Elizabethtown (2005)

Film review: Elizabethtown (2005), directed by Cameron Crowe

Life kind of sucks for Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom). He's just made the shoe manufacturer he works for lose a heck of a lot of money (not entirely sure why the shoes had to be recalled, though), his girlfriend (Jessica Biel) doesn't seem to want to be his girlfriend any more, and the boss (Alec Baldwin) insists he does an interview with a business magazine and take the full blame for the disaster. It will be in the next issue, which will be out at the end of the week, and then everyone will know what a failure he is.

Basically, life can't possibly get any worse for the poor man. Except that very same night, his sister (Judy Greer) phones him to say their dad Mitch (Tim Devitt) has suddenly passed away, and their mother (Susan Sarandon) is beside herself.

It's decided that Drew is to travel to Mitch's side of the family in Kentucky, where he died, to arrange a memorial service and also to bring him back to the family in Oregon. Well, not like he has anything else to do, right?

On the very quiet night flight, Drew doesn't get much sleep, as a chirpy flight attendant (Kirsten Dunst) insists on talking to him. Turns out her name is Claire and she's from Kentucky. She gives him driving instructions, because Elizabethtown can be difficult to find, if you don't take the right turn-off and so on. She ends up giving Drew her contact details.

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A Norman (1988)

Book review: The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A Norman (Basic Books, 2002 [1988]), originally released as The Psychology of Everyday Things

In this entertaining and insightful analysis, cognitive scientist Donald A Norman hails excellence of design as the most important key to regaining the competitive edge in influencing consumer behavior.

Expanded and updated, with a new introduction by the author, The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how - and why - some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.

This time I'm doing coursework, I'm reviewing the literature that goes with it, hah! Two birds with one stone!

Psychology is fascinating, and you don't normally realise that it can go hand in hand with design. For instance, if you look at something as simple as a door, you might not think too much about it, but how often do you encounter doors where your instinct is to push instead of pull, and find the door won't budge? That would be because the door and/or handle design is flawed, not that you're stupid ... which is inevitably how you end up feeling.

Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)

Film review: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011), directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor

A few years ago, stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) sold his soul to Roarke (Ciarán Hinds), an incarnation of the devil. Because of this, at night, he turns into Ghost Rider - a burning skeleton of a demon bounty hunter, out to claim souls of bad people. This is not something he's particularly keen on, so he's hiding out somewhere in Eastern Europe.

In a monastery, a young boy called Danny (Fergus Riordan) is held in secret with his mum Nadya (Violante Placido). The boy is one of prophecy and it would be best for the world if he was there and just waited for a prophecised time to pass. The devil disagrees, and has sent Ray Carrigan (Johnny Whitworth) and friends to collect him.

Mum and son run, chased by Moreau (Idris Elba), a priest ... However, Moreau loses them and turns to Johnny Blaze to help find them and bring them to safety, which is of course not as simple as it would first seem, and even when they've gotten to the safe place, is it all that safe? And so on. Also, Blaze is in it for the chance to get his soul back.

With notable appearances by Anthony Head as some kind of monk, Christopher Lambert as a more hardcore monk with facial tattoos and Vincent Regan as a weapons seller.

Swedish Ways: Fettisdagen

Shrove Tuesday, you say? Fat Tuesday (fettisdagen) we say! Instead of pancakes, we eat something called a semla. The semla is a cardamom spiced bun (try finding a sweet bun in Sweden that isn't, I dare you) hollowed out and filled with an almond paste, topped with whipped cream, the lid left from the hollowing out and finished with a dusting of icing sugar. The buns I baked yesterday turned out rather small ... so I'm going to pretend it's deliberate and call them "calorie controlled".

Today is the "correct day" of eating them, but nowadays, bakeries start making them shortly after Christmas. A little wrong, I think.

The eating of the humble semla dates back centuries - in fact, we once had a king who ate himself to death on them. It even made it on to Horrible Histories! It's one of the deleted Stupid Deaths on the series two DVD, check it out. :D Their buns even looked fairly authentic.

The attached picture are the ones I made today to bring with me to our roleplaying group for people to try. [Will edit this post when I'm on a computer next.]

