Only slightly bent

I’ve now used a Nokia N80 for almost a year. While I noted some flaws in the beginning, some other annoyances have since surfaced as time has gone by. So here’s a new list of what’s good and what’s not after plenty of hands-on time.

What’s good

• The display is still great; not many mobiles come even close to the wonderful clarity of the display.
• The form-factor (slider) is surprisingly nice to use; I was skeptical about it first, being used to candybar design, but the slider works quite well.
• Add-on software. The built-in software isn’t anything to write home about (except the browser, which is great!) but some quite useful add-on software has popped up even for 3rd edition. In addition to my earlier list, I especially like OggPlay & DivX Player.

What’s not

• The camera, even if it’s 3 megapixels, is not good enough. It can capture decent pictures in bright daylight, but even then not at even nearly 3 effective megapixel resolution. You can squeeze decent 1-1.5MP photos out with some post-processing, but good-quality 3MP photos? Dream on. In darker surroundings, the camera’s useless.
• Multitasking is a joke. There’s not even nearly enough memory on the device to run more than one program at a time; while in theory you can have multiple background processes, in practise that’s not possible. For example, the work e-mail application, which would be nice to have on at all times, is always automatically shut down when I start the browser. The auto-shutoff to make some room in the memory is efficient in the sense that it shuts down stuff frequently, but results in total lack of real multitasking capability and is often very annoying.
• It’s slow. The UI is, at times, infuriatingly slow. When I press a button I want stuff to happen now and not a few day^H^H^Hseconds from now. Navigating the icon interface is sometimes and the camera shutter lag always annoyingly slow.
• “Security”. Say you’re installing a piece of software; the platform security features force half a dozen or more dialogs, to which you quickly become accustomed to just pressing “Ok” or “Accept” or whatever. Sure it’s a way of shifting the blame to users, but implementing a long series of security questions which users don’t give a damn about is a lame and totally insecure way of “securing” anything.
• The battery sucks. Or, rather, it’s sucked empty in no time. Using WLAN is an especially dangerous thing in that regard and you can almost hear the poor electrons sucked out of the battery at an alarming pace.
• The predictive text input, T9, sometimes finds strange things to write. When in Finnish dictionary mode, it desperately wants to spell “ice” instead of “hae” (get), “the” instead of “tie” (road), “tabs” instead of “taas” (again) and “ship” instead of “siis” (thus).
• Poor media playback capabilities; the RealPlayer that the phone comes with doesn’t know how to play, well, almost anything. Some add-on software helps here, but not enough. It’s frustrating to get a cool video clip on your phone that it can’t play.

WLAN was one of the features I was really looking forward to using, but it gets mixed reviews in my books. I still use it for pod/vodcast downloads at home, but the high drain on the battery, lack of open WLAN hotspots in Helsinki and the unpolished WLAN user interface bring the score down. I really want to like it, but maybe it takes another year or two before WLAN becomes a must-have item in mobiles.

What I’ve also disovered is that the 3G network coverage in the Helsinki area sucks, further highlighting just how far (backwards) Finland has come from the mobile world’s pioneer position. I mean even Tenerife had better 3G coverage than the capital area. Tenerife! And it’s not only coverage issues – me and many others experience mysterios straight-to-voicemail calls, occasional SMS delivery problems and other oddities when on a 3G network.

Anyway, the funny (or sad, depending on how you look at it) thing is that even with all of these flaws, the N80 is still one of the best phones out there. The N93 is too plasticy and unwieldy to my taste, but maybe the N95 will redeem some of the high expectations.

I’ve found that newspapers are rarely really newspapers anymore, but I still like to read especially the Sunday paper carefully. The newspaper of choice over here is Helsingin Sanomat, though I do miss Boston Globe or NY Times. Anyway, a couple of things caught my eye in todays paper:

Mayor murdered, everyone’s a suspect

In Spain, the mayor of the Fago village was murdered and suspects are not less than everyone in the village. The story could probably make a good movie, but the question I was wondering is why did a village of 37 inhabitants have a mayor to begin with?

