Sleuth

Sleuth (2007) Directed by Kenneth Branagh, written by Harold Pinter (from Anthony Shaffer's Play)
This film is a waste of everyone's talents, except the set designer.

All About Eve

All About Eve (1950) Directed and written by Joseph L.Mankiewicz
It isust as good as everyone says and I had a ball watching it. Furthermore I think it will not only stand to multiple viewings but also will be even more enjoyable. Bette Davis was so good. I love her and Anne Baxter was good too. And Marilyn Monroe was smashing even at a small part.

Meanwhile I'm halfway through The Mayor of Casterbridge and enjoying it more and more with each new page.

Beautiful Life - End

Last night I have watched the last four episodes of Beautiful Life and I was not ready when the melodrama hit me with full force. I cried, and I cried and I cried and I cried - at one point I was sobbing loudly (usually it is the silent tears). Takuya Kimura character was so real and the whole thing was so heartbreaking. The female lead Ms. Takako Tokiwa if I'm not mistaken is also very good but everything and everyone else revolved around Kimu Taku, I loved this character and even though Sena is still my favorite Shuji comes a very close second.

Beautiful Life IV, V, VI, VII

Last night I indulged myself with four episodes of Beautiful Life. The dialogues in this drama are so like real life but at the same it keeps its fiction taste. The plot is very melodramatic but the way they handled it is so matter of fact.
And Takuya Kimura... He is so good. I have seen five characters he has acted so far (two in a film) and they are all very different but at the same time their mannerisms are not that dissimilar. I don't know how to describe it but he totally won me over many times over and I would love to be looked at the way he looks at his female leads. Fave Kimu Taku character so far to me is Sena in Long Vacation.

Beautiful Life I - II - III

I have started to watch Japanese drama Beautiful Life and it is wonderful. Takuya Kimura is the main lead and as usual he is simply fantastic. Not only a good actor but one with tons of charisma, charm and that certain quality that makes you love him. He is not conventionally handsome but there is something about him. The female lead, Takako Tokiwa is also very good. The three episodes just went by despite the fact that I worked overtime, was very tired and sleepy.

Dirty Dancing

Dirty Dancing (1987) Directed by Emile Ardolino, written by Eleanor Bergstein
I love this film despite multiple viewings, still remember the two times I saw it in theater and how the crowd cheerd when Patrick Swayze showed up for the final dance scene. It is still just as good after all these years.

The IT Crowd Season III and The Mayor of Casterbridge

The IT Crowd third season is hillarious, every episode is very good but my favorite is "the elders of internet" (the title is different).
The Mayor of Casterbridge is going very well. I love how Hardy describes the surroundings and the accents are defined in such a great manner, it is as if I can hear the characters speak.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - End, The Mayor of Casterbridge

Last night I have finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and today I started The Mayor of Casterbridge. Thomas Hardy is one of my favorite writers and this is one of the novels I haven't read yet. It started with a bang and now I'm very curious about what is going to happen next (yeah I managed to stay away from spoilers, even when classics are concerned!)

The IT Crowd

Experienced problems with blogger so again multiple days in one entry:


22 September 2009
Last night I have watched the second season of The IT Crowd and it was also very good.
Meanwhile The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is going great and I'm deeply into it.

21 September 2009
Last night I have watched the whole season 1 of The IT Crowd, which is a hillarious British sitcom. I laughed out loud all night. There is something about British humour that really appeals to me.

Propose Oishii and The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo

Since blogger has problems I just will post the missing days in this one

19 September 2009
There are problems with the blog and I was not able to post anything. Today was the last day of Ramadan and thank God that I was able to fast all through it :)
Last night I watched three more episodes of Propose Oishi and I didn't get any better. The only thing I really like is the UST between the OTP. Everything in the show is so obvious and UST works with that approach but not much else.

18 September 2009
Last night I have watched another episode of Propose Oishii and it was more of the same. Hero rescued our heroine from an unpleasant situation and promptly rejected by the love of his life. He cried but found some consolation in the soup she made for him. Really we all know a rom com is a formula but most of the time one tends to forget it and gets captivated with the story. Not this time. Also the male lead looks like a high school kid.

