Fright night

I got the biggest fright since I moved to the burbs last night.

Here I was, watching the behind the story of Hakim on e and I am jerked violently out of it by this scratchy bang on my door.

Now, nobody comes to my place without warning me first and usually, if I do not get a warning, I just do not answer the door.

But something told me to get up cover my nakedness and open the door. I walk towards the door and ask “WHO IS IT?” in the most intimidating tone I could master.

I hear a faint response, cannot make it out, cannot recognise the voice even.

At this point I am thinking, this is a security block, if anything were to happen, there would not be any knocking. Maybe it is my next door neighbour wanting me to call the police to get the boyfriend kicked out, or the boyfriend wanting a sympathetic ear? Maybe someone needs my help?

So I unlock the door and before I could register what was in front of me, I hear TRICK or TREAT.

My heart stops and I step back, maybe two seconds go by and my heart starts up again but this time at a much faster pace. My eyes see what is in front of me and it children, dressed as ghosts and were demanding treats. TREATS! Bloody suburbia!

So now I start wrecking my brain on what the fuck I am suppose to do now. What the fuck do these kids want, I start asking them and stop myself as I register the reason for all of this.

I have seen these scenes before, all those American sitcoms and ‘made for TV’ movies…ahhhh it is bloody Halloween, but this is only celebrated in America and Mexico is it not?

Now I am suppose to give sweets or something? I also remember that in some instances in those tv shows, those who were not prepared for Halloween would give away what ever they had, staplers, note pads, you know.

Luckily I remember I had been saving up a packet of cheese and onion popcorn for a binge night and had managed not to open it for a whole 4 days! I hand this treat to them to share.

They look a little disappointed but thank me and wave goodbey. I now see their mother-chaperone lurking in the darkness there making sure I do not give the munchkins apples with razer blades stuck in them.

But ya, that was a first for me and thought I’d share. It took about five minutes for my heart beat to get back to a normal rate afterwhich I just start laughing at myself for being so scared.

I suppose if I am going to be living in the burbs next year I must remember to stock up on some Halloween sweets. Who knew…

I watch the pentultimate episode of Heroes. This bloody series better have a satisfying end is all I have to say.

The Lives of Others

I do not have the language to write about this movie. Not because is a German movie with English sub titles but because it is a kind of spy movie with surveillance and informers and communism etc. But it touched me as well, not because it won best foreign film at the academy awards but because there is a basic element that transcends its genre.

Eastern Germany before the Berlin wall came down. A lonely loyal agent of the eastern German government gets put on an assignment to survey a writer whose wife is having an affair with a Minister. The Minister would like to get the writer out of the way so that he can have the writer’s wife, also an actress, all to himself. As agent goes deeper into the surveillance he starts connecting with the lives that he is surveying mostly because they have what he does not have, love and someone to hold at night. His mission is to find evidence that the writer is actually an enemy of the state and he should be able to prove that by getting recordings of conversations that the writer is not suppose to have or stories that he writes that are ‘counter revolutionary’ etc.

Anyway, things happen that he is a witness to and it comes to a point where he needs to make a decision to expose the writer or let the writer get away with it. The words, “all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing” come to mind and his actions and inactions basically lets good triumph.

So I’m watching this movie thinking ‘o lord what the hell did I get myself into’, and checking the time to see how soon this movie would end and surprisingly, the end comes and I am balling my eyes out!?

It is just such a touching movie and one has to ask oneself, is one a spectator in this life or should one get their hands dirty and get in there, get blood in one’s hands so to speak. S

Never mind all the political questions about power and questions about honour and fame and far one would go to attain these? For me it was about what WOULD YOU sacrifice for something you believed in. Is there something?

I give this one four spoons, the one spoon is lost because I just do not appreciate the genre.

On another note, I have been searching and searching for probably over a year and today, of all places, Ii finally found the soundtrack to Rent. If you’ve seen, the film adaptation or maybe lucky enough to have seen the actual production of this amazing musical, you will understand my yearning for hearing again and again, Seasons of Love! Before the movie started at the Waterfront Cinema Nouveau, I had to check out CD Warehouse to see whether they had Heroes, the complete first Season. Alas CD Warehouse was no more, it was now Musica (apparently they are both owned by Clicks and Clicks decided to rename the place Musica!). This just goes to show the incestuous links that there is in Businesses these days. I have far less respect now for CD warehouse and Click for thinking that naming it Musica it would attract more customers. When I walked into the CD warehouse the first time I was impressed and gave respect to this, I thought was an independent place that had its customer as king! Anyway, I am sure Musica has the same philosophy, seeing as it is the same bloody owners! To get back to my story, they, (CD Warehouse/Musica) only had series one Part one of Heroes and I figures that SABC 3 is probable far ahead of part one. So as I usually do I check for the titles that I have been unable to find anywhere else and go straight to soundtracks and there it was! RENT! Suffice it to say my drive home was electric as I listened to how one measures a year. For me in this time of my life, it is sadly, probably in cups of coffee! Will be listening to this one for some time to come. I am sure Gnarles Berkley will be glad to get a break!

Star Dust

It is worth it to see Robert Dinero play a ruthless Captain Shakespeare - who really is a screaming queen that likes dressing up - on a flying pirate ship.

It is worth it to see Rupert Everett for about 2 minutes as a gorgeous prince, only to be killed by being pushed out of a window of a castle that stands as stall as the mountain Gandalf got stuck in before he was rescued by that giant eagle. For the rest of the movie poor Rupert forms a part of a line of ghostly siblings that killed each other off to be king.

It is worth it to see the Michelle Pfeiffer’s boob succumb to gravity in a split second.

Mostly the movie is funny, good funny. It also has that fairy tale element that you struggle to buy into even when watching the movie. But it does its job in terms of escaping the real world even if it is just for 2 seconds.

That’s it, that’s all!

Three spoons.

Taken

Did I ever post how much I love dvd nuoveau with its amazing collection of thousands of classic, foreign and rare to find dvd’s? Well I do.

This weekend was spent watching the last three discs, about 9 hours, of Taken. Background: So Steven Spielberg gathered a few directors to direct this incredible mini series about alien abductions. It is not a documentary, although I am inclined to believe. It is a fictional interpretation of the Roswell phenomenon, it gives a fascinating story line that travels through four generations of people that were touched by the alien landing.

I suppose the first thing that grabbed me about the series was the fact that Stephen Spielberg produced it. I do not know how much creative control he had in making it but I could recognise some of his signatures. If you ever watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind you will know what I am talking about.

More than just the bizarre story line and special effects, the series grabs you, kinda like following the Thorn Birds only this time there is an extra alien element.

More than just about alien encounters, you get to know the characters and feel for them, you have an emotional connection that when the story carries on without them you miss them, but you also get to know and enjoy the new characters that have taken their place.

After one of the episodes I caught myself clapping and cheering and going woohoo! Okay, I do that sometimes like when I watching the Oscars or Heroes (when the hell is Heroes coming on dvd? I ache after each episode ends because I have to wait 7 days for the next installment). Taken is for all you X-Files junkies (myself included) out there, broken when it ended, broken when they last watched the final episode of Star Trek. There is hope there is Taken, and it will transport you to the Outer bloody Limits.

It is an amazing series and whilst watching the last episode, I could not help but remember the heartbreaking finale of Six Feet Under when Claire started driving away and the lives of those she left behind are concluded in a poignant, appropriate way, like there was no other direction their life’s journey could have possibly taken.

Watch this one with the ones you love.

Five spoons.

interesting stories

No movies have inspired me to write about them lately so to keep the blog current, here are two stories that cought my eye today.

Archbishop: HIV-infected condoms sent to kill Africans

Mozambique's Roman Catholic archbishop has accused European condom manufacturers of deliberately infecting their products with HIV "in order to finish quickly the African people".

The archbishop of Maputo, Francisco Chimoio, told the BBC that he had specific information about a plot to kill off Africans. "I know that there are two countries in Europe ... making condoms with the virus, on purpose," he alleged. But he refused to name the countries.

He added: "They want to finish with the African people. This is the programme. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time."

His views have prompted outrage from activists trying to combat HIV/Aids and help sufferers. They described the statements as ridiculous. Medical specialists said it was impossible for the Aids virus to live inside condoms for any length of time.

Marcella Mahanjane, a prominent Mozambican activist, told the BBC that there was no evidence to back the archbishop's claims. "We've been using condoms for years now, and we still find them safe," she said. Nonetheless the archbishop's comments are likely to undermine the Mozambique government's campaign to educate people about the disease in a country where about one in six of the 19-million citizens are HIV-positive and about 500 people are infected each day.

Health specialists say that views contrary to scientific orthodoxy on HIV/Aids are frequently seized upon by people looking for a reason not to use condoms or by those reluctant to take the antiretroviral drugs.

The archbishop is widely respected in Mozambique, in part because of the leading role he played in brokering a peace deal to end a 16-year civil war in 1992.

The Catholic church has resisted pressure to amend its opposition to the use of condoms despite the HIV/Aids pandemic. Chimoio told the BBC that abstinence was the best way to fight HIV/Aids.

