Fans of The Office will, at one point in their lives, have had a debate with another fan about which version of the show is better, the original UK production starring it’s creator, Ricky Gervais, or it’s American off-spring starring the rubber-faced and very talented Steve Carell.  The correct answer is of course the UK one, though having admitted that one can then comfortably admit to finding the US version also good.  Gervais’ David Brent was a sharper critique of the boss everyone knows who thinks he knows everything.  Carell’s performance of Michael Scott is much more comical and warm, a jester instead of a jerk.  To like the US version of The Office is to seem shallow, as though avoiding the confronting nature of the UK version’s dark comedy.

I completely disagree.  Why?  Because Ricky Gervais is a very ordinary actor who has all the subtlety of a brick.

One day, historians will unearth records from the 21st century and stumble across a bunch of DVDs starring people like Ricky Gervais and Seth Rogen and be genuinely perplexed at how these two could be in so many movies.  How did so much time elapse before humanity was able to collectively pull itself out of it’s slumber and get them off camera?

It’s not that Gervais is not brilliant in his own way.  He has a knack for finding something funny and exploiting it.  Just ask Karl Pilkington.  But this skill in coming across funny ideas or things has unfortunately led to him acting those out for us, when someone else would do a far better job.  Ricky Gervais is David Brent.  He’s the boss who doesn’t know when to back off.  Sure, his comic sense is far better.  But for all intents and purposes he is the arrogant, self-important jerk who always insists that he is more brilliant than anyone else in the room.  He seems to have half of Hollywood convinced, as they show up in cameo after cameo, from Edward Norton to Phillip Seymour Hoffman.  They are the shining jewels of interest in this movie, actors whose job it is to act.  The tragedy is that they surround a not very likable writer/director whose own ego won’t let anyone else be the star.

The idea of this movie, if it isn’t already blindingly obvious, is that the movie takes place in a world where people cannot lie.  Not cannot as in forbidden, but cannot as in inconceivable.  Even though this concept is not difficult to grasp and is already spelled out in the title, it is further explained in a tedious opening narration, full of ad-lib about waiting for the credits to finish, then a thorough drilling of what the movie was about and what the viewer should “look out for”.  Not only is it a painfully tedious and lazy way to introduce a movie, but it’s also arrogant and smug at the same time.   It was the kind of thing that belonged on the DVD extras for the intellectually impaired, not as actual introduction to a movie.  ”But wait!” someone cries.  ”Don’t you see?”  He’s doing that to show us what a life without lies would be like.  He’s being clever.  Yes, and if your IQ is less than 90 I’m sure it was very useful.

Aside from his general unsuitability for leading man, the problem with Gervais’ everyman is that he’s just not very likable.  In Lying, he plays Mark, a tubby writer who lives a relatively shitty life, gets no respect and is informed of these truths constantly, ad nauseam throughout the entire movie.  If Ricky Gervais relishes in flaunting conventions, then perhaps he has been successful.  The usual plot of a romantic comedy is to portray a lovable loser who finally finds courage in order to get the girl.  In this movie, the loser is not lovable.  He’s just a loser.  He loses, we shrug.  He wins, we shrug.  There is a certain fascinating in watching a fly try to exit an open door.  It’s a similar feeling watching a lying, miserable, fat sack of shit try to bag a beautiful girl, yet by the end of the movie you are almost gunning for Rob Lowe because damn he’s just so good looking!

I may be wrong about Ricky Gervais.  There may be a whole other way of seeing this movie.  There is, for example, the genuine comedy of the concept of a world in which people just say what’s on their minds.  From the waiter who tries to hit on the date, to the frank discussions of the chances of getting to home base.  There’s also the satirical take on religion, though again the trademark Gervais brick of subtlety spoils a lot of the satire it sets up.  But maybe this is more than a simple romantic comedy.  Maybe this is an autobiography.

Gervais, a pudgy, uninteresting little man has found a way to make us pay attention to him.  It’s all based on a lie and this movie is his confession.  Perhaps his brilliance is in convincing Hollywood’s A-list to join in his charade, which helps to convince everyone else that he really does deserve to be there in the spotlight.  But without the success of Steve Carell in the US office, without the huge names that appeared every week in Extras, without Steve Merchant’s sharp wit or Karl Pilkington’s ravings, there wouldn’t be much reason to watch Ricky Gervais.

But that’s all beside the point.  He has recruited a plethora of famous and funny people who, with their very presence lend Gervais a kind of charm.  It may not last for very much longer, but it worked for this movie, if only just.

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I was also in Australia for a month, which would more accurately explain where my winter tan came from.  The sunlight there really recharged my batteries, not to mention all the food, exercise and family love.  The trouble with going home is leaving again, the dissatisfaction I feel when I return to Korea.  I used to travel to go somewhere new, so returning to a second home has none of the thrill that real home has and all of the drawbacks.  They say home is where the heart is, which is why, with my family, my friend and my love all under one roof, it was almost impossible to get on the plane to come back.

But I did come back, and the weather is only getting warmer and warmer here.  It’s going to be great to sweat it out again through a Korean summer.  Then, if I’m lucky head back to Australia and start Spring all over again.

