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A major disappointment! I've wanted to see Bend It Like Beckham for a long time now, and have been waiting for it to come out here in America, which it finally did. Tried to get a group of friends to go see it with me, raved and raved about it, but only one was interested and then she couldn't make it after all. I went to see it with a friend's husband's cousin visiting from England, although he doesn't rate Beckham too highly, and really did not want to see the film, but he went along with me anyway. It was a major, major disappointment. It's billed as a comedy, but the funny bits were few and far between. It got funny only towards the end, and then it wasn't that funny. In fact the funniest bit was when one of Jess' grandmothers I think it was, said "Jess, a lesbian? I thought she was a Pisces."

I enjoyed the football part of it, and Parminder Nagra who plays Jess Bhamra, reminds me of my friend Seira. The wedding at the end looked like it was a lot of fun, as did the one in Monsoon Wedding. The clash of cultures theme though was not all that funny, mainly because for me, Jess' mother was not that funny. It really was done better in East is East as the friend I went to see it with said. And Jonathan Rhys-Meyers who plays Joe the coach? He was awful - he had on a permanent pout which was extremely annoying. He looked like he was about to start crying in many of the scenes.

So what did I think? A big let down. Totally over hyped. It's a good job all the friends I'd asked didn't want to see it. Charles, the friend I saw it with, had been slagging it off before we saw it, with me defending it. Came out of the film with the tables turned. He didn't enjoy it either, but he wasn't as harsh in his criticism as I was. I know it's not supposed to be some deep study of life or anything, but the ending was packaged in a box with a big bow on the top, which was a little too treacly for me. Yes it got excellent reviews, and I wanted to see it a lot, but in the end, I wasn't convinced. Maybe I'm taking it too seriously, who knows?

(16/11/04) Somehow everything from this review onwards got deleted sometime in November 2004, and the wayback machine only goes as far back as January 2004 for my site, and I've written a lot of film reviews since then. I can't remember what I wrote about this and am not inclined to write another one just now, since I have loads of other new reviews to get round to. Didn't particularly care much for this is what I do know. The films below that have full reviews are either the ones I was able to retrieve, or obviously they're new films post-November 2004.

Went to see this with Patricia at the Loews in Georgetown. Not exceptionally wonderful or anything, but definitely laugh out loud funny in bits (unlike Bend It Like Beckham), although I thought it had a lot of unnecessary nudity. Seeing Martin Freeman (Tim from The Office) naked playing a body double was surreal, as I'm used to him being the Fisher Price man.

Anyway, back to the story, which consists of various different stories about love in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Liam Neeson and Colin Firth's storylines stood out the most for me. Stars Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and co. Billy Bob Thornton as the U.S. President was a hoot!!

Acting means making us believe something right? Colin Firth's kiss with his love interest, after all they'd been through, after him taking Portuguese lessons and her taking English lessons, was totally unbelievable. If you're going to do it, do it right, otherwise don't do it at all is what I say.

Went to see this with Kristina, my friend William's soon-to-be-fourteen-year-old daughter. She liked it; I didn't really. I must have been tired 'cos I was actually nodding off in bits of it. I preferred Toy Story. This got a lot of hype and good reviews so I'd been looking forward to watching it, but it was just there for me.

It's a Disney Pixar animation feature about a family of superheroes. Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson) is Mr Incredible. His other half is Elastigirl (Holly Hunter). They have to retire and go away and assume a new life as ordinary people after a spate of lawsuits against super heroes. They have three kids and go about their lives, although Mr Incredible secretly listens to police radios at night with his ex-super hero friend Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson). Anyway their super hero days are resurrected soon enough.

One thing I did like about this though was the fact that Mrs Incredible had hips!! I also liked the French thief scene where the thief's like "Monsieur Incroyable ....." Also the writer/director Brad Bird does a brilliant turn as Edna, the fashion designer extraordinaire to the world's super heroes.

