Silent Knight, Holy Knight

Flesh Wound

I have always admired Monty Python and their pioneering in comedy. Just brilliant! Here's a little rendition of mine of the famous Black Night and the upcoming Christmas holidays (combined).

P.S. In fact the scene in question starts and ends with a little Gangnam Style. 

The Sky Is Falling: Skyfall

I like James Bond movies - they are somehow naive and yet there are certain themes that are quite serious and reflect, as per usual, contemporary fears. Skyfall was highly anticipated by me, I guess by many others too. But... I lost movie's rhythm. At some points it was like a waterfall and the it doesn't slow down but stops. Completely. And then another swift current. It would be nice if you are a rafting fan. This time James Bond is a little inconsistent. At first he is taking a break, drunk and sad, and in the next moment his is wearing a papillon again with no doubts in the beloved M. I expected him to be way more cool. I liked the scene in the train where he jumped into the half wrecked wagon and fixed his sleeves - maybe classical Bond move, but he spent the rest of the film smiling at his own joke and references to the previous Bond films. And I like Daniel Craig - he reminds me of Steve McQueen and his natural coolness. Maybe Sam Mendes couldn't imply the Britishness of the character. And I like him too.

I like villains - big, f**k off shiny ones, whom you are afraid of, totally unpredictable. I have three favorites in three consecutive years - Anton Chigurh, Joker and col. Hans Landa. I was amazed how different and brutal they were. When Javier Bardem appeared for the first time in "Skyfall" in this single long shot and this amazing story, I almost stood up. I thought "He's done it once, he'll do it for the second time". How sorry I was when he didn't meet my expectations despite the blond/white hair (and eyebrows). He was chaotic in not a good way for a villain, he was hesitant about being something and so he didn't convince me. My wife liked him though - I thought it is because of her affection to Spain but he said he is the villain with human face, who is hesitant and not entirely evil. I definitely do not agree - the cinema doesn't like that. The audience doesn't like heroes like him. At least I don't. 

M is maybe tho most consistent character with her Iron Lady like mannerism and deeply convinced in her own decisions. She is sure what has to be done and has no second thoughts and is not afraid. I am sure some women have this quality of being more man than men and yet he appears to be a caring mother figure for the two boys. But he doesn't tolerate betrayal and she earned my respect. Maybe some socialist/liberals wouldn't like her but that's the way things are done. 

As a whole the film left me with a positive feel for some things I liked very much - the Silva story is perfect, brilliant entrance. The testimony of M in front of the minister and the shadows, the significance of the human factor what I think is all James Bond character is all about despite the absurdly advanced technology. 

I give it 7/10 stars but they could have been many more if there wasn't some, let's say, technical formalities. 

My rating at IMDB - 7/10

Alas, poor Prometheus!

picture

I was sure I am going to like it. I saw Prometheus two weeks ago and I still cannot find anything to justify all the money and ideas spent for this movie. I am huge fan of the Alien franchise but I am not going to draw any comparison between this one and the poor Prometheus. Shortly after I went out of the cinema I thought I have liked it. And the I started asking question, "why?" the most.  Obviously I am not the only one. There is something very disturbing in the whole thing to the point that the whole movie appears in my dreams and it takes all possible different directions. The religious stuff wasn't developed well, a lot of questions stayed unanswered as if we should know everything or wait for a sequel. It would be better if Mr. Scott, whom I admire, has done TV series instead of a two-hour not very delicious soup. The characters lacked of motivation (normally I understand the eternal life wish but Wayland wasn't convincing), there were pointless things like Vikers being Wayland's daughter, the sacrifice of the Captain - he was way to easily persuaded to crash the ship into the Engeneer's one. All of the characters weren't real - I cannot imagine a biologist being on a alien planet to interact with a totally unknown snake-like alien like it is a bunny rabbit and not being at least a little worried what it could do to him. i can go on.. But I don't want to..

picture

So, I was not impressed, I can tell you. Poor characters, no motivation, totally unbelievable.. Still - I love H. R. Giegers' stuff. If I were rich enough one of my rooms in my not-so-big house would be in Gieger's design.
At least I understood why Madagascar 3 was Nr 1 at the box office... which is quite disappointing.

*My rating at IMDB - 5/10

Paint it Fast

I like water colours. Everything happens so fast you barely have the time to react. And the result is either a success or a failure. The good thing is you fail fast and can start immediately all over again. But when you succeed you feel like a pro. This is a two minutes "piece of art" - Notre Damme cathedral in Luxembourg. 

Men in Black

II disappointed me a little - I had high expectations which didn't come to life but anyway, I liked the Men in Black III. A lot. I like Tommy Lee Jones for his strange star qualities without being handsome or muscular guy, I like the easygoing-ness of Will Smith and the hardly recognizable Jemaine Clement. This time however I think Josh Brolin stole the show. He almost convinced me that he is the real agent K in the late 60's. Because I liked the characters so much I liked the film. They, being so real, took me by the hand and walked me through the whole film. And I think this is the first necessary quality of a film in order to be likable -you see real people who can joke, who can be emotional, who can be true even in a lightly humored way. That's 1 point for the film. The second point is for the plot. Only after seeing the film I read in the end credits that Etan Cohen is the writer and this is what gave to the whole project the depth. Also the special effect were good and had been made with pretty descent fantasy. Third point is I left the theater light hearted and smiling. 

"All right!" It has the whole package. 

*My rating at IMDB - 8/10

Standing in the Way of Control

There are certain songs sung in a certain way that one likes more than others. And I have special place in my heart for live performances. Listen to this one:

The audience is singing great, Beth Ditto is in some sort of trans and is almost screaming in one of this special moments when everything is going the way it should go. I would like to note that the recording is quite good - you can hear the audience and the singer and you know this is a concert and not a cut and disfigured DVD where you can hardly feel the atmosphere of a live performance. The rhythm is catchy and everybody enjoys the shared feeling of listening to this powerful lady. 

For the Love for Art

I like art, not in all of its forms but for the main ones of them. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to convince someone why a song, a movie or a painting is worth listening to or seeing it? That kind of frustration bares the potential blog in itself. One needs to express himself. In front of the world in general.

Fisher's Net

Fisher's net
water colours

This is something that can be seen from our summer cabin. I have always been fascinated by this view since my childhood. This is an average good attempt to paint what I call "fisher's net".