Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
Looks like the Government is trying to ban new leasehold flats again. Good news I think.
Good morning everyone.
The problem that still exists will be how to manage such developments after occupation - expertise has to come from somewhere, and:
1 - Up front payments (ie commuted sums) are a major source of future maintenance money money for local authorities. 2 - If leasehold is abolished prices may rise because it is a source of revenue for some developer companies - either the payments, or selling the leases on. 3 - How to set up a structure that works equally well in both Cobham, Clerkenwell and Clacton.
Behind this is that the people buying the new properties are expected to pay for the cost of all the infrastructure, through increased new prices - rather than it being rolled into Council tax.
I think that developers may quite like to be out of this cycle; it would let them walk away cleanly after building and selling the properties.
Making it all add up is the question.
Getting rid of leasehold will be good.
However, there are a large number of Magic Moneytree types who seem to think that maintenance on communal structures should be zero cost. Or not exist.
In my former block of flats they now have two such on the board that runs the flats jointly (all freehold).
They started by demanding that it be wound up and all the money in the accounts given to the home owners. They’ve retreated to allowing the roof to be inspected and repaired on a regular cycle
But the idea of building up a reserve which is then use to pay for works on a regular basis is beyond them.
“Look, when we need to fix something, we wait until it is really needed, then take out a loan….”
The reports today said there would be rules in place to ensure upkeep. Sounds like it could be complicated, but then, given the issues you had, perhaps it could rely on a maintenance/inspection schedule, backed by a minimum level of reserves?
The problem is trying to run a moderately complex endeavour - keep a block of 100 flats in good repair.
This is, essentially, a moderate sized business.
You can’t really legislate sensible running of a business.
Most people have no understanding of the scale of costs. Confront them with the cost of scaffolding a 6 story building for 2 months….
Commonholders may not enjoy the experience of being responsible for the maintenance of the building in view of the ever increasing amount of fire safety regulations. If these are not complied with the building could be declared uninhabitable by the Fire Brigade and/or the commonholders in charge could be imprisoned. These changes could lead to an increase in the number of blocks of flats where no one takes responsibility, the buildings are not maintained or insured, and the flats cannot be sold. This could lead to blocks of flats being sold back into external ownership and management.
I think people these days watch films for light, fluffy relief.
Over the past couple of weeks I have watched Plane (shocking but satisfying shoot 'em up plane-based drama with Gerard Butler); and 892 (called Breaking on Netflix) which has a tremendous John Boyega as a wronged vet seeking redress.
The latter because of Boyega was elevated above the pulp it would otherwise have been but both are sense-candy and that is what people want from films on the whole these days.
I am unlikely to watch The Brutalist at 3hrs or whatever it is. But if it were, say, a six part limited series on Netflix I'd watch it instantly (episode by episode, that is).
These days when I watch a movie and it is genuinely really good I am actively surprised. Which shows the low state of the art form
Whereas by contrast I generally expect adult tv drama to be at least pretty good - clever story, well written, nicely acted - and I am disappointed when it is not (as with some recent shows we have discussed)
Also I can easily name 10 or even 20 excellent tv drama series of the last two decades
I’d be really hard pushed to do that for movies - I would need some prompting and half of them would be animated
In part this is unfair. Tv dramas play out for seasons and years so have much more potential to root themselves in your psyche and thus your memory. Nonetheless it is an interesting truth
Films I think have followed a similar path to music - the middle is completely hollowed out because of technology. So really two types of films exist now - your indie arthouse movies, which dominated the Oscars this year, are often good (Anora is brilliant) but are often an acquired taste that has to pique your interest. Or blockbusters which are really made to tick certain commercial boxes and be 'events' that get people to the cinema rather than good pieces of filmmaking.
What's died a death is the smart, mid-budget movie about crime, romance, or action. You look at all the well-reviewed films that have died a death at the box office in recent years and they're usually attempts to revive those with a big name star. But that people simply don't watch in enough numbers any more to justify, say a $50-$100 million budget.
You either need it to be a pre-existing franchise - and double the budget - or make your film for a few million and hope it does well at festivals, which necessitates writing your movie for a niche more upmarket audience.
The weird French speaking freakaloid pioneers in “American Primeval” are like a brilliant lost scene from Deliverance mixed with a hint of Tarantino
In its best moments it is that good
I like a bleak revisionist Western as much as the next man, but I found AP a bit relentless spread over six episodes. The rapid changes in weather conditions were also disconcerting though I accept that may be the way it is in them there parts. What I dread is (the possibly unfilmable) Blood Meridian being picked up for tv and made into a 12 part, season 1 extravaganza, though hopefully the Mccarthy estate would put its foot down.
It is possible I am being overly generous to American Primeval out of sheer relief as I have just come from the horror that is Sky’s Day of the Jackal (as we discussed last night)
But I do think it’s good. But I do like relentless Bleakness
And once more it has to be said “who the fuck thought that Eddie Redmayne could ever carry off a evilly chilling calculated killer”
They should have called it The Day of The Hamster
By the end I was actually laughing every time they referred to him as “the jackal”
In the hierarchy of scary animals Jackals are way down the list so not too inappropriate for Redmayne.
Tiger, Lion, Bear, Leopard, Wolf, Hyena, Aligator and Crocodile are more scary carnivores yet alone Elephants, Hippos and Rhinos and then you’ve got the snakes.
So Jackals just above angry hamsters and foxes so it does work.
The weird French speaking freakaloid pioneers in “American Primeval” are like a brilliant lost scene from Deliverance mixed with a hint of Tarantino
In its best moments it is that good
Rich Hall makes an interesting observation about Deliverance. With a young Burt Reynolds in their captivity why did the hillbillies choose Ned Beattie?
From the daily mail, so treat with appropriate respect, but this is a very interesting quote from Rubio.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has declared the Ukrainian PM should 'apologise for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became'.
Is that the Mail or Rubio blaming the "Ukrainian PM"?
Ukraine does have a Prime Minister I believe. Is Rubio blaming someone not at the meeting for the way the meeting turned out?
Good spot! I think that’s the Mail being useless.
What was interesting to me is that Rubio was proposing a non-apology apologies
“I’m very sorry how things turned out”
I don't know what Rubio thinks he's doing in this administration. I'm not one for nicknames but he's never looked more of a "Little Marco" than he did sat there next to Vance in that shambles of an event on Friday.
Presumably he thinks 4 years solid grift is better than waiting for Trumpski to trash the GOP so badly he couldn't get elected as dog catcher...
It'd better be good grift then. What price a man's dignity?
Well, the measure of a whole soul is the Attorney-Generalship of Wales, so…
Is there a recent movie that comes near to “Succession” for adult wit and style and insight and sophistication?
I don’t think so
Depends how you look at it. Movies are 2 hours, Succession is 20 times as long. So even if it (say) delivered 5 times as much adult wit and style and insight and sophistication as your average good film, the film wins on a use of time basis.
Depends how you look at that. Isn't the point of film and TV to use up time not save it?
Which in turn depends on your persona and circumstances. How busy on other things, how much leisure time you have, how many interests other than watching drama on a screen etc.
Off topic, cost of living news. Southern Water have just notified me that they are raising my bill (and everybody else's) by 46.7%. On the email, they didn't actually quote the increase - just said prices are increasing - and it was only by going on their website that I found the 46.7% figure. Is this the norm, I wonder? I knew they were going up, but didn't realise it was that hefty.
Southern are going up more than the rest, 46.7% this year and 53% by 2030. Mine is up by 21% this year.
I'm not sure what happens if inflation increases beyond predictions.
I just received the annual water bill chase up letter for someone I have never heard of, at my address. I have lived here for more than 10 years, and I have no idea who he is. They were informed years ago.
I'll believe it when I see it (people voting on foreign policy) said doubting Thomas.
Agree, at least for now. However the politics and the economics (both as dark as can be) may mean that by the time of the next election the only realistic polity will be based on some version of 'Don't you know there's a war on' in relation to tax and spend.
By four years time the these things are possible:
America no longer has free and fair elections and is a rogue superpower. Our alliance with them has vanished, with consequences we have hardly begin to take in. We still have no money and massive and growing debt. There has been at least one military attack on a currently NATO country. The nuclear powers of the free world are France and UK.
I hope none of these things come to pass, but there is a clear possible route to each of them. If something like this occurs even the dimmest voter will realise that foreign policy might matter just a bit.
Richard is one of the few that might have convinced me to vote for Brexit.
I am glad I didn't. You would rightly be furious with me now if I had managed to do that. For me, what we have now is still miles better than what we had before but it is still far away from the ideal that I was arguing for. Whilst it suits me and I can still see a way to that ideal, or at least close to it, it would not be what I had used to persuade others and those who were at least ambivalent to Brexit but decided to take a chance would be very unhappy.
I would not like the responsibility for that.
For what its worth and I'm not sure if you remember but you were one of the people who convinced me to switch from Remain to Leave.
We got into an argument one day over trade policy. You made a good argument about how nations outside the EU can sign their own trade agreements while still having one with the EU. I went away and looked deeper into it and decided I was wrong and you were right.
The fact you and I see eye to eye on immigration, was also part of what helped me. Until then Brexiteers were a racist bunch like Farage in my eyes, to have someone I respected like you, making arguments I not only couldn't refute but ultimately agreed with, was an eye opener.
Anyway fast forward 9 years and no regrets. We got our trade deal with the EU, we've got new trade agreements like the CPTPP. We're out of the political structures.
Sure things could be better but overall I'm quite happy with how its panned out.
Cheers sir. It is very kind of you to say so.
I have to say that I am rather optimistic now about our relationship with the EU and the rest of Europe. As you might remember I won a bet against Richard Navabi (that we would leave) and lost one against him (that we would join EFTA). More than ever now with recent events I am hopeful tat we will get into a trading relationship with Europe along the lines of EFTA. We need to show that we are there when they need us and, whislt of course I wish it were not necessary, this seems like exactly the situation where we can prove ourselves to them.