"If we want to change the situation to face HIV/Aids it's necessary to have a new mentality. If we don't change [that] mentality we'll be finished quickly," he said. "It means marriage, people being faithful to their wives ... [and] young people must be abstaining from sexual relations."

The archbishop's comments echo the scepticism over HIV/Aids found among leaders in other parts of Africa, notably neighbouring South Africa where President Thabo Mbeki has questioned the link between HIV and Aids and suggested that antiretroviral drugs are so poisonous they are more dangerous than the disease.

Aids education has been undermined in other parts of the continent by leaders who back cures that show no signs of overcoming HIV. The Gambia's President, Yahya Jammeh, claims to be able to cure the disease by rubbing a green herbal potion into people's bodies. Patients have been referred to the president by the country's health ministry. A United Nations Aids official who criticised Jammeh's claims was expelled from The Gambia. - Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

Dinnertime tale lands Fox pundit in race row

One of Rupert Murdoch's leading pundits on the Fox News television channel, Bill O'Reilly, has become embroiled in the latest public row over the depiction of black people in the mainstream media.

O'Reilly, who describes himself as a populist and traditionalist, has been accused of "velvet racism" for comments on his radio show about the famous Harlem restaurant Sylvia's. The remarks referred to a dinner the commentator had enjoyed there with the Reverend Al Sharpton, the black preacher and political leader.

The dinner itself passed off uneventfully, by all accounts. But when O'Reilly reminisced about the evening he portrayed it in a way that set alarm bells ringing across the blogosphere.

He started out by praising the staff and largely black clientele of the restaurant for being "very, very nice" and "tremendously respectful". Warming to his theme, he said: "I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks."

To compound matters, in a separate radio broadcast he referred to the dinner again. "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' You know, it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb. People were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all."

O'Reilly insists he was making positive points about the American melting pot -- a common theme of his radio and television shows in which he frequently lambasts "race-based" activists such as Sharpton. But the tone of surprise in his voice, and the implication that he had previously assumed black restaurants to be less civilised than their white counterparts, has caused outrage. As a black law professor, Anita Allen of Pennsylvania University, put it to ABC News: "He doesn't realise dinner can be a civilised affair and we do use table napkins."

The furore is the latest evidence that previously untouchable right-wing talkshow hosts are now vulnerable to scrutiny as a result of blogs. The pundit's comments were publicised by the liberal monitoring website Media Matters, which pointed to previous O'Reilly remarks including a 2005 broadcast in which he said many poor residents of New Orleans failed to evacuate the hurricane-stricken city because "they were drug-addicted".

O'Reilly will be aware of the fate of his fellow right-wing controversialist Don Imus, who was sacked by CBS five months ago when he referred to a black women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos". Imus, who was also exposed by new media activists, has yet to be taken back on air.

The issue of how black people are represented by the media, as well as by themselves in terms of racial slurs by black rappers and comedians, reached Capitol Hill this week when a congressional committee opened a hearing entitled From Imus to Industry: the business of stereotypes and degrading images

A senior Fox executive said the latest row was "nothing more than left-wing outlets stirring up false racism accusations for ratings". O'Reilly himself sought to dampen the row by claiming his words were taken out of context.

Paul Waldman of Media Matters fired back: "If Bill O'Reilly got caught robbing a bank he would say he was taken out of context." - Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

Transformers

I was duped into believing that this was an adult movie. I went to see it with a friend who is also swimming comfortably in her thirties and she enjoyed it so maybe it is just borderline.

The special effects are great although could not always see what machine was doing what to who, it was interesting to watch. It was also funny but I have to put it in context around the other movie I watched this weekend.

Hot Fuzz. British comedy which makes fun of buddy cop movies, special focus on Michael Bay and his Bad Boys. They used the shots from the Bad Boys scenes where they jump through the air shouting and shooting at the bad guys. The line, ‘this shit just got real’ was thrown around like a cheap prostitute. It was funny and replicated some of the Michael Bay typical stunts and dialogue very funnily!

Now, having watched this movie on Friday night, it had some effect on my enjoyment of the Transformers, which I did enjoy but could pick up those typical Michael shots, the slow motion shot when Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are running along the street and fall and get up and looking all sweaty and manly etc. I saw those in Transformers and laughed out loud.

I suppose I had a problem with the clear cut good guys vs bad guys, or good robot vs bad robot of it all. Like War of the Worlds (and I mention this because Spielberg produced this movie as well, the whole reason why I wanted to see it), it seemed like the aliens were just too strong and could not be beaten. But somehow they are and you do not totally understand how.

Another problem I had with this movie was that it came across as a huge multi million dollar adverting campaign for American cars and global companies. You could not sit through a scene without some company being given a hands-up, (Deloittes, City Group, and like General Motors etc).

All in all, your children will love this movie, maybe you will love watching them watch it.

Two spoons

Smokin’ Aces

Watched this one three times in one go. Watched twice normally and once with director and editor’s commentary. I suppose comparing movies to other movies is the lowest form of deciding whether you like a movie or not. And I do that quite often. Before spoiling this by comparing it to some other great movie I will tell you what I thought.

First, the cast. This dude that use to do that inane sitcom, Two Guys a Girl and a pizza place, and went on to do some other movies that I have not and do not care to watch, was just surprisingly brilliant. It is true that comedians also have a great understanding and capacity to do drama (Robin Williams is a case in point). Anyway, this dude whose name, I think is Ryan somebody, plays an FBI agent opposite Ray Liotta (his laugh freaks me out) who are going after a Vegas type performer (Jeremy Piven) who is in the process of becoming a state witness against a big mob boss. There is a contract out on his life and a few contract killers are dispatched (including Alicia Keys if you can believe that!). There is a bail bonds man whose also been dispatched to find him and a few other very interesting characters are thrown to keep the whole thing interesting.

I have to mention Jason Bateman. I do not remember what 80’s sitcom he was on but his recent resurgence is just wonderful. He has a small part (characters in this movie) but he is just hilarious.

The soundtrack was also something to write home about. The last scene of the movie plays to that song, I do not know what it’s called or who composed it or which original movie it was made for but do you remember the trailers to Lord of the Rings (I think it was the Return of the King or all three) and the song that went with that. Epic! Epic! Epic! If somebody know and can tell me please please please do. It is difficult to describe a piece of music, especially if you do not have the vocabulary but I’ll try. There were violins, and it goes somin like, do do do do doo, do do do do doo, do do do do do do do do do doo. No? Oh well I tried. Anyway, the last scene plays to that and it just elevates that scene to a whole ‘nother level. Amazing.

The whole sequence of the movie is just clever and interesting, I had to watch it three times to actually understand. And I wanted to understand. On the third try you kind of figure out that this is not the greatest movie ever made just very clever film making. Things like the transitions from one scene to another (very purposeful), the restraint of the big name actors (one gets tired of seeing Andy Garcia in every second movie that comes out) to allow others to shine, and the comic bloodiness of it all make this a fun escape.

I’ve now decided on not mentioning other movies that it reminded me of. I will leave that to the comments.

This is a good movie, actually worth owning as part of a dvd collection in case you can’t watch it three times at one go. The bonus features, on their own, will take another hour to watch.

Three and half spoons.

Without Anthony Hopkins there is no Hannibal.

Pictured above is a younger Hannibal Lecter, played by Gaspard Ulliel (courtesy of IMDB), in the prequel to Red Dragon Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal - Hannibal Rising.
I'd grown to love the man eating Lecter after the three movies that are based on Thomas Harris' novels.
I suppose it is unfair to compare Anthony Hopkins, who plays Hannibal in the other three movies, to Ulliel's performance in this last movie.
Hopkins is a brilliant performer and portrayed this cannibalistic doctor as a classy man eater. Whereas I felt Ulliel's portrayal of a younger Lecter was just too raw for my liking.
But it is understandable, after all he does player a younger Lecter.

The story tells of how Lecter grew in to this cannibalistic character and I found it rather predictable really. War, parents killed, left to look after himself and his sisters, enter looters and when there's nothing to eat...

The story of Hannibal Lecter got better and more gripping with each movie. Until this movie. would have rather been a great starting point. Release this movie first and then the rest...

Three spoons.

My woman's day

I was keen to watch Mr Bean goes on holiday, mainly because three weeks have passed without me seeing any DVD’s or movies. So when I went to the video store I was excited at the number of titles that had come in and had not seen.

So my woman’s day was spent on the couch with bacon and eggs for brunch and pasta for dinner and a lot of bits and goodies in between. This is my ultimate way to recharge my batteries and it works wonders!

Of all the titles I had not seen, that were released during my involuntary movie fast, Mr Bean was one and I saw, Ghost Rider, Stranger than Fiction and just for good measure I threw in Grimm Love.

Mr Bean works in 30 minute bits. That’s it that’s all. I adore Mr Bean but if you have seen all the seasons on TV, then you have seen this movie. Nothing new. I think actually one of the episodes was entitled Mr Bean goes on holiday where he goes through the trouble of changing from his pants to his swimming trunks (trying not to expose himself) only to find out that the only other person on the beach is blind and would not have seen his private bits if he exposed them. Mr Bean was made for short bits on TV and if he is going to make movies then he must stick to short roles like 4 weddings and a funeral.

