I Miss U all my Blog

Wherever you are in the world, and whatever you are doing, Happy New Year 2009!!!!

All right, those who know me know I give Chris Columbus a lot of crap. He is definitely on my list of least favorite directors. However, that being said he did great things for the Harry Potter franchise – just not in terms of directing.

While the character of Harry Potter has not yet entrenched itself as wholly and globally as something like Superman (you’ll see kids in jungles with no technology wearing a Superman shirt) almost anyone can tell you the basic concept of the series; the secret world of wizards that coexists with our own and Harry is the main character against a villain that no one will name. At least that’s as basic as I’ve had it described to me by people who have never read the books or really paid attention to the movie. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first book/film in the series and chronicles Harry’s first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry and what begins to happen to Harry’s life when he starts to uncover the truth of his magical lineage.

Chris Columbus drives me nuts as a director because he somehow manages to insert no feeling or vibrancy into his work, he also doesn’t do background action well; Columbus is also a director that does not like the darker side of themes, but likes the cheery, easily explained side of life. All of this shows in The Sorcerer’s Stone. Though it is a good movie, it falls flat on many levels because of the directing. I remember seeing the movie for the first time (without having read the books) and thinking that I didn’t understand why Harry was important and why the Voldemort guy was so scary. All of that becomes the fault of the director.

What saves the entire Potter franchise and Columbus’s films is the fact that the man is a very good producer. I give him enormous kudos for being phenomenal at finding the right actors for the right part and for putting an excellent team of behind the scenes crew together. That is the reason the franchise works and the first two films are viewable. Columbus himself has less style and panache than even Brett Rattner, but he is saved by his skill at producing.

I must also give Columbus kudos for being the first director to bring Harry Potter off the page and into reality. While it is true that Harry’s world and ours overlap the magical world and all of its characters are entirely different than anything that has been seen onscreen before. Columbus had to invent how it would look to have living portraits, students that would fly on broomsticks in a game called quidditch, and even what it should look like to teach magic. He had to translate J.K. Rowling’s rules to screen without anything but some words on a page to guide him. I can tell you from experience how difficult translating words to images can be; writer’s don’t have to think about the physics of actually doing, they only have to put the words down and then float them off to the director who must now take those abstract words and make them reality. It’s tough, no matter how much special effects and CGI you have access to and it’s something you can’t quite fully understand unless you’ve done it yourself. I can’t imagine the pressure Columbus was under knowing that billions of fans were waiting to see their beloved world come to life.

In the end Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is still a good, but lack luster movie. If it were not the first in a franchise but instead a standalone film it would have been a entertaining but forgettable film; however, since it does have 7 other films to follow it Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone instead just feels like a slow start.

Director: Chris Columbus
Writer: Steve Kloves
Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe
Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint
Hermione Granger: Emma Watson
Professor Dumbledore: Richard Harris
Professor McGonagall: Maggie Smith
Hagrid: Robbie Coltrane
Aunt Petunia: Fiona Shaw
Dudley: Harry Melling
Uncle Vernon: Richard Griffiths
Professor Quirrell: Ian hart
Molly Weasley: Julie Walters
Percy Weasley: Chris Rankin
Fred Weasley: James Phelps
George Weasley: Oliver Phelps
Neville Longbottom: Matthew Lewis
Draco Malfoy: Tom Felton
Nearly Headless Nick: John Cleese
Professor Snape: Alan Rickman

Ron: It's spooky! She knows more about you than you do!
Harry: Who doesn't?

Well, the outstanding fireworks off the Sydney Harbour have come and gone.... and it's the New Year in the Southern Hemisphere now... So... I want to wish you ALL a STELLAR New Year... 

Blogger friend, Ron from Vent blogs on for the New Year. Ron is an AMAZINGLY FUNNY individual and I highly recommend you click here to read his greeting, Happy Nude Year. Right back at ya, Ron!

Robert Plant, the vocalist for the classic rock group Led Zeppelin, is on the list to receive a CBE for his services to music. Since the 1980s, he has enjoyed a successful solo career and performed with other artists around the world.

So I really, really do love Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. It is a very strange movie, but I love it so. I think that if you can get past the nearly absurd concept of the plot and just hang in there for more than twenty minutes that anyone can enjoy this movie.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is written by Sane Black who a true buddy cop film lover will know is the same man that wrote Lethal Weapon. The man is considered a pioneering screenwriter and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was his directorial debut. Having watched this movie over and over again I will again say that I really wish that Shane Black would step up to the director’s chair again and give me another movie. I think he has the potential to be one of the writer/director powerhouses that can really make his mark in the industry.

