Voluptuous II

Continued from here...

Bahrain

As with Albania, it has a nice graspable shape. Points for having a pointy end, as well as being surrounded by water.

Bangladesh

Really shoddy location-wise when it comes to monsoon floods and cyclones. I dig its shape though, and the rivers that run through its body.

Belgium

I'm digging the slant.

Bhutan

Looks like a content rodent. I hope no Bhutanese are offended by that. If so, lighten the puck up.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The right side features the profile of a face.

Fail Hitchcock Fail

Borrowed 'The Hitchcock Collection Volume 2' from the library. It features Hitchcock's early British movies, before and around the time he reached fame.

Murder (1930)
Picture and sound quality were horrible. Couldn't make out what the characters were saying. The very top of the screen was cropped off for some reason. Something to do with his early films belonging to the public domain, and therefore being thrown around a lot.

Result: Gave up within the opening minutes.

Number 17 (1932)
No quality issues, just really boring. I managed to survive up to the 15 or 20 minute mark before total boredom set in.

After the success of those two viewings, I decided to do my wikipedia and imdb research to see whether 'Rich and Strange' was worth watching. It didn't seem so, so I skipped it.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Caught the remake on telly a few weeks ago. Made for pretty good viewing. My research brought up that the original was the first film to be a commercial success for Hitchcock. Good sign for me. I pop this in... and utter boredom sinks in again. I don't know what is in the water that the majority of the imdb community is drinking, but they are utter morons for thinking that this is better than the remake. Heck, Hitchcock himself thought the remake was better.

I theorise that these morons are British folks who don't dig the American flavour of the remake, or that they are 'elitists' trying to boost their own stock by going against the mainstream, or just possibly moronic. Seriously, ten stars my buttocks.

Result: Gave up. I really did try to will myself on, but to no avail.

I'll give 'Sabotage' a go next, followed by 'The Lady Vanishes'. High hopes.

Voluptuous I

Countries that have a nice shape and/or features (in alphabetical order):

Albania

Perhaps a dubious choice to start off the list, but I think Albania has a very nice, cosy shape, as if it would feel at ease in one's grip. Plus, it has a coastline and seems like it wouldn't take too much time to get to a beach.

Armenia

Kinda looks like a Gibson Thunderbird. Has a huge lake.

Australia

Okay, rather biased here, but Australia has a great shape. It's got character! There's a bit of symmetry to it with the two northern points and the hips on either side. At the south end, a cute little oddity in Tasmania. Ocean all around, how awesome.

Austria

Australia's little cousin looks like a chicken drumstick (imagination needed).

Azerbaijan

There's a bit of sci-fi to Azerbaijan. Lots of jagged edges, wings in all directions, a nose that leads the way into the ocean. I like how Armenia has rudely butted in and divided the country in two.

Continued here
(perhaps with the letter B next time around)

I'm not a whore.

I would have been better off if I hadn't viewed this. A few things to get off my chest:
- I can't believe Paul Verhoeven was behind this film. Director to two of my favourite films (not ultra favourite, but I dig em a lot), Robocop and Total Recall, I just associate a good time with him (as well as sci-fi action). Heck, Starship Troopers was awesome as well.
- A running time of two hours. Gah.

And now for some more disjointed thoughts:
- Dull viewing. Kept looking to the time tracker to see how much more I had to endure.
- That said, I did survive to the end. There was just enough substance to not leave me unfulfilled.
- That said, the story was horrible. Elizabeth Berkley was also horrible. Well suited.
- At least I can't accuse the film of having a pointless token nude scene.
- Gina Gershon's cool. First saw her in 'Bound' (directed by the Wachowski brothers, their first film actually). Of course, I can't remember anything about the movie except for Gershon and Jennifer Tilly. Gershon also appeared in 'Face/Off', I can't recall her presence at all...
- I can't understand why Verhoeven would chosen to direct this. Except... the boobs. He did it for the boobs.
- I love the idea of 'Showgirls' being a comedic satire. It eases the pain somewhat.
- That reminds me, when the stupidity of the plot and its development was getting to me, I started noticing the technical side of things. It 'felt' like a good movie, sounded pretty good, and was photographed okay.
- I remember reading about 'Showgirls'' inclusion in this list of worst sex scenes ever. Now that I've seen the film, I say: very good call. Supports the satire very much so.
- Kyle McLachlan... we don't get along.

You Looked So Good

So I'm not a fan of this type of music. I find it incredibly dull. Every song sounded the same. Bowditch sounded like every other indie/folk/rock female singer out there. Unmemorable. Pointless even... well, points for being a hottie.

Another listen will be given soon, but I'm not expecting to be blown away.

You're tearing me apart!

I found it difficult to connect with the characters. Wait no, I just didn't connect with the characters much at all. I had been made aware of the themes of teenaged alienation long ago, but none of it personally rang a bell with me. Don't get me wrong, I've gone through my teenage years (probably am still in it) being ultra emotional and all. Everything here felt exaggerated and foundation-lacking... as a result, I found it hard to sympathise with our protagonists. I'm going to assume that this was a movie of its time.

Dean in 'East of Eden' I enjoyed very much. Here though, it seemed too easy being all angst-ridden and confused. So yes, there are still lingering doubts regarding Dean (despite me thinking he was great in his first film).

The only thing that I enjoyed here were the early climactic points. Jim's confrontation with Buzz
was presented stunningly and left me gripping for the resolution.

The Four Seasons

Currently listening to this compilation of songs by The Four Seasons. Until now, they've always been in the 'Sounds familiar, can't connect name to artist' camp. Frankie Valli I was partially familiar with, mainly through his work on the Grease soundtrack (he sung the title track, written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees). Tangent: I always loved that track... my brother had taped the movie back in the day, and I used to watch it over and over again. I was always bemused about the criticism that a disco song open a '50s based movie.

Songs that I had heard before, but never realised who they were performed by: "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Can't Take my Eyes off You" (credited to Frankie Valli, but featured the rest of The Four Seasons anyhow), "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)", and "Walk Like a Man". The second track threw me off big time... I'd made the connection that the old school doo-wop rock and roll falsetto heavy music were definitely The Four Seasons. The disco flavour of that song just made me go "Wow!" - I couldn't believe it was a product of the same band. Now that's a song I had heard time and time and time again.

The rest of this anthology doesn't seem to my ears as strong as the tracks I were familiar with. It's still early days, I'm sure some will grow on me.