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[Who Shot Sam?]

This constant push and pull between personal ambition and loyalty to one's own blood.

Weren't you paying attention? He was a bastard in a basket! A BASTARD in a BASKET!

My personal reading of that line is that he said it to hurt his son - sort of the nuclear option to break their relationship irrevocably. The film leaves it open to interpretation and that's mine. Here is a character so consumed by personal ambition and competitiveness that he can't even stand the thought of his own son competing with him. What is it he says earlier in the film? "I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people." Plainview is also a congenital liar, so why should anyone think that he's telling the truth about his son's paternity?

His "bastard in a basket" comment if viewed in this light makes his actions toward HW even more horrific. But it's all a matter of interpretation and the film offers no clarity on this point.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Watched Zhang Yimou's Hero on the telly. This one passed me by when released, but I loved watching it. The story is bonkers, set in 200BC, seems to be a telling of how China was created through the merging of different peoples/lands, but visually it is astonishing. Whole scenes set in one colour tone, now red, now blue, now green with endless fantastic landscape and the most brilliant airborne fight scenes imaginable. The effect is almost comic a lot of the time with all the sword sound effects and physically impossible action, but most of all it makes you hold your breath. The fight scene on water is one of the best. I watched and loved all of Zhang Yimou's earlier films, e.g.Raqise The Red Lantern, so it was really great to catch up with this one.

[miss buenos aires]

This constant push and pull between personal ambition and loyalty to one's own blood.

Weren't you paying attention? He was a bastard in a basket! A BASTARD in a BASKET!

My personal reading of that line is that he said it to hurt his son - sort of the nuclear option to break their relationship irrevocably. The film leaves it open to interpretation and that's mine. Here is a character so consumed by personal ambition and competitiveness that he can't even stand the thought of his own son competing with him. What is it he says earlier in the film? "I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people." Plainview is also a congenital liar, so why should anyone think that he's telling the truth about his son's paternity?

His "bastard in a basket" comment if viewed in this light makes his actions toward HW even more horrific. But it's all a matter of interpretation and the film offers no clarity on this point.

Hm, I didn't see that part of their relationship as ambiguous. I thought it was pretty clear that HW was the baby orphaned when the young driller was killed at the beginning of the movie. Plainview saw an opportunity and raised the boy as his own... I didn't see any evidence that he was the boy's biological father.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Hm, I didn't see that part of their relationship as ambiguous. I thought it was pretty clear that HW was the baby orphaned when the young driller was killed at the beginning of the movie. Plainview saw an opportunity and raised the boy as his own... I didn't see any evidence that he was the boy's biological father.

I'll have to go back and watch the beginning again. You may be right. I did notice that another man was minding the baby in that first scene while Plainview worked, but didn't put 2 and 2 together. Oh well, there goes my credibility!

[mood swung]

Music & Lyrics. Notable only for the many many shots of Drew Barrymore's very Leno-esque profile. I'd never noticed. Absolutely concave.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Music & Lyrics. Notable only for the many many shots of Drew Barrymore's very Leno-esque profile. I'd never noticed. Absolutely concave.

Hugh Grant as a pop star didn't really work for me.

My kids enjoyed My Neighbor Totoro. Definitely the gentlest Miyazaki film I've seen. Loved the cat bus.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Brilliant! I love 'No Face' and the giant baby from Spirited Away.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Mike Leigh's latest, Happy-Go-Lucky. Very good. Poppy is the main character and provider of the name h-g-l as she smiles and laughs all day long, in a way that could get irritating, but you would probably lover her sunny approach to things too much to moan if you were with her. And she's a realist too, working in a primary school and handling bullied kids, and ending up with the world's scariest driving instructor. Like all good Mike Leigh, the characters and situations really enter your head. It has one of the funniest kissing scenes ever. Recommended.

Two good films in one week, yay! We're in the happy period where our eldest can be relied on to be at home most Fridays and Saturdays so there's free younger-brother-sitting on tap - it won't last long! We went to Wagamama noodle bar before, so the evening was just like our courting days in Madrid nearly 20 years ago.

The family Hitchcock fest reached Dial M for Murder last night. I'm sure I saw it as a teen, but could only remember the velvet curtain, nothing else! Just as well, as the brilliance of the whole key thing that is the wonderful Ray Milland's undoing had me totally guessing. Great stuff. Next up, Rear Window, though this I have seen many times, but can't wait to watch it again.

Q: who can remember, without checking, in what way Hitch makes his cameo in Dial M? It's hilarious!

[Tim(e)]

Watched Zhang Yimou's Hero on the telly. This one passed me by when released, but I loved watching it...

In that case, you may like to catch House of the Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower which were the films he made after Hero.

[Tim(e)]

My kids enjoyed My Neighbor Totoro. Definitely the gentlest Miyazaki film I've seen. Loved the cat bus.

Have you seen Kiki's Delivery Service - if the kids liked Totoro, then they will equally love Kiki's... truly beautiful story telling. On one of my visits to Miyazaki's Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, they had a short film in their theatre (and only shown in their theatre) called Mei and the Konekko Bus (Kitten Bus) which was a sequel of sorts to My Neighbour Totoro... in a word, superb!!

[Who Shot Sam?]

Have you seen Kiki's Delivery Service - if the kids liked Totoro, then they will equally love Kiki's... truly beautiful story telling.

