You know, I’m thinking I really need to get out a touch more … !
I really do … !
If only for NO other reason than a healthy walk would do me good!
Seriously. I’ve actually found out that my BMI has gone up a point over the Christmas period.
My new GP has recommended LOTS more exercise …
Which I’m sure I’ve mentioned already.
At any rate … ?
At any rate, I’ve got to say I had the evening to meself, last night: meself …
And a copy of Jim Carrey/Virginia Madsen movie, The Number 23.
Which is definitely an experience, I think …
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The Number 23 sees Jim Carrey as dog catcher, Walter Sparrow: who is given a copy of an obscure novel — also called The Number 23 — detailing the life of a Detective Fingerling.
Who Walter comes to increasingly identify with, especially after realising that he and the detective have had remarkably similar childhoods.
And that he and the book’s central character have a fascination with gruesome murders and detective stories …
And an ongoing fascination with the number 23* enigma …
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Now, the USUAL question, at this stage … ?
Was I impressed … ?
Frankly, no, to be honest … !
The Number 23 isn’t a film that immediately reached out a grabbed me.
I found it watchable … but forgettable, to be perfectly frank.
Saying that … ?
Even though The Number 23 is a film that completely grabbed me, I will give Jim Carrey credit for cropping up in a film that’s outside of the usual comedies I’d expect to see him in.
It’s worth catching for that, I’m thinking.
The Number 23
★☆☆☆
*Which is a Sophie Germain prime, the TCP/IP port for telnet messages AND the number of years that it took for the Holy Qu’ran to be revealed to the Prophet. But you knew that already …
You know, I’ve got to admit, there’s time’s I’m glad I use BT as my ISP, I really am.
OK, granted they’re not perfect.
But at least they’ve not had to issue the warning that Virgin has, today: that some of their customer’s machine’s have been infected with the SpyEye trojan: about 1500 of them.
Hmmm …
Nasty: I’ve got to admit, while I’m very aware there’s not that many bits of malicious software for the OS X platform, most of the ones that ARE out there … ? Are trojans: you can bet I’ll be keeping my eye’s peeled …
JUST on the off-chance … !
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At ANY rate … ?
At any rate, I’m going to give a BIG Thank You to an old friend and work colleague, James.
Bless him, I’d posted to my Facebook wall that I’d never actually seen the film, Cabaret, some time ago.
And, bless him, James let me have his old, spare copy.
Like I say, I think a BIG Thank You’s in order.
BIG Thank You, there, James!
And I think I can now officially say I’ve seen what had to be Liza Minelli’s break-out role.
And admit, she weren’t half distracting, back then … !
Well, she was … !
OK … I’m perving, JUST a touch, there, let me grab a cold shower …
Cabaret is very loosely based on the novel, Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood: and tells us of the time that Brian — Michæl York, possibly one of the few actors in the film to not have a song! — and his stay in Berlin, as a English teacher, during the 1930s.
Back when Berlin had a reputation for being the most hedonistic city in Europe.
Brian’s life is immediately complicated by getting to know Sally Bowles, one of the acts at the nearby Kit Kat Klub: the cabaret of the title, and the singer with whom he shares both lodgings …
And a complicated lovelife.
All of this … ?
All of this is set against the back of a Berlin that is both extremely hedonistic … and seeing the raise of Hitler’s Nazi party, that, by the end of the film, is getting everywhere.
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Now, I don’t know if you — like me — are fairly new to Cabaret.
But can I make a suggestion, here … ?
And this is in spite of the fact I know that my regular movie cohort, Kevin D isn’t grabbed by the thought of seeing it*.
I personally think you should REALLY go see Cabaret.
I’ve GOT to admit, I was going to tell you that Kevin D, Movie Night Adrian, and I, saw the James Bond film, Quantum Of Solace, on Tuesday.
I meant to … !
But as Adrian and I caught it, not long after it was originally released on DVD … ?
I wasn’t too worried: after all, I stand by what I said, back then: but do know both Adrian and Kevin were/are very impressed by Daniel Craig’s version of the title character.
»»◊««
At any rate, Quantum of Solace wasn’t what Adrian and I managed to catch, tonight …
Derived from Barker’s own short story, The Forbidden, Candyman sees Virginia Madsen — who Adrian and I had last seen in The Haunting In Connecticut — as Helen Lyle, an unhappily married graduate student, working, along with a friend, on a doctoral thesis on urban myths and legends.
And, on being told by one of the university’s cleaners, that one particular urban legend — the Candyman of the title — seems to have its origins in the run-down housing projects* of Cabrini Green.
With the story of the son of a slave who was a talented painter who’d fallen in love with a young white woman he’d been commissioned to paint. Who’d been punished by having his right hand, his painting hand, hacksawed off, and then being stung to death by bees.
Isn’t it funny how these thing’s work out, sometimes … ?
Bless, I’ve got to confess, Movie Night Adrian and I managed to — rather sleepily, in Adrian’s case — managed to catch a movie, last night.
He’d been pulling his pointy thing, all of yesterday.
It’s not QUITE what you’re thinking: he does field archery, in his spare time …
At any rate … ?
The pair of us managed to get together to catch a film, last night: minus Kevin D, bless him, who was in London.
At a TUC protest, in case your asking: the peaceful daytime one, rather than the riot it degenerated into, later.
I’ve got to admit, I was hoping someone would chuck a custard pie at Bob Crowe: not that I don’t like the RMT, but its leader really needs a sense of humour …
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At ANY rate, last night saw myself and Movie Night Adrian — at my place — watching the 2009 horror film, The Haunting of Connecticut.
Seemingly based on a true story, The Haunting in Connecticut sees Virginia Madsen and Martin Donovan as Sarah and Peter, the parents of cancer-stricken teen, Matt, deciding that they have to rent a property that’s nearer the hospital where Matt is being given both chemotherapy, and experimental treatment.
Sarah doesn’t think to ask why the house she eventually ends up renting for the family is available so cheaply. It’s only as the film progresses they realise that some of the uncanny noises and strange smells aren’t necessarily due to the age of the place …
And the strange hallucinations Matt seems to be suffering … ?
Aren’t down to the chemotherapy …
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Now, one thing I do know … ?
Is that seeing Virginia Madsen as Sarah, at the start of The Haunting of Connecticut had me wondering where on Earth I’d seen her before.
Until, of course, I realised I’d seen her in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, as a defecting police-woman from an especially xenophobic culture that selectively wipe the memories of its members, when they’ve had outside contact.
It wasn’t until I read her Wikipedia entry that I realised she’d played Princess Irulan, in the DavidLynch version of Dune, back in 1984!
I do tend to let these thing’s slid past, don’t I … ?
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At any rate …
At any rate, I know that myself and Adrian had … well …
Various impressions of The Haunting In Connecticut.
Personally? I found it to be entertaining, if a touch predictable.
There’s an gag Eddie Murphy came up, not long after the release of the original Amityville Horror: that effertively says that, when the estate agent is showing you around a house, a hideous, demonic, disembodied voice from the pits of hell comes out of nowhere and yells “GET OUT”, in a way that freezes the very marrow in your bones, and causes your bladder to immediately empty itself … signing the tenancy agreement if not a good idea.
Not unless that estate agent is really good.
I’m also very aware Adrian — while he found it just as entertaining, perhaps — found The Haunting In Connecticut a touch reminiscent of Poltergeist.
27th March,