Dr Miracle

Roger Explosion

Gran Torino

Headed to Eastland last night with Dean and Cam to see "Gran Torino".

It's about, get this, 78 year old ex-Korean War veteran Walt (played by Clint Eastwood, who is the only person who could possibly have played this, but still had some ridiculous moments) who comes to the aid of his neighbours and takes on several gangs.

The film starts with a Hmong boy named Thao being initiated by his cousin's gang (against his will) by stealing Walt's prized "Gran Torino". Thao fails and is sent by his family to do chores for Walt. In the midst of this the gang returns to shake Thao up and Walt confronts them with a rifle. Walt continues his frenzy by taking on a few other hooligans. Soon Walt, initially extremely prejudiced against foreigners, warms to this lovely family next door and their family, especially with Thao and his sister Sue. Things begin to escalate though and Walt is forced to kick it up a notch. Will the old man defeat a gang of 5 extremely buff Asians? See it to find out.

A good movie with a kind of nice message. Lots of snicker-worthy jokes, generally based around his racist thoughts and old school ways. The scenes in the barber shop and the Hmong's home are especially good. Like I said, a tad of a stretch at times, but what movie doesn't have some slightly unlikely instances these days.

A must for blokes and certain women will like too. FYI, it's #82 on the IMDB Top 250, just ahead of The Prestige and The Elephant Man.

Australian Open

Went to the Australian Open with mum today to check out some hot tennis. I got mum a membership for the tournament which got her 2 ground passes, a hat and a few fringe benefits. The ground passes aren't as good in the 2nd week though as the singles are done and you get mostly legends and mens and womens doubles on the outside courts .Luckily some family were there and they offered to share their passes into Rod Laver with us, meaning we took turns watching the good matches. Here's my thoughts and diary of the day.

-Started the day by watching some legends doubles. It was Henri LeConte (the funny French guy) and Scud against Mats Wilander and Joakim Nystrom. The LeConte/Philippoussis pairing seemed a little odd (with one being deadly serious and the other preferring to get laughs than hit winners) but they played well and won in a thriller (sorta). LeConte was the best on the court, with deft touch still anywhere around the net. Scud was, well, Scud. Some nice ground strokes but some poor ones too.

-After this went into Rod Laver to watch Serena Williams play Victoria Azarenka (pictured)who I'd never heard of. Sat next to a distant cousin who I met for the first time in this match and we had a good chat and paid out the players, so that was good. Azarenka played the 1st set really well and had Serena stuffed. In the 2nd the match evened up, then Azarenka called the physio out, then took a medical time out. She returned but it become obvious she was struggling. She started to look a bit unsteady on her feet, started grimacing, then started coughing loudly. Shockingly, especially on Australia Day, she quit. The diggers must have been turning over in their grave. Appaling. But seriously, I thought she was going to vomit and then pass out, so fair enough.

-Went from here to another legends match, this time the Woody's against Guy Forget and Fitzy. The Woody's were too good and got home in a close one. For this game we got 2nd row seats, which was good.

-With not much left on with name players, we headed to the "Members Lounge", a perk of mum's membership. Mum flashed the pass around like Wayne and Garth in this scene from "Wayne's World"



Sadly the members lounge wasn't how I pictured. I figured we could go have a martini with Roger Federer or something, but it was just a section of the Lexus Centre with a cafe and bar and a big screen. The big screen seemed to be hooked up with an indoor antenna and the picture was crap. We watched the first set of Nadal/Gonzalez,then went home.

A good day out, especially in Rod Laver. One of the better sporting events as a whole we put on in Australia.

Dokic

Yet again Aussie sporting hopes hang on the shoulders of a girl who moved here from another country as a teenager.

I've watched all of Jelena's matches at the Open and she's playing pretty damn well. She's knocked off three top 30 girls in her last 3 games and looks good enough to go all the way. Hopefully that ankle roll she did last night, which would have put Gav out of action for a few weeks, is only mild and she's fully ok for her next game. It's weird seeing an Aussie female tennis player who seems to have a really solid game, plays well under pressure and responds to the crowd. Just get rid off those awful Chris Dittmar interviews after her matches.

