Bend It Like Beckham

My friend Stan sends out emails to a few friends giving them his opinions on movies. I especially liked this one so I thought I'd post it for the world to see.

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Star Wars proved you could spend a lot of money on a movie and get it back. It ended a drought about 20 years long in which the movie industry was afraid to do that. The result was a rebirth for film.

From the beginning of the movie industry, producers have also known that star power was capable of selling movies. But Lucas put out Star Wars without any really big stars, and took the brass ring. (No, Harrison Ford doesn’t count. He wasn’t a star yet.)

But today, studios and producers fall all over themselves creating SFX (special effects) CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) and even fully animated features that aren’t about a duck and a rabbit ... They also still use the power of big stars to suck in the fans. By the time you have big stars walking on Mars being chased by aliens while dodging ray guns, you are supposed to have a bulletproof concoction that will rake in the dough so fast it’s in the black before it goes to video.

But it doesn’t always work.

So how do you explain movies like My Big Fat Greek Wedding or Bend It Like Beckham? No big stars, no special effects, just competent basic cinematography and relatively unknown competent actors and a wonderful story that makes you realize how great life is and how much you love people...

One thing is still basic: The story has to be good. A good story will sell a film that has neither the biggest effects nor the biggest stars, and a super-production with a bad story can die a sorry death.

Bend It Like Beckham is one of those heart-warming films that has so much of what a good story is all about, nothing else matters. You can’t help getting caught up in this great little tale about a talented young Indian woman in Britain who wants to become a soccer star (that’s "football" to you non-Americans) and endeavors to make it go right in spite of her very traditional Sikh parents who have a much more hide-bound notion of how her life should be and a wicked reaction to the idea of her running around on a field kicking a ball "with her legs showing".

Her partner in crime is actually a pretty big star! But she wasn’t when this movie was made. Keira Knightley was the damsel in distress in the blockbuster Pirates Of The Caribbean. But Beckham came out before Pirates. So it’s like seeing unknown Harrison Ford in Star Wars or unknown Julia Roberts in Mystic Pizza. The entire film was made for 3.5 million dollars - chicken feed by today’s standards, when 75 million is common and 200 million is not unheard of. Big stars bloat the budget by 5-20 million each before you even stop by Kodak to pick up the film. But Beckham has made more than 10 times it’s original investment. After a meek opening weekend of only about $190,000.00, it began to grow by word of mouth, mostly. You can count on the fact there wasn’t a lot of publicity in a 3.5 million-dollar budget.

Like it’s beautiful little star Parminder Nagra, who played the Indian soccer phenom, the film finally "showed its legs" and walked through months of hanging around in the top 20 box office successes while jillion-dollar blockbusters came and went in a few weekends. Now it’s finally gone to video.

If that doesn’t make you want to see the video yourself, then let me add one detail. This is a true "feel good" movie! In my lexicon, that’s a good thing, not a bad one.

Just to clear up your next question, "Beckham" is the name of a current British soccer super-star that is worshipped by the girls, and "Bend It" is a soccer phrase, at least in Britain, that has to do with putting some kind of spin on the ball, as nearly as I can tell. So the phrase "Bend It Like Beckham" is something like a baseball fan saying, "Slam it like Sammy Sosa" or a basketball fan saying, "Dunk It Like Shaq".

California Wins

The worst Governor in California history bit the dust yesterday. He wasn't terminated by the new Governator, no he was terminated by the people of the State who are sick to death of him and of the legislature.

A commentator yesterday said that if the recall had also included the legislature then they all would have been kicked out too (Democrats and Republicans), and I think he was right.

I hope the legislature gets the message that the people of California want an end to their anti-business attitude, their irresponsible "it's the economy to blame" excuses, their bungling and their gridlock.

Music Review - Oceanborn by Nightwish

I heard a track from this CD some time ago on an Internet radio station, I think it was ProgRock.com or it could have been ProgRadio.com. Anyway, I liked the track but I didn't pursue it further until a couple of weeks ago I was chatting to a girl I met who is from Hungary. We got onto the subject of music and I told her I liked metal and progressive metal. I was surprised when she said metal was her favorite too because she is in her late teens and (at least in the US) most girls of her age are into the usual hit-radio dross. She mentioned that one band she liked in particular was Nightwish and that the lead singer is a woman who was trained as an opera singer. I recalled the track I'd heard and decided to check out the album.

Well, I'm glad I did. This is an excellent album which I'd describe as melodic metal; very tuneful and lively. The vocals of Tarja certainly demonstrate her classical training and the keyboards of Tuomas give a nice classical vibe.

The band hails from Finland and I read on their website (Nightwish) that Oceanborn was their first album. If this is their first album then I'm going out to get more because they rock.

NightWish: Oceanborn

California Election

Well, it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings, but if the people I know are representative of the feeling in California today then I think Davis is out and Arnold the Governator is in.

There are a lot of pissed-off people here right now. They are sick to death of the kind of smear politics being practiced by the re-elect Davis newsletter, sometimes known as the LA Times.

The Gloria Alred 11th hour fiasco was just another demonstration of how extreme such people will go to retain power and to slime their biggest rival. Trotting out a woman with a 30 page long criminal record of prostitution and drugs, so she could accuse Schwarzenegger was pretty blatant. I guess Gloria and the accuser were rather surprised when within a couple of hours two people who were actually there come out and told the truth - Schwarzenegger wasn't even there.

Possibly the cancelled subscriptions to the LA Slimes will have an effect, but probably not. The kind of people who would run this kind of campaign care only for power and they "know" that they are "right."

