Waiting

No call re kidney transplant.

The weather finally slid into summer humidity. Growing up I heard the term “muggy”. Probably from my Mom. We have several strategically placed fans and two portable air conditioners stuck into windows. The ac units cool and the fans push the cool air down the hallway. It works fairly well. The kitchen stays too warm.  We avoid using the stove during, muggy weather.  The real trouble is the noise of fans and ac.  It makes it very difficult. Difficult to hear the television.  I especially struggle with tight lipped English accents.like Inspector James Hathaway on the Masterpiece series Inspector Lewis.Love the character and the series. I hope they carry on with Hathaway in the same way they did after the death of Inspector Morse. Regrettably this is the final season of Inspector Lewis. To combat the noise we have resorted to turning on the Closed Captioning.  Trouble here is that we cannot get one TV to display it. I have crawled through the menus with no luck.

 

A Hologram for the King (2016) with Tom Hanks. This movie it seems did not do well. Many reviews on IMDB were unhappy rants.  I added my two cents worth. Oh yeah, we don’t have pennies any more. My dime’s worth it is.

“A gentle dream ride of a movie

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD IN THIS REVIEW, PROCEED WITH THAT WARNING IN MIND. I confess I have not read the novel by Eggers. When I first considered renting this film, the title put me off. Something about “hologram” made me wary. But I put my trust in the artistic judgment of Tom Hanks. I know only a little about life in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A few glimpses of stories of the restrictions and the executions. I was able to comfortably identify with the Clay character (Hanks) as he struggled to move forward in the foreign culture. I understood his flashback recall of his life back in the States. I think they perhaps might have let him more deeply feel and show his fear about his medical concern. But as the story moves forward to the unexpected romance it turns a corner and pays off. The swim is for me one of the greatest movie scenes in my adult life. I will never forget it. Please do choose to watch this film. You will enjoy the dream ride.”

I have been moved to write just a few reviews on IMDB. This is a good film that bounced off the forehead of America. Their  hearts were not ready to open for it.

Watching this reminded me how much I have always loved movies.

 

Shout out

Do try Complications with Jason Mara. On Netflix.  I first saw him in the US version of Life on Mars.  Good actor.

 

 

Tasmanian Tiger – film “The Hunter”

I watched The Hunter today during my dialysis treatment and once again marveled at the acting of Willem Dafoe, the lead, and Sam Neil, in support.  It is a film about Tasmania and wildlife and humanity.   The quest is for the Tasmanian Tiger.  I actually have a book on my book shelf about the Tasmanian Tiger, which looked quite differently from the appearance of the Tasmanian Devil.   The two have powerful jaws in common it is true, but Devils are dark and stocky.  The Tasmanian Tiger was more wolf-like with a sandy colour and tiger stripes.   In the film a corporation believes that the reported sightings of the Tiger are true and that the animal has a toxin it uses to paralyze its prey after the initial bite, and that there is money to be made from this bio-commodity.  Dafoe is sent to get the biological “riches”.  The young shattered family he lodges with seem to crack his hard shell and he warms to them.  The film moves through the wonderful Tasmanian wilderness and the plot and characters are well-drawn. 

It had a negative effect on me in that it reminded me how I am hooked to dialysis and could not spend twelve days in the wilderness chasing a Tasmanian Tiger as Dafoe does in the film. 

If you have a sense of how Australia looks, don’t misunderstand that Tasmania although just to the south of Australia is like another world.   My visit there today via the movie made for a quicker-seeming dialysis run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW6W36-oWCU

Two excellent movies I just saw

Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking, a one woman show about her life. Hilarious and a half.

My Talks with Dean Spalding with Jeremy Northam, Peter O’Toole, Sam Neill, and Bryan Brown, a intriguing story about fathers and sons, man and dog and reincarnation.  I kept turning to look at my dog Grace who was asleep beside me on the couch as I watched this wonderful story.

From Paris with Love, bang, bang, bang, bang

Had not been out to a movie in awhile so last night I caught From Paris with Love with John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

I have long been a fan of Travolta.   This is a non-stop action flick with a pretty good plot and some ultra snappy dialogue which gives Travolta a chance to shine and he blazes.  Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who may have the longest name in show business and who I had to look up in the IMDB since it won’t stick in my head for some reason, is the low level intelligencc agent at the Paris embassy who is pressed into service to assist senior super agent, Charlie Wax (Travolta).  The other main character aside from Meyers’ fiance, is Paris and not all the gleaming bits but many of the nasty seamy grunged to hell parts.  The pace is fast but not too fast and we get momentary lulls to gather impressions and intel about the two guy agents and I genuinely liked them.  There was an oh oh moment early on when I thought they were channelling Training Days but that soon passed.  Directed skillfully by Pierre Morel . From a story by  Luc Bresson, he of the Fifth Element, The Messenger, and La Femme Nikita. I am really glad I went out in the cold and drove over snow covered roads to get to the theatre, highly recommended.