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annwfynWell, I think one good thing came out of going to see Aeon Flux last night.
I realised that Marton Csokas is really kinda cute, and I don't just say that because of his kinda funky slavic name, or because he played a really sexy bad guy in XxX. He's got a really nice smile as well, and frankly...well...he's hot.
The film?
Can we not talk about that and just go back to Marton?
No? You really want to know?
Well,wyldcard liked the film, which I am mean spiritedly attributing to Charlize Theron's arse looking pretty damn spectacular in all the black catsuits she kept wearing, coz I'm not entirely sure what else there was in it to like. Well, apart from my new boyfriend-to-be, but I don't think Jon swings that way. The rest of the film was mostly a series of unconvincing costumes (even Charlize cannot find it comfortable to sleep in some kind of halterneck bikini made up of strings of beads. And why had the secret police in this future society not noticed that all the revoltion wander around amidst the sea of people in pastel wearing a lot of black and just arrest all goths straight out?), dodgy fight scenes (it's becoming a new bugbear on mine. I'm really not convinced that any 8 stone, 5'4" girl, no matter how l33t her kung fu, can kick the crap in close range combat out of a 6'2" goon), and a lot of really weird organic science that didn't quite make sense.
It also had a plot twist that it really took too long in explaining (especially when the entire thing could have been explained in 10 seconds, about 20 minutes into the film when Charlize and Marton first meet and chat, but instead the film insists that they spout cryptic non-sequiters at each other instead and then fall into bed) and which wasn't that much of a twist anyway.
The film finally ended, leaving us all just enough time to get home for Supernatural, which is a really good TV series on ITV2, which had a much better plot and left me having insane fears relating to the bathroom mirror.
The moral of the story? Don't go and see Charlize in bad costume. Find something nice to watch on the telly instead. I promise you - you'll be much happier.
In other news, I'm now on 7000 words for my dissertation, which means it is progressing, and I am feeling a bit calmer. Go me. Parts of it even read relatively well.
Go me! But for now, back to work. I've got at least another 1000 words to go.
I realised that Marton Csokas is really kinda cute, and I don't just say that because of his kinda funky slavic name, or because he played a really sexy bad guy in XxX. He's got a really nice smile as well, and frankly...well...he's hot.
The film?
Can we not talk about that and just go back to Marton?
No? You really want to know?
Well,
wyldcard liked the film, which I am mean spiritedly attributing to Charlize Theron's arse looking pretty damn spectacular in all the black catsuits she kept wearing, coz I'm not entirely sure what else there was in it to like. Well, apart from my new boyfriend-to-be, but I don't think Jon swings that way. The rest of the film was mostly a series of unconvincing costumes (even Charlize cannot find it comfortable to sleep in some kind of halterneck bikini made up of strings of beads. And why had the secret police in this future society not noticed that all the revoltion wander around amidst the sea of people in pastel wearing a lot of black and just arrest all goths straight out?), dodgy fight scenes (it's becoming a new bugbear on mine. I'm really not convinced that any 8 stone, 5'4" girl, no matter how l33t her kung fu, can kick the crap in close range combat out of a 6'2" goon), and a lot of really weird organic science that didn't quite make sense.It also had a plot twist that it really took too long in explaining (especially when the entire thing could have been explained in 10 seconds, about 20 minutes into the film when Charlize and Marton first meet and chat, but instead the film insists that they spout cryptic non-sequiters at each other instead and then fall into bed) and which wasn't that much of a twist anyway.
The film finally ended, leaving us all just enough time to get home for Supernatural, which is a really good TV series on ITV2, which had a much better plot and left me having insane fears relating to the bathroom mirror.
The moral of the story? Don't go and see Charlize in bad costume. Find something nice to watch on the telly instead. I promise you - you'll be much happier.
In other news, I'm now on 7000 words for my dissertation, which means it is progressing, and I am feeling a bit calmer. Go me. Parts of it even read relatively well.
Go me! But for now, back to work. I've got at least another 1000 words to go.
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-20 10:46 am (UTC)It started off as mindless drivel, but I thought that it just about managed to scrape mediocre by the end.
Charlize's arse, Marton's coat, some other... interesting fashion, more than one half decent one-liner...
I didn't want to die by the end of it, and that, for me, is just about good enough. Maybe my standards are too low...
I.
PS: Much more disturbing were the trailers. Is horror season coming up or something?
no subject
Date: 2006-02-20 10:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-20 10:51 am (UTC)What was worse was that they had the trailer for 'American Date Movie' or whatever the piece of shite that the writers of 'Scary Movie' are putting now, followed by 'the hills have eyes', and I assumed that 'the hills have eyes' was another parody horror movie for most of the trailer.
Having seen it again since then, I'm still not convinced it shouldn't be.
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Date: 2006-02-20 10:52 am (UTC)And her bum _did_ look spectacular in it. :)
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Date: 2006-02-20 11:23 am (UTC)Really, after seeing Aeon Flux, you owe Kate Beckinsale an apology.
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Date: 2006-02-20 11:29 am (UTC)As for l33t kung fu, it's simple: success is based on speed and energy, not muscle mass. Sure, she'll never win an arm wrestle with a 6'2" goon, but that's not the point.
