Comments on: Whose idea was a full-time job?

By: K8

K8 — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:01:50 +0000

The graveyard shift is a lot more fun alright. Except if you’re a taxi driver, so I’m told.

Mind the jet lag though, when schooldays start up again. That’s a bitch.

By: Lottie

Lottie — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:42:44 +0000

Pish Possh to daylight.

This is the life. Lounging around in jammies and drinking from the carton while watching copious amounts of Fraser re-runs and not answering the phone.

Baa Humbug 5th January!

By: C'est La Craic

C'est La Craic — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:37:31 +0000

Humble apologies Colm.

Yes certainly looks like he’s knocking one out there. There’s the makings of a ‘bell end’ joke there but I’m too tired.

By: Colm

Colm — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:13:22 +0000

Syriana reminded me of those films by that guy. You know the ones. 21 Grams, which I have seen, and Babel, which I haven’t. So I’m not sure how it reminded me of Babel but whatever.

I’m disappointed that everyone’s fixating on that one aspect of the post. Come on, that bell ringer looked like he was having a wank! On television!

By: C'est La Craic

C'est La Craic — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:55:24 +0000

Dead right Annie.

Perhaps I’ve fallen out of the loop by avoiding comicbook trilogy rehashs but it feels like they don’t make those type of movies anymore(back in my day…). Movies like the Sahwwhank Redemption or the Usual Supects that force you to think, or feel, or that blindside you with something so unexpected but that on reflection was so obvious from the start, so simple, how could I have missed it..
Even here in France, were the tendancy has traditionaly been the opposite extreme of over intellectualised ,3 hour philosophic commentaries on the meaning life, (with all the excitement that entails) film makers seem to have fallen foul of the Luc Besson cult of bullshit americana.
Annie, write a screenplay.

By: Annie Rhiannon

Annie Rhiannon — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:21:20 +0000

I want to be able to watch a film from start to finish and then feel, at the end of it, that I’ve learnt something about the world. It doesn’t matter if that soemthing that I’ve learnt is about love and sex, or Middle Eastern politics, or a gold watch and a cheeseburger and a gimp.

It wasn’t the subject of Syriana that made it an unwatchable pile of shite, it was the shoddy screenwriting — if you’re going to adapt a book then it has to work for the screen. Novels and film are completely different vehicles for story-telling.

You know, I am so over multiple-plot screenwriting when it’s not done clearly. Some people said that with Syriana the director wanted to create confusion in the audience to mirror the confusion of the characters. Um, well excuse me while I shoot myself in the head.

By: C'est La Craic

C'est La Craic — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:59:17 +0000

There’s very lttle cryptic about Syriana. Read Baer’s book ‘See no evil’ or even John Perkin’s excellent book ‘Confessions of an Economic Hitman’ and you see that it’s the type of subtle (or not so) manipulation of countries who possess natural resources we in the west want, that has been used since Mossadegh in Iran in the fifties.
Interestingly the CIA agent charged with ousting Mossadegh from power and installing the Shah was called Kermit Roosevelt, and was the grandson of Teddy Rooosevelt.

By: Annie Rhiannon

Annie Rhiannon — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:00:49 +0000

There are only two groups of people in this world: those who didn’t understand Syriana, and those who pretended to understand Syriana.

By: C'est La Craic

C'est La Craic — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:43:27 +0000

I was a cook, then a bar man and I well remember how good the first week of office hours felt. The downside is you’re in perpetual rush hour.

The film is a bit dull and drawn out but the guy it’s based on Robert Baer is more interesting. Life, as they say, often stranger than fiction.