The fifth column/Page 3

This might be news to you but an important ingredient in my morning coffee is the newspaper that goes along with it. If I do not read with my breakfast, I cannot taste my food. My eyes and my taste-buds work best in conjunction (no, not conjuctivitis – conjunction).

And for some strange reason, I always start with the back and the supplements of the newspaper. I reflected on this behaviour of mine and realized, it is a defence mechanism against bad news. I hate bad news – it destroys my belief in an orderly and fair-minded universe. What do you mean, there are no unicorns?!?

Coming back to the back-page and supplements, I like the supplements the best because they carry the comic-strips. I love comics as much as I hate bad news. If you would give me bad news in a comic form, I would probably read it. Was that in bad taste? Oh well, that is me, not just bad news but in bad taste too.

Anyway, so I start with the supplements because of the comics but end up reading the gossip column. Sometimes it is very entertaining. I usually do not know many of the minor celebrities that are in the news (I have neither TV nor Radio at home) but I like a chuckle just like any one else.

Sometimes though, it is embarrassing to read the gossip. There is a wonderful German word that captures this – ‘Fremdschämen’ – it means you are embarrassed on someone else’s behalf because they are either so stupid or stuck-up to be embarrassed for themselves.

Kicking Ass in the Marvel Universe

Some times you come across a movie purely by chance or because the DVD was being sold in the supermarket near you for EUR 5.99 – you can call it destiny or a discount but it makes all the difference between a boring evening and an exciting new discovery.

‘Kick Ass’ was such a movie. I hadn’t even heard of it till my husband brought home the DVD. We both thought it was going to be some kind of junk movie with a wannabe-superhero. It turned out to be a movie with a wannabe-superhero but it was not junk – it was trash! The genre, I mean. We loved every minute of it! From the scene with Nicholas Cage shooting a little girl to the last sequence with a DIY-drone kit, it was awesome. Matthew Vaughn – a new favourite director was added to our watch-list.

I found out later from that veritable source of information IMDB, that Vaughn had produced ‘Lock, Stock and two Smoking barrels’ – which has been a long-time favourite of mine. The only movie where I actually liked Jason Stratham plus Sting stung as an actor (pardon the pun). The film was directed by Guy Ritchie (yes, forgive the man his marital error and move on) and is devilishly humourous that we quote it often (minus the bad language, of course).

‘Kick Ass’ was not just a trash movie in the best of Tarantino tradition, it also looked like a tribute to ‘Matrix’ (Part I, the only one that made sense) and it has the most politically-incorrect character in the form of ‘Hit-Girl’- Chloe Grace Moretz plays that role to such perfection that it outshines her just lost milk-teeth. I admit, with ‘Game of Thrones’ playing to a wider audience now, it is not that scary or a novelty to see a little girl kick much bigger men in their private parts, but in 2010, it was.

Matthew Vaughn did a fantastic job making the story believable and quirky at the same time. The biggest achievement? He gave Nicholas Cage a role that can be called that – a character, a brilliant loveable character. The whole movie was such a surprise package – looks like a low-production slapstick on the outside but is high-quality entertainment once you press ‘play’.

Now let us move on to the Marvel Universe.

Pages: 1 2

Pehla Nasha A Capella by Alaa Wardi

He is magic!