Nordic electricity markets suck – and not just consumers’ money

There was also a good article on why the Nordic electricy market is a fiasco. I agree that it’s a fiasco, but I’m not qualified to argue on the reasons. However, what I do know is that the pricing and PR departments of the electricity companies could use some overhaul. The stock price of electricity has gone down this winter, significantly so. The electricity companies raised prices recently, but there’s no talk of lowering the prices. All they say is that there’s “no immediate pressure on raising prices at the moment”. Riight.. just like many other companies, they pass on every singly rising cost to the consumer, but keep the profits if some costs come down.

It’d be interesting to see some (at first, a small one) community attempting to live off the grid – a few wind turbines should support a sizeable community and I’m sure the price of the electricity would be very competitive. All we need is a village to try this out.

Winds of change – somewhere else

There was an interesting (though a bit shallow and with not much new information) interview of Jorma Ollila, the chairman of Shell and Nokia about the topic of climate change. It was good to hear see that Ollila is apparently very serious about fighting climate change, and it’s good to see another corporate exec voicing opinions on the actions needed etc. It’s actually quite ironic as well as amazing that major corporations are becoming more aware of the dangers of climate change than governments.

Meanwhile, the situation in Finland is downright pathetic. Is there any serious debate in Finland about climate change? Not really. Are we seeing any of the necessary tax shifts? No. Are we building up the only non-polluting energy source that we have access to, namely wind power? No. Instead, politicians foam about bioenergy, production of biodiesel and some insignificant changes which are debated for much too long.

To illustrate just how far behind we are compared to some parts of the world, check out this photo on the right (click to enlarge) from Tenerife. This small island with 800,000 inhabitants has much more wind generator capacity in this photo alone than the entire country here. We would have excellent chance of building up a LOT more wind power capacity, so why aren’t we? My vote is on stupidity and short-sightedness.

As one would’ve guessed, I took a lot (a lot) of photos during our vacation; it took a while to figure out what would make a good selection to put here. So, some photos and a short travelog is here in this post – check out the appropriate album in the photos-section for more pictures and accounts. Click on the thumbnails in this post to open the full photos.

Our base was in Puerto de la Cruz on the northern coast of Tenerife. Neither of us had been in the Canary Islands before, and we chose the location based on what we’d heard – i.e. it’s far from the “Tourist Hell” of Playa de las Americas and Los Cristianos while also enjoying a much greener (which unfortunately also means wetter) climate. Many people seem to have the misconception that there is not much to see in the Canary Islands – or actually nothing to see. I also shared this prejudice to some extent before the trip and let me tell you – it’s so not true. For one, Tenerife is a hiking paradise with enough awesome routes to last for a month or two. Plus the islands aren’t called Hawai’i of the Atlantic for nothing either.


Puerto de la Cruz is a nice small city; nice in the sense that there’s a lot more going on than just tourists. It served as an excellent starting place for some island tours. While there is clean and reliable public transportation available to most parts of the island, having a car helped a lot. In the ten days or so we had a car, I drove over 1,000 kilometers which is quite a bit on an island that’s 100km from one end to the other.. However, whenever one leaves the only highway going two thirds around Tenerife, you enter hairpin curve territory and progress is often very slow. Thankfully all the roads were in very good condition.


I’d bought a Sunflower hiking guide beforehand, which served as a good guide to many excellent hikes in Tenerife. We were ill-equipped to handle the most strenuous hikes like climbing Mt. Teide, but found plenty of wonderful views along more humane hikes. For example, the photo on the right here was taken from a hike that circles Roque de Taborno near the village of Taborno on the Anaga Peninsula. The instructions in the guide were generally quite good and I think we only got lost a couple of times.. Even on the easier hikes, the paths were such that I’m sure some cultures would’ve put up plenty of warning signs like “WARNING: If you take one wrong step, you fall 200m and die.”, but most of the time things were okay. Still, there were plenty of hikes unsuitable for those suffering from vertigo.


