Yesterday we saw Sideways, a movie that won a few Oscars. It was one of those movies that we had wanted to see for a long time, but we never found time for it.

It was an excellent choice. It's a beautiful story about two guys going on a vacation trip for a week. Their relationship, and their personal problems and character traits made for a very pleasant movie.

In the course of the movie they are drinking a lot of different wines, and their trip is to 'wine-land' in California.

I still like Merlot, though.

Last Sunday we watched the Phantom of the Opera.

Years ago I saw the musical with my parents and Ettie, which was very impressive and I have great memories of that show.

The movie was very good. I liked the fact that there was so much music in it -- it would have been a shame if they let the best part of the show, the music, out.

It's a beautiful story, with a tragic element in it. The movie had a lot humor also, especially the non-stop drinking in the theater was displayed nicely. Those jokes reminder me of Terry Pratchet's book that was inspired by the opera.

Sunday we rented the first season of "The Office" on DVD.

I've seen this British TV show a couple of times in the Netherlands, and the other day we saw Ricky Gervais, the main actor, in Saturday Night Live. Sasha had never seen it and I loved to watch it, so we rented the DVD and saw all episodes of the first season in one lazy evening. Hilarious!

The humor is different than in many other series or movies, but it's really funny and we loved it. The DVD came with a long interview with the creators of the series ("only geeks watch the DVD bonus material") and a few deleted scenes, which was nice.

Kill Bill is a movie by Quentin Tarantino that comes in two parts, on two separate DVDs. We saw the first part on a Sunday evening, the next part on Monday (last week). Two nights of great enjoyment -- this movie is really good.

The story is rather violent and has a large amount of fighting scenes but it comes with a nice plot, a lot of humor and very good performance by the actors. The acting by Uma Thurman was excellent, and so were the visual effects in the movie.

Like the other Tarantino many things were over the top, such as the acting and macho dialogues. The "deleted scene" that was a bonus track on the second DVD was very nice, too.

Saturday evening we saw "Taking Lives", recommended to us by a good friend. To be honest -- I didn't really like it very much.

Taking Lives is a thriller about a serial-killer who "copies" other peoples lives, but the movie was never very scary or even convincing.

The acting by the main character, Angelina Jolie, a FBI agent was in my opinion pretty bad. Ethan Hawke, who played the serial killer, was performing well but that couldn't compensate for the other deficiencies of the movie, such as the weakness of the plot.

We saw the trailer (a short preview) of this movie a few weeks ago, when our cable TV was just installed. One of the features that Comcast offers, is something called On Demand. Using that, you can order a movie anytime you want, and you pay the movie on your TV bill, which is about four dollar per movie. Interesting enough it is cheaper to rent the DVD, which is about three dollar; I guess you pay for convenience. Anyway -- we browsed the existing collection of movies available and saw the preview of Taking Lives.

Yesterday we watched a movie on the computer, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Sasha took the DVD from an automated machine, which works similar to a soft drink machine: just pay and the DVD becomes available automatically. So instead of going to a DVD rental place you can very quickly rent a movie using this machine.

The movie was about two people and their relationship, and about a company providing a memory-erasing service, to let people forget old ex-lovers. The story was enjoyably complex, which made watching and understanding the movie more difficult than usual but I liked that. One of the main characters was Jim Carrey, who played a very different character than the usual roles he plays. We liked the movie a lot and it's worth seeing. The nice thing about a DVD movie is that there are often bonus things on the DVD. Next to the movie for example this DVD had a commercial for the memory-erasing company.

The movie also played in the Toneelschuur a while ago; I remember reading about it in their magazine.

In preparation of the trip we will be making this weekend we saw the movie "Alamo" yesterday.

This was the first rented DVD we have been watching here and we were watching it on our PC. It worked well, but I'd like to connect to PC to our TV as that screen is bigger and has more contrast.

The movie describes the war between the United States and Mexico about the area that is now the state of Texas. A central building in the movie is The Alamo, a fort in San Antonio, Texas, and that is exactly were we will be flying to this afternoon. We're going to celebrate New Year there. After two very busy weeks I'm really looking forward to spend a long weekend together there, down South.

Saturday evening we went to see a movie, Closer. It's a new movie that's been nominated for five golden globes. And with reason!

We really loved it: an intriguing story, great performance and fascinating dialogue. Two scenes I particularly enjoyed were the erotic computer chat-scene, and the break-up fight between Anna and her husband (brilliant).

Clive Owen, who has a marvellous role as Larry in the movie, performed the role of Dan in the orignal play the movie is based on.

Saturday evening we went to the movies. We saw "National Treasure", an action movie in a James Bond/Indiana Jones style. Honestly speaking the movie wasn't very good, and I guess it was made for a much younger audience, but we had a very nice evening. It was fun to go out and relax. What I also liked was that so many famous places in the States played a role in the movie, such as the US National Archive.

Afterwards we went to Summer's, a bar in our neighbourhood, where we ate and had a few drinks.

Sunday we spent the afternoon in Georgetown, a nice neighbourhood across the river from Arlington. We had lunch in a place which claimed that many presidents had patronized it. It was a very cozy place and the food was good.

Yesterday I went for fitness in our building for the first time. It wasn't very busy in the fitness room, which is located on the highest floor and has a great view. It had been a while since I ran a longer distance, and I could feel that running took me more effort than it used to do. I guess that's a matter of exercise. I'll also have to find a program that suits my style of running -- there's quite a difference between running a real track and running on the treadmills we have up there.

I've developed a cold over the last days, nothing too bad but a bit annoying.

Yesterday evening my parents and I saw
Fahrenheit 9/11.

We went to Cinema7Skoop, a movie theater in Den Helder. It's a cute little cinema with 60 seats which is ran by volunteers.

The movie itself was interesting. Some of the footage was really gruesome; a proof that war is always horrible, and it makes you feel sorry for everyone who is in it.

The central theme of the movie is the claim that President Bush is a villain, who puts the country into disarray and who went to war for the wrong reasons.

Personally, I certainly don't agree with Moore's thesis, and his movie didn't change my opinion. He tries to convince the audience, not by giving a detailed explanation of his views, but by using copy & pasted video material that has been ingeniously mixed and edited to convey his insinuations.

But even though it failed to convince me on an political level, it was a well-made documentary. The movie is often quite funny and the music that accompanies it was well-chosen. It's great to know that in a democracy like the U.S. it's possible for such a movie to be such a success.