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Consumer and Market Insights: Ice Cream in Hong Kong
A positive economic growth and high incomes of consumers is driving the Ice Cream market in Hong Kong. The market is led by the 'Take-Home and Bulk Ice Cream' category in both Off-trade and On-trade volume consumption. The 'Impulse Ice Cream - Single Serve' category is forecast to register fastest growth in Off-trade sales during 2015-2020. On-trade sales account for the highest distribution share of Ice Cream in the country. General Mills, Inc., Nestle S.A. and Unilever Plc are the leading players in Hong Kong's Ice Cream market.
Key Findings
The Ice Cream market in Hong Kong is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 3.7% in US$ terms during 2015-2020
Hong Kong's consumers are opting for value for money products in the Ice Cream market
The 'Take-Home and Bulk Ice Cream' category accounts for the highest Off-trade & On-trade volume consumption in Hong Kong
On-trade sales account for the majority distribution share in Artisanal Ice Cream And 'Take-Home and Bulk Ice Cream' categories
Häagen-Dazs is the leading brand in the 'Take-Home and Bulk Ice Cream' category in Hong Kong
Flexible Packaging is the most commonly used packaging material in Hong Kong's Ice Cream market
Consumer and Market Insights report on the Ice Cream market in Hong Kong provides insights on high growth categories to target, trends in the usage of packaging materials, types and closures category level distribution data and brands market shares.
What else is contained?
Market data: Overall market value and volume data with growth analysis for 2010-2020
Category coverage: Value and growth analysis for Artisanal Ice Cream, Impulse Ice Cream - Single Serve, and Take-Home and Bulk Ice Cream with inputs on individual segment share within each category and the change in their market share forecast for 2015-2020
Leading players: Market share of brands and private labels, private label growth analysis during 2012-2015
Distribution data: Percentage of sales within each category through distribution channels such as Hypermarkets & Supermarkets, Convenience Stores, Food & Drinks Specialists, On-trade and others in 2015
Packaging data: consumption breakdown for packaging materials and containers in each category, in terms of percentage share of number of units sold. Packaging material data for Flexible Packaging, Paper & Board and Rigid Plastics; container data for: Bag/Sachet, Tub and Wrapper
Reasons To Buy
Identify high potential categories and explore further market opportunities based on detailed value and volume analysis
Existing and new players can analyze key distribution channels to identify and evaluate trends and opportunities
Gain an understanding of the total competitive landscape based on detailed brand share analysis to plan effective market positioning
Learn how to effectively navigate the market research process to help guide your organization on the journey to success.Download eBook


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Every great trilogy knocks you out with the first one, takes it up a notch with the second one and then blows you away with the final chapter. There a few great trilogies. Many fail at the second hurdle let alone the final one. But not Adrian McKinty. The Sean Duffy books are a truly great trilogy and destined to become a classic of the crime genre and the third and the final volume is the best yet.
Things were not looking good for our hero at the end of I Hear The Sirens In The Streets. Sean Duffy had been demoted out of CID and dispatched to the border lands. His career in the police force appeared to be over. That is until a mass breakout occurs from the infamous Maze Prison in September, 1983. One of the IRA's most dangerous men, Dermot McCann, is on the loose and planning a campaign of terror against Britain. MI5 are prepared to do anything to bring him in, including giving Sean his old job back.
Sean has a connection to Dermot but no one is giving anybody up in Northern Ireland. Sean's digging instead leads him to an unsolved murder. A locked room mystery that has got everybody stumped. But the key to unearthing Dermot's whereabouts maybe be found in unlocking this seemingly unsolvable mystery.
As with the previous two books McKinty skillfully blends humour and the grim realities of living in war torn Belfast in 1984 with a gripping, realistic mystery. Sean Duffy is perfectly flawed and damaged but determined to do the right thing, even if that means doing a couple of wrong things. It is a tragedy that this series must come to an end because what McKinty has been able to produce has been quite special and he has taken his writing to a new level. There's a fine line between social commentary and compelling mystery and not many writers, crime or literary, can do both. McKinty has not only been able to pull it off brilliantly but he has done so over three amazing books.
I'm going to miss Sean Duffy but I also can't wait to see where Adrian McKinty goes next.

subset: commoncrawl


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B.o.B Thinks The Earth Is Flat On His Neil DeGrasse Tyson "Diss Track"
The new leader of freethinking has arrived. And his name is B.o.B.
You have no idea how much I needed this today. When I heard that B.o.B was blasting tweets with claims that the earth was flat, I knew we were being trolled for 3 reasons:
1. We settled this before the United States even existed.
2. When was the last time B.o.B released anything that was heard by anyone other than his (clearly lacking) own people.
3. Tila Tequila(!) shares the same lack of first grade education.
I'm not entirely sure of what got B.o.B on this train of thought (blame it on the weed if you will), but what could only be a really early and misguided April Fools' Day prank got very real very quick.
Here are a few of his "proofs" that the earth is flat:
Then he dove right into government conspiracy theories.
And I get it. The X-Files are back on air. Just 2 episodes in, the conspiracy theory factor is already off the charts. This alone may have you questioning everything a bit more than usual. But this?!? Nawl.
Then I heard the "diss track" aimed at none other than Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
It was then that I knew B.o.B was in a real bad way and needed our help. Let's setup a GoFundMe campaign for this unfortunate soul because he has clearly been cut off from his sanity like John Singleton's son Maasai was cutoff from his father's bank roll.
Ignoring the track's false bravado and Holocaust denial for rationality's sake, B.o.B seriously spent time in a studio writing and recording lyrics to come for Neil DeGrasse Tyson. When you start a rap beef with an astrophysicist over scientific facts, the time has come to reevaluate your life.
It's funny how celebrities that have fallen off seem to have a propensity for either going to the furthest lengths imaginable for a little bit of publicity or completely losing their minds along with their fame. I'm not sure which is the case in this situation, but in either case, this man deserves our sympathy.
B.o.B is the type of person who puts his checker piece at the other end of the board and says "king me", but you reply "we're playing chess." There is no reasoning with this type of individual.
And as bad as I feel for all the easily influenced folk that are actually agreeing with this fool, I feel the worst for the real victim here: Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I just know he is somewhere in front of his computer looking like this
recounting this talk
screaming things like this
and muttering this before throwing his hands up and walking away.
He's tired of having to deal with the half-wits, people. Give the man a break.
Want More Convos Like This One?
Daren W. Jackson
Latest posts by Daren W. Jackson (see all)
- Is asking for more from Black art asking for too much? - May 22, 2020
- Why the Grammys don't matter anymore - February 15, 2019
- Y'all aren't checking for the Emmys anymore, and it's about time - September 24, 2018
- ABC doesn't deserve kudos for canceling 'Roseanne' - May 29, 2018
- An open letter to Donald Glover, Childish Gambino, and his anti-Black "This Is America" video - May 14, 2018


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Hot Chocolate Custard Puds
Member recipe by mariamtherese
ServingsServes 6
A little chocolate goes a long way in these brilliantly easy puddings that are low fat and saturated fat. Kids will love them too.
This recipe has been submitted by the Good Food community. Sign in or create a My Good Food account to upload your own recipe creations. Please note that all recipes will be moderated but they are not tested in the Good Food kitchen.
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for oiling
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 100g/4oz self raising flour
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 50g/2oz golden caster sugar
- 100ml skimmed milk
- 1 egg
- for the chocolate custard
- 2x150g pots low fat custard
- 25g/1oz plain chocolate chopped
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees/fan gas 3. Brush six holes of a muffin tin with a drop of oil. sieve the cocoa in a large bowl along with the rest of the dry ingredients. Stir to combine and make a well in the middle.
- Beat the milk, egg and oil together in a jug, pour into the well in the dry ingredients then stir quickly to make a batter. Spoon into the muffin tin and bake for 15 mins.
- Heat the custard in the microwave according to the packet instructions, or in a pan, then tip in the chopped chocolate and stir until smooth. Turn the pudding into bowls and pour the custard over.


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On Monday, in a speech billed as his first major policy address, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hailed "the coming pressure campaign on the Iranian regime." Echoing his boss, Pompeo painted an image of Iranian militias and agendas running rampant across the Middle East. And, like Trump, he denigrated the previous administration's diplomatic overtures to the Islamic Republic as a losing "bet."
"We will track down Iranian operatives and their Hezbollah proxies operating around the world and crush them. Iran will never again have carte blanche to dominate the Middle East," Pompeo said before outlining a list of blunt demands of the Iranian regime that included halting development of ballistic missiles and ending support for militant proxies.
While many American allies in Europe would also like to see the defanging of the Iranian regime, few would consider Pompeo's demands as part of a coherent strategy or a viable Plan B to compensate for the collapse of the nuclear deal.
"The list of requirements of the Iranians asks for everything but conversion to Christianity and reads more like a demand for unconditional surrender than an actual attempt at negotiation," Jeremy Shapiro, the research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said to my colleagues.
Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, sneered at Pompeo's speech, calling it a "regression to old habits" by a bullying superpower.
Federica Mogherini, the European Union's foreign-policy chief, issued a more polite but no less stern rebuke. "The JCPOA was never designed to address all issues in the relationship with Iran," Mogherini said in a statement, using the official abbreviation for the nuclear agreement. "Secretary Pompeo's speech has not demonstrated how walking away from the JCPOA has made or will make the region safer from the threat of nuclear proliferation or how it puts us in a better position to influence Iran's conduct in areas outside the scope of JCPOA. There is no alternative to the JCPOA."
"This is the Trump administration making an offer Iran can only refuse, and was made in order for Iran to refuse," tweeted Rob Malley, the president of the International Crisis Group. "Risks of regional escalation, already high, just got higher."