When not hiking, beaches provided oppurtinities either for relaxing in the sun or exercising in the water – surfing. What comes to surfing, was very consistent and most of the time with good-sized swells – which for someone like me who surfs once or twice a year thanks to my northern domicile, means swells of 2m or less. The trouble was that many beaches had rock bottoms, which makes the occasional wipeout and washing machine-experiences not only uncomfortable but also dangerous on an unfamiliar beach. The Playa Martianez in downtown Puerto de la Cruz had an interesting surfing spot, partly protected by a breakwater but letting swell through nevertheless. It was often quite crowded, so a nearby Playa del Socorro (pictured here, photo obviously by Sarita) was a good alternative. Interestingly, all beaches everywhere had red flags on them every single day – indicating no swimming due to dangerous conditions – even when the sea was relatively calm – luckily, while the lifeguards drove away all potential swimmers who tried to enter the water, surfers were left alone. Either they knew they could handle the conditions or figured it was just as well to let them drown themselves..


The waves weren’t small everywhere, but luckily the huge waves were in areas where surfing would’ve been dangerous or suicidal. Check out the photo on the left, taken from a hill south of the city center in Puerto de la Cruz. There’s an awesome breaking wave and it looks perfect from afar. But take a look at the people walking on the coastline nearby and you get an idea on the size of this swell.. ouch.


The weather on our “wetter” coast was almost uninterrupted sunshine and temperatures hovering in the +20C to +25C range, so no complaints there. One nice surprise (for us anyway) that we discovered on any walks outside forests was that many places were teeming with small and medium-sized lizards like the one on the right here. Unfortunately we didn’t see any of the bigger lizards living on the island.


The number one natural attraction of the island is probably mount Teide, Spain’s tallest mountain at 3700m+. You’ll want to go here, but you do not want to hike up even from the 2,000m+-level to the 3,700m+ top unless you’re a very experienced hiker. Plus you now need a permit to get to the very top. However, there is a cable car running to almost the top to over 3,550m and a couple of great viewpoints (miradors) are within half an hours of walk up there. Also, the surrounding huge caldera offers some great walks and views of Teide, like the one on the left here. Note: Go early to the cable car station – so early that you’re at the lower cable car stop when it opens at 9am. We did, and were very very happy about it when we saw that a 2-3 hour queue had appeared by the time we descended a couple of hours later..

As for the local attractions, here are some hints and suggestions:

Do:

• Go to Mount Teide. See above for notes.
• Take some walks in the Anaga peninsula and/or the Orotova valley. There are walks of all difficulty levels and they offer some amazing views.
• Visit Loro Parque, advertisements of which cannot be avoided on the island. Cool dolphin and orca shows as well as some nice exotic animals – of course, if you hate zoos, you may want to skip this.
• Rent a car so you can drive around the island. Be prepared for slow traffic and plenty of hairpin curves outside the autopista (highway).
• Shop for electronics if that’s your thing. The taxes are much lower than in continental EU and thus prices are something like 20-25% less than in, say, Finland. Luckily at least the northern part of the island was almost completely free from pushy salespeople, which was a relief.

Do not:

• Expect great food. See my earlier post about this nuisance.
• Go to Playa de las Americas or Los Cristianos, nothing but tourists there. Unless, of course, you’re weird and like that kind of stuff.
• Expect white sand beaches; the abovementioned resort cities have imported ugly sand and there’s only one beach – Playa de la Teresitas near Santa Cruz – that has nice light sand; imported from the Sahara, actually. All other beaches are composed of black lava sand which is quite coarse.
• Visit the Aquatic Gardens (Jardin Aquatico) in Puerto de la Cruz. The first pool of water is nice enough but the rest of the place is completely run down and ugly. Definately not worth the €4 admission charge. Instead, visit the public gardens nearby, facing the city with waterfalls & all.
• Expect people outside hotels and major attractions to speak much English. Learn some basic Spanish or take a dictionary with you.
• Be surprised of the strong police presence; they’re much more visible than in e.g. Finland. Most of the time it’s nice and subsequently the crime rate is very low, but sometimes the presence can scare you. Like once when we were driving on twisty mountain road, we suddenly after one curve find a camouflaged guy wielding an automatic rifle in the middle of the road, signalling us to stop. Turned out to be a cop – some more official uniform would’ve been nice..

