Sports and Guns

A quick burst of US culture today!

So, I watched the Superbowl and thoroughly enjoyed it. I decided to support the Giants in the end, mainly because they were the underdogs, but partly because I don't like patriotism as a quality. Whereas giants in general are pretty cool. Top three giants? Well, if you're asking: Andre (the Giant), Great Grape Ape (he counts), and the Giant Sequoia.

It wasn't Ray Stubbs, but that blonde kid from Sportsround doing the coverage, and I think he did an admirable job. They had to fill commercial time with the odd 'Superbowl Memories' package reminiscing about one of the games in its illustrious forty-something history. Which isn't much. The FA Cup pisses all over that.

Similarly, it's amusing when Americans mention they have over two hundred years of history. It seems so insubstantial. It's not fair really. Their history lessons have so much less to cover than ours, it's a wonder that every US citizen can't give details of every day in their history, right up to who had what for breakfast and a breakdown of each state by most popular hat.

One thing that watching the Superbowl does do, is remind me of how fucking brilliant (proper) football is. Soccer is so clearly the best sport, and by such a wide margin, that it's a wonder there's any debate. It has all the best qualities of every other sport rolled into one (except Foxy Boxing, but I'm sure that'll come).

***

Yesterday, I finally got around to watching Die Hard 4.0 (or Live Free or Die Hard, a kind of self-defeating ultimatum). I love the Die Hard films and this one was pretty good.

No fuss, just lots of action. It suffered a little from being rated PG-13, but not as much as I thought it would.

The only real flaw is that the villian was a bit pathetic. I didn't really buy the pretty-boy nerd as much of a threat, especially when compared to badass Alan "Shoot the Glass" Rickman and crazy-ass Jeremy "Holy Toledo! Somebody had fun" Irons. I think Gary Oldman should have got the part. He's insane enough to be a threat to McClane, if only for a while.

And strangely, I think I prefer it to the Bourne films, because you need a bit of humour in between the car crashes and bullets, even if it has to come from the kid from Galaxy Quest.

*** (this is a dividing line, rather than a star-rating)

While I'm on films, here's my review of No Country for Old Men:

Pretty damn good, but the title is a bit difficult. I'm sure I asked for tickets to "Old Country for New Men", "Country Men for No Colds", "Cowboys Know No Boys (Heath Ledger RIP)".

It was scary, the psycho guy was cool, great performances all round. And I'm a sucker for a lck of resolution, and some weird structure, so I rate this pretty highly. But then, I also really liked The Man Who Wasn't There when I first saw it, and it didn't blow me away on second viewing, so what do I know?

In conclusion, one thumb up for the quality of the film, and one thumb up for Kelly MacDonald being in it (I'm sure she'd enjoy that).