Sunday, July 06, 2003

Movies, book and TV

On the way to Cairns from Townsville last week, the coach driver put Chocolat on the video (French for chocolate, probably). It was certainly watchable, though a bit of a wet fairy tale. It made me hungry though. Three stars.

Today we're in Cairns, waiting to go to the airport to get a flight to Darwin. It's dreary and raining, so to pass the time we went to the flicks to watch The Hulk. Directed by Ang Lee (the most versatile director ever, surely!) it stars Aussie Eric Bana as Bruce Banner, who gets angry and turns green. It's quite long and slow, and I doubt the kids in the audience enjoyed it that much. However, it's entertaining and a very good comic book adaptation. There's a great battle between the Hulk and the military in the middle, but the last battle is a bit of a mess. Nick Nolte overacts well as a mad scientist. Good stuff - three and a half stars.

Having finished the new, over-long, Harry Potter book, I've now started on Robert Harris's Fatherland. Am enjoying having time to get through a decent number of books.

Since we had a TV in Port Douglas we spent Tuesday night glued to it, watching The Simpsons, Neighbours, Big Brother, Becker, Everybody Loves Raymond (v. good) and the overrated CSI. I think we overdid it. The next night we did the tourist thing, left the TV behind and went to watch Cane Toad Racing in a pub. It's questionable which night was more intellectually stimulating.

I've heard that a bomb scare in teh UK led to the Big Brother house being evacuated. Since most of the even slightly controversial people are now out of the Aussie house it's duller than ever. One girl, Reggie, is a cert to win. To liven things up they've introduced a bra-less flirt from the UK house now. Clutching at straws I say.