A couple of days before we left, there was a storm and the island got its only rain during our stay. This turned out to be a good thing, as Mt Teide also got a snow-cap from the storm which looked quite stunning – photographs just won’t do justice, just like they simply don’t convey the altitude differences in many of the pictures taken from our hikes.

While the lack of good food was a major disappointment (and a possible show-stopper for us to visit the place again), Tenerife was all in all a positive surprise with stunning scenery and providing excellent opportunities for an active holiday. The people were generally friendly and escaping to somewhere sunny and warm for a while is alwas a good experience.

Over the recent winter vacation, I had some time to read a few books – a couple of biographies (one auto-, one facilitated) and a much-praised Vietnam novel. This is a short review of them.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

I’m not a big fan of war books, so I approached The Things They Carried with some hesitation. However, I have to say that the praise it has gotten has been well deserved. It’s a collection of stories, some of which have been published before. Each story is semi-capable of standing on its own, but still interlinked with the rest.

I find it difficult to describe what style the book is written in, but the writing is powerful in its detail, feeling, honesty, imagery and is, above all, very human. It doesn’t attempt to instill the image of moral superiority for anyone or anything, it doesn’t delve in who’s right and who’s wrong – it simply tells a vivid and powerful story of a platoon in Vietnam as well as snippets of life before and after the war. Some details are naturally gory, some tales are of adventure, but there is no attempt at either inflating or glorifying the events of the war. The text is at the same time simple and almost lyrical, as can maybe be seen from this short excerpt:

   Like cement, Kiowa whispered in the dar. I swear to God – boom, down. Not a word.
   I’ve heard this, said Norman Bowker.
   A pisser, you know? Still zipping himself up. Zapped while zipping.
   All right, fine. That’s enough.
   Yeah, but you had to see it, the guy just–
   I heard, man. Cement. So why not shut the fuck up?
…
   After a time, Kiowa sighed.
   One thing for sure, he said. The lieutenant’s in some deep hurt. I mean that crying jag – the way he was carrying on – it wasn’t fake or anything, it was real heavy-duty hurt. The man cares.
   Sure, Norman Bowker said.
   Say what you want, the man does care.
   We all got problems.
   Not Lavender.
   No, I guess not, Bowker said. Do me a favor, though.
   Shut up?
   That’s a smart Indian. Shut up.
…
   He wanted to share the man’s pain, he wanted to care as Jimmy Cross cared. And yet when he closed his eyes, all he could think was Boom-down, and all he could feel was the pleasure of having his boots off and the fog curling in around him and the damp soil and the Bible smells and the plush comfort of night.
   After a moment Norman Bowker sat up in the dark.
   What the hell, he said. You want to talk, talk. Tell it to me.
   Forget it.
   No, man, go on. One thing I hate, it’s a silent Indian.

While the book is supposedly fiction, it reads almost like an autobiography and clearly some of it is based on O’Brien’s own experiences in Vietnam. Highly recommended, even if you don’t like war novels as such (possibly especially if you don’t like war novels).

Princess: A True Story of Live Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean P Sasson

Roughly around the time when the Vietnam war was going on, another kind of drama was ongoing in Saudi Arabia. Princess, as the subject would reveal, tells the story of a female member of the royal family in Saudi Arabia and her fight against the submission of women in the country. Written by an American writer who befriended Sultana, the book is a detailed story of her life from childhood onwards.