Book Review - The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

I really enjoyed this book. It's a mystery/suspense/action novel which includes hidden messages in Leonardo Da Vinci's art, an actual 1000 year old secret society, an actual (and rather bazaar) Catholic Order and the Holy Grail. There are some more even stranger elements, but they are important surprise story elements so I won't say any more.

Anyway, it really grabbed me from the start and I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it: The Da Vinci Code

Avast! It's Talk Like A Pirate Day!

There be not much fur me t' say, mateys. This 'ere web site speaks fur itself: Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19

College: The place to learn how to be unethical

Two news stories today demonstrate how bad it's getting in US universities. The first is a survey of college student's attitudes about downloading music. The majority don't have a problem with it because they don't think they'll get caught. When asked about stealing outside of cyberspace they said they didn't do that because they think they'll get caught. Free Downloading Not Freeloading, College Students Say. So what we have here is the attitude that if you can get away with it then it's okay and if you're likely to get caught then don't do it. This is just another example of the erosion of the concepts of right and wrong, a goal announced in the late 1940's by the president of the World Federation of Mental Health. The field of education was one of the main areas targeted by the WFMH psychiatrists and as can be seen from this survey they've succeeded.

The other story is about "binge drinking" which is practiced by about 40% of college students: Study Links College Binge-Drinking to Marketing.

College is supposed to be where you go to learn the skills you need for your future career. It is supposed to be where our future leaders are educated. But it turns out that college is the place you go to learn how to get drunk and steal music off the Internet. Where you learn that "right" is what you can get away with and that "wrong" is getting caught.

Perhaps we should change the much used "God Bless America" to "God Help America."

File Swapping - The new revolution

The irresponsible attitude of file swappers is bad enough, "I didn't know it was illegal," "CDs are too expensive," "I didn't know my kids were doing this," etc., etc. (You have to wonder at the parents who "didn't know." What else are their kids doing on the Internet that they "don't know" about? Viewing porn? Being stalked by pedophiles?). But what really gets me is a quote I saw in the LA Times from a file swapping proponent who uttered this inanity: "The record companies are in their death throws. The new revolution is here." What revolution? Destroying musicians by stealing their livelihood is the new revolution?

What do these idiots think is going to happen if they continue to promote and facilitate the theft of music? Do they think musicians are going to continue to create music so a bunch of criminals can then steal it and pay the musician nothing for all that work? The end product of "the new revolution" is no new music. If it isn't stopped, file swapping will destroy not the music industry but music itself.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Well, In a word: Disappointing, whiny, tedious and much too long.

I was really looking forward to the new book. I loved the first four books; they kept me enthralled. Number 5 is the first one I've been able to put down.. In the middle I got so fed up with Harry's whining, yelling at people and outbursts of pointless and illogical anger that I put it down and read a couple of other books. Eventually I got back to it but then, near the end I got fed up with the pointless diversions off the main line of the story and started reading another book. I actually haven't finished Order of the Phoenix yet but I will eventually, just to see if it improves.

I hate to sound so negative, but after the first four books I was expecting another great book so the disappointment is all the greater.

Things I liked in the book:

While Harry seems to be "immaturing" most of the other characters are maturing. Ron and Neville especially.

Things I didn't like:

1. Harry's constant whining and angry outbursts and the same whiny antagonistic attitude of some other characters (such as Sirius). For example, at one point Harry and the Weasly twins attack Malfoy because he said something nasty about their mothers. This angry outburst was so inappropriate (how many times has Malfoy said the same thing in the past? Aren't they used to him by now? Plus the twins never reacted like that before - they normally just bad-mouth back) that it was obviously a ploy to get Harry and the twins banned from playing Quidditch.

2. People doing totally stupid things for no apparent reason or behaving inconsistently. Most of these were poorly disguised ways to create certain situations and plot elements.

3. Putting things in the story that were pointless or obviously put there just so they could be used later as part of another situation. An example of pointless additions was a scene where Harry and co. have to get into a particular part of a building. They have to find the right door out of hundreds. Harry knows that the light on the other side of the door he wants is bluish and flickering. He opens a door, the light is bright and not flickering. He's in a big hurry because he's trying to save someone, so what does he do? He steps in and takes a look around and we get a couple of pages about this room. Then he steps out and opens another door and it also has the wrong type of light so what does he do? He steps in and looks around. It makes no sense at all and actually gets annoying.

4. Finally the book is much too long. If all the unnecessary detail and pointless elements were removed it would be about a third of the size and a much better read.

J.K. needs to read some Louis L'Amour and take a few tips from him. His books are never boring, the behavior of his characters is consistent and he gives you what is needed to move the story along while still providing interesting surrounding color.

Anyway, if you still want to read it after my lousy review here's a link: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Music Review - Space Metal by Star One

Star One is another brilliant creation of Arjen Anthony Lucassen, the genius behind Ayreon.

If you like Ayreon you'll love Star One. The Space Metal album is composed of songs by Arjen based on his favorite Science Fiction movies and TV shows. The cast of vocalists in itself is impressive (Russel Allen from Symphony X to name one) and the album has the same kind of character based vocals as the Ayreon album "Into the Electric Castle" but with the more metal oriented musical style of "Flight of the Migrator".

If you are not familiar with Ayreon then Star One is melodic progressive metal with several singers. Each song is the story from a Sci-Fi movie and the four vocalists each take the part of a character from the movie. The vocals are great and the music is never less than gripping.

One thing I really like about Space Metal (and every album I've ever heard by Arjen Lucassen) is that you can understand the vocals, they are not drowned by the music and the vocalists are of such quality that every word comes across clearly. The other thing I like is that even with the metal guitar driving the beat, the melody is not lost and the keyboards (which play a major part in the music) are not relegated to a secondary position.

If you like good music then you'll love Space Metal by Star One.