Movie: Goodfellas

Goodfellas is considered as the best gangster movie of all time by some, and I can see why. It tells an engaging story and portrays the gangster life with both its advantages and its obvious problems. The director is great (Martin Scorsese) and the actors are some of the best there is.

Even the soundtrack is good, with music from the 1960s and 70s.

So the only reason not to give it an even higher score is the simple fact that gangster movies are not really my favorite genre. And perhaps the silly thing that I heard the last sentence of this movie quoted on a podcast earlier this week, which meant that I knew all along where it would end up. I hate that. (So here's to you, "Stuff you should know podcast" - there are things you shouldn't know as well...)

Goodfellas (1990)

(See a register of all movies I've seen at Collectorz.com.)

Funny Quotes of the Week 49

"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals." (Winston Churchill)

"As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls." (M. Cartmill)

"I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world." (Oscar Wilde)

Nudity is not ok (for all)

A rather embarrassing discussion is taking place in Norway at the moment, after complaints were raised against the Jo Strømgren Company's "A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football" for including some male rear nudity. Some schools made their 10th graders (16-year olds) see the performance, and at least one of the pupils' parents have reacted negatively. Should schools warn their pupils and the pupils' parents when even the slightest bit of nudity is present in an artwork? (If so, what about violence, swearing, heteronormativity, gender bias...)

See the whole performance on Vimeo. (WARNING: there is a tiny bit of rear nudity in the end, but probably not more than you can handle.)

The Fun Principle

Cool ideas!





(Thanks to Virrvarr.)

Movie: The Importance Of Being Earnest

Of course, the text is wonderfully funny, it is after all one of the classic Oscar Wilde plays. And then the actors are Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Judi Dench and Reese Witherspoon, which is a great team. In this film, everyone seem to be having a good time and to be full of energy. So if you want an laugh and some acid, well-written humour, this is not a bad choice.

The Importance Of Being Earnest (2002)

(See a register of all movies I've seen at Collectorz.com.)

Movie: How to kill your neighbor's dog

For at least half of this movie, it was a moderately interesting story with moderately funny bits of humour. But somehow it grew and I found myself being interested in what would happen to these people - the once young and promising playwright, the dance teacher who wants to have children and the girl next-door with an over-protective mother. And the dog, of course.

And mostly, I guess it comes down to the actors. Even though there's not much fantastic about this movie, I guess having Kenneth Branagh in the lead role makes the difference between a really mediocre and a quite tolerable movie...

By the way, no dogs were hurt during the making of this movie.

How to kill your neighbor's dog (2001)

(See a register of all movies I've seen at Collectorz.com.)

Movie: Sweet and Lowdown

Woody Allen is a strange phenomenon. I've seen close to thirty of his movies, and still I have fun watching another one. This time, Sean Penn is Emmet Ray, a jazz guitarist that is considered the second best guitarist in the world - only being overshadowed by Django Reinardt. Sadly, being second best feels like a curse for him - he likes to brag, but can't say how good he is without mentioning Django.

Of course, Woody Allen loves jazz, and here there are plenty of opportunities to show it. There are also many funny situations and some comic dialogue. But mostly, the movie is about jazz and what makes some people (Django Reinhardt in particular) so special.

Woody Allen makes so many movies that it's almost hard to keep track of them all, and this one stayed out of my sight for ten years until I finally saw it. It is unmistakenly Woody Allen and therefore - obviously - well worth seeing.

Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

(See a register of all movies I've seen at Collectorz.com.)

Funny Quotes of the Week 48

"You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers."

"I have plenty of talent and vision, I just don’t give a darn."

"Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness." (Woody Allen)

Don't do this at home

VG writes about "poor" Chinese guy Sun Meng who was having an affair with a married woman as the husband, inconveniently, appeared. He climbed out of the window, on top of a air conditioning box which is so common in this part of the world, and had ended up standing there naked while being thrown insults at by the disappointed husband.

But Meng himself apparently takes the whole thing light-heartedly, complaining that the weather was so cold that he appeared to be "smaller" than he really is...

Palin son-in-law to be naked in Playgirl

TMZ reports that Sarah Palin, the now out-of-work former vice president candidate in the US, will have the chance to see her former son-in-law, Levi Johnston, naked in Playgirl magazine soon. "His manager tells us Levi's gunning to shoot the nudie pics on November 16th ... the same day Sarah Palin makes her Oprah debut."



While I won't actually be running out to get the magazine, I'm still quite sure that these photos will be the best thing that the Palins have done in a while (if I'm so kind as to count him in the family still...)