Flaming Zinc

I am bored.

I am on hold.

I have been on the phone with Fed-Ex for 17 minutes and 38 seconds. It took me nearly 5 minutes to get through to a human – since there wasn’t an automated option for operator… I just kept repeating ‘raspberry’ when prompted for which service I wished and finally it gave up it’s line of defence and I got through.

So I now have fellow by the name of Dave to help – all I want to do is pick up the package they tried to deliver today at the mobile truck stop near the station. But, Dave refuses to believe me when I tell him this option exists. It is not on his computer screen therefore I am an eccentric British girl talking nonsense.

I am firm, but polite, when inform him that not only have a picked up zillions of packages there but that on Fed-Ex’s door tag it is listed as a pick option. Secretly, I want to tell him that the Eiffel Tower, leaning tower of Pisa or Big Ben are not listed on his monitor but they do exist.

He is now speaking to his supervisor.

I am trying to use my time productively….booking tickets for Fahrenheit 90/11, checking on my latest Amazon order and finding hotels in Boston.

All sorted – Dave has been informed of the code that goes with the mobile truck stop location so therefore it now exists.

Time wasted 23 minutes and 4 seconds….

Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal doesn’t really know what type of film it wants to be and IMO is a jumble.

The tale of an Eastern European man (given the current climate for immigrants Tom Hanks was the only choice) who’s country dissolved by the time he arrived in JFK – he is left in limbo and stuck in the airport. I can imagine this plot working in the 1940’s or 50’s but in 2004 it doesn’t really work. Is it a social comedy (fish out of water), or a romcom (that tragically under uses Catherine Zeta-Jones) and what is the dark secret that he has hidden in the tin? It also doesn’t help that since it is set in an airport it lays on the product placement rather thick!

Something far more exciting – check out The Phantom of the Opera trailer here….looks like a good Christmas/birthday treat pour moi

Both Empire and Cinescape are reporting (so it must be true) that a sequel for Brit horror flick 28 Days Later is in the works. Although, Danny Boyle is not slatted to direct it, he and Garland will have some involvement. Hopefully the concept will not be spoilt by too much money or Hollywood intervention. It would be great if the surviving stars would be attached to it but does it pick up from the optimistic North American ending or the British one???

I am not big on the whole zombie horror genre, but I do ‘enjoy’ films that make you feel uncomfortable and this is definitely one of them. I was left weighing up the fear caused by the mutated human shells against the strung out soldiers – both groups displaying base characteristics… chilled me to the bone and I checked the wardrobe for boogie men upon my return!

I am watching The Abyss for the first time.

I hang my head in shame that it has taken me this long to see it, but in my defence – a combination of hydrophobia, a general distaste for vessels that float on or under it and, my personal favourite, a fear of aquariums (small ones I find tacky and huge ones scare me stupid). I believe the first seeds of doubt were planted in me as a bairn, when attending our first mother and baby swim session I was the only one that sank – fact or family lore?

Any how it really is a great movie, but I ask you which metal was Ed Harris’s ring make out of?

Laws of Attraction

This is a perfect movie for popping on whilst tackling a pile of ironing or on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Brosnan and Moore are pleasant enough as divorce lawyers who battle in the court room and then fall in love. But, it is the supporting cast that keeps you interested and have all best lines. The lovely Michael Sheen and Parker Posey liven things up as a couple whose rock ‘n’ roll marriage has hit the rocks and but it is Frances Fisher as Moore’s hedanistic mum that wipes the floor with everyone (perhaps a hint of a Eddie/Saffy relationship).

Now I just have the latest Harry Potter and I am up to date with the films I saw in London…..but HP4 deserves a second viewing first!

I don’t usually watch breakfast tv as it annoys me – not so much current affairs but a pin striped version of Access Hollywood. Anyhow, I saw they were going to interview Helen Fielding so I thought I’d give it five minutes. Before the mastermind behind Bridget Jones came on they interviewed Ben Stiller, who happened to be promoting his fifth film of the year (yup – nearly one a month).

