Crazy, over the top, plate smashing, glass smashing, dancing Mediterranean types with no worries singing about love and life. An unusual departure from the comedy-horror, drama-comedy, thriller-comedy, dark-comedy (did I miss anything?) hybridised dreck that Hollywood insists on. Never on Sunday will make you want to book your next holiday somewhere in Greece, preferably in the 1960s. Better get crackin on that time machine.

Never on Sunday
Pote tin Kyriaki
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054198/

OO Writer portable vs AbiWord: I have the USB ports to spare of course, but the 1+ minutes (not actually timed) it takes for Writer to load is on this side of annoying, where AbiWord loads blink-fast. Problem though, is AbiWord is limited and on Writer I am able to use 300-point type, which is sometimes important in the signs that I make.

Winner: Writer still. If only it would load faster. /sigh

ACTOR
Sam Rockwell’s character Sam Bell is an astro laborer stuck on the moon manning a mining station, whose contract is just about up, and all in good time. Sam has no one to talk to aside from a laconic robot with a pasted on smiley (or frowny, depending on what’s going on) face and is getting bored with his model kit hobby. He’s excited and ready to head back home to his loving family, eat some real (Earth) food that doesn’t come in packets or tubes, get his feet on the ground, do real, Earth things, stuff like that. But mostly he’ll be happy just to see his family again. With Moon, Sam Rockwell sheds the poor copy of Edward Norton ghost of Fight Club coat and becomes his own man.

FILM
A welcome change from all the crap that Hollywood’s offering recently. Moon doesn’t have huge explosions every three minutes, big buff skintight leather superhero overalls, mutant powers or vampire werewolf teenager crush triangles. It’s not a popcorn and nachos blockbuster. What it is: A thought-provoking you’ll need to stay in your seat throughout the entire thing pace, don’t fall asleep, where’s my copy of that Russian space movie when you need to compare things …feeling. Go see it with your film class elitist jerk cinema nerd (pals), tell me what they think.

It’s true, I’ll admit. When you’ve high hopes for a hyped flick and you go in all bright eyed – chances are you’re in for a disappointment. Jennifer’s Body (when it’s been on teen radar for as long as anyone can remember – not only because the skinny, inked, It Girl of the month Megan Fox is the titular character) does okay, surprisingly so because it’s supposed to suck hard, but it doesn’t. Maybe.

Diablo Cody’s wit is less sharp here than her fine work in Juno (even then it was showing signs of strain, fifteen minutes of fame, what?) but it’s shiny in spots, well enough to keep anybody in their seats for most of the flick.

As a horror movie referencing popular teen-horror (or just horror) cinema in the last decade or so: Jennifer’s Body rates 5/10 – that’s a C if you’re paying attention. As social commentary: doing what most tongue-in-cheek flicks are wont to nowadays, being cool, mentioning current events, navel gazing and all that, the flick’s 6/10. Better, but only slightly. Best parts are the coffee shop rejects wannabe indie band rockers, with their novel (well…) method getting into the big time, and NOT Jennifer, but rather Jennifer’s best friend Needy – played by Mean Girls (omg!) alum Amanda Seyfried, whose character holds everything up and makes it semi-decent.

Needy’s character development and conflict resolution, and the flick’s last bits kind of make it worth staying on. The droning teen mess, an ok start, a weak middle and overall meh of Jennifer’s Body is forgotten by the time the end credits roll out. Where Needy triumphs over adversity, teen troubles, an evil best friend, and a mediocre teen horror/comedy/drama book-into-movie.

OO is quicker than any MS product I’ve used, and this is on an old clunker of a PC, mind you. Writer hurray!

A Halloween tradition that’s been popular for some time is the marathon of scary movies. I know at least one movie theater that’s doing it here, and it sounds like a good idea to me. For one thing, even if they screen only one movie a day/night they’ll never run out of things to put up – but then it’ll be a question of quality. The smaller, indie, slacker-chic theaters won’t care one bit, of course. This is akin to the record store run by elitist vinyl snobs seen in High Fidelity, John Cusack and co, if you know what I mean. I don’t think any of the first-run places does this Halloween 31 movies in 31 days type thing. But they could …maybe.

Anyway. I Sell The Dead is easy on the eyes if it were ever in a Halloween marathon. Minimal CGI, plot’s on the no surprises here side, the acting’s okay as it goes. Sort of hard to peg this flick as horror though, it finds itself more on the comedy side, more Weird than Scary. A couple of big name actors and the rest are no-listers but that’s not a bad thing. Pop some corn, butter it up and sit back for an hour. This one’s an enjoyable – if forgettable (non)scary movie.

From first scene to last, you can’t take your eyes off Where The Wild Things Are. Alternately funny or sad but always endearing, Max and his gang of Wild Things are a treat for children and adults alike. Might give any kids you being along ideas (tsk tsk!), but this is the sort of film I’d like my folks to see. They’d love it too. (We saw Amelie at the BAM when they visited me in Brooklyn, lifetimes ago.)

Anyway, a welcome addition to any video library once the DVD/BRD comes out. :)

Haven’t had to use any office app in quite some time, and while google docs provides ample service sometimes I’m not online. So, enter OpenOffice. Downloaded the portable version from portableapps and it’s taken an hour to install and launch on this clunker of a computer. Will run more tests on other machines to see if it’s the machine that’s causing the lag, but I’m pretty sure of it. Still, open source software FTW!

Lackluster indie film from down undah excels at slacker-uncomedy, the way people say “That’s …funny” when something decidedly not funny is mentioned. Classic classification confusion ‘cos this might actually be better packaged as a drama. Y/N?

Muddy direction made this reviewer fall asleep twice in a 30 minute first screening, the only reason he’d wake up was when the cat would jump on his stomach. Otherwise this flick’s a total snoozefest. Could try again, a second screening might be the trick, but looks iffy. Go rent Felafel instead.

Easily dismissed as yet another travelogue, Madventures in its third season shifts to English audio with Finnish subtitles – the show’s native audience being the folks back home Finland. Season 3 (S3)’s first episode opens with Riku giving the 1 minute roundup of S1, explanation of the show’s premise and many cut-scenes to drive to point home. Riku speaks a brand of oddly-poetic English that sounds jarring and strangely attractive at the same time, possibly because you have to listen more carefully to understand his patois and his (Finnish?) way of accenting words in unusual places. Madventures S3 promises to continue its mad mix of global exploration, crazy cuisine sampling and hijinks/pranks that differentiate the show from its better-behaved brethren. This reviewer recommends: Stay tuned for more.