Heche Pipe

The past few days have been pretty uneventful, but I did finish reading "Unless" by Carol Shields, which was pretty good. Not wanting to read anything new before I'd had a day or two to digest that novel, I decided to watch some TV last night.

As I've alluded to before, the English-language programming here is somewhat limited. But I was really surprised by last night. Of the two channels that show English movies with Dutch/Flemish subtitles -- as opposed to the channels that show English movies dubbed into French, and, oddly, usually the same movies as those that are on the former channels -- both were showing movies starring Anne Heche and Vince Vaughn. BOTH OF THEM! What are the odds?

On one channel was Gus Van Sant's remake of "Psycho" which didn't much interest me -- aside from co-star Julianne Moore, who always interests me -- because I've seen the original quite a few times.

So I decided to watch the other channel, featuring "Return to Paradise," a 1998 film I'd never heard of before last night. It was fairly unremarkable, and if you've seen "Brokedown Palace" or whatever that movie starring Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale (I think) as American backpackers who get thrown in a Thai jail after being duped into muling drugs, well, you've basically seen this movie. Except that it takes place in Malaysia. And the ending isn't very happy. I guess it presented a somewhat interesting moral dilemma, but it was so Hollywood that it was really robbed of any gravity it might have had.

Tomorrow, Fahrenheit 9/11 opens in Belgium, and I hope to go see it if it's not sold out. I'm interested to see how it plays to a European audience, though I can pretty much guess it will be like watching England rout a Euro 2004 opponent in an English pub.

On that note, for your amusement (and to pad this ridiculously boring entry) here is something from michaelmoore.com:

Letterman's Top Ten List: Top Ten George W. Bush Complaints About "Fahrenheit 9/11":

10. That actor who played the President was totally unconvincing
9. It oversimplified the way I stole the election
8. Too many of them fancy college-boy words
7. If Michael Moore had waited a few months, he could have included the part where I get him deported
6. Didn't have one of them hilarious monkeys who smoke cigarettes and gives people the finger
5. Of all Michael Moore's accusations, only 97% are true
4. Not sure - - I passed out after a piece of popcorn lodged in my windpipe
3. Where the hell was Spider-man?
2. Couldn't hear most of the movie over Cheney's foul mouth

1. I thought this was supposed to be about dodgeball