Slumdog Millionaire

Took wifey last night to "La Premiere" (the Hoyts version of Gold Class) to see "Slumdog Millionaire". It's pretty similar to "Gold Class" except you get complimentary soft drink and popcorn, which is a pretty sweet deal, but you don't get a reclining chair (which sucks) and you sit with others along a balcony which is overseeing where the poor people sit. One of the highlights of the night was watching the poor people work out how they got upto our seats. I wanted to shout something insulting to them, but I'm pretty humble.

The movie was excellent. It's about a boy named Jamal who gets to the last question of India's version of "Who wants to be a millionaire". The movie starts with him being interrogated the day before he gets to the last question as the host of the show is suspicious he's cheating, especially because of the fact he's a "slumdog". We then retrace Jamal watching the video of the show with the police and him telling stories about how he knew the answers.

It's a brilliant idea for a movie (based upon the book "Q&A") and played out well as the story was so good. The cast is really solid, especially when it follows Jamal, his brother Salim and friend Latika as little children. The cast is really good, the cinematography excellent and the story is a masterpiece. Don't just take my word for it though- it won the Golden Globe for best picture and is No. 34 on the IMDB.com Top 250, 3 spots ahead of "Wall-E". If you're still not convinced, watched this trailer....



2 amusing side notes.

1/ About half way through mum rang me (she was babysitting) asking how to get the sound back on as Isaac had fiddled with the tv set-up. Isaac then turned the power off 3 more times, meaning it took me 10mins to explaint o mum how to put the tv on, the stereo on, foxtel on and the dvr set-up.

2/ During the week, Andy Maher was on SEN saying how brilliant it was and even the more remarkable was that it was a true story. One caller phoned in and told him it wasn't and that he thought it was based on a book but Andy countered that the book must have been based on a true story. Then another guy phoned in and reviewed the book as he'd recently read it, then Andy started to back down from his stance and seemed rather crestfallen.

"Extras" Christmas Special

Finally got around to watching this online the other day and must say I was a bit disappointed with it. It went on a downhill slide for about 75mins, then Andy comes to his senses and makes some changes. The message seemed a bit mixed and it was just a bit too depressing at times, especially the Maggie storyline. The monologue in the Big Brother house was pretty excellent, but I also enjoyed moments like this.

Fights

Man, this doesn't pass for a fight. If they were hitting each other over the head or back with the chairs wrestling-style that's fine, but this?

Reason I love my wife 187

One thing wifey is passionate about is entering competitions. Over the last year she's one some decent things for the kids, but not as much for me, which is annoying. Yesterday though she hit the jackpot when she won a free week hire of this little puppy (pictured above). It's sleeps up to six and comes with all expenses paid (except the petrol). They clean it, give us a little pack....it's gold. I'm very excited thinking about where we may go and being able to stay in comfort (it's even got a shower and bathroom). If you've got some destination ideas, let me know.

Instructions for American Serviceman in Australia 1942

For my birthday last year, my mate Tompy got me this little gem. It's a booklet that was given to US soldiers helping with the war effort in Australia during WW2. It's full of info about the country at the time and lots of what they perceive as our cultural quirks ie we say "bloody hell" a lot. An easy read so you get to say "I read a book in a day", which is always good (although i read it in bits over several months ie back-up reading material when eat-in restaurants I frequent were out of papers).

Tropic Thunder

This was one that I kinda wanted to see at the movies, but was more than happy to wait for it on dvd. Good move.

"Tropic Thunder" is a movie about a bunch of prima donna actors (in the movie, not in real life....I think) played by Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jnr who are on the set what is supposed to be the biggest war movie ever. Within days the movie is a month behind schedule and the trio's antics are bugging everyone, from the director through to the executive producer (played by Tom Cruise, in a disguise so good Tara didn't even pick him). To teach them a lesson, they are placed in the middle of the jungle to fend for themselves, under the threat of the Vietcong and animal attacks (one of the best scenes of the movie). They still think they're filming until things become a little odd. Will the guys work out what's going on and get outta dodge? See it to find out.

Not bad, but not enough jokes and plenty of poor ones. Ben Stiller and Rob Downey get most of the laughs, with little left for Jack Black. Tom Cruise was just a tad over the top for me, but got nominated for awards, so go figure. Here's a trailer.

