The Dark Night

Ok, we were probably the last people on earth to see this movie but at least we got to see it last night.

I was completely blown away. You know when you hear all these good things about a movie and you finally see it and it`s a huge let down? I was so scared that that would be the case. The reviews have been awesome and I have heard nothing negative about it. The hype surrounding it has been incredible and rightly so, it turned out.

Last night we finally got the dvd and we were both blown away. Probably the coolest, edgiest, most awesome movie I have seen the last year. I loved the fact that it was such a dark, edgy, no holds barred movie. No other Batman movie could compare and truth be told, I had grown a bit tired of the genre. The Dark Night changed all of that.

A lot has been said about Heath Ledger and the tragic circumstances surrounding his untimely death. I don`t want to go there but I do want to say that his performance was startlingly good. A career defining performance which makes the whole situation terribly sad. His Joker was probably the coolest villain in recent memory. The Oscar and Golden Globe buzz surely has something to it.

Heath Ledger was not the only good performance though. The cast was magnificent and I especially enjoyed Morgan Freeman`s Lucius. But then again, I have always been a Morgan Freeman fan, or at least from the first time I saw him in Glory (which still rates as one of my all-time favourite films). Mention must also go to Michael Caine, who`s portrayal of Alfred was really cool.

Of course Hayley loves Christian Bale and for my money he is the coolest of all the Batman`s. I thiunk we like him for different reasons though...

I truly rate this movie as one of the best I have seen and I`m already thinking of watching it again, soon.

The name is Bond, James Bond

Ok, so I am a big James Bond fan. I grew up watching all the Bond movies at the local cinema. I remember that my Mom knew the lady who worked in the ticket office, so Monya and I would get free tickets to the 10am show every Saturday morning. That meant that the R 1, 00 could be used to buy popcorn, a coke and a chocolate! Those were cool days.

Unfortunately being a small town in Old Sould Africa, we were how can I say, ummm, not spoiled for choice with regards the movies we could see.

I saw Moonraker (with Roger Moore) 13 times over a period of 3 years at the local cinema. That`s right 13 times at the cinema. It seems that every time they didn`t get anything decent, they`d show Moonraker. I watched as Jaws (one of the villains in the movie played by Richard Kiel) chew through metal wire 13 times. Incredible that I never tried that at home cos it sure looked pretty easy. Another favourite was For your eyes only with the amphibious car, a Lotus if I remember correctly. That was waaayyy cool!

Oh yes, as an aside, the whole audience stood up and applauded at the end of Star Wars Return of the Jedi. Don`t ask me why, I do not have any answers. It was a small town with not a lot going on. We were obviously not exposed to the big world in any way, shape or form... I suppose the excitement just got to the Sasolburgers on that occasion.

I digress back to James Bond. Sean Connery was my first Bond and I loved him. He was followed by Roger Moore and he was pretty cool too. Timothy Dalton I didn`t like very much and that`s where I started to lose a bit of interest. Then Pierce Brosnan took over the Dry Martini and I was a fan again. I like old Pierce. He certainly has a bit of charisma to him. When he left and was replaced by Daniel Craig, I wasn`t happy. Daniel Craig didn`t fit the idea of what a James Bond should be.

But then I watched Casino Royale and I loved it. He brought an edge to Bond that no other actor had done before. I loved the fact that 007 had a bit of a dark side to him. That made the character a lot more interesting.

Ok, I don`t like everything about Daniel Craig. I mean who on this earth walks out of the ocean like he does? It`s not a walk, nor a swagger it`s more of a, ummm, ok there`s not even a name for it. The other thing is the way he always has a pout. I mean he even runs with a pout on his face!

But all in all, I think he`s a cool Bond and I`m looking forward to watching Quantum of Solace. I also like the fact that it follows up on Casino Royale as there were a few loose ends. The fact that he suffered personal loss in Casino Royale I reckon will make him even more of a loose cannon and that I`m looking forward to.

The other thing I love about Bond is that he mostly drives Aston Martins. I absolutely ADORE Aston Martins and as far as I`m concerned they are the coolest cars on this planet. Apparently they wrote off a few of these awesome cars during production. I shed a tear when I read about that.

So, are there any other Bond fans out there? I`d like to know your thoughts. Please share. Now.

A great Friday turned into an awesome weekend

The last time we chatted, it was late Friday night and I was in bed, Hayley was snoring next to me and the US Open was on.

It is now 21:30, Sunday night. Hayley and I are in bed, each with our laptops, each on our blogs. Very much the same thing we do every Sunday night!

