I've just realized that it has been one month since I posted something on the movies and series I've been watching. It has been a long month, many things happened: I got a paper accepted for publication at Phys. Rev. E, other is in the second round of reviewing, and a third one has just been submitted. As you can imagine it has been a month with very long days between corrections, working in the next paper and trying to help my friends. Anyway, here's the list ...
- Made in Dagenham, ****I'm not a big fan of dramatizations of true stories, but this one has everything I like: strong willed women, nice photography, anti-corruption ideals, denouncing of corrupted union leaders. It tells the story of the seamstresses of the Ford assembling plant in Dagenham, UK, and their fight for equal pay for women in 1968, those were the days that changed the world. I have to say that I only knew about the students demonstrations, now I know about were the equal pay movement for women was born.
- Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, ****
That's a bombastic translation of the sober original title 狄仁杰 (Di Renjie). A biographical epic—as most of the most beautiful Chinese movies are—telling the story of the Magistrate Dee, chancellor to the one and only Empress of China. The scenarios are majestic and very well simulated. I loved how they tried to explain each and every traditional trick that usually is given as magic in other Chinese epics.
- Let the Bullets Fly, ****
The name says everything, I guess. There was a sukiyaki western in the past and now there's a noodle western. Situated in the modern warring warlords period of China—yes, there have been many of those—Let the bullets fly has the feeling of a spaghetti western; the bandits, the rich merchant that controls the town, the useless or corrupted authority. I have always loved the westerns with their feeling of despair, redemption, and twisted honor. They always remind me of my dad, we use to watch a lot of those and WWII films.
- Half Nelson, ****
Education. No, not education. Schooling in the age of broken social fabric and broken people. A somewhat idealistic and addict history teacher trying to show dialectics to his pupils and save at least one of his students from ending up as a dealer. Of course, the student wants to save him from being a junkie. Whom will save whom?
- A Single Man, *** These past month is a rarity. I have watched two dramas and really like them—the other being Half Nelson. The film, situated in the early 60s West Coast America, deals with a homosexual well-to-do English teacher that lost his Architect life partner one year earlier. Through the narrative we are shown how the teacher cannot cope with the loss and how this breaks his daily life and interactions with other people.
- The Cannonball Run Trilogy, ***
What can I say? Fast cars, lots of famous 80's actors. Actually, the first film of the movie is fresh and funny for the time and the other two just a way to capitalize from the first one. But c'mon, Roger Moore just after being Bond, Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin, Farrah Fawcett, Jackie Chan, Peter Fonda, that deserves two stars even when the films doesn't make any sense at all. C'mon, it deserves three starts just because the films doesn't make any sense at all!
- In the Valley of Elah, **
A post Iraq invasion film. It deals with an ex-military man who lost his son after returning to America from Iraq. It is one of those father-turned-detective-to-avenge-death-of-son-because-of-military-cover-up film with completely useless police detectives included.
- Age of Dragons, *
It seems like I will have to live a long life in order to watch a decent movie about dragons. I never thought I would say this, but never say never, if you have one month, get yourself a copy of Moby Dick, it may weight way more than a kilogram, have very stylized language and I think the whole thing is a HUGE metaphor, but it is worth reading and all the characters are more fleshy than the ones in this film.
In the past two months, I've been trying to fill the lazy time with some old tv series while the inter-season break finishes. So, I watched the whole second, and last, season of "Legend of the Seeker." I was a little disappointed during the two first chapter but then it picked up. Also, I got my hands on the first two seasons of a mock-cartoon called "The Venture Bros," basically a parody of all the cartoons from the 70's (Scooby Doo and Johnny Quest mainly) and I cannot wait to find the next two seasons that aired four years ago. Also, I managed to get the first season of one of my favorites comedians: Rodney Carrington. I was really surprised to see this tv show, called "Rodney," as I had been looking for it in the past without avail. It is simpleton redneck hilarious, but doesn't have that much funny songs. I'm hoping I can find the second season soon.
At last, but not least, I managed to get all five seasons of Futurama, as well as the movies! Futurama is the most awesome science fiction cartoon, paradoxes and theorems included. I'm really curious about seeing the Futurama Theorem in the, already running, sixth season. It's great that Futurama went back to the dishes!
As you can see, it was a long month, but I managed to squeeze a lot of time while having dinner and before going to sleep, and a little bit while editing photographs. Also, I managed to read a lot on the bus; I finished the six books from Codex Alera in the past eight weeks. Truth be told, I'm very happy with all the consumerism I have being doing in the last two months. Most of the time I spent about 10 hours per day in the office and I got really stressed by the reviewers comments coming all at the same time just when we were trying to give the final touches to the last article. Thanks to the books, the tv series and films with Lyx I managed to smile, think about moral dilemmas, and basically forget about the office for a few hours at a time.
Well, this is long enough. Thank you for reading.
At last, but not least, I managed to get all five seasons of Futurama, as well as the movies! Futurama is the most awesome science fiction cartoon, paradoxes and theorems included. I'm really curious about seeing the Futurama Theorem in the, already running, sixth season. It's great that Futurama went back to the dishes!
As you can see, it was a long month, but I managed to squeeze a lot of time while having dinner and before going to sleep, and a little bit while editing photographs. Also, I managed to read a lot on the bus; I finished the six books from Codex Alera in the past eight weeks. Truth be told, I'm very happy with all the consumerism I have being doing in the last two months. Most of the time I spent about 10 hours per day in the office and I got really stressed by the reviewers comments coming all at the same time just when we were trying to give the final touches to the last article. Thanks to the books, the tv series and films with Lyx I managed to smile, think about moral dilemmas, and basically forget about the office for a few hours at a time.
Well, this is long enough. Thank you for reading.
Scooby dooby Dee, where are you!!!
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