Movie: Casino Royale

Wow ... I have not watched every bond movie, but of the ones I have watched; I would vote this new one to be my absolute favorite. Sure there was no Q, or Moneypenny but the evolution of Bond from just an agent to a 00 is impressive and the movie is really backed up by an impressive script.

This new Bond is less of an action hero ... he makes mistakes, and gets hurt in the process, he bleeds and almost dies. But you can also see that he is, as M puts it, not just a thug. That said, it is hardly a perfect movie - the romance scenes are too drawn out and seem forced - but again, they do serve a purpose (another break from Bond tradition I suppose).

Moving House

After two years at Mowbray, I moved out of the flat and into a four bedroomed house in Rondebosch, a stone's throw away (literally) from UCT. Moving is tough work, especially with the amount of junk I have ...

Anyway, one of the best parts of the new place is the large garden ... ideal for Summer Braais ... so maybe one should be organised soon.

Movie: Borat

Or to give its full name: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

First and foremost - it is an amazing movie - because of its content. It is effectively one long, candid camera tale, but at the same time, provides very interesting view of America - uncovering racism, sexism and homophobia.

It is also a shocking movie ... the scene with Borat and his obese producer wrestling in the nude is just awful; but the followup where the two of them run (still naked) into a full convention centre - complete with a trip on an elevator full of people - is an amazing piece of film making and personal bravery.

But over all, it is not an easy movie to watch ... it is as Hans-Peter put it "very embarrassing".

Cricket Madness

Went to the cricket today with a whole bunch of people (mainly from badminton) ... SA played well to come back to a really good total, and Indian top order batted badly, so it was not really a contest, or a great game. But Kemp and Dhoni's innings were great to watch, so it was good value for money. I still have to see Sachin Tendulkar perform ... second time, and both utter disappointments.

Movie: Children of Men

In the near future, for an unknown reason, women cannot bear children; and as the movie starts out, the youngest person on earth, an 18 year old Brazilian has just been stabbed to death. The world is in chaos - with UK (the location of the movie), converted to a police state; where immigration is disallowed. Immigrants are treated as third or fourth class humans, confined to concentration camps, and subject to police brutality.

In this chaos, we have a miraculous 8 and a bit month pregnant teen, illegal immigrant from Fiji, who needs to be escorted to the ship "Tomorrow", which has connections to the almost mystical and legendary "Human Project". And off course, a pregnant woman is valuable commodity; and almost no one really cares about her or the baby - just the political gains that could be achieved ...

This is a brilliant movie; a definite must see, and the scene with Clive Owen (the bureaucrat/peace activist who ends up escorting/hiding/sheltering the woman baby through to the ship) coming through a warzone with a crying baby is really magical ... and also shows, how a crying baby is never enough to stop all the world wars.