Watching Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang also reminds me of how much I do love Val Kilmer. The man may be crazy but he is a dang good actor. The man is currently voicing K.I.T.T. on the new (but soon to be if not already canceled) version of Knight Rider. He needs to stop that and get back to serious acting. From Doc Holliday to Gay Perry Val is one of the few actors who can genuinely disappear into a role and bring something special to the film – that’s the reason crazy as he is that people keep working with him. You work with Val and he becomes your character instead of just embodying the character.

I know it seems like I am on an insane Robert Downey Jr/comic book/holiday movie kick but I swear I am not. My mini-Robert Downey Jr. steak in the last few films was completely unintentional. I swear.

Perry: You don't get it, do you? This isn't "good cop, bad cop." This is fag and New Yorker. You're in a lot of trouble.

**Photos taken off the net

I just found this memorium to Steve and thought I'd pass it along to anyone stopping by this blog who know him.... It's a real shame that Steve left the world way to early, he's up there with my mom... dancing the samba, no doubt.  Rest in Peace, Steve

Oh Oh!! I just checked out Barbara's latest post and there I was... Today, Barbara, her hubby Didier, and I had a nice, cozy tea time at our fav. salon du the' in Paris-- L'Oisive Thé.  Hop on over to Barbara's blog, Home in France, for the skinny!! We had a great time!  Thanks Barbara et Didier... Nice to see you both again!!  

The BEST cappuccino EVER!!!!!!!  Move over Peets!!
Alex being a model student!

I swear, I don't really eat croissants or pain au chocolat... but we ordered this croissant aux amandes with some sort of chocolate cream filling-- maybe similar to nutella.  They were to DIE FOR... Out of this world!! I never wanted to take my last bite.... And, don't get me started on the coffee... I had two like the one in the picture... Easily the best cappuccino I've had in France.... or elsewhere for that matter... Yet another reason for us to move to Strasbourg!!!

This is such a great little pub! The people who worked there were sooo friendly and the guy even remembered me from when I was there in October with Lindsey... He even pointed to where we were sitting... How's that for leaving an impression?!!  I think there is one in Paris, too... 
Alex getting settled in....
I know, I know.  I don't drink beer, but what the hay?!! It's à la pêche~ peach beer.  It tasted more like a carbonated peach drink than a beer--- a real woman's beer, I know.... Alex likes REAL beer, not me!!!  I tasted some of Lindsey's when we came to this cute little pub in Oct.  What a great find this place was!! Try it the next time you're in town!
This is the famous, "tarte flambée" -- aux pommes et à la cannelle... flambé avec du Calvados! YUMMMMM is all I have to say!!  Sooo good when it's hot out of the oven! A must try!!

I remember reading reviews for Home for the Holidays that were pretty lack luster, admonishing the film for being too cynical & in bad taste, but in 1995 when the film came out I did not have a knowledge of film, or criticism that would have allowed me a desire to see the film or rebuff the critics. However, now that I have seen Home for the Holidays I can say that I can and will rebuke the critics of this film, especially the ones that call it too cynical and dark, one reviewer even chastised the film for being cynical and dark without meaning too be. Home for the Holidays is a cynical, darkly comedic film about what happens when you as an adult get together with your family for a holiday – the darkness and the cynicism is intended to underscore the fact that these individuals you grew up with can become complete and total strangers to you, or perhaps always were but only time & distance can bring this out in your relationship. However, what most of the critics ignored is the underlying bond and love that is the ultimate point woven into this film by director Jodie Foster.

Home for the Holidays has the most basic plot you can imagine. Claudia Larson is having a terrible week, she was just fired from her job restoring art because they lost their funding, she “accidently” made out with her boss, her daughter Kitt just dropped on her that she plans to lose her virginity and on top of that she has to go home to visit her parents for Thanksgiving without her daughter or her little brother Tommy there to help her. Distraught Claudia calls Tommy and leaves a tearful message on his machine wishing him and his partner Jack a happy Thanksgiving but unthinkingly telling him she really needs him at her parents house this year. Claudia arrives home to the exact awkwardness she expects from her too affectionate/observant parents and is surprised in the middle of the night when Tommy arrives to spend Thanksgiving with the family claiming he never got Claudia’s message, and bringing not Jack but co-worker Leo Fish in tow. The holiday unfolds with Tommy being his wacky self, their prim sister Joanne obsessing over everything and insulting Tommy at every turn, and senile aunt Gladys bringing up the past.

