“群雄”

赤壁 Trailer

(3 min)

總統競選連任提出新能源的政策, 但他反對動阿拉斯加地下的石油 (民主黨嘛). 他先由動詞字眼入手: 有關石油的事不會用explore這個字的, 麥哲倫才是explore. 石油是drill的. 這樣說來真的中性一點. (The West Wing, S3 Ep17)

“一定要掃蕩群雄”?

討厭劉備, 討厭他打著皇叔旗號招搖撞騙; 討厭孫權, 討厭他身為忠臣之後據地稱霸. “群雄”? Are you kidding me? 私下煮酒說甚麼是一回事, 誓師的speech不是賈詡就是荀彧寫的吧.

傳說美國人不懂看文戲. 不知他們有沒有聽過一套電視劇叫The West Wing, 集集talk and walk做足七季. 問題是編劇懂不懂得寫, 而且字字斟酌. (學下CJ!)

出師有名. 如果曹操說中文, 很簡單, 他一定會叫他們做: ”賊”. 正如之前朝廷稱呼黃巾; 正如共產黨國民黨稱呼對方.

“We are going to hunt the heroes,” 曹操說, 直譯的話… 真是的.

孫權劉備應該叫曹操做traitor; 曹操會叫他們做, um, terrorists.

P

The Lost City

trailer:

(2 min)

The lost city, a motive about Cuba but filmmed in Dominica, is simply another must-watch.

Not for Andy García. As a review (“An Elegy for Old Havana, ‘The Lost City’ of Glamour and Music“, 28 Apr 2006) said:

“The Lost City,” Andy Garcia’s ode to the Havana of pre-Communist Cuba, is a romantic epic manqué that swoons across the screen for nearly two and a half hours without saying much, beyond that life sure was peachy before Fidel Castro came to town and ruined everything.

Not for Dustin Hoffman:

Dustin Hoffman appears briefly (and ineffectually) as the gangster Meyer Lansky, a character who has no reason to be in the movie other than to put Mr. Hoffman’s name on the marquee.

Also not for the Godfather:

The film’s best action sequence is a failed raid on the presidential palace. But it pales in comparison to the Cuban section of “The Godfather: Part II,” which “The Lost City” self-consciously echoes. In its unwieldy length and pulpy grandiosity, “The Lost City” also echoes a different “Godfather” film, Part III, in which Mr. Garcia played Michael Corleone’s protégé, Don Vincent. As that movie does, “The Lost City” lunges back and forth between intimate confrontations and historical events in a clumsy effort to fuse personal and social upheaval. But because its characters pontificate in generalities and aphorisms, they’re little more than stick figures with cartoon balloons pasted over their heads.

Just for the (not-yet-listened) soundtrack.

There will be blood

(3 min)

Planned to watch There will be blood over a week… but still hanging with West Wing season 4.

Worse. All the encouraging by the NYT critics’ pick (“An American Primitive, Forged in a Crucible of Blood and Oil“, 26 Dec 2007) was gone with one single reader review: “avoid it, if you can”.

Really?

But the film is above all a consummate work of art, one that transcends the historically fraught context of its making, and its pleasures are unapologetically aesthetic. It reveals, excites, disturbs, provokes, but the window it opens is to human consciousness itself.

That ain’t why i have to watch it…

West Bank Story

(1)
Part 1

(13 min)

Part 2

(12 min)

(2)
Oscar live action short winning last year.  But are they really Westbankers?  if they make such fun, why not make some peace?  (and English is good.)

Michael Clayton

another George Clooney, another must-watch.  but i still haven’t watched Good Night, and Good Luck.