Less action than the first film, but more and better dialogue. Michael Madsen is good and Michael Parks is excellent. Flaws include a lack of scenes involving the kung fu master's traning methods and Bill's history being left disappointingly untouched. The worst bit is when a character starts speaking Tarantino's brain: imagine Dirty Harry talking about Mighty Mouse and you'll have some idea.
IDgaf on 04.29.04 @ 12:20 AM GMT [link]
The deputy chief constable for North Wales, a white guy called Nigel Wolfendale, has rapped at the inaugural meeting of the North Wales Black Police Association (NWBPA). He performed with the group's secretary, Rukhsana Nugent. (I think Rukhsana's an Arabic name. I assume she isn't white.)
Trevor Phillips, the chairman for the Commission for Racial Equality, commented on the situation: "Presumably this was an attempt to get down with their supposed culture. How wrong. How patronising. How demeaning."
NWBPA chairman Roger Benedict said the rap had the support of all the NWBPA's members and that it was a way of delivery a "strong positive message". (He didn't go on to thump a clenched fist against his chest, make a V-sign and say "Peace Out, Homies.")
I wouldn't call it patronising as much as bloody stupid. It's not even a good rap. Considering the quality of the material, I hate to think what the delivery was like. Did they just stand up and recite it, with the non-rapper's tempo of a car trying to start? Or were they on a table, illuminated by police lights, she shaking her arse and him with his trousers 'round his ankles and truncheon on backwards?
Here's the rap. I've highlighted what I believe were Rukhsana's parts.
I'm just a white boy called the Deputy CC / They said I'd never make it as a bitchin' MC / You got it all wrong, cos now here I am / Giving it for real in the North Wales BPA jam
They call me Roxy, or Ms Dynamo on stage / Unlike my brother here, I never look my age / I'm goin' to spill it all about the boys in blue / Show you what it's like within the not-so-solid crew
So listen! Watch a doin' here today / Checkin' what the Heddlu Gogledd Cymru gotta say / Put away your cameras and your note pads for a spell / I got a story that I really need to tell
Bein' in the dibble is no cakewalk when you're black / If you don't get fitted, then you'll prob'ly get the sack / You're better chillin', lie down and just be passive / No place for us just yet in the Colwyn Bay Massive
The Beeb Man stuffed us with the Secret Policeman / It's no good moanin' cos' he found the Ku Klux Klan / Job ain't what it used to be; it's full of blacks and gays / It was just us white homies in the really good ole' days
So what we bothrin' with this stinkin' institution / No love, no heart, no sense, no proper constitution / No-one loves the coppers cos' we're rotten to the core / Cross between the devil and a governmental whore
What is the purpose of a black association? / It's just another stupid race relations job creation / We got our meetings and our various sub-committees / Packed with some do-gooders and a lot more Walter Mittys
Forget all of that bullshit an' I'll tell u why we're here / Things are sometimes better than they usually appear / The New World Order means the streets are gettin' hot /Trust in one another is really all we got
The BPA is sayin' that we're all in the same boat / Black or white in blue, we're all wearin' the same coat / If this don't happen then the lot of us are screwed / Caught up in the mis'ry of the international feud
So Roger, Nick and Larbi will you give us one more chance / Danny and Silvana, I'd really like to dance / To Essi and to Imdad I want to give a hand / Let's hear it for Ms Dynamo and all her backin' band
There's no time for jam tomorrow, we need the jam today / That's why we launchin' our association in this way / Thank you all for coming and remember what we say / Support your local sheriff and the North Wales BPA.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/3664381.stm The original story - almost the same as this one.
IDgaf on 04.28.04 @ 01:21 PM GMT [link]
George Clooney's film about 1960s TV show producer, presenter and supposed CIA hitman Chuck Barris -who invented the format for Blind Date - is filmed and acted well, but doesn't engage as often as it should. I was more taken with how it looked than I was with the plot. Given the subject material, the reverse should have been true.
IDgaf on 04.25.04 @ 09:05 PM GMT [link]
The Hard Word (HW) is an Australain thriller/heist movie. Some people have said it's a bit like Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. I say it's a bit like being molested by a grandfather clock - slow and unpleasant.
Here's the plot:
Three brothers are forced, by treachery, into a job they are under prepared for. The job goes wrong and all hell breaks loose.
Here's what my friends and I thought it might be like:
BOOM! Australia! Birds called Sheila with black eyes and fake tits. Cocaine and razorblades, suitcases full of cash. Automatic weapons and devious henchmen, car chases and betrayal. Blood on the floor, guts on the ceiling and sharp suits with bullet holes in.
Here's what it was like (in the miserably cold room in which we watched it):
The brothers are shown in talking in jail. Then there's some treacherous people talking. Then other people talking. Repeat for about an hour. Suddenly! A lacklustre heist scene that lasts ten minutes. Then more talking punctuated by preposterous escape scene, more talking and a shitty slow motion ending that stuffed the arse up any stylistic credibility the film had.
If the dialogue and character development had been exceptional, the talking would have be fine. They weren't though. Everything was average. 'Average' is fine when it's short, but when it's strung over one hour and forty minutes, it only becomes shit. (Like this site.)
There weren't even any tits in it.
IMDB.com reviews of the film. One chap liked it because the prison scenes were realistic; he knew this 'cos he'd 'done time Down Under'.
IDgaf on 04.23.04 @ 04:50 PM GMT [link]
The Guardian's run a wonderful story about how newspaper tycoon Richard Desmond went amusingly spastic at a meeting, his outbursts supposedly resulting from a bid for a newspaper by a German media group.
What did Desmond do? Well, he's supposed to have called all Germans Nazis, goosestepped around his boardroom, told his executives to sing Deutschland, Deustchland Uber Alles, called one of the attendees of the meeting - the chief executive of the Daily Telegraph - a "miserable little shit" and offered him the chance to sort out their disgareements outside. Sadly he didn't do it by asking "Do you wanna take it to ver cobbles, you fakkin' cant?".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1201476,00.html
IDgaf on 04.23.04 @ 03:13 PM GMT [link]
music: Soul Man - Booker T and the MGs
Behold! The amazing similarity between a Poland cock and Jamiroquai.
Look at them, those .... Those dandies!
Future's / made of / virtual inanity
IDgaf on 04.22.04 @ 09:35 PM GMT [link]
I am losing track of time. Today is Wednesday. I've spent the last ten minutes thinking it was Tuesday. The names of the days of the week seem arbitrary at times like this. Perhaps we should get rid of them. Call Monday to Friday 'Meaningless'. Saturday and Sunday can be 'Respite'.
I'm wearing a charcoal grey shirt. It's covered in peculiar white patches. I'm covered in cat hair and scurf and smell like warm damp and old clothes. I forewent a shower last night to spend more time in bed. I've not been sleeping well.
I'm feeling more rested today than I did yesterday, but not rested enough. I'm still looking for places to kip here at work. My car won't do because I'll be spotted. The space benath my desk is unsuitable for the same reason. It's also a little cramped. (I tried it for size.)
Perhaps I should sleep in the toilet.
IDgaf on 04.07.04 @ 01:23 PM GMT [link]