The weird French speaking freakaloid pioneers in “American Primeval” are like a brilliant lost scene from Deliverance mixed with a hint of Tarantino
In its best moments it is that good
I like a bleak revisionist Western as much as the next man, but I found AP a bit relentless spread over six episodes. The rapid changes in weather conditions were also disconcerting though I accept that may be the way it is in them there parts. What I dread is (the possibly unfilmable) Blood Meridian being picked up for tv and made into a 12 part, season 1 extravaganza, though hopefully the Mccarthy estate would put its foot down.
It is possible I am being overly generous to American Primeval out of sheer relief as I have just come from the horror that is Sky’s Day of the Jackal (as we discussed last night)
But I do think it’s good. But I do like relentless Bleakness
And once more it has to be said “who the fuck thought that Eddie Redmayne could ever carry off a evilly chilling calculated killer”
They should have called it The Day of The Hamster
By the end I was actually laughing every time they referred to him as “the jackal”
Thing is they could have done a modern update with an amoral metrosexual psycho killer (dunno if Redmayne could have pulled that off, maybe), instead we had someone who was blubbing because his missus was going to leave him and turned to the dark side after seeing his mates doing awful things in Afghanistan. Also to be ungentlemanly the female MI6 protagonist had far too big an arse to be doing black ops. The Northern Irish stuff was pretty cringe as well.
Yet another out of touch Oscars ceremony. Not a single winner in the main categories broke $100 million at the box office.
Have the odd independent or art house win by all means but don't ignore films viewers watch or Oscars ratings will decline yet further
I enjoy small independent films and have in recent years found more quality and originality in the Cannes winners than the vastly over CGId big budget ones usually favoured at the Oscars. 'Anora' though was not in my opinion one of the good Cannes winners. An X rated 'Carry On' film was the best I can say about it. A good performance by the leading actress but so uneven as a film I'm sure it will be quickly forgotten.
Yes, saw the trailer and thought not for me, either. What was the Dylan movie like ?
Very good, even if you don't like Dylan.
The list of best picture winners since 2000 is a very mixed bag indeed. Not the best adver for a quarter of century of cinema I'd suggest.
1970 Patton 1971 The French Connection 1972 The Godfather 1973 The Sting 1974 The Godfather II 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1976 Rocky 1977 Annie Hall 1978 The Deer Hunter 1979 Kramer v Kramer
Cinema has declined as TV drama has ascended, and the relationship is partly causal
The Godfather trilogy is what, 7 hours? The Sopranos was nearly 78 hours. We have the capacity to take in massive storylines, that take years to unfold.
I don't think the world really wanted say 78 hours of Annie Hall. But certain stories are now better served by the enormous scale of high end TV.
We like stories still is the best take you can come away with.
I think the Reacher phenomenon is relevant here.
Tom Cruise tried to make movies, which were rejected by audiences cos he doesn't match the character in the books.
Amazon made Season 1 TV, which is just the book on screen, and it was great.
Season 2 they took the book, then made an entirely different story on screen, and it sucked.
Season 3 (so far) is the book on screen.
There is a lesson there
I know your point isn't specifically about Cruise, but can I reach for Rich Hall to analyse Tom Cruise's career anyway?
"He's a cocktail waiter, he's a very good cocktail waiter. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great cocktail waiter.
He's a fighter pilot, he's a very good fighter pilot. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great fighter pilot.
He's a race car driver, he's a very good race car driver. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great race car driver.
He's a sports agent, he's a very good sports agent. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great sports agent". Etc.
I think Cruise is over rated except in Collateral where he is incredibly menacing. These days he's too old. He's the same age as me FFS.
He is actually a good actor, who uses a a rather rigid formula as a very bankable star in blockbuster movies.
See Tropic Thunder, both for the acting and where he is deconstructing The Tom Cruise Thing.
You either need it to be a pre-existing franchise - and double the budget - or make your film for a few million and hope it does well at festivals, which necessitates writing your movie for a niche more upmarket audience.
I saw a documentary recently about the making of The Rise of Skywalker. Arguably more entertaining than the film itself.
Anyway, when they visit the droid mechanic to have threepio's brain rewired, they enter the building and an old man behind a counter stares at them.
What I didn't realise is the old man is John Williams, the composer.
They didn't just invite him on set and give him a costume. They built an entire set for him. He had been nominated for 51 oscars (at the time). Every single item on the set was a Star Wars-ified object from each of the 51 films.
They spent probably hundreds of thousand of dollars on it.
The weird French speaking freakaloid pioneers in “American Primeval” are like a brilliant lost scene from Deliverance mixed with a hint of Tarantino
In its best moments it is that good
I like a bleak revisionist Western as much as the next man, but I found AP a bit relentless spread over six episodes. The rapid changes in weather conditions were also disconcerting though I accept that may be the way it is in them there parts. What I dread is (the possibly unfilmable) Blood Meridian being picked up for tv and made into a 12 part, season 1 extravaganza, though hopefully the Mccarthy estate would put its foot down.
It is possible I am being overly generous to American Primeval out of sheer relief as I have just come from the horror that is Sky’s Day of the Jackal (as we discussed last night)
But I do think it’s good. But I do like relentless Bleakness
And once more it has to be said “who the fuck thought that Eddie Redmayne could ever carry off a evilly chilling calculated killer”
They should have called it The Day of The Hamster
By the end I was actually laughing every time they referred to him as “the jackal”
Chernobyl shows that tv can be bleak as **** but thoroughly engrossing and "entertaining" also.
As said before, the same guy's The Last of Us is also excellent.
Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
TBF Farage came out swinging for Trump.
Perhaps another reason to be optimistic. This screws Farage and Reform's chances of breaking through from a minor (if undeniably influential) side show into a Government in waiting. Even many Brexit supporters are very unhappy with the way Trump and the right in general have treated Ukraine.
The weird French speaking freakaloid pioneers in “American Primeval” are like a brilliant lost scene from Deliverance mixed with a hint of Tarantino
In its best moments it is that good
I like a bleak revisionist Western as much as the next man, but I found AP a bit relentless spread over six episodes. The rapid changes in weather conditions were also disconcerting though I accept that may be the way it is in them there parts. What I dread is (the possibly unfilmable) Blood Meridian being picked up for tv and made into a 12 part, season 1 extravaganza, though hopefully the Mccarthy estate would put its foot down.
It is possible I am being overly generous to American Primeval out of sheer relief as I have just come from the horror that is Sky’s Day of the Jackal (as we discussed last night)
But I do think it’s good. But I do like relentless Bleakness
And once more it has to be said “who the fuck thought that Eddie Redmayne could ever carry off a evilly chilling calculated killer”
They should have called it The Day of The Hamster
By the end I was actually laughing every time they referred to him as “the jackal”
What better disguise for a stone cold killer, though, than posing as Eddie Redmayne ?
Yet another out of touch Oscars ceremony. Not a single winner in the main categories broke $100 million at the box office.
Have the odd independent or art house win by all means but don't ignore films viewers watch or Oscars ratings will decline yet further
I enjoy small independent films and have in recent years found more quality and originality in the Cannes winners than the vastly over CGId big budget ones usually favoured at the Oscars. 'Anora' though was not in my opinion one of the good Cannes winners. An X rated 'Carry On' film was the best I can say about it. A good performance by the leading actress but so uneven as a film I'm sure it will be quickly forgotten.
Yes, saw the trailer and thought not for me, either. What was the Dylan movie like ?
Very good, even if you don't like Dylan.
The list of best picture winners since 2000 is a very mixed bag indeed. Not the best adver for a quarter of century of cinema I'd suggest.
1970 Patton 1971 The French Connection 1972 The Godfather 1973 The Sting 1974 The Godfather II 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1976 Rocky 1977 Annie Hall 1978 The Deer Hunter 1979 Kramer v Kramer
Cinema has declined as TV drama has ascended, and the relationship is partly causal
The Godfather trilogy is what, 7 hours? The Sopranos was nearly 78 hours. We have the capacity to take in massive storylines, that take years to unfold.
I don't think the world really wanted say 78 hours of Annie Hall. But certain stories are now better served by the enormous scale of high end TV.
We like stories still is the best take you can come away with.
No, what I mean is a lot of the best writers, actors, directors, producers, designers - you name it - have migrated to TV because there you can make really interesting adult drama - and lots of it - whereas Hollywood is increasingly colonised by adolescent wank like Batman 9 and the avengers and Marvel and Star Wars and the like, all aimed at teenage boys
So the Golden Globes are the new Oscars? The GGs includes Best TV drama, best TV drama series Comedy or Musical, Best Limited TV series, Best TV actress - drama, best TV actor -drama etc as well as best Film awards whereas the Oscars are only film.
For instance Shogun and Baby Reindeer won GG awards this year, Succession won 3 Golden Globes, Breaking Bad won the GG in 2014, Spacey pre scandal won best GG actor for House of Cards etc.
The Emmys could also rise in importance as it is awards TV shows only not cinema films at all
The weird French speaking freakaloid pioneers in “American Primeval” are like a brilliant lost scene from Deliverance mixed with a hint of Tarantino
In its best moments it is that good
I like a bleak revisionist Western as much as the next man, but I found AP a bit relentless spread over six episodes. The rapid changes in weather conditions were also disconcerting though I accept that may be the way it is in them there parts. What I dread is (the possibly unfilmable) Blood Meridian being picked up for tv and made into a 12 part, season 1 extravaganza, though hopefully the Mccarthy estate would put its foot down.
It is possible I am being overly generous to American Primeval out of sheer relief as I have just come from the horror that is Sky’s Day of the Jackal (as we discussed last night)
But I do think it’s good. But I do like relentless Bleakness
And once more it has to be said “who the fuck thought that Eddie Redmayne could ever carry off a evilly chilling calculated killer”
They should have called it The Day of The Hamster
By the end I was actually laughing every time they referred to him as “the jackal”
Come now - you are always moaning about the relentless bleakness of living in the UK...
Off topic, cost of living news. Southern Water have just notified me that they are raising my bill (and everybody else's) by 46.7%. On the email, they didn't actually quote the increase - just said prices are increasing - and it was only by going on their website that I found the 46.7% figure. Is this the norm, I wonder? I knew they were going up, but didn't realise it was that hefty.
