p e n g u i n d e v i l

I have a big backlog of movies, but I’m home sick (well, the whole family is home sick) and I feel like crud so I don’t have much in me. What, you ask, is there? Last night we watched a funny little film, an Australian one that seemed low-budget, like a documentary, but seemingly wasn’t one. It was a charming film called The Castle about a family who is being removed from their house due to an airport expansion. The film is the story of the fathers fight to keep their house and it is a fairly typical “David vs Goliath” thing. But I liked it! The characters are all charming and sweet (though they certainly curse a lot), and it’s filled scenes of people out of their element and all sorts of talk about peoples rights and all of that.

I tried to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it wasn’t the time and we were so bored and sick that we went looking for TV to watch. I’m a firm believer in the theory that the only good TV dramas of the last twenty (or is it thirty?) years are the X-Files, Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Big Love. The X-Files gets extra kudos for being the first drama since the 70’s that I could respect, and also for being on regular television. But those shows are so good, with such great writing and characters and casts, that they are really incomparable. After watching them, these others (like the CSI series and all those hospital shows) I just can’t do… They have so little plot continuity from show to show, it just gets boring watching them do the same predicable stories over and over.

We looked around at what was out there… Oz (once we tried to watch one episode, but its “performance art behind bars” shtick was too much), The Wire (everyone says it’s great but you have to get a few episodes in. We couldn’t make it through the first one, so will we ever know?) and somehow, we ended up with Rome. I had no interest in this, but we watched it and it actually seemed like it might have some good dramatic potential so we ended up watching 3 episodes. It’s certainly not as great as those listed above, but it will easily do for something to watch on days like this.

Before the great health decline, I did watch Infernal Affairs, which I been planning on doing since seeing The Departed. As I had heard, it was pretty much the some story as The Departed, but even taking that into account, I think that they stand on their own as movies. It was nice looking, with great action, nice cinematography and a well-paced story. I also appreciate the fact that the American remake wasn’t terrible as American remakes generally are. I like the confusing nature of the plot (not quite as confusing as the first time around in The Departed, but still) and there is some great bloodshed!

Infernal Affairs stars the “always great” Tony Leung and Andy Lau (who I’m not particularly familiar with), it also starred Anthony Wong (from favorites Hard Boiled and Full-Time Killers) as the police boss, S.P. Wong, who was my favorite character, but sadly, for those of us who’ve seen The Departed… Well, we know what’s in store…