Thursday, March 31, 2011

Film: "Unknown"

After the film, at quarter past ten last night I got the call from Rob McClinton at sciencefiction.com. This week's edition of their Internet TV channel is going to feature supersymmetry and the large hadron collider (my recent article for them) and this was the interview.

It's rather odd being interviewed via skypeout from Los Angeles ... it wasn't scripted and I had no advance notice of the questions. I had the Wikipedia article on the LHC on the screen (prudence!) and Rob's first question was "Could you explain exactly what the Large Hadron Collider is?" ... Phew!

Liam Neeson in "Unknown"

"Unknown", starring Liam Neeson starts with the hero and his wife arriving in Berlin for a biotech conference. Having mislaid a briefcase at the airport, Neeson's character has to return as quickly as possible to retrieve it. However en-route the taxi crashes into the river and the hero is thrown into a coma.

Four day's subsequently he checks out the hospital and attempts to rejoin his wife at the conference. But she denies ever knowing him and someone else is 'masquerading' as her husband under his name. Crazy or what?

We're soon into Jason Bourne territory: a heady mix of amnesia, spies, assassinations and hi-tech. Although the ingredients are familiar, the look and feel is distinctive and you are never bored. It is, however, high-class disposable flim-flam and there is no lasting impact.

Clare had that Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear on the TV this morning. Clarkson made one of his over-the-top comparisons of something or somebody to 'Brad Pitt'. Clare turned and confided to me: "I have no idea what Brad Pitt looks like." So here you are then.

Brad Pitt

We must have seen him in something, or was that Leonardo DiCaprio? It's so hard to tell them apart.