Southern are going up more than the rest, 46.7% this year and 53% by 2030. Mine is up by 21% this year.
I'm not sure what happens if inflation increases beyond predictions.
I just received the annual water bill chase up letter for someone I have never heard of, at my address. I have lived here for more than 10 years, and I have no idea who he is. They were informed years ago.
Ofwat should forbid any price rises above inflation and also insist on the minimum standards and repairs. By law.Any Executive in charge failing to abide by the law is prosecuted.
Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
TBF Farage came out swinging for Trump.
Perhaps another reason to be optimistic. This screws Farage and Reform's chances of breaking through from a minor (if undeniably influential) side show into a Government in waiting. Even many Brexit supporters are very unhappy with the way Trump and the right in general have treated Ukraine.
Trump sounding like a New York mafia hood defending Putin over Ukraine's minerals deal (to Zelensky).
Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
TBF Farage came out swinging for Trump.
Perhaps another reason to be optimistic. This screws Farage and Reform's chances of breaking through from a minor (if undeniably influential) side show into a Government in waiting. Even many Brexit supporters are very unhappy with the way Trump and the right in general have treated Ukraine.
I hope so - stopping Reform would be a Good Thing.
My problem remains this: most of the target voters don't really care that much about Ukraine vs their town being shit their bills being sky high and a general sense of being left behind and out of control.
Trump is going to make sizeable changes to the way the US is governed. Farage supports Trump. Farage says "we can make sizeable changes to the way the UK is governed".
The weird French speaking freakaloid pioneers in “American Primeval” are like a brilliant lost scene from Deliverance mixed with a hint of Tarantino
In its best moments it is that good
I like a bleak revisionist Western as much as the next man, but I found AP a bit relentless spread over six episodes. The rapid changes in weather conditions were also disconcerting though I accept that may be the way it is in them there parts. What I dread is (the possibly unfilmable) Blood Meridian being picked up for tv and made into a 12 part, season 1 extravaganza, though hopefully the Mccarthy estate would put its foot down.
It is possible I am being overly generous to American Primeval out of sheer relief as I have just come from the horror that is Sky’s Day of the Jackal (as we discussed last night)
But I do think it’s good. But I do like relentless Bleakness
And once more it has to be said “who the fuck thought that Eddie Redmayne could ever carry off a evilly chilling calculated killer”
They should have called it The Day of The Hamster
By the end I was actually laughing every time they referred to him as “the jackal”
Thing is they could have done a modern update with an amoral metrosexual psycho killer (dunno if Redmayne could have pulled that off, maybe), instead we had someone who was blubbing because his missus was going to leave him and turned to the dark side after seeing his mates doing awful things in Afghanistan. Also to be ungentlemanly the female MI6 protagonist had far too big an arse to be doing black ops. The Northern Irish stuff was pretty cringe as well.
Hahaha
I’m glad I’m not alone
Every time the black MI6 agent went into action I kept thinking “no way a woman with a butt that big will be able to vault that wall in Budapest”
Which was quite distracting in a bad way and also a shame as she was one of the few decent performers in a generally poor cast
And then there’s the scene where they find “the Hamster’s” huge and elaborate vault of psycho murder hidden under the bidet in Cadiz and he manages to convince her - between his crying jags - that he just does a bit of “industrial espionage” which is “occasionally slightly illegal”
Yet another out of touch Oscars ceremony. Not a single winner in the main categories broke $100 million at the box office.
Have the odd independent or art house win by all means but don't ignore films viewers watch or Oscars ratings will decline yet further
I enjoy small independent films and have in recent years found more quality and originality in the Cannes winners than the vastly over CGId big budget ones usually favoured at the Oscars. 'Anora' though was not in my opinion one of the good Cannes winners. An X rated 'Carry On' film was the best I can say about it. A good performance by the leading actress but so uneven as a film I'm sure it will be quickly forgotten.
Yes, saw the trailer and thought not for me, either. What was the Dylan movie like ?
Very good, even if you don't like Dylan.
The list of best picture winners since 2000 is a very mixed bag indeed. Not the best adver for a quarter of century of cinema I'd suggest.
1970 Patton 1971 The French Connection 1972 The Godfather 1973 The Sting 1974 The Godfather II 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1976 Rocky 1977 Annie Hall 1978 The Deer Hunter 1979 Kramer v Kramer
Cinema has declined as TV drama has ascended, and the relationship is partly causal
The Godfather trilogy is what, 7 hours? The Sopranos was nearly 78 hours. We have the capacity to take in massive storylines, that take years to unfold.
I don't think the world really wanted say 78 hours of Annie Hall. But certain stories are now better served by the enormous scale of high end TV.
We like stories still is the best take you can come away with.
I think the Reacher phenomenon is relevant here.
Tom Cruise tried to make movies, which were rejected by audiences cos he doesn't match the character in the books.
Amazon made Season 1 TV, which is just the book on screen, and it was great.
Season 2 they took the book, then made an entirely different story on screen, and it sucked.
Season 3 (so far) is the book on screen.
There is a lesson there
I know your point isn't specifically about Cruise, but can I reach for Rich Hall to analyse Tom Cruise's career anyway?
"He's a cocktail waiter, he's a very good cocktail waiter. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great cocktail waiter.
He's a fighter pilot, he's a very good fighter pilot. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great fighter pilot.
He's a race car driver, he's a very good race car driver. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great race car driver.
He's a sports agent, he's a very good sports agent. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great sports agent". Etc.
I think Cruise is over rated except in Collateral where he is incredibly menacing. These days he's too old. He's the same age as me FFS.
He is actually a good actor, who uses a a rather rigid formula as a very bankable star in blockbuster movies.
See Tropic Thunder, both for the acting and where he is deconstructing The Tom Cruise Thing.
Mission Impossible is, quietly, one of the most successful film series in history. But no one particularly sees it as a series (as in MI1,2, 3, etc) and are just pleasantly surprised when the latest one pops out providing all the thrills and spills that are expected from the franchise.
He wants to make the US look smaller in the worlds eyes?
They're just going to announce private sector GDP growth as the headline number. (And with the express goal, I'm sure, of avoiding admitting there's a recession.)
For GDP per capita, I'm sure they'll continue to include government spending.
The reality is that people aren't stupid*. If they lose their job, or their wages don't go as far as they used to, then they notice.
* Well, obviously there are a lot of stupid people.
Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
TBF Farage came out swinging for Trump.
Perhaps another reason to be optimistic. This screws Farage and Reform's chances of breaking through from a minor (if undeniably influential) side show into a Government in waiting. Even many Brexit supporters are very unhappy with the way Trump and the right in general have treated Ukraine.
Trump sounding like a New York mafia hood defending Putin over Ukraine's minerals deal (to Zelensky).
Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
TBF Farage came out swinging for Trump.
Perhaps another reason to be optimistic. This screws Farage and Reform's chances of breaking through from a minor (if undeniably influential) side show into a Government in waiting. Even many Brexit supporters are very unhappy with the way Trump and the right in general have treated Ukraine.
I hope so - stopping Reform would be a Good Thing.
My problem remains this: most of the target voters don't really care that much about Ukraine vs their town being shit their bills being sky high and a general sense of being left behind and out of control.
Trump is going to make sizeable changes to the way the US is governed. Farage supports Trump. Farage says "we can make sizeable changes to the way the UK is governed".
Ukraine won't come into it.
It will come into it but its a wash.
The messages will be "this is existential to our security, we have to do it" vs "its a long way away, Putin and Trump are offering peace and Starmer et al are wasting taxpayers money abroad". I suspect whilst the former will have more supporters maybe 2:1 or 3:1, there are 3 parties fishing in that lake and 1 in the second.
Mission Impossible is, quietly, one of the most successful film series in history. But no one particularly sees it as a series (as in MI1,2, 3, etc) and are just pleasantly surprised when the latest one pops out providing all the thrills and spills that are expected from the franchise.
The early ones were not sequenced, but the later ones definitely are. The one due in May is explicitly Part 2 of the last one
Off topic, cost of living news. Southern Water have just notified me that they are raising my bill (and everybody else's) by 46.7%. On the email, they didn't actually quote the increase - just said prices are increasing - and it was only by going on their website that I found the 46.7% figure. Is this the norm, I wonder? I knew they were going up, but didn't realise it was that hefty.
Southern are going up more than the rest, 46.7% this year and 53% by 2030. Mine is up by 21% this year.
I'm not sure what happens if inflation increases beyond predictions.
I just received the annual water bill chase up letter for someone I have never heard of, at my address. I have lived here for more than 10 years, and I have no idea who he is. They were informed years ago.
Ofwat should forbid any price rises above inflation and also insist on the minimum standards and repairs. By law.Any Executive in charge failing to abide by the law is prosecuted.
And if the water company goes bust, then all that happens is that bond holders will have to take a haircut.
We are not hearing so much at the moment from all those republicans who would like to abolish the monarchy and have an elected head of state on the American model. Whatever happened to them?
Mission Impossible is, quietly, one of the most successful film series in history. But no one particularly sees it as a series (as in MI1,2, 3, etc) and are just pleasantly surprised when the latest one pops out providing all the thrills and spills that are expected from the franchise.
The early ones were not sequenced, but the later ones definitely are. The one due in May is explicitly Part 2 of the last one
I hadn't noticed, given that they are so far apart. That would be a shame (to have the latest as pt2 of the previous one). It's not why or how I, and perhaps millions of others, watch these particular films. It's a couple of hours of Tom Cruise jumping between tall buildings. I don't want to have to remember who was the master villain sitting in the volcano and why.
The weird French speaking freakaloid pioneers in “American Primeval” are like a brilliant lost scene from Deliverance mixed with a hint of Tarantino
In its best moments it is that good
I like a bleak revisionist Western as much as the next man, but I found AP a bit relentless spread over six episodes. The rapid changes in weather conditions were also disconcerting though I accept that may be the way it is in them there parts. What I dread is (the possibly unfilmable) Blood Meridian being picked up for tv and made into a 12 part, season 1 extravaganza, though hopefully the Mccarthy estate would put its foot down.