This is essentially a modern updating of the 1951 version. Instead of the aliens worrying about human nuclear power running amok, the aliens are concerned for the safety of the planet and deem it necessary to exterminate humanity. Cue irrational humans doing their best to catch, torture and experiment on the alien. Watch alien sigh at their futile attempts to shoot, bomb, drill into them at every possible chance. The silver lining of this otherwise average movie is the five minute interlude between the alien and John Cleese, where the characters speak intelligently and thoughtfully. Pay attention though, for just as it gets going it stops again and we go back to insolence, stubbornness and complete and outright irrationality.

And now that we come to it, that makes it three science fiction movies that a Smith has spoiled with annoying characters. Will Smith in I, Robot took the great thing about Asimov’s robot stories and threw it in the garbage pile in favor of the same crappy robots-taking-over-the-world story. This was on top of his involvement in the overwhelmingly lame Independence Day. Now, he has spawned a son who had altogether too much screen time in this movie than his character would have normally received had he not been Will Smith’s son. Watching the kid repeatedly sigh and make a sad face while talking about his dead father is at the top of my list of things I never hope to watch again. Right up there with Kathy Bates. Sorry, but I’m never going to get over that hot tub scene in About Schmidt.

What’s remarkable about this movie is the pacing of it all. It moves slowly but steadily to it’s climax. To the director’s credit, he avoids hammering home the senselessness of communism. Everybody knows how terrible it was, and it was a relief to not have this obvious fact shoved down my throat. Nor were there unnecessary climaxes involving people being seen in places they shouldn’t be seen and just escaping at the last minute. As the movie goes, the plot thickens and thickens, which in the end is far more satisfying. It did have it’s occasional flat moment, but as the storyline was so compelling, the strands all came together to make a satisfying whole.
First-time writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck deserves credit, not because it’s a remarkable first film, but because it’s a remarkable film in it’s own right. The fact that it’s his first, just makes it more outstanding. Of course, he did get seven German equivalents of an Oscar and numerous other European awards, so perhaps I’m not alone in my regard for the movie. Seeing this, I realize I must get out and see more movies from Europe. With their subtle narratives and unconventional style, they allow you to appreciate the art of film making from a different perspective. It’s refreshing and that’s why I’m giving this movie two thumbs up.

For those who haven’t heard of Terry Pratchett or the Discworld, these books are possibly the most consistently funny stories in fantasy history. They may also be the largest series, at 33 books and counting. They center around life on a planet known as the Discworld (a flat world sitting on the back of 4 elephants, who in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle flying through space). The multitude of characters include wizards, witches, goblins, night watchmen, warewolves, gods and of course DEATH.

Let me give you an example from the book Mort:

“The only things known to go faster than ordinary light is monarchy, according to the philosopher Ly Tin Weedle. He reasoned like this: you can’t have more than one king, and tradition demands that there is no gap between kings, so when a king dies the succession must therefore pass to the heir instantaneously. Presumably, he said, there must be some elementary particles — kingons, or possibly queons — that do this job, but of course succession sometimes fails if, in mid-flight, they strike an anti-particle, or republicon. His ambitious plans to use his discovery to send messages, involving the careful torturing of a small king in order to modulate the signal, were never fully expanded because, at that point, the bar closed.”

All 33 books are full of great quotes like this one. Should this Hogfather movie be a success then there are tons and tons more they can make. Oh, so awesome!

For more great quotes from the Discworld books, have a look at the Wikiquote page.

In other news, 50 Cent is starring in his own movie, loosely based upon his life. Originally Samuel L. Jackson was asked to star in the movie as well, an opportunity he would have accepted as he really wanted to work with the director. However, he said that he didn’t want to work next to 50 who was only there because of his name and not his acting credentials. Right on. Anyway, 50 said that the biggest problem acting-wise for him is memorizing. If that’s his biggest problem then I really worry about the quality of this movie.

Anyway, the biggest and best thing I didn’t mention about watching the movie Sahara was the preview I got to see. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is coming out very very very soon and I can barely sit still in anticipation. So many things can go wrong and the original magic of the books can not come through. Maybe the jokes won’t be as funny on screen, maybe the casting will be wrong, and a whole lot of other things. But THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE IS COMING OUT!!! and I don’t care. 28th of April people! 28th of April!!!

Other than that life sucks right now.

