Breaking the Pattern

Conditions: Shakily Nice.

Rash

It was a pretty stupid prank. Two radio DJs rang up the hospital in London and pretended to be the Queen and Prince Philip in order to find out about Princess Kate. The nurse taking the call didn’t hang up on the bad accents because who would, really, in that situation. The problem came after the prank went global, when we learned that the nurse has apparently taken her own life.

The tragedy has triggered a fresh debate about the media and privacy. The Australian regulator said it had been inundated with complaints about the prank call made by the two DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who work for the radio station 2Day FM.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said it was discussing the matter with the station, which has said the two presenters have been left "shattered" by events. The pair have now been taken off air and offered counselling, while the station's owner has been forced to pull adverts after panic from advertisers. The telephone giant, Telstra, yesterday joined a list of companies removing their advertising from 2Day FM.

- guardian.co.uk/

Ok, look, I can agree that the prank was stupid and in poor taste. And it is certain that it is a tragedy that the nurse, who was a mother, is now dead. But I think a little too much venom is being thrown at the two DJs. As much as I hate the "candid camera" style of gotcha, the simple fact is that suicide is a complicated thing, and this nurse going over the edge is not necessarily the blame of these two radio idiots. If this results in less of these stupid shows then that’s great, but at the moment it’s looking like it’s going to result in too much retribution.



Film Review: Skyfall

There’s a general rule of Bond in that if the opening musical sequence is good, then the movie will suck. If it’s bad, then the movie will be good. It’s not an absolute rule, with exceptions like Goldfinger or Goldeneye, but it does tend to hold true most of the time. After the opening sequence of Skyfall left me with a distinct meh, I think the rule still holds. It’s not that Skyfall, celebrating 50 years of 007, is a bad film really, it’s just that it suddenly seems to be looking backward at it’s history and perhaps feeling it’s age a little amid the cake and streamers. Which is a theme in the actual story where Daniel Craig is now the grizzled veteran, starting the film off by being shot and left for dead. He pulls himself back together in time to help face a direct threat against MI6 by an ex agent, who was also left for dead a while ago. Played with fruity vigour by Javier Bardem, he has a very complicated plan of revenge against M that entails being caught, escaping, and having a lot of expendable helpers and firepower. You k now that seems to be a blockbuster theme of late. While borrowing from the plot of The Dark Knight, Bardem’s villain also uses an essentially magical ability to engineer computer viruses into everything in order to help him put his plan into fruition. So it basically ends up a chase movie, where Bond, for reasons I still don’t really get, grabs M and they charge off together to Bonds old home in Scotland in order to make a final stand. Which doesn’t really go all that well.

Anyway, while Skyfall is not as solid or intriguing, or powerful as Casino Royale was, and also it’s not as slick and focused as Quantum of Solace was, it does come across as a strongly-acted and satisfyingly dramatic outing. While you may cringe a little at some of the old cliches seeping their way back into the franchise after we all thought they’d been banished to another time, I guess you could say that, much like Bond himself, it’s earned the quirks and scars.

Another issue I have is with the ending, which I’m about to spoil. See while Bardem’s crazily complicated and somewhat ridiculous plan to kill M is implemented by him and his latest batch of goons by blowing up the homestead and chasing poor old M down I couldn’t help wondering if Bond even knows what he’s doing. I mean, perhaps a few more double-O agents may have come in handy after all to help fight off the army of bad guys. You know, over the decades generally Bond movies have wrapped themselves up in a fairly predictable way. Bonds kills the bad guy, saves the world, and gets the girl. Okay, so the getting of the girl has become less and less reliable in latter years, but in Skyfall, Bond doesn't even save the day, either. In fact in a couple of places Bond seems to be even more callous than ever.  What seems to be happening over Craig's tenure as Bond is an unraveling of what Bond does, as well as a deconstruction of how he does it. A more gritty and realistic Bond, and a far less happy-ending-like world he operates in. While it may be dramatic, I don't see how Bond comes out a winner in this at all, despite the posing.  Three burnt lodges out of Five.



- Peace Out