17 September 2009
I was not able to write anything due to some internet set up misunderstanding I've had but thank God it is resolved. Meanwhile I started Propose Oishii and now understand why this show is not very popular. The story is about an older woman (who is not yet thirty) and a younger man. The woman is a good chef who wants to open her own restaurant someday and the man is the only son of a conglomarate owner. So far it is something we are used to but they cater so many romantic kinks in such a blatant and awkward way that one feels a bit insulted. There were scenes from Pretty Woman, My Name is Kim Sam Soon and Lovers in Paris. I've decided to stick with it since it is entertaining (thought not the way they meant to be I suspect) but it just in not a good show.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, on the other hand, deserves all the good reviews so far. I'm enjoying it very much.

15 September 2009
Two shipments arrived today thank God. So now I have a small selection of goodies to choose from. Ok I already started to read The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo which is so far promising. And I think I'll go for the Japanese Propose Oishii, too bad there aren't much info on this one on net. I just chose it based on the synopsis. I love looking at food so I hope I'll like it.

Worlds Within - End, The Water's Lovely - End

Last night I watched the last four episodes of Worlds Within and finally got into the drama with Gyuho's break up scene. He was crying in the car and I was crying in my room. I also was eager to find out what happened to everyone else. Junyong is my favorite character and even though Jioh was a good guy, one that I would at least feel sympathy towards but Hyun Bin doesn't agree with me. Someone else in that role and I would have wept over the main OTP too.

I would have loved to watch the workings of TV drama productions but instead I got annoyed since they didn't integrate it to the drama well. Otherwise I loved the screen play. And kudos to Song Hye Kyo, lovely actress, top notch.

I also finished The Water's Lovely tonight and it was good to the last drop. I should read more Ruth Rendell books.

Worlds Within Ep: 10, 11 & 12

Watched three more episodes last night and I love the lead actress and I like the show a bit better but still no marathon desire.

Worlds Within Episodes 7, 8 and 9

Worlds Within is still the same after three more episodes. Lead female is all kinds of beautiful and she is a fantastic actress and all the side characters are nicely executed and the male lead is a nice guy but I can't warm up to Hyun Bin. His performance is not so good. Also the show sometimes feels like a lesson on drama productions which would have been very interesting to a person like me but apparently not when it is fed to me with a spoon.

Worlds Within Episodes 5 & 6

Worlds Within 6th episode was really sweet. The scenes in which the OTP just hang out in the house watching films, reading manhwa and then cleaning were really entertaining to watch and I came this close to loving the show but there is still something that is holding me back.


The Water's Lovely, on the other hand is fantastic, I still have no clue on who the murderer is.

Worlds Within Episode 4

Worlds Within fourth episode was not that much different from the others. I like this drama A LOT better than Cain and Abel but considerably less than all the other K-Dramas I have seen. I was able to stop at the end of episode. Normally I marathon, sometimes even when I have to go to work next day. But on the plus side I like the morals of this drama. Good work ethics are promoted. Love is lacklustre. OTP does not have chemistry (I understand that they are together in real life). Ok let's see what tonight will bring (I'm still hoping to madly fall for this drama since I like the female lead character very much).

I'm still loving Ruth Rendell and have no idea what is going to happen next in the book!

Worlds Within Ep.3 and The Water's Lovely

Worlds within third episode was without any suprises. I'm still not wowed and the insider info/critique is annoying. The problem I'm having is that the story is not flowing. I hope that this will change since I want to like this. It is not bad in the way Cain and Abel was bad. In fact it is not bad at all. I just can't get into it. But I'll keep trying.

Ruth Rendell is a writer I like a lot and The Water's Lovely is very entertaining so far.

