Skip to main content

Monumentally Slow

Watched a WWII era movie about a motley crew of artists, sculptors et al going into the war zone against the Nazi machine and steal back stolen art.

The entire cast is top notch but the 'Everything George Clooney' production unfortunately fell flat for me.  That it was a quiet evening with nothing much going on other than people clamoring over the highways to head out to a place that is worth a traffic jam for the Memorial Day holiday.

Side note - what jam goes well with 3 day weekends?  Traffic (not apricot you idiot).

So about this movie called MONUMNETS MEN - while it again purports to be based on a true story it did little to really sit up and take notice.  We all know Hitler was a crazy psychopath and he fostered other lesser psychos that worked for him (there are some certain parallels in corporate cutlure today).  But beyond that underlying craziness and the motivation of a gang of odd balls that get aligned behind their commander the movie did little to deliver a massive punch that one could have got from the likes of Damon, Clooney, Balaban, Goodman.  I think anything with Cate Blanchett actually ruins a film.   For some reason I cannot stand this actor.  Her general demeanor is stark and snooty.  Not just as the character in the film but I feel she comes across as pretentious and selfish (in some interviews of her that I watched).

Other than maybe a couple of funny lines in the entire 2 hour drama and some scenery (few seconds of long lens shots) of what may be parts of Northern Europe the movie is filmed in the dark and dungeony locales.

I am not sure if Clooney is now running out of ideas and milking the public for what it is worth purely on his cachet.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Costa Rica

 Our first foray into Central America. That elongated isthmus that forms the geographic boundary between two vast continents of North and South America. Specifically landing for NYE 2026 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Capital city for this region that does not have its own army, instead relying on its big bro the Estados Unidos to the north is a metropolis of approx. 500K people. Largely wilderness and with both a Pacific and Carribean/Atlantic coast the country is rich in bio diversity. In Spanish it means the rich coast so named by Columbus landing in early 16th century and being mesmerized by the local tribes sporting gold jewelry.   Our stay included visiting the foothills of a large strato volcano called Arenal and enjoying the naturally heated thermal baths for a while.  Lunching amidst lush forest and watching indigenous species of avian noise makers fly overhead. Toucans, some sort of pea hens, multiple song bird species completed the spectacle. Iguanas and a lonel...

Charges attract

It is said that opposites attract meaning people with contrary viewpoint sometimes find chemistry to be together.  But I'm referring to a modern twist where people are merely attracted towards a common place because their uber communication device aka smart phone is about to die.  The charging station. From airports to hotel lobbies or even bathrooms, when in need they are attracted to this power outlet like moths to a flame or a junkie to a needle. A whole new business of supplying these hyper connected folks is now born whose lifesaver product is a backup charge. Asian tourists perpetually carry a phone sized battery pack stuck to their latest Apple phone updating their status to folks in Hong Kong or Shanghai or Bangalore as they pose for selfies with weird facial expressions and fingers pointed out in a letter V. Vain? PS:  I dis'charged' my blogger duties making this insightful observation as my phone is about to breathe it's last and my flight gets call...

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...