The Last Emperor (1987)

This film was directed by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