I'm so glad we hadn't seen the last of Peter O'Toole with his brief role in Troy that looked to be his swan song. He seemed so old, I didn't imagine he'd be doing much more acting. (Heck, I remember him already playing a washed-up old man way back in 1982's My Favorite Year ... which would have been his Swann song, heheh.)

But he's back on the screen in a film called Venus, and it's an utterly charming piece that I highly recommend. Of course, it would probably be worthwhile to see Peter O'Toole read a selection of menus, but this quirky tale of a (very) old gentleman's unlikely friendship with a brash young Brit (the daughter of his best friend's niece) is a good deal better ... and would be a fitting capper to O'Toole's stellar career - - if he weren't already working on a handful of other projects in various stages of production.

Be that as it may ... Venus is a gem. See it if you can.



(no subtitles!)

I disliked Shrek too! Murphy's Donkey character was very annoying, and just a rehash of Mooshu from Mulan, in my opinion.

Shrek II, the traveling scene with donkey smacking his lips by their ears? That was funny. And unfortunately gave my youngest kid certain ideas for livening up roadtrips.

Donkey told me to stop hitting the flask.

It is on my list - if it ever plays in more than one Santa Monica theater.

A few years before, he played a truly washed up old man in "Caligula."

Perhaps people aren't ready to regret their bling, yet.









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I got around to it last night and I'm going to have to disagree. It was a decent genre picture but not a great one. The character development was pretty standard and the ultimate conclusion was apparent from the beginning.

I'm always uncomfortable when an action movie is set against the backdrop of an important social issue. When an entire societal calamity is reduced to an opportunity for one scumbag to rediscover his humanity.

It is very well made and obviously wants to be an important movie. If people see it and decide not to be consumers of diamonds then that is good. But it is easy for me to say that. I've never owned a diamond which made the decision, more than a decade ago, that I never would an easy one.

Plus, I'm tired of movies not being able to focus on the problems of Africa without giving the leads to white actors. I know the western journalist is frequently the avenue of inserting the audience into the story but I am tired of it. That is one thing I liked about Hotel Rwanda and I'm sure at some point some studio executive said "can we beef up the Nolte character into more of a lead?"

ETA: Oh, and I've been told by a linguist friend who knows the languages of those parts of Africa that Di Caprio's accent is pretty darn good. But it is also very distracting since you know it is fake.

For those in the neighborhood of the Aero :)

They must be doing a roadshow, they did the same thing before a selected audience in a Universal screening room a couple days ago.