Outsider’s Insights

“Want to assault an underwater laboratory manned by extra terrestrial sex slavers and guarded by zombie sharks? Aftermath!”

That sounds like fun. Anyone? =)

Today I saw Spiderman 3.

Almost everybody told me: it’s not good. Or they just heard it’s supposedly bad. Or suchalike. But what can I say: I loved it.

People said three villains is just too much. The film is too packed, the different plotlines are not worked out properly etc. Georg Seeßlen wrote:

Im dritten Teil ist die bisher durchaus gelungene Comicadaption dem Gesetz der Serie erlegen. Fantastische Bilder und moralisch-psychologische Konflikte finden leider nicht mehr recht zusammen.

Well, they got it all wrong. The movie is great. It’s all about Peter Parker/Spiderman. And I think it focuses rather well on his development and problems. The villains are mainly contributing to this. Therefore it’s no problem at all that their stories are kept relatively. Actually, I didn’t feel that at all.

AND there are so funny scenes. E.g. when he walks the streets flirting with everybody, but overdoes it so much. Or the scene with the French waiter.

And the love story is very nice.

AND the action is quite entertaining.

So what more to ask for: Enjoy!

PS: This review was quite okay.

Now this month it’s a very old song. Second half of the 16th century, I guess.

“Come Again” by John Dowland is so wonderful. I listened to that song for the first time about 6 or 7 years ago, when a friend’s sister gave a concert. Then, after a long search, I found the version from Kathleen Battle, which was not quite as good as the concert, but at least a woman singing it. Because mostly it was recorded with countertenors.

And this weekend, I got another version. A male voice, too. But I would have never guessed who: Sting. Yes, the ex-Police-singer. I knew he made quite some interesting projects over the years, but I haven’t heard of this one before.
Wolfram Goertz didn’t really approve, but to me, his critic sounds like one these high-above-the-clouds-opinion from the ivory tower of art. Well, that’s probably the general attitude towards art in the newspaper Die Zeit. Even Stefan Reisner, who admits that Sting may get to a wider audience, still hopes that the Sting-listener might make it eventually to visit a classical Dowland concert. Quite snobbish and elitist, they are. As if a new interpretation of old art is less valuable! I doubt it that they write the same about plays being adapted. But classical music has this certain air. It’s hardly surprising so few people get an access to this sort of music at an early age. I mean not just John Dowland but classical music in general. “Real” music fans would probably kill me for putting Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Dvorak, Dowland and whoelsenot in the category “classical music”.

The funny thing: I don’t like the version praised in the Zeit-article very much. But that’s a general problem I have with opera singers from time to time: they put so much emphasis on technique and perfect sound, they forget about emotions and feelings. And that’s what makes music so wonderful, isn’t it?

Nothing can touch you so quickly and deeply.

Anyway, here are the lyrics:

Come Again!

Come again! sweet love doth now invite
Thy graces that refrain
To do me due delight,
To see, to hear, to touch, to kiss, to die,
With thee again in sweetest sympathy.

Come again! that I may cease to mourn
Through thy unkind disdain;
For now left and forlorn
I sit, I sigh, I weep, I faint, I die
In deadly pain and endless misery.

All the day the sun that lends me shine
By frowns doth cause me pine
And feeds me with delay;
Her smiles, my springs that makes my joy to grow,
Her frowns the winter of my woe.

All the night my sleeps are full of dreams,
My eyes are full of streams.
My heart takes no delight

And Silvia, a dear friend, has sent me this (get well soon!):

Friends of mine told me, it’s great movie, a must-see, it’s wonderful and so on and on and on. Yesterday, I finally saw it on DVD. And usually, when I expect too much of a movie, I’m frequently disappointed. “Keep expectations low”, as jeck says.

But this time it wasn’t a problem. In fact, “Little Miss Sunshine” is one of the best movies of 2007. Until now that is. And that’s quite surprising in a way. Hmm. I wanted to say it’s surprising because not very much is happening. But actually there is happening quite a lot. Just on a very, let’s say, human level. That’s what the movie is all about: Humans with their peculiarities and little (or huge) mistakes. And what I like very much: the movie treats them very respectful without idealizing them. The characters are so fucked up and weird, but are shown in such a loving way. It reminds me a bit of Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors, who also has a very humanist approach towards his characters.

I shed tears of laughter. Such wonderfully weird people.

I’m just wondering whether I’m the only one. Afterwards it’s so obvious.

Well, check it out yourself: here

This one is great, too.

And another one with Jackie Chan. Nice.

Why are German Ads almost always boring as hell? *sigh*

http://adsoftheworld.com/

was quite entertaining. Well shot, a good cast - I like it when even smaller roles seem to have real characters, when they are not just the-guy-sitting-at-the-computer or so.

Even done in the same year as “Inside Man”, which I liked too. Both are quite good examples of rather intelligent Hollywood Action movies (not like testosterone crap like S.W.A.T. or suchalike). Who would have thought, Jerry Bruckheimer would produce something like that. But he has made so many movies, he cannot always do wrong. =)

That’s so true. And funny. Nice site btw: bLaugh