails, held together by a great performance from Sean Penn in the lead role. Indeed it was pretty much a one man show, although (a barely recognizeable) Naomi Watts was good as his ex-wife.

It was an interesting, well made film, but it was difficult to really empathise with Sam Bicke, and therefore to care that much about his fate.

I give it a rating of ***

Ultrasonic Pressure

Well, I had my heart scan on Monday, except that it turned out to be a kidney scan instead! I had assumed that the scan was to investigate my dodgy heartbeat, but it was actually to try to find the cause of my (slightly) high blood pressure instead.

Anyway, my kidneys are fine (and 12.5cm long apparently), so the mystery continues.....

Conscious Incompetence

Alas the Brighton Spares lost on Friday night, going down 48-61 to the Relics. It was a much improved performance by the team though, and our first win can't be too far away. I played OK but not fantastically, and found it tough going offensively as the Relics were a lot taller and stronger than me. I think I only got 4 points, but did better at the defensive end.

According to one of my team-mates, Julian, there are 4 stages of learning - unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence and unconscious competence. At the moment we are consciously incompetent - ie we are crap, but at least we know it!

Tick Tock

On Monday I have an appointment at the hospital for an ultrasound scan to check out my irregular hearbeat. My lovely wife June discovered it while laying her head on my manly chest at night, and the doctor agrees that there's something amiss.

The chances are that it is what is called an "eptopic" heartbeat which is apparently fairly normal and nothing to worry about. I'm pretty confident that will be the case, but part of me can't help thinking....what if?

If it does turn out to be something more serious what will that mean? A change in lifestyle? Surgery? Or worst of all, giving up fast food? Let's hope not. ;-)

Luckily I'm not the worrying type, so am not too concerned. I am however writing this posting, so it must be on my mind.

Check back in on Monday night to see the outcome!

Once more unto the breach.....

The basketball team I play for, the Brighton Spares, take to the court for their third ever game on Friday night.

The Spares are made up of a group of fans of the Brighton Bears, and we've had a fairly leisurely run-around every Sunday for the last few years without taking ourselves particularly seriously.

Recently though we've decided to make the step up to play in a local league, and so far have had our butts well and truly kicked! It will be interesting to see what Friday holds - a loss of less than 20 points would be a step in the right direction!

Personally I'm looking to improve on my average score of 6.5 points, and to try and keep my legs and lungs working for the whole game - my fitness level is maybe not what it should be!

Ron Moore on "A Debate Worth Having"

I'm a big fan of the re-imagined "Battlestar Galactica", which has just finished its first series (or 'season', if you will).

It's a cut above the standard sci-fi fare we normally see on TV, and sometimes has a ring of a "West Wing in space" about it, often focusing on serious issues that don't normally get much airing in genre TV.

A good example of the thought that goes into the show is the following entry in the blog of the show's creator, Ron Moore.....

http://blog.scifi.com/battlestar/archives/2005/04/index.html

And now for a photo...

OK, this is really just a test to see if I can blog from my flickr photo album!

Here I am at a waterfall in Iceland - its one of the few photos that I look half decent in!

Here goes....!

So, this is it.

My first step into a brave new world.

What will this blog become? Will anyone ever visit it? And what is a blue salmon?