Watching Abre Los Ojos (2005-08-19)

After meeting (and calling) friends for the U District's own Art Walk, the conversation turned to travel at Twice Sold Tales and continued at Schultzy's. Deciding that a subtitled movie was the natural next event, we went to Scarecrow Video for the title that came to mind: Abre los ojos/Open Your Eyes. The Vanilla Sky remake was quite close to the original, though I think Eduardo Noriega was more convincing as César than Tom Cruise as David Aames.

Ryan recognized Fele Martínez, playing Pelayo (the Brian Shelby role played by Jason Lee in Vanilla Sky) as Enrique Goded in La mala educación/Bad Education. La mala educación might be enjoyable for those that like director Pedro Almodóvar--e.g., Todo sobre mi madre/All About My Mother--or actor Gael García Bernal--e.g., Y tu mamá también/And Your Mother Too, El crimen del padre Amaro/The Crime of Father Amaro, Dot the I.

Winning a Bronze Duck (2005-08-09)

This week Allan's boat Great Expectations won third place in Duck Dodge! Our crew sailed well, despite the spinnaker halyard detaching, requiring Ratna to retrieve it.

[Updated 2007-07-18, changing title from "Black" to "Bronze".]

Watching Vanilla Sky (2005-08-13)

We took a weekend at the Vashon Island Hostel with friends to camp, swim, walk on the beach--and watch a movie. I've never completely understood the popularity of Tom Cruise, though I find his movies entertaining. The Outsiders was a decent novel adaptation, Top Gun had action, Rain Man was award-winning, Far and Away was romantic, A Few Good Men was humorously quotable ("My client's a moron, that's not against the law."), The Firm had action, Mission: Impossible had gadgets, and Minority Report is one of a series of adaptations of Philip K. Dick short stories (of which my favorite is Blade Runner based upon Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). Only Magnolia and Jerry Maguire stand out in my memory, though not because of Tom Cruise: Magnolia I recall because of the poignant, quirky story line and great Aimee Mann music, and Jerry Maguire I remember because afterwards my then-wife asked, "Why can't you be more like him?"

I was pleasantly surprised by the Vanilla Sky story line. Consequently I plan to accept the two recommendation I received today for the Spanish original, Abre los ojos, also starring Penélope Cruz (and her breasts). Minor spoiler: I like movies in which it is difficult to distinguish appearance and reality.