The book offers a fascinating insight into the lives of both men and women in Saudi Arabia. It’s often difficult to understand how such subordination of women became the norm there and by western standards the lives of both men and women are extremely strange. The power of Mutaween and the “Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” is indeed scary there; yet, at the same time, many people lead blatantly double-faced lives in relation to e.g. alcohol consumption. Another interesting aspect that I didn’t know of was that the Saudi Arabians typically lead very “normal”-looking lives when traveling abroad – for women there is no need to wear the veil abroad, for example.

While some years old (it was published in 1992), Princess is a moving and, at times, infuriating story about the tortured lives of the “privileged” in Saudi Arabia. One can only wonder how much, if anything, has changed since the time of writing this book, but I’m sure not enough has. Also highly recommended.

Ten Thousand Sorrows by Elizabeth Kim

Elizabeth Kim was born out of a short relationship with a Korean woman and an American soldier – her mother despised and shunned for this “shameful” act by her village and family is eventually murdered in front of her daughter, who is then sent to an orphanage and subsequently adopted by an American couple. One would like to think her worst troubles would be over at this stage, but unfortunately they were just beginning; it turns out her adopters were ultra-strict, uneducated, religious zealots who, if humanly possible, often only made her live worse than before. Unfortunately her troubles didn’t end even when she got married as the man was violent and suffering from mental problems.

As the name would imply, it’s not a happy book nor a great adoption story in the positive sense – but it is also a story of hope, power of love and forgiveness and the persistence of life as Kim finally breaks free and starts to build her life essentially from scratch. She also has a daughter from the distraught marriage and some of her feelings and thoughts are also included in the book, adding to the story’s depth. The story also highlights the importance of “parental selection” in adoption processes that is nowadays done. Like Princess, the experiences and some people responsible for evil deeds will make you angry, but it’s the kind of anger that can change things if directed properly. Ten Thousand Sorrows is a remarkable autobiography and one that brings out some of the worst aspects of both Korean and American cultures; thankfully, there is some kind of a happy ending as Kim’s life is slowly put together with the help of some good people in her life.

We recently spent a couple of weeks in northern Tenerife – more on that later at least in terms of photos, but there’s one subject that unfortunately deserves a special mention: food. A number of websites and visitors praised the selection and quality of food available there. With locals eating out frequently and demanding high standards, it was supposedly hard to find a bad place to eat at.

With two weeks of experience, I can tell that’s a load of bull. Take vegetables and fruit for starters. Some sources did warn us that vegetables were not used much in Canary Islands – and, boy, that’s an understatement of the year. Lack of good fruit was even more perplexing with bananas and other stuff growing right there. But apparently all the best fruit go to export as the stuff available locally was quite bland and of substandard quality. Anyhow, over the two weeks we sampled a quite extensive selection of the supposedly “best” restaurants in Puerto de la Cruz and elsewhere, and I must say the results were generally appalling; for this reason, a single post will hereby suffice to cover the restaurants there. Not every place is even mentioned – like the one restaurant who served us freezing cold spanish omelettes that I had to dump after the first bite.

In Puerto de la Cruz, disaster struck in the first days as one of the reputedly best places locally, Magnolia, served us cold, oversalted food and half-heartedly rewarmed(!) cooked potatoes. Downtown, Pomodoro & Il Rustico shared more than just the identical view (which itself was nice enough down to the bay at the heart of the city overlooking crashing waves) – they shared similar substandard food, though the latter was marginally less bad. Another place that came highly recommended was the Casino, set beautifully in the middle of the Lago Martianez pools. On our first night there, they served pretty good chateaubriand – so good that we came back on another night, only to be served pitifully overcooked lobster.

Generally, salt seemed to be the only spice used – and it was applied liberally. With the standards now being reset to a much lower level, some positive surprises managed to creep in. “Positive” at this stage meant the food was edible without nausea or queasiness. One such an occurrance was dealt by the unassuming Bar Bollullo near the Bollullo beach east of Puerto; their shrimp in garlic sauce was the best I tasted on the island. In downtown Puerto, La Herreria served good enough steak, which is ironic considering there is no cattle grown on the Canary Islands and the meat is from South America.. so much for relying on locally grown foodstuff being the best. Surprisingly, a mall cafe/restaurant El Rincon de San Diego in the LaVilla shopping center was a fairly good place for slice of cake or a quick snack. For breakfast, Cafe de Paris downtown was nice enough.