Stephen Walt, a Harvard professor of international affairs, suggested Pompeo's demands echoed "the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia in 1914," which prefigured World War I.
Undeterred, Pompeo used the tough words of a hawk who bitterly opposed the nuclear deal and has a history of advocating regime change in Tehran. "The Iranian regime should know that this is just the beginning," he warned on Monday. "After our sanctions come into full force, it will be battling to keep its economy alive."
But it isn't clear how the new program of U.S. sanctions will be any more stifling than the ones slapped on Iran by the Obama administration to bring Tehran to the table. Few experts believe that the Trump administration can cobble together the same kind of multilateral front that coaxed Iran into curbing its uranium enrichment activities and submitting to international inspections.
"After Trump's decision earlier this month to trash effective and verifiable agreement that had near universal international support, other states have little motivation to support a new U.S. sanctions regime," noted Kelsey Davenport, the director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association. "The United States is not going to get that level of support this time around — not even for its own sanctions."
Of course, some of Trump's key aides simply aren't that invested in the diplomatic path the White House is supposedly laying out.
John Bolton, Trump's new national security adviser, argued in the Wall Street Journal in 2009 that sanctions on Iran wouldn't work because other major powers wouldn't sign up for them (he was proved quite wrong) and they wouldn't change the behavior of the regime's more hard-line elements (he may be on firmer ground here). Many of the administration's critics believe Bolton, as well as Pompeo, would rather skip straight to military action.
Bolton is also casting a shadow on the White House's North Korea gambit. Though Trump is keen on the potential publicity and TV buzz generated by the planned June 12 meeting with Kim, White House aides have started to fear what many analysts had assumed: North Korea is not actually serious about striking a deal in Singapore. Few Korea watchers or arms-control experts believed Pyongyang would actually surrender its nukes, and some worried that hawkish figures at the White House were deliberately setting up the talks to fail.
Bolton, in particular, has been singled out for his saber-rattling against North Korea — not just in Pyongyang, but also in Seoul. "In South Korea, many people, regardless of their political orientation, are not fond of John Bolton," a senior official close to the South Korean president told my colleague Anna Fifield. "He seems to think the U.S. can fight another war on the Korean Peninsula, so from our perspective, as the people living on the Korean Peninsula, he is very dangerous."
It's unclear what the maximalist stance struck by Bolton and Pompeo will achieve other than pushing the countries closer to military conflict. In the meantime, Trump may end up looking weak by meeting Kim.
"The White House might be talking about maximum pressure," wrote arms-control expert Jeffrey Lewis, "but what's really happening is that it is moving to accommodate Kim, offering him the recognition he always believed nuclear weapons would bring."
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Natalie came for a photo shoot for her 40th birthday. After an amazing photo session in
After an amazing photo session in studio we joined the boys at the beach for a family portrait.
Here is what Natalie says about all the experience:
"My family and I had a photo shoot with Rasa for my 40th birthday. I am so thrilled with the photos: beautiful memories to treasure, all presented so perfectly. Rasa really does have a great talent: not only in her exceptional artistic flair, but also in her ability put people at ease (children especially), in order to bring out their unique beauty and make them shine. The thoughtful little details, like the video slide-show she makes for when you come to view the photos, bring a touch of magic to the whole experience. I can't recommend her enough!"


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If you love our G*lf hat, you will love this shirt. The newest edition to our G*lf collection, this 100% cotton, crew neck T-Shirt features our popular G*LF graphic. For those days when golf is a four letter word - you need this shirt. Shown here in White color.
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Shop the collection made up of your favorite G*LF designs.


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Most people don't appreciate two basic facts about the stock market: all stocks have a 52-week high and low, and in the long term the stock market has always gone up.
The Dow Jones hit its all-time low in 1931 when it fell to 31 – today 87 years later it's almost 26,000. Just in the last 8 years, the Dow Jones has risen from 6,500 to almost 26,000.
Along the way there have been many stock market ups and downs that cause stress and uncertainty for the average investor. But not for those savvy investors who know how to profit from these ups and downs.
These trends have always existed so why not use an investing method to take advantage of this? I thought of a contrary investing method that logically tells a person to buy low and sell high would be the best way to invest.
Here's an example of a great dip: in 2009 during the financial meltdown you could buy a share of American Express stock for $9 a share – today 8 years later a share of American Express sells for $99 a share!
I found a great contrary investing method when I discovered Robert Lichello's Automatic Investing Management (AIM) method. One unique feature of his method is that it keeps half of your investment in cash so you have money to buy when the stock market goes down.
Since an investing method is only useful if it is making high profits I made changes to the AIM method. I found that long-term options (LEAPS) on safe stocks like Dow Jones stocks worked very well. My LEAPS portfolio of 10 Dogs of the Dow stocks (10 Dow stocks with highest dividends) is up 275% in 4 years. $60,000 has grown to $225,000, and I've kept roughly half the portfolio in cash the entire time.
This contrary investing method will work forever and it loves big recessions and bear markets. In fact you will make a lot more profits long-term because of great buying opportunities during recessions when the herd goes crazy and sell emotionally.
Contact me to get one of my investing books and the first year free for my investing newsletter. Learn a safe way to invest that will give you the future retirement you want and deserve.


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This show sure has removed certain elements of the show with some more ease then they previously suggested would be possible (Like Constance & Juan Carlo). Welcome to the Wynonna Earp season 2 episode 9 "Forever Mine Nevermind" spoilerific reaction thread, where you can share your thoughts on the show as it plays out or after it's done.
If you have any reviews you want to share, post them done in the comments and I'll throw them up here.
Question of the Night:
Did you miss Bobo?
Get Peacemaker ready, because these spoiler revenents are tough!!!


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The temperature seemed a little cooler on our morning walk. Maybe the worst of Summer is over. I asked Janet how long we'd been doing these pre-dawn very slow walks with Dot. Neither of us could remember. It seems like we have been doing them forever. It also seems like we've always has a huge collection of non-skid throw rugs scattered throughout the house. I've almost forgotten what the house looked like before. So much has changed and yet we still have the same armadillo tearing up the yard and and the same spiders building a huge network of webs on our back porch. I guess it's easier to remember the things that stay the same than it is to remember all the changes we've made along the way to adapt to our aging dogs.
I decided to go back to taking Benicar because the other blood pressure medication I had selected as a substitute has been giving me a nagging cough. When I renewed my Benicar prescription, I was irritated to discover that the cost of had gone up even further. I used to pay $40 for a thirty day supply and now the cost has jumped to over a $100. Medicare Part D apparently wants everyone to take a generic ACE inhibitor to control blood pressure. It's three or four dollars a month for the drug the government likes and a $100 a month for the drug my doctor prefers. Oh, well. Maybe that cough isn't so bad. It is frustrating that these rules are so arbitrary. I'm sure it's all more about money than it is about health. Medicare Part D doesn't seem to like Welchol either, even though it a safe and effective way to lower high cholesterol. I'd rather take Welchol than statins, but once again, you pay a big penalty if the government doesn't like the same meds your doctor prescribes.
I've gotten hooked on buying Keurig coffee pods. Every time I see a new dark roast flavor, I want to pick up a box and try it out. I saw some Cuban Roast pods today and bought a box, even though the kitchen cabinets are already overflowing with Keurig pods. It's too bad you can't buy these things a few at a time. Generally I've been lucky, but if you buy a box of 80 pods to get a bargain price and then discover that don't like the flavor, you're kind of stuck. I think I'll like the Cuban coffee though. Maybe I'll brew some tomorrow morning. I wonder if you can brew espresso using the Keurig machine? Some mornings I feel like having an espresso, but I don't feel like dragging the old espresso machine out of the storage warehouse and bringing it home again.
I was bored this evening and watched the "Blink" episode of Dr. Who again. I think I've seen this show four or five times now but I still like it. Blink, the tenth episode in the third series, was one of the best scripts that Steven Moffat ever wrote. The Weeping Angels are certainly strange monsters, but they are still pretty creepy. I think this show, along with the one where the Doctor visits Vincent Van Gogh, are my favorites.
It's time to give the dogs their evening meds, but they are both sleeping so peacefully that I hesitate to wake them. Janet is still at a party with friends. Maybe I'll just wait until they hear her car in the driveway. That will wake them up. Hard to believe that it's already time to go to the gym again. A week goes by pretty quickly these days.
|Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day
|Watch of the Day


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Access Bank Plc is a remarkable story of the transformation of a small obscure Nigerian Bank into an African financial institution of note; with emerging footprints on the international banking landscape. Access Bank today is one of the top 10 largest banks in Nigeria in terms of asset base. A phenomenal accomplishment considering its antecedents…
The Beginning (1988 – 2002)December 19, 1988: Access Bank was issued a banking licenseFebruary 8, 1989: Access Bank incorporated as a privately owned commercial bankMay 11, 1989: Access Bank commenced operations at its Burma Road, Apapa Head Office.March 24, 1998: Access Bank became a Public Limited Liability Company.November 18, 1998: Access Bank listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange.February 5, 2001: Access Bank obtained a Universal Banking License from the Central Bank of Nigeria
The Rebirth The Board of Directors appointed Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede as MD/CEO and Herbert Wigwe as Deputy Managing Director. The mandate was clear: "Reposition the bank to one of Nigeria's leading financial institutions within a five - year period (March 2002 – March 2007)" This task was perceived by many as audacious, given the realities of the Bank at the time. Also appointed to the Board was Mr. Gbenga Oyebode who brought commendable board experience gathered from some of Nigeria's leading companies, such as MTN Nigeria, Okomu Oil Palm Plc. The new management then articulated a transformation agenda for Access Bank Plc. This agenda represented a complete departure from all that characterized the bank in the past and became the road map for the transformation of the bank into a world class financial institution. The focus was to:
The impact of the transformation agenda was reflected in the first year. The bank grew its balance sheet by 100% and posted an impressive N1 billion profit before tax. The profit before tax figure was more than the cumulative profit made by the bank in the previous 12 years. This also marked the beginning of what would be a 6 year record triple digit growth trend. Similarly, earnings per share had rebounded to 21 kobo from a negative 2 kobo position, leading to a declaration of a 5 kobo dividend to shareholders for the first time in 3 years.
