buter's BABY blog

So you know how Rip Van Winkle slept for 20 years only to return to his village all confuddled and messed about - well after watching the best movie in the world on average 2x per year since it was released, I empathise with ol' Rip after seeing this page (also linked from Cynical-C).

errr, thanks Jarv. This was a bad bad way to wake up ... :/

I was going to call this post "Third time lucky" but found the other title more amusing.

So last night, D™ and I went to see Ocean's Thirteen at the moofies. It was much much much better than Ocean's Twelve (which sucked big time) and done with much the same style and slickness as Ocean's Eleven (which we loved, and watched on DVD, several times).

There's this excellent Mexican interlude where Casey Affleck as "young dumb white guy" is doing something mildly dangerous. His coworker says "Es peligroso". He replies with "Peligroso es mi nombre medio" (which had D™ in stitches in the first place), and translates as Dangerous is my medium name.

Apparently it should have been:
Peligro es mi segundo nombre

But seriously, Ocean's 13 is another sequel to a sequel where the sequel to the sequel is waaaay better than the sequel. It was the same with Pirates of the Caribbean - #2 was kind of boring and awful, seemed to be spending more time setting up for #3 than actually making any kind of story, but #3 was pretty fine.

And how about SpideyThree? Spidey was pretty good, SpideyTwo was average, and SpideyThree? Err... it was ok. Not in the same league as the other 3rd-part films we've seen lately.

Oh well. Next on the movie list - another sequel. I wonder if it follows the same rule.

So, you might have heard at some point that one of my favourite flicks is Clueless, for several reasons, if you know me, you'll know why the film appeals, and if you don't know me or you haven't seen it then there's no point explaining it to you!

It's full of American cultural references that I didn't understand the first time I saw it, but because of clever writing that doesn't really matter - the context makes it obvious. But as I've gone through experiencing life (or at least experiencing the internet) I've come to understand more and more of it. I wouldn't say the references have enriched the movie, but I find it highly amusing that a film I saw in 1995 is the first time I heard some of these terms.

Ok, so rather than bore you any more with the slow slow workings of my mind, here's what I mean.

MEL : Which reminds me, where's your report card?

CHER : It's not ready yet.

MEL : What do you mean, "it's not ready yet?"

CHER : Well, some teachers are trying to low-ball me, Daddy.

For years I thought she said the teachers were trying to lobe on her. No idea what that meant. But once I figured out the bidding thing on EBay, I got it.

And now, thanks to the Goog, I've finally got this line:

CHER : Here's the 411 on Mr. Hall. He's single, he's 47, and he earns minor duckets for a thankless job.

411 !! Information !! I get it !!

I still don't get "duckets" but at least the urban dictionary is always ready to offer a helping hand.

Oh, it's all very sad and ridiculous isn't it. But seriously, surely I'm not the only one out there who just lets things slide if you don't understand them, and if they don't seem that important. I mean, how often (in Australia) do you hear - or use - the term 411 in conversation? Really? So cultural references in film don't always translate, come to think of it, nor do they translate in books particularly well. How many non-Aussies find The Castle incomprehensible, for instance?

And then the other day I heard that the ad man who created the "shrimp on the barbie" campaign to send to America had passed away. But what got me was what the original campaign was about.

AD GUY 1 : How are we gonna advertise Oz to the Yanks?
AD GUY 2 : Guess we could invite them over for a couple of snags on the barbie?
AD GUY 1 : Hmm, good idea, but will they know what a snag is?
AD GUY 2 : Umm - "Banger on the barbie"?
AD GUY 1 : And we want to show that we have access to great seafood rather than just gristle and fat encased in sheep intestines. Might remind them that we're all convicts or something.
AD GUY 2 : Right. "Prawn on the barbie"?
AD GUY 1 : Prawn... prawn... would they know what that is?

And lo and behold, rather than reeducate the masses as to what a prawn is, they all come here wondering where all the shrimp are. No 411 there.

<sigh>