After a few tolerable experiences, La Casona by the Plaza del Charco brought us back to downright bad food. With a row of bad experiences of local food, we went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. The reasoning was that they’re all the same all over the world anyway (except those in China of course), so it might be okay. That indeed was the case, with Shang Hai serving decent standard westernized chinese food – so decent, compared to the options anyway, that we went there for lunch more than once.

All said & done, we found only two restaurants which I would even consider visiting again should they be here in Helsinki: Los Roques in Los Abrigos on the southern coast of the island and Casa el Farol in Puerto de la Cruz. The former, pictured below left, was a very nicely decorated, clean & modern high-class establishment that served what quite possibly were the best tiger prawns I’ve ever had. The latter, below right, was a more rustic restaurant with a beautiful inner open courtyard. There we were treated with a hearty paella cooked just right.

Back home, it was a pleasure to roam in our local supermarket. Sure the vegetables, fresh fruit and all that is expensive – but at least they’re available.

Here’s another recap of the movies I’ve seen in the past couple of months. Two movies among the best movies of the year made it to this group, but so did a couple of mediocre and even bad films. If you can say so this early, 2007 looks like to be a good year for movies; for months last year there wasn’t anything interesting on at the theaters, but now I have a long list of things I want to see (like Little Miss Sunshine, La Tourneuse de pages and The Departed but more about those when I get to see them).

Annapolis

A story of a man determined to get into Annapolis, U.S. Naval Academy; but once there, the difficulties just begin. Getting off on a wrong foot with his superior and not really getting along too well with most of his roommates, Jake (James Franco) enters the academy’s internal boxing competition where he’s also determined to succeed. The determination is not, however, always unfaltering and there are some moments of hesitation. In the end the relationship with his superior(s) also get better, even significantly so.. Overall an average movie with some good moments. It can be filed under the “not bad”-category and scored at 3/5.

City of God

Though well known and almost 5 years old, it was only now that we got around to watching the City of God. Telling a realistic story of growing up in the violent and drug-infested “City of God” housing project neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, it’s a story of many young people who watch and learn from the drug dealers and the violence. The main character, “Rocket”, tries to take a different path and dreams of becoming a professional photographer. With seemingly everyone else pursuing much different “goals” in their lives, it’s an uphill battle for Rocket to try to be apart from all the violence. A good movie at 4- out of 5.

Friends with Money

A drama about three women and their lone single friend – a friend who is financially much worse off than the rest of them. Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) is working as a maid while the others can afford to give a cool million dollars for charity. The supposed teaching of the film is that money doesn’t bring happiness, but it’s it’s an odd movie with most of the characters out of whack one way or another. Olivia is strangely lacking any will of her own and her friends battle with their relationships and other problems. The movie is somewhat unmemorable, but Frances McDormand pulls off a great role as the high-strung Jane. 3 out of 5.

Memoirs of a Geisha

Telling the story of a Japanese girl from a small fishing village who is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto; through tough training and despite her backstabbing competitors, Chiyo was to become one of Japanese most celebrated geisha. The story feels very realistic, but is based on a novel which was based on interviews of Mineko Iwasaki, who however later went on to write a vastly different autobiography – so who knows what elements of the movie are real and what are not. However, it’s an engrossing and fascinating tale of what it takes to be a geisha, and an interesting look inside the (sub)culture. The movie was sometimes a bit slow, but still bearable at 2h 20min. 4 out of 5.