This was a Netflix critic recommendation and I loved it. I actually went through all 57 customer reviews and all were glowing, and I made Zibu and Sandra watch it. Sandra didn't think there was any big deal to it, and was a little bored, but I knew Zibu would like it, as she likes things with nuance and depth. Not that Sandra doesn't mind you, but this is exactly the kind of film Zibu likes. Maybe I should watch more German cinema as I absolutely loved Nowhere in Africa too, and made everyone watch that.

Martha (Martina Gedeck) is the head chef of an upscale restaurant. She is not interested in anything except cooking, doesn't date, doesn't eat and will storm out of her kitchen to confront any diner that dares to criticise her art. At her boss's "suggestion" she is forced to see a therapist. She spends her sessions telling him about recipes she has and making him taste things she's cooked. She's totally anti-social and doesn't know how to interact with people. I liked her!

Suddenly Martha's entire life changes when her 8 year-old niece Lina (Maxime Foerste) comes to live with her, following an accident. There is a change in the restaurant too when an Italian chef, Mario (Sergio Castellitto), is hired. Where she is uptight and rigid, he is totally carefree and in your face, and in her face especially.

Oh, this was a gorgeous love story--a story of love between Martha and Lina (Foerste is just perfect in this role), and a story of love between Martha and Mario. It's gorgeous to watch the two of them falling in love. Mario is always in her face, always pushing, but that's what she needs. I absolutely adored this film. The jarring song sung in English by maybe an Italian was a bit much and highly distracting, but on the second watch, it didn't annoy me quite as much. Did I say I loved this?

I had wanted to see this film 'cos it's with Daniel Craig, whom I love, but I wasn't prepared to watch it at the cinema. Borrowed the DVD from Silvio and finally watched it this past week (21/7/04).

I usually am not in any rush to watch a Tom Hanks film; don't know why, he just doesn't do it for me, but I must say I thought his performance in this was a joy to watch. Hanks plays Michael Sullivan, a hitman for gangster John Rooney (Paul Newman), in Depression-era Chicago. Connor Rooney (Craig) is also a hitman who feels he has to murder Sullivan's wife and one of his sons after the older boy witnesses a hit the two men carried out. So begins Sullivan's 6-week flight on the road to revenge (and physically to a place called Perdition) which he takes with his older boy Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin)

I just found Hanks' portrayal of devoted father extremely interesting to watch--so much so that I wondered what he was like with his own children. Where he appeared distant and somewhat authoritarian with one son, he seemed to be loving and playful with the other. Also interesting was the total lack of any contact between him and his wife, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. Seeing her again made me want to watch Single White Female again.

So where I went looking for Daniel Craig I found Tom Hanks instead. It's funny how films can make you empathise with characters even if they themselves are bad. I mean there's nothing wholesome about being a hitman, but I was rooting for the two Sullivans as they were running from the Rooney mob.

Oh, Jude Law was in this too. He played a photographer whose passion is taking photos of dead people. Now for me, Jude Law is vastly overated. He does absolutely nothing for me and I find him mildly annoying, but he was great in this film. They had him balding with bad teeth and a very pale pallour to his skin. He almost looked like the dead people he was photographing.

I was hoping for a happy ending because of all that the Sullivans had gone through, so was surprised at the end when the box wasn't wrapped up all pretty with a pink bow.

Absolute drivel! I had wanted to watch this because one of my work colleagues had told me it was a remake of Charade, which she absolutely adores. I loved Charade too. Charlie was a waste of time. It was like coke that's lost its fizz, the agony without the ecstasy, the champagne without the bubbles. There was absolutely no point in remaking the original, no matter how intentionally loose the remake was. Thandie Newton was nowhere near as adorable as Audrey Hepburn as Reggie, and Mark Wahlberg cannot compare to Cary Grant's Peter Joshua. There was no lively banter between the two, the acting was well dodgy and the whole thing stank. Alright!! Not saying the the original should have got any Oscars or anything, but at least there was something happening between the two leads. That more than made up for the overall potential cheese factor.

