Seen any good films lately? [3]

I saw it as well. And liked it fairly well. The comedy was particularly on-point, especially that scene with the "perfectly still" big guy from the Guardians.

Aaaanyway, my sister did not enjoy it, so I'm sure we'll have a good time tomorrow night when my cousin, her, and I get together and talk about our experiences. Speaking of people talking about watching the movies, here's the latest Half in the Bag!

re-watched The Day after Tomorrow, bit of a pot boiler but still entertaining, and ever more relevant these days, specially Mexico.

but they get the science all wrong. Blasts that come from the stratosphere would actually be boiling hot through adiabatic compression, not freezing cold.

that's worse

watched Inception, couple of years later. it was quite boring in places but the concept was interesting, I was expecting it to be a bit more Matrixy and freaky, but it wasn't, I mean dreams just don't run that logically and smoothly, and weird shit happens in dreams, so it was quite humdrum. interesting ending though.

{{And I couldn't agree with is final sentiments on the matter of humour, race and steroetypes more- signed a drunken buckied Scotshobbit upside down behind a hedge with his kilt round his ears and his arse burning red in the summer sun }}}

Too dam righty ! Shower of shit that film !! I downloaded it, skipped thru to make sure lip synch was ok etc & my gawd what a heap of self righteous, self pitying it was. It was cringing ! All the actors thought what a jolly spiffing idea it was to all speak like a Jamaican drug dealer even if their English was more English than the Queens. What little I saw confused me to the point of giving up & making supper. No way was I going to waste a disc on that ! It did nothing to be a fantastical hero story, I didn't believe anything about what I saw. It just smacked to me of being a Black Power movement statement & boy didn't they make a huge deal of it on the Oscars night. Why cant everyone just be ? Just be people first not colour or race 1st. Why cant you be Joe Blogs & be the person you are ? The human is inside its the colour that's on the outside. No one is a colour, Humans are people. Kind people, bad people, silly people, funny people, sad people thats what "we" are.

{{Hear hear Azriel! I was watching some middle class talking heads on BBC news 24 talk about the awfulness of black and black youth crime in London- they framed the entire thing as a black issue- and I'm thinking the exact same thing happens in Easterhill in Glasgow, or Govan or Maryhill, except its young white men stabbing each other, and joining gangs (some of which are documented back over 100 years in the city!)- its not a black issue its just a poverty, lack of opportunities and eduction and historic location issue- the only reason more black kids are involved in London is because more black kids live in those sort of circumstances there than white, but got bugger all to do with the fact they are black and everything to do with lack of direction, boredom, no opportunities, no money, no job prospects- exact same as the white kids in Glasgow slums. But by making it just a black issue you do no one any good, and you cant solve the problem because you've missed it! }}

The thing is, black folks at least in America felt a strong resonance with it, and before you dismiss it as a sort of reverse racism you have to ask what causes this reaction.  It's because people are very sensitive to slights aimed towards them when they feel they are already at a disadvantage, and this film attempted to turn those slights on their head.  You may say that you don't feel offended when people make jokes about women and you even tell them yourself; but that's either among your mates or done by comedians with no intent of malice.  If your nasty neighbor who throws stones at your dog made the same comments about women, you wouldn't be laughing.

So I'm far more intrigued by the reaction to the flim than I am by the film itself.  It's sort of like when Titanic came out and all the girls were crying their eyes out at a rather obvious manipulative plot, and then find out that Cameron had read a book about what pushes their buttons and wrote a script to do just that.  You may smirk at them, but the buttons are real.

{{{ I obviously cant speak for black people living in the UK but an excellent documentary I saw on the subject comparing US black citizens with UK black subjects came to an interesting conclusion- the main reason there seemed to be more of an issue in the US was that a lot of the black people there are descended from people who dont know where they came from because they were slaves- they lost their names, their families, their history, ou had segregation after the slavery too for along time and until relatively recently historically.
Black folk in the UK came here mainly as immigrants or as subjects of Empire (sounds worse than it is not like slaves all Brits are subjects!) so whilst they faced much of the same appalling racism and resistance, they also knew who they were, where they had come from and still had all their family connections both in the UK and their home country and in many cases were already full citizens under thelaw with equal rights. And whilst everyday racism confronts black people in the UK technically the law has always rejected it and been on their side- there has never been a UK equivalent to segregation in law. On top of this a large amount of black people in the Uk come from former colonies of Empire, where people had either long considered themselves UK citizens already, because they were (even fought for us, often) so there are Nigerian black UK, Caribbean black UK ect who all see themselves as separate and distinct but essential elements in the British tapestry, whereas in the US it seems more a single African-American thing. So whilst racial issues are genuine and a problem- the same sense of an entire class of people being persecuted just doesn't exist here in the same way I would say }}}

Hm. Yes, enjoyable review overall.

