Have a break, have a Kit Kat

I’m always surprised to see workers in movies go for breaks in the middle of the day.

They just leave the office and go. They’re allowed to, you might say,

And you would be right. But what strikes me is what they do once outside.

If they go in a restaurant, they not even eat a slide,

If they go to a movie they never stay longer than the commercials

And if they go shopping, they enter and leave so fast, they should get medals.

When they meet a friend for coffee, they order, sit, and look at their watch,

“I have to go back” they say, so what was the point of the meeting, what’s the catch?

If it was just for 5 minutes, they’d better read the ad and have a Kit Kat, I guess.

They could give me a break about this catchphrase, I know everybody has one in the US.

 

 

Sunday’s Review 5: Sherlock Holmes, A game of Shadows

For this particular matter, we shall all read this review with a nice posh accent, as it regards honorable Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Now that we are all set, let’s begin. Guy Ritchie made a movie. The second of a franchise that, thanks to the original novels, might go on for a long time. And it’s not a bad thing.

Those movies have a lot of good things that I enjoyed watching, as did, I’m sure of it, lots of people. But here is my problem: Even though we find the same names, maybe some of the original lines and plots and the same original characters, I don’t see how they are Sherlock Holmes movies. I think, and maybe I’m wrong, that instead of an interpretation of an original piece, it’s more of an original piece standing on an ancient one. Sherlock Holmes 2 is a good movie and my opinion is that the only reason why it’s called Sherlock Holmes, is to give us one more argument to appreciate it. Give a popular name to a fine movie and you’ve got it all!

Maybe I’m being a little harsh since I really think that it’s a good movie and I usually am not to picky on the way directors choose to adapt a previous work. I guess I would have liked it best if it was a new character. This guy Robert Downey Jr. is playing is everything but a gentleman and he’s not the only one out of Conan Doyle’s path. Even the way he solves the case is not in anyway close to the private detective from the books. So why did he had to be called Sherlock Holmes? What does it bring to the movie? Are every british private detective supposed to be him?

When I decided to do a review about Sherlock Holmes 2, I considered doing a comparison with the BBC successful series Sherlock. Then I saw the movie and realized that it wasn’t really possible since they have nothing more than a name in common. Of course, their characters are from the same origin so they might look alike, but the treatment of Conan Doyle’s books is so different that a parallel would be useless to define one work or the other.

Anyway, the series as well as the movies ask this question about all art: Why do we feel the need to take up old pieces? Is it a way to get some kind of quality label or deal with trust issues with the producers? I don’t really have an answer and will leave you with this to think about.  

 

Give me your job and nobody gets hurt

Especially in cheesy movies, people got some cool jobs that I would really want.

I’d love to write lyrics for a singer as Music & Lyrics’ Hugh Grant

Or to run Kathleen Kelly’s Shop Around the Corner.

Meryl Streep’s role in Julie & Julia is also quite nice: teaching housewives to cook better.

I’d take Amanda Seyfried’s place in Mamma Mia or when she had to write Juliet’s Letters.

Being a book editor was taken to an other level with the Shadow Dancers.

I always wanted to play the cello: August Rush and The Soloist certainly helped.

Finally, Failure to Launch and Hitch showed you can earn money just being a dating adept.

All those are nowhere to be found on vocational training file so I’m full outta luck unless

Looking for a catchphrase can be my job, everybody has one in the US.

 

 

 

We didn’t loose the game; we just ran out of time.

The very quickly canceled TV series How to be a Gentleman

has had the time to confirm to me that gym coaches always fit to one sort of human

As a matter of fact, Brad Pit himself showed it in two different part.

Apparently, you can’t take being a coach and being ill-mannered apart.

In Moneyball, he is already spitting, chewing and promoting his accent to a new stripe.

But his character in Burn After Reading is clearly a born stereotype.

Frances McDormand in the same film is here to give us the feminine side of the job

And Jane Lynch Coach Sylvester’s famous bit is certainly no snob.

So working as a sports coach seems to call for at least a little rudeness.

In this case we’ll need more a leitmotiv than a catchphrase, everybody has one in the US.

 

 

 

The Clash are calling

This week I’m going back to one of my favorite cities: London baby!

I’ve been there before and missed very much the town of The Iron Lady

But, for some reason, I’m not going to look for a job there.

Cinema taught me that England is the country where the Boy gets Nowhere,

Where the Boat Rocks, The King is making a Speech and writers are Anonymous

But nobody lives a normal life or stands for a job that can be referred as serious.

I heared about English’ Misfits, Family Life and their magic Harry Potter

But not lots of regular jobs such as Russell Crowe’s in A Good Year.

Cinema might be working to contain UK work immigration and for me it’s a success.

Even in England I would need a catchphrase, everybody has one in the US.

 

Sunday’s Review 4: Hudson Hawk

 

What’s great about having a blog is that you can write about anything. Last week I talked to you about an excellent movie that I didn’t appreciate watching. Let’s do the opposite today and talk about a non appreciated movie that I like very much to watch.

If I want to say “That doughnut-hole-eating, son of a bitch, take it in the ear for a beer, rat bastard !” and then tell you about Leonardo da Vinci, I can. If I want to put in the same article the Pope, some guys with chocolate bars names and robbers that just got out of prison, I can. If I want to be obsessed with cappuccino and use classics like “Stranger in the night” or “Hit the Road Jack” as stopwatches, I can. And I guess this is precisely what did Michael Lehmann when he directed Hudson Hawk. This movie is like a blog. But critics only seem to appreciate websites: they need an editorial line, a rhythm, a conventional reading way. Of course, I won’t deny that websites are usually better designed than blogs.

