I love the leads in this movie (Shahrukh Khan & Aishwarya Rai). Khan plays the title character Devdas, who after being abroad for 10 years (and 6 months, 4 days and 6 hours to be exactly…) returns home where his childhood sweetheart Paro (extraordinarily beautiful Rai) has been waiting for him. But love in Bollywood movies never is that simple, and over the course of almost 3 hours it sure takes some turns here. The story is less predictable than the other Bollywood movies I’ve seen. But there are of course gorgeous colours, and dancing numbers. And jewellery. I always feel like I wear too little jewellery after watching one of these :)
Still, I hated the ending.

I recognized the cover of Tongue when I was walking towards the library check out, and picked it up on a whim. It’s no wonder I recognized this cover, as the book was heavily promoted here in Belgium, it was reviewed in at least 3 women’s magazines including an interview with the author in one of them. They all compared the author to Murakami – this is copied from the back flap. And not true. I’ll cut to the chase, MAN this book sucked! Did those ‘reviewers’ even read this thing? Page after page of theories on food, love and life or combinations. And not even good ones. This goes on (and on and on) until the mildly gruesome ending (which was revealed in every single review, so not even a surprise) that doesn’t deliver. A waste of my time.

Hmm. The first part of this movie is a modern remake of Tokyo Story: an elderly couple visiting their children in the big city, none of the children claim to have time for them, the only one that genuinely cares is the girlfriend (in TS the widow) of one of their children.

spoilers below

Then during the second part the character development begins to fail. The character of Rudi jumps from grumpy old “I like things just the way they’ve always been” Bavarian grandpa to “let’s learn how to dance butoh in the park from a weird girl while wearing my death wife’s clothes” in – what seemed to me – a flash. His wife’s death changed him, okay, I get that, but there’s no transition. It wasn’t convincing to me that such a stubborn old guy would turn around like that so soon.
Also, that trip through Tokyo’s sex scene didn’t make sense at all. They could’ve completely cut that out.

spoilers end

Hmm, the more I think about this movie the less I like it. You get what the director is trying to (obviously) bring across, but the execution just falls flat. Not subtle enough, and the missing character development made me loose touch completely. Didn’t work for me at all.
But for those who did like the movie, do watch Tokyo Story if you haven’t already.

If you only know Bogart as the cynical though guy, check him out in African Queen, where he imitates a hippo (no kidding). His performance got him his only Oscar. The whole movie is great fun.
And as a side note, it is not black and white, and there were no Nazis in this movie (though someone tagged this movie so), African Queen takes places during WWI so it’s the German army under Wilhelm II, not Hitler.

I actually liked this movie, cool concept. Maybe my opinion will change after I see the original version. Since I already like this movie (maybe i have a higher Cruise-tolerance level than the average consumer?) I’m looking forward to seeing this alleged superior Abre los Ojos.

I’ve been wanting to see this movie ever since it came out and finally got to it tonight. It was worth the wait, Bin-Jip (or 3-iron) is truly beautiful. And there’s not much more I can add to that.
Except that I need to warn my dad about the dangers of golf.

I haven’t seen that many Bollywood style movies but they all seem to be about love and (pre arranged) marriages with a good deal of dancing, singing and (melo)drama – and they’ve all been fun to watch. This movie is no exception.
The very beginning of the film sets the tone: we see our leading lady dreaming about an unknown mystery lover while dancing in the rain and jumping on the furniture, and we see the lead guy doing manly stuff like rugby, indoor karting and uhm, bowling (?). I won’t spoil any of the story but it follows the standard formula. It’s all incredibly silly and predictable, details don’t make sense (snow in the summer? no luggage yet endless supplies of clothes?) but it is a lot of fun too, with big hair and cheesy dancing numbers (which to me are a plus, I can’t help it).
Oh and her dad’s eyes are terrifying, I wish I could give people such evil looks, it would come in handy during work meetings >:D.
If you can handle the cheese and are in the mood for over 3 hours of very light entertainement, this is for you. I enjoyed spending a rainy Sunday afternoon watching it.

I really wanted to like Monthy Python, I tried. I must be the only one I know who doesn’t like it/them (except maybe my mom, but I doubt she would watch any of it at all). I like British comedy (Blackadder, Allo-Allo, AbFab, Fawlty Towers are all brilliant), I really enjoyed Palin’s travel documentaries & books, so I figured Monthy Python would be excellent. But I. Cannot. Get. Into. It. I’ve watched Holy Grail a few years ago, was underwhelmed but it had some funny bits. This one however was awful. I fastforwarded through it by the end when the vomit scenes started (am currently battling with a stomach flu and did not need the reminder).
Maybe I should just resign and deal with it, I just don’t like Monthy Python. Yet I still have ‘Life of Brian’ on my to-watch list. That’s the final chance they’re getting. I hope it’s better than this one.

I’ve read the Dutch edition of this, which was written/reviewed by another author according to the credits, a Dutchman who’s lived in Brussels since 2008 (which is at most a year, which makes me a bit doubtful on the claim of ‘insider tips’). This is – like the other 100% guides I’ve read – a nice little guidebook with some off the beaten track suggestions. I’ll use it to visit museums in Brussels, locate Victor Hugo houses and will probably check out some of their restaurant recommendations. What did irk me throughout the guide were the number of political innuendos about Leopold II – he wasn’t a saint (by no means) but I don’t need any author’s personal political views in a travel guide. I also noticed some lack of detail (at least of the stuff I knew about Brussels – for instance Jeanneke Pis was not bought by the Rue de Boucher’s merchants but those from another street) so I hope they at least got their facts straight for the numerous claims of ‘first/best/largest/... in the world’.
Still this was worth consuming for me as it will help me discover more of my nation’s capital without having to bug my resident friends for tours. I’d like to take them out for once too.

The local TV station that airs Gilmore Girls stopped in the middle of the 5th season to jump back to season one… so I just watched reruns again, and now that season 4 has finished (again) last week… they’re cancelling the show. Figures.
I really should get these on DVD, but the boxset is still pretty expensive. Maybe as a present to myself later this year ;)