On to Stranger than Fiction. Loved the cast and love the fact that Will Ferrell is going a little more into cerebral humour. I like Will, falls into my Jim Carrey and even the Farrelly Brothers category. They make me laugh out loud and I will take that any day! Stranger than Fiction itself was not fresh enough I think, it was entertaining and you have to sit back and just enjoy Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman. It reminded me of Adaptation, this is not a bad thing, it reminded me of the Truman Show which is also not a bad thing. But I suppose one does not want to be reminded and be comparing movies to other movies. I say again, there is finite number of original ideas in the world and all we can do is shift the perspective a little.

Ghost rider. Nicolaas Cage looks anorexic in this one. Besides that little fact, do not see it, it is just bad.

Then came Grimm Love. You will find this title in the dark corner of the new releases, where it should stay. I am sure you remember the recent story of the guy that ate his lover? Do we really want to know why? I thought I did. After seeing the movie I don’t know why and actually, now I know that I do not want to know.

So Beenz, if you have not seen any of the above yet, go with Stranger than Fiction. Everything else is crap!

Pan’s Labyrinth

This movie will catch you off guard and make you believe that magic lives, at least in a child’s imagination and what could be stronger. What is stronger than the imagination of a child not yet jaded, a child who sees realities of the world but still has a cache of magic to draw power from. What is more magical than when that reality of the world comes crashing down, that the child has this magic to hang on to and that magic is true for this and the next world.

There is no movie to compare this to! Not the Chronicles of Narnia or Alice in Wonderland. They are children’s movies which adults can enjoy.

Pan is not a kid’s movie. It is violent and scary but these are the realities that kids are exposed to. Never mind the Spanish Civil War. Kids everywhere (those who are lucky) are dodging bullets and abuse and being orphans. Think about Kabelo Duiker’s the Hidden Star, or even Thirteen Cents. You don’t really even have to go that far. Open the Cape Times and you will read about what children have to escape on a daily basis.

See this one and vow to be the Mercedes in other children’s lives and pray that you don’t get there before it’s too late.

Enchanted five spoons

Is the romantic comedy dead?

Or is it in intensive care. Do you remember the way that they used to make them? Think, Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey, think, When Harry Met Sally, think Moonlight and Valentino, think Chasing Amy, As Good as it Gets. Annie Hall, even Pretty Woman and an Officer and a Gentleman? What (the f) have you seen recently that measures up?!

I rented Music and Lyrics the other day and I started thinking when last did I watch just a feel good romantic comedy. Not Sna/itch with Will Smith spreading non truths, or Jennifer Aniston looking puzzled. I am not talking about 101 ways to lose a guy or stupid David Duchovny trying to woo Mienne Driver who is dying of some other disease. Not Charlize Bloody Theron trying to get Keanu to get his freak on. What the f, has happened to just… ahhhh.

Anybody watch Fever Pitch/Perfect Match with the comically attractive Jimmy Fallon. Now that! Was one in a million! It was great but it is pity that one has to wait so long before you find that oh so funny! fantastic love story like Fever Pitch. One has to go through bloody, Music and Lyrics. Now that was (I thought) a good idea. When I saw the trailer I thought, hhhmmmm maybe that will do it for me.

Stay away from it. It is bad, it is so bad that I wonder about Drew and Hugh. Drew was excellent in Fever Pitch. Love Actually was actually quite good with Hugh and his weird dancing. You also have to give props to Four Weddings and a Funeral and Nottinghill.

But lately I have just been deprived of what could be. Romantic comedies is where I go to when I lose hope, when I think, argh, there is nobody there for me?! I go to the video store and rent somin', somin' and it is all right with the world. But the latest releases just do not measure up.

What is your ultimate romantic movie. What do you rent when you need to restore faith in Cupid? Let me know because I am running out of ideas, as always!

Here we go again - The Secret

I had a vision three times, of the red wax seal that is the cover of The Secret. I had a dream about it, do not remember the dream but I remember the seal, I walked into a book store and there it was again at the counter. Today after spending about half an hour in the video store I saw the red seal again and decided to take it. Eerie, well, my restless subconscious is maybe trying to tell me something.

If you knew me you would know ….that I am not gullible, in fact I am probably a very cynical person, about the world, about people and about my own self. So I take these motivational type, key to success and abundance, with a good dollop of salt.

D’you remember the What the Bleep do we know? You can say that The Secret is Part Deux of What the Bleep. Nothing new really, same premise, that we create our own reality.

It is difficult to live consciously. When you have to think about all your intentions instead of just reacting to your circumstances, that is difficult. I did not forget about What the Bleep, it is always at the back of ones mind but I have not tested it. I do think that we are responsible for our circumstances but I also believe that we also get dealt a hand, flip of a coin. It says that there is no such thing as luck, bad or good, we cause it. This makes me uncomfortable because there is just way too much pain in the world and I can not believe that those who are feeling it brought it on themselves.

What I was waiting for, what the secret could not tell me, was how do you change the next person’s life? How do you intend to make the next person richer and happier and fulfilled? If that secret exists, I would love to get it. And don’t tell me it all starts with me!

Oh, and the secret is ATTRACTION. Watch the first five minutes of the movie and you get the answer. Simple? Try it.

Dreamgirls

Jennifer Jennifer, Jennifer Hudson, the Oscar was so yours.

I obviously don’t know what the judges look for when they choose one person over another. For me, for what Jennifer made me feel watching her, the way she pulled me in, for her passion and her beauty, her fucking incredible voice, for all this and more she got the Oscar!!!

Usually we are pulled in by the story, but this story has been told so many times before, we are pulled in by CG screens, funny and intelligent scripts, this one was simple enough, we tend to be pulled in by beautiful people and incredible stunts.

Dreamgilrs had very little of the above, its saving grace Jennifer Hudson carried this movie on her back. I have never heard of this woman before today. What an utterly stunning performance. I cried.

Let’s go back to who she was up against,
Adriana Barraza in “Babel”
Cate Blanchett in “Notes on a Scandal”
Abigail Breslin in “Little Miss Sunshine”
Jennifer Hudson in “Dreamgirls”
Rinko Kikuchi in “Babel”

Although the above were interesting performances, none of them won me over, I could not sympathize with Cate Blanchet, it was a difficult part, being a pedophile and all, the Babel characters were just weird; and as gorgeous and cute as that girl is in little miss sunshine, all they had to do was fatten her up and put nerdy glasses on her., my nine year old niece could have done just as good a job!

The thing about Jennifer, is that although you have the orchestra or the band supporting her incredible voice, the drums and the base guitar and the piano, and the camera work, she rose above all of these and sang her heart out and made us believe. Beyonce can sing but you can not get over the fact that she is as interesting as cardboard really. Jennifer, oh Jennifer.

Okay, I have thought about it a little bit more, about why I like her so much when she sang, her performance felt familiar to me! And one day, others will recognize!

Driving Lessons is hilarious - go see it

It's not often that I enjoy a movie as much as I did Driving Lessons. There's really two things that I look for - which I'm sure is what most people look for - it's gotta be a special movie and it's gotta be a great story. Various things add to this. But first, lets tell you what the story is about.

Ster Kinekor says: Described as a mix between The Graduate and Harold & Maude this is a coming-of-age story about a teenager whose staid world is upended when he is employed by a retired actress.

Ben (Harry Potter's Rupert Grint) lives in London with his stern and religious mother (Laura Linney) who allows him to do little more in his school holidays than attend Bible classes, learn to drive, and do his bit at an old-age home. But, when this son of a vicar finds a job (through the pages of parish magazine, 'Hello Jesus') with eccentric retired actress Evie (Julie Walters), his life takes a completely different turn.

Evie's unconventional and sometimes bizarre behavior challenges Ben's beliefs, and forces him to confront the very idea of who he wants to be. But, when it appears that his freedom is about to be whisked from under him as rapidly as it came, Ben has to choose whether to conform or live life as the individual that he has become.

Okay going back to what I was saying about it being a special movie and a great story. By this I mean that I'd much prefer to watch a movie who's story line I haven't seen before as opposed to something like the award winning the Departed which I swear has been written a million times before.
The stuff you'll find at Cinema Nouveau are usually winners. I love eccentric characters and Evie in this movie...I just loved her. She shapes the movie. Absolutely brilliant. I think I might just end up like her at that age. And then there's Ben, the supposedly unattractive (I thought he was so freakin' hart), virgin weirdo with an equally strange mother and father - is lovely to watch as he breaks out of his cocoon to become somewhat of a butterfly.

FOUR SPOONS

The love that dare not speak its name...

I believe I am a simple creature with simple pleasures and simple pains. But ever since I could read or watch television my preference has tended to be for the out of the ordinary, the unusual and the surprising. This is true for anybody, we don’t want to be reading or watching the same stories over and over again do we?

Growing up I remember those teeny bopper romantic flicks that caused the way I see relationships now. You remember Pretty in Pink, the ugly duckling story, for example. Now that was one of my favourites. Another book/movie that made a lasting impression on my young romantic mind was Wuthering Heights. It broke my heart it was beautiful.