Bruce Willis nearly lost his career to this movie but I’m sure, if I’d been him, I would have accepted the part as well. We learned to like a kind of movie. The kind that is precisely made for us to like. But isn’t the real challenge to share something highly personal and have people liking it? Is art more this or a conventional assent on beautiful things? Of course, Anne Geddes pieces are nice but isn’t it more interesting to discover Brassaï’s way to picture the world?

Wait, wait, I’m just throwing things at you and you can’t follow if I don’t actually organize my ideas. So here it is: movies as Hudson Hawk are highly underrated. And, to my opinion, it’s because they aren’t seen as they are: personal. Hence my parallel with blogs. It’s something subjective shared with the public. A lot of our personal point of views, ideas or frenzies can be agreed by the great majority, that’s why we appreciate blogs. They give us a non sterilized information. Something that didn’t need to get the approval of an editor in chief.

For those who wouldn’t know Hudson Hawk, it’s starring Bruce Willis and Andy McDowell. The first embodies a burglar who gets caught in an underhand trick just after being released from prison. But the pitch is way more twisted than just that. It’s full of craziness and wildness and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a nice and easy laugh.

 

Never say never

A recent episode of Chuck reminded me a truth that has to be noticed.

In every movies and series, whatever job you do or mission you were assigned,

Never ever say “I just have one last thing to do”

Because you can be sure that the thing that was suppose to last a minute or two

Is going to evolve in some catastrophe you’ll have to deal with if you want to live.

Usually, I’d never think that any jinx or curse would be effective,

But this particular situation has happened to me quite a lot.

Not in a dramatic movie-like way, but I’d only loose hours, that I could spend on a yacht,

Dealing with a stupid endless problem just because I thought that was “my last business”.

Like on my first post with “now I just need a catchphrase, everybody has one in the US.”

 

 

My choice: Martin Solveig’s Hello

There is a link between all different jobs both in fiction and reality

And I’m surprised I didn’t talked about it before, when it’s also a curiosity.

To get to work, everybody sets a clock to get up in the morning.

But who’s still using those honking alarm clocks when we can wake up to any ring?

But still, they are used all of the time in movies and series. I know it seems unimportant

But, is it a reflection of USA use of alarm clocks nowadays? That looks kind of aberrant.

So, why is it that the TV and movie universe didn’t get to our new alarm habits?

Of course, characters such as Tony Stark found a special model that fits

But for us, regular people, is it a way to tell us to wake up with an olden days fondness?

And even in that past they had catchphrases, everybody has one in the US.

 

 

That makes Generic Medicine the good guy

Television and cinema have a rule with, it seems, no compromise:

People working in pharmaceutical Industry are always the bad guys.

Even if Love and other drugs and Psych tried to present regular jobs there,

Being a pharmaceutical salesman now looks like stalking doctors everywhere.

Anyway, it’s always the bosses that embody the worst evil part,

Playing with world’s health, money ruining what’s left of their heart.

But aren’t they the ones that still look for ways to fight illness?

OK, they’d get a huge pack of money if they do but that helps no less.

They’re not the first who’s job is good for us and satisfy their greediness.

Maybe I should pay someone to get a catchphrase, everybody has one in the US.

 

 

Sunday’s Review 3: Shame

There’s so much to tell about Shame that it sounds like everything has already been said by about everyone. However, I’m surprised to see no parallel being made between this last Steve McQueen movie and Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road.

Before I go any further, I should warn you. There is going to be a lot of spoilers about this two movies in this article. It’s more an analysis after having seen Shame, than a way to give you the tools you need to know if you want to go see it or stay home. If you want my opinion on that, here it is: stay home. Although, I think Shame is an excellent movie. Now, let’s get back to my explanation.

Both movies are about a vice eating up the main characters minds and lives. There is nothing really happening, no main event, with yet a story to tell. A lot of the movie stands on the actors and, in both of them, they are excellent. The Winslet/Di Caprio reunion in Revolutionary Road had nothing to be ashamed of in comparison to their first memorable duo in Titanic. And what to say about Michael Fassbender second work with Steve McQueen. His interpretation is purely magnificent (well, magnificent might not be the best word to describe it…).

Much of the plot is similar: their public reputation is a successful, happy, determined life; when privately, it’s a living hell. The Wheeler couple moves in Revolutionary Road as a figure of The Happy couple. The one everyone envy. And it is the one that will be dying in the end. And Brandon is a successful business man. Every girl wants to have him and every boy wants to look like him.

They have to watch their self-destruction without being able to do anything about it. And, it seems to be the all point of the film: there is no way out of this. And the worst part is that they can’t even expect a descent into hell. Life is as it is and nothing will get them out of it, not even the death of the female broken figure.

In both films, everything goes slowly and makes it worst. Both are brilliantly directed so that the discomfort and suffer is almost unbearable to the spectators. Both give no hope, no joy and no place for imagination to make up a solution. So why on earth would I advice anyone to go see a movie that will make them hopeless and miserable. However, I did see Revolutionary Road a few times and will not ever watch Shame again. Only because seeing love has a slow torture is a little less horrible than seeing sex as such.