This film has nothing in common with "Unce Upon A Time In America", which on the other hand isn`t the same film as "Once Upon A Time In Mexico". This film is a story about an Irish family that moves to the States. The family consists of Johnny - the father, Sarah - the mother, and Christy and Ariel - the daughters. Inside all of them carry Frankie - the son who died at the age of five. Christy, the elder daughter, is the central figure in the film, because we partly see everything her way. She believes that she has three wishes from Frankie which will be fulfilled. The family struggles for the parents can`t find work as actors, Sarah is pregnant with another daughter but there seem to be medical problems with the unborn child, and none of them has got over Frankie. They encounter a strange artist named Mateo who becomes very much attached to the family. And then there`s E.T. from the film E.T., who`s also a symbol in the film. The film is a moving one, it`s not about surviving in America or the American dream, of course, it`s about grief, about loss and about love.

Although I never considered myself a big Oasis fan I never hated the band as well. And why wouldn`t I listen to it`s new album? So I did. The album didn`t strike me with any songs that would ultimately become my "anthems of the season" but it proved to be quite a solid one. Songs like "Mucky Fingers", "The Importance of Being Idle" and "Guess God Thinks I`m Able" surely deserve to be recorded by the band that once was considered a very good one. The basic problem of Oasis surely is diversity - an aspect in which the band was never particulary strong. The Beatles similarities are her just as they always were, especially they can be felt on "Let there be Love" - a song about which I`m sure that both Oasis and John Lennon wrote it more than twice before this occasion. "A Bell will ring" on the contrary is a song that I enjoy to the limit.

This film is considered as one of the greatest in the categories thriller/crime. I didn`t really understand why it was supposed to be that good. Ok, we got an unfortunate car salesman who arranges that his wife is kidnapped and a lot of money is asked from her arrogant and rich father. We got Steve Buscemi and another fellow as the kidnappers, whose plans go wrong after they start killing people. We got a pregnant police officer named Marge working on the case of killings very well. We got her private life which is slow and simple just like her attitude handling the case. But we haven`t got particulary much more than that. From a film that`s supposed to be great I require it to be at least very good. But this one didn`t seem like what it was supposed to be.

"The White Stripes" are one hell of a band. Jack and Meg White rock harder than AC/DC in 1973, they are meaner than Slayer after a massive hangover and they have a better taste for melody when Paul McCartney in the 1980s. So they are really good. They are dirty and mean, yet they can be gentle and sweet. On their new album they give you 13 mean songs of rock and roll. In case you wonder what`s the fuss about Satan, let me tell you that the album title is a quote from the Bible where Jesus tells Peter that refusal of sufferings is disobeying God. Still this ain`t a religious record. What`s good about the record is that only a few songs out of it remind me of other stuff by the Stripes (particulary that goes for "The Denial Twist"). The first single of this album which isn`t yet publically available today - "Blue Orchid" is a good song, but certainly not the best on the LP. That probably goes to "My Doorbell", "Red Rain".

Have you ever wondered whether there might be a place where your all-time favourite "Santa Barbara" heroes live in reality? Have you ever wanted to be dragged inside your TV just like it happened to Spiderman and Legally Blonde in "Pleasantville"? Have you ever wanted to have three buttocks? In fact I have not, but that`s not the question here. At first I thought this film would be a film version of "Space Quest" - a nice game for old PCs. But in fact it was a tribute to "Star Gate" - you know that TV series about some weirdos on a space ship (not "Pigs in Space" in case you hoped for it). Anyhow, the actors of this TV series called "Galaxy quest" have no good acting jobs nowadays so they do conventions and sell their autographs for peanuts, but everything changes when a race of stupid aliens arrives which has watched the series and believes that it`s documentary and not acting. So they hire the actors to help their civilization agains some evil bastards. As you can probably guess, this film is a comedy, not a particulary great one, of course, but as a matter of fact it does have its strong sides: it`s entertaining enough, it pokes fun of "Star Gate" (out of which I haven`t seen more than 5 minutes), and it was the right film for me to watch at the particular time when I watched it.