The conclusion that my young self came to watching all these movies was that love was not easy and more often than not people who are meant to be together find it difficult to get together but eventually end up together, whether in death or in a relationship. But this is after conquering great difficulties, my favourite difficulty to conquer is the inner battle where you don’t want to admit to yourself that he/she is the one.

The greatest battle is the fight for the love that dare not speak its name. I don’t remember the first gay movie I watched or the first gay story I read. I remember I was always into Stephen Fry and loved the stories about the English public boys only schools. I remember Threesome and watched it over and over again all the way through varsity. I remember Maurice and Tales of the City, My own Private Idaho and Midnight Cowboys. Then came a different kind of gay movie for me which made me laugh and love and enjoy the art that is to be a drag queen. Pricilla Queen of the Desert comes to mind. Even Russell Crowe did it for me in the Sum of Us!

I loved these books and these movies because nothing beats ‘forbidden’ love and I search for this kind of intensity in my own life where I get into impossible situations where my attraction to someone is so intense but forbidden, I still have not found my happy ending.

There are however those gay movies that are just bad! There is nothing worse than a bad gay movie and even though we are bombarded by bad teeny bopper movies all the time starring buffy the vampire slayer they are still avoidable because you know not to go there.

Push Play (virtual video shop that has an amazing selection of DVD’s) has opened a whole new world to me. They have a great selection of movies and I am going through their gay movies. I am finding out that they are not always so great and it pains me to say that. What makes them so bad is that I feel that they are made for those dirty old gay men who have fantasies about under age kids and it is just so borderline. It’s like watching that horrible movie Kids. There might be a reason why Kids was made but I bet you the pedophiles out there love it to bits and they are the only ones renting it out.

But there’s also a different kind of bad gay movie where they stereo type gay men. Movies that think that gay men are only out there to turn straight men. Drag queens who are just a cliché and have no creative insults. These I also try to avoid but not having not seen the trailers it is difficult to judge what’s going to be bad. I am going through the list on push play and some of the movies are gems, like The Trip. Some just leave you feeling very dirty.

I have to say something about Brokeback Mountain. When I first watched this movie I cried for a week, and then I went back and watched it again and cried for another week, and then I found the short story it is based on and read it and cried for another week. This was the ultimate romantic tragedy for me and I hope more directors like Ang Lee make the choice to tell these stories. The love that dare not speak its name whose story needs to be told, in all its variations.

Is there hope for all us in the world? One of few things I remember from my education, a philosopher philosophied that in the beginning, we were all physically attached to our partners in life, something happened and we were separated. We now go through life trying to find the person we are meant to be attached to.

"The Origin of Love"
by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask

When the earth was still flat,,
And clouds made of fire,
And mountains stretched up to the sky,
Sometimes higher,
Folks roamed the earth
Like big rolling kegs.
They had two sets of arms.
They had two sets of legs.
They had two faces peering
Out of one giant head
So they could watch all around them
As they talked; while they read.
And they never knew nothing of love.
It was before the origin of love.

The origin of love.

And there were three sexes then,
One that looked like two men
Glued up back to back,
Called the children of the sun.
And similar in shape and girth
Were the children of the earth.
They looked like two girls
Rolled up in one.
And the children of the moon
Were like a fork shoved on a spoon.
They were part sun, part earth,
Part daughter, part son.

The origin of love.

Now the gods grew quite scared
Of our strength and defiance
And Thor said,
"I'm gonna kill them all
With my hammer,
Like I killed the giants."
But Zeus said, "No,
You better let me
Use my lightning, like scissors,
Like I cut the legs off the whales,
Dinosaurs into lizards."
And then he grabbed up some bolts
He let out a laugh,
Said, "I'll split them right down the middle,
Gonna cut them right up in half."
And then storm clouds gathered above
Into great balls of fire

And then fire shot down
From the sky in bolts
Like shining blades
Of a knife.
And it ripped
Right through the flesh
Of the children of the sun
And the moon
And the earth.
And some Indian god
Sewed the wound up into a hole,
Pulled it round to our belly
To remind us of the price we pay.
And Osiris and the gods of the Nile
Gathered up a big storm
To blow a hurricane,
To scatter us away,
In a flood of wind and rain,
And a sea of tidal waves,
To wash us all away,
And if we don't behave
They'll cut us down again
And we'll be hopping around on one foot
And looking through one eye.

Last time I saw you
We had just split in two.
You were looking at me.
I was looking at you.
You had a way so familiar,
But I could not recognize,
'Cause you had blood on your face;
I had blood in my eyes.
But I could swear by your expression
That the pain down in your soul
Was the same as the one down in mine.
That's the pain,
That cuts a straight line
Down through the heart;
We called it love.
So we wrapped our arms around each other,
Tried to shove ourselves back together.
We were making love,
Making love.
It was a cold dark evening,
Such a long time ago,
When by the mighty hand of Jove,
It was a sad story
How we became
Lonely two-legged creatures,
It's the story of
The origin of love.
That's the origin of love.

So I watched Rra bubi

So is it Rra bubi, or Rabubi?
Spiderman number three. Hmmmmmm. Look, I think I generally enjoy these super hero movies. Kinda gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling - that good will always triumph over evil.
That 'there's no need to worry' kind of feeling - everything will be alright.

Well Spiderman wasn't all that. Whoever did the trailer is a genius because that's about the only thing that got me wanting to see the movie on the big screen. Well that and my love for Rabubi.
The comic strip was so good, that no matter how bad the movie is - I still appreciate it because I appreciated the comic strip. I could say the same about batman, spiderman, X-Men, Hulk and so on. (the X-Men movies were phenomenal though - didn't mean to bunch it up with the rest of the no so greats).

It's as if they just came up with a couple of different ideas - completely different from one another and tried to bridge those idea together. They tried to do too much in one movie. They should have stuck with one idea. I'd wait for it on Mnet if I were you.

Lucky number sleven

Josh Hartnet (who I'd only ever seen in teen flicks - is absolutely brilliant), Bruce Willis (who is made for these kinds of movies), Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman (less challenging roles), Stanley Tucci (who I adored in Shall We Dance) and Lucy Lui (who reminds me of how much I miss Ally McBeal) are the stars of the show.

The set, consisting largely of dizzying wallpaper, is New york and the story centres around Slevin, a girl, a cop, two mob bosses called THE BOSS and THE RABBI and a mysterious assassin. There is but one twist on this movie, and you won't catch on till...well I didn't catch on till about ten minutes before the end of the movie and I'm usually good with these kinds of twisted movies.

Brokensword, if you haven't seen this one - I'm sure you'll like it a lot. It's 'thrilling'.

Clerks 2

I am a fan of Kevin Smith. I fell in love with Jay and Silent Bob in Chasing Amy (one of my all time favourite movies) when Silent Bob tells the story of chasing Amy. I had seen clerks and enjoyed it. Then came Dogma and I was blown away. Jay and Silent Bob Strike back was hilarious! Jersey Girl was just too main stream for me.

And now there is Clerks 2 and I am thinking, hhmm, is this the end? Too crude, although I loved Wanda Sikes’ cameo. Nothing new. There is a scene in the movie where the two friends are in a jail cell and they confess their undying love for each other. This was done in Chasing Amy when Banky and Holden contemplate a three way with Holden’s girlfriend. It was unique, and it was heartfelt and not it gets repeated on Clerks 2.

I don’t want to say that Kevin has lost his touch but he lost me a little bit by making this not-worthwhile sequel. Dick and fart and masturbation jokes can only take you so far until it starts getting tired.

Television is the pits...

Haai no maan.
I'm going to go back to hi-fi corporation and demand my money back. Yes hi-fi corporation and not the sabc or etv...I don't want my television anymore.
You know I spoke about IPTV the other day...and some months ago about 18 different companies wanting to enter the paytv market (think dstv). SABC being one of the players.
I'm thinking if the SABC can't make three channels (four if you count SABC Africa) - would I want to have their paytv version?
e-tv's also vying for a paytv licence...they can't even get their soapies right. Who would want to buy a paytv version of their offering.
Haai no maan. You know I don't even turn the television on anymore.
If those sabc fuckers dare call me again wanting me to pay a tv licence, I'm gonna tell them I don't watch television. I don't need a licence anymore. Sheesh...the cheak. You know last year they kept hounding me about a licence for a good three months. I paid their silly bums and they kept calling...now I'm going to tell them straight up - I don't watch TV anymore.
Truelly I don't.
I have it so I can watch DVDs - I wonder what they'll say to that.
Thank God for the Internet, otherwise I really don't know what I'd do with myself.

Perfect Stranger

I absolutely adore Giovanni Ribisi. Can't remember when I first fell in love with him...maybe it was the other sister, no...earlier than that. Him and Edward Norton - my absolute favourite actors.

I know they can sourta get typecast. But I just love the characters they play. It's no different in Perfect Stranger. Ribisi plays a tekkie (computer geek) with a rather interesting fetish. He always plays these off-ish characters. I love it.

Would have lurved to see him and Halle Berry smooching (he wanted to so bad...too bad). You know it's so very hard to fault a really good looking person. She's brilliant in this movie just cause she's gorgeous.

Oh and Bruce Willis...don't think he pulled off the advertising company founder character all that well. I prefer him in the Die Hard (which is coming out soon - I think number 4) or the "I see dead people" type movie. He just can't play a normal guy.