This is by far the best film so far of 2005. Saw this on 3/6/05, and it's now about a week later. Went to see this with Zibu. Afterwards she announced that it was one of the best films she's ever seen, and it may make her rethink Bollywood, since she didn't realise this calibre of stuff was coming out of Hollywood. Not sure whether the mention of Bollywood hasn't altogether wrecked her credibility to give this film a glowing report, but it was brilliant, and that's all there is to it. This kind of fell below the radar, but it got glowing critic reviews, which made me want to check it out.

This film boasts an all-star cast in a story about racial stereotypes, and how we all collide with each other at some point. It's set in LA shortly after September 11, 2001 and follows a two-day period in the lives of various people of different races. We have Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon), a veteran white cop who stops a black couple (Terrence Howard and Thandie Newton, although for some reason Newton's character talks about her being white in one scene, which neither Zibs nor I got) on their way back from a television awards show. He stops them because he saw them enjoying themselves, and he then humiliates the woman in front of her husband.

We have Officer Hansen (Ryan Phillipe), the rookie cop who watches and squirms while his partner is humiliating the African-American couple, seems to be the good guy in the situation, and then goes on to experience his own challenging moment. This is made all the more poignant by the fact that Dillon's character tells him he'll soon change, and his moment will come.

Brendan Fraser plays the mayor I believe, whose wife (Sandra Bullock) is angry at everyone and kicks up a fuss when Daniel, a Hispanic locksmith (Michael Pena) is fixing their front door locks. She reckons he's going to make copies of the keys and get his "homies" to come do the place over. Then there's the hardworking cop (Don Cheadle) who is sleeping with his partner (Jennifer Esposito) and has a junkie mother, and a brother who's in trouble with the law. Another storyline is of this Persian shopkeeper who buys a gun to protect himself and his wife, and who blames a break-in on the same Hispanic locksmith.

This was just really a very powerful film. I knew somebody was going to die, not just because at the beginning, someone's sneaker was lying by the side of a road, but also because somebody has to die in films like these, and I really thought it would be Daniel, the locksmith. There were two scenes that were particularly brilliant; one involved Kevin Dillon and Thandie Newton, and the other involved the Persian shopkeeper and Daniel the locksmith. The whole cinema spoke out, whether it was "Oh my God" or something else. Really, go see this today, and see it in the cinema. Don't wait for the DVD. (Zibu even said she'll buy the DVD!!)

This is quite a sad story and again like Igby Goes Down nothing much really happens, and yet so much is told, if you know what I mean. The film opens with Warren Schmidt's (Jack Nicholson) retirement, which has come because really it's time to make room for younger, fresher blood. Of course he was totally unprepared for this new change in lifestyle and so he feels lost. His wife then suddenly dies after 42 years of marriage, and his only daughter Jeannie is about to marry a major loser. His daughter is too busy planning her wedding to be emotionally there for him at this time, and so he's forced to go on a road trip in a huge Winnebago in a quest to find out what it's all about.

There is so much sadness going on in this story. He was married to his wife, yet there seemed to be no real connection after 42 years of marriage, his daughter is absent emotionally and physically, and he feels lonely. It's like you work all your life, get married, have kids and then at the end of it all, what is there? Out of sheer boredom I would say, he decides to sponsor, and begins to write to six-year old Ndugu in Tanzania, Africa. It is to Ndugu that he narrates his story.

Jack Nicholson, Adam Sandler and Marisa Tomei star in this major piece of rubbish. I had not really wanted to see this, but when you go to Blockbuster with friends that don't have the same taste as you, you have to compromise. This film was painful to watch. I was like "why is this going on?" and "did they actually pay people to act these parts?" Jack Nicholson's sheer sadism seemed to be pointless, and so I just didn't get it. (It wasn't of course until the end that an explanation was given, and probably everybody else that's seen this film except Alexis and myself could see it coming. The painful part was that it was actually quite funny in parts, but I couldn't understand how I could be laughing at such ridiculousness, if you know what I mean.

