Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

By all the weather forecasts I looked at last week, Saturday was predicted to be hot and sunny so I planned another beach visit. I considered exploring another beach but decided to head back to Westbrook Bay. What can I say, I've fallen in love :)

( Operation Beach )

Got back in time to see Dr Who - I got a lil' bored during the middle bit of the episode, but I thought the whole issue of depression and its effects was very well handled. This series is not wowing me though, it's not on my "OMG MUST WATCH RIGHTTHISSECONDNOW" list any more. But I still make sure I see it every week so it's keeping me hanging in there, just :)

Sunday I went to see "The Losers" at the cinema. I've been looking forward to this movie a lot but I can only give it a B-. I know several of my flist want to see this movie so I'll say nothing more here but I'll post a spoiler review under a cut later, as this post is long enough already! I will say though that Jeffery Dean Morgan is a tiny, yummy God :D

From the cinema, I went to Tesco's and stocked up and then headed home, where there was loafing in front of cookery programmes and more reading. I also watched the Mets claw back and actually snatch a win for a change, which added to the happy squeakings.

All in all a lovely weekend. The sunburn no longer actively hurts, the aloe vera did its job splendidly, and the rest of me is going a pleasing shade of brown. Given that my usual summer complexion is "cave-dweller pasty white", I'm absurdly pleased with this!

And now I'm at work and already bored enough to be typing this out (in notepad, so I'm not online!). Only good thing is boss isn't in until this afternoon :)

*yawns and goes to find more tea*

Dammit, I'm getting nocturnal again. I was worried I would do this if I was off work long enough, seeing as I swear I was born to run on EST not GMT :) Ah well, I'll just have to knuckle down and get back to a more sensible routine.

Venturing out today, got to go to Morrison's to get bread and one or two bits and bobs. Assuming the car starts, that is. If it doesn't, it's a quick walk to the local shop, for any given value of the word "quick", obviously :) Also venturing out Wednesday night - many moons ago, a friend from HCC whom I used to work with (in a different department to the one I'm in now) mentioned that Pam Ayres, local celebrity and famous for her "foine rhymes" particularly back in the 1970's, was doing a gig in Hertford and did I want to go? I did, so she got tickets. Well it's rolled around so she's picking me up Wednesday and we're going to see it with a group of folks. Should be a good laugh :)

Still pondering going to the movies tomorrow - it's cheap ticket night. Can't decide what to see though. I want to save the new Coen film "Burn After Reading" to see with thalinoviel, assuming she's interested, so that leaves Mamma Mia or Death Race. I suspect I'll decide in the morning because those films are so different, it really is going to depend on how I feel on the day.

And oooh, Wanted is out on DVD today...*prays car starts so she can check out the DVD rack at Morrisons* There are one or two sections of that movie that will pay for being watched in slow-mo :D

Finally got to see this last night, in the excellent company of the Troodler, who is now an Orange customer and can get the Two for One ticket deal. Hurrah! I see movies in our future :D

So, the movie. It deserves so much more than to be tagged with the label "the gay cowboy movie". It's a love story, pure and simple. The acting is excellent, though I can now see why US types have been feeling sorry for Jake Gyllenhaal, who's been overshadowed by Heath Ledger during this awards season. The guy is being robbed, because of the two leads, I found his performance to be the more honest, the more moving, of the two. Ledger is good, don't get me wrong, but he never quite sold the character to me like Jake did. And I'm convinced ol' Heath had cotton wool in his mouth, or some such thing, to enable him to talk the way he talks. Seriously, look at stills from the movie, look at the corners of his mouth. Doesn't it look like he's got a couple of gumballs tucked away there? Either that or he had his back teeth superglued together.

Anyway, sorry, back to the movie. The cinematography is ASTOUNDING. Granted that Wyoming is, apparently, a jaw droppingly beautiful place, that feeling of vastness, of remoteness, had to be captured and it was, beautifully. If you're planning on seeing this movie, do see it on the big screen, just so you can soak up the gorgeous locations.

But it's not all about the pretty. The screenplay is excellent and somehow carries you briskly through a two hour movie during which there are no big scenes, no car chases, no major peaks or troughs, just people living their lives over a period of 20 years, give or take. The time never dragged, I didn't look at my watch once and was genuinely surprised to realise I'd been sitting there for 2 hours at the movie's end. Credit must be down to Ang Lee, as well, who knows how to pace a movie - "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" did that well, too.

Because I want to keep this spoiler free, I'll say nothing about the ending, beyond that the way a certain incident was handled was kind of surprising, almost off-stage, so to speak. That robbed it of some emotional power, but I can see the reasoning behind it. I was expecting to come out depressed, or angry, or both, but I didn't, I came out moved and entertained (in the sense of having seen a film that engaged my brain, as well as my eyes).

So, overall Mitchy rating - I'm tempted to say 5 stars out of 5, because I don't have a single major gripe at all. But I'll say 4.5 stars, because I save 5's for movies that make me want to simply positively absolutelyhavetorightnowdammit watch them again and again. This one's a keeper and DVD purchase but it just lacks something that makes me bump it up that last star.

Go, see it. Help me stop people calling it "that gay cowboy movie".

Oh and btw, Troo and I were much entertained by the couple that walked out 25 mins into the movie. You shoulda stayed, folks, that scene was as explicit as it got (and it wasn't X-rated, by any means). ( I don't think it's a spoiler to say you don't get 2 hours of hot man on man action :P ) You have to wonder what made this couple go to a movie where tag line is "love is a force of nature" and a picture of two men being confused about what they were going to see.