It is possible I am being overly generous to American Primeval out of sheer relief as I have just come from the horror that is Sky’s Day of the Jackal (as we discussed last night)
But I do think it’s good. But I do like relentless Bleakness
And once more it has to be said “who the fuck thought that Eddie Redmayne could ever carry off a evilly chilling calculated killer”
They should have called it The Day of The Hamster
By the end I was actually laughing every time they referred to him as “the jackal”
Thing is they could have done a modern update with an amoral metrosexual psycho killer (dunno if Redmayne could have pulled that off, maybe), instead we had someone who was blubbing because his missus was going to leave him and turned to the dark side after seeing his mates doing awful things in Afghanistan. Also to be ungentlemanly the female MI6 protagonist had far too big an arse to be doing black ops. The Northern Irish stuff was pretty cringe as well.
Hahaha
I’m glad I’m not alone
Every time the black MI6 agent went into action I kept thinking “no way a woman with a butt that big will be able to vault that wall in Budapest”
Which was quite distracting in a bad way and also a shame as she was one of the few decent performers in a generally poor cast
And then there’s the scene where they find “the Hamster’s” huge and elaborate vault of psycho murder hidden under the bidet in Cadiz and he manages to convince her - between his crying jags - that he just does a bit of “industrial espionage” which is “occasionally slightly illegal”
"Under the bidet"... is this whole thing a spoof ? (I haven't watched it, and probably won't.)
Off topic, cost of living news. Southern Water have just notified me that they are raising my bill (and everybody else's) by 46.7%. On the email, they didn't actually quote the increase - just said prices are increasing - and it was only by going on their website that I found the 46.7% figure. Is this the norm, I wonder? I knew they were going up, but didn't realise it was that hefty.
Southern are going up more than the rest, 46.7% this year and 53% by 2030. Mine is up by 21% this year.
I'm not sure what happens if inflation increases beyond predictions.
I just received the annual water bill chase up letter for someone I have never heard of, at my address. I have lived here for more than 10 years, and I have no idea who he is. They were informed years ago.
Ofwat should forbid any price rises above inflation and also insist on the minimum standards and repairs. By law.Any Executive in charge failing to abide by the law is prosecuted.
And if the water company goes bust, then all that happens is that bond holders will have to take a haircut.
We're long past the point where all of these companies need to go bust. Starting with Thames Water. And yes, that likely creates the cascade reaction that takes out Southern and ST and the others. Good.
We are not hearing so much at the moment from all those republicans who would like to abolish the monarchy and have an elected head of state on the American model. Whatever happened to them?
I am an advocate of a republic - I simply so not feel it is right in the 21st Century to have a head of state as someone who dropped out of the right vagina first. I am not sure of what to replace it with but are people that bothered in France? Or Germany? Seem to work ok.
We are not hearing so much at the moment from all those republicans who would like to abolish the monarchy and have an elected head of state on the American model. Whatever happened to them?
They are still there but while Trump is POTUS it is MAGA Reform UK voters who are least sympathetic to the King even if leftwing republicans are ideologically republicans they clearly prefer King Charles III to Trump
We are not hearing so much at the moment from all those republicans who would like to abolish the monarchy and have an elected head of state on the American model. Whatever happened to them?
I am an advocate of a republic - I simply so not feel it is right in the 21st Century to have a head of state as someone who dropped out of the right vagina first. I am not sure of what to replace it with but are people that bothered in France? Or Germany? Seem to work ok.
The monarchy is an obscenity but I won't live long enough to see its abolition and Ipatiev House moment. I 3d-printed a locknut for an angle grinder out of PLA the other day. My days are numbered.
Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
TBF Farage came out swinging for Trump.
Perhaps another reason to be optimistic. This screws Farage and Reform's chances of breaking through from a minor (if undeniably influential) side show into a Government in waiting. Even many Brexit supporters are very unhappy with the way Trump and the right in general have treated Ukraine.
I hope so - stopping Reform would be a Good Thing.
My problem remains this: most of the target voters don't really care that much about Ukraine vs their town being shit their bills being sky high and a general sense of being left behind and out of control.
Trump is going to make sizeable changes to the way the US is governed. Farage supports Trump. Farage says "we can make sizeable changes to the way the UK is governed".
Ukraine won't come into it.
I have been busy this morning and just read your post and @Mexicanpete's
Farage only confirms what a danger he is to the western alliance and peace in Ukraine seemingly seeking an abject and unjust surrender by Zelenskyy
Farage sickens me, as does Trump and his bullies, and no matter our political differences we should all unite to back Zelenskyy and Ukraine and reject the far right, whether it is Farage, Trump, Vance, Musk and most US Republicans and of course Putin
I do fear you may be right in your comments on Farage, but every decent UK citizen needs to repudiate his obnoxious views
Why have equity markets not reacted to the growing chasm between the US and the rest of the West? Surely this will have an impact on big corporates down the line with some pretty horrible edge cases plausible too.
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
I don't buy @MaxPB's contention that we can only do what we're doing wrt Trump/Ukraine because we are outside the EU. All headlines this morning are about "The UK and France are proposing..."
How does us being in or not being in the EU make a difference to the price of oeufs.
Looks like the Government is trying to ban new leasehold flats again. Good news I think.
Good morning everyone.
The problem that still exists will be how to manage such developments after occupation - expertise has to come from somewhere, and:
1 - Up front payments (ie commuted sums) are a major source of future maintenance money money for local authorities. 2 - If leasehold is abolished prices may rise because it is a source of revenue for some developer companies - either the payments, or selling the leases on. 3 - How to set up a structure that works equally well in both Cobham, Clerkenwell and Clacton.
Behind this is that the people buying the new properties are expected to pay for the cost of all the infrastructure, through increased new prices - rather than it being rolled into Council tax.
I think that developers may quite like to be out of this cycle; it would let them walk away cleanly after building and selling the properties.
Making it all add up is the question.
Getting rid of leasehold will be good.
However, there are a large number of Magic Moneytree types who seem to think that maintenance on communal structures should be zero cost. Or not exist.
In my former block of flats they now have two such on the board that runs the flats jointly (all freehold).
They started by demanding that it be wound up and all the money in the accounts given to the home owners. They’ve retreated to allowing the roof to be inspected and repaired on a regular cycle
But the idea of building up a reserve which is then use to pay for works on a regular basis is beyond them.
“Look, when we need to fix something, we wait until it is really needed, then take out a loan….”
Do they work for DOGE?
I think it is a different kind of radicalisation. A portion of Generation Rent has come to believe that *everything* is a rip off.
That take away coffee should be 1p, that housing should be free etc etc.
This is from the Corbynite left. But I agree with you that there is an interesting parallel with the mentality behind DOGE.
Well yes but takeaway coffee costs close to four quid in many places; basic rent typically comfortably in four figures per month. They have a point.
I was in my local National Trust yesterday for a snack, having been to see my 90 year old godmother * in the bit of Sheffield that is not actually Derbyshire, and the large cappucino was £3.90. That plus a cheese scone (pronounced to rhyme with cone not con) was something just under £7. Shocker !
* She got a degree in history *after* she had retired at 60, and has big parties at 60, 70, 80 etc. She remarked that of the 80 guests at her 80th party, 20 have now popped their clogs, as has her Usonian penfriend of 82 years.
We are not hearing so much at the moment from all those republicans who would like to abolish the monarchy and have an elected head of state on the American model. Whatever happened to them?
It’s no accident that Trump is modelling himself on a monarch, proving monarchies are bad.
Come back to me on how popular the monarchy is when King Charles hosts Trump.
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
“Hmmm… every time I do a formulaic movie, I get tens of millions of dollars. What to do?”
Europeans underestimated the degree to which an Ukraine surrender is central to both Trump’s economic and foreign policy. That makes their attempt to frustrate his goals with their own peace plan even higher risk.
Please can one of the PB pedants tell me how some people are pronouncing Ukraine? Is it Ookraine? Several times lately I've seen text like that above which has * an Ukraine *.
Good morning, everyone.
Morning. The use of "an" is to do with the initial sound of a word not the initial letter. There is an epidemic of people who don't grasp this. I doubt your writer thinks it's pronounce "ookraine", they just see a 'U' and think it means they should write "an".
In their defence, pronunciations change. Thus, we may still write "an heriditary peerage" but 100 years ago we might also have written "an hotel".
Some of us still do write ‘an hotel’ on the rare occasions we write about hotels.
Off topic, cost of living news. Southern Water have just notified me that they are raising my bill (and everybody else's) by 46.7%. On the email, they didn't actually quote the increase - just said prices are increasing - and it was only by going on their website that I found the 46.7% figure. Is this the norm, I wonder? I knew they were going up, but didn't realise it was that hefty.
Southern are going up more than the rest, 46.7% this year and 53% by 2030. Mine is up by 21% this year.
I'm not sure what happens if inflation increases beyond predictions.
I just received the annual water bill chase up letter for someone I have never heard of, at my address. I have lived here for more than 10 years, and I have no idea who he is. They were informed years ago.
Ofwat should forbid any price rises above inflation and also insist on the minimum standards and repairs. By law.Any Executive in charge failing to abide by the law is prosecuted.
And if the water company goes bust, then all that happens is that bond holders will have to take a haircut.
And the company returns to public ownership. Ideologically I would prefer it to be in private hands but with strict legal limits on dividends and profits. But if they can't behave responsibly then they should not be allowed to run the service.
Why have equity markets not reacted to the growing chasm between the US and the rest of the West? Surely this will have an impact on big corporates down the line with some pretty horrible edge cases plausible too.
Much of the world is at the
“WTF? WTAF? WTAFF? This is all a sketch, right?” stage.
When some hard, actual numbers hit, I think it will get very… interesting…. Very fast.
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
And, unlike several megastar actors, he doesn't make you think "oh it's Tom Cruise" in every and any film he's in.
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
Born of the Fourth of July ?
I get the impression he just prefers flying helicopters dangerously, and jumping off things, to acting. If he can get paid to do it, why not ?