Anywhos - the movie is a drama apparently, but I think it's more of a thriller. A light thriller if ever there was such. What I loved about it, is the fact that I got the story completely wrong. I'm often on point with these kinds of movies...but I got it wrong. It ain't a bad movie - watch it if you can't think of anything better to watch. It's mildly entertaining.

The Samas are hating on Tumi...

Look, I don't pretend to be a music guru - far from it. I'm a normal joeline, that has her own personal taste - and that's all you need to know before reading what I have to say.
De La Rey was nominated for song of the year???
Ms Dana was the queen of the night with four awards. Big ups to her, I love that woman's music and whoever does her outfits is right on point.
Tumi...they tricked him didn't they. They made him think he was going to win by putting two of his albums up for nomination and then letting that Flabba get it. Look, I enjoy Flabba's music - it's fun. After watching the choice of winners for the best rap album category over the years - I gotta start asking myself, who's judging that category. It just seemed to me that they just go on whatever's popular. Is that how judging works?
My other disappointment was Lvovo - that dude deserved to kick Kabelo's ass/arse - one time. Did you check out his performance. I love him. I just love him.
SBU...only his fans would have voted him for song of the year. I mean how does HE win song of the year for a song that ain't even his? These compilation CDs are just shyte in my mind.
Kabelo as a host wasn't a bad idea. He just irritated me when he started getting undressed - distasteful I though. Might have worked for the dukuduku awards or something as mediocre.
Must say that One presenter - too lazy to google his name, is one of the best presenters I've seen on SA television yet.
Was glad Vusi Mahlasela got best male - he's freakin brilliant. I love him. Did you see him get down with that rock band. I thought the collaboration was just off the hinges.

Adaptation

So it is a Friday night and no DVD, no movie, no TV. The Cape Town Jazz Festival is happening all around me and my computer decides to crash. My first crash mind you and I think I took it rather well (maybe it was because of the 2 glasses of wine I had at lunch, hmmm). My first computer crash and on a Friday when you ready yourself to go home at the strike of five, not nice. Well, left work at about 7 and still had to go back for the programme that allows me to make this post at home.

I reckoned I could not really miss anything on TV as there is no TV for me, and I just can not bare a weekend without the internet and TV. So went back to the office and now am back and we have success.

I think I was meant to be an IT person because really, hey, I am back online and my outlook did not lose anything that I should miss. It’s good really. I think we all need our computers to crash every once in while if only to figure out how the heck stuff works.

Anyway, I am supposed to be writing about all the things I can get up to without a TV.

1. I do not have to rush back home, from gym so that I do not miss the 19h30 drama. Tuesday is Gilmore Girls which I have outgrown (no one can have that kind of relationship with their mother! No one should have that kind of relationship with their mother!), On Wednesdays it is some stupid detective story which I watch because hey I am on my couch and something is on TV. On Thursday is the etv movie that has been repeated 200 times. Friday, oh Friday, that is the test as I usually treat myself to the latest DVD’s from the video store. I am doing okay, I will survive, I have to survive.
2. I do not have to watch crappy shows
3. I can be a snob. When co workers are standing around the coffee machine and talk about the previous night’s episode of CSI, I can say, ‘oh, I do not have television, I am just finishing the latest book by Stephen Hawking, you should really read it, it is fantastic’.
4. I have time. I can wash dishes and pack them away, and have a bath and relax.

This is all great. But a long weekend is coming up and I am just too weak to face it without visual entertainment. The boss said to me today, ‘oh, you should get a plasma flat screen TV to replace your Tv’. I hate rich people, they just do not get it.


I am going to break this weekend and I will probably get the TV fixed or get one of those rock bottom cheap ones and just give in.

If it is between paying R500 for a weekend’s entertainment at the Jazz or R500 for 6 months worth of lousy TV, my choice is made. Now if I can just find the R500.

300

So the Oscar fever is gone and it is time to get back to normal cinema. Time to get back to choosing to watch a movie because the preview was just so dammed enticing.

A simple story really. Wikipedia says: ‘Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fight to the last man against Persian King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his army of more than one million soldiers, while in Sparta, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) attempts to rally support for her husband.’ So that is the story. That is it, klaar, kaput. Simple, uncomplicated, no twists and turns or clever story lines.

I had to go see this movie. It was for me like seeing the preview to the Matrix or Lord of the Rings and thinking damn, I have to see this movie. gave And before I saw it, Barry Ronge gave it the thumbs up (I think) and Adam Swindler (sp) gave it the thumbs down. I had to determine for myself. I have determined that it is what it is and it is good.

I especially love the slow mo they do in the fighting scenes. The whole feel of the movie reminded me a lot of the feel of Sin City. Although I enjoyed the plot of the movie and such but I especially enjoyed the dismembering and the portrayal of blood and strength and eyeballs. In Sin City, Mickey Rourke was my favourite character because he was border line between super strength and normal man that can bleed and feel pain. These are the Spartan Warriors. 300 of the Mickey Rourke character in Sin City.

See this one if only for the visual spectacle. It is amazing.

Three spoons

Rude Boy bounced PABI

I couldn't believe it when I read the news here

Turns out Rude Boy was overlooked for the breakfast job when Fresh made his exit out of YFM.

I remember back in the day when he used to hook up shows like Rap Activity Jam...I thought it revolutionary for radio. Along with that came some social responsibility with the likes of the LoveLive sponsored shows talking sex.
I used to love him. I used to think he was the harrtest thing...I was a teenage girl in love. I'm over it now. Not quite the fan I used to be.

But I reckon he might just help YFM get back on the bandwagon. I don't know, maybe it's just me (I hardly listen to the station these days. I kinda boycotted it after they let Phat Joe leave) but Y's been lacking big time.

PABI...I loved her before radio when she did some PlayTV show on SABC - I thought her funny, and thought she'd be a perfect fit for breakfast on YFM. But like I said, never really listened to the station so angazi.

I do think that these are exciting times for radio. John Perlman and Nikiwe Bikitsha gone at SAFM.

Ezra Ndwande leaving Metro (he didn't quite fill Given Mkhari's big shoes).

Unathi, MacFarlane, Adil, DRE (finally) leaving YFM.

A colleague just pointed this out to me SBU vs RUDEBOY vs BADBOY - BREAKFAST will never be the same again. I'm thinking Gareth Cliff might just be swopped around with Fresh.

It's on April 2 - Ayeye. Exciting times for radio...atleast I hope. Anybody listen to Mo G on Radio2000?

Life without television

My TV is broken. Now I am thinking, should I rush to fix this or should I explore life without TV for a bit, maybe a week, maybe a month. I envy those people who brag that they do not have a TV in their houses. How the heck do they kill time? Bloody snobs, I suppose they read or talk to their children or something boring like that. How do they know what President Mbeki looks like? How do they know what happens in other people’s lives? I suppose newspapers, radio, magazines, the internet kinda fill those gaps. But I am I afraid. Night talk radio is really bad, especially after nine. I suppose catching up on some reading could not hurt. Thing is I feel I read all damn day and when I get home I just want to sit back and be visually entertained. I suppose I could go to the gym at like 8 at night. Let the experiment to find something to do other watch TV begin.

A mad black woman

I just happened to watch the Diary of a mad black woman again last night on DVD.

There are so many moments in that movie...made me angry, infuriated me, had me throwing glasses at the television screen, made me sad, made me smile, made me cheer/whistle/bounce on the couch, made me smile...

The first big moment was after his awards ceremony. That night...she accompanies him to his big night - and behaves like the perfect wife, and he like the perfect gentleman. And then he drives her back home. She wants to celebrate with him. She says, tell me what to do, I'll do anything. And he tells her to get the fuck out of his car.

Next big moment. She takes him lunch at work. Any normal person would have thought, how sweet. As she heads towards his office, he's coming towards him with 'the other woman' and their baby boy. Doesn't even try to make up a story or anything, just takes his lunch and walks back to his office.

THE BEEEEEEEEEG moment. This made me both angry and sad. It's their anniversary day. And he decides he's going to kick her out of the house. She gets home and finds that all her stuff 's been packed and ready to go via removal truck. Her wardrobe's been replaced with new outfits. And she thinks he's surprised her with a new wardrobe. Turns out, the new clothes are for the new 'wife'. She's moving in now.
When she refuses to leave. He literally drags her out the house. Kicking and screaming. Pulls her by the hair even...such a low moment.

Argh there are lots of moment.
My favourite though, is when she gets him back.
He gets shot, and is paralysed from the shoulders down or there about. He can't move, can't feed himself, can'd do a thing but talk. His friends have abandoned him, so his old wife decides she'll nurse him back to health (go figure). But he doesn't appreciate this at all. Starts talking shit to her again.
She gives him a nice big klap on the face. WHAH! SHUT UP she says. Then she decides to lave him his wheel chair for a couple of days. No food, no bath, no toilet...there's a scene where she's eating in front of him and he starts to cry cause he's that hungry...shame (don't mess with woman doggie).

The movie is obviously over done. But it's fun.
Karma is a...

John Pearlman

So what the hell is all the fuss about.