In an odd way I liked Home for the Holidays because the relationship between Claudia and Tommy reminds me of what I think the relationship between my little brother and I is like. If one or the other of us were in a situation where we genuinely needed the other person to be there we would do it – and this is Tommy and Claudia. Of all the members of the Larson family these are the two that love each other as unconditionally as everyone says you are supposed to love your family and it shows in their relationship. Both Tommy and Claudia are there for one another whenever the other needs them and defend each other from the craziness of the rest of the family. As much as we all love our families most of us know that our family members are also the people that can hurt us the most because they know us so well.

Claudia is falling apart because so much has happened to her in such a short, stressful period of time and the one she reaches out to is Tommy. Her well meaning family does nothing but make her feel worse until Tommy arrives. Tommy resists telling her at first that he came home because he got her message, but through a series of events it is revealed that Tommy not only got Claudia’s message but decided to leave Jack and their friends for Thanksgiving to be there for Claudia knowing that it was not going to be a pleasant experience for him to spend the time with his family. Without thought for himself Tommy came to Claudia to be the buffer that she needed him to be.

Tommy himself is very similar to Claudia but his greatest trait within the family is his over exuberance in any situation, Tommy does not blend in nor does he want to and he always puts on a brave face, something only Claudia can see through. Though it is alluded to for awhile that their sister Joanne does not like Tommy it seems that her distaste only stems from the fact that Tommy is loud & boisterous and she is all about being neat and orderly. However, an accident occurs at the Thanksgiving table & Joanne releases her full fury on her brother revealing that her true distaste for him stems from his lifestyle not his wacky behavior. Though Tommy claims none of this bothers him, later alone in the kitchen where Claudia & Tommy finish their Thanksgiving dinner the brother and sister share an embrace that gets to the real soul of their relationship.

I think that Home for the Holidays was not necessarily well received because the audience does not want a holiday movie that is going to point out the flaws of the holiday or of our families, but they want a holiday movie that is going to be light, sweet and fluffy – but that is not what Home for the Holidays is and it shouldn’t be judged by the same scale. This movie is not Miracle on 34th Street and should not be entered with such a mindset. However, as with some of the more off beat, dramatic American films I do get the feeling that if this film wasn’t an American film but instead something from another country Home for the Holidays would be lauded as a fresh look at the reality of American holidays but instead the critics didn’t know what to think of it.

Director: Jodie Foster
Writer: W.D. Richter
Claudia Larson: Holly Hunter
Tommy Larson: Robert Downey Jr.
Adele Larson: Anne Bancroft
Henry Larson: Charles Durning
Leo Fish: Dylan McDermott
Aunt Gladys: Geraldine Chaplin
Walter Wedman: Steve Guttenberg
Joanne Larson Wedman: Cynthia Stevenson
Kitt Larson: Claire Danes

Claudia: You don't know the first thing about me.
Joanne: Likewise, I'm sure. If I just met you on the street... if you gave me your phone number... I'd throw it away.
Claudia: Well, we don't have to like each other, Jo. We're family.

Iron Man. I really think this is up there with Batman Begins as the movies in my collection I’ll just pull out and pop on whenever I just want something to watch. In my opinion Iron Man is everything a good “popcorn movie” should aspire to be. Instead of being brainless, pointless drivel a good “popcorn movie” should be fun and entertaining but still manage to have a brain. I can turn Iron Man on and pay attention and be deeply entertained or simply watch with a limited attention span and it’s still very entertaining.

I am very intrigued to continue to see how the success of Iron Man is going to affect the careers of Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau.

Christine Everheart: You've been called the DaVinci of our time. What do you say to that?
Tony Stark: Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint.
Christine Everheart: And what do you say to your other nickname, the Merchant of Death?
Tony Stark: That's not bad.

     A familiar sight in Strasbourg is the Bretzl... I think Strasbourg should be named, "Home of the Bretzl," though I'm not quite clear at this point if pretzls are Alsacian or German... or maybe BOTH! I'm going to Google it when I'm done writing this! It reminds me somehow of the way I saw bagels ALL over Krakovie (Krakow) when I was in Poland. Alex mentioned something about a bredzl sandwich being yummy! More to explore. Oddly, I didn't see much choucroute around. I think this would be a PERFECT comfort food in the winter time! Choucroute = sourkraut.  If you'd like to learn a little more check out Food Lorist's post with the recipe.