The plot? Sandler plays Dave Buznik, a meek and mild, dormat-type executive assistant with no backbone to stand up for himself, and an aversion to PDA brought on by a humiliating episode in his childhood. Following an incident on a plane he is forced to enter an anger-management program run by Dr Buddy Rydell (Nicholson), who himself would appear to be in need of his own therapy. Tomei plays Linda, Buznik's girlfriend.

I knew there was a reason why I like Jack Nicholson! Went to see this with Patricia and her friend Nicole. It was hilarious. Both Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson's facial expressions are just on the mark. Nicholson plays Harry Sanborn, a successful businessman and all-round entrepreneur who's spending the weekend at a beach house in the Hamptons with Marin (Amanda Peet). Although Harry is 63, he only dates women under 30.

Turns out Marin's mother, the owner of the beach house, Erica Barry (Diane Keaton) is up for the weekend too. Harry has a mild heart attack and has to stay at the beach house with Erica looking after him. Jack and Erica hate each other, then grow to like each other and then grow to love each other, but that's much later. Also stars Keanu Reeves (who can't act for toffee of course, and always has such a sad, melancholy air about him), as well as Frances McDormand.

Believe it or not, this film was directed by the same person who directed that awful film What Women Want. That was a load of tripe. This was just such a laugh.

Robin Williams takes a break from comedy to play Sy Parrish, a lonely middle-aged man who works in the One Hour Photo kiosk at the local SavMart. He has been developing photos for years and has also developed a deep attachment to a particular family (the Yorkins) through Nina Yorkin (Connie Nielsen), her son Jake (Dylan Smith), and the photos they bring in. Sy fantasizes about being part of the family - their "Uncle Sy". He has dedicated a whole wall in his apartment to extra copies of photos he's made of the Yorkin family. We see that he has had at least nine years to indulge his obsession as Jake is now nine and we see baby pictures of him on Sy's wall at home.

You feel sorry for Sy as he's single, has no family of his own and is obviously lonely. It's business as usual for Sy until he discovers that Will Yorkin, Nina's husband (Michael Vartan), is having an affair with someone at work. How does he know this? The bit on the side's photos of course! He gives these photos to Nina, who after her initial shock, chooses not to confront Will about it. Sy then cracks and sets out to do something himself. He has plenty of time as he has been sacked from his job for making extra copies of photos, thus reducing a sizeable amount of SavMart's profits over the years.

Watched this film with Zibs, and I think we both enjoyed it. The only unnecessary bit in my opinion was a dream sequence (I think) in which blood splattered out of Sy's eyes.

Went to see this with Patricia at the Loews in Georgetown. Not exceptionally wonderful or anything, but definitely laugh out loud funny in bits (unlike Bend It Like Beckham), although I thought it had a lot of unnecessary nudity. Seeing Martin Freeman (Tim from The Office) naked playing a body double was surreal, as I'm used to him being the Fisher Price man.

Anyway, back to the story, which consists of various different stories about love in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Liam Neeson and Colin Firth's storylines stood out the most for me. Stars Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and co. Billy Bob Thornton as the U.S. President was a hoot!!

Acting means making us believe something right? Colin Firth's kiss with his love interest, after all they'd been through, after him taking Portuguese lessons and her taking English lessons, was totally unbelievable. If you're going to do it, do it right, otherwise don't do it at all is what I say.

Watched this on DVD on 6/5/05. I had wanted to see it in the cinema, but as happens a lot with me nowadays, I never got round to it. The fact that it's with Daniel Craig and Samantha Morton was what initially drew me to it.

The story starts with a fatal accident involving a hot air balloon, which shatters an idyllic Champagne picnic in the English countryside. Joe and Jed (Rhys Ifans) are among the men who tried to help bring the balloon down. Back in London Jed begins popping up all over the place pleading with Joe to admit to what they share. At first you think maybe he wants to talk about the experience as it must have been quite traumatic, but then you realise this guy is slightly off his rocker. Joe, for his part, is going through feelings of guilt and Jed is not making it any better. Claire (Morton), Joe's live-in girlfriend doesn't really quite understand what Joe's going through as he doesn't share a whole lot with her. She suggests he sees a therapist to talk him through the whole thing, but he refuses.