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Date: 2006-02-20 05:09 pm (UTC)It may be that the film lost me pretty damn badly at that point, and never really recovered.
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Date: 2006-02-20 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-20 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-20 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-21 01:02 am (UTC)Charlize - yes. Damn, she looked good. Mind you, I've got a weakness for women who look like they can actually fight, and it was so refreshing to see someone cast who could pull off the martial arts scenes (if only they weren't shit, that is). Her body language was fantastic, and really spot-on for the character. Hollywood should, but won't, take note - this is why it's a good thing to cast people Who Can Act.
No doubt everyone will keep casting Kate fuckin' Beckinsale regardless, though.
"I'm really not convinced that any 8 stone, 5'4" girl, no matter how l33t her kung fu, can kick the crap in close range combat out of a 6'2" goon" - no, actually, there are ways, and I could choreograph it given half a chance. But whatever the fuck the fight choreographers knew on Aeon Flux, it didn't seem to be, you know, fighting. Gods, I don't think I've ever seen such a horrible example of the "lots of CG and bad imitation Wushu" school of fight direction.
Dreadful film. Great costumes. Hot chick. Horrible fighting.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-21 09:25 am (UTC)Well, I think I've developed two bugbears of late. One is a hatred of the Amidala style of nightwear. I know it's silly, but it really undermines a film for me when the heroine is shown wearing clothes, allegedly for the purposes of sleep, that NO ONE could ever sleep in.
You CAN'T go to sleep wearing beads. They would be incredibly uncomfortable, would rub, probably break off in strands if you rolled about a bit too much, would press into the skin and leave lots of nasty marks, and Charlize's halterneck wouldn't cover her nipples for a minute once she'd settled down to to go sleep. She'd wake up being stranged by her own nightie, with most of her body on display.
It may look cute, but it always strikes me as a bit silly.
The other thing I thought was silly were the huge wedge heels for Top Secret Missions. I've worn big heels. No matter how used you are to heels, there are things you can't do in them. Running flat out at top speed is really one of them!
That mostly killed it for me. The rest of the costumes didn't bother me quite as much.
On the weight thing - it seems to have sparked some level of division. Basically, as far as I can tell, it depends a lot of relative skill levels. According to two fairly serious martial artists I've now spoken to (in a bout of 'am I wrong about this?') a small girl who happens to be a black belt probably can kick the crap out of a large bloke who isn't. On the other hand, should aforementioned girl meet a large bloke who is of a similar skill level, or a skill level that is not significantly less than hers, the weight, height, reach etc becomes a major factor.
In the words of a fairly serious competition judo boy "they have weight divisions in competitions for a reason".
I guess what this means is that if the guards are just straight goons with no real training, then Charlize has a chance as 'the best that the Monoccans have'. If, on the other hand, the Evil Totalitarian Reqieme bother to give their troops some training, then it doesn't matter how fast she is - she'll just be left dangling off someone's arm.
The other way of small girls doing well in combat is, I am told, ranged weaponry. Few people can dodge a bullet.
That is just my opinion tho. As I lack actual experience of l33t combat, it can only be second hand, and opinion, really.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-21 11:21 am (UTC)Yes, I recall laughing at the sheer gall of the beads costume. Go go gadget spirit gum. I think that the filmmakers got away with it, for me, entirely on the basis that Charlize looked really cute in it.
The girl martial artist issue - yep, that all sounds about what I would have said. Having said that, it's not that an 8-stone girl couldn't beat a man of similar skill level - it's just that she'd have a lot less chance than of the fight going the other way.
(Worth noting, actually, that this was one of the reasons I liked Charlize Theron in the role - she's not 8 stone nothing, and she's not 5 feet nothing either. A girl who's both quite tall and quite well-muscled kicking ass in a fight is a whole lot more believable.)
It's worth noting that skill levels go a lot higher than most people realise, too. Even, say, someone with equivalent training to a US Marine or similar isn't anywhere near the peak of their potential ability in a hand-to-hand fight. And there's that whole talent issue too - some people just have scary, scary levels of natural ability. So even if the guards have some fairly decent military training, if Aeon's really the best, they're in trouble.
Hence, I don't really have a problem with small girls kicking ass in martial arts movies. I do, however, have a problem with the fight choreography in so doing just being stooopid.
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Date: 2006-02-21 02:13 pm (UTC)I wear heels like that, and I teter.
She spins around and does drop kicks.
It's a mysterious thing.
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Date: 2006-02-21 09:39 pm (UTC)Anyway, figure a comment is as likely to get your attention whilst busy as an email...
When is the March C/A game? Am about to book train tickets to come down to visit dalton..
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Date: 2006-02-21 11:57 pm (UTC)Even if you don't make the game (tho I'll be endlessly happy if you do), I'd love to meet up.
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Date: 2006-02-22 07:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-22 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-23 08:03 am (UTC)tn_robertson@yahoo.co.uk
You know, unchanged for all the time you've known me! ;)
Totally unrelated - saw this and thought of you...
Date: 2006-02-23 09:06 am (UTC)Re: Totally unrelated - saw this and thought of you...
Date: 2006-02-27 04:06 pm (UTC)I've now got it as my MSN pic and PC background.
Re: Totally unrelated - saw this and thought of you...
Date: 2006-02-28 12:07 am (UTC)