Ramblings of a Brit abroad

Thanks to the nice people at Netflix, we received a copy of “No Country for Old Men” on the day of it’s DVD release here in the US.

It is the story of a Vietnam Veteran, Llewelyn Moss ( Josh Brolin ) who stumbles across a gun battle in the desert with no survivors. There he discovers a massive haul of heroin and a trail of blood that leads to another body and 2 million dollars in cash. So he decides the best thing he can so is keep it. Big Mistake!!! Hot on his trail is Anton Chiguhr ( Javier Bardem ) in an Oscar winning role, as a psychopathic killer bent on retrieving the case of money by any means. Death and mayhem ensue with Chiguhr dispatching many of his victims with the aid of an air powered abattoir gun and a shotgun with a silencer.

In to the mix comes Sheriff Ed Tom Bell ( Tommy Lee Jones ) who tries to make some sense of the chaos going on around him in this small area of rural Texas, but with little success. All he discovers is bodies.
This is a stripped down crime thriller, expertly crafted by writers/directors Joel and Ethan Coen, with little in the way of camera tricks apart from some spectacular gore, a very strong plot line and great performances, most notably by Brolin and Bardem. The latter quite rightly won the Best Actor in a supporting Role at this year’s Oscars as he gives a performance of a man so detached from real life that he can decide whether someone lives or dies by the toss of a coin.

I would thoroughly recommend this film to anyone as long as the smaller kids are tucked up in bed. And if you tend to not like graphic murders with an awful lot of blood, then you probably shouldn’t watch it either.

Score 9/10

It would appear, as my 45th birthday looms large, that I have reached what it commonly called a certain age.

I gave my beard a trim this morning and noticed a quite unusual amount of grey on my chin. Added to this, I seem to be losing the ability to grow hair on the top of my head and instead have become extremely proficient at growing hair from both ears and nostrils.

I have also noticed when getting up in the morning that I have run a marathon during the night as this can be the only explanation for being so stiff and achy.

Does anyone know if there is a worldwide database of the e-mail addresses of men in their 40’s as the offers of pills for what is delicately termed E.D. here in the US, have accelerated at an alarming rate.

But what annoys me most of all is that nobody will believe that I am younger than my wife, Zoe, who is serenely approaching her 50th without a care in the world and still looking like a woman in her late 30’s.

So what do I have to look forward to? I am guessing that pretty soon the already poor eyesight will require glasses to help me read and no doubt, somebody will soon suggest that a prostate exam is in order. I refuse to have some quack remove hair from another part of my body and sew it to my head, and a syrup is definitely out of the question. So when the inevitable eventually happens I shall either shave it all off, or start wearing a lot of different hats.

So when you ask me next year how old I am, I am 39….. GOT IT!!!!!

I have created a new category on here purely to point out the stupid, banal and more often than not, pointless rubbish that the press come out with sometimes.

This weeks special prize goes to the Daily Mail who thought it both interesting and newsworthy to point out that Celine Dion took to the stage in Tokyo recently with hairy legs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=529448&in_page_id=1773

Now it wasn’t that Miss Dion is a particularly hairy person, far from it. It was the fact that particularly bright back-lighting made her look furry and this was apparently newsworthy.

Now I gave up buying printed news some time ago in favour of the free online version and is it any wonder. I shall be scouring the pages of the various tabloids in search of more gems of ludicrous reporting but for the moment I shall leave you with a quote.

“But despite the grooming oversight, she succeeded in wowing the crowd with a typically dazzling performance.”

I am pretty sure that her hairy legs ( and arms if you look closely ) were not her number one priority whilst earning several million bucks signing her little heart out!!!

At the start of today, the odds of both Manchester United and Chelsea being out of the FA Cup must have been huge.

Whilst United were at home, they were playing Portsmouth and would have been odds on favourites to take the tie handsomely. Unfortunately, Harry Redknapp has a habit of dumping United out of the Cup and he went and did it again today. By all accounts, United had the lions share of the game and could have had it wrapped up by half time, but missed chances and more heroics from David James kept Pompey in it. With the second half drawing to a close, Tomasz Kuszczak, on at half time for the injured Van de Saar, brought down Baros inside the area and was sent off for his trouble, although replays show he was not even close to being the last defender. Sulley Muntari dispatched the resulting penalty past stand in keeper Rio Ferdinand for Pompey to record a famous win. Apparently Sir Alex is not happy as only 4 minutes of stoppage time was played where his watch indicated 17 minutes according to one Darren Adams.

In the other game, Chelsea were even bigger favourites to beat Barnsley, although the Yorkshire team had already knocked out Liverpool in an earlier round. Again, the Premiership side had most of the ball but scores were level at half time. Chelsea fell to a sucker punch when a long ball was played into the box by Martin Devaney and Kayode Odejayi outjumped Cudicini in the Chelsea goal to power the header home. Chelsea laid siege to the Barnsley goal for the last 20 minutes but to no avail.

So 1-0 defeats for both Chelsea and United. Favourites for the cup now must be Portsmouth. It’ll be interesting to see what the semis throw up after tomorrows games.

Tonight in Milan, something had to give. Arsenal had never been knocked out of Europe by an Italian team. AC Milan had never lost at home to a team from England. The odds were pretty favorable on a Milan win. Nobody mentioned that to Arsene and his merry band of youngsters.

For the first 15 minutes, it looked like the odds were right with Milan having the majority of the ball, but slowly Arsenal go back to their game and started passing the ball. What was most unlike Arsenal was the tenacity that they were showing in the tackling. Of course, the Italians did their usual and went down like sacks of spuds thrown from the back of a grocers lorry at Covent Garden but it didn’t seem to rattle the Gunners. Fabregas hit the bar, Diaby went close, Hleb was caught on the very edge of the box for what looked like a free kick at worst but got booked for diving. The first half finished honours even.

The second half started well for Arsenal with the same kind of commitment shown in the first half. Milan were being outplayed and you could see it in their faces. This shouldn’t be happening at home.

Finally the breakthrough. Fabregas picked up the ball just inside the Milan half and headed forward. The defenders backed off and our Csec thought he’d have a go from all of 30 yards. It skidded off the turf and past the giant Milan keeper who was a little slow getting down. With only 9 minutes left, Milan had to push forward and were caught on the break by a great run from the recently introduced Walcott who skipped past a challenge and centered for Adebayor to fire into an empty net.

On the night the right team won and it was a night for the youngsters. Of course, Fabregas looked the world class player we know he is, Walcott looked sharp when he came on, so much so that Milan moved Maldini from his duties on that side because of his pace. Also a word about Pato of Milan. At 18 years old, it looks like there is another Brazilian sharp shooter that needs to be watched. I have seen him play a few times now and he has always impressed.

But tonight is Arsenals night. I wonder who we’ll get next.