Cigarettes in Space

It's been one of those high-level-of-media-consumption weekends. So far: Three films, two albums, a bunch of comics and I finally finished JPod by Douglas Coupland. I'm going to split up my reviews into seperate posts, first up: A film.

But before the actual fim - Yahoo Movies. I think Yahoo want it to be the common man's IMDB. Which is a noble enough aim. I like it for it's easy to use rating system and resulting movie reccomandations. It also allows user reviews, which I occasionally indulge in and are sometimes useful.
Ladies and gentlemen of the internet, Yahoo Movies (and to a lesser degree IMDB) is not your political soapbox. I don't care if you think the liberal conspiracy (pfft) has taken over Hollywood, just cause you voted Bush is no reason to pan a movie for having a lefty main charachter. And just because you're a hardline Christian that doesn't actually make The Passion a better movie.

This comes up because the first film I saw this weekend was Thank You For Smoking. Somebody had posted a review saying "This film will annoy the liberals". Somebody was wrong. TYFS is a satirical comedy. It's funny. The acting is good all round. Rob Lowe and That Kid From The OC have fantastic small roles. Game over, the movie's good, go see it, goodnight.

Still here? Ace. Let's adress that "liberals" issue first. I don't think this film is arguing either for or against smoking. It's not clearly pro or anti liberal. I'd say it's quite wonderfully amoral. Yes the "villain" of sorts is a liberal senator. But did that reviewer not notice that he was an extreme charicature of liberalism in such a way that only a lefty could write? Meanwhile the conseravitive charachters are equally ridiculous but somewhat more subtly so. Wherever you stand on smoking, you'll find something to laugh at.
This has been described as a cynical film. I'd disagree flat out with that. We here at Sugar and Noise have a ban on the word "heartwarming" but it really is. And it achieves this without being "schmaltzy" (The best film-reviewer word ever) or overly sentimental..
So go see it. Find a fellow good looking young self styled pseudo-intelectual and go have a good laugh, safe from the cinema going masses who you will pass as they make their way into Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. It really is the only worthwhile film in cinemas at the moment. Except perhaps for the third of the three films I saw this weekend (more on that later) or if you're lucky enough to be within driving distance of somewhere showing Brick.

If I had an EZ Archive account, I'd be posting mp3s of Cigarettes Will Kill You by Ben Lee and Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo by Harvey Danger ("The Marlboro man died of cancer/Aaand he wasn't a rocket scientist when he was healthy, hahah")