1. We offer a total value package, with customized services designed to suit your individual requirements; Savings Accounts, Current Accounts, Loans...
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Sunday, May 31, 2015
Recent Watches: 22 Jump Street (2014)
the Channing Tatum Redemption Tour, which is still on-going, I guess? It helped establish Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as miracle workers and new nerd favorite auteur. When a sequel was announced, expectations were actually running high. And then the most unexpected thing happened. Lord and Miller bested the odds twice. "22 Jump Street" was as well-received as its predecessor and an even bigger commercial hit.
After the successful bust at the end of the first movie, Schmidt and Jenko have a disastrous run as undercover cops. Hoping to cover their losses, the guys are put on a mission that's extremely similar to their previous one. Instead of going undercover at a high school, they go undercover at a college. They are investigating the death of a student from a new fad drug sweeping the nation. Both get in too deep with their cover identities… Again. Their friendship is tested… Again. They uncover a deeper conspiracy around the drug plot… Again. And they comment on the similarities along the way.
the next thirty "21 Jump Street" movies, including the tie-in cartoon, video game, and toy line.
While the first movie riffed on high school movies, the sequel riffs on college movies. Channing Tatum is quickly accepted by the football team. He has an immediate relationship with a fellow jock named Zook. The movie plays the football games for ultimate hilarity, via deadpan narration and a reoccurring gag about the goal post. This climaxes with a chase scene involving a football helmet shaped car and parkour, which is riotous. Schmidt, meanwhile, gets involved with the art scene and meets an adorable new girlfriend. This aspect allows for some brilliantly surreal bits, like the identical twin stoners or the harsh roommate who throws age-related barbs at Schmidt. There are so many jokes that it's hard to keep track of them. What about Patton Oswalt's cameo as a baffling professor? Or Schmidt learning about sexuality equality for the first time, which plays out fantastically? Or a room decorating montage? Or the utterly surreal drug trip? Or frat initiation montage? I could go on.
And, hey, how about that supporting cast? Has Ice Cube ever been better used? His mid-movie freak-out is amazing, especially once he goes to town on that chicken. Another impressive thing about the film is that Jonah Hill and Amber Stevens, as love interest Maya, have genuinely good romantic chemistry. The amazingly dead-pan Jillian Bell has a special way with her vicious one-liners. And then the movie somehow got Peter Stormare as the main baddie, who plays it entirely straight.
Sony's plans to build a whole franchise around it? Well, yeah, but all of Sony's franchise plans are terrible. I don't think that will diminishes the hilarity of "22 Jump Street." [8/10]
Posted by Bonehead XL at 11:14 AM No comments:
Labels: buddy cops, comedy, meta meta meta, recent watches
Recent Watches: 21 Jump Street (2012)
reboot." Despite sequels and prequels making huge money at the box office, remaking something (which is what "reboot" has basically come to mean) is seen as an act of creative bankruptcy. Remaking an old TV show with little cultural recognition or relevance is seen as especially bankrupt. So when a movie reboot of "21 Jump Street" was announced, people didn't expect much. When it was announced that the movie was going to a comical take on the series, people weren't exactly excited about that either, considering recent examples of such attempts were less then stellar. Maybe such lowered expectations is why "21 Jump Street" became a sleeper commercial and critical hit. The film, along with "The Lego Movie," has turned Phil Lord and Christopher Miller into the guys who can make surprisingly funny, subversive things from dubious ideas. After hearing everyone, friends and critics alike, rave about the movie for three years, I finally decided to watch it.
In high school, Schmidt and Jenko were at opposite ends of the popularity pool. Schmidt was a chubby, awkward nerd. Jenko was a confident jock. A few years later, the two meet in police academy and become unexpected friends. Largely incompetent as cops, Schmidt and Jenko get assigned to a revived undercover program from the eighties. In order to track down the distributor of a new drug that is ravaging the street, Schmidt and Jenko will go undercover as high school students. Once inside, the two get carried away with their mission, make a mess of things, and discover that high school is different then either remember.
Part of the problem is that "21 Jump Street" is trying to be multiple things. In addition to being a high school comedy, the movie is also looking to parody the explosion-heavy content of action flicks. A low-stakes bicycle chase through the park is filmed like a Michael Bay-lensed chase scene. When the actual car chases happens later, the movie tosses amusing subversion at the characters. Because of traffic on the freeway, they frequently have to stop and change vehicles. Twice, a car looks like it's about to explode. It doesn't and when an explosion does happen, it's under the least expected, most ridiculous circumstances. The bloody finale features the characters' incompetence getting them in deep shit, a limousine chase, a fairly ironic massive explosion, a smartly deployed one-liner, and castration via bullet. As a goof on over-the-top action flicks, "21 Jump Street" is smarter and more consistently funny.
the tiresome story arc of every buddy flick. When Jonah becomes more popular at school, it isolates Tatum, who feels left out and abandoned. The two buddies come to blows, getting expelled from school. This sets them up for their last act chance to redeem themselves. Considering "21 Jump Street" is so self-aware, I'm surprised that it would employ such a stodgy plot development.
So is "21 Jump Street" funny? Yeah, sure. The movie has a meta, self-aware edge that is used smartly. Nick Offerman plays the cop that reassigns Schmidt and Jenko, talking about how the bosses are out of ideas if they're recycling ideas from eighties. A surprise appearance from Johnny Depp is a hilarious reveal. The supporting cast is great, including a delightfully silly Rob Riggle and an out-of-control Ice Cube. The movie has several inspired and surreal gags. A sudden fight at a party ends with a funny surprise. A scuffle during a performance of "Peter Pan" escalates nicely. A reoccurring gag about Korean Jesus got me to chuckle. There's lots of belly laugh-inducing dialogue. However, some bigger gags fall flat. An extended drug trip is oddly laughless, even with cat heads and ice cream cones. The movie is full of vulgar-for-vulgar's sake jokes. There's references to balls, dicks, assholes, fucking, gay panic, so on and so forth. The movie finds a lot of this juvenile stuff far more amusing then the viewer does. In the spirit of any laugh-fests, there are hundreds of jokes that land and a few more that don't.
Posted by Bonehead XL at 7:00 AM No comments:
Labels: buddy cops, comedy, meta meta meta, recent watches
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Recent Watches: The Other Guys (2010)
The Other Guys" was announced, I wasn't super excited. I've always found Adam McKay to be slightly overrated as a filmmaker. Will Ferrell is an inconsistent talent to say the least, who too frequently has fallen back on his usual, scream-y schtick. Mark Wahlberg, meanwhile, makes as many bad films as he does good film. "The Other Guys," defying all these expectations, turned out to be a really interesting, multi-layered satire. It didn't connect with audiences but quickly developed a following.
In a New York City police precinct, two cops rule: Highsmith and Danson. When the hero cops die unexpectedly though, the precinct is left looking for a new hero. That duo emerges from the office's most disrespected members. Allen Gamble is a tightly-strung pencil pusher of questionable masculinity. Terry Hoitz, meanwhile, is probably demented and infamous for shooting a baseball player. The two form an unlikely partnership and uncover a corrupt corporate plot that nobody else can see.
On the surface, "The Other Guys" takes shot at typical action movie excess. This is evident in the beginning, when Samuel L. Jackson and the Rock play hyper-destructive supercops who are, despite the millions of dollars in damage they reap while pursuing common crime, are beloved by all. Eventually though, reality ensues when they attempt to leap from a twenty-story building into the bushes below. Thus, the movie's main joke: That the heroes aren't the superstar cops but the accountants and desk jockeys. This does not turn out to be the movie's main target but, occasionally, it returns to these roots. Giant car chases erupt suddenly but shoot-outs do not go the way they are suppose to. The movie never stops showing how narrow-minded, disgustingly macho, and plain gross these attitudes would be in real life. Mostly, the movie really enjoys subverting traditional action movie expectations.
Another example of this: The movie's villains are not indistinctly European bad guys with some evil plot. Instead, it's something much closer to home: Big business. "The Other Guys" is actually a goofy, broad comedy about the wild abuse of power in the world of Wall Street. The villain is a billionaire who lost billions to an investor and has now cooked up a wildly illegal plot to pay that money back. There are shady Chechen and Nigerian investors he owes money too, a plot involving a robbery and the lottery, but his ultimate scheme boils down to this: Rip off the working class. It's hard to laugh about this, and "The Other Guys" is surprisingly downbeat at times, but the film manages to engineer some solid chuckles from bleak material.
a very attractive woman. He fails to see this, to the bafflement of everyone around him. It becomes a reoccurring joke that the average looking Ferrell attracts disproportionately attractive woman. What is a funny nugget of an idea is built into the movie's most gut-busting reoccurring gag. This involves extended flashbacks to college days, a dating service, an alter ego known as Gator, poison ivy, and a pimp's inability to cry. To explain much more would ruin what is a really weird but inspired story turn.
How self-aware is Mark Wahlberg? It's sometimes hard to tell. In "The Other Guys" at least, he seems amazingly in tune with his abilities. The character is a self-obsessed tough guy who is unsatisfied with his life. He sees everything through the lens of cop movie clichés. (Nice, subtle gag: He has a framed poster of "Cobra" on his apartment wall.) He makes bizarre, confused metaphors, frequently involving peacocks. He shows surprising knowledge of dance, art, and music, all of which he learn ironically. He's also obsessed with an ex-girlfriend, who really has her shit together but he can't see that. All he sees are drugs and whores. I don't know if Wahlberg is truly funny or if the script was perfectly written to use his pre-established screen persona to maximum comedic effect.