Worlds Within 1 & 2

I finished two episodes of Worlds Within (aka The World They Live In or something, I'll just stick with what it says on the dvd box). So far it is interesting. I have not watched a Korean drama like this. Stayed away from spoilers and I don't really have much of a clue of what is going on. The OTP is very off so far. Obvious that they like eachother and there is UST but also they feel comfortable together in their current situation doing nothing to change it to better. Also they work together which can be big obstacle. I love the leading lady, Song Hye Kyo, she is not only one of the most beautiful women I have seen but also a good actress. I have watched her in two other dramas and the charaters were all very different. The leading man, Hyun Bin, on the other hand is a turn off so far. I just can see him acting and he doesn't look good. Also he gives nostril shots which I don't really like in an actor (except Song Kang Ho). I'm hoping to warm up to him.

This Charming Man

I have finished This Charming Man and loved it to bits. It is hard to decide which book to start now that I'm on such a fiction high. I think I'll go with Ruth Rendell's The Water's Lovely but may turn to Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - I love Murakami but this book is not fiction and I don't know how appropriate it will be to self, reading while going on the treadmill during lunch break at work (now that I'm fasting I take speed walks on lunch break)

Worlds Within has arrived thank God and can't wait to give it a go since it is highly recommended by a blogger I regularly read. Let's hope that I like it as much!

The Man Who Cried

The Man Who Cried (2000) Directed and written by Sally Potter,
It was not a good film but I liked it. Clean and nice visuals, good costumes and excellent actors. The storytelling part was the weakest and it hurt the whole film.

Meanwhile This Charming Man is so good that I think it is her best novel.

My Sister's Keeper and I'm Legend

My Sister's Keeper (2009) Directed by Nick Cassavettes, written by Jeremy Leven and Nick Casavettess, adapted from Jodi Picoult's novel.

It was a weepie film and I wept, and wept, and wept.

I'm Legend (2007) Directed by Francis Lawrence, written by Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman, adapted from Richard Matheson's novel.

I liked it. Will Smith is hot and a good actor.

Suhaag and This Charming Man

Suhaag (1979) Directed by Manmohan Desai, written by Khader Khan, Prayag Raj and K.K Shukla
I loved it. There is not an iota of logic in the film but it is very very entertaining. Amitabh Bachchan is so sexy in this film despite dubious fashion choices.

I finished Stephen King's Just After Sunset and started Marian Keyes' This Charming Man. It is very very entertaining, Mrs.Keyes is a very good writer and so far there is not one book of hers that I didn't enjoy (I think I have read them all)

Maine Pyar Kya

Maine Pyar Kya (1989) Directed and written by Sooraj R. Barjatya, story by S.M Ahale

I was eally suprised as it dawned on me that one of my favorite films Nuvvostanante Nenondantana is a remake of this film! I had no idea.

Anyway this film is a total trip, and the whole WTFness escalates towards the end. But it was very very entertaining (I hope they intented the film to be like this but I suspect they were not aware how ridicilous the whole thing looks)It is a long film full of songs and a disembodied "I loooove youuu" comes out at every opportunity and sometimes "twinkle twinkle little star" - not kidding yaar. Oh also music director must have loved the intro The Final Countdown since it is often repeated too! And one must not forget the dove (I nearly fell out of bed when we get to watch dove's memory!!!!)

The actors were good and the performanes totally in sync with the film's tone. Heroine's glycerine tears to Salman's Zoolander looks were hillarious.

And I'm such an easy crier that despite all the fun I had, I couldn't help but shed a couple of tears in the end.

Jism

Jism (2003) Directed by Amit Saxena, written by Manesh Bhatt and Niranjan Iyengar

I finished it last night and it was ok. Nothing to write much about except that Bipasha Basu and John Abraham are very good looking people.

Namak Halaal

Namak Halaal (1982) Directed by Prakash Mehra, there aren't any writing credits at IMDB and I don't remember the name shown in the credits.

I liked it a lot. Amitabh Bachchan is an exceptional actor, both comedic and drama and that is rare. I loved the story, the costumes and most of all that jubilant naivete old Indian films have. The songs were good too. Kishore Kumar and Amitabh is a good match.