Movies: Train to Busan (and its sequel) Peninsula

I don't know why zombies movies are so popular - I'm sure lots of people have come up with reasons- but,  bottom line, they're fun to watch.

I've been thinking about why I liked Train to Busan more and I think it's because, once you accept the zombies, the film is about ordinary people reacting in believable ways to a terrible situation.  Some are braver or more moral than others, but they're just people. You can relate to them. I cared about many of them and the ending was very emotional.  (Personally, I think it's one of the best zombie films ever made.)

In Peninsula there's some of that but many of the characters are anything but ordinary.  Extremely capable, extremely smart, extremely stupid, extremely evil.  I think I'm trying to say that I can relate to the people in the first film but in Peninsula the story and people are just a little too extreme to feel relatable the way they did in Train to Busan.   Not that Peninsula is a bad movie -  it's well done, well produced, well acted, a lot of fun to watch.  

Flying By

 

I've probably written before about how what "they" say about time seeming to move faster as you grow old is true.

But just lately I've been feeling something new again - that each day just doing basic things like showering, brushing teeth, making meals, doing laundry, seem to fill in almost the whole day.  It often feels that I've done nothing but these routine maintenance type things and the day is over.

I don't know if there's anything I can about this.  I will try to be sure to set apart time for reading and other things that really matter to me but still, in the end, the chores need to get done.

Spaces

 

Like everyone, over the years friends and family have died and I miss them.

It is not surprising that at my age such losses are more common but what I find, while I still remember and mourn losses from the past, is that these more recent deaths seem to have left gaps in my life, in my day to day life, that I don't think can ever be filled.  There's this sense of spaces in my life that will be with me now until I die.

Netflix Movie: Bullet Train Explosion

 

Wowza!

This was great fun.  Well done and never dull.

It reminds me of those wonderful all-star cast disaster flicks form the last century such as 

Airport

The Toweting Inferno

Earthquake

Movie: All of Us Strangers

 

I had read the book this movie was based on and liked it very much.

The movie of course is different, but similar, and I felt they did a good job with the adaptation.

The cast was uniformly good.

But Andrew Scott, Andrew Scott.

He was wonderful in this role.  Most actors are lucky if they get one or two really good scenes in a film, but here he manages to make something shining about almost every scene he is in.  He lights up the screen, he breaks your heart.

Bed

As a teenager I was one of those people who could happily sleep until 10 or 11 in the morning, or even until noon.  A total night of uninterrupted deep sleep.  In those years my favourite way to read was on the bed on my stomach, propped up on my elbows with the book in front of me.

This continued into my twenties and thirties and forties.  The problem was that is was a deep sleep and very difficult to wake up from.  My alarm would go off and it felt like the idea of moving and getting out of bed was almost beyond my capability.  I remember one period of my life where I had two alarms set, one across the room that would keep up an awful buzzing sound until I got up and shut it off.  Even then I could listen to it for a long time before I could convince myself to move.

Getting up got much easier as I aged.  I might take a bit of time to get up and moving but I did it without a lot of fussing and moaning.

Now that I'm old I'm again finding it really difficult to get moving in the morning.  I can lie comfortably for a couple of hours thinking I should get up but just feeling unwilling to make the effort to move.  Often what finally gets me moving is the need to use the bathroom.  My bed is without doubt my favourite  place in my home.  I read there,  I watch TV there.  I sometimes eat there while watching TV.  I do my email there.

Interior Design

 

I like looking at design magazines.  Mainly I'm looking at the floor plans of the homes and the placement of windows, patios and such.  To a degree the layout of furniture.  Lowest on my interest list are the colours, draperies and decorations.  (Although I occasionally see a room that I think is really lovely.). But what always comes to mind when I see a room filled with elaborate light fixtures and paintings and art and objects dumped everywhere is that these designers and not people who have to do their own vacuuming and dusting.