Z/Web

Only my second Dutch League game, I’m still adjusting. I find my interest level low going in, but once the game gets going, I can get into it. I suppose that’s just normal. I don’t know the teams or the players, so everything’s foreign. I was interested in this game because Amsterdam’s Ajax is so famous (pronounced “aye-axe”, btw), but their star has been fading lately and they’re in 9th spot this season. But they came out big against Roda, scoring at the mid-way point and again on a clear penalty kick late in the first half. In the second half the game got fun as Roda became desperate and Ajax just toyed with them, easily scoring two more times. Roda managed to scramble one goal back, and then got a stumbler in the final seconds. Final: 4-2 Ajax.

Terrific Jackie Chan film, full of his characteristic humor and great action. This is described on the DVD as an “Eastern Western,” which is exactly what it is. It’s a period piece, which surprised me (I remembered very little from the trailers, only that critics had liked it). It’s totally cool. Set in the old West, it deals with a Chan as an Imperial Guard sent to America to rescue the Emperor’s kidnapped daughter. He meets up with an inept bandit (wonderfully played by Owen Wilson) and the two become uncooperative partners. Hilarious, witty, beautifully photographed (the Nevada landscapes are breathtaking), and filled with Chan’s amazing stunts. And I can’t fail to mention Ally McBeal’s Lucy Liu as the princess — she was perfect.

Author: David Cronenberg

Director: David Cronenberg

Unusual horror film about a woman who undergoes major surgery with skin grafts and in recovery discovers a mouth has formed in her armpit! The mouth must eat: i.e. suck blood from people. Her victims become infected with a rabies-like disease that has them foaming at the mouth in blood lust themselves — and anyone they bite is also infected. If prevented from sucking blood, the victims fall into a coma and die within a day. Within a week half of Montreal is infected, and martial law is declared by the mayor. Policemen shoot rabid people on sight. Meanwhile, the woman is going around infecting people, oblivious to the chaos she is causing. Very well-done, realistic, but lacks depth. The story never goes back to explain the woman’s armpit mouth and we’re left with a strange feeling of “why?” Favorite moment: when one of the cops, shooting a rabid man in a mall, accidentally shoots Santa Claus! Delightfully sick (and a touch profound).