I woke up on 2 March 2007 at about 07h30 to John Pearlman's last show on SAFM. I got hooked. Because it was his last show he had there were all kinds of people calling in and wishing well and begging him to stay and all and all. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the man I am just amazed at all the attention he is getting. For goodness sakes the man even got a full page add in the Mail & Guardian!!!1. What the hell is that about?

I am a talk radio freak and listen to all the crap that is out there because, well... eish... I don't know.

I am one of those people who was forced to listen to SAFM because I am ridding in the car with the folks and that is what they listen to. I grew up and I, by choice, listen to SAFM because there was just nothing else out there for me. Lucky my commute is only about 10 minutes.

But is he not just like any other presenters? I listened to his last show and even Trevor Manuel had some parting words for good ole John. What the f....

During his last show he played some of his most memorable interviews and one of them was when he interviewed the guy that had just climbed Everest. yeahey... Wooohooo.

When it comes to radio I am a SLUT! I switch and change and look for the most interesting thing that is happening in the morning. Now because 567 is still trying to find its balance between black, white and coloured, most of the time I tend to be listening to SAFM.

He was good but gees, full page ad? I suppose because he spoke up against the SABC and all and all. He also had that TV show that was not approved by the snukis etc and that whole fiasco? You remember? I suppose the M&G thought it would be a nice gesture to ask a few people to contribute to a full page ad to say what's up to somebody they edify with in terms of number of law suites.

The AM Live show to me was a formula show and there was, nothing spectacular about it. Get a few, news stories, together and decided on the one that you will talk about more.

More often than not, the presenters of these shows know absolutely jack about what they interview a person about. It is all about winging it and making it look like you know what you are talking about! Kudos to the research people and the producers for getting their presenters up top speed!

God help me I am going to be crucified.

John Pearlman is good, but I suppose poor Jeremy Maggs has got some inflated shoes to fill. Go Jeremy. We look forward to engaging with you on all the pertinent issues affecting the state of our country. Salute!

boohooo, John is going, look forwarc to hearing him on 702 or 567 or Metro etc etc...My prediction? I think he loves talk shows and he might resurface on %^&!!! hah hah.

Let my lynching begin!!!

Children of men... avoid this one if you can!!!!

Shantih Shantih Shantih, what the hell does that mean? This is what comes up at the end of the credits.

So I go to the video store and they have new releases and I see that one of them is Children of Men! Now, what ever you’ve hear about this movie does not nearly do it justice. It is bad, it is probably one of the worst movies that I have ever seen. I do not get it and I do not wish to get it.

It is not like those other movies where you know you do not get something and you want to so you watch the movie again to get what ever you are suppose to get? Not with this one. What ever I was supposed to get, I do not mind that I did not. I am probably better off not getting it anyway.

What a load of crap! NO SPOONS, not one!!!!

My Name Is Earl

Since we are on this deep stuff and how movies get us thinking about other possibilities, I could not help thinking about My Name Is Earl!

This is a 30 minutes sitcom on Mnet. Now I don’t have Mnet so I decided one day (when the prospect of taking out another movie that would disappoint me to no end was just too much) to get the first My Name Is Earl DVD of about 5 or 6 episodes.

Now I like dark comedies but this one also has an interesting message. The whole premise of the show is that Earl was your run of the mill not so good guy! He stole, drank at 10 in the morning and did not so good things. So it so happens that he wins money in those scratchy card things but immediately after, he gets hit by a car, loses the winning scratchy card and lands up in hospital. While lying in hospital he catches a Carson Daily show and Carson is talking about Karma, that if you do bad things bad things will happen to you if you do good things … well you get the gist.

So this changes Earl’s whole perspective and he makes a list of all the bad things he has ever done and vows to make up for it so that his life can get better. So in each episode of the show he has to cross out something from his list but with each item, he learns something and becomes a better person. His winning scratchy card even finds his way back to him.

The show is hilarious and Jason Lee is just even more hilarious (also loved him when he played the closeted gay man on Chasing Amy and the devil in Dogma). The characters are funny and it is just a good show about one man’s decision on how he is going to go about this thing called life.

Check out his break dancing in the second disk in the episode where his ex wife gets remarried.

Perhaps all we CAN do is to PURSUE happiness

I finally got to see MY movie of the year.
MY best picture...the darn oscars just don't get what it takes for a movie to outshine the rest. If they did, they would have recognised Pursuit of Happyness as a winner.

Before I delve into the actual movie.
I want you to consider this...and perhaps I may be stretching my imagination a bit.
But why is it that Haile Barry (having acted in so many movies) won best actress for a movie portraying a black woman in a negative light.
Why is it that Denzel Washington (having acted in so many movies) won for best actor in a movie that portrayed a black man in a negative light.
Why is it that Forrest Whitaker (having never been noticed) won best actor in a movie that portrayed a black man in a negative light.

These aren't sour worms about Will Smith not winning. Will will win an oscar in the future - and watch what character he would have been portraying when he wins that oscar.
And ask yourself why not Ali, and why not Pursuit of Happyness.
Everybody knows Muhammad Ali. Few will know Chris Gardner, whose life story The Pursuit of Happyness is based on.
His life story is remarkable, of how at one stage he was homeless and living at a shelter with his young son and later triumphed to become chief executive of his own brokerage company.
I won't delve into the story too much because I don't want to spoilt it for you. But the movie makes you think about your own passion, your own resilience, your own drive...or lack thereof.

For me it was the lack thereof. It made me think about whether I've ever pursued something with all my might and gotten it. Something substantial, something that changed my life. And I couldn't think of any such thing.
I want to feel what Gardner felt having put all his soul into something that he believed in. Having lost everything in the process. And then getting that thing that he wanted. That he worked his ass off to get. That he deserved. I want to feel what that's like.

It wasn't the acting so much that moved me, the story was just amazing.
Apparently this Gardner dude is making some big investment in SA. But that's herese for now.

It's a shame really

You know, just because Martin Scorsese was overlooked for so many years, they decide to over do it this year. Sure he deserves best director but best picture? Any way, here are the winners:

Best Motion Picture: The Departed
Lead Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King Of Scotland
Lead Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Directing: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Foreign Language Film: The Lives Of Others, Germany
Adapted Screenplay: William Monahan, The Departed
Original Screenplay: Michael Arndt, Little Miss SunshineA
nimated Feature Film: Happy Feet
Art Direction: Pan's Labyrinth
Cinematography: Pan's Labyrinth

Sound Mixing: Dreamgirls
Sound Editing: Letters From Iwo Jima
Original Score: Babel, Gustavo Santaolalla
Original Song: I Need to Wake Up from An Inconvenient Truth, Melissa Etheridge
Costume: Marie Antoinette
Documentary Feature: An Inconvenient Truth
Documentary Short Subject: The Blood Of Yingzhou District
Film Editing: The Departed
Makeup: Pan's Labyrinth
Animated Short Film: The Danish Poet
Live Action Short Film: West Bank Story
Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Jean Hersholt Award (Oscar statuette): Sherry Lansing.
Honorary Academy Award (Oscar statuette): Ennio Morricone.

My money and my crossed fingers are on Little Miss Sunshine

Okay, so I have now watched all the best picture nominations and they are:

Babel
The Departed
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

The only movie that stands out and should win I think, should be Little Miss Sunshine. It is certainly lighter than the others, it does not have heavy weights like Stevin Spielberg and Martin Scorsese and Stephen Frears behind it. But it is the deepest and most universal and least ambitious and least phony artsy. It is what it is and that is my best motion picture pic for the year.

Having said that, I was watching a show on how much butt kissing and PR and advertising these movies need to do to be considered for an Oscar nomination. If you don’t get your movie out there and promote it, you simply do not have a chance of being nominated for an Oscar or any other award. It just makes me feel so cheap to know that I am going to see these movies because they simply got the budget to get themselves noticed.

Letters from Iwo Jima

So it’s a World War 2 movie told from the point of view we don’t get to see very often, the Japanese side. For the first time we get to see that the other side also has emotion, personality, and most importantly that they are not so keen about death, that it is not so easy to choose to die for one’s country even if you are Japanese.

I could not help thinking that I was watching Saving Private Ryan (before the credits came up) but from the other side. This is the only bad thing about the movie, whikch is very significant. It is American and tends to give American tributes to a foreign culture. It has that American way of telling a story (with its main characters, that you have seen a million times before in other formulaic American movies) that makes the movie less than what it could be.

Overall it is worth watching. It is gripping and you will connect with the characters even with the sub titles.

Babel

If I was a voting member of the academy, then I would not vote for Babel.

We’ve had this before, so… so… often before. I just want an easier movie to watch!

I saw Traffic and I hate to bring it up in the same blog as Babel. They are just very different movies and have absolutely nothing in common!!! Except the Mexican border maybe.

But I just feel these short story types wound up into a movie where the characters have something in common are just done to death. Give me a story that tells a story from A to Z, not fro Z to T to B to Omega!

It was gripping and I enjoyed seeing Brad Pitt not throwing his hands around like a mad man. But I am sick of these movies. Crash won, this style of film making where the audience has a job to try and see how the characters are connected before the movie ends is just very tiring for me.

So, so far, I will be voting for Little Miss Sunshine (if I had the vote that is) to win the Oscar on Monday!