Va, Vis et Deviens

In 1980, black Falashas of Ethiopia were evacuated to Israel as Jews with the help of the USA. Schlomo, a 9-year-old Christian is semi-smuggled out of the country with the evacuations, but faces an uphill struggle in Israel – people there do not really believe he is a Jew and he must go to great lengths to prove otherwise. Luckily he is adopted to a family that isn’t all that regligious. Quickly learning the customs and traditions seems to pay off, but not all the prejudice disappears no matter what; and some still seem to doubt his “jewishness”. I think there was potential for a lot better movie here; as it stands, it was way too long – half an hour could’ve easily be cut and it would’ve been a much more concise and watchable movie. 2½ out of 5.

Inside Man

In short, Inside Man is a story of bank robbery. Without giving away too much of the plot, the robbery turns out to be somewhat unconventional; with dozens of hostages, there seems to be little the police – who quickly surround the bank – can do in terms of storming in. The negotiator in charge (Denzel Washington) has things to prove in his own life / career and doesn’t always get along with other officials; even less so when he chooses to talk to the mysterious Madeleine White (Jodie Foster); nobody seems to know who she is but she convinces everyone that she can help with the situation.

With some excellent performances, Inside Man is an intelligent, well-done and “clean” crime thriller and one I can highly recommend. It manages to keep the suspension right to the end and throws in just the correct amount of surprises and twists. One of the best thrillers since The Usual Suspects. 5- out of 5.

Babel

Babel tells several intertwined stories – Richard & Susan (Brad Pitt & Cate Blanchett) are American tourists traveling in Morocco on a semi-mission to save their relationship when tragedy strikes them; the result of dumb games played by two Moroccan youngsters. We follow both stories, as well as events in US & Mexico where Richard & Susan’s nanny is watching over their two children but must take the kids somewhere they shouldn’t go to. Beautifully shot on location in several countries, Babel tells touchingly of the dangers of making haste assumptions and bad choices; yet, at the same time, it’s a story of people trying their best. In this, Babel shares some of the same feeling and theme as Crash. Brilliant scenery & acting along with a good storyline make Babel one of the best movies of the year, along with Inside Man. Highly recommended, 5- out of 5.

The Miracle

While I’ve never really cared for ice hockey, I usually like interesting real-life stories; The Miracle tells the true story of Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) who leads the 1980 US Olympic team of inexperienced young players to victory against the seemingly invincible Russians. While there are no glaring faults with any acting or the storytelling, I just failed to get into the movie – I don’t know what the problem was. Maybe there was too much hockey, maybe Herb’s family issues side-plot was too superficial and distracting or maybe it was something else. With movies where you know the ending, the flow of the storytelling becomes that much more important. Here it somehow just didn’t work for me. I’m sure people who love ice hockey will also like the movie, but I just didn’t get along with it too well. Thus, I’ll give it 1½ out of 5 but YMMV.

Casino Royale

I think it goes without saying that I was skeptical of the new Bond actor. In the end Pierce Brosnan turned out to be quite okay as 007, but of course Sean Connery still rules. Anyway, I’m glad to say that Daniel Craig pulled it off quite nicely. Nowhere near Connery, but then the Bond films have changed a bit since then also..

And talking about the changes in the film; this newest (or, well, oldest, depending on how you look at it) Bond movie is definately an updated version of the genre. For one, the new 007 as a character is interestingly both less and more emotional than previous Bonds. Mostly the updates are good, but I still kind of miss the cold war era-007.. Casino Royale itself was quite a decent movie, although maybe a bit too predictable. The flow is nice, the ending is good and action sequences are perhaps a little more realistic than many before. Overall the movie met and in some sense exceeded expectations; there weren’t too many surprises but that’s one good thing about Bond movies usually – you know what you’re going to get. 4 out of 5.

Lake House

A romantic drama with a well-known leading cast; Keanu Reeves & Sandra Bullock. Both pull off their respective roles well. The plot is a bit unusual; the two start a letter correspondence and soon discover they are living two years apart – this complicates their meeting somewhat and also messes with ones mind a bit, with some of the developments a bit confusing. I’m still not quite sure whether there’s a serious continuity error in the movie or not. Nevertheless, it’s a pretty good romantic drama with plenty of emotional content. 4 out of 5.