eileen-osullivan1

Well you thought the cold war was over - you were so wrong.

Seems that when a lovely American 2.2 nuclear family ~(formerly 2.3) adopts a 'strange' Eastern European, pretty but abandoned child from an orphanage, sure as hell the tree house (in the grounds of their faux modernist architect built home)will be ablaze, every friend they have will die (not to mention the kids) and the mother ( a dipsomaniac) will be blamed - well she's an alky after all.

Meanwhile daddy will side with the Russian psycho child - erm just because? Implausible, really annoying, could have been good ~(actors good, including the poor child that stars in the psycho role), but it really ain't.

I just loved this film. Kenneth Moore was inspired as the English gentleman buffoon. When you get that 'innocent abroad' persona - for example with Ali G in America; with 'The Idiot Abroad' etc, it's a brilliant tool for cutting through prevailing cultural norms, even if they are for example, whether it's etiquette to shoot first and speak later, or better to proffer a nice cup of tea. When he 'disarms' the injuns at the start of the film it's beautifully done and dead funny.

Jayne Mansfield is like a cartoon character, full blown - in a not quite 'Marilyn' way - and a reasonable foil for our Ken. Even her '50s starlet soon to be housewife' style of singing, (check out 'The Valley Of Love'), seemingly so inappropriate in a rough, tough saloon owner/ music hall glamour girl, fits in so neatly. The whole thing is a pastiche of the age - the 'civilized' 50s making sense of a wild, wild world, with a boy meets girl bottom line.

Like I said - brilliant! Oh and English classic comedian Syd James has a cameo role, so even better.

A puerile and predictable, self indulgent meander through a faux glamorous media world that doesn't exist. Presumably Toby Young wrote this as he was about to get sacked - he is now a complacent Brit TV food critic and that is just about his speed. Impossible to identify with the main lead - even though Simon Pegg is great with his own material, you wonder if his overacting was just to show his disdain for the tosh he was forced to deliver.

Kirsten Dunst is dull and disapproving, and clearly uninspired - not surprisingly. What is Jeff Bridges doing here?? He seems to be wondering this himself. When you have to rely on pigs, dogs, goldfish, farting chairs and being sick on stylish women - you know you're in trouble, so no wonder it staggers along under the weight of its own embarrassment.

Having said that, anything about the inside world of magazines interests me, even if you're left with The Devil Wears Prada and this film - ie people at the bottom of the pile with nothing to lose, rubbishing those at the top in the hope of a book and film deal - and amazingly, sometimes people fall for it.

And believe me, I'm an expert in this field, so listen to me! I know (imagine smiley emoticon here).

.