Sometimes, in my quest for action films/thrillers I have not yet seen, I dive deep into the IMDB archives. Which is how I came up with Cypher, a 2002 spy film starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu. Of course with that cast I had to watch it, and it obtained a not-negligible 6.9 rating on IMDB, so I thought, how bad could it be?
Alas…it was awful. I’ll spare you the details, except to say that the entire film was shot in muted sepia tones, as if attempting to give some noir-ish credence to a very silly plot that draws heavily on post-Cold-War paranoia in a story about brainwashing, double agents, and corporate espionage. Morgan Sullivan leads a very dull suburban life until he’s recruited to act as a corporate spy…and then recruited by that company’s competition. Morgan quickly adapts to his new identity, taking up smoking and switching his alcohol to “Scotch…single malt…on the rocks” like any good Bond-pretender. However, not all is as it seems…
And it wasn’t even so bad it’s good, it was just ludicrous and boring, an odd catch-all of Bond films, noir spy conventions, and Walter-Mitty surrealism. However. The cast is stunningly good-looking (I would positively kill to see them paired in some other film), so have some screenshots to please your eyes.
An hour later she stretched out a bare arm and tickled my ear and said: “Would you consider marrying me?”
“It wouldn’t last six months.”
“Well, for God’s sake,” she said, “suppose it didn’t. Wouldn’t it be worth it? What do you expect from life – full coverage against all possible risks?”
Instead of buying the film rights to Mad About the Boy, Helen Fielding’s just-released final book in the Bridget Jones trilogy, production companies are instead apparently working on Bridget Jones’s Baby, a film based on an original screenplay by Fielding, which will include Colin Firth. Er….wise choice I suppose? RT
Castle head writer Andrew Marlowe and his co-writer wife are working on an hour-long drama for ABC featuring Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe character for ABC. COME TO ME PRECIOUS. RT
The lovely Charity has analyzed every personality type according to a famous fictional character (mostly from sci fi shows, to my great delight). I am Anne of Green Gables (naturally). Who are you? The Doctor? Sherlock? Caroline Forbes from Vampie Diaries? RT
From USA Today’s Happily Ever After, 3 little-known facts about Jane Eyre:
Royal lovebirds love Jane Eyre. No, not Kate and Will. We’re talking about Victoria and Albert, of course! The queen read the book to her prince over the course of many evenings, even staying up quite late because it was “most interesting.” She noted in her diary that Jane Eyre was “really a wonderful book … powerfully and admirably written.” Perhaps Victoria identified with the diminutive heroine. By all accounts, Victoria was plain like Jane, while Albert was not only as worldly as Edward Rochester, but also quite the heartthrob.
Not all of Jane Eyre was fiction. Lowood Institution, that horrible charity school that Jane attended, well, gulp, it really did exist. When The Rev. Patrick Brontë’s wife died, leaving him with five young children, he decided to send his four daughters to the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge. The students at Cowan Bridge were so cold and malnourished that many of them, including Charlotte’s two sisters, became ill and died. But did their headmaster despair? No, he did not! In fact, he rejoiced because he was sending his students “to heaven.” And what exactly did heaven look like to the girls of Cowan Bridge? Since 70 students were forced to share a one-seat outdoor toilet, the Pearly Gates are probably doors to private commodes.
Jane Eyre‘s Edward continues to inspire. When she wrote Twilight, Stephenie Meyer named Edward Cullen, a vampire, after Edward Rochester, also a slightly creepy hero. Both men are described as depressed and brooding when they arrive on the scene. These tortured heroes frighten the heroines — Bella and Jane, respectively — with their volatility. Both Edwards reject shallow and empty-headed socialites, choosing instead to love two young women who are insecure about their looks. RT
And finally, two exciting trailers. The first is for Lifetime’s high-budget, suave-looking adaptation of Bonnie & Clyde – can’ t be embedded but watch here. The second is for the upcoming and much-anticipated adaptation of John Banville’s The Sea, which stars Ciaran Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, and others in what looks like a story exactly halfway between broodingly literary and grippingly dramatic.
Coffee and Irony 