Which is maybe why it's odd that there aren't more laughs in "The Other Guys." The movie is sometimes so cluttered, and the material so razor-sharp in its mean-spiritedness, that the audience isn't sure when to laugh. However, I can't help but admire this bug-nuts movie that throws in so many brilliant, amazing ideas and executes them with complete confidence. It's a ballsy movie, a satire about corporate greed wrapped in an action movie parody served with a liberal topping of absurdity. [8/10]
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Labels: buddy cops, comedy, crime & gangsters, cult cinema, recent watches
Recent Watches: The Hard Way (1991)
His movies are mostly forgotten. Kids don't even know what "Family Ties" is these days. One such forgotten movie is "The Hard Way," a buddy cop flick Fox co-headlined with James Wood. When I first saw the movie as a really young kid, I thought it was actually a very edgy, violent role for Fox. Because kids don't understand irony. "The Hard Way" is actually something of a parody of buddy cop flicks, an intentionally outrageous stab at the genre.
Nick Lang is a Hollywood superstar, the face of the hugely successful "Smoking Gunn" franchise, movies suspiciously similar to the Indiana Jones series. Lang, however, is not satisfied with the wildly popular popcorn movies he's doing and wants a serious role, like in a cop movie. Meanwhile, ultra-hardboiled detective John Moss is on the trail of demented serial killer the Party Crasher. After catching an especially abrasive interview with Moss, Lang is inspired. He works out a deal with the police captain that puts him on an extended ride-along with Moss, as research for the role. Moss is really not happy about that, afraid that Lang's actorly bullshit will interrupt his search for the killer.
"The Hard Way" was directed by John Badham. The guy behind "Saturday Night Fever," the Frank Langella version of "Dracula" and, uh, "Short Circuit," has a pretty distinctive style. Badham tends to exaggerate stuff in pursuit of a particular aesthetic. "The Hard Way," from its opening minutes, clearly takes place in a very ridiculous world. A silly, robotic billboard stands above Time's Square. The Party Crasher – just the fact that movie calls the serial killer that attacks parties the Party Crasher is a sign of its goofiness – shoots up a very silly party. What follows is a highly exaggerated car chase and concludes with someone thrown into a giant cigarette. One sequence takes place in a part of Manhattan that appears post-apocalyptic and features a ridiculous all-Asian gang. One scene has the two leads driving in bright white pimp-mobile. Even the hot dog stand is ridiculous. The point is: "The Hard Way" is a very silly movie.
And James Woods is right on that wave length. Woods is an actor of great hammy abilities and, when allowed to run rampant, can be wildly entertaining. From the beginning, Woods is swearing, cussing, throwing things, and generally being the biggest, most abrasive asshole in the world. It's glorious to watch. Woods takes the hard boiled detective thing as far as possible, making a cartoonish cop. What's also great is the movie is willing to play this ridiculous character in the opposite direction. See, Moss has a love interest, a girlfriend he's trying to keep interested, with a kid that doesn't like him. So we get to see Woods be an exaggerated super-cop, at full Woods, as well as underplay it as a nice, normal-seeming guy. Sometimes in the same scene! The best of both words! I still don't know if "The Hard Way" is a good movie but it is a great James Woods movie.
One part of "The Hard Way" that made an impression on me was Stephen Lang as the Party Crasher. Lang is as unhinged as the villain as Woods is as the hero. His apartment is full of board games. He records the TV interviews with the detective, playing them back on a loop. He edits his face into a video game where he runs through a maze, shooting cop. He sings silly songs to himself while stealing a car. Lang mugs, grimaces, and grins maniacally. It's a totally out-of-control performance, of Nic Cage-ian levels, and a blast to watch.
"The Hard Way" was a mediocre money maker when released and absolutely no one talks about it anymore. That's not entirely fair. Yeah, as a movie, it doesn't stick in the memory very long. But if you want to see James Woods and Stephen Lang completely tear it up, and a pretty fun Michael J. Fox performance too, I would say definitely check it out. [7/10]
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Friday, May 29, 2015
Recent Watches: Rush Hour 3 (2007)
So they made a "Rush Hour 3." Because of the overwhelming box office success of the second one, a sequel was birthed all by itself. However, it took six years for the third film to emerge. I have no idea why it took that long to cobble a movie together, seeing as how these films are clearly written in a weekend. In that time frame, Brett Ratner became a superstar director, Jackie Chan started to separate himself form the action genre, and Chris Tucker thankfully faded from public conscious. By the time "Rush Hour 3" was willed into being in 2007, the series was far past its expiration date. And yet, here we are, watching Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker yell at each other for a third time.
In the years since the events of "Rush Hour 2," Lee has become the body guard of Consul Han. Carter, meanwhile, has been reduced to traffic duty. Their friendship has been strained, since Carter accidentally shot Lee's girlfriend in the neck. However, an attempted assassination on Han brings the two back together. Soo-Yung, the little girl from the original, is now a teenager. Her life threatened, Lee and Carter have to get to the bottom of this. Heading to Paris, they discover a conspiracy involving the Triads, a secret list tattooed on the back of someone's head, and Lee's long-lost adopted brother.
Who's on First?" I've ever seen! Next, a seven foot tall Asian man appears and tosses a disbelieving Chris Tucker across the room. Later, there's an extended joke about a nun and swearing being in the same room together. When Lee is fighting in a room with a woman, Carter hears the slamming and grunts and assumes they're having sex. (This is obviously dumb but also sort of creepy.) Once in France, Lee and Carter are probed by an overly touchy Paris police officer. And, hey, let's cast Roman Polanski as a guy who penetrates someone against their will! That's classy. Most embarrassingly tone-deaf, the film even throws in a trans-panic joke, when Carter develops the totally unfounded suspicion that his love interest may be a man. Really? That old chest nut? In 2007? You're really not helping your case here, Brett Ratner.
But the jokes in the "Rush Hour" movies have always been lame. The saving grace of the series has always been Jackie Chan's stunts. Unfortunately, in the years between parts two and three, Chan suddenly got old. There's no somersaulting, flipping, jump-kicks, or dives through windows this time. Chan's most impressive stunt here has him sliding around a hospital hallway or climbing up a doorway, avoiding throwing knives. Chan's age has visibly caught up with him. Worst yet, Jackie is even replaced with a CGI stunt double on several occasions. The awful final fight between Chan and bad guy Hiroyuki Sanada has them bouncing up and down the Eiffel Tower. Even more pathetic is Tucker and Chan diving off the tower, using a French flag as a parachute. Jackie was too old for this shit and he knew it. The result is embarrassing for any long time fan of the performer.
the simmering gay subtext beneath every buddy cop movie. Yes, Carter is preoccupied with getting laid. He spends large portions of the movie pursuing Noemie Lenoir, his love interest. There's also the entirely pointless scene where he makes a dressing room full of showgirls stripe nude. However, the movie is more then willing to play Lee and Carter's strained relationship as a break-up. When the two argue and leave in a huff, Elton John's "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word" plays on the soundtrack. The two are gleefully reunited on the dance stage together, Lee swooping in on a zip-line, singing along to the music. Could this just be another gay panic joke from Brett Ratner's sophisticated bag of tricks? Probably. In a movie as lazy as "Rush Hour 3," it ends up being the cleverest gag the script offers.
The plot is equal parts predictable and ridiculous. The film boldly recycles the first movie's plot twist. The stately old guy who seems like he's on the heroes' side is revealed to be the mastermind behind the villainous plot. This one was even easier to guess based on Max Von Sydow's casting. The evil brother plot between Chan and Sanada is especially contrived. The film has to go to absurd lengths to justify casting a Japanese man as a Chinese man's brother. The plot's MacGuffin turns out to be a person, the love interest randomly having an important list tattooed on her head. If it was explained how this person who enters the plot on a whim has a connection to an ancient conspiracy, I can't remember. The most promising thing the movie does early on is bring back Soo-Yung, now as an ass-kicking young woman. By the end, she's a damsel in distress, dangling off the Eiffel Tower, in need of rescuing. So it goes.
A fourth film has been teased but, considering part three made even less then the first, seems unlikely. And thank god for that. The modest, puffy bubblegum joys of the first two are long gone, leaving a long-in-the-tooth action franchise that can barely be bothered to offer anything. [4/10]
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Recent Watches: Rush Hour 2 (2001)
Rush Hour 2." Relatively early in my internet-surfing history, I discovered a comedy website called SpackleCube Inc. It was run by two guys named Cyrus and Jackson. The site went through many variation before it finally vanished from the internet. In the earliest days, it was just a home for the funny things Cyrus and Jackson would write. One of Cyrus' favorite movies, one he would reference repeatedly, was "Rush Hour 2," which he considered the crowning achievement of cinema. As a dumb kid, I didn't recognize what was probably a great deal of irony on his end. As a dumb kid, I also really liked the original "Rush Hour" and was a bit underwhelmed by the sequel. As a slightly less dumb adult, who found the first one mildly dire, I went into the sequel with mixed expectations.
Picking up where the first one left off, "Rush Hour 2" has Carter and Lee headed to Hong Kong. Though there to vacation, Lee is quickly involved in a mission to uncover who bombed the US Embassy. The plot leads him to Ricky Tan, the Triad gangster involved with his father's murder. Carter and Lee follow the conspiracy back to the US where they discover a counterfeiting plot, the origin of world renown fake bills, and a sexy Secret Service agent with ambiguous loyalties.
massage parlors. In fact, there's an entire sequence set in one! This is lazy writing but it's not the laziest thing the movie does. It flat out repeats jokes from the first film. The Beach Boys on the radio, "Do you understand the words that are coming out of mouth?," and jokes about Asians all looking the same are reprised. It feels less like a friendly call-back to beloved aspects of the original and more like a lame re-trend of what came before.
