US Open post-mortem

Okay, 2 weeks late, but I have an excuse! I was in Austria the last 3 days of the tournament, without internet access, so I only saw the matches when I came back last week. Granted, it took me a week to watch 3 matches, but whatever.

I guess the biggest "story" at this year's US Open was the rain, and the consequences of it. Third year in a row the final was played on monday instead of sunday. More "the US Open needs a roof!" discussions. Players (and fans) complaining about a variety of organisatory woes.

Of course, they have a point. Personally, I think the 3 days of rain/lack of roof showed just how inflexible the US Open is. I heard one of the reasons why there's no roof over Arthur Ashe is that the roof would just be too big and too heavy. Not sure if it's true but it makes sense, a roof over Louis Armstrong would be easier. I'm thinking it would probably be cheaper to build a brand new court with a roof than refit Arthur Ashe with one.

Anyway, on to the actual tennis.

There were a lot of withdrawals and retirements, not surprising at the end of the year. The big one was Soderling not even participating "due to illness". Later it turned out he had (still has?) mono. Too bad, he could've done some real damage. My boy Nishikori retired in his first match. Actually, in the first couple of days, there were at least 2 retirements each day (on the men's side alone).

As for early matches...well it was fun seeing Cilic destroy Tomic in a very impressive way (6-1, 6-0, 6-2). Tomic, of course, being a bratty little shit who deserves every beating he gets.

Personally I didn't think there were that many memorable matches in the first 10 days or so of the tournament. It was nice seeing Federer struggle a bit against Cilic, but then he completely destroyed his opponent in the next match. The Tsonga-Fish match was nice, as expected, and Djokovic-Dolgopolov had a really good first set. Djokovic-Tipsarevic was a very interesting match for the first 2 sets, but we all knew Tipsarevic was going to retire at some point, right? And Federer beating Tsonga rather easily was a certainly a relief for Federer fans.

But the two best matches of the tournament were definitely Djokovic-Federer and Djokovic-Nadal. As a Federer fan I was upset that he again gave away a 2 set lead, but in the end Djokovic was of course the better man. It was a good match to watch though, but I'm actually glad I wasn't able to watch it live heh (I was on a bus to Austria at the time), I'm pretty sure my twitter feed wouldn't have been pretty. But yeah, the first 2 sets (and the last set) had pretty, clean, efficient tennis, the sort of tennis I enjoyed very much.

A difference with the final then, which was a total grindfest. Long, sometimes very long rallies with almost every point. It was almost the complete opposite of the Federer match, which also shows how Djokovic can adapt his style to the opponent he's playing. In the Federer match, Djokovic mainly had to outsmart his opponent by playing textbook tennis. Against Nadal, he didn't just have to outsmart him, he also needed to outrun and out-hit him. And even though it's not my style, it was really great to watch these two go at each other, in a true test of skill and atlethicism. If Federer-Djokovic at Roland Garros was the best semifinal of the year, then this was easily the best final of the year. Mostly one-sided, yes, but the tennis on display was certainly very exciting and on a level rarely seen before.

As for the women, I haven't followed it as much as I usually do - like I said, some tennis boredom sets in this time of year, and it didn't help that Kvitova went out in the first round. One of my other girls, Petkovic, got pretty far, but I was disappointed she couldn't win against Wozniacki. Good thing Serena showed her who's boss. And I was honestly quite surprised Stosur won against Serena. Serena again showing her ugly side, by attacking the umpire with some nasty comments ("you're ugly on the inside" - how is that not a personal attack?), and of course she always gets away with it - some silly, . Sickening really. I like Serena's tennis but I have zero respect for her as a person.

Okay, that's all I have to say about it. Next tennis update will probably be about the World Tour Finals.

more film reviews!

These are all films I've seen on tv or whatever, I do these every month or two, and keep the reviews (if you can even call them that) short. If you want more info about the films, just google/imdb/wikipedia them. Okay? Okay.