This time I don`t know what to say. You see, I didn`t like this film at all. It was horrible. For a person like me I mean. I don`t really know why but I found everything about this movie disgusting. I may be just a stupid, stupid, stupid dreamy teeny weeny child but I don`t want life to be like this. I know that ideals are a thing of the past and that I should be laughing at myself but I can`t. I don`t find it particulary great that every character in the film has a somewhat "accident" sexual intercourse with another persons partner and after that becomes attached to that person. It`s like sex is stronger than love, and not only stronger but more important. Especially to the male characters of this film. I can`t identify myself, I can`t like anyone in this film, I don`t want life to be like this. Yet I can imagine that this could be a very sincere film that reflects life on earth better than almost anything else in this world. But I don`t want this to be a part of me, because to me this film gives no hope. And hope is essential. I don`t even know how to rate this film. On one hand I didn`t like it at all, probably more than any silly teen comedy. On the other hand the film is certainly good - both in terms of realism and quality of acting. So what will my final verdict be? Rate it as if it was average? But average doesn`t leave you so overwhelmed with emotions. Rate it high? But I hated it, I wanted it to end all the time, I couldn`t really bear watching it and only my attitude that I must go over this kept me watching. I`ll probably pick a random number between 3 and 8, who cares how high or how low, I want to get past this for sure. Oh, I`ll leave it blank!

Why is sixteen the number of years when the word "sweet" is usually used? I`ve got no idea for that. You see, at sixteen a person rarely is really sweet stuck in the middle of being a loser at school - either a loser in social rankings, in financial status, in marks, in personal life or somewhere else. And Liam, the main hero of this film, can certainly be called a loser in many categories. He`s not even sixteen yet, but he already doesn`t go to school and lives from selling fags and stolen drugs. He`s Scottish (just like most people in Scotland) so he speaks some really weird language. One thing I`m sure about is that you should use the word "wee" very often if you want to be a real Scottish person. He`s got a friend named Pinball together with whom Liam does what he does. By the way, they don`t use drugs themselves. Liam mainly only wants to help his poor mother who on the other hand doesn`t want to be helped. Somebody told me this film was similar to "Trainspotting" but I didn`t find it that way. First, the story wasn`t that good, then the actors and last but not least the music. If "Trainspotting" provided the soundtrack of a generation "Sweet Sixteen" falls flat at doing that. Yet this ain`t a bad film.

When I got this film I didn`t know that Woody Allen directed it. Now I know it. And it ain`t a good thing to know. Luckily he doesn`t play the lead role in the film, but sadly he`s the voice behind the screen and you can hear him quite often. Not that otherwise the film were any good. Actually it`s just so boring that I didn`t fall asleep while watching it only because it would be too yuck for me to be sleeping not more than a metre away from my pal who was already asleep. Still a film about supposedly Woodies childhood with all his Jewish relatives each of whom is about as layered as a donkey drove me to sleep faster than you can say "Kaboom!" and you can say "Kaboom" very quickly.

Can you imagine John Travolta as an old man? Isn`t he the young looking fellow you know from "Grease", "Pulp Fiction" and that Brian Da Palma film about the sound engineer? You bet he is. But nowadays he`s just an old English professor who has given up teaching for a nobler thing to do - to be an alcoholoic. He lives together with his former assistant named Lawson (a he and not a she), and everything is cool until Perslaine (Scarlet Jochansen) arrives and messes his live up auite strongly. Perslaine is 18, out of school, working as a waitress and not giving a damn about olds perverts like Bobby Long. In fact she doesn`t even have a relationship with him in this film. She only tries to find a life which she never had. The film doesn`t fall in the over-the-top category. In fact it`s a slow faced and gentle film about the man, the bottle, the girl who doesn`t want to go to school and about country music in New Orleans. And those are the ingredients for what I`m asking for.

Finally a new country is added to my factoid. Norway - the country which has given the world Ole Einar Bjorndalen and probably something else as well, Knut Hamsun, for instance, has given us the band "Madrugada". I don`t mean to tell that the band is particulary popular anywhere in the world but who cares about fame, who cares about anything? So, the band is a bit pessimistic in its sound having some goth elements in its sound. The first track on the album "The kids are on the high street" is a superb one, and the album goes on in a similar manner having some references probably to "The Cure", some to "Joy Division" but with less synths and more guitars. That means that Joy Division can be replaced with the Smiths and now you`ll get it more. A good record for sure, although it doesn`t make you shake your lazy ass off the chair.