The weird French speaking freakaloid pioneers in “American Primeval” are like a brilliant lost scene from Deliverance mixed with a hint of Tarantino
In its best moments it is that good
I like a bleak revisionist Western as much as the next man, but I found AP a bit relentless spread over six episodes. The rapid changes in weather conditions were also disconcerting though I accept that may be the way it is in them there parts. What I dread is (the possibly unfilmable) Blood Meridian being picked up for tv and made into a 12 part, season 1 extravaganza, though hopefully the Mccarthy estate would put its foot down.
It is possible I am being overly generous to American Primeval out of sheer relief as I have just come from the horror that is Sky’s Day of the Jackal (as we discussed last night)
But I do think it’s good. But I do like relentless Bleakness
And once more it has to be said “who the fuck thought that Eddie Redmayne could ever carry off a evilly chilling calculated killer”
They should have called it The Day of The Hamster
By the end I was actually laughing every time they referred to him as “the jackal”
Thing is they could have done a modern update with an amoral metrosexual psycho killer (dunno if Redmayne could have pulled that off, maybe), instead we had someone who was blubbing because his missus was going to leave him and turned to the dark side after seeing his mates doing awful things in Afghanistan. Also to be ungentlemanly the female MI6 protagonist had far too big an arse to be doing black ops. The Northern Irish stuff was pretty cringe as well.
Hahaha
I’m glad I’m not alone
Every time the black MI6 agent went into action I kept thinking “no way a woman with a butt that big will be able to vault that wall in Budapest”
Which was quite distracting in a bad way and also a shame as she was one of the few decent performers in a generally poor cast
And then there’s the scene where they find “the Hamster’s” huge and elaborate vault of psycho murder hidden under the bidet in Cadiz and he manages to convince her - between his crying jags - that he just does a bit of “industrial espionage” which is “occasionally slightly illegal”
"Under the bidet"... is this whole thing a spoof ? (I haven't watched it, and probably won't.)
The wife and friends find an entire hidden room behind the wardrobes in her marital house full of masks and disguises and trillions of euros and ten hundred passports and deadly laser beams and shit and weirdly she gets suspicious but “the jackal” invites her to Paris and cries about his nan who has a cough and then he hugs her and says he occasionally eavesdrops on business conversations which earns him $3000 billion a year and she shrugs and laughs and says ok that’s fine then
We are not hearing so much at the moment from all those republicans who would like to abolish the monarchy and have an elected head of state on the American model. Whatever happened to them?
They never existed? Who on here has ever advocated "an elected head of state on the American model"? It's a crazy idea. We have a parliamentary democracy, if we got rid of the monarchy we would keep the parliamentary democracy and keep a largely ceremonial head of state, similar to Germany, Ireland, Italy etc.
Yet another out of touch Oscars ceremony. Not a single winner in the main categories broke $100 million at the box office.
Have the odd independent or art house win by all means but don't ignore films viewers watch or Oscars ratings will decline yet further
I enjoy small independent films and have in recent years found more quality and originality in the Cannes winners than the vastly over CGId big budget ones usually favoured at the Oscars. 'Anora' though was not in my opinion one of the good Cannes winners. An X rated 'Carry On' film was the best I can say about it. A good performance by the leading actress but so uneven as a film I'm sure it will be quickly forgotten.
Yes, saw the trailer and thought not for me, either. What was the Dylan movie like ?
Very good, even if you don't like Dylan.
The list of best picture winners since 2000 is a very mixed bag indeed. Not the best adver for a quarter of century of cinema I'd suggest.
1970 Patton 1971 The French Connection 1972 The Godfather 1973 The Sting 1974 The Godfather II 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1976 Rocky 1977 Annie Hall 1978 The Deer Hunter 1979 Kramer v Kramer
Cinema has declined as TV drama has ascended, and the relationship is partly causal
The Godfather trilogy is what, 7 hours? The Sopranos was nearly 78 hours. We have the capacity to take in massive storylines, that take years to unfold.
I don't think the world really wanted say 78 hours of Annie Hall. But certain stories are now better served by the enormous scale of high end TV.
We like stories still is the best take you can come away with.
I think the Reacher phenomenon is relevant here.
Tom Cruise tried to make movies, which were rejected by audiences cos he doesn't match the character in the books.
Amazon made Season 1 TV, which is just the book on screen, and it was great.
Season 2 they took the book, then made an entirely different story on screen, and it sucked.
Season 3 (so far) is the book on screen.
There is a lesson there
I know your point isn't specifically about Cruise, but can I reach for Rich Hall to analyse Tom Cruise's career anyway?
"He's a cocktail waiter, he's a very good cocktail waiter. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great cocktail waiter.
He's a fighter pilot, he's a very good fighter pilot. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great fighter pilot.
He's a race car driver, he's a very good race car driver. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great race car driver.
He's a sports agent, he's a very good sports agent. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great sports agent". Etc.
I think Cruise is over rated except in Collateral where he is incredibly menacing. These days he's too old. He's the same age as me FFS.
But have you ridden your motorbike off the White Cliffs of Dover six times in one day?
As someone said maybe Christian Science has got something going for it after all.
Why have equity markets not reacted to the growing chasm between the US and the rest of the West? Surely this will have an impact on big corporates down the line with some pretty horrible edge cases plausible too.
Much of the world is at the
“WTF? WTAF? WTAFF? This is all a sketch, right?” stage.
When some hard, actual numbers hit, I think it will get very… interesting…. Very fast.
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
TBF Farage came out swinging for Trump.
Perhaps another reason to be optimistic. This screws Farage and Reform's chances of breaking through from a minor (if undeniably influential) side show into a Government in waiting. Even many Brexit supporters are very unhappy with the way Trump and the right in general have treated Ukraine.
I hope so - stopping Reform would be a Good Thing.
My problem remains this: most of the target voters don't really care that much about Ukraine vs their town being shit their bills being sky high and a general sense of being left behind and out of control.
Trump is going to make sizeable changes to the way the US is governed. Farage supports Trump. Farage says "we can make sizeable changes to the way the UK is governed".
Ukraine won't come into it.
I have been busy this morning and just read your post and @Mexicanpete's
Farage only confirms what a danger he is to the western alliance and peace in Ukraine seemingly seeking an abject and unjust surrender by Zelenskyy
Farage sickens me, as does Trump and his bullies, and no matter our political differences we should all unite to back Zelenskyy and Ukraine and reject the far right, whether it is Farage, Trump, Vance, Musk and most US Republicans and of course Putin
I do fear you may be right in your comments on Farage, but every decent UK citizen needs to repudiate his obnoxious views
What are the main differences between Jenrick and Farage? Apart from their rosette.
Off topic, cost of living news. Southern Water have just notified me that they are raising my bill (and everybody else's) by 46.7%. On the email, they didn't actually quote the increase - just said prices are increasing - and it was only by going on their website that I found the 46.7% figure. Is this the norm, I wonder? I knew they were going up, but didn't realise it was that hefty.
Southern are going up more than the rest, 46.7% this year and 53% by 2030. Mine is up by 21% this year.
I'm not sure what happens if inflation increases beyond predictions.
I just received the annual water bill chase up letter for someone I have never heard of, at my address. I have lived here for more than 10 years, and I have no idea who he is. They were informed years ago.
As was remarked in the Labour poll thread, there are an awful lot of price increases scheduled in April, it's not just water. And that is betting without the budget Spring Statement in three weeks' time.
Keir Starmer can stand tall on the world stage thanks to Brexit Britain.
Absolute drivel . The UK and France are more important in Europe because of their defence capabilities especially in relation to nuclear weapons . This has zip all to do with Brexit . Farage is treasonous scum and should fxck off to the US where he can fellate Trump to his hearts content !
I don't buy @MaxPB's contention that we can only do what we're doing wrt Trump/Ukraine because we are outside the EU. All headlines this morning are about "The UK and France are proposing..."
How does us being in or not being in the EU make a difference to the price of oeufs.
We're not bound by the idiotic Common Foreign Policy and don't have to defer to the Commission on anything subject to it.
The Frogs should in theory be bound by it, but they were always much better at ignoring Brussels when it suited them and doing their own thing than we ever were. Had we followed their example in dealing with the EU, we might never have left.
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
Born of the Fourth of July ?
I get the impression he just prefers flying helicopters dangerously, and jumping off things, to acting. If he can get paid to do it, why not ?
That’s the one. His performance in that is outstanding
Moved me to tears a couple of times, IIRC - and yes you completely forget it is Tom cruise
He’s like an action movie version of Daniel Craig or Hugh Grant - he’s been doing the same kind of movie so long you forget that underneath it there is a fine and gifted actor
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
Born of the Fourth of July ?
I get the impression he just prefers flying helicopters dangerously, and jumping off things, to acting. If he can get paid to do it, why not ?
I saw a documentary about the filming of the last Mission Impossible movie, and it's the scene where Tom Cruise motorbikes off a cliff.
On the second take it goes perfectly, and everyone is high fiving, and the Director says "it's a wrap".
And then Tom Cruise says "you know, I could hold onto the motorcycle for a few seconds longer, let's do it again"
And the insurance company is bricking themselves, because they're on the hook for about $100m if Cruise injures himself.
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
And, unlike several megastar actors, he doesn't make you think "oh it's Tom Cruise" in every and any film he's in.
Actually, he does.
It’s just that for this kind of popcorn movie that’s exactly what you want.
He’s 80s action man, but upgraded with the Empathy and Emotion modules installed.
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
He has also starred in some of the best science fiction films of the 2qst century. Minority Report, Edge of Tomorrow and Oblivion are all excellent
We are not hearing so much at the moment from all those republicans who would like to abolish the monarchy and have an elected head of state on the American model. Whatever happened to them?
It’s no accident that Trump is modelling himself on a monarch, proving monarchies are bad.
Come back to me on how popular the monarchy is when King Charles hosts Trump.
There are some very unflattering photos of the King on today's front pages, especially the Sun and its sister paper, the Times. Someone should tell His Majesty not to smile. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1jp55w540zo
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
Born of the Fourth of July ?
