of love, life and living it up

the other saturday i was sitting at home reading a book and watching t.v and generally keeping to myself cos i was in no mood to be with people. besides, the fourth of july weekend was coming up and those days can be hectic so i was in need of some me time.

the book was interesting (pick up ken follet's pillars of the earth if you haven't yet) but what was on t.v was enough to shake me out of my funk. i assure you that "the librarian: return to king solomon's mine" is a laugh a minute even though its for all the wrong reasons.

let's put aside some sword that floats in some library all by itself and other things that expect you to stretch your imagination to the fullest. i would be so willing to do that if it pays off. after all, i like harry potter movies. but surely, ati hippos that are attacking you will be placated by chocolate? really?



ok, if you watch the clip you'll see that the two main characters seem to walk from nairobi to wajir in a couple of days (or hours even, i'm not sure). already i was like hmm! but they are on their way to gedi ... i swear for a second (just a second, dont judge me! haha) i almost doubted all my geography. who in the world walks from nairobi to gedi via wajir? maybe someone needs to tell me these things. just not the people who wrote this script, cos next they will be telling me that buffalos that are charging at you would much rather have an oreo cookie instead.

maybe i'm just nitpicking. i mean, it's just a movie right? but i have every right to do so when some of the things in the movie are clearly from the first page of results of a google search. i mean, the characters casually walk through some maasai's dancing. what better way to let people know that they are in kenya, eh? well, you could name one of your "native" characters jomo (again, clearly from the first page of google results) and have the two wazungus help him out of a pickle they just can't wrap their heads around.

it always amuses me to see how predictable a story line will get. every time wazungus are somewhere foreign the character known as the "helpful native" pops up to help them along with their journey or adventure or whatever. cos every hero or whatever needs a loyal sidekick who will do anything for them and help them along their journey, dropping all else to be by their new friend's side. this movie did not disappoint. after digging out jomo from a hole he wants to take them back to his village to give the man food, women and treat him like a king as a token of his thanks. i never get to find out. after the whole hippos incident the storyline dragged and i went back to my book.

maybe the reason i was amused was cos the movie makers didnt even pretend to try. not even a little bit. no grand gestures about culture and understanding and "the beauty of the people" and whatnot. with a made for t.v movie budget maybe all the reasearch they could afford to do was almost none at all, who knows? regardless, it makes me wonder how many movies i have watched that were as misleading as this one and have people in some part of the world either very amused or exasperated.