The Medallion

I went to a movie on Friday: The Medallion. Jackie Chan's latest movie.

I am not a big fan of Jackie Chan's movies, though I rather like the screen persona of Jackie Chan himself. I like him and admire his performances without necessarily liking the movies he's in - remember, I'm not a big fan of comedies.

But. I think each of his movies is better than the last. This had some charming parody of stuff I do like - James Bond, The Avengers, British spy-thrillers in general.

Bottom line: it made me laugh.

Things I liked about it:

• Jackie Chan himself, whom I always find personable, and I like his low-key brand of hero who never exhibits a high-level ego.
  
• The Irish setting. One chase scene takes place around Trinity College, involving a lot of street corners that Beulah and I recognized.
  
• The corny ancient-Eastern-medallion magic administered by a lama-like kid who barely speaks - shades of Dr. Strange!
  
• The funniest bit to my ears was a wonderful scene of gay parody where Jackie Chan as Eddie Yang is having an argument with his Irish colleague Arthur Watson (played by Lee Evans) where it sounds to everyone in the office as if they're a pair of gay lovers having a tiff. Quite hilarious.
  
• I liked the villain, Snakehead (isn't that a name out of Dick Tracy?), played with grim one-dimensionality by Julian Sands. He looked good, and had the best clothes, in a sort of Irish-comic-book way, and he lived in a great ruined castle overhanging the ocean. The stairs in the castle were Escher-like: in some scenes the super-powered characters are walking up/down the stairs from the underside. Now, I have never seen stairs anything like that in any castle, magical or otherwise, but that's okay: it made for some interesting visuals. I have, in fact, had that exact particular scenario in recurring dreams. I wonder if other people dream about stairs.
  
• I thought the women were nicely depicted, without sexism, but without making them act just like men, either.
  

Solitude

Smallville challenge #19 at svdodecals: "Write about a first kiss, or what leads up to it, or what follows it. You may use any of the Smallville characters." I too am using this as a challenge (or an excuse?) to pair unlikely characters.

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Solitude


There was a light shining in the Fortress of Solitude.

Lana knew it wasn't Clark, who had left Smallville for good. She walked into the barn anyway, feeling renewed hope as she climbed the stairs.

Jonathan sat hunched on Clark's sofa, looking down at his hands on his knees. Lana hid her disappointment as he looked up. "Lana? Clark isn't here." His voice shook. "He's gone."

Lana knew what burden of pain and guilt could make a man like Jonathan cry. Overcome with pity, she impulsively wrapped her arms around him. He buried his face against her breast as she held him. It didn't feel wrong: just a woman comforting a man for shared loss.

Jonathan looked up. "Lana?"

She kissed him, for comfort. The startled, dry kiss slowly became warmer.

She broke away. Clark's father? No!

"Lana?" Sadness filled his eyes.

She fled.

Dichotic

Tonight Beulah and I watched the Smallville episode "Dichotic".

When I first saw this episode, I hated it with a passion for several reasons. This time round, it didn't seem quite so bad. I still disliked Ian Randall as a character, and hated all the scenes featuring him, but there were a few redeeming moments. I liked Lex better than I had initially: he didn't seem so out of character as I remembered. I had disliked Helen Bryce on first viewing, but here, compared to later episodes, she had some charm and wit - albeit awful make-up. I don't like her looks at all. What, would I be bitter because Clark has a rival in Lex's affections? Not at all. I liked Victoria, Desiree and Carrie Castle as characters. It isn't as if any of these women are good enough for Lex.

I quite liked the last scene, where Clark declares that he has never dated either Chloe and Lana and wants to be just friends. It does bug me that neither girl admits or acknowledges that clark just saved their lives - has this escaped their notice? - but it's nice to have Clark assert himself when they are both being idiots, and nice to see him declare a lack of interest in them romantically. Too bad that changed.

All in all, I didn't hate it this time. But "Dichotic" will never be on my list of favourites.

All That Jazz

Yesterday I watched (on DVD) the wonderful movie, "All That Jazz", from 1979.

I'd seen it when it first came out. I'd remembered snatches: most of all I remembered its superb quality, the combination of style and depth, a musical with bite.

It's autobiographical: choreographer Bob Fosse wrote it after he had a heart attack. It's an overview of his life from the perspective of his death. Putting it that way makes it sound less clever than it is.... Let me try again.

All brilliant creative artists are crazy: it goes with the territory. The artist in this case is Joe Gideon, a successful Broadway choreographer, who is working obasessively on a new show while juggling his relationships with his ex-wife, his beloved but often-ignored young daughter, his current steady girlfriend, a few girls in the chorus he's finding time to sleep with, his producers, and - Death: a beautiful, serene woman in white who is helping him to contemplate his life. I wondered if this Death had any influence on Neil Gaiman's personification of death, though of course his Death, though female, wears black and is perky rather than serene.

I love everything in this movie: the spectacular dance numbers, the pacing, juxtaposition of humour and tragedy, the non-judgemental examination of the cruelty of genius and the demands of creation. Between drugs and drink and work and sex, Joe Gideon drives himself to death: conclusions are left for the viewer to make. Is the price of being a genius worth it, or not?

We discussed the theme a little afterwards. maboroshimaki thought the movie might be Bob Fosse's apology for his life. I didn't see apology: I saw explanation - "This is my life. This is how it looked from my point of view." He isn't easy on himself, but he isn't excoriating, either.

Rod Scheider's performance is wonderful. I was also most impressed with young Erzsebet Foldi, who plays his young daughter Michelle. It seems this was the only movie she ever made.

Sheriff Ethan

This dodecal was a rogue outlaw event, posted shamelessly to svdodecals without being an official challenge topic. Nothing in the rules says I can do that, but nothing in the rules says I can't either - ! We'll see if anyone minds.

Though there was no official challenge, there was a challenge. blackbyrde and I dared each other to write dodecals featuring two randomly chosen characters - we each picked one. For the first extracurricular challenge, we picked Pete Ross and Sheriff Ethan.

Here's what I wrote.

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Sheriff Ethan

Clark drove up to the courthouse steps and Pete hopped in. "Geez, Clark, you're only fifteen minutes late. You're in danger of being punctual."

"Something happened," apologized Clark. "I can't use superspeed with the truck."

"Well, I got stuck talking to Sheriff Ethan, out on bail now. He's creepy." Pete glanced sideways at Clark. "He was talking to me about you."

"Yeah?"

"He said you were after him because you and Lex were, you know."

"What?"

"More than friends."

"Oh?"

"I told him he was nutsoid."

"Oh."

Pete stared at Clark in horror. "Shit! I just lied for you again, didn't I? Ethan isn't crazy. You and Lex are doing it."

"Pete -"

"Clark, he's a dickhead!"

The truck squealed to a stop. "Pete!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. He's a prince and you're just a crazy alien in love."

"You got that right," said Clark.

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