Anyway Jed is obsessed with Joe, and begins stalking him. We see Joe and Claire's relationship deteriorate as Jed's stalking escalates. All throughout the film I was asking myself why Joe didn't just call the police and get some kind of restraining order against Jed, but where's the fun in that, eh? Also at one point I thought maybe Jed was a figment of Joe's imagination, and that it would be like The Sixth Sense, where only he was seeing Jed.

There is one scene near the end where my jaw dropped and my mouth stayed open for a LONG TIME! I totally did not see that coming. I enjoyed this. It was one of those little films where nothing really happens.

I saw a preview of this and had been interested in seeing it. The story starts with a stabbing in a bakery in 1940s Rome and then moves to the present day. There was no dialogue or any subtitles in the beginning, and for a second I thought there was something wrong with my DVD player. It is only towards the end of the film that we are given an explanation for the stabbing that takes place in the beginning.

Cut to the present day and Giovanna (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) is walking with her husband Filippo (Filippo Nigro), when he comes across an elderly man (Massimo Girotti) who appears to be lost and can't remember his name. Giovanna and Filippo have two children and problems of their own; she's stuck working as an accountant in a chicken factory, while she'd rather be a pastry chef, and he's stuck in a cycle of night shift jobs from which he keeps getting fired. Despite this Simone (who later turns out to be renowned chef Davide Veroli), stays with them for a while, and it transpires that he's a concentration camp survivor with a story of his own. His story of a passionate but secret love affair somewhat mirrors that of Giovanna and her neighbour Lorenzo (Raoul Bova) across the street, as she re-evaluates her life. She is encouraged to pursue something with Lorenzo by her best friend Emine (Serra Yilmaz).

This film was okay; nothing brilliant, but I enjoyed watching it. Mezzogiorno was mesmerizing and sort of reminded me of Frank's girlfriend Maria Teresa. Bova in his designer glasses and dark hair looked a little too contrived for my liking, while Nigro was bald and hot. Love those bald blokes!! Joking aside though, I especially loved the soundtrack. Like Nowhere in Africa there was this recurring music that was so beautiful, and I have to look for the soundtrack.

I absolutely loved this film—loved it so much in fact that I went out and bought the DVD and made Zibu and Sandra watch it with me at different times. I also raved about it to Adam and got him to watch it too. (Here's his review). Why did I love it so much? Who knows? Sandra was very nonchalant and said the same story of Europeans off to Africa, befriending Africans had been told before in Out of Africa, but to me there was so much more to this film than that.

The film is based on the autobiographical book by Stefanie Zweig called Nirgendwo in Afrika. It traces the flight of Redlichs, a Jewish family, from Germany to Kenya in 1939. Once in Kenya, husband Walter (Merab Ninidze)--a lawyer in Germany--becomes a farm caretaker and tries to make the best of their new life, while never losing hope of a new one back in Germany. His wife Jettel (Juliane Köhler) loves the landscape of the country, but declares right from the start that she cannot live there, then as the film progresses, decides that she does not want to return to post-Nazi Germany. Their 5 year old daughter Regina (Lea Kurka, later played by Karoline Eckerts) is shy at first, but comes to love the country as well as the people.

I would say this is basically a love story. Upon watching it for the third time I suddenly noticed a particular tune that is played every time there is interaction between Regina and their Kenyan help Owuor (Sidede Onyulo). It portrays the tenderness that is at the centre of the relationship between the man and the girl. I look forward to Somewhere in Germany, which tells the story of what happens when they return to Germany after the war.

Borrowed this from Silvio and watched it this past weekend (24/7/04). Al Pacino plays Will Dormer, a Los Angeles detective who is sent to a small Alaska town to investigate the death of a teenage girl.

At the beginning of the investigation his partner is shot, and Dormer blames the death on the suspect they were chasing. The suspect turns out to be Walter Finch (Robin Williams), a writer who knew the young girl. When I first saw Williams in this, I was thinking about what a funny man he is, and then I forgot about that and got into the story.