I suppose, Petty, that whole question of ancestry turns back to the question of "identity". Speaking personally, I enjoy that I can trace back, roughly, piece-meal, both sides of my family tree back to where they came from in Norway. It certainly informs upon my sense of self, even if it is, in some ways, a fabricated history.

But, then again, I know plenty of people who don't know much about where their families came from, and don't seem very bent out of shape about it. One's grand-parents and parents are enough history for most people, it seems to me.

Yep, in fact I'd say most Americans don't look further back than their grand-parents. Most of us just don't give a rat's ass about ancestry, though we still have group affiliations and identities. They are based on the present coterminous generations rather than ancestry.

{{I dont think it was about so much not knowing who your grandfather or great grandparents were, more having been cut of from their culture. As most people in the UK who came from the former colonies or as existing citizens there is no cultural break, nor one expected- after all if you are from the Caribbean or say an Indian and you were already a full UK citizen then if you came to the UK you could carry on as you were before largely- yes you probably got called names and accused of always stinking of curry (now the top dish in the UK and in fact a lager and curry is more synonymous with white England than it is Indians these days which tells its own story)- but what you had was a continuation of culture, added to by usually still having family members in both places.
In the US it seems more focused on one group- African-American- and it seems to be more based on the idea that an identity, a culture has been lost under a system of repression from what has been a majority white establishment rule established in slavery, followed up by segregation from which progress has only ever been made through violent protest.
Again a situation which despite Empire never quite arose here because the Empire policy was always to fill administrative and well paid middle class salaried jobs with the locals, keeps costs down and keeps unrest down by establishing a dependent wealthy native middle class. But it meant after Empire our immigrants were often of that class, professionals. So again whilst they faced everyday racism, in law they were still a registered UK doctor, teacher whatever.

The current issues are a combination of poverty, lack of opportunity and the worst forced migration of humans for hundreds of years, if not more, into Europe, its not a race issue its a human tragedy caused by an unholy combination of changing environments, massive wars displacing whole cities worth of people at a time and global poverty.}}

Just shows we are more vulnerable & fragile than we might realise. We all seem to have this inherent need to feel we belong. We need to know we are connected, that we aren't alone. We seem to need connections to someone. We feel lacking if we cant trace our ancestry & it leaves us wondering what if. Yet if we can trace aunty Joan & uncle Fred & everyone else back to the Plantagenets we are pleased as punch & proud. In truth we don't like isolation.

um, as I said most Americans don't really care much. We feel a need to belong, but ancestry is just one way.

Interesting Empirical perspective, Petty. I will say that there is a lot of African-American culture in the US, and a great deal of a heritage. At least from where I'm standing.

Having lived in west africa, I'll say the amount of cultural carry-over that survived is somewhat surprising. But it's less tangible than things like ancestry, there would be a very definite feeling of disconnect.

there is a lot of African-American culture in the US- Forest

{{{ In a way that's kind of the difference- its not African culture and its not American culture- its Afro-American. If you go to the home of a Caribbean Brit you will find very much a Caribbean culture in the family, but there's also a very high chance you'll find a union jack on the wall and a pic of the Queen. Just as curry is as British as tea in our culture these days- I dont see that cross cultural pollination in the idea of African-American- its seems to be a culture almost of its own that built up solely over the historic existence of America, inside America, parallel to it but never quite the same thing. But that might just be an outside perception of it because the whole African-American movement gets so much media time. }}}

Yeah I'd say it's incorrect to say that African-American culture doesn't blend with other American cultures, and vice versa. Despite what certain loud people proclaim these days, the US is a big cultural melting pot.

It's a blend, but still very distinctive. They definitely consider themselves americans, but often in a sort of parallel existence.

US is a big cultural melting pot.- Forest

{{We used to get taught this in primary school- my textbook had an illustration in it haunted my nightmares for years- they thought a good way to explain the racial melting pot idea was to depict an actual huge cooking pot with the words USA on the side and inside a soup made up of people of all races as more were added in! That image stayed with me for years!


'its seems to be a culture almost of its own that built up solely over the historic existence of America, inside America, parallel to it but never quite the same thing'- me

'I'd say it's incorrect to say that African-American culture doesn't blend with other American cultures, and vice versa'- Forest

'They definitely consider themselves americans, but often in a sort of parallel existence.'- Halfy


I'm not sure you guys are helping my understanding here!!!!   }}}

I think your quote had it about right. It's a stew: a bite of meat will taste of carrots and onions but still very clearly be meat.

Anybody seen this?

watched Gravity again, its still amazing but its better on the big screen.

I have seen Rubber, yes, with my niece. It was an amusing, if meandering, sort of movie.