Too much Stiller I say and he’s flooding the market before ‘Meet the Fockers‘ is released this Christmas. Some of his films are good – Flirting with Disaster and The Royal Tenenbaums – but he doesn’t really have that great a range. IMO he just gives us slightly different incarnations of Mr Furious. Which is fine, but if you have restricted acting abilities you should limit the number of features you appear in so that it doesn’t draw too much attention to it e.g Keanu Reeves, Jack Nicholson, Matt LeBlanc, the late great Cary Grant and of course Paul Walker.

Then again, maybe Stiller is just trying to stand his ground as the ‘angry’ comedian before David Schwimmer gets going since being released back into the community.

These are very late

The Day After Tomorrow – contains extended scenes of peril (never!)

I like a good disaster flick.

Be it flaming meteoroids hurtling towards Earth, Shirley Winters drowning on a capsized ship or the core mysteriously slowing down – I say bring it on. This is a very enjoyable way to waste an afternoon, the cast do a stirling job and bless them for not actually saving the northern hemisphere. Dennis Quaid makes an excellent ‘Cassandra’, as the crumpled climatologist whose predictions fall on deaf ears and then has to haul arse to rescue his estranged son. It would have been more fun if they had played up more of the differences between an arctic expedition over desolate land and the urban landscape. The merry band of survivors hauled up in the NY Public Library weren’t too annoying but if I had been there I would have had every inch of the room they were huddled in filled with books to burn and had a scavenger party dispatched to abandoned vessel before you could mumble ‘frozen sausages’.

The science is obviously wobbly and if they channelled the budget of the film into climate research then the future might be a bit rosier – but that’s as much fantasy as this plot!

Troy – contains strong battle violence (they didn’t call it the battle of Troy for nothing)

I am turning into a bit of an anorak when it comes to the ancient Greeks. I like to think of them as a legalised StarTrek obsession and I can’t get enough of the whole honour/retribution thing (must be my Klingon side). First off, this is a modern interpretation of the Trojan War therefore it does not rigidly follow Homer’s ‘The Iliad‘ – the conflict has been condensed, characters are merged, other’s dispatched where once they survived and we do not see the god involvement (but they are referred to through out). There is a strong cast that add gravatas and support the ‘weaker’ Achilles (plus Hector is the real hero that steals the show). Brian Cox as Agamemnon is a suitable megalomaniac, but he better watch out as he could be evolving into the Scottish Marlon Brando and surely Peter O’Toole’s Priam is a shoe in for an Oscar nod.

It’s a capital adventure and a solid summer blockbuster. Finger’s crossed they do the ‘sequel‘ as Sean Bean makes a heart melting Odysseus.

Well, I didn’t quite manage all six books but got through ‘The Lady and the Unicorn’ which wasn’t that great – I think that if Tracey Chevalier didn’t have the ‘art’ angle then her books wouldn’t register on the radar. Now, either the flight was super long or the films I watched rather short, but I managed to fit in three – Spartan, The Cooler and Love Actually. Can you tell I was having a bit of a William H Macy fest and then moved onto some Brit talent

Spartan was awesome, between the dialogue and the twisty turny plot I was hooked. http://imdb.com/name/nm0000174/ did a superb job as the lead and it was packed with Mamet regulars. The Cooler is definitely one where you are routing for the under dog and has a seedier look at Las Vegas (more Nicolas Cage than George Clooney). Finally, how could I resist re-watching Love Actually – even though it is summer and Christmas is the last thing on my mind! Still above the engine noise you might have been able to hear me singing along to ‘Christmas is all around’.

I have taken my last exam and can now watch tv/films, read books and blog without feeling guilty – hurrah! Been a busy old month in London. Despite my primary focus being the 6 eggs ‘n’ ham I did manage to fit in a concert, 3 plays, a trip to Edinburgh, 8 galleries/museums, 4 films (reviews on the way) and the odd night out with my friends….phew be glad to get home to relax.

I have celebrated my new found freedom with a trip to a bookshop and got a whole stack of ‘fun’ reading – wonder how many I will get through on my return flight

Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patrica Highsmith by Andrew Wilson
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracey Chevalier

Whether this is true or not I guess the wedding dress was burning a hole in her wardrobe.