Bellerophon symbol, variation 7 jonath.co.uk
Saturday 23rd Aug 2008 23:54:15
 Adaptation
I remember when I started doing my driving lessons, with none other than John G. Wilde (where are you now, John?), I was really into stuff like Yes, Queen, Pink Floyd, stuff like that. But, and here's the important thing, I had recently 'discovered' 'The Yes Album' (that might not have been its name . . . I mean, was 'The White Album' actually called the 'The White Album'?!) by the band, Yes. Then John lent me, amongst other things, 'The Faust Tapes' by . . . yep, Faust. And suddenly, I grew out of Yes. I say all this because, when I first watched 'Being John Malkovich', I thought this was a really, really good film. I'm stuggling now to remember what would have been the comparable film to the music version of 'The Faust Tapes' . . . where do I start? I'm kinda thinking 'The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', but even 'The Truman Show' would do. That is, we grow out of certain films, but then there are other films we would watch again and again and again. And so, on Friday night I found myself watching Adaptation. It stank of 'Spike Jonze' (not least because of the opening credits), but I was prepared to give it a chance, not least (again) because it featured Nicholas Cage (hey, we loved you in 'Leaving Las Vegas'). I was loving the thing about orchids, the characters played by Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper . . . and here's where M**** and I agreed . . . they could have done so much with those two characters and the orchids, but no . . . they didn't. Instead we get a typically quirky, self-indulgent, self-referential . . . mess, really. Half-way through the film, I was like, "Well, I've invested this much time into this film, I might as well see how it ends," not that I was too much bothered by that point (SPOILER ABOUT TO OCCUR) as I had already assumed that John was gonna get monged up by a crocodile/alligator/thing . . . it was kind of inevitable, really. So I give this film a five out of ten. If you loved 'Being John Malkovich', you'll probably love this too, but then you'll probably also be bored senseless by something like 'There Will be Blood' and get heavily frustrated by the ending to 'No Country for Old Men' but, hey . . . what do they know?

Comments received:

  • Name: Uncle Simon
  • IP address: 195.137.60.155
  • URL: http://www.simon.*****.org.uk
  • Date/time: Tuesday 26th August 2008 13:22:51
  • Comment: Well I don't know what THEY know, but what I want to know is, would you recommend it for a spot on the love film list?
  • Name: Former Line Manager
  • IP address: 86.158.53.78
  • Date/time: Tuesday 26th August 2008 19:59:18
  • Comment: I didn't get as far as you with Adaptation; I did stop at halfway. As for films to grow out of, Brazil is mine, I loved it when I was 17 and couldn't wait for it to come out on DVD. When it finally did, I thought, "oh, is that it?". I might try it again now, especially as I'm trying to install Unbuntu and get some wireless drivers working. Have I become you, should I stop now before I get in too deep?
  • Name: Former Line Manager
  • IP address: 86.157.19.118
  • Date/time: Tuesday 26th August 2008 20:43:35
  • Comment: Blimey, it's working, I'm posting wirelessly from Ubuntu...
  • Name: jonath
  • IP address: 192.168.0.22
  • Date/time: Tuesday 26th August 2008 21:06:06
  • Comment: Well, I guess that's good then. I was gonna say, "well, you wanna make sure your wireless network card is compatible with Linux," but no need. Don't forget: Ubuntu (at least, in the past) doesn't automatically come installed with various video/audio codecs to play, for example, MP3s; you'll need to install these separately, but that's dead easy to do . . . something to do with Win32codecs, I seem to recall. I personally can't stand Ubuntu, but I acknowledge it's one of the easiest versions of Linux to install and use.
  • Name: jonath
  • IP address: 192.168.0.22
  • Date/time: Tuesday 26th August 2008 21:14:34
  • Comment: Oh, forgot to say: yes, Simon, I would recommend Adaptation to go on your Love Film list; it's worth hiring/borrowing/whatever, but not much more . . . in my opinion. I may be wrong. Mind you, I didn't think all that much of 'Gosford Park', so yeah . . . can I go now?
  • IP address: 192.168.0.50
  • Date/time: Tuesday 26th August 2008 23:02:27
  • Comment: noooooooooooooooooooooooooo simon don't do it, it's truly awful.
  • Name: Former Line Manager
  • IP address: 86.156.72.124
  • Date/time: Saturday 30th August 2008 19:38:41
  • Comment: Flippin' Ubuntu misled me. Oh, yes it works lovely from the live cd and the card is so easy to set up but install it and there isn't even an option to use wireless. You look on forums and it's all ndiswrapper and command line but I shouldn't have to do that if the live cd finds it. Hmmm, must reinstall Windows before this takes over my life.
  • Name: jonath
  • IP address: 192.168.0.22
  • Date/time: Thursday 4th September 2008 08:19:52
  • Comment: My experience with Linux has always been the same: the disadvantages (such as difficulty in installing certain bits of hardware, wireless cards included) are far outweighed by the advantages (too numerous to mention). Installing the wireless card isn't actually as bad as it sounds and it only needs doing once, of course. You'll almost certainly find on the internet people who have experienced the same problems you have and have found solutions.

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