I get the impression he just prefers flying helicopters dangerously, and jumping off things, to acting. If he can get paid to do it, why not ?
That’s the one. His performance in that is outstanding
Moved me to tears a couple of times, IIRC - and yes you completely forget it is Tom cruise
He’s like an action movie version of Daniel Craig or Hugh Grant - he’s been doing the same kind of movie so long you forget that underneath it there is a fine and gifted actor
Ummm, I think Daniel Craig has done a few action movies.
The weird French speaking freakaloid pioneers in “American Primeval” are like a brilliant lost scene from Deliverance mixed with a hint of Tarantino
In its best moments it is that good
I like a bleak revisionist Western as much as the next man, but I found AP a bit relentless spread over six episodes. The rapid changes in weather conditions were also disconcerting though I accept that may be the way it is in them there parts. What I dread is (the possibly unfilmable) Blood Meridian being picked up for tv and made into a 12 part, season 1 extravaganza, though hopefully the Mccarthy estate would put its foot down.
It is possible I am being overly generous to American Primeval out of sheer relief as I have just come from the horror that is Sky’s Day of the Jackal (as we discussed last night)
But I do think it’s good. But I do like relentless Bleakness
And once more it has to be said “who the fuck thought that Eddie Redmayne could ever carry off a evilly chilling calculated killer”
They should have called it The Day of The Hamster
By the end I was actually laughing every time they referred to him as “the jackal”
Thing is they could have done a modern update with an amoral metrosexual psycho killer (dunno if Redmayne could have pulled that off, maybe), instead we had someone who was blubbing because his missus was going to leave him and turned to the dark side after seeing his mates doing awful things in Afghanistan. Also to be ungentlemanly the female MI6 protagonist had far too big an arse to be doing black ops. The Northern Irish stuff was pretty cringe as well.
Hahaha
I’m glad I’m not alone
Every time the black MI6 agent went into action I kept thinking “no way a woman with a butt that big will be able to vault that wall in Budapest”
Which was quite distracting in a bad way and also a shame as she was one of the few decent performers in a generally poor cast
And then there’s the scene where they find “the Hamster’s” huge and elaborate vault of psycho murder hidden under the bidet in Cadiz and he manages to convince her - between his crying jags - that he just does a bit of “industrial espionage” which is “occasionally slightly illegal”
"Under the bidet"... is this whole thing a spoof ? (I haven't watched it, and probably won't.)
The wife and friends find an entire hidden room behind the wardrobes in her marital house full of masks and disguises and trillions of euros and ten hundred passports and deadly laser beams and shit and weirdly she gets suspicious but “the jackal” invites her to Paris and cries about his nan who has a cough and then he hugs her and says he occasionally eavesdrops on business conversations which earns him $3000 billion a year and she shrugs and laughs and says ok that’s fine then
Keir Starmer can stand tall on the world stage thanks to Brexit Britain.
OK. So the clickbait headline is "Farage says Starmer is a godlike statesman" and then Farage assures us in the piece (my precis): "Trump is great and Zelensky should apologise for his outrageous rudeness".
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
Yet another out of touch Oscars ceremony. Not a single winner in the main categories broke $100 million at the box office.
Have the odd independent or art house win by all means but don't ignore films viewers watch or Oscars ratings will decline yet further
I enjoy small independent films and have in recent years found more quality and originality in the Cannes winners than the vastly over CGId big budget ones usually favoured at the Oscars. 'Anora' though was not in my opinion one of the good Cannes winners. An X rated 'Carry On' film was the best I can say about it. A good performance by the leading actress but so uneven as a film I'm sure it will be quickly forgotten.
Yes, saw the trailer and thought not for me, either. What was the Dylan movie like ?
Very good, even if you don't like Dylan.
The list of best picture winners since 2000 is a very mixed bag indeed. Not the best adver for a quarter of century of cinema I'd suggest.
1970 Patton 1971 The French Connection 1972 The Godfather 1973 The Sting 1974 The Godfather II 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1976 Rocky 1977 Annie Hall 1978 The Deer Hunter 1979 Kramer v Kramer
Cinema has declined as TV drama has ascended, and the relationship is partly causal
The Godfather trilogy is what, 7 hours? The Sopranos was nearly 78 hours. We have the capacity to take in massive storylines, that take years to unfold.
I don't think the world really wanted say 78 hours of Annie Hall. But certain stories are now better served by the enormous scale of high end TV.
We like stories still is the best take you can come away with.
I think the Reacher phenomenon is relevant here.
Tom Cruise tried to make movies, which were rejected by audiences cos he doesn't match the character in the books.
Amazon made Season 1 TV, which is just the book on screen, and it was great.
Season 2 they took the book, then made an entirely different story on screen, and it sucked.
Season 3 (so far) is the book on screen.
There is a lesson there
I know your point isn't specifically about Cruise, but can I reach for Rich Hall to analyse Tom Cruise's career anyway?
"He's a cocktail waiter, he's a very good cocktail waiter. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great cocktail waiter.
He's a fighter pilot, he's a very good fighter pilot. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great fighter pilot.
He's a race car driver, he's a very good race car driver. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great race car driver.
He's a sports agent, he's a very good sports agent. He loses his confidence. He meets a girl and he once again becomes a great sports agent". Etc.
I think Cruise is over rated except in Collateral where he is incredibly menacing. These days he's too old. He's the same age as me FFS.
But have you ridden your motorbike off the White Cliffs of Dover six times in one day?
As someone said maybe Christian Science has got something going for it after all.
Or God doesn't want the buggers up there until absolutely necessary.
Given the chance Tom Cruise is a magnificent actor
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
Born of the Fourth of July ?
I get the impression he just prefers flying helicopters dangerously, and jumping off things, to acting. If he can get paid to do it, why not ?
That’s the one. His performance in that is outstanding
Moved me to tears a couple of times, IIRC - and yes you completely forget it is Tom cruise
He’s like an action movie version of Daniel Craig or Hugh Grant - he’s been doing the same kind of movie so long you forget that underneath it there is a fine and gifted actor
Ummm, I think Daniel Craig has done a few action movies.
You know what I mean. Craig is perceived as Bond then suddenly he does this vastly different roles and you remember Wow he really can act
Keir Starmer can stand tall on the world stage thanks to Brexit Britain.
OK. So the clickbait headline is "Farage says Starmer is a godlike statesman" and then Farage assures us in the piece (my precis): "Trump is great and Zelensky should apologise for his outrageous rudeness".
Why should Zelensky apologise for Trump's rudeness ? Bit of a stretch even for old Nige.
Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
TBF Farage came out swinging for Trump.
Perhaps another reason to be optimistic. This screws Farage and Reform's chances of breaking through from a minor (if undeniably influential) side show into a Government in waiting. Even many Brexit supporters are very unhappy with the way Trump and the right in general have treated Ukraine.
I hope so - stopping Reform would be a Good Thing.
My problem remains this: most of the target voters don't really care that much about Ukraine vs their town being shit their bills being sky high and a general sense of being left behind and out of control.
Trump is going to make sizeable changes to the way the US is governed. Farage supports Trump. Farage says "we can make sizeable changes to the way the UK is governed".
Ukraine won't come into it.
I have been busy this morning and just read your post and @Mexicanpete's
Farage only confirms what a danger he is to the western alliance and peace in Ukraine seemingly seeking an abject and unjust surrender by Zelenskyy
Farage sickens me, as does Trump and his bullies, and no matter our political differences we should all unite to back Zelenskyy and Ukraine and reject the far right, whether it is Farage, Trump, Vance, Musk and most US Republicans and of course Putin
I do fear you may be right in your comments on Farage, but every decent UK citizen needs to repudiate his obnoxious views
What are the main differences between Jenrick and Farage? Apart from their rosette.
Jenrick posted on social media on the 28th February lauding Zelenskyy and saluted him and the courageous Ukranians fight for freedom against Russian imperalism
Looks like the Government is trying to ban new leasehold flats again. Good news I think.
As a first step towards completely abolishing the freehold system.
Well universal council and social housing would increase the Labour vote but really would guarantee a Labour defeat before they got there
Universal council and social housing would enable the government to increase gdp at the stroke of Rachel Reeves' pen. Russia could pull off the same trick btw.
Double everyone's rent and simultaneously increase housing benefit to exactly cover it. No-one is any better or worse off but there's a ton of new money going through the books.
Off topic, cost of living news. Southern Water have just notified me that they are raising my bill (and everybody else's) by 46.7%. On the email, they didn't actually quote the increase - just said prices are increasing - and it was only by going on their website that I found the 46.7% figure. Is this the norm, I wonder? I knew they were going up, but didn't realise it was that hefty.
Southern are going up more than the rest, 46.7% this year and 53% by 2030. Mine is up by 21% this year.
I'm not sure what happens if inflation increases beyond predictions.
I just received the annual water bill chase up letter for someone I have never heard of, at my address. I have lived here for more than 10 years, and I have no idea who he is. They were informed years ago.
Ofwat should forbid any price rises above inflation and also insist on the minimum standards and repairs. By law.Any Executive in charge failing to abide by the law is prosecuted.
Ofwat have gamed the system by allowing the majority of the increases for the next x years (5 I think) to be done upfront rather than on a year by year basis
Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
TBF Farage came out swinging for Trump.
Perhaps another reason to be optimistic. This screws Farage and Reform's chances of breaking through from a minor (if undeniably influential) side show into a Government in waiting. Even many Brexit supporters are very unhappy with the way Trump and the right in general have treated Ukraine.
I hope so - stopping Reform would be a Good Thing.
My problem remains this: most of the target voters don't really care that much about Ukraine vs their town being shit their bills being sky high and a general sense of being left behind and out of control.
Trump is going to make sizeable changes to the way the US is governed. Farage supports Trump. Farage says "we can make sizeable changes to the way the UK is governed".
Ukraine won't come into it.