Watch Babel, it is good and all and all…

Give it 3 spoons.

I can only watch one other movie before Oscar night and not sure what it should be, The Last King of Scotland, Clint Eastwood, Dream Girls? Oh to be me!!!

Syriana...BOOOOOOooooo!

Is it me?
The first time I rented this movie - I fell asleep.
I thought I'd give it another chance so I rented it on Saturday and guess what happened?
I fell asleep.

George Clooney and a bad movie make the movie that much worse.
I will only rent this movie a third time, if somebody convinces me that I'm wrong either about him, or the movie.

FYI: A politically-charged epic about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved and affected by it (I had to google that).

I am jaguar paw

In my mind, Mel Gibson is a genius. Move over Steven Spielberg.

For some reason I imagined Apocalypto to be about Gods. So I thought I'd be seeing Gods. Don't ask me where I got the idea, but from what I'd read about the movie (seemingly very little) I got a sense that the movie was about one man fighting for the survival of humankind. Fighting the Gods themselves actually.

Perhaps that's an idea for another movie.

Apocalypto was long but absolutely brilliant.I mean apart from some of the camera shots that made the movie look cheap...specifically when the characters were running - just didn't work for me. They tried to make it look like the characters we moving at exceptionally high speed, so effectively to the viewer it looked like say - what a camera would capture when trying to take a picture in a fast moving vehicle. A blurred shot that looks like it's in motion.

Anyhow, I thought the acting was just brilliant.I think I'm tired of seeing the typical Hollywood movie, with the typical Hollywood stars...it's just boring. It's nice to see some new faces.

The lead, Rudy Youngblood, who plays jaguar paw (pictured above), is fascinating to watch.

Even though you kinda know what's going to happen pretty much throughout the movie, from the moment another Mayan (by the way this movie is based on the Mayan civilization) from another far away village passes through jaguar paw's village says 'our village was ravaged. We are looking for new beginning' - it's still great entertainment.

Don't want to spoil it for you...so I won't go into detail really. But go watch it. Watched it with the lover this evening and he reckons there will definitely be a sequel.

reviewers

Today I heard and read the review on the Pursuit of Hapiness and I got crushed. Heartwarmer, you have been building this movie up for me for so long that I was looking so much to it. And then today, I listened to Alan Swirdler (sp) and Barry Ronger and read Finance Week review and they are not so flatering over the movie. Maybe I should be reading and listening to other reviwers! But they are somehow now killing it for me. So I am making this promise that I will go and see it with an open mind!!!

Click and Adam Sandler

A lot of people see Adam Sander and they run the opposite direction. But with me, I don't know what it is about this guy he just entertains me. I love Adam Saddler and I will watch what ever stupid movie he has made because? I think he gets me and I get him. He has a way of pointing out the obvious that does not make you feel like an alien. Take movies like 'Spanglish' and 'Punch Drunk Love' and even '50 First Dates'. Now these are a little above average movies. He has a way about him that I like.

Now Click was pushed as am simple 'what would you do if you could....' type movie. But it goes beyond that and explores family relationships, and mortality and etc, etc... i am not saying that it is one of the top movies ever but as I was watching the end I could not help but think about the other scene in a great movie. @It's a Wonderful Life'. That scene when George Baily gets his life back and realises that it's not so bad, and goes around the town screaming that hey, its not so bad, I love my life and I love my family and those inconvenient moments. Zuzu's petals, zuzu's petals, yeahhhhhh! Now that was a film.

Click tries to capture that and it does not do too bad a job! That scene when he realises that he was dreaming and gets up and says to the weird guy: 'You want a friend, I'll be your friend' and he picks the weird guy up and throws him on the bed. That is classic! So here is another feel good movie with a twist. Get it! if you are a happy Madison fan you will enjoy, and if you are not, you will also enjoy.

It even got a lump on my throat which I did not expect. Out damb lump!

This is a fun movie, you should just enjoy!

How many poeple have come and gone?

How many people have come and gone in the world. How many hearts have been broken and how many have suffered?

How many souls have discovered the hereafter, how many have not.

How many more??? How much more???

What is the point? What is the purpose?

Pain can not get destroyed, like energy, it just gets transferred from one form to another. Is this the balance that occurs then? For all the pain there is now, in a distant future, this becomes something else, we choose.

But that does not comfort, thinking about all those who have come and gone. How many have there been? Is it even possible to fathom?

My heart hurts

Three colours trilogy – Krysztof Kieslowski

Whenever I am out of ideas of movies to watch, when the thought of taking out some teen romantic movie or a stupid thriller leaves me spending hours in the video shop trying to figure out which crappy movie I should take, I turn towards the international movies.

A few of years ago, almost a decade, this was not second choice, foreign films were my first choice, I sought the foreign films because for me, then, they contained more depth and intrigue than your Hollywood movies.

I specifically remember the three colours trilogy. I was in Grahamstowns and I had no choice but to see every single movie that went through the Odeon and His Majesty’s. Three Colours was one of those movies, Queen Margot and Indochine and the like were others that I thought were just fantastic.

What I like and don’t like most about these foreign films is that I could not really identify that much with the characters. In Hollywood movies, you get use to being spoon fed how you are supposed to feel about what you are seeing, nothings left to personal interpretation. With these flicks one could sit back and figure it out from one’s own context what you should feel.

I watched all three colours this weekend again, the boss bought the trilogy overseas and was kind enough to loan it to me for the weekend. They come with the director’s commentary and I was saddened by all the bits he pointed out that me as the audience am suppose to pick up on but did not. I have a very bad memory and so I could not remember what the stories were about. All I could remember was that I was mostly touched by Blue and there was some kind of connection between the three movies.

Watching it now I struggle to figure out what the connection is. They say as you get older you become more stupid, or your brain loses the capacity to learn new things. Is this what has happened?
I could follow the stories and I could probably give my interpretation of it if I was pushed to do so but it was not as enjoyable as I thought it would be. The only time when I was emotionally touched was during blue and I have to say that music transcends language or culture and almost everything. The music that was being composed for the unification of Europe was beautiful. Set to the words of ‘what is love’ (I think this is a bible verse) it has that operatic thing to it but it does not alienate, it draws you closer and you want the music to go on and on. Beautiful!

If you are feeling for something different that will take you out of yourself and give you a different perspective on film making the order that movies are suppose to take, go get this one.

And if there is someone out there that can engage me on these movies, speak out!

Little Miss Sunshine

There are not a lot of good movies out there. In fact, you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your gem and this is such a gem!

It is not about the people in it although Gregg Kennear, Toni Collett and Alan Arkin were fabulous. It is not about the cinematography or costumes or the score. It is about the feeling you are left with when you walk out of the cinema house and think… now that was not a wasted 2 hours of my life.

Little Miss Sunshine, although a little innocent and simple (I think this is some of the characteristics of a satire) in its portrayal of family dynamics is one of the best feel good movies I have ever seen. (satire – spoof, lampoon; this is more for me than the reader, just so that I remember what it means)

I am not a good story teller I just prefer sharing what I think about flicks, but!, there is this cute but not so pretty little girl that has entered a beauty pageant (EVIL) and she gets to go on to some of regional finals by default. The whole family has to go because of scheduling re arrangements and it therefore is this road movie. The family consists of Olive who is the beauty queen, the older son who has taken a vow of silence until he gets accepted to flying school, grandpa who snots coke, dad who is trying to make it in the self help-motivational speaking market and mom who is just mom who is just mom. OH, and how can I forget, the uncle who tried to kill himself because his lover went with his nemesis.

If you are looking for a nice feel good intelligent yet somehow flawed movie then go see this one if you can. The Labia is still showing it but not sure which other cinemas are.

Doing something for somebody that they can’t do for themselves

A school boy named Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) is given a project to complete by his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey). His task is to come up with a plan that will change the world through direct action.

On his way home from school later that day, Trevor notices a homeless man, and decides he's going to try make a difference in his life and takes him home with him.

Trevor then comes up with a plan to ‘Pay it Forward’ by doing a good deed for three people who must in return each do good deeds for three other people.

The movie is based on a book by Catherine Ryan Hyde, and is one of my favourite movies of all time.

Free to air channel e-tv had it on this afternoon, and I again (must be the 10th time) balled my eye balls out watching the end. But not just the end, the idea of it all…

A little boy in search of hope is inspired by his teacher to change the world. His own life is troubled with his father gone, and a mom who works a lot and has a drinking problem…which means Trevor’s gotta take care of himself.

Trevor loves his mom, and wants her to overcome her problems, but he knows its something she can’t do by herself. So ‘Pay it Forward’, Trevor’s concept, doing something for somebody that they can’t do for themselves (Some intervention is definitely needed in my life right now) is born.

The end is heartbreaking…Trevor tries to help out a friend who is being attacked by bullies. He tries to fight them off…but can’t. One of the boys pulls out a knife…
*sniff sniff.

And stabs Trevor…and he dies. How very sad...

As a side note. I’m really looking forward to Will Smith’s movie Pursuit of Happyness…I just love this touchy feely types.

Oscar Nominations

Oscar Nominations

I have never been interested in the British royal family and could not give a damn what they get up to and what they are thinking.

