The master`s latest. Baudolino is an old man who has lived a life full of wonders. Born in a swamp, he became the stepson to the emperor Friedrich Barbarossa (you can guess that it happened in the 12th century). He was a very good liar and invented quite many christian myths. But his main quest in life was to find the king John who lived somewhere in the farest East and ruled over the three Indias and the mysterious people inhabiting them. Together with his friends Baudolino went on this voyage and almost got there. That`s strange about this book is that Eco unlike in his other stories about Medieval times gives us unbelievable things - like people who have only one leg or genitalia on their neck, etc. But you can`t be really sure what`s true and what isn`t since what we hear is the story Baudolino tells to a chronist named Nikita. The ending is a bit of surprise although not as much as it could have been. To be honest, I don`t really know why I rate this book that much lower than "Focaults Pendulum" but I still do it. Probably, it`s because there`s too much repetition in here, probably not. It`s still a very good book, and I honestly doubt that Eco would be able to write something not very good.

I guess I can`t call myself particulary interested in musicals. And I have my reasons for that: first, the music is usually quite cheeky and the singing - awful. Second, the storyline of the average musical is not more complicated than that of a Swedish porn movie. And last but not least I think that adoring musicals shows the person`s bad taste. Then why did I watch this one? Because I was told that it was good. I did have my doubts though - Nicole Kidman as the leading actress is a good thing for sure, but what else could a film about a French sluthouse offer? Ok, I know that the red Mill wasn`t exactly a sluthouse, but basically it still was. Now come to think about the film. The story is stilly quite simple - a young writer from Switzerland comes to Paris and falls in love with the best courtisane of Moulin Rouge. And she falls in love with him. But a rich duke who invests loads of money into Moulin Rouge also craves her, and it brings up the problems. The plot as such can`t score big points for the film. But as for the music - it rocks! Could you imagine a cabaret in early 1900s the people sing "Here we are now - entertain us" or a dude who apparantly has written "The One" by Elton John. Or a performance of "Roxanne" (The Police)? It`s totally cool, although I still prefer the original versions, but this surely is one weird musical.

I don`t really remember the reason, but this once was my favorite Disney cartoon. Now, watching it as a wiser and bolder person (haa haa!) I found out that I sadly don`t like it this much anymore. To tell the story I need to be a sillier person than I am. But what can I tell? First, that to my astonishment this cartoon doesn`t follow the book by Carroll at all - it has similarities with it but not much more than that. Then, that there still are a few interesting characters - for example, the Chesire cat is cool although he doesn`t say what he`s supposed to. And then comes the comparison to "Neco z Alenky" - a film by Svankmajer, also based on the same story. And what surprises me is that despite being a dark and dreary tale the Svankmajer version had some better characters - the Mad Hatter and the March Rabbit for instance there much cooler in that version. Still, "Alice in Wonderland" is a cartoon for little children, just like everything coming from Disney studios, therefore I can`t be too harsh upon it. Animation is certainly much better than in newer cartoons, and without doubt it`s also more inventive.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone (if I remember correctly their names) are two real weirdos, that are fighting for human rights and freedom of speech all the time. Or it`s what I think they do. Nevermind that what they do is creating South Park - one of the cartoon series with the crappiest kind of animation ever. Nevertheless this kind of animation has its share of charme, and the film has its value. Of course, the language in it is very foul. What else could you expect from a musicle which has the song "Uncle Fucker" in it? Not much. But, first - the music is really good. Songs like "What would Brian Boitano do" and others are very nice. About the plot - when the film "Asses of fire" by Terence and Philip - two Canadian comedians makes the children of South Park swear all the time, their mothers start a war on Canada. Alec Baldwin gets killed (if you have interest for that), but the little boys - Kyle, Cartman, Stan and Kenny (deceased) do everything to save Terence & Philip from being murdered as war criminals and from Satan and Saddam Hussein (who happen to be lovers) to come and claim power over the world. Although this film probably cost less than 10% of what "Team America" required, this stuff is certainly better, it has lots of social critique in it and bears a very clear and positive message.

Frank Zappa was one hell of a composer, and he was one hell of a guy. A man who looked like a hippie and made fun of hippies; a man who played rock music and despised rock music. A man so crazy that you could say: "Please pork the granite monkey" to him, and he would still have something to say in return. And he wrote a book, how strange it may sound to you. This book appears to be his autobiography or something similar to that, although just the first part of the book tells us facts from Zappas life - his poor family, the first steps towards the world of music, etc. In the latter part Zappa discusses his attitude to life, the universe and everything. Amazingly, not being a huge fan of a big part of Zappas music, I found that I could accept most of his ideas, which once again proved to me what an intelligent person - a phenomenon in the branch of rock music. Quote: "Some scientists state that hydrogen is the main construction material of the universe, for there`s much of it in everything. I don`t agree. I can bet that there`s more stupidity in the world than hydrogen, and IT really is the main construction material of the universe." Apart from that Zappa makes fun of the American government, every other government, the purist church, hell, he knows how to make fun. Still I gotta admit that not all chapters of the book are particulary interesting, but it was a thing worth to read.

