Mini Holiday Break

Long weekend thanks to the Martin Luther King holiday. Took the opportunity to get out of town and relax. Been unplugged for a few days so I need to keep up on my feeds. Decided to go to Palm Springs for the weekend. Great trip and some photos to post later. Trying to catch up on the West Wing and the Italian league football. Thanks to Tivo, I can have a life and watch what I missed during the week whilst I post and read RSS.

Post weekend wrap up to come tomorrow. It's nice to be back home and tapping my wireless signal.

Movies I saw this weekend:

Casanova

Match point

I liked Casanova. Lasse Hallstrom did a good job of bringing the legend to the screen. Jeremy Irons is in classic form and Oliver Platt is excellent as well. Sienna miller and Heath Ledger round up a good cast. I like historical comedies and Casanova is a great story.

Woody Allen never ceases to amaze. At one point you write him off with his lackluster showing over the last few years (he has the luxury of making a film a year) but this years effort, Match Point is a deviation of his cookie cutter style and it is a good one. The classic simple titles that cost about $2.50 to produce and the catalogue operatic score that I am sure was in the public domain, starts the film in the usual woody style. But we can see he is not in the film and it is not set in NY. Aside from the move to new locations, I feel Match Point has thematic elements and the Woody feel. The plot reminded me of "Crimes and Misdemeanors" with a refresh of a young cast that lack the power of a Landau/huston punch. The cast is on point and if were not a Woody fan, you probably would not catch the Woodyisms of the plot.

I like the change of scene. Is London the new New York? Is Europe going to be the Woody Allen domain? Have we had enough of New York movies?

I hope Allen continues to explore his craft as he gets older. I think we can see some interesting movies from him.

A post script to this is that Allen put himself in the movie without acting. How? He casted Ewen Bremner, the Scottish actor who played Spud in Trainspotting. He has a very Woodyesq quality that I think made the film not so dramatic without taking the power from it.