Lazy Day

It's a quiet sort of do-nothing Saturday for me.  Spike has an essay to write so we're going nowhere.  I surf the web, of course, which means reading The Guardian online and listening to the Simon Mayo / Mark Kermode film review podcast on BBC Radio Five.  Steven Fry was their studio guest.  I was surprised to learn of his interest in and involvement with a re-make of The Dambusters movie along with Peter Jackson and David Frost (who owns the rights to the book).  All of which just goes to show that with the Internet one can learn more than just one something new every day.

Later, while Spike fretted about Aboriginal Art History, I lost time watching the re-make of The Karate Kid with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan.  It's a preposterous fantasy but surprisingly engaging, even moving in a couple of places.  The story is silliness on a stick but Jaden and Jackie turn in effective, engaging performances.  Their relationship works well, it has an emotional truth within the confines of the wholly implausible world of the fiction. I can think of lots of movies on which I've squandered time and good money - yesterday's Pirates 4 is a very recent example.  Who'd have thought it?  The Karate Kid.  Not as bad as you might think.  May even quite good.  Not Citizen Kane, of course, but given what it is, really not bad at all.