Woody Allen is a jerk! Now I can state that clearly! This happens to be his best film, according to the IMDB but it`s stupid, boring and everything that goes with it. Ok, I know that Woodie got his own style of comedy that nobody has ever tried to reproduce (ok, probably someone has, I really don`t care), but his style isn`t particulary good. Ok, it`s a bit odd seing a film that sounds like a documentary or an amateur film (I don`t have the right words to describe it), but there`s nothing special about it. Ok, I can probably say that this film depicts life as it is, without making you feel like you watch a movie, but as if you were watching life itself, but in that case - life isn`t very interesting, and so is the case with this film. Alvy (Woody) breaks up with his girlfriend Annie Hall, and re-lives their relationship in a series of flashbacks. Most of which are boring - rarely have I seen something this uninteresting. Ok, the Woody`s character is a bit funny but it`s the same character he has played in his other 30 films - a guy having problems in his sex life because there`s no harmony in bed between him and his woman, who`s a silly nerd, good for nothing, well, whatever, I don`t even wanna talk about. And how can fans and critics adore this utterless piece of junk - is a real mystery to me. The rating of 4.0 is too high for this film, but only for the originality of style it gets it from me. Heck, "A Midssummer Night`s Sex Comedy" was much better than this, and it still didn`t really ring the bell!

Actually there`s a real big-screen motion picture of tHGttG coming out next year, but until then I can settle for this BBC film. Not that it`s bad, not at all. The story goes basically through the first two books of the Guide (actually, it`s the 6 radio episodes, but it doesn`t really matter), where Arthur Dent`s house is bulldozed to make a bypass, and so is Earth dissintegrated to make a transgalactic bypass. But Arthur manages to leave the Earth together with his friend Ford Prefect who just happens to come from a planet somewhere in Beetlegeuse 5. On their space hitchhiking voyage they meet the bi-headed Zaphod Beetlebrox and Trillian, a girl Artur once met at a party. If you haven`t read the book or watched the film, or heard the radio program, it probably makes no sense to you, therefore I won`t go on raving about the story. I liked it, hey, I forgot to mention that it`s all by Douglas Adams! Anyhow, the special effects aren`t particulary impressive, but it`s a TV movie, for christssake! At least there`s nothing offensive about it, ok, maybe the look of Marvin is offensive, but never mind that. You gotta dig deeper - and if you do that, you`ll notice what a good comedy this is.

Welcome back to the amazing world of teen comedies. This dude, who`s name I have already forgotten, who`s the school president but overall - something between a geek and a dork, he notices a sexy chick that has moved in next door. And as he watches her undress, she notices him. And what do you know? Something remotely similar to a romance begins between them. But problems arise when the guy finds out that Danielle (that`s the chick. yeah, I remembered her name!!!) is a porn actress, even more than that - a porn star. And her producer who`s a cool and tough guy comes to town. And everything starts going wrong for the guy, as he does many things he shouldn`t have done. In the end though, as you could guess without even planning to do so, he gets the girl and earns a whole lot of money by making a sex education film for schools. And this is it. What about the value of the film? It`s one of those films that`s not too easy to watch, for the hero does everything to make you feel sorry for him - acts more than like and idiot, like an imbycile or even worse. The plot is stupid, of course, and for people that don`t like romantic teen comedies, this is not a film to watch. But what`s amazing - is that it features some of the best music ever written - I have no idea how a film of this quality managed to get "Under Pressure", "Sweet Home Alabama", "Purple Haze" and "Baba O`Riley" on the film. Not that these songs fit well in, but it`s still pretty cool to hear something of this kind in a film where most of the time you hear contemporary shite.

Can you imagine the days of the feodals when you kissed your masters hand and let him have sexual intercourse with your wife, daughter and even your dog? I guess, you can`t. Neither can I. But P.Merimee could. And that`s why he wrote this play. There`s like this village somewhere in France where those aristocrates do what they want, then there`s monks who also do what they please to do, and last there`s the working class slob. And this guy named Jean, who happens to be a monk himself, leads the mob to rebellion against their masters. It all turns out to be a blooshed, and even the purest of hearts turn sour at that (like Jean himself). He got his left and right hands - there`s Pierre who`s in love with the local aristocrats daughter (who by the way considers him as a man of low origin worse than a dog), and a rebel living in the woods calling himself Werewolf - a nice fellow, imho. This seems to be historically very acurate, and even interesting to read. A bit too old-stylish for me, but nevertheless a good play. Although I have absolutely no idea how this could be shown on a stage. A film version would certainly make more sense.

It`s been ages since I read a book this big in German. And I mean literally ages - at least since my previous life. A modern version of Hamlet, you ask? Gotta have lots of perversion in it, you know what these modern versions are usually like. Strangely this isn`t the case. Edward Allison comes from WW2 with only one leg, and has to remain at the hospital for his mind isn`t really well, but his mother persuades the doctors to let him stay with the family. Everything would be ok, hadn`t Edward due to some strange reason decided that he should solve the mysteries in his own house. Which means - unfold his fathers secret. While he tries to find the truth within himself, his relatives tell him weird stories - for example, the one about the princess of Tripoli that lived from men`s life and managed to remain young for a very long time, and a version of king Lear`s life where he isn`t a hero but a tyrant. Gordon (Edwards father) is a writer and his marriage to Alice collapses when Edward drives him out of his home because of the past. Alice tells Edward, that he isn`t his father`s son and goes on the search for her true lover. While his father (who is Gordon) dies in the hands of the mother who has once again accepted him, Edward slowly comes back to himself, understanding that he isn`t a Hamlet, no matter how he tried to be one. What do I say? Despite the length, it`s an interesting novel, showing the confusion of modern times, having quite a few interesting stories told by the characters on their way coping with themselves.