An Irish cinema has been warning customers off seeing Bruno because "it's particularly vile." If you phoned their showtimes answerphone, you get a message saying

Bruno is particularly vile. It leads to a hell of a lot of complaints from people who say 'we didn't think it was going to be that bad'. It is that bad - it will offend every prejudice in the book, believe me, so don't come on after the film and tell us how horrible it was... One or two people have enjoyed it though.

The message has now changed, but you can hear the old one on Youtube.

Choice quote : "The Moynalty Virgins Club were in last night and they say it's unmissable."

...may be often be insufferable, but his video review of Transformers 2 is genius.

This is the remainder of the pictures from Saturday night's Life of Brian screening up at the Arts Centre. It was a fantastic occasion - Messrs. Palin and Jones were fine gentlemen, and seemed genuinely happy to be there, taking a lot of time to chat to people about anything. I remember Terry Jones talking to some lad for about 20 minutes on (I think) the Wars of the Roses. It was organised as a champagne reception beforehand, which also became a bit of a signing session - but there was plenty of time to chat; then the film - I'd forgotten quite how good it was, and it was excellent to see it on the big screen; then a half-hour Q&A, which only stopped when Sue Jones-Davies decided that Palin and Jones really ought to get some dinner! Really, really wonderful night.

Oh dear. More pictures here, by the way.

There, in the background, as Scotty.

Here's Sylar, sorry, Spock, in the process of eating someone's brain to take their powers. No, that's not right either, it is?

"Careful now!"

"Down with this sort of thing!"

Also reminded of a parochial character from (I think) something by Le Guin, who, when asked what the People From Over There were really like, replied with a line along the lines of "They are black and evil! I have never seen one!"

And last night's film (well, there's a festival on) was Getting Home, a Chinese comedy about a guy trying to fulfill a promise carry his dead friend back to his family. Nice, light entertainment, with a lovely hero. The most interesting thing, though, was the er.. Chinese attitudes: construction sites are viewed as exciting hubs of progress and comradeship; the police are stern but helpful; Tibet is a tourist destination; the Three Gorges flooding may lead to many personal tragedies but the path of progress must not be halted; the 'aid centres' for homeless people in big cities are friendly places with good food and talent shows! Very odd. It did, however, acknowledge the existence of a lot of the problems in China, which is a big step - corruption, homelessness, banditry, unlicensed medical practices, the Three Gorges problems..

Incidentally, we only just got to see the film - there are only two English-subtitled prints in existence, and the one we were due to see was held up in (of all places) Tehran. Eventually the organiser begged access the other print - at a festival in California - so that was sent over. At which point the first print turned up, of course.

What if Fritz Lang and a time-travelling Terry Gilliam had, in the 1920s, used a steam-powered top-secret digital computer to make an allegorical near-silent film about the corporate control of the media in the 21st Century?

No, that's not it. How about a steampunk Jeunet et Caro?

That's not quite right, either. How about a beautiful Argentine black-and-white film with a luscious tango soundtrack and arresting images, telling - with the aid of some unsubtle but always fun semiotics and homages - how easy it is to lose one's voice and how hard it can be to keep it. And how, even when you've lost your voice, they can still take more from you; and how important it is to keep control of the ability to make yourself heard.

Lovely. Here's a better review than mine.

A bloody marvellous little Israeli comedy about an Egyptian police band, stuck in a nowhere town in Israel, and how they're helped by free-spirited restauranteur and her friends. It never wanders into sentimentality, and there's no temptingly easy resolution, just a beautiful and very funny little story, beautifully photographed.

They're remaking The Day The Earth Stood Still. With Keanu Reeves as Klaatu. He'd be much better as Gort.

A friend of ours lent us Terry Gilliam's controversial Tideland a good long while ago, and we finally got round to watching it last night. After all the fuss, we thought we'd better wait until we were in the right mood. And now I regret it - it's the most astonishing, beautiful, touching, dangerous film I've seen for a long time. It's a difficult film - I can see why Gilliam felt the need for an introduction after all the walkouts, and it's sometimes hard to keep in mind the resilience and innocence of children throughout the strangeness. The other complaint I've heard about the film is the slow pace, but the story unfolded as it should, and one needs time to absorb the stunning, hyperreal imagery of the film. Astonishing performances, too, from the 11-year-old Jodelle Ferland in the lead role, effectively performing a one girl show for most of the film; and Brendan Fletcher as a disabled young man who befriends her.

Apparently, in the new Star Trek film (which seems to be doing the trendy 'franchise reboot' dance), Scotty might be played by ... Simon Pegg.

Going to see the Studio Ghibli Tales from Earthsea movie tonight, with some trepidation... will it piss all over my memory of those beautiful books, as the SciFi Channel's abomination did? Le Guin's own opinion seems to be that it's better than that, but still not right.

UPDATE: Well, that was odd. Lovely looking film, but it wasn't Earthsea - it was a film with some characters in it with the same names as those in the books. I've yet to see an adaptation where the film's plot bears less resemblance to the original story. Oh well. The dragons were good.

Ace. If a Bond film is a roast dinner, Bourne Ultimatum
is Bovril. Essence of spy film.

Just saw the Transformers movie. Yes, I know it's old hat now, but we were sillybusy when it was on. We're still sillybusy now, but we decided dammit, we'd go out.

Lovely, all very shiny Transformer effects and that, and some great lines, but strewth it went on. It could easily have been three-quarters of an hour shorter.

I suspect the length was to help you forget the gaping plot holes. Still, it pleased my inner 12-year-old, and with a film like that, that's all that counts.