all five horizons

Stranger than Fiction 

We watched Stranger than Fiction with Will Ferrell recently and I LOVED it. It was good to see Will Ferrell doing a straight role - he still brought humour but without the slapstick or usual Will style that I love but would have not been suited to this film.  The premise was original, whacky and fascinating.  Emma Thompson was fantastic as the blocked writer who doesn’t realise that the character she is writing about is real and living (played by Will Ferrell).  The way the film was shot, the script, the acting - it was all excellent.

Tristan + Isolde

Passionate, tragic, and entertaining but essentially forgettable.  James Franco did a better job of a dark ages hero than I thought he would and the forbidden love with the very beautiful Sophia Myles was convincing.  It was a diverting watch but that is all.

The Guardian

Ashton Kutcher learns how to be an ace rescue swimmer, taught by the predicatbly reluctant Kevin Costner.  This was by-the -numbers but I still really enjoyed it because I do love a bit of formula action.  Ashton was charming as Fischer and made the character more likeable than he should be on paper.  Kevin Costner did his thing as the stubborn, previously awesome but now past-it swimmer struggling to cope with the death of this rescue team, the break-up of his marriage and the deterioration of his own body through age.  This film broke no new ground but that is just fine by me.

Ghost Rider

Yes it is silly.  Yes the wig is bad.  Yes there is no chemistry between Cage and Mendes.  But I am a Cage devotee and I still managed to dig it (mostly).   As a comic translated to the screen, it was faithful.  Comics nowadays have to be slick, cool, sexy, moody, gothic.  But comics are also fun, funny, silly and full of adventure and tricks.  Ghost Rider was all of the things and not in the slightest slick, sexy, moody or gothic.  Batman it aint, but fun?  Why not.

I have no self-control.  Whenever I find a show I like that has been aired in the US already, I just cannot help myself.  I have to know what happens.  And if possible, watch all the episodes / clips I can find on YouTube and tv-links.co.uk.  Men in Trees was no exception.  I simply couldn’t wait the four days to when the next episode was going to air on Living, so I watched the ENTIRE SEASON on TV links.  Well except for the 6 missing episodes.  I read the recaps on TWoP to fill in the blanks.  It is just pitiful!

Australian soaps formed part of my entire childhood, early adulthood and university existence.  Neighbours and Home and Away in particular were daily glimpse of sun, romance, comedy and silliness.  On my list of ‘top 10 things I hate about working’ is that watching these shows was no longer possible.  That was until I remembered Sky +.  I watched one episode of Home and Away during my recent month off from working and I was re-hooked.  I had to call my mum (who still watched both shows) to understand the various plot / character intricasies (I needed answers to such questions as “if A and B are in love why are A and C married and why do C and D have a very new child together”).  I have been particularly following the Rachel/Hugh storyline although I am already getting the feeling that Hugh will be leaving imminently and thus proving that these shows are totally unrealistic and do things that drive the viewers crazy.  Hugh is yummmmmmmy and therefore doomed to leave.

I have managed to steer clear of Neighbours so far (although I did see that Paul Robinson is back - crazy!).

Other Australian/New Zealand shows I have known and loved:

• Blue Heelers (so many sexy cops!)
• Flying Doctors (charlie victor victor)
• Shortland Street (that guy ended up in loads of big films including Star Wars as a clone - bizarre!)
• The Secret Life of Us
• Snowy River: The McGregor Saga (oh Guy Pearce, Josh Lucas, need  go on..?)
• Heartbreak High (I recently learned that the guy that played Drazic who aside from being very cute was involved in a near-fatal car accident and was left partially blind.  He was in Home and Away earlier this year.)

I must have missed some.

Considering they like almost wrecking shows I love (i.e. by killing sexy CIA agents only to panic and bring him back which was the right thing to do but honestly, how stupid are execs?) or cancelling shows that I have grown affection to, ABC still have some things going for them. Of course there is Lost (which really came back to life in Season 3) and Ugly Betty (which promises to be pretty cute and watchable into Season 2). And now I have just started watching Men in Trees. I have only seen the pilot which was on this evening , so I am well aware that it could still suck big time but I have to say, I am a sucker for fish-out-of-water shows that have a leaning towards the romantic. Rugged men from Alaska can’t hurt either.

If you haven’t seen this, the recap at Television Without Pity can do it more justice than I can be arsed to this late on a Sunday evening. Let’s just say that it is series-linked and ready to go for next Sunday. In fact, if todays episode was a repeat (which I have a suspicion it may have been) then I may even be watching episode 2 even sooner!

Ooh and Dexter was on tonight - looking forward to seeing that when we get the chance.  It is just getting better and better that show.