I had a great Friday night and that has continued through the weekend. The dreaded Spring Cleaning came and went. I DID mow the lawn and that led to me being treated like a King the whole weekend. Ok, let`s put it into context. I am not a manual labour kind of guy. I have always been the one to get people to mow the clean, clean the garden and do the cleaning. You get the picture. Well that all changed yesterday. I mowed the lawn, cleaned the back yard, the patio and the garage. This resulted in my wife falling in love with me all over again. I might just do this again.

I did a lot of manual labour as a kid. I felt like one of those slaves who make Nike`s in Indonesia. My Dad made me mow the lawn, wash the car, fix the roof, put in new garage doors etc etc. I must say that I always helped him in all the above but it always felt like I was forced to do something I didn`t want to.

Let it be said, I was lazy. My Dad had to force me to do all the above.

So, lest I digress, I felt like I had turned into my Dad yesterday. I was mowing the lawn on a Saturday morning. I`d usually be in the shops on a Saturday, definitely not doing manual labour out of my own free will. My, how things have changed. The scary thing, I really enjoyed it (Ps. do not tell Hayley).

I watched rugby the rest of the day and we had an awesome braai (barbeque). We then watched Stand up to cancer, a subject which is very close to my heart as I lost both my Mom and Dad to cancer and one of my favourite people on earth, who is both my inspiration and the best man I have ever met, is currently kicking it`s butt. You keep kicking it`s butt, you are such an inspiration to all of us and your undeserved love keeps all of us going every single day.

Today was another awesome day, although Spring lasted all of one day, yesterday. Today was terribly windy and very cold.

I got up this morning, weighed myself and then went for a 10km run. The result of the weigh-in inspired me to run as far as I did. I`ll leave it at that.

Hayley and I watched a dvd by the name of "As it is in Heaven". What an awesome movie, I loved every second of it and it is definitely on my list of all-time favourites. It has so many themes running through it, I am still trying to contemplate it`s vastness. I hope to do a post on it very soon.
So, here we are, another Sunday night. Tomorrow it`s back to the grind and the stresses and worries that are our lives. I know it`s gonna be a good week, my faith tells me it`s gonna be and I look very much forward to facing it head on.

A great Friday night

Ok, Hayley and I are weird like that. We both love movies but NEVER go to them. Strange really. We always end up watching everything on dvd.
I think it`s my fault. Take tonight as an example. Hayley said "I know, let`s got to the movies!". I said "No, let`s get dvd`s".
I won.
Don`t ask me why. Ok, at the moment there is a money issue so I can always use that as an excuse. We ended up getting dvd`s and I had fish and chips which we cooked ourselves. I opened a nice bottle of red wine. The perfect evening if you ask me.

It is now 22:30. Hayley is deep in dreamland next to me and I am watching the US Open tennis. Unfortunately the "Not so good looking one" is beating the "Reasonably good looking one" so I have lost interest. What better opportunity to get my "bloggin` down"?

We have watched some amazing dvd`s in the last few weeks. The Storm of the century hit last week. Ok, it was literally the storm of the century, the 21st century that is. Which means it was the biggest storm for 8 years and that a bigger one hit in 1999 but seeing that 1999 was not part of this century, we could call this one the Storm of the century. I digress. Because said storm hit last week we spent all weekend camped indoors. In fact cabin fever hit badly and I have the post to prove it. But, we also got to watch some dvd`s.


My favourites over the last 2 weeks or so have been Juno and Into the Wild. Both are incredibly cool movies with awesome stories to tell. I loved the performance of Ellen Page in Juno, she was amazing. Also, I have never been a big Jennifer Garner fan but her performance was exceptional. I actually found myself liking her.


Into the Wild is such a cool movie. It was a voyage into the unknown with the music of Eddie Vedder as your companion. I love Eddie Vedder. He has such an expressive voice and with Pearl Jam has made some of my favourite music.
Sean Penn is a really gifted director and I am a big fan.
The real star of the movie is Emile Hirsch. I think he is one of the best young actors in Hollywood today. I love the way he picks his movies. He obviously has a good head on his shoulders. The show stealer was Hal Holbrook though. If his character leaves you untouched, you must be a serial killer...

I am now watching a re-run of a Man Utd vs Man City game on ESPN Classic. Man Utd is winning, if they weren`t, I would be watching this specific match.

Tomorrow looks like a cracker weather wise. Not sure what we`re gonna do but Hayley mentioned Spring Cleaning. I hate those two words used together. By themselves they are really cool and I even like them. Together they do not inspire me. So wish me luck as I mow the lawn and pick up dog poo. It`s gonna be awesome....