Last Goodbye- Vanilla Sky

Possibly my favourite music/movie scene of all-time

The Office

Wifey and I started watching Season 2 of the U.S version of "The Office" this week. Haven't seen Season 1, but from what I know, a few of the episodes are carbon copies of the UK version, and the one or two I saw were awful. Season 2 features about 90% new ideas and most of the characters are quite different to the British version, although Jim and Pam are pretty much along the same lines with Jim being a little wackier.

So far it's beeen pretty good, and to enjoy it you need to dismiss the UK version as it's now a fairly different show. Michael (Steve Carrell) is solid, but Dwight probably gets most of the laughs. The best two episodes we've seen so far would probably be "The Fire" and "The Injury". Obviously due to the length of the series the supporting cast get more screen time, but most of them stink, except Toby who cracks me up (more specifically, his face cracks me up).

Here's my favourite scene so far, from "The Injury" episode where Michael burns his foot on a George Foreman grill.

Wall-E

Grabbed this for the family the other night, here's my IMDB.com review.

"Wall-E" is a movie about a kooky little robot. Due to problems on earth related to waste, all the humans are evacuated and put onto ships to escape until life on earth is safe (I actually missed the first five minutes as I was making popcorn but this is what I was told). Wall-E's job is to compile and clean up all the waste and ends up becoming the last thing left on earth (besides a cockroach).

One day a weird robot is dropped onto Earth and seems very hostile towards Wall-E. We soon learn this robot called EVE is on a mission to find life forms. After 700 years of these robots being sent to earth without success, EVE eventually finds a plant situated in Wall-E's little container. She grabs it and is collected to return to the mother ship. The leader on the ship is stunned at EVE's success as this means a return to earth is possible- but not all seem to want to go home. Will the crew onboard, who have all got fat and lazy return to earth or will they live as they have been happily?

Totally not what i expected from the movie. Not really a kids movie I would have thought as the message is too complex and it's excruciatingly slow at times. Strangely it ranked at No. #37 on IMDB's Top 250 movies of all time (just in front of "Taxi Driver" !). I read the most rated review and came across this, which troubled me.....

WALL-E is such a lovable character. I've never felt so much emotion for one character. He will definitely go down in history as iconic as Darth Vader, or Indiana Jones. I was so close to crying at pivotal parts in the film, and although I didn't fully break out and cry, I have never felt so much emotion in my heart with any other film as I did with this one.

Ah, that person needs to get out to better movies. The animation is great, but the film was hard work for the viewer.

The Proposition

"The Proposition" is a story about a brother who must decide if he is willing to give a brother's life to save another. It is set in Australia in the late 1800's.

Charlie (Guy Pearce, in his finest work since "Neighbours) and his younger brother Mikey (Richard Wilson, formerly from "McLeod's Daughters) are caught during a siege. Mikey is thrown into prison and Charlie is given an ultimatum- find and deliver his older and much more sought after brother Arthur (Danny Huston, in his finest work since he played Bartender 2 in "Leaving Las Vegas") or Mikey will be hung.

Charlie sets off to find his older brother but unbeknown to him some people in the police force think the offer made to Charlie is foolish and set out to make changes. Eventually Charlie tracks down his brother and lets him know why he's there. The brothers must decide what to do with their brother's life hanging in the balance.

A little slow for me and the story wasn't gripping or anything new. A different setting I guess but just way too boring for me. Give it a miss.

Sammy's

On Thurs night Tara and I headed to the lovely "Saamy's" on the Marina at Glenelg. We hadn't been for about 7 years and were purely going as i'd won a $50 voucher on the 5AA quiz.

Tara got the Garlic Prawns and i got the "Aussie Favourite" which was a combo of 2 pieces of King George whiting, calamari, prawns (obviously I gave these to Tara), chips and sald. It was delicious and much better than what they serve up at my local fish and chip shop. The freshness was the highlight. A lovely meal and my 2nd favourite dining experience of my trip to the homeland.

36ers v Hawks

So I went with Gary tonight to see my beloved 36ers take on the Hawks. Here's my highlights and thoughts on the game.