La Tourneuse des Pages (The Page Turner)

I've heard of this film and wanted to see it in the cinema, but my local cinemas are useless. Anyway, it's a french film, about a girl wanting to take revenge on a jury member who made her fail her entrance exam. It's a typically french film I guess, it's somewhat slow, with a minimum of dialogues, but the tension (sexual and otherwise) and atmosphere in this is awesome. The way events are played out are great, how Melanie (the girl) does these little things that eventually end up having big consequences. Really loved this.

Lust/Caution

I love Ang Lee!! But he tends to make his films too long for their own good. And start really really slow. This is no different. I ended up liking the film, but it wasn't easy, if you know what I mean. I like it more because of the performances and the (WWII-)atmosphere, but overall I thought it was rather forgettable. Well, apart from the sex scenes. At first I was all "OMGWTF?" a second later I was all "more, MORE!" What can I say, I'm a pervert.

Into the Wild

THAT ending. Very much a kick in the stomach. But it's a really, really good film. It's pretty and I was never bored with it. I liked all the secondary characters as well, especially the hippie couple. It was like they were his substitute parents. Loved them, and for me, they had the scenes which made me the most emotional.

Mysterious Skin

It has Gordon Joseph-Levitt as a gay prostitute, what more do you want?? The film is actually quite uncomfortable to watch at times, since it involves pedophilia and other rather yucky sexual subjects. But I definitely enjoyed watching it. It's one of those films that you still think about days after you've seen it, and that's not a bad thing at all.

House of 1000 Corpses

I was starving for a horror film, and this just happened to be on tv. It has a couple of disturbing scenes, but it doesn't really flow well together. I loved the Captain Spaulding character, but in the end the film is nothing special.

D.O.A. Dead or Alive

Based on the blockbuster videogame!! Hehe. It's one of those so-bad-it's-good (sorta) films, the film is quite shallow but with a fair amount of eye candy -- just like the games, amirite? Hell, it even has a beach volleybal scene, full of slow-mo scenes and close-ups of you-know-what. If you're a (straight) teen boy, this film is masturbation heaven. Well apart from that Aoki woman, can't see why people think she's pretty. Special mention to Jamie Pressly, who is basically playing her My Name is Earl character here. But she does a good job at, and is actually the only one who at least tries to do some acting.

But yeah, I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I know I shouldn't, so let's just call this one of my guilty pleasures.

Back to the Future Trilogy

Yeah, I probably saw at least one film as a kid, but I couldn't really remember much of any of them. They showed all three of them on tv, so I was able to watch them in order. My favourite one is actually...the third!!! And my least favourite the second - well apart from the first half an hour or so, that was good, but then it starts getting "ugly" and fairly complicated, they forgot to the make the film actually fun. First one is probably the best, I guess. Overall though, I didn't really enjoy the trilogy as much as I thought I would, so personally I think it's a bit overhyped, and people are probably watching this with nostalgia glasses. Cult classic? Probably, but not for me.

Jamon Jamon

Look, it's a spanish film, and you get to see Penelope Cruz' tits, that's all the explanation it needs.

La Piscine

I actually thought this was the original version of Swimming Pool (a film I can recommend), but the story is different. Again, french film, sexual tension, dialogues that are about nothing at all (but somehow still sound cool), etc. It's a fairly long film though, and by the end I was bored with it. Still, the first hour or so is very entertaining for a frenchofile like me, but trop c'est trop.

Kinsey

Interesting film for perverts like me. I mean, people interested in sexual psychology. Actually, Kinsey himself and what he wrote/researched is interesting, but the film is sometimes a bit of a mess. It's like, in the first part of the film, the filmmakers try to tell you what an exceptional and clever man Kinsey was. In the second part, they try to tell you what an immoral pervert he really was. It makes the last half an hour of the film really messy, like they didn't quite know what to do anymore. It's still worth seeing, especially if you even have the slightest interest in sexuology, just be aware of the huge drop in quality towards the end of the film.

Right, that's it for now.