This was an okay film--nothing great. Thank God Al Pacino didn't go for his usual "hoo hah" histrionics. Nicky Katt (Mr Senate from Boston Public) was in it too, although I wasn't sure why they had him with a dodgy salt and pepper moustache. Also stars Hilary Swank. Turns out both the detective and the suspect suffer from insomnia.

Went to see this with Emeka on what was our first date, probably in early Feb 2005. It's the story of Paul Rusesabagina, an acting hotel manager in an upscale Kigali hotel, and how he saved the lives of over a thousand Rwandans during the genocide of 1994. I was humbled by this film, and felt guilty that I too, had heard the news on the telly, thought how awful, how can this happen and then gone back to eating my dinner. Man's inhumanity and apathy to man will never cease to amaze me, and I am guilty too.

Don Cheadle did a good job of portraying Rusesabagina as just a man who was caught up in an horrific moment. He did not seek to be anyone's saviour or hero, but had to take care of these people; starting with neighbours and friends and then anyone who came into the hotel for refuge. Man's apathy is brilliantly displayed when Nick Nolte, playing a Canadian UN Blue Beret, tells Paul, while not being able to believe it himself, that no help is coming from the international community, and sums it up thus: "To them, you're not even niggers--you're Africans, which is worse". Man's inhumanity is aptly shown when Gregoire, a Hutu worker at the hotel is driving Paul back to the hotel by the river road after getting food supplies, and the jolting of their bus turns out to be caused by the dead bodies they were unknowingly driving over.

On a lighter note though, it was refreshing to see Sophie Okonedo who plays Paul's wife Tatsiana, actually comb her hair for once, as her hair (and Zibu will definitely second this) usually looks a sight in various UK TV programmes I've seen.

All the way through this, I was like, who is this guy? Is it Colin Farrell - doesn't look like him, but maybe it is. Turns out it was (of course) Dougray Scott, and I could have looked on the VHS sleeve for that!

Anyway, Tom Jericho (Scott) has been called back to Bletchley Park, in Hertfordshire, England, to work on Enigma, the unbreakable system used by the Germans during WWII. The problem this time is that the Nazis have changed the code key for the Enigma machine. The gist of Enigma is that messages are sent in plain text and then made into gobble-de-gook, and then converted back into plain text to be deciphered. It would take literally thousands of years to go through every setting to find the one that turns the code back into plain text, but Jericho cracked it before. Now he and the other codebreakers have to do it again before the Germans suss out where the Allied submarine convoy is. (I think!) Meanwhile his ex-girlfriend Claire Romilly (Saffron Burrows), due to whom he suffered a nervous breakdown, has disappeared in very dodgy circumstances. Turns out the German machine is not the only enigma to be solved! Claire's flat mate Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet, looking very plain here) helps him (reluctantly at first), try to find her. They also have to dodge Wigram (Jeremy Northam) of Army Intelligence. Based on the novel by Robert Harris.

I know I had no desire to see this when it was out in cinemas and so I didn't. For some reason I got it out on Netflix because I'm pretty sure Adam recommended it as it's a Neil LaBute film, but he said he didn't. Well, I didn't finish this, it was so atrocious. The only redeeming factor is that Aaron Eckhart is extremely easy on the eye. Can't even be bothered to write a review it was so bad. Definitely not on a par with other LaBute films.

Finally got round to watching this (5/4/04). It was okay. Edward Norton did a bang up job as usual, but I didn't really enjoy this film as much as some of his others. He plays Monty Brogan, a drug dealer since prep school, who is going to prison for 7 years in the morning. The film takes us through his last night as we see him with his two best friends, an investment banker and a teacher, his father, his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), his dog Doyle, and a host of other characters.

I was talking about this with Scott today and he reckons it's Spike Lee's commentary on post September 11th. The message Scott got from this was that you have to pay for your crimes. I never thought of it like that, but then I don't think of myself as a deep thinker. Perhaps I watched it in a hurry, I don't know, with lots on my mind as I am a little preoccupied at the moment, who knows? I must say though that I really wished there was some way he could avoid going to prison, but that would have been totally ridiculous.