-As soon as we sat down I noticed J Hodge didn't seem to be on the court. A quick number count confirmed my fears. Looks like Mal must have forgot to go to the bank again. Slightly annoyed.
-Schenscher is frustrating. He's so soft and resorts to mostly shooting jump hooks or baby hooks.....but he's just too big for 90% of the league. We wouldn't have won without him tonight.
-Adam Ballinger rules. Does everything well and compliments Schenscher's softness.
-Not much has changed entertainment wise, especially the music ie "Thunderstruck". A new lowlight was the "birthdays" segment, where they read out people's birthdays. Fascinating.
-Brad Hill is a lot better these days. Had a great cameo in the 4th.
-Speaking of cameos, Maher went crazy in the 3rd, scoring 13 in 8 minutes, including 3 straight triples. Is pretty much just an outside shooter now, but he does that well.
-0 blocks for the team. Poor. Schenscher should get at least 3 by accident himself every game.
-J Ho's shot looked awful. He finished with 2-9. As a team we shot 44%. I thought it was a lot better than this. Our starters outside Holmes all shot 50% or better, but the rest dragged it back badly. Amazingly the Hawks took 25 less shots but shot at 53%. Not sure why they took so few shots.

A good game to watch though and a thoroughly enjoyable night out. Ran into Ash aftewards which was good, except he kept begging me to trade him Brandon Roy.

Jasmin

Last night headed into the city for a farewell dinner for James and Lex, who head of next week for a year in Holland and the UK. James suggested "Jasmin", an Indian restaurant in the heart of Adelaide. Tara was excited as Indian is her favourite cuisine. I looked online for some reviews and was somewhat excited after reading the following.....

Hon Mike Rann: ‘I love Indian food. If I had to choose a place for my last supper on this earth, it would be The Jasmin on Hindmarsh Square where I’ve been going for a quarter of a century.’

Hon Mike Rann
Premier of South Australia
SA Life
March 2005

BEST INDIAN RESTAURANT IN AUSTRALIA
‘It was the best Indian meal I have eaten in Australia.’ ‘…I cannot recommend The Jasmin too highly.’ ‘…the food was irresistible.’

Sol Simeon
Sunday Mail

So from this I gathered it was going to be pretty nice. It was as good as suggested.

We got the banquet, which gave us two serves of entrees (8 items to try each) and two serves of main course (6 dishes). All was awesome, except for maybe the mushroom, but I hate all mushroom dishes so that doesn't really count. Besides this we also had standard and cheese naan, the later can only be described as "awesome".

Besides the food, the service was brilliant, the environment beautiful and the manager was very friendly. Probably the best dine experience I've had.

After this we headed to Brunelli's for some gelati and coffees, said our goodbyes and then headed home. A great night indeed.

Meet Dave

Picked this for the family to view the other night, here's my IMDB.com review

"Meet Dave" is yet another movie where Eddie Murphy plays multiple characters, though this time it's just 2.

Dave (Murphy) is a ship from out of space in the form of a human body sent to retrieve a special particle that was hurled to earth. Yep. Dave is controlled internally by a bunch of tiny aliens who look human, led by "The Commander" (also Murphy). Dave ends up befriending a mother and son who he thinks can help him get what he's after. This proves a challenge though as he has to learn how to interact with humans while seeming like one of them. With this premise, obviously laughs abound.

It's a dumb story, but there's some decent laughs for the family. Enjoy it for what it is and you'll be ok.

There Will Be Blood

Rewatched this last night on dvd. Here's my review I did after seeing it at the cinema in March 2008.

"There Will Be Blood" is an epic, based upon the 1927 book "Oil!". I didn't know much about it going in, except that it had Daniel Day Lewis playing an oil tycoon. For me, that was enough of a sell. If Darren picked a movie to go and see called "There Will Be Blood", I probably would have declined, but to his credit I picked it and he agreed, knowing full well it wasn't going to be up to his normal gory standards.

I'd been wanting to see this for a while and knew an Adelaide visit presented a good opportunity. I checked out session times and it was only still being shown in 2 cinemas, very infrequently. I pre-booked some tickets online for the first time, meaning I'd get to experience what they show in the movie ads where you stroll straight up to get your tickets,lights shining on you and all the suckers who are waiting in line go "man, we should have booked online. We're such losers". Sadly it wasn't like this at all. The funny thing was when I booked they encouraged you to collect your "pre-booked, allocated seating" ticket 30mins prior to the movie, which seems ridiculous. Luckily I ignored there I advice as when we got there there were only a handful of people in any lines, plus the cinema only had 2 other people in it.

