Tideland

Terry Gilliam's latest vision, Alice in horrorland: Little Jeliza Rose has to prepare the fix for his junky of a father (yes, it's great to watch Jeff Bridges in a Dude's like role...) and to wax the legs of her fat, 1-cigarette-a-minute, depressive mother. Well until her mother fortunately dies that is and she tumbles down and down the rabbit hole. Lots of dead people and animals, dolls'heads, a nasty woman with a lobotomized son are what await Jeliza Rose on her way to sanity... Very beautiful and poetic, you almost get hypnotized by the movie; it's a very good Gilliam. And the little girl (Jodelle Ferland) plays Jeliza Rose and her four little dolls'heads with such force... she's very impressive.
I can understand why some would not love this movie since it shows some very (VERY) disturbing things, but from the girl's point of view, it's not that important that it's part of her material life, which seems so disconnected from her imaginary one.
If you want to see a good movie, go and watch Tideland.

Underworld / Underword : Evolution

I am usually a good public for a correct vampire book or movie, so this one is not an exception: I've liked underworld a lot. It's got a very beautiful goth look, Kate Beckinsale looks stunning and I've found the vampire vs lycans war to be rather well depicted. I doesn't delve into the vampire condition too much since this has been told and re-told many times over, but concentrates on its own story. So, thumbs up for this one.
On the other hand, as is unfortunately too often the case with sequels, Underworld: Evolution is a lot more boring and a lot more exaggerated than the previous one : with more powerful beings, more yucky romantic scenes... you get the idea : you can skip the sequel without looking back.

The Attack of the Giant Mousaka

You can take a group of gay astronomers in pink uniform, a big BBQ with friends, a young politician with a cocaine-addicted wife, a gang of happy drag queens, a fat transsexual and four lingerie top-models looking for their missing fifth member throughout the galaxy in their UFO and you will have a bad movie. But add to the mix a little slice of mousaka that grows to the size of a 6-floors building and blobs around Athens killing everyone in its path and you'll get "The Attack of the Giant Mousaka" : this movie is as unconventional and as bad as can be. It's funny, grotesque, bizarre, it doesn't take itself seriously, it has lousy actors, and even worse special effects. Sure, it's a Z-series, but then, once in a while, it doesn't hurt.
You'll never look at mousaka the same way!

Merde Actually

Sequel to "A year in the merde", the new adventures of Englishman Paul West in France. Still written by Stephen Clarke, with still the same verve, but without as much "LOL-power". The book is funny to read, I've had my share of smiles of even laughs and poor Paul West get himself in the merde up to his neck, but overall, it seems to me that he often hits under the belt, more often than in the first opus.
A good one though, my only regret being that I've it too fast and am left with nothing to read in my shelves until my birthday comes in a week. It's gonna be a long week ;)
Oh and by the way, why are English girls in the book depicted so vividly as vulgar alcoholic sex-obsessed animals? The picture can't be that bad...

The Island

This movie came highly recommended by a friend so my wife and I watched it. Finally, I found it to be entertaining, with something "different" in the story, but there are at least two things that make it fell short of a good movie. First, the actors are bad, and very much so. Then it's badly directed (or edited) : look at the first pursuit scene in the basement : Ewan Mac Gregor and Scarlett Johansson look like they are running in random direction : they must have been shot by an "un-steady cam" and the different shots cut and pasted in random fashion by an intern that had a twitching hand. This one scene makes the movie scream "cheap". Overall, a good concept with a bad realization.

I, robot

Yes, I know, not having read Asimov before now is a shame, but at last, this is over and I can now stand proud again ;) So I've been to my local bookstore seeking advice about what to read first from Asimov and I've been redirected to his great "Foundation" series which sounded as though it would be months before I could read a single volume so I decided that a small collection of stories would be a good start; I've waited 2 weeks for the book to come and here I am : this book consists of 9 stories.
[RANT MODE] I've been shocked by the cover when receiving the book : there is a huge Will Smith, set in a futuristic landscape, featuring his "I'm in a bad mood" face, and a title "Isaac Asimov - I, robot"; and it is subtitled "now a major motion picture from Twentieth Century Fox starring WIll Smith". Yeah right. I just want to read the book, I don't care about the 20th Century Fox producing so-called "major" movies. Yes I know, I'm getting old and am ranting too much, but I just don't like being forcefully fed the advertising junk with every step I make. [OUT OF RANT MODE]
Aside from this minor annoyance, the stories have been really interesting, all of them presenting the psychological study of a robot which has gone astray, for whatever reason. I was thinking that the style would be somewhat outdated, due to the age of the books, but it is very straight, simple and contemporary.

1. Robbie : nice little story about the ties bonding a little girl with her nursemaid robot.


2. Runaround : a robot goes mad, lost between rule 1 and rule 2...


3. Reason : I've loved this one. A robot, capable of reason, comes to the same conclusion as Descartes "I think therefore I am" and creates his own religion. I find it ironic that the robot created by humans recreates their metaphysical conflicts and invents his own god to fill in the blanks of his existence.


4. Catch That Rabbit : This one is about a robot and his "fingers"; not as acute as the others in my opinion.


5. Liar! : This one is excellent too : the great experts are being plaed with by a robot able to understand the "human" feelings (love, ambition...)


6. Little Lost Robot : What happens when you tell a robot "Go lose yourself!"


7. Escape! : one more "bending rule one" case, to get to the space-warp engine and interesting theories about people dying and reliving in order to "time-space-jump".


8. Evidence : This one is nice too, about a robot replacing a human being and how human intolerance can be fooled by simple tricks : seeing is believing.


9. The Evitable Conflict : interesting (again!?) story about how robots govern life and future of mankind and act to protect themselves to protect mankind.

All in all, this book is very witty, makes you think about things, and has made me want to read more of Asimov's work... and why not Foundation Saga. Time will tell.