Eva Longoria @ Fort Boyard

Saturday, I watched a show that I haven't watch in years. Actually, I was still living in Europe the last time I watched it.

So I watched Fort Boyard on RFO (Radio France Outremer, part of the "France television" group). But there was a reason.

I read earlier an article explaining the game is starting its 20th season and they wanted something special. So they invited Tony Parker & Eva Longoria to lead a team on the fort. They accepted and like each team now they played for a charitable organization (Make a Wish France in their case).


Some word on the game for those who don't know it ... Members of the team enters "cells" (the Fort was used as a jail, I think) where they have to pass various test to get a key, keys open the treasure room. After the keys, they have to pass some "adventures" to get clues, clues help them to find a keyword which wil unlock the treasure in the treasure room.





So I was curious to see how a desperate housewife could handle that ... knowing that some tests in cells can be disgusting (it sometimes includes various animals like snakes, mice, spiders, rats, worms ...) and some contestant can be a little scared by some adventures (includes things like benji jumping).



Actually, I was positively suprised. She seemed happy to be there and very comfortable with the situation. I found her very friendly and she didn't seem to act like a diva at all (I'm pretty sure that other actresses in her situation would have acted very differently). Case in point ... the cell pitured in the first image .... the key is hidden in one of the jars but, those jars are filled with various more or less disgusting things ... it's a classic of the game ... and usually the contestant screams all the time spent in the cell ... she almost didn't scream at all !! She even said "Sorry little mouse" when she put her hand in a jar containing mice ... that was so cute !

Tony Parker being French, we know that she know a little French but she didn't seem to have any problem to understand anything even of the show was mainly in French (the host only gave her some instructions in English). And she was good too in the tests where it's more about logical things.

Really, I was positively impressed.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

While most of TV shows are now ended until the Fall, I started to see a little more movies. So, on Tuesday my choice was "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3", starring John Travolta and Denzel Washington and directed by Tony Scott.

I'm not huge fan of action movies but I like them once in a while. Plus, I must admit that, even if he doesn't always make the best choices in his movies, I like John Travolta. A lot.


While I was on my way to see to movies I clearly realized that I was in this position ... you know ... when you perfectly know that it won't be good but you can't refrain yourself to go anymay.


The Story


A New York City subway train is hijacked by a small group of armed men, lead by a guy who named himself Ryder. They hold passengers hostages while Ryder request 10 millions dollars. During the negotiation, he will be in contact with the dispatcher Walter Garber, who really didn't need that.


The Actors


John Travolta is playing the bad guy as "Ryder", which is obviously a character closer to a Vincent Vega (in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction) than to a Danny Zuko (who forgot Grease ???).


Denzel Washington is Walter Garber, the dispatcher who could be the good guy next door ... but still not a saint.


I should also mention John Turturo (who also be soon on screen in "Transformers") and James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) as a perfectly disgusting mayor.


What Did I Think ?


I must say that I didn't take much attention to Tony Scott's work lately and I couln't name 5 movies he directed (while he did much than that) ... I barely remembered "Top Gun" and "Days of Thunder"... and the first frames of Pelham strangely remind me of the first frames of Top Gun. I had that bad feeling that he was still making movies just like he did in the eighties, remaining in his strict comfort zone. It wasn't starting very well.

And unfortunately, it didn't really improve.

The good side of the movie is that I didn't think it was too long. Well, some scenes could have been cut but it wasn't excessive like some other movies where you can easily find half an hour to cut.

But the story is also highly predictable which is never a good thing. I didn't find even a shadow of a surprise in the script.

However, if you just take it for what it is (one of the numerous action movies of the summer), it's good enough to spend an evening at the movie. But don't expect too much of it. And if you a have a decent home cinema system, you wouldn't miss a lot if you wait to rent it when it will be released on DVD.

Millenium - Men Who Hate Women

That's easier to understand than the original title : "Män som hatar kvinnor"

Except if you are perfectly fluent in Swedish.

Last night was another movie night ... probably the first time ever I saw a Swedish movie.

The Story

Millenium (let's go with a shorter version of the title) is based on Stieg Larsson's popular novel (this is the first part of a trilogy).

Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist who was just convicted of slander. Henrik Vanger, who used to be at the head of a large industrial company run by the Vanger family, contracts Blomkvist to search an old family case. Harriet Vanger, niece of Henrik Vanger, disappeared 40 years earlier at the age of 16. Police closed the case but didn't solve it and it remained a mystery haunting Vanger. And Vanger sees in Blomkvist the only man able to find what can be found in this story.

In his investigation, Mikael Blomkvist meets Lisbeth Salander, a troubled young woman who seems to carry an heavy past. But Lisbeth also has an incredible ability to investigate (using, among others, her computer hacking skills) and find clues that no one saw before.

Investigating together, they will soon find a very dark story behind Harriet Vanger's one.

The Actors

Unless you are very familiar with Scandinavian actors and actresses, you won't know any of them. I didn't know any of them.

So, I will focus only on the 2 main characters : Michael Nyqvist plays Mikael Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace plays Lisbeth Salander.