Guess who is a comedy about a white boy meeting his black girlfriend’s parents. A reversal of 1967′s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Guess Who is a pretty funny flick with plenty of cringe-worthy moments. Kind of similar in style to Meet The Parents, but different enough to not go over old ground. At first I thought Ashton was going to be a bumbling white guy who does everything wrong, but luckily it wasn’t too overdone. Bernie Mac, playing the overprotective father role, is one of those actors who seems to be in every single movie. He started out as comic relief, and I always used to get him confused with Cedric the Entertainer, but now he has progressed to leading roles and he did a pretty good job in this one. The chemistry was good between the actors and the romance between the leads was very natural. As far as the race issue goes, the coverage was pretty good but of course this is just a comedy so it’s not going to solve the world’s problems is it? This is light entertainment, and it works well as that. My rating: 3 stars

I walked into Sahara not knowing what it was. Part of the method of the movie marathon is actually in not knowing what you might be seeing next. I thought I was going to start watching The Ring 2 but it opened with a 19th century gunship battle. Not knowing what the hell was the relevance of that to a curse that works through videotape, I thought maybe it had something to do with a curse. But actually it was the story of a ship that was lost at sea. What I was seeing was the flashback sequence to give the historical picture. Sahara was a great movie in my opinion. No Lawrence of Arabia of course, but it doesn’t for a second even try to be. Good guys, bad guys, evil businessmen, sidekicks with funny lines, hunky heroes, love interests. It had all the ingredients. And it worked. It was fun and funny in the right places. You expect the corny end even from the start of the movie, you know what’s going to happen, but it’s fun to watch it play out. Matthew McConoughey has obviously been buffing up for the role and spending hours in the tanning salon, but his character is attractive and a real man. Since I watched Ashton earlier being a bumbling white guy, seeing Matt as a gung-ho explorer was a good equalizer. The movie was a little long, according to my brother who was sleeping next to me, but personally I don’t care how long a movie is, as long as it’s good. My criticism comes from the fact that it started better than it ended. It started out as the hunt for some treasure and the investigation of a new plague by a World Health Org doctor. However, Hollywood didn’t think that people would be excited by treasure and deadly viruses, so warlords with lots of ammo and corrupt businessmen with secret lairs were introduced to give the movie a more traditional mission. I liked it, but it could have been better. My rating: 3.5 stars.

Saturday night seems to be a time of extreme weirdness and most people on the road can’t drive. But surely the weirdest thing that I have seen for a long time happened last night on my way back from the movies. We were driving through some traffic lights, with the right lane open for me to go through and a row of cars banked up on the left. Suddenly a van pulls out in front of me and I have to brake hard to avoid hitting it. I give him the horn and keep driving. He speeds off. I’m following behind, but then the van slows down and suddenly swerves to the side of the road. It’s still moving, when the back door of the van opens up and a body falls onto the road. The van drives ahead and my brother and I were both thinking, “oh shit, it’s a Mafia drop off hit.” The guy picks himself up off the road, while the van parks a little further up. The guy stumbles past my car and I see him fall over again. Then another guy gets out of the van and chases after the guy. All the while, we are wondering what the hell is going on. I guess it was just another Saturday night for someone. Later, I think I figured it out. The guys were severely drunk, and one guy had passed out. They put him in the back of their van and try to take him home, but then they swerve in front of me. I horn them, which wakes the drunk guy up. Not knowing where he is, he tries to open the van door. The driver swerves when he realizes, but it’s too late. The rest is history. He probably won’t remember how close he came to being hit by the car behind him, just about how crazy drunk he was and how funny it was.

It’s a beautiful day here, heading toward 30 degrees. I’m going to enjoy it, instead of working on my computer. I have to enjoy them cos winter is coming soon and I need a tan before it does.

After all that fun, we had some food at the usual place and then caught a bus to Yongsan to check out the cinema. ‘Chronicles of Riddick’ was the only thing that I wanted to see, so after buying tickets and having an hour or so to spare, we decided to walk around the electronics. I have been planning to buy a new digital camera for a long time now, as I wanted something with higher resolution and a smaller case. The current camera, a Canon Powershot A40 is a good camera, but a little bulky. I walked around and decided upon a Canon IXUS 500, the compact 5 megapixel. Compared to the old one, which was 2 megapixel, this is definitely a step up. Anyway, I bought it. It cost 400,000 won, which is about 440 Australian dollars, which is a very good price. Having a bit more time, we headed back to the cinema complex and hung out in the Samsung and Sony store where we surfed the net and played Playstation for a while. Keith was totally into Smackdown and after whipping my ass a few times, I grew tired and left him to get beaten by the computer.

We then proceeded to our movie, which turned out to be alright as far as action movies go, but I was struggling to stay awake through some of the dull bits. Actually, most of the dull bits. Actually, most of the movie. After it finished, we had a good time laughing about all the improbable aspects of the movie and mused on just how much of an antihero Riddick is meant to be. Just how does one become an antihero? We agreed that Riddick just didn’t cut it. He helped too many people. I don’t think antiheros are meant to do that.

After the movie, we decided that what with all the sleeping and general lack of action this weekend has had thus far, we should go and have a drink at Bricx. We went there and got roped into a drinking game with a group of crazy westerners. They were mostly couples, but definitely were the craziest bunch that I have seen in a long time. We were playing some kind of game which if I remember correctly involved mostly drinking, a lot of swearing, geographical trivia and some lesbian kissing. The last part was probably my favorite. Strangely enough one of the guys even took his penis out on three occasions, although this wasn’t part of the game. I don’t really know why he did, but on each occasion it seemed to get bigger. I guess it was his thing. You will be glad to know, I didn’t take the new camera out for some happy snaps on this occasion. All in all I think I recovered from a pretty uneventful weekend, to make it into a relaxing yet fun break from the usual grind.