Of course, one element "Rush Hour 2" has that the first also had is Jackie Chan. Chan's acrobatics remain the most entertaining thing about the series. The film puts him in unlikely situations that allow the actor to test out his skills. Thus, we have Jackie on a scaffolding outside a building, ducking and diving around attacking foes. We have a punch-fest in the massage parlor, involving lots of flipping and leaping. Jackie ninjas his way onto a boat, jumps through a tiny window, scales the wall, and has a funny, close-quarters scuffle with one of Tucker's relatives. Chan's comedic chops are even given more to do. A small moment of him bopping his head to the radio gets one of the biggest laughs in the whole movie. Chan remains a fantastically entertaining performer and his abilities easily transcends even lesser material like this.
Chris Tucker, obnoxious as he can be, gets a laugh or two. His improvised tribute to Michael Jackson is sort of funny. So is the enthusiastic session he has at the craps table. The casino setting actually adds a lot of color and perks things up a bit. The main villain is totally lame and a complete non-entity. However, his main henchwoman is played by a mostly silent Zhang Ziyi. Ziyi, an up-and-comer at the time, is a formidable opponent, far more memorable then the movie's actual threat. She's so impressive that her show-down with Tucker, where he copies a few of Jackie's trick, is frankly unbelievable.
even more successful then the first, keeping the undead ghoul that is Chris Tucker's career alive for a little bit longer. [6/10]
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Thursday, May 28, 2015
Recent Watches: Rush Hour (1998)
In the mid-to-late nineties, Jackie Chan was at the peak of his popularity. Not world-wide. In his native China and Hong Kong, Chan has remained an evergreen superstar. Stateside though, Chan's acrobatic, stunt-filled action flicks were mostly an underground phenomena throughout the eighties. In the nineties, Chan finally broke through to the mainstream, with dubbed version of "Supercop" and "Rumble in the Bronx" making him a pop culture fad. It was time for Jackie to make a big Hollywood movie. His theatrics were already well accepted, even among suburban white kids, but the eventual Hollywood project he ended up in was as safe as can be. "Rush Hour" was the stodgiest of material: A buddy cop movie about cops from different cultures clashing and learning to work together.
Lee is a Hong Kong supercop, hunting down Juntao, the country's most notorious illegal smuggler. On the eve of Hong Kong falling back into Chinese hands, Lee's partner is killed by the bad guy. The villain flies to America and kidnaps the daughter of the Chinese consul. Meanwhile, obnoxious L.A. cop Carter is tracking illegal explosive being imported into the city. After an especially bad fuck-up, Carter is assigned by the FBI to keep Lee out of the case. Naturally, the streetwise cop and the Hong Kong acrobat eventually form a partnership and poke their noses into the trouble that's brewing.
a silly expression.
But "Rush Hour" isn't a one-man show for Jackie Chan. That probably would have been really entertaining but this a buddy cop movie. Lee's better half is Carter, played by Chris Tucker. That Tucker would become successful enough to co-headline a flick with a legit superstar like Jackie Chan shows that the late nineties were a… Strange time. Tucker's schtick features a lot of shouting and shrieking, some of it spoke so quickly you can barely understand him. He frequently baits his co-stars by doing something sort of annoying and incredibly broad. Tucker is not the most appealing performer. However, "Rush Hour" at least uses him decently. His funniest moment is actually when he confronts a gangster that turns out to be his friendly cousin. Yeah, his attempts at being an action star may vary. He doesn't carry the movie on his own and the film balances Tucker's scream-y comedy with Chan's great stunts.
It's a good thing that Chan's stunts are great and the comedy is mildly amusing because "Rush Hour" has a totally generic plot. The bad guys kidnapping somebody's daughter is about as generic an action movie plot as you can imagine. There's a reveal surrounding the movie's main villain. It's not hard to figure out, if you know how to play "Spot the sinister British guy!" Tucker's love interest is played by an overqualified Elizabeth Pena. Her character is a bomb disposal expert, a skill which obviously comes in handy at the end. At least the film cast an intimidating actor, Ken Leung, as the villain's main henchman, Sang. Despite setting the two up as enemies, the movie doesn't have the good sense to give Jackie Chan a big showdown with the guy.
Brett Ratner but the guy at least knows how to frame an action scene.) Chan brings his A-game though. The movie is over quickly enough that it leaves you with a big grin. It's only a few minutes after watching it that you realize how really stupid "Rush Hour" is. Naturally, it would go on to become an enormous hit and spawn a franchise. The good part?: It made Jackie Chan an even star. The bad part?: It kept Chris Tucker relevant. [6/10]
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Recent Watches: Another 48 Hrs. (1990)
becoming the 7th highest grossing film of 1982. Not surprisingly, a sequel would eventually be made. However, it took eight whole years for that to happen. By 1990, when "Another 48 Hrs." came out, there had been a lot of other movies like it, the action genre growing simultaneously more violent and more joke-filled. Though also a financial success, the sequel was trashed by critics and a "Further 48 Hrs." did not get made. While I do not think the sequel is quite as bad as is frequently stated, the studio and all involved were obviously desperate to recapture lightening in a bottle.
Jack Cates, still as grizzled a cop as ever, is on the trail of the Iceman, a legendary and elusive drug dealer. An attempt to grab him results in a violent shoot-out, Cates finding a burnt picture of Reggie Hammond in the flames. This gets Jack in trouble with his superior, who are taking him to court for manslaughter in 48 hours. Cates gets Reggie out of jail again and the two are, typically, antagonistic towards each other. The mysterious Iceman has hired a pair of psychotic bikers to take Reggie and Cates out, one of the bikers being the vengeful brother of the first film's dead baddie. Soon, the convict and the cop are thrown together, trying to locate the villain, clear Jack's name, and survive the next two days.
being a rehash of the first movie. There's definitely some truth to that. Instead of building on the main characters' personalities, the film puts them back at zero. At the beginning of the film, Reggie is back in jail. Instead of being fond friends like at the first movie's end, Hammond is pissed at Jack, reinstating their antagonistic relationship. Instead of doing a different premise, the film lazily flips the first movie's set-up. Now Cates is the one with the 48 hour time limit. Further evidence that very little work was put into the movie's script is the reveal that one of the main villains is the vengeful brother of the first movie's dead bad guy, the hackiest of easy bad guy motivations. Both movies have the antagonist being cornered while with a woman. "Another 48 Hrs." even boldly repeats jokes from the first movie. When Reggie puts his headphones on, he resumes the off-key rendition of "Roxane." This was a sequel that was obviously content to simply give the audience more of what they liked the first time.
Despite that, there's still some decent laughs to be had here. Murphy remains in top form, even with lesser material like this. A notable early joke has Reggie trying to call in some favors, each of his phone calls ending in awkward, sudden silence. When he learns a woman is undressed in the other room, he gleefully whispers to himself, "She's nekkid!" His reaction to the destruction of his beloved car is worth a laugh. Nolte also gets some funny moments to himself, such as how he convinces the police to let him have Hammond for the weekend. The sequel attempts to top the redneck bar sequence from the first movie, with a similar fight in a different bar. It's not as good but does feature a funny bit when Cates smashes a beer bottle over someone's head. The laughs aren't as fresh but they are there.
For what it's worth, Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte still have solid chemistry together. A scene of them yapping about Nolte's car is one of the flick's most natural, funny moments. Nolte actually seems a little more at ease with the part and Murphy's screen persona was more established, more fine-tuned by this point. Also returning from the first movie is Brion James, in a far more expanded part, which is nicely appreciated. Frequent cinematic bad guy Andrew Divoff – whose career of playing goons, psychos, and henchman would climax with his starring role in the "Wishmaster" franchise – plays Ganz' even-more-psychotic brother. Divoff is certainly convincing as a leather-wearing, gun-totting nut case. Bernie Casey is also decent in a bit part, as the movie's faux-villain.
Walter Hill's director's cut ran over two hours and the film was hastily cut down to 95 minutes, one minute longer then the first, a few days before release. Hill's version has never been publicly released so there's no way to know if it's better. The weakest aspect of the film is its repetitive screenplay and I imagine that's more-or-less the same, regardless of length. Though not awful, I can see why this wasn't expanded into a trilogy. [6/10]
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Labels: buddy cops, cheesy action movies, comedy, recent watches
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Recent Watches: 48 Hrs. (1982)
"buddy cop" genre, my brain always immediately goes to "Lethal Weapon." I grew up around the time when that series was still very popular. The first three films were frequently featured in my parents' VCR. However, that film had a popular predecessor. In the canon of eighties action flicks, "48 Hrs." is important for a couple of reasons. It was directed by Walter Hill, who wrote arguably the first buddy cop flick, "Hickey and Boggs," a decade earlier. It launched Eddie Murphy's film career, establishing the red hot stand-up as a leading man. It was also the first film for producer Joel Silver, who would go on to create many more iconic action flicks. For these reasons and more, I'm a bit sheepish to admit I've never seen it before.
Of course, "48 Hrs." isn't technically a buddy cop flick. One half of the duo, Nick Nolte's Jack Cates, is a cop. The other half, Murphy's Reggie Hammond, is a convict, on loan from jail for the titular two days in order to track down his former comrades. That being the psychotic Ganz and the Indian Billy Bear. The two escape a chain gang, kill some cops, and end up murdering Cates' partner with his own gun. The cop and the convict have an argumentative relationship, impeding their journey to bring the crooks to justice. In-between fighting each other, they track down Ganz' and Billy's girlfriends, former associates, and the criminals themselves.