I think the whole casting was good and did a good job here. However, Noomi Rapace gives a better performance than any other. She totally IS Lisbeth Salander and I honestly cannot think of a known name that would better fit in this role. She, only by her own performance, gives a good reason to see the movie.

What did I think ?

I didn't read the novel (but will definitively do) so I can't tell if it is well adapted or not, it's not the point.

What I can say is this movie is most probably one of the best thriller I've seen lately. The story is very well built, it makes you want to know what happens next. Also, it didn't give you too much clue to guess how it will end. I hate when I see a movie where you can guess who the killer is after 15 minutes and, for the next 90 minutes, you just wonder why the main character didn't guess. I didn't have that feeling here. I guessed who "the bad one" really was only a few minutes before Blomkvist and Salander did. And there was still a surprise after that.

When I chose to see that movie I had a doubt about its length (2hrs30) ... usually, when a movie is more than 2hrs long, it's just too long (some directors really suck when it comes to cut in their movie). It was not the case here, I didn't feel like it was too long nor thinking "This scene was totally pointless, just cut it".

The novel is the first part of a trilogy and, at first, it was decided to make a movie out of this first part and, after that, a mini-serie for TV out of the 2 other novels (it was supposed to have 2 episodes for each of the 2 books). Now, as they see the results (and, I guess, the earnings ... it remains almost not an empty seat when I saw it), they talk about releasing the 2 other parts in movies too. I really hope they will do.

Angels & Demons : the movie (and the novel too)

Last week, I took a walk to the closest movie plex, very curious to see what kind of movie Ron Howard made from Dan Brown's novel "Angels & Demons".

I should start saying "The Da Vinci Code" was a big disappointment to me : not so well adapted story, tasteless Audrey Tautou (she was great as Amelie Poulain but really not great as Sophie Neveu) and Tom Hanks giving a very minimal overview of what he can do. Speaking of Tom Hanks, he sometimes gives me the feeling that he acts thinking "I was so good in movies like Forrest Gump that I have nothing to prove, and I won't". That's exactly how I felt watching "The Da Vinci Code".

So I had not a lot of expectations. But still was curious. I'm curious. All the time.

As a result, I was almost surprised to enjoy the movie, and even to to think it was quite good.

Actually, I found it was way better than The Da Vinci Code. I would even dare to say the movie was better than the novel. Why ? Because I think the story was better adapted, cut a the right place (I found the first part of the novel, the part located in Switzerland, way too long). Tom Hanks is still in the lower part of his abilities but does a little better. And his female partner, Ayelet Zurer does a way better job than what Audrey Tautou did. The camerlengo character became here Irish (or was it Scottish ? or simply English ? ... anyway ...) while he is Italian in the novel, the only reason behind that is the character is played by Ewan McGregor and it was obviously difficult to make believe he might have an Italian heritage. I must say that I wasn't totally convinced by McGregor in this particular character but he does a decent job. Maybe it's because I just can't see Ewan as a priest ! IMDB tells the role was declined by Leonardo DiCaprio, even if I would have loved to see him in the movie, I do not see more Leo as a priest ;-)

Ron Howard didn't get the authorization to shoot the movie in Vatican City (no need to ask why) so a replica of St Peter's Square was build for the movie and the result is really stunning, you could really think that you are in the actual place.

Of course, it doesn't have the qualities to make a multi-awards movie but it's a good one in its own category. However, I don't think it will generate as much income as the Da Vinci Code because the buzz aroud the movie is really not as big for this one.

Clara Sheller

Sometimes ago, while getting news from old Europe, I heard about a short (2 seasons of 6 episodes each) serie called "Clara Sheller" but without really listening to what I was hearing. As a result, I didn't know if it was good or not.

Anyway, I noticed on Monday that TV5 was starting to broadcast the second season and I decided to watch it even if I didn't see the first part, which didn't affected me at all.

They waited something like 2 or 3 years between the shooting of the 2 seasons and they keep the same time gap in the serie. So season 2 starts 3 years after the end of season 1. They also have a totally different casting between the 2 seasons. However, as I didn't see first season, I can't compare.

The actress Zoe Felix (she was in the very successful French comedy "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis") is the main character, Clara Sheller.

So ... how is it ?

Short answer : I liked it ... A LOT !

A little more about it ?

While the story has nothing to do with "Sex and the City", I found that Clara Sheller has a little "Carrie Bradshaw touch". She's in her 30's, she's a columnist for a magazine, she likes to party ... In some way, should be Carrie's little Parisian sister. But, in the same time, it's not a cut&paste of SATC, from NY to Paris. 

I find all actors are great (I don't really know any of them, except for Zoe Felix). The serie gives really nice shots of Parisian life and nightlife but in a quite realistic way, I mean it's not only about French glamour or huge appartments that most people in Paris can't afford in real life. Also, the music is just great, which I think gives a good atmosphere to the serie (while wrong music choices can, in my opinion, ruin a movie or a show). It's not a complicated story, just daily life and self questionning of any young woman who realize she's now an adult and what is it to grown up.

Now, I just can't wait 'til monday !