In my opinion, Edward Norton is the most talented contemporary actor in Hollywood today. I was totally bowled over by his performance in this film. I'd seen Primal Fear and joined everyone else in saying what a knockout performance he gave, but that was it. When AHX came out I had wanted to see it because of the subject matter, but I never got round to it. Rented it from Blockbuster when it came out and thus began my Nortonisation. Then proceeded to rent all his films from Blockbuster. Actually sat through Everyone Says I Love You, (he sings too!), couldn't stomach The People Vs. Larry Flynt, in Rounders he played a very unsavoury character called Mole. Anyway, my emotions whilst watching AHX went from crying, to feeling physically sick, to sadness, to anger. For me the film was about fear which breeds hatred. Again, rent it today.

The point is that this man totally immerses himself in the character he's playing. He's very ordinary looking, kind of like the boy next door, but he's so convincing in the roles he's played. No-one has elicited (from me anyway) such emotions as he does when I'm watching him in a film. I did a speech on him in a Toastmasters meeting in university. Half, if not all of them, were looking at me blankly, obviously wondering who this bloke was that I was going on about, but it made me feel good.

It adds to the authenticity of his performances that we don't know everything about his private life, like we seem to about other actors, so you forget that his name is Edward Norton and think of him as Mole, (Rounders) or the narrator (Fight Club) or whomever he may happen to be playing. This is in stark contrast to the likes of Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts who always play themselves. Give her credit though, Roberts did a fine job in Erin Brokovich. Anyway I told a friend Fenny to watch AHX, even gave her my copy and she raved about it. She was instantly converted if you will, and Fenny is very picky when it comes to what kind of films she likes.

Watched this film at my friend Gen's. Whenever I go round her house, we eat dinner, sometimes with her two flat mates,and then we watch a film she/they picked, and more often than not, there's a lot of commenting going on throughout the film. Usually I HATE this, but at Gen's it seems to work! This was a good one that I should really watch again at another time. I had had no real interest in seeing this when it came out, so I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it. I was really tired though, as we were watching it around 9.30 at night (way past my bed time!) so I was drifting in and out of sleep. Stars Brendan Fraser and Michael Caine. If I ever do see it again I'll write a proper review.

I've been wanting to watch this for such a long time now. Finally got round to it this past weekend (23/4/04). This is based on the true story (set in 1931) of three Aborigine girls, Molly (Everlyn Sampi), Gracie (Laura Monaghan), and Daisy (Tianna Sansbury), who are abducted from their home in Jigalong, Western Australia and sent away to the Moore River Settlement to be trained as servants for white families. These children would later come to be known as the "Stolen Generations". This practice of removing children from their homes went on from 1900 to 1971!

Molly leads her younger sister Daisy and cousin Gracie on an incredible 1,500-mile journey on foot across the Australian outback as they outsmart their tracker Moodoo (David Gulpillil), A. O. Neville (Kenneth Branagh), the so-called legal guardian of all Aborigines in western Australia, and all manner of policemen on the lookout.

In a way I hate watching films like this where one race oppresses another (or where one people oppresses another). Of course it's almost always the white race oppressing the black race. The whites truly believed that what they were doing was right, that it was for their own good that they were removing "half castes" from their Aboriginal mothers in an effort to assimilate them into white society--as servants, or labourers. In fact A. O. Neville seemed to delight in the fact that assimilation into the white race would eventually mean you wouldn't be able to recognise any Aboriginal traits in these kids in generations to come. An extremely poignant and touching moment was when Molly's mother said that if A. O. Neville wanted half caste children, he should "make some of his own".

I watched the DVD extras and it shows how the director, Phillip Noyce, found the girls. They are all ordinary Aborigine girls, who had never acted before, and it was just fascinating to watch. As Noyce said in the commentary "Everlyn IS Molly". Just fascinating!

I like films like this as they tell me something I didn't know before and make me want to go out and learn more. Rabbit-Proof Fence background.