Various Media

Movies:

Suzy and I hired a few movies the other day (first time I've hired something in years). She wanted to see Braveheart for the first time, and we also got Kung Fu Hustle since I missed it in the Cinema. I'm not going to comment about Braveheart too much, it is a good movie but Mel Gibson's pathological hatred of the english gets annoying. I'm not saying that the english were awesome people back then, but come on! His english-hating sympathies come even further to the fore in "The Patriot", which is similar to Braveheart just with a different nation downtrodden by the evil english (swap Scotland for America).

Anyway, what I really wanted to mention was Kung Fu Hustle, what an awesome film! It was really funny, and the action was great. Stephen Chow was great as Sing, the plot was like a crazy person on drugs and all in all I would recommend it to anyone who likes their martial arts to be a bit light hearted.

We also saw Memoirs of a Geshia on Sunday, and it was a really beautiful movie. Go and see it!

TV:

Last week, a new show started called "Supernatural". I like to keep my TV commitments low, if I want to watch something I prefer doing it on my own time via DVD and avoid the ads, but I think I will be adopting this one. Don't ask me what it actually is, but it has some kind of connection to the people that made X-Files... probably someones cousin's brother's friend's sister once saw Chris Carter on a bus.

Anyway, I have seen one of the two leads before (whoever plays "Dean" was in Dark Angel with Jessica Alba) and he did a good job in that show, I am sure he will do well here too. The other one wasn't familiar, although apparently he is Rory's boyfriend on Gilmore Girls... I'll try not to hold it against him.

It is on 8:30pm on Ten, Monday nights. Check it out, definitely worth a look.

Books:

I'm about to finish "Iron Council", China Meiville's third book set in or around "New Crobuzon", a sort of melding of science and fantasy, horror and magic into this titanic city. The three books have all been self contained (the second one is only set in the city for the first chapter or two), but it doesn't hurt to read them in order. Perdito Street Station is the first, and still the best of the three. I would love to read it again, but unfortunately I lent it to someone and never saw it again.

Anyone interested should definitely check it out, they are like no sci-fi/fantasy books I have ever read before... China has created this deep and scary world, full of history and myths. They are extremely vivid reads, one of the best books I have read. Period.