I saw the queen and all I can say is that Helen Mirren was good (given that I do not know the queen and have had little opportunity to see her in action. All I have to say is that I think it is much easier to portray a real character than to figure out how to make a fictional character real.

So having said that I think there should be a separate category for true life portrayals and fictional ones.

Also saw Blood Diamonds in the past couple of days apparently, Leo has the most authentic South African accent. And it is true. It was very clever the way they worked in the my broer and my chinas into the dialogue. Except, the character that Leo plays is from Zim, hhhmmm. Was a good movie and can’t really say anything bad about. You can’t say anything bad about such movies, movies like Schindler’s list and Hotel Rwanda etc. It is just bad taste.


Courtesy of http://www.oscar.org/

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Leonardo DiCaprio in “Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)

Ryan Gosling in “Half Nelson” (THINKFilm)

Peter O’Toole in “Venus” (Miramax, Filmfour and UK Council)

Will Smith in “The Pursuit of Happyness” (Sony Pictures Releasing)

Forest Whitaker in “The Last King of Scotland” (Fox Searchlight)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Alan Arkin in “Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)

Jackie Earle Haley in “Little Children” (New Line)

Djimon Hounsou in “Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)

Eddie Murphy in “Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)

Mark Wahlberg in “The Departed” (Warner Bros.)

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Penélope Cruz in “Volver” (Sony Pictures Classics)

Judi Dench in “Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight)

Helen Mirren in “The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)

Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” (20th Century Fox)

Kate Winslet in “Little Children” (New Line)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Adriana Barraza in “Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)

Cate Blanchett in “Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight)

Abigail Breslin in “Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)

Jennifer Hudson in “Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)

Rinko Kikuchi in “Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)

Best animated feature film of the year

“Cars” (Buena Vista) John Lasseter

“Happy Feet” (Warner Bros.) George Miller

“Monster House” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Gil Kenan

Achievement in art direction

“Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount) Art Direction: John Myhre Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

“The Good Shepherd” (Universal) Art Direction: Jeannine OppewallSet Decoration: Gretchen Rau and Leslie E. Rollins

“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) Art Direction: Eugenio CaballeroSet Decoration: Pilar Revuelta

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista)Art Direction: Rick HeinrichsSet Decoration: Cheryl A. Carasik

“The Prestige” (Buena Vista)Art Direction: Nathan CrowleySet Decoration: Julie Ochipinti

Achievement in cinematography

“The Black Dahlia” (Universal) Vilmos Zsigmond

“Children of Men” (Universal) Emmanuel Lubezki

“The Illusionist” (Yari Film Group) Dick Pope

“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) Guillermo Navarro

“The Prestige” (Buena Vista) Wally Pfister

Achievement in costume design

“Curse of the Golden Flower” (Sony Pictures Classics) Yee Chung Man

“The Devil Wears Prada” (20th Century Fox) Patricia Field

“Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount) Sharen Davis

“Marie Antoinette” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Milena Canonero

“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Consolata Boyle

Achievement in directing

“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Alejandro González Iñárritu

“The Departed” (Warner Bros.) Martin Scorsese (Martin needs one of these)

“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.) Clint Eastwood

“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Stephen Frears

“United 93” (Universal and StudioCanal) Paul Greengrass (too soon)

Best documentary feature

“Deliver Us from Evil” (Lionsgate)A Disarming Films Production Amy Berg and Frank Donner

“An Inconvenient Truth” (Paramount Classics and Participant Productions)A Lawrence Bender/Laurie David ProductionDavis Guggenheim (Yes? Pick up after yourselves people!!!)

“Iraq in Fragments” (Typecast Releasing)A Typecast Pictures/Daylight Factory Production James Longley and John Sinno

“Jesus Camp” (Magnolia Pictures)A Loki Films ProductionHeidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

“My Country, My Country” (Zeitgeist Films)A Praxis Films Production Laura Poitras and Jocelyn Glatzer

Best documentary short subject

“The Blood of Yingzhou District”A Thomas Lennon Films ProductionRuby Yang and Thomas Lennon

“Recycled Life”An Iwerks/Glad Production Leslie Iwerks and Mike Glad

“Rehearsing a Dream”A Simon & Goodman Picture Company ProductionKaren Goodman and Kirk Simon

“Two Hands” A Crazy Boat Pictures Production Nathaniel Kahn and Susan Rose Behr

Achievement in film editing

“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise

“Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.) Steven Rosenblum

“Children of Men” (Universal) Alex Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón

“The Departed” (Warner Bros.)Thelma Schoonmaker

“United 93” (Universal and StudioCanal) Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson (Not!)

Best foreign language film of the year

“After the Wedding” A Zentropa Entertainments 16 ProductionDenmark

“Days of Glory (Indigènes)” A Tessalit ProductionAlgeria

“The Lives of Others” A Wiedemann & Berg ProductionGermany

“Pan’s Labyrinth” A Tequila Gang/Esperanto Filmoj/Estudios Picasso Production Mexico

“Water” A Hamilton-Mehta Production Canada

Achievement in makeup

“Apocalypto” (Buena Vista) Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano

“Click” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Kazuhiro Tsuji and Bill Corso

“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) David Marti and Montse Ribe

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Gustavo Santaolalla

“The Good German” (Warner Bros.) Thomas Newman

“Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight) Philip Glass

“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) Javier Navarrete

“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Alexandre Desplat

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

“I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth”(Paramount Classics and Participant Productions) Music and Lyric by Melissa Etheridge

“Listen” from “Dreamgirls”(DreamWorks and Paramount) Music by Henry Krieger and Scott CutlerLyric by Anne Preven

“Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls”(DreamWorks and Paramount) Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Siedah Garrett

“Our Town” from “Cars”(Buena Vista)Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

“Patience” from “Dreamgirls”(DreamWorks and Paramount)Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Willie Reale

Best motion picture of the year

“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) An Anonymous Content/Zeta Film/Central Films ProductionAlejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik and Steve Golin, Producers

“The Departed” (Warner Bros.)A Warner Bros. Pictures Production Nominees to be determined (gotta be?)

“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.)A DreamWorks Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures ProductionClint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg and Robert Lorenz, Producers

“Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)A Big Beach/Bona Fide ProductionNominees to be determined

“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)A Granada ProductionAndy Harries, Christine Langan and Tracey Seaward, Producers

Best animated short film

“The Danish Poet” (National Film Board of Canada)A Mikrofilm and National Film Board of Canada ProductionTorill Kove

“Lifted” (Buena Vista)A Pixar Animation Studios Production Gary Rydstrom

“The Little Matchgirl” (Buena Vista)A Walt Disney Pictures ProductionRoger Allers and Don Hahn

“Maestro” (Szimplafilm)A Kedd ProductionGeza M. Toth

“No Time for Nuts” (20th Century Fox)A Blue Sky Studios ProductionChris Renaud and Michael Thurmeier

Best live action short film

“Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)”A Peliculas Pendelton and Tus Ojos ProductionJavier Fesser and Luis Manso

“Éramos Pocos (One Too Many)” (Kimuak)An Altube Filmeak ProductionBorja Cobeaga

“Helmer & Son”A Nordisk Film Production Soren Pilmark and Kim Magnusson

“The Saviour” (Australian Film Television and Radio School)An Australian Film Television and Radio School ProductionPeter Templeman and Stuart Parkyn

“West Bank Story” An Ari Sandel, Pascal Vaguelsy, Amy Kim, Ravi Malhotra and Ashley Jordan ProductionAri Sandel

Achievement in sound editing

“Apocalypto” (Buena Vista) Sean McCormack and Kami Asgar

“Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.) Lon Bender

“Flags of Our Fathers” (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by Paramount)Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman

“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.)Alan Robert Murray

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista)Christopher Boyes and George Watters II

Achievement in sound mixing

“Apocalypto” (Buena Vista)Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Fernando Camara

“Blood Diamond” (Warner Bros.)Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Ivan Sharrock

“Dreamgirls” (DreamWorks and Paramount)Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer and Willie Burton

“Flags of Our Fathers” (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by Paramount) John Reitz, Dave Campbell, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista) Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes and Lee Orloff

Achievement in visual effects

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Buena Vista)John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hall

“Poseidon” (Warner Bros.)Boyd Shermis, Kim Libreri, Chaz Jarrett and John Frazier

“Superman Returns” (Warner Bros.)Mark Stetson, Neil Corbould, Richard R. Hoover and Jon Thum (Nooooooo!)

Adapted screenplay

“Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” (20th Century Fox) Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham & Dan MazerStory by Sacha Baron Cohen & Peter Baynham & Anthony Hines & Todd Phillips

“Children of Men” (Universal)Screenplay by Alfonso Cuarón & Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby

“The Departed” (Warner Bros.) Screenplay by William Monahan

“Little Children” (New Line) Screenplay by Todd Field & Tom Perrotta

“Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight) Screenplay by Patrick Marber

Original screenplay

“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage)Written by Guillermo Arriaga

“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.)Screenplay by Iris YamashitaStory by Iris Yamashita & Paul Haggis

“Little Miss Sunshine” (Fox Searchlight)Written by Michael Arndt

“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse)Written by Guillermo del Toro

“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada)Written by Peter Morgan