Great movie alert

So I watched Curtis Hanson's In Her Shoes last night and absolutely loved it. At first, it seems like a typical proverbial chick flick with two vastly different sisters struggling to get along but since it was directed by Hanson who directed two of my favourite movies of the last 10 years (L.A. Confidential and Wonder Boys) I knew it had to be better than that.

It stars Cameron Diaz (I am not a fan-on ANY level), Toni Collette (you know her from the Sixth Sense) and Shirley MacLaine (if you don't know her, reading a blog by a guy like me who writes about movies is probably not the thing for you).

Diaz plays the younger, wilder sister who has no job, cheats with her sister's boyfriend and steals money from people. It is a typical Diaz role but in a better movie than she usually gets. Collette is the straight laced, heavy set sister and is fulfills the promise Collette started when her first movie Muriel's Wedding first brought her to the attention of Hollywood.

Like I said, this movie was advertised like a chick flick, but trust me when I tell you, it doesn't feel like it. Though, Collette's role feels like the kind of role they would have normally given to Sandra Bullock, which would have just KILLED this movie. The fact that Collette has that pivotal role of Rose who at first tries to protect her sister Maggie, than shuns her and then in the end realizez that she needs her as much as Rose needs her just makes for a perfect movie that you really need to rent if you are just a fan of movies about family secrets, redemption and the power of the written word.

Top 5 Shirley MacLaine Movies
1. The Apartment
2. Irma La Douce
3. Sweet Charity
4. Terms Of Endearment
5. Guarding Tess

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I once wrote about my favourite music video of all time being Cloudbusting by Kate Bush. I found a link to it on Youtube. Ignore, Bush's hammy acting, but she is playing Donald Sutherland's son!!!! It is one of the few videos I have ever seen where the music and words actually match what you are seeing visually on screen.

Sutherland's character is actually based on a real person. Wilhelm Reich, who was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud.

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Following up on all the stuff I wrote about the CNE, Catherine Mulroney of the Toronto Star wrote a terrific column today complaining about the CNE of these years compared to what it was like when she was a kid.

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I am not sure how I should feel about this but Steve Irwin, better known as the Crocodile Hunter (my god, the even made a movie with him!) has been killed after a stingray's poisonus barb punctured his chest.

Irwin had sort of fallen out of favour in recent years after when, in January 2004, there was footage of him dangling his infant son in one arm while feeding a chicken carcass to a crocodile in the other. Animal rights activists and child welfare advocates went crazy and Irwin's career went downhill from there. Comparisons were even made to Micheal Jackson dangling his son out a German window for all the press to see. His movie and TV career petered out and he soon became fodder for late night talk show hosts. His death certainly shocked me on this Labour Day morning.