I have been busy this morning and just read your post and @Mexicanpete's
Farage only confirms what a danger he is to the western alliance and peace in Ukraine seemingly seeking an abject and unjust surrender by Zelenskyy
Farage sickens me, as does Trump and his bullies, and no matter our political differences we should all unite to back Zelenskyy and Ukraine and reject the far right, whether it is Farage, Trump, Vance, Musk and most US Republicans and of course Putin
I do fear you may be right in your comments on Farage, but every decent UK citizen needs to repudiate his obnoxious views
We're just as trapped inside a morality bubble as all the Trumpers are on Twitter. A different bubble where we're aware the other bubble exists, have little concept what life inside that other one is like but utterly convinced we're right, they're wrong.
And vice versa.
As the Manics once sang, Freedom of Speech won't Feed My Children. Principle is a Good thing. But only so far, and with the understanding that principles are not universal - only we we choose to make them so AND accept them as such.
Its the same with the Musk fury that some people have. They screech on about how he is a Nazi because they're angry. Then get really really angry when people like me say no he isn't...
We are not hearing so much at the moment from all those republicans who would like to abolish the monarchy and have an elected head of state on the American model. Whatever happened to them?
They never existed? Who on here has ever advocated "an elected head of state on the American model"? It's a crazy idea. We have a parliamentary democracy, if we got rid of the monarchy we would keep the parliamentary democracy and keep a largely ceremonial head of state, similar to Germany, Ireland, Italy etc.
So a nonenity ex politician who sometimes interferes in politics like Higgins, no we will keep the monarchy thanks
Btw after lamenting the dearth of good new TV drama and the “end of the golden age” I am very happy to recommend American Primeval, from Netflix
In some ways it’s a standard modern western but in other ways not. It manages to make everyone slightly villainous - even the heroes - while still get you rooting for the protagonist
The inclusion of the Mormons is genius
It’s so good it’s lasted me from Shanghai to about a mile above Ankara and I’ve still got a couple of eps left
I think people these days watch films for light, fluffy relief.
Over the past couple of weeks I have watched Plane (shocking but satisfying shoot 'em up plane-based drama with Gerard Butler); and 892 (called Breaking on Netflix) which has a tremendous John Boyega as a wronged vet seeking redress.
The latter because of Boyega was elevated above the pulp it would otherwise have been but both are sense-candy and that is what people want from films on the whole these days.
I am unlikely to watch The Brutalist at 3hrs or whatever it is. But if it were, say, a six part limited series on Netflix I'd watch it instantly (episode by episode, that is).
These days when I watch a movie and it is genuinely really good I am actively surprised. Which shows the low state of the art form
Whereas by contrast I generally expect adult tv drama to be at least pretty good - clever story, well written, nicely acted - and I am disappointed when it is not (as with some recent shows we have discussed)
Also I can easily name 10 or even 20 excellent tv drama series of the last two decades
I’d be really hard pushed to do that for movies - I would need some prompting and half of them would be animated
In part this is unfair. Tv dramas play out for seasons and years so have much more potential to root themselves in your psyche and thus your memory. Nonetheless it is an interesting truth
Films I think have followed a similar path to music - the middle is completely hollowed out because of technology. So really two types of films exist now - your indie arthouse movies, which dominated the Oscars this year, are often good (Anora is brilliant) but are often an acquired taste that has to pique your interest. Or blockbusters which are really made to tick certain commercial boxes and be 'events' that get people to the cinema rather than good pieces of filmmaking.
What's died a death is the smart, mid-budget movie about crime, romance, or action. You look at all the well-reviewed films that have died a death at the box office in recent years and they're usually attempts to revive those with a big name star. But that people simply don't watch in enough numbers any more to justify, say a $50-$100 million budget.
You either need it to be a pre-existing franchise - and double the budget - or make your film for a few million and hope it does well at festivals, which necessitates writing your movie for a niche more upmarket audience.
Film's other problem is the streamers came along with deep pockets and an insatiable demand for content and bought up a lot of creatives and talent, and even studios. Even a lot of "award" films are made for television with just a week or two in cinemas to satisfy the rules.
On foreign policy I think I prefer Starmer to Farage at the moment, even if on domestic policy on a forced choice Farage is better than Starmer for me although of course I prefer Kemi to either on both
We are not hearing so much at the moment from all those republicans who would like to abolish the monarchy and have an elected head of state on the American model. Whatever happened to them?
I am an advocate of a republic - I simply so not feel it is right in the 21st Century to have a head of state as someone who dropped out of the right vagina first. I am not sure of what to replace it with but are people that bothered in France? Or Germany? Seem to work ok.
I am sure President Le Pen will work out fine for France in 2 years time
In today’s Playbook by @9andrewmcdonald will there be a Starmer bounce for his handling of Ukraine? Our polling over the weekend suggests maybe early signs of one. Starmer overtakes Farage, on who would make the best PM up 6pts from last week, though none of them still leads.
Off topic, cost of living news. Southern Water have just notified me that they are raising my bill (and everybody else's) by 46.7%. On the email, they didn't actually quote the increase - just said prices are increasing - and it was only by going on their website that I found the 46.7% figure. Is this the norm, I wonder? I knew they were going up, but didn't realise it was that hefty.
Southern are going up more than the rest, 46.7% this year and 53% by 2030. Mine is up by 21% this year.
I'm not sure what happens if inflation increases beyond predictions.
I just received the annual water bill chase up letter for someone I have never heard of, at my address. I have lived here for more than 10 years, and I have no idea who he is. They were informed years ago.
Water companies outsource collection to debt collectors as soon as they default. These companies are fairly aggressive and after a time (6 years) they become time barred. There is a secondary industry that buys these debts for pennies and then send out carefully worded letters to see who might pay up. Same goes for mobile phone debt etc.
There is a bond market in this kind of debt worth billions within Europe.
You either need it to be a pre-existing franchise - and double the budget - or make your film for a few million and hope it does well at festivals, which necessitates writing your movie for a niche more upmarket audience.
I saw a documentary recently about the making of The Rise of Skywalker. Arguably more entertaining than the film itself.
Anyway, when they visit the droid mechanic to have threepio's brain rewired, they enter the building and an old man behind a counter stares at them.
What I didn't realise is the old man is John Williams, the composer.
They didn't just invite him on set and give him a costume. They built an entire set for him. He had been nominated for 51 oscars (at the time). Every single item on the set was a Star Wars-ified object from each of the 51 films.
They spent probably hundreds of thousand of dollars on it.
He appears on screen for 3 seconds.
None of the custom artifacts are visible
This is why movies cost so much...
Not a movie fan at all but it seems to me that a lot of the success/failure of a film rests with the sound track music. John Williams' music has always been top-notch.
Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
TBF Farage came out swinging for Trump.
Perhaps another reason to be optimistic. This screws Farage and Reform's chances of breaking through from a minor (if undeniably influential) side show into a Government in waiting. Even many Brexit supporters are very unhappy with the way Trump and the right in general have treated Ukraine.
I hope so - stopping Reform would be a Good Thing.
My problem remains this: most of the target voters don't really care that much about Ukraine vs their town being shit their bills being sky high and a general sense of being left behind and out of control.
Trump is going to make sizeable changes to the way the US is governed. Farage supports Trump. Farage says "we can make sizeable changes to the way the UK is governed".
Ukraine won't come into it.
I have been busy this morning and just read your post and @Mexicanpete's
Farage only confirms what a danger he is to the western alliance and peace in Ukraine seemingly seeking an abject and unjust surrender by Zelenskyy
Farage sickens me, as does Trump and his bullies, and no matter our political differences we should all unite to back Zelenskyy and Ukraine and reject the far right, whether it is Farage, Trump, Vance, Musk and most US Republicans and of course Putin
I do fear you may be right in your comments on Farage, but every decent UK citizen needs to repudiate his obnoxious views
We're just as trapped inside a morality bubble as all the Trumpers are on Twitter. A different bubble where we're aware the other bubble exists, have little concept what life inside that other one is like but utterly convinced we're right, they're wrong.
And vice versa.
As the Manics once sang, Freedom of Speech won't Feed My Children. Principle is a Good thing. But only so far, and with the understanding that principles are not universal - only we we choose to make them so AND accept them as such.
Its the same with the Musk fury that some people have. They screech on about how he is a Nazi because they're angry. Then get really really angry when people like me say no he isn't...
Nick Ferrari holding Farage's feet to the ambient radiator.
Farage critical of Zelensky, his attire and his mandate. Wants an election now. Thought he deserved the beating on Friday. The fight was always going to happen and Trump will get "good reconciliation".
State visit must go ahead.
Said the Crimea is not going back to Ukraine. It is a very corrupt country.
Very positive on Mandelson's agenda over Ukraine.
Keen to push the agenda against Hamas and immigration. Denied stats on immigration are accurate.
Pleased with Trump's overnight intervention on NFTs.
TBF Farage came out swinging for Trump.
Perhaps another reason to be optimistic. This screws Farage and Reform's chances of breaking through from a minor (if undeniably influential) side show into a Government in waiting. Even many Brexit supporters are very unhappy with the way Trump and the right in general have treated Ukraine.
I hope so - stopping Reform would be a Good Thing.
My problem remains this: most of the target voters don't really care that much about Ukraine vs their town being shit their bills being sky high and a general sense of being left behind and out of control.
Trump is going to make sizeable changes to the way the US is governed. Farage supports Trump. Farage says "we can make sizeable changes to the way the UK is governed".
Ukraine won't come into it.
I have been busy this morning and just read your post and @Mexicanpete's
Farage only confirms what a danger he is to the western alliance and peace in Ukraine seemingly seeking an abject and unjust surrender by Zelenskyy
Farage sickens me, as does Trump and his bullies, and no matter our political differences we should all unite to back Zelenskyy and Ukraine and reject the far right, whether it is Farage, Trump, Vance, Musk and most US Republicans and of course Putin
I do fear you may be right in your comments on Farage, but every decent UK citizen needs to repudiate his obnoxious views
We're just as trapped inside a morality bubble as all the Trumpers are on Twitter. A different bubble where we're aware the other bubble exists, have little concept what life inside that other one is like but utterly convinced we're right, they're wrong.
And vice versa.
As the Manics once sang, Freedom of Speech won't Feed My Children. Principle is a Good thing. But only so far, and with the understanding that principles are not universal - only we we choose to make them so AND accept them as such.
