wxwax

Ramires is a huge, huge loss.
First of all, he was vital to 2 of Chelsea's 3 goals against Barca.
Secondly, with Bayern weakened at left back, left midfield and left center-back, having Ramires make deep runs into that defence would be invaluable. He would also double back and cover Ribery.
Losing Ramires may be the single biggest blow of all our suspension.

Neither team has had the relentless schedule pressure that Chelsea has had. Furthermore, Madrid had an extra day either side of El Clasico. If that tired them out, it's their own fault for not being fit enough. No sympathy from me.

Harsh penalty I thought - it hit his arm which he was leaning on on the ground. Hardly intentional.

http://sports.yahoo....-225601843.html
did any of you see this? made me laugh

Personally the lesser of two evils but their pace down the wings is worrying.

Earthly things are transitory and patching them to make them last longer only delays the inevitable and draws out the pain.

Yes, I have a perhaps unhealthy, umm, admiration for her.

Yes, I have a perhaps unhealthy, umm, admiration for her.

Remember, pickles go in root last. And don't let the mayonaise spoil. Good times.

One of the many things I like about Unforgiven is its irony.
A very violent film, appeals to many people because of its violence. And yet it is fundamentally a statement against violence.
If you like old westerns and have a taste for the slightly unusual, look for films directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott. They're b-movies but very interesting. Clint Eastwood was a fan and admits to stealing from Boetticher.
To give you an idea, here's how I began my notes on a Boetticher/Scott colaboration.
Decision at Sundown (1957)
Randolph Scott
Noah Beery Jr.
John Carroll
Directed by: Budd Boetticher
On the surface, Decision at Sundown is a B-movie western of the kind that nobody misses. Low budget, B-list actors, virtually no location shots, somewhat crudely written and assembled. Ordinarily, not the kind of movie to which you'd give the time of day.
But director Budd Boetticher made his name with films like this. And it's really not going too far to say that inside the body of this B-movie western beats the heart of man's existential crisis: who are we, what motivates us, are people fundamentally good or bad, are we but weak and frightened creatures? Can we be redeemed?
Heavy stuff, delivered without frills in a crisp 77 minutes. And true to his reputation, Boetticher's good guy has plenty of bad in him, and his bad guy turns out to have more than a six-gun of good. Clint Eastwood freely admits he likes this kind of moral ambiguity and cheerfully stole it for his own movies, Unforgiven perhaps being the best example.

I've been avoiding it. It has that Hollywood saccharine feel to it. A little too staged, was my feeling.Ida E. Jones approved this message.

things are slow here today. So I thought I'd make an effort to dispel the vicious rumour that I'm too snotty to enjoy an action movie. :)
Here's what I wrote after seeing Hanna, a film I think is well worth seeing.
Hanna
Saoirse Ronan
Cate Blanchett
Eric Bana
Directed by Joe Wright
In life it's the journey, not the destination. In Hanna it's the story-telling, not the story. The story is a weird mash-up of movie cliches, paranoid Bourne Identity meeting coming-of-age Sixteen Candles.
What makes Hannah so enjoyable is the craftsmanship of the story-telling. It's the acting by the stunning but asexual Saoirse Ronan and the not-quite-soulless Cate Blanchett. It's the visually sophisticated photography, which is serially beautiful. It's the music and the direction and the pace, which never flags but never rushes.
The story is of a 16 year-old girl who's trained to be a killing machine by her guardian (Eric Bana), an on-the-run CIA operative. You could drop Matt Damon in her role and you'd have Bourne. But layered into Hanna's strange trip is her discovery of what her life has been missing: family and relationships.
Director Joe Wright has taken his assemblage of cliches and orchestrated them into both an effective action thriller and an occasionally touching coming of age story. It's a fun ride.

A classic! It will never feel old.

A classic! It will never feel old.

50/50
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Seth Rogen
Anjelica Huston
Anna Kendrick
Written by Will Reiser
Directed by Jonathan Levine
There's nothing new under the sun, they say. That's certainly true of the stories we like to tell. Mostly they revolve around familiar themes. 50/50 is no different. It's the story of a young man who finds out he has a rare and potentially fatal form of cancer. It's about how he copes with having the disease and how he re-evaluates the people in his life. Standard stuff.
But the measure of the stories we tell isn't how unique they are. It's how well we tell them.
And 50/50, written by Will Reiser and directed by Jonathan Levine, tells its story very, very well. Inspired by a true story, the script is never mawkish, though for my taste it gets a wee bit close at one point. Mostly it's direct and unsentimental. Frequently it's extremely funny. No long speeches. No somber contemplation. Just real-life situations involving a character we care about. So when I say the script is good, it's not because it draws attention to itself. It's for exactly the opposite reason: it gets out of the way of its story.
The film is filled with moments that feel true and are often funny. It's not "actory." And because it's so honest and straight with you, when the emotional bits hit, they hit strong.
The acting is outstanding. The cast includes two actors I don't much care for in other works. In this film, they shine. One is Seth Rogen, whose stoner-slob schtick is usually a one-note joke. Rogen helped get this movie made and has a producer credit. He really doesn't change his act much here. But as the victim's best friend, he brings a welcome earthy and funny balance to material that could become too grim. He's extremely funny. By far his best role, in my opinion. You'd really want him as your best pal if you had cancer.
The other actor is Anna Kendrick, who I last saw as the idealistic ingenue brought to earth in Up In The Air. I don't really care for her cute, nervous, learning-on-the-job persona. But like Rogen, she fits her part perfectly. She's an inexperienced therapist who must somehow climb out of her textbooks to make a real connection with a young man dealing with his own mortality. The directness with which her patient, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, calls her on her inadequacies cuts through all the usual movie BS. It feels refreshingly real.
Yes, this is a movie about cancer. Yes, it has emotional heft. Yes, it's thought provoking. But it's also funny, beautiful, spare, honest and beautifully acted, directed and written.
Highly recommended.

ps An exquisite oldie-but-goodie.

Senna (a documentary)
Ayrton Senna is an important figure in F1's history. He was a great driver (some say the greatest) and arguably was on his way to becoming a great man.
The documentary Senna may please his family and his devoted admirers, but it sells history short.
It's just too one-sided. It has comic book villains and an unsullied hero. Alain Prost takes the brunt of it. The movie suggests, being careful never to state, that he won because of his political, not his driving, skills. Oh, and he cheated on his wife. Balestre is an ogre. Even Schumacher gets it, with hints that he cheated.
Senna, meanwhile is a super-talented racer in touch with God and also, by the way, a humanitarian. Humble, too.
Of course there's a great deal of truth in that.
But the movie never directly addresses anything negative about him. Its way of addressing questions about his driving style and his conduct within his teams is in the form of his own replies, which seek to introduce the subjects by vindicating him at the same time.
Senna was many wonderful things. But he wasn't perfect. Senna the film is marvelous in many ways; a glimpse into his life and F1 racing with film and audio I've never seen or heard before. But it's not perfect either. It's close to being a hagiography, almost literally.
For a balanced view of this historic figure, we'll have to wait a while longer.