Also, we had pancakes for breakfast. Lent is not observed in this household, and not in Sweden in general. Unless you've caught religion.

P.S. I skipped Valentine's Day. Partly because I forgot, partly because ... well, "same as you guys, really".

For My Daughter's Honor / Indecent Seduction (1996)

Film review: For My Daughter's Honor or Indecent Seduction (1996), directed by Alan Metzger

One of my guilty pleasures is TV channel True Movies. Every made-for-TV "based on reality" you could ever hope for. This one caught my eye because it promised Alyson Hannigan and the oldest child from The Nanny. And Gary Cole, which I didn't realise until I started watching. Apparently it also had a young Sean Murray (McGee in NCIS) as "Ralph", whoever that was. Oh, if only I had known that beforehand, I would've kept an eye out!

Somewhere in Oklahoma, Amy Dustin (Nicholle Tom) is starting high school along with her two best friends Kelly (Alyson Hannigan) and Kimberly (Sara Rue). The school's Biology teacher is also the coach of the football team - Pete Nash (Gary Cole), who has a reputation to be flirty with the pretty girls. Happens every year with someone in the freshmen, who become the teacher's pet.

Amy happens to be pretty. Guess who gets blatantly groomed by the dashingly handsome football coach? And because her parents (Mac Davis and Mary Kay Place) are too busy fighting with one another to give her the time of day, guess who ends up falling for the dashingly handsome man who is so kind to her and says she's special and all that?

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister (2010)

Film review: The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister (2010), directed by James Kent

When I read what this film was about, I was intrigued. A businesswoman in the first half of the 1800s, who is also gay. You rarely hear about businesswomen in those days, regardless of their sexuality. Unfortunately, the showing I caught on TV had a bloke gesticulating in the corner (it was the sign language time of night), which was very distracting.

Anne Lister (Maxine Peake) lives with her aunt (Gemma Jones) and uncle (Alan David) somewhere in Yorkshire. She has an affair with Mariana (Anna Madeley), and they're passionately in love ... which comes to an abrupt end when Mariana agrees to marry the old Charles Lawton (Michael Culkin). Anne is heartbroken by this betrayal, and starts grooming Miss Browne (Tina O'Brien) in a rather creepy fashion.

Meanwhile, Anne's best friend "Tib" (Susan Lynch) has the hots for her too, but Anne is still focused on Mariana. When aunt and uncle Lister decide it's time for Anne to consider marrying, they put her in touch with their next door neighbour, Mr. Rawson (Dean Lennox Kelly), whom Anne is completely unimpressed by. She's still in love with Mariana, and is waiting for her old husband to die so that they can be together. However, he seems in better health than Mariana gives the impression of. The film ends some time after Anne goes into a business venture with Ann Walker (Christine Bottomley).

And I guess I just gave a synopsis or plot summary rather than basic premise. Easy to do with things that are based on historical people, I suppose.

Avada Kedavra - unforgivable yet satisfying!

This week's weekend video is brought to you by Albino Blacksheep and a chorus of Lord Voldemort, Draco Malfoy and Wormtail, putting on a spectacular Lion King parody for your amusement. :D

The Bodyguard (1992)

Film review: The Bodyguard (1992), directed by Mick Jackson

After the initial shock and surprise to hear Whitney Houston was found dead, the next step was to see if any of the TV channels had decided to show The Bodyguard in response. Maybe it was already going to be shown anyway, but one of the ITV channels had it on. Now I just feel a bit awkward writing this review ... you'll see why in a bit.

Frank Farmer (Kevin Costner) is a bodyguard for hire who is very good at what he does and takes his job very seriously. In fact, he doesn't even want to tie himself down to becoming a permanent employee of a client because he doesn't want any potential attachment cloud his judgement.

He's contacted by Devaney (Bill Cobbs), who would like to pay him good money to protect singer and actress Rachel Marron (Whitney Houston) and her son Fletcher (DeVaughn Nixon), because there have been some threatening letters sent, and some creepy dude managed to get into her mansion, where she lives with her sister Nicki (Michele Lamar Richards).