Its the same with the Musk fury that some people have. They screech on about how he is a Nazi because they're angry. Then get really really angry when people like me say no he isn't...
You have a financial interest in not seeing what an anti-democratic psychopath the richest and most powerful person in the world is. Musk may not be a "Nazi", but he supports neo-Nazis. And you support him.
We are not hearing so much at the moment from all those republicans who would like to abolish the monarchy and have an elected head of state on the American model. Whatever happened to them?
It’s no accident that Trump is modelling himself on a monarch, proving monarchies are bad.
Come back to me on how popular the monarchy is when King Charles hosts Trump.
Trump is an elected politician head of state not someone who got his role via birth as he has royal blood (even if being born to a millionaire developer helped him start his business career).
However, if he wants to be a monarch that would be a monarch who is head of government too, not just head of state and ceremonial like Charles III is. Indeed he would prefer the Trumps to be hereditary monarchs in the style of Charles I or Henry VIII ie an absolute monarch (at least until 1649 for the former) and who has real power on tax and spend, law making, borders, going to war etc as English monarchs had until the English civil war and Glorious Revolution, French monarchs had until the French Revolution, Russian Tsars had until the Russian Revolution and where Parliament was not supreme but where Congress largely bows to his wishes too
Btw after lamenting the dearth of good new TV drama and the “end of the golden age” I am very happy to recommend American Primeval, from Netflix
In some ways it’s a standard modern western but in other ways not. It manages to make everyone slightly villainous - even the heroes - while still get you rooting for the protagonist
The inclusion of the Mormons is genius
It’s so good it’s lasted me from Shanghai to about a mile above Ankara and I’ve still got a couple of eps left
I’ve just started Turning Point on Netflix
Very good docuseries on the Cold War
Yes. It’s great
There’s also another in the same sequence about the war on terror - equally good
Comments
To be fair to Nige, maybe this sounded better in the original Russian.
What's died a death is the smart, mid-budget movie about crime, romance, or action. You look at all the well-reviewed films that have died a death at the box office in recent years and they're usually attempts to revive those with a big name star. But that people simply don't watch in enough numbers any more to justify, say a $50-$100 million budget.
You either need it to be a pre-existing franchise - and double the budget - or make your film for a few million and hope it does well at festivals, which necessitates writing your movie for a niche more upmarket audience.
Tiger, Lion, Bear, Leopard, Wolf, Hyena, Aligator and Crocodile are more scary carnivores yet alone Elephants, Hippos and Rhinos and then you’ve got the snakes.
So Jackals just above angry hamsters and foxes so it does work.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yd9qzx79go
I'm not sure what happens if inflation increases beyond predictions.
I just received the annual water bill chase up letter for someone I have never heard of, at my address. I have lived here for more than 10 years, and I have no idea who he is. They were informed years ago.
By four years time the these things are possible:
America no longer has free and fair elections and is a rogue superpower.
Our alliance with them has vanished, with consequences we have hardly begin to take in.
We still have no money and massive and growing debt.
There has been at least one military attack on a currently NATO country.
The nuclear powers of the free world are France and UK.
I hope none of these things come to pass, but there is a clear possible route to each of them. If something like this occurs even the dimmest voter will realise that foreign policy might matter just a bit.
I have to say that I am rather optimistic now about our relationship with the EU and the rest of Europe. As you might remember I won a bet against Richard Navabi (that we would leave) and lost one against him (that we would join EFTA). More than ever now with recent events I am hopeful tat we will get into a trading relationship with Europe along the lines of EFTA. We need to show that we are there when they need us and, whislt of course I wish it were not necessary, this seems like exactly the situation where we can prove ourselves to them.
The Northern Irish stuff was pretty cringe as well.
See Tropic Thunder, both for the acting and where he is deconstructing The Tom Cruise Thing.
Anyway, when they visit the droid mechanic to have threepio's brain rewired, they enter the building and an old man behind a counter stares at them.
What I didn't realise is the old man is John Williams, the composer.
They didn't just invite him on set and give him a costume. They built an entire set for him. He had been nominated for 51 oscars (at the time). Every single item on the set was a Star Wars-ified object from each of the 51 films.
They spent probably hundreds of thousand of dollars on it.
He appears on screen for 3 seconds.
None of the custom artifacts are visible
This is why movies cost so much...
For instance Shogun and Baby Reindeer won GG awards this year, Succession won 3 Golden Globes, Breaking Bad won the GG in 2014, Spacey pre scandal won best GG actor for House of Cards etc.
The Emmys could also rise in importance as it is awards TV shows only not cinema films at all
My problem remains this: most of the target voters don't really care that much about Ukraine vs their town being shit their bills being sky high and a general sense of being left behind and out of control.
Trump is going to make sizeable changes to the way the US is governed. Farage supports Trump. Farage says "we can make sizeable changes to the way the UK is governed".
Ukraine won't come into it.
I’m glad I’m not alone
Every time the black MI6 agent went into action I kept thinking “no way a woman with a butt that big will be able to vault that wall in Budapest”
Which was quite distracting in a bad way and also a shame as she was one of the few decent performers in a generally poor cast
And then there’s the scene where they find “the Hamster’s” huge and elaborate vault of psycho murder hidden under the bidet in Cadiz and he manages to convince her - between his crying jags - that he just does a bit of “industrial espionage” which is “occasionally slightly illegal”
For GDP per capita, I'm sure they'll continue to include government spending.
The reality is that people aren't stupid*. If they lose their job, or their wages don't go as far as they used to, then they notice.
* Well, obviously there are a lot of stupid people.
The messages will be "this is existential to our security, we have to do it" vs "its a long way away, Putin and Trump are offering peace and Starmer et al are wasting taxpayers money abroad". I suspect whilst the former will have more supporters maybe 2:1 or 3:1, there are 3 parties fishing in that lake and 1 in the second.
https://x.com/RoyalFamily/status/1896515215480762373
Farage only confirms what a danger he is to the western alliance and peace in Ukraine seemingly seeking an abject and unjust surrender by Zelenskyy
Farage sickens me, as does Trump and his bullies, and no matter our political differences we should all unite to back Zelenskyy and Ukraine and reject the far right, whether it is Farage, Trump, Vance, Musk and most US Republicans and of course Putin
I do fear you may be right in your comments on Farage, but every decent UK citizen needs to repudiate his obnoxious views
Eg his performance as that crippled Vietnam vet in that war movie about a crippled Vietnam vet whose name escapes me because I have now had two tramadol to get me through this interminable Shanghai flight
He’s superb in that. I guess he just got pigeon holed into making trillions in action movies and there are probably worse pigeon holes TBF
How does us being in or not being in the EU make a difference to the price of oeufs.
Come back to me on how popular the monarchy is when King Charles hosts Trump.
Keir Starmer can stand tall on the world stage thanks to Brexit Britain.
“WTF? WTAF? WTAFF? This is all a sketch, right?” stage.
When some hard, actual numbers hit, I think it will get very… interesting…. Very fast.
I get the impression he just prefers flying helicopters dangerously, and jumping off things, to acting.
If he can get paid to do it, why not ?
As someone said maybe Christian Science has got something going for it after all.
On November 7th, I unwittingly spread misinformation about
@HS2ltd.
I incorrectly said that HS2's Bat Tunnel will cost £100m to build. This was not true. I unreservedly apologise for any confusion. Please retweet.
https://x.com/Sam_Dumitriu/status/1896521212786049457
It's £119m.
Don't cancel the Balmoral bunfight, but encourage Charles to pull a sickie and delegate the Duke of York to run the gig.
budgetSpring Statement in three weeks' time.That's why it went so badly for Nigel.
The Frogs should in theory be bound by it, but they were always much better at ignoring Brussels when it suited them and doing their own thing than we ever were. Had we followed their example in dealing with the EU, we might never have left.
Moved me to tears a couple of times, IIRC - and yes you completely forget it is Tom cruise
He’s like an action movie version of Daniel Craig or Hugh Grant - he’s been doing the same kind of movie so long you forget that underneath it there is a fine and gifted actor
On the second take it goes perfectly, and everyone is high fiving, and the Director says "it's a wrap".
And then Tom Cruise says "you know, I could hold onto the motorcycle for a few seconds longer, let's do it again"
And the insurance company is bricking themselves, because they're on the hook for about $100m if Cruise injures himself.
He's quite mad. In a good way.
It’s just that for this kind of popcorn movie that’s exactly what you want.
He’s 80s action man, but upgraded with the Empathy and Emotion modules installed.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1jp55w540zo
Bit of a stretch even for old Nige.
Very different from Farage
Double everyone's rent and simultaneously increase housing benefit to exactly cover it. No-one is any better or worse off but there's a ton of new money going through the books.
All economic statistics are rubbish.
And vice versa.
As the Manics once sang, Freedom of Speech won't Feed My Children. Principle is a Good thing. But only so far, and with the understanding that principles are not universal - only we we choose to make them so AND accept them as such.
Its the same with the Musk fury that some people have. They screech on about how he is a Nazi because they're angry. Then get really really angry when people like me say no he isn't...
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2023/06/23/stephen-collins-president-higgins-may-have-opened-a-pandoras-box/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Very good docuseries on the Cold War
https://x.com/LukeTryl/status/1896470864511803681
There is a bond market in this kind of debt worth billions within Europe.
However, if he wants to be a monarch that would be a monarch who is head of government too, not just head of state and ceremonial like Charles III is. Indeed he would prefer the Trumps to be hereditary monarchs in the style of Charles I or Henry VIII ie an absolute monarch (at least until 1649 for the former) and who has real power on tax and spend, law making, borders, going to war etc as English monarchs had until the English civil war and Glorious Revolution, French monarchs had until the French Revolution, Russian Tsars had until the Russian Revolution and where Parliament was not supreme but where Congress largely bows to his wishes too
https://x.com/AdamBienkov/status/1896500522242506979
I cannot think of a policy better pitched to lose you all your momentum and support than this.
There’s also another in the same sequence about the war on terror - equally good