Anyway back to the movie. It starts with Daniel Plainview (Day Lewis) down a hole digging about. Then we skip forward a few years and he discovers the first of many oil wells. All of this (about 20mins in screen time) is done with no dialogue. Weird. Luckily I still followed what was happening. Soon Plainview has a small portfolio of oil wells and is doing very nicely. He starts to build a little empire, working with his adopted son HW, whom he became guardian for after his father died in a digging accident. One day while trying to gain some more land he gets an offer from a young guy about a likely potential boom area where he has seen oil seeping through the land. the kid asks for some money to advise where it is and Plainview agrees. He goes to check it out and discovers an absolute gold mine (in an oil sense). Plainview buys the land from the ignorant family, part of the deal being the establishment of a church on the lands so the son can start his own ministry. The rig is soon underway and the community is greatly enriched. From the moment the rig starts digging however, trouble upon trouble comes Plainview's way. Plainview starts to get a more sever mean streak, majorly affecting his relationships with the church, business associates and his family.

I wont go on much more from here as it will ruin many of the subplots. Now to the review.

First of all, your "Fast and the Furious" types will probably hate it. It's set in the early 1900's and the story is slow at times. The story is rather intriguing and leaves a fair bit of food for thought. It's not what i expected, I had in my mind much more boardroom dealings and a fiercer pace, but the story just rolled on. The cast was outstanding, most notably Day Lewis as Plainview in one of the truly great performances of cinema, Paul Dano as Eli Sunday and Kevin O'Connor as Henry. A good story, perhaps a modern day "Dances With Wolves", just a lot better. I didn't want to review it straight after as I was still a little bewildered, and three days later still am unsure how I felt about it. Certainly worth seeing though, probably not a great chick flick though.

*As far as the violence, it's pretty moderate. For example, about half way through Gary whispered to me "there's been no blood yet", to which I replied "yeh, but I'm pretty sure there will be blood".

We Are Marshall

"We Are Marshall" is a true story about the tragic plane crash containing almost the entire school's football team back in 1970 and the aftermath that followed (as aftermaths do).

In 1970, the Marshall Football Team chartered a plane back home after a game and the plane crashed into trees not far from their destination. The small community is rocked and everyone is impacted in a great way. After the initial grieving, the school must decide if it will field a team the next year. At first the feeling is to bypass the new season as nearly all the squad has gone, but a few of the remaining players push to do all they can to field a team. They hire coach Jack Lengyel (McConaughey, in a strong, charming performance) to assemble a team and soon find many supporters who will help them get on their feet, notably the NCAA who change a rule for them and their rival school, who assists with some resources. The story focuses on Jack, returning coach Red (Matthew Fox from that stupid "Lost" show) and a few of the players who missed the trip due to injury or suspension. It soon becomes clear though they face a huge challenge to be competitive and not embarrass the school. Will they prove to be a Cinderella story or will they suck?

A solid movie and a little different to what you may expect from the genre. Fox, McConaughey and David Strathairn are all solid but we don't get to know too much about the players, and the actors who play them seem a little out of their comfort zone. A great story and worth seeing.

Twisted

For the first time in recent memory I sat down and watched a tv movie. I'd heard of this a while back, and while I didn't expect much, how could I miss with a stellar cast including Sam Jackson and Andy Garcia. Ashley Judd was also in it. Here's my IMDB.com review.

Jessica Shepard (Judd, in her most dominant role since "Double Jeopardy") is a tough cop who has just been promoted to detective. Not long after this she gets called into investigate some murders with an apparent link- Jessica has recently expressed her love physically with each man. She is soon an obvious suspect, however none of her fellow cops believe she could have done it. These workmates include Chief John Mills (Jackson, in his most powerful role since "Snakes On A Plane"), her partner Mike (Garcia) and creepy Jimmy (Mark Pellegrino). When a few weird things happen, she's not sure who she can trust. Was it really Jessica all along, or someone we never would have suspected?

Just awful. A terrible, slow story which throws plenty of curveballs to try to throw us off the scent. Not gripping at any stage at all due to the ridiculous amounts of clues it tries to drop that are obvious diversions. Add to that a terrible ending and you've just wasted 2 hours of your life. Avoid at all costs.