No, but I'll have to check that out. So many of the Disney/Pixar films have a sameness and predictability to them, which is most definitely not the case with Miyazaki.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Thanks, Tim(e). I've heard of Daggers, but not Flower. Must see both.

Love the sound of the Ghibli museum. Must visit Tokyo!

[PlaythingOrPet]

I absolutely adore My Neighbour Totoro and Kiki's....! Mustn't forget Princess Mononoke, Porco Rosso and Laputa: Castle in the Sky too. Good to see Studio Ghibli has a future with his two sons.

Anyone want to see the Sex and the City fillum with me? I have no one to go with. Although The Boy is all too keen on dragging me to Iron Man and Indiana Jones (the latter I'm actually quite keen on seeing).

[Who Shot Sam?]

Anyone want to see the Sex and the City fillum with me? I have no one to go with. Although The Boy is all too keen on dragging me to Iron Man and Indiana Jones (the latter I'm actually quite keen on seeing).

Good for your BF. If he takes you to see Sex and the City he has to turn in his man card.

[miss buenos aires]

PoP, I have the same problem... Swing by New York, movie tickets are ridiculously expensive, but I can take you on your own private S&tC tour afterwards!

[BlueChair]

Already have my tickets in hand for tonight's 6:40 PM showing of Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I'm not expecting much, but as a child of the 1980s it's only fitting that I fulfill my nostalgia by going on opening night.

[PlaythingOrPet]

PoP, I have the same problem... Swing by New York, movie tickets are ridiculously expensive, but I can take you on your own private S&tC tour afterwards!

That would be fantastic, MBA! I don't suppose you have a Mr Big up your sleeve, do you?

[miss buenos aires]

No, but I think Chris Noth lives around here... although if I were him, I think I'd spend the summer in Estonia or someplace equally remote...

[ice nine]

Young@Heart starts with a ninety-three year old woman singing, surrounded by a chorus of seventy and eighty year olds, 'Should I Stay or Should I Go'. Actually, she is speaking the words, ala Rex Harrison. An old man does an excellent version of Coldplay's 'Fix You'.The chorus struggles with A. Toussaint's 'Yes We Can Can' and only gets it when a few choruses are taken out. This is a very well done documentary and is very uplifting.It's also very funny in places. People in the audience (of the movie) were clapping as the chorus finished each song at their concert in the last scene of the movie. If you want to feel good about life see this movie.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Already have my tickets in hand for tonight's 6:40 PM showing of Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I'm not expecting much, but as a child of the 1980s it's only fitting that I fulfill my nostalgia by going on opening night.

Well the Guardian gave it a sniffy two stars, but elsewhere reviews were better. I thought it was rollicking good fun. Very, very overboard with the endless 'surely this will kill them?' and no-one gets scratched moments, and then the closing medley of Spielberg's greatest hits (though I guess no sharks showed up). The paternity theme re-emerges (someone said recently that the theme of all his films is the reuniting of families - good point). Cate Blanchett makes for a ludicrous Russian baddy. It's great fun and I wouldn't hesitate in going to see it. Is it worse than the originals? Well I saw the last one on telly recently and this was as good as that, I thought.

[RedShoes]

Well the Guardian gave it a sniffy two stars, but elsewhere reviews were better. I thought it was rollicking good fun. Very, very overboard with the endless 'surely this will kill them?' and no-one gets scratched moments, and then the closing medley of Spielberg's greatest hits (though I guess no sharks showed up). The paternity theme re-emerges (someone said recently that the theme of all his films is the reuniting of families - good point). Cate Blanchett makes for a ludicrous Russian baddy. It's great fun and I wouldn't hesitate in going to see it. Is it worse than the originals? Well I saw the last one on telly recently and this was as good as that, I thought.

I think you summed that up pretty well, Otis.

It's a pretty silly film all around, but it sure was fun. The whole plot was pretty out there - but in comparison with the original three, it's no more silly than the rest. I'd put it about at par with Raiders, with Last Cruisade as a better film, and Temple of Doom a laughable worst of the four.

[miss buenos aires]

Saw Fat Girl last night... what a strange movie. I'm not quite sure what to think of it, and that ending was not what I was expecting. Which I guess was the point. Has anyone else seen it?

[mood swung]

My and the younguns took in IJ&TKotCS, which we found enjoyable but long. The first 15 minutes were completely gratuitous, except to show the fine craftsmanship of 50's fridges. And the snake was lame. Karen Allen was 90% annoying. And Shia LeBeouf (or whatever his name is) just doesn't cut it.

But, it was a fun way to spend a hot afternoon. Only 8 people in the theater too!!!

[Otis Westinghouse]

Cos they were all at Sex and the bleedin' City, or they were in the city, or they were having sex? Or they were watching Portugal?

I loved the opening 15 mins, best part. Insane escape in munitions depot, spooky nuclear explosionville. Very good. Agree Shia wasn't impressive.

[mood swung]

But it was absolutely unnecessary for the storytelling. And (if I remember correctly) the first IJ had fabulously taut storytelling. It was creepy when he entered the house and it was Howdy Doody Time. And the magnetism was neat-o bandito, but I kept thinking if it was that strong, it'd be pulling their GUNS. And dental work.

Hancock looks good in previews.