Public service (in the form of a movie review)
It is customary to warn people beforehand, so I will do no different: my little rant – err, movie review – will contain spoilers. For what? For ‘Up‘.
I feel like I should warn people about how depressing and annoying a movie it is: that’s right, don’t let the colourful balloons on the poster fool you! (They fooled me, so I’m speaking from experience).
I heard someone say the first 7 minutes of the movie are alone worth their weight in gold. Thank god we don’t use the gold standard then.
Here are the first 7 minutes – tell me if that doesn’t depress you: they fast forward through the life of a young boy who meets the love of his life, gets married, sees their common dream slip away, grows old and then boom – his wife dies. Wonderful. I cried (yes, I’ll admit it).
What follows is a predictable chain of events (which include violence and blood – you read it right: blood in a Pixar movie) that leads the old grumpy bushy-browed hero to uproot his house with the help of a monster load of helium balloons. An annoying chubby little scout happens to tag along for the ride. I kept on hoping that chubby little scout would fall off the airborne house (or off the big blimp where a lot of the ‘action’ goes down) but no such luck.
Add a LOT of dogs, a chocoholic bird, a mean recluse, and there you pretty much have it.
‘Up’ is a boring, annoying, far too long and predictable downer. Yes, I am happy I made that pun. But it’s true: ‘Up’, a spirit-lifting movie? Right: and my bum, it’s chicken*.
(Image is from here, accompanied by another ‘Up’ review that I applaud – because I agree with a lot of what is said).
*Go here if you have doubts about what I am trying to say.
PS: I will concede the part where the house flies over the city is pretty amazing – so redeeming points for some beautiful images (but they are way too far and few).
April Fish
I’m not a prankster: I can’t lie so I can’t pull any prank off with a straight face. And I’m not big on pinning paper fish on people’s backs either (or checking my own regularly).
So my contribution to April Fish is the list below, a compendium of amusing (and self-centered) ‘me’ facts – which may or may not be true. Pointless, but isn’t that what today is all about?
*I met Paul Keating – the Australian Prime Minister in office – when I was 12 years old, and asked him for an autograph.
*Despite being one of the stereotypical and quintessential French foods worldwide, I have never in my life eaten a single frog leg. I have however eaten one snail (just the one, that was enough). So that makes Christian a clear winner since he has eaten many more snails than I have.
*I was born at midnight sharp, so my father got to choose my birthday and the time on my birth certificate had to be doctored by two minutes.
*Instead of 32, I only have 24 teeth.
*My sister and I have a large freckle in the exact same spot (like the sisters in the Demoiselles de Rochefort).
*My great great grandmother Rosalie had a pet monkey.
Wishing you a good April Fish, and remember to watch your backs! (I just mean for paper fish – this is sounding a lot more sinister than I intended).
If you feel so inclined, please tell me something random about yourself. And yes, in the spirit of today you can punk me and make it a whopper (as long as you later reveal it wasn’t true – otherwise that’s just mean).
(Image is from here)
7 comments