I went to the cinema and stuff

some cinema film reviews:

Cars 2

Typical soulless Disney drivel. Okay, I laughed at all the country/racial stereotyping - oh those crazy Japanese with their crazy toilets! Oh those Italians who are all mobsters but worship their "mama"! And so on. Well that got pretty old towards the end of the film. I also wonder how many people will actually get the plot. My 4-year old cousin considered the Italian F1 car as the "bad guy". Also, is it just me, or where some scenes just real-life pictures, just overpainted in some way to look like a cartoon? If not, some backgrounds actually looked real, if it's all computer-generated it's quite impressive.

But compared to the first one, it definitely lacks "soul". I actually liked the first one (an animated Disney film I like, I know, shocking), it was simple and charming. This one is flashy, fast, and other things that don't even matter if we're talking about quality.

Well anyway, at least my cousin was entertained, and I didn't fall asleep.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I didn't really follow the hype and only saw one short trailer, and as usual it was for the best. The tv ad falsely advertises it as an action film though, and it's really not. Well, not for the first 80 minutes or so.

It's a good summer blockbuster, and it has a really nice - if predictable - build up. Caesar/Andy Serkis was awesome, just as the relationships between the apes, but the humans were rather boring. Although I always like seeing John Lithgow. And whats-his-name, Draco Malfoy, got to say the "get your stinking paws off me" line, awesome. It made me laugh out loud in the cinema. I was the only one with that reaction. Awkward.

Anyway, really liked it, and there's obviously a sequel incoming.

Captain America

Yet another Marvel film. And guess what? It's great. Of all the recent Marvel films I think I slightly prefer Thor, but this and X-Men First Class are easily 8/10 films, really fun to watch.

I can't say I really enjoyed Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, his accent was too Hollywood-german, should've just kept his native accent, with the backstory being that he can fluently speak 12 languages or something. I thought the Erskine guy had a more convincing accent. Oh, and as cheesy as it sounded, I do approve of that "people forget that the first country the nazis invaded was their own" statement.

Small spoiler next I suppose: I thought it was pretty obvious that...some dude isn't really dead, but was transported into another universe...it certainly looked like one of those transporter thingies from Thor, and a similar constellation. But maybe I've seen too many Marvel films recently heh.

Oh, a little Tem Trivia: in the scene at Times Square at the end, you can see some Roland Garros footage on one of the screens!! True story.

Anyway, I look forward to The Avengers film. 3 great Marvel films in a row, I wonder if they can make an even better one.

Cowboys & Aliens

Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde in one film! MUST SEE!!!

...It's a shame the film doesn't live up to the 'star' cast though. It's entertaining enough, but looking back at it, I could've waited until it came on tv. Also, as with most films nowadays, I tend to avoid trailers and such, and I thought the film would be action-comedy like (why so serious?). I mean, Cowboys, and aliens, what a silly combination! I really feel like this was a missed opportunity to make something like Men in Black, or Ghostbusters, there really aren't enough scifi-action-comedies out there.

So I guess part of why I didn't think it was awesome is because it wasn't what I wanted. Ignoring that, there are other smaller things that didn't agree with me. The aliens themselves look far too cartoony, or even like LOTR troll rejects, only with stupid pointless extra arms. I found it really hard to take them seriously, instead of scary evil aliens they looked more like something you find as a toy in a Happy Meal. It contrasts with the seriousness (and occasional brutal violence) of the film.

And while Daniel Craig is pretty good in this, both Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde were rather replaceable. Harrison Ford's character only has about one good scene at the end, if not for that the whole character could've just been left out. I thought the backstroy of Olivia Wilde's character was pretty predictable - plus it's also the most plothole-y part of the film if you start thinking about it. But you shouldn't, I guess, it's just a summer film right?

Overall, the flow of the film is a bit weird at times, it's definitely half an hour too long for what it really is. I still enjoyed it, but I'm not going to recommend it, especially not if they still play Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Captain America in your cinema.

Okay, that's it for the cinema reviews, I'll do some non-cinema film review next!