Clint Eastwood and it's easy to imagine Cates as a slightly more obedient variation on Dirty Harry. (Though Cates still gets chewed out by his police chief, played by Frank McRae. McRae was so associated with the part that he would parody it twice, in "Last Action Hero" and "Loaded Weapon 1," both released in 1993.)
The part of Cates plays to Nolte's strengths but it's not hard to see why Murphy would overshadow him. Reggie Hammond is introduced in his jail cell, tunelessly singing along to the Police's "Roxanne." This characterizes Murphy's irrelevant comic persona, one he would wear throughout much of his early career. There's no doubt that Murphy is funny, cracking numerous snippy asides and smart-ass comebacks. His constant preoccupation with getting laid is probably the movie's best running gag. What's also interesting is that Murphy doesn't just coast on his gift for comedy. Hammond is a tough street hood and frequently stands up against both Cates and the movie's other authority figures. The two elements come together nicely in a lengthy middle sequence where Hammond enters a redneck bar and systematically fucks with the patrons. Eddie flashing that shit-eating grin is funny but tossing badges into mirrors is pretty serious. Murphy's status as a future superstar was already well secured. He's fabulously entertaining.
While most of its imitators would focus on the comedy, "48 Hrs." is darker and more violent then the buddy cop movies that would follow. Most of this is thanks to its villains. James Remar is a stone cold psychopath as Ganz. His facial expressions switches between emotionless disregard for others and sadistic glee. Remar is a fine bad guy, a believable threat to the heroes and the victims. The physically imposing Sonny Landham is even better as Ganz' sidekick. Billy Bear is no less violent then his partner but Landham is more likely to strong-arm his enemies then taking pleasure in threatening them. The film also has no shortage of big, bloody squibs, with plenty of weeping gunshot wounds. Despite the yuks, the movie remains grounded in the crime genre.
Red Heat" and "Bullet to the Head." And Nick Nolte played plenty more stiff-jawed hard-asses. I guess what I'm saying is: I probably should have seen it sooner. [7/10]
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Labels: buddy cops, cheesy action movies, comedy, neo-noir, recent watches
Monday, May 25, 2015
Director Report Card: Sergio Leone (1984)
Once Upon a Time in America
All throughout the sixties and seventies, Sergio Leone had been dreaming about an adaption of Harry Grey's book, "The Hoods," a quasi-autobiographical story of Jewish gangsters in the twenties and thirties. Leone was so determined to bring this story to the screen that he even turned down the chance to direct "The Godfather," fearing the two projects were too similar. "Once Upon a Time in America," the eventual movie, had a protracted pre-production. Production began as early as 1975, with Gerard Depardieu and Richard Dreyfus being considered for the lead roles. The movie went through many forms before finally being made in 1984. Though its release was troubled at the time, eventually the film would be recognized as Sergio Leone's final masterpiece.
"Once Upon a Time in America" covers fifty years of history. It follows Noodles and Max, two Jewish kids growing up in 1920s New York. They desire to break into the local criminal scene. The rising empire is interrupted when Noodles ends up in jail. After being released, he and his friends resume their rise to power in the underworld. However, the good times only last so long. On the last day of Prohibition, Noodles betrays his friends and leaves the city. Thirty years later, now as an old man, Noodles receives a mysterious invitation back to New York. Haunted by guilt and his memories, he finds himself confronting his past.
Before discussing "Once Upon a Time in America," you must discuss which version of the movie you saw. Leone's original cut ran six hours long, with the intention of releasing the movie in two parts. The version that screened at Cannes in 1984, and received a fifteen minute standing ovation, ran 229 minutes, nearly four hours long. The American distributors founds this run time too daunting. The movie was re-edited and drastically cut down to 139 minutes when originally released in American theaters. (Thankfully, this butchered version is becoming increasingly difficult to find.) Just last year, a 269 minute cut was assembled by Leone's children and released on Blu-Ray. But I'm a purist. Though the newest variation claims to be as close to the director's original vision as possible, Leone isn't around anymore to verify that. The director did approve the widely available four hour version. So that's the one reviewed here.
a memory fraught opium dream. This is as valid an interpretation as any. The movie intentionally creates a dream-like, moody tone of memories, lost friendships, and lifelong regrets.
Nearly all of Leone's films deal with the bonds formed between tough men during hard times. "Once Upon a Time in America" is no different and indeed focuses on friendship over anything else. Growing up as Jews in 1920s New York, Noodles and his friends are outcasts from the start. Relying on each other, they form a bond that is impossible to break. The death of one of their own, and Noodles' subsequent incarceration, does nothing but strengthen their brotherhood. The friendship between Noodles and Max is especially strong. Yet the wages of friendship is not always easy and Noodles and Max's commitment to each other falters over time. That soured union is what drives the emotional heart of "Once Upon a Time in America.
As it focuses on the guys in their youth, "Once Upon a Time in America" is also a coming of age story of sorts. As teenagers, Noodles and his friends have their first, awkward encounters with sex. Polly, a local girl, is a budding prostitute. She sells her body in exchange for fancy deserts. Noodles runs into her in the bathroom and is so overcome with lust, he dry-humps her and paws her up then and there. With nothing to give her in exchange, she pushes him away. Patsy, the most sensitive member of the crew, buys a dessert to give her in exchange for sex. But he looses his composure and eats the dessert in the hallway. Not long afterwards, Noodles and Max take turns with Polly, loosing their virginity in rushed, awkward sessions. Though he fucks Polly, Noodles longs for Deborah, the pure, virginal sister of another friend. This impossible love stands in contrast with the ugly rutting he gives Polly. Yes, the movie embraces the Madonna/Whore complex without irony. Yet this is the mindset of a teenage boy in the twenties and influences his decision throughout his life.
After his twelve year sentence in prison is up, Noodles returns to his friends, now played by Robert DeNiro. Leone highly respected DeNiro, calling him a real actor. DeNiro seems haunted throughout the whole film. During the sequences set in the 1960s, he wears convincing old age make-up, playing up the lifetime of regrets he has. However, even in the earlier scenes, Noodles' past hangs over him. DeNiro's great subtlety as an actor is well employed in the part. It's not just the character's pain that simmers beneath the surface. His anger, lust, and quiet humor shine through without breaking the man's stoic exterior.
James Woods plays Max, Noodles' closest friend. The fiery rage Woods displays, and overplays for camp in many other movies, is kept in-check here. Max is a man of reckless ambition, always pushing for more power. His companionship with his friends keep him grounded and, when he looses them, he looses part of his soul. Woods' imbues the character's anger and outrage with a sensitive humanity. Also among the supporting cast is Elizabeth McGovern as the adult Deborah, who gives an amazingly emotional performance. Jennifer Connolly, in her first screen role, plays the character as a teenager. I also really like Burt Young as Fat Joe.
Is Max a repressed homosexual? Maybe. If he is, it seemingly confirms the homoerotic subtext beneath many of Leone's films.
In the opening scenes of "Once Upon a Time in America," Fat Joe is beaten to a bright red, bloody pulp. DeNiro blows the attacker's brains out, splattering blood over the front of his face. The violence in the film is brutal, sudden, and uncompromising. A head shot later in the film comes out of nowhere, the body jerking back violently. A drive-by shooting tears through a phone booth, peppering a man's legs with countless, tiny red holes. A similar scene later on reduces a car to a hole-filled piece of metal. There's little of the style Leone brought to his earlier westerns here. This is not "fun" or "cool" violence. It's direct and resolute. Leone is making a point, about the loss of life, suddenness of death, and the wastefulness of murder.
As a historical epic, "Once Upon a Time in America' shows the rise of organized crime in America and its' frequently unmentioned effects on politics. Throughout their adventures, Noodles' gang begins working with the budding union movement. They intimidate police officers and business owners in order to push union boss Jimmy O'Donnell's plan through. Their most elaborate method has them reorganizing a nursery, misplacing Police Chief Aiello's only son. Max smartly realizes that power and money is intertwined. The movie draws a direct parallel between the greed of the gangsters and the greed of the politicians. By the last act, in a rather literal move, the gangsters and the politicians become one and the same.
passing a trash truck. A man that might be Max walks out to the truck. As the trash truck drives off, the camera lingers on the spinning augers in the back. What does this mean? Was the truck filled with hitmen Max had sent for Noodles? Does, as I've always assumed, Max throw himself into the back of the truck in an elaborate suicide? The film provides no easy answers. Instead, it creates a dreamy tone of uncertainty and mystery, like a half-forgotten memory.
"Once Upon a Time in America" has Sergio Leone's direction evolving in some interesting ways. The long-takes are maintained but in far fewer numbers. The lingering close-ups on his men's faces is down-played. Instead, he captures as much of the scenery as possible. The streets of New York are painted in broad, bright colors, like a painting. Frequently, the characters seem small among the big city. One iconic, poster-lending moment focuses on the boys, looking tiny, running across the streets, a bridge overpass in the distance. My favorite shot is from Noodles' eyes as he's carted off to jail, his friends looking small against a huge, stone wall. This cuts suddenly, dramatically to the tomb where their bodies are kept, thirty years later. Another notable moment is when Leone's camera spins above the nursery, as the guys switch out the babies. Leone's direction is more muted, to go with the lower-key material, yet no less classical and stylish.
Ennio Morricone's score is typically excellent. He incorporates a lot of music from the period, creating a frequently jazzy, exciting feel. A rather on-the-nose cut has the Beatles' "Yesterday" playing as DeNiro considers his past. However, the best music in the film fits the story's quiet, introspective tone. The main theme is both sweeping and nostalgic, backed-up by quivering instruments and rising vocals. The chirping piano is solitary and sad, aligning itself with the men's childhoods in poverty. The most beautiful piece of music is Deborah's Theme, which trembles and ques with the angelic beauty Noodles associates with his childhood crush, arriving to a full, gorgeous sung melody.
The mishandling of "Once Upon a Time in America" broke Sergio Leone's heart. He died five years later. While the gangster epic was destined to be his final film, it was not the last movie he attempted to make. He wrote the screenplay for an American-style western called "A Place Only Mary Knows" that might have starred Mickey Rourke and Richard Gere. In the years leading up to his death, he had begun work on a war epic about the siege of Leningrad, which would have been called "The 900 Days." Two days before officially signing on to the projects, Leone had a massive heart attack, dying suddenly. Though its tempting to fantasize about these unrealized project, Leone left behind a staggering legacy. The man created five genuine masterpieces in a row, that continue to influence and enhance films today. He was truly one of the masters of cinema.
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Recent Watches: My Name is Nobody (1974)
the westerns became more farcical. The movie that started this trend was "They Call Me Trinity," a goofy take on the western starring Terence Hill. That movie would make Hill an immediate star and he would headline plenty of similar films, many of them buddy flicks with Bud Spencer. Just as Sergio Leone put his stamp on the Zapata western subgenre, he also had to have his say about the comedy-western. "My Name is Nobody," which paired Hill with Leone's "Once Upon in the West" star Henry Fonda, was not truly made by the Italian master. He came up with the concept and contributed some uncredited direction. Yet the movie, in its own silly way, is a reaction to the director's own film, the ones that launched the genre in the first place.
Jack Beauregard is a legend of the Wild West, a gun fighter that has made himself a name with his lightening-fast trigger finger. His reputation precedes him and many newcomers want to test themselves against the master. While seeking the man responsible for his friend's death, Beauregard comes upon an eccentric gunslinger of equal quickness that goes by Nobody. Slowly, Beauregard and Nobody take a liking to each other. The two's adventure puts them in the path of the Wild Bunch, a hundred strong league of riders coming their way.
Well, one of the most entertaining aspects of "My Name is Nobody." The film is a full-blown farce. Its comedy is loud, fast-paced, and very silly. An early scene has Hill casually disposing of a ticking bomb. When entering a town that's having a carnival, he's confronted by a man on stilts. After shooting the stilts apart, the man turns out to be a squeaky-voiced midget. Nobody tends to defend himself with sped-up slapstick comedy. He slaps attackers away, grabbing their pistols out of their holsters. Later on, a rotating mannequin in the middle of the town is similarly used to fend off some baddies. The film speeds up during these moments, turning "My Name is Nobody" into a live action cartoon. Hill's toothy grin keeps it silly and fun. His way with absurd dialogue and rambling, nonsensical metaphors are also worth a laugh or two.
Tonino Valerii actually directed the film but Sergio Leone's influence is obvious. There's a few lingering close-up on actor's face or wide-screen shots of men riding the desert. Ennio Morricone's score quotes his music from "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Morricone's main score is clownish, silly, but obviously his work. However, the main influence Leone had on the film is its themes. Despite the light-hearted material, "My Name is Nobody" still concerns the end of the west. Fonda's Beauregard is a symbol of the old west, the time of shoot-outs and white hat heroes. Hill's Nobody represents the future, a whimsical hero for a changing world. In the final minutes, the two create a scheme to allow Fonda to retire gracefully. His voice-over explicitly high-lights the movie's theme, of the west evolving into a bigger, crowded, safer place. (In addition to providing a relatively valid explanation for one of Nobody's earlier, rambling anecdotes.) For bonus points, the movie references Sam Peckinpah, both by name and by calling the villains the Wild Bunch.
A Genius, Two Friends and an Idiot." Leone did some uncredited work on that one too. The two Nobody films would be the last westerns Sergio worked on, near the end of the genre's life-span. A sunny, easy-to-watch comedy that leaves the viewer with a smile, "My Name is Nobody" is an easy recommendation for viewers looking for a different type of spaghetti westerns. [7/10]
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Labels: comedy, recent watches, sergio leone, spaghetti westerns
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Director Report Card: Sergio Leone (1971)
Duck, You Sucker!
Giù la testa / A Fistful of Dynamite
Ever since the conclusion of the Dollars Trilogy, Sergio Leone had been working on his dream project, an adaptation of "The Hoods" by Harry Grey. Other projects kept him busy though. After "Once Upon a Time in the West," Leone was presented with a script about revolution in turn-of-the-century Mexico. He liked it, wanted to see it made, but didn't want to direct it. Peter Bogdanovich, Sam Peckinpah, and Leone's assistant Giancarlo Santi were all considered but each realized that Leone just wanted to make the movie himself. The resulting film, "Duck, You Sucker!," is the director's most overlooked. Though a decent hit in Europe, in America the film was badly marketed, released under the non-representative title "A Fistful of Dynamite," and basically forgotten for decades. After a series of quality home video releases, the film is finally getting its dues as one of Leone's most evocative and powerful works.
In 1913, Mexico is a country besieged by political unrest, with a tyrannical government repressing a burgeoning revolution. Juan and his family of bandits have no need for revolution. His only need for the rich is when he steals from them. Chance circumstances has him meeting John Mallory, a former member of the Irish Republican Army and an explosive experts. Juan drafts Mallory in his quest to rob a near-by bank. A series of unexpected events has Juan and John working with the revolution, fighting for the people and fighting to survive.
Through his career, Sergio Leone's films became increasingly political. The first two films in the Dollars Trilogy were totally apolitical before "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" introduced an anti-war element. "Once Upon a Time in the West," meanwhile, dealt with the balance of power and money that makes things happen. "Duck, You Sucker!" is his most political movie yet. It allies itself with the peasants. An early scene has Juan brought onto a stagecoach full of rich folks. He's presented like a circus freak. The passenger berate the poor as disgusting, impure, dumb, and like animals, with some old fashion racism thrown in too. The camera focuses on their mouths as they shovel more food in, their opinions filling the air like an ugly cacophony. The film makes it clear that the poor benefit neither from tyranny nor from war. In a scene that is both touching and funny, Juan says the people who benefit from revolution aren't the ones that fight and end up dead.
the revolution is an act of violence." "Duck, You Sucker!" was made in reaction to the growing population of Zapata Westerns. A late period variation on the spaghetti westerns, the Zapata western had heavy political slants that they engage in fully. "Run, Man, Run!" and its sequels are probably the best known example of this type of film. During the political upheaval in Europe during the late sixties and seventies, the films became popular. Leone, however, was not impressed with the way these movies glorified revolution. The director was determined to make a movie that showed revolution as the ugly act is that leaves many, many people dead.
Not everyone involved in the war effort is especially passionate about the political cause either. The first character we meet in "Duck, You Sucker!" is Juan. Played by Rod Steiger, Juan is bandit who does not take his new status as a hero of the revolution well. Juan is a scoundrel. He has no problem killing, as long as it makes him money. After robbing the stagecoach at the beginning, he effectively forces himself on the sole female passenger. (Though her reaction is somewhat difficult to read.) The character shares roots with Tuco and Cheyenne, as a dirty thief with an odd sense of honor. Greed motivates him but it's not the only thing that matter. His family means the world to him, his six sons from six mothers and his elderly father. They are his crew, helping him pull off heists, and their bond throws them together. How an amoral seeker of gold, albeit one with a lot of love for his family, accidentally becomes a revolutionary is the vein of the film that powers the whole thing. Steiger doesn't entirely master the Mexican accent but his performance is committed and powerful, with plenty of humor and pathos.
The other half of the central duo is James Coburn as John. As with Henry Fonda in "Once Upon a Time in the West," Leone had wanted to work with Coburn for some time. He had been approached for both the Man with No Name and Harmonica. Mallory is better suited to Coburn's talents then either of those parts. John is a bit of a rogue. He has an almost fetishic love of explosives and sure likes to blow shit up. As a revolutionary himself, he sympathizes with the struggling rebels of Mexico. Like Steiger, Coburn does not entirely nail the character's Irish accent. Coburn's impish smile fits the character's mischievous sense of humor. However, his deep eyes suggests John's inner pain and meloncholey memories. Coburn is ideally cast in the part and it might be my favorite performance of his.
A Fistful of Dynamite," the movie was oddly sold as comedic. Calling the movie a comedy is more then a little disingenuous but "Duck, You Sucker!" is funny in spots. Upon realizing John's skill with explosives, Juan imagines a religious banner over his head, reading "the Bank of Mesa Verde." The back-and-forth the guys have is worth plenty of chuckles, especially when Juan finds John after missing his train. (Also funny: Mallory's title-lending catch phrase. He frequently shouts "Duck, you sucker!" whenever a bomb is about to go off. What makes this is funny is, apparently, Sergio Leone believed this to be a common English phrase.) The friendship the two form is fraught at first, one solely of convenience. As their adventure goes on, they begin to rely on each other, liking each other's humor. Both men realize the other is worth more then their appearance suggests.
In time, John is all Juan has. Though it starts off fairly light-hearted, the movie becomes darker in tone as it goes on. The turning point comes after Juan returns to his lair following a gun fight. The camera focus on Steiger's face as he walks through the cave, his eyes watering. He mentions to John that he had never counted his family before. As the camera pulls back, we realize what has happened. John's family is dead, executed by the military while he was away. Leone allows the scene to go on. He looks into the actors' eyes, on the losses and sadness they're feeling. The effect on the audience is immediate. From this point on, "Duck, You Sucker!" becomes darker, sadder and more violent. The men keep on fighting. Each other and the cause is the only thing keeping them going.
Surging beneath the film and powering it is Ennio Morricone's score. As in previous collaborations, Morricone composes a different theme for each of the main characters. Juan is associated with plucking strings. Strange vocalizations, a toad-like croaking, also identifies with the character. John, meanwhile, has a more sweeping, romantic theme. An odd vocalization greets him as well. Halfway between a word and a sound, the chorus sings the name "Sean" repeatedly until it looses it meaning. (Sean is seemingly Mallory's real name, if you're wondering what the significance is.) Morricone's music builds into a grand, melancholic theme. It's perhaps my favorite score the composer has ever written.
all fall to John's dynamite. The film concludes with a massive train crash, an impressive display of destruction. As for shoot-outs, the movie has got that too. Steiger's break-in into the bank vault features some great sliding, sneaking, and shooting. An exciting moment has the two men pouring machine gun fire down on a bridge full of soldiers. By the finale, the film explodes into full-on war. Though less focused on chaos and gunfights then Leone's other movies, "Duck, You Sucker!" is still likely to entertain action fans.
Another Leone trademark present in "Duck, You Sucker!" is the use of flashbacks. Throughout the film, we catch glimpses of John's past. We see him frolicking with his best friend and his girlfriend, riding together and laughing. Morricone's powerful, sad music plays over each scene, the flashbacks being otherwise silent. Through this device, and with zero exposition, we learn everything we need to know about the character. How he became involved with the revolution, why he left Ireland, and what those he lost meant to him. The final flashback even adds an interesting layer of ambiguity to the relationship John had with his best friend and the girl. It's a poetic, beguiling choice and something that endlessly intrigues me about the film.
Lastly, "Duck, You Sucker!" looks gorgeous. As always, the director fills his movie with as many wide-screen shots as possible. A notable one is when a crowd of people swarm on Juan as he leaves a train. The epic action, with its crashing trains and explosions, are perfectly captured by Leone's camera. The use of close-ups have never felt this intimate and personal before, the characters' struggles and feelings being clear on their faces. As always, the contrast between the sweeping landscapes and the lingering close-ups marks the film as both a historical epic and a movie of great emotion.
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Labels: boldface fanboy gushing, cult cinema, director report card, sergio leone, spaghetti westerns, war movies
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|This picture--and several others--is by Delal
|Here we are at the starting gate outside of Ovacık-the actual road is on the right and does not go under the stupid gate at all.
|At the starting point near the Sultan Motel--the mountains behind in the morning mists are where we're headed
|A view of Kayaköy/Levissi from the top of the hill overlooking an old well
|The only residents of Levissi these days are the sheep
|Another view from the top of the hill
|You can see some of the original blue and red paint everywhere
|Through windows into more windows
|One of the remaining churches
|The fig trees are ripping the buildings apart
The town is filled with gigantic fig trees. Their roots dig into walls and crack them apart, uplift streets and split apart entire houses. They've taken over everything. Not surprisingly the fig is a relative of the banyan tree I saw tearing apart the ruins of Angkor Wat.
|The wall of one of the chapels in Livissi--broken mosaics were still inside
accomodation facility. One only need look outside my window at the rampant, unchecked and ugly development to get an idea of what the Ministry of Culture has in mind.
The next day, we started our hike proper. We walked out of the Sultan Motel and up the hill toward the Montana Hotel. There we found the absurdly misplaced gate for the start of the Lycian Way--if we had passed under it we would have ended up in a bunch of bushes. The real road starts from the right and follows a dirt road, past some new villas being constructed and then up a narrow rocky path into the mountains, hugging a ledge that overlooks the Ölüdeniz and the deep turquoise blue of the Mediterrannean Sea. Spring flowers were everywhere, white daisies and bright red poppies and little purple and yellow wildflowers. You wind on and on, up and around the cliffs with breathtaking views of the water below.
|The road leading into the village of Kozağaç (Walnut Tree)
My wife wanted me to make sure that when I wrote this entry, I urged people to talk to the villagers they meet. Most don't speak English (take the time to learn a little small talk in Turkish--how are you, what's your name--it goes a long way) but they are friendly, curious, and as Delal says--it seems a shame to plunge into the heart of this country and not know anything about the people who live there. The last bit of road to Kozağaç winds past some villas that have never left the construction stage--we found a family of sheep occupying one rather choice house. The pine woods have dramatic views of Mt. Baba however and everywhere we looked we seemed to see turtles and butterflies.
|Kozağaç Village
|Here is me standing in front of Mt. Baba. People paraglide off its peak and the parachutes passed over us as we walked
We bid Enzel good bye--paying her a bit for the ayran and continued walking around the sheer western face of Mt. Baba. The road passed pretty little fields filled with yellow flowers until it finally hit the village of Kirme--a nondescript little place with a fountain swarming with bees. Here is where we made one of our first mistakes.
|A field outside of Kirme
|The green against the black sap covered forest
|Purple wildflowers with red tree trunk in the background
|Our hotel room at George's Pension in Faralya
|The forest up from Faralya
The hike the next day took us only four hours and was easily one of the more beautiful parts of the trail. It stayed mostly in the forest, away from the villas and construction of the day before and wound through pretty fields and pastures and around a cliff overlooking the sea. I saw a snake once sunning on a rock--a gigantic greenish brown fellow, but he ran from me.
|No marks here--go left! This is about an hour before Kabak
|Pine Processionary Catepillars (thanks Catherine Yiğit!) or çam kese böcekler. They hurt the pines and their hairs cause severe irritation--DONT TOUCH!
At some point, the trail abruptly leaves the main road and plunges into the woods to your left. There are little cairns of rocks to warn you of the entrance and of course, a red and white blaze at ground level. Be careful, it's easy to miss. From here, you wind down into Kabak, which, out of season has no ATMs or credit card machines so BRING GASH. From the main town you have to hike down to the beach and the pensions there. We stayed in the Natural Life Pension--one of the few open in April. It was 50TL a person for breakfast, dinner, and a room in a cabin with a great view of both mountains and sea. The food was amazing--I think they had a real chef preparing everything. The roast chicken was juicy and tender--normally I don't rave about chicken but the cook had a magic touch.
|Our cabin at the Natural Life Pension
Kabak is a secluded cove accessible only by the long hike from the top of the cliffs. The water is turquoise blue and was maybe 16 degrees (about 62) when we were there--very swimmable. Behind the cove are stunning, precipitous cliffs of red, maroon and orange rock. The Natural Life had swings and hammocks and lots of sneaky cats. The people running it were unobtrusively helpful--they let us use their internet and gave us some nice tips along the next stage of the trail.
|The cove on Kabak's beach
|The mountain and sky behind our cabin
The trail normally runs up the beach and then winds straight up the cliff, but the guys at Natural Life recommended a short cut that leads up to a waterfall. We zigzagged up a dry stream bed. We heard the waterfall but never found it--and kept winding back and forth up the 800 meter cliffs. The views were breathtaking. At one point the path passes into a gorge and then continues up and even steeper cliff face.
|The entrance to a gorge-Delikkaya
|View along the path to Alınca Village
Be warned. This trail is hard--it goes up and up and up and then up some more. We climbed straight up for nearly four hours. The views are utterly out of this world, but once you arrive in Alınca it's time for a break. We stopped at Bayram's house for two plates of menemen, salad, rice and ayran (the woman charged us 25TL). There was a farmer at the entrance to the village who invited us in for tea--we probably should have gone with him instead in terms of price. There are several pensions in Alınca. The Dervish Pension is run by friends of the Natural Life guys. You might want to have them call ahead or at least give you the number because people were out when we arrived, but the Dervish has a fantastic wooden deck that overlooks the dizzing view down to the sea.
We decided to hike to the village of Gey, another four hours away. The owner of Bayram's told us to take the main asphalt road instead of the trail as the main trail might be too dangerous if it rained. The road would connect back up with the Lycian way a mile or so down. On the way out of Alınca I saw a phenomenon I had only ever read about in dry science text books. The moist hot air from the sea was rising hard up the cliff face until it met the cold air in the mountains where it instantly turned into rain clouds. We stood and watched rain clouds form out of thin air for about ten minutes.
|The formation of rain clouds outside of Alınca
|The old Ottoman cistern
|Dinner at Bayram's in Gey Village


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5 Stars.
Spell It Out: The singular story of English Spelling – David Crystal.
Why is there an 'h' in ghost? William Caxton, inventor of the printing press and his Flemish employees are to blame: without a dictionary or style guide to hand in fifteenth century Bruges, the typesetters simply spelled it the way it sounded to their foreign ears, and it stuck. Seventy-five per cent of English spelling is regular but twenty-five per cent is complicated, and in Spell It Out our foremost linguistics expert David Crystal extends a helping hand to the confused and curious alike.
He unearths the stories behind the rogue words that confound us and explains why these peculiarities entered the mainstream, in an epic journey taking in sixth-century monks, French and Latin upstarts, the Industrial Revolution and the internet. By learning the history and the principles, Crystal shows how the spellings that break all the rules become easier to get right.
You can tell I'm a logophile (lover of words), as this book really appealed to me. I love the vagaries of English, the whys and wherefores, the 'really – that's spelled like that?' and the etymology of language. This book is a great resource – it covers the history of the English Language, and the 'rules of spelling' – many of which get defenestrated at every available opportunity. Crystal explains why.
English is a very confusing language – and I'm a native speaker! Similar sounds – such as 'ou' or 'gh' can be used in a large variety of words with different pronunciations:
(Spelling in red) coff as in cough; ow as in bough; ruff as in rough; thru as in through; doh as in doughnut.
Thorough, plough, tough, borough etc.
And we have the one everyone knows – I before E except after C… unless … well Wiki has a whole page of them:
There are reasons – from lazy scribes to printers being things look nice, to foreign words being adulterated, to regional differences to text speak. It all makes sense (sort of).
Crystal keeps the book interesting, easy to understand and amusing. He knows his stuff, and it shows. I found it fascinating, and will definitely get the author's other work. Mr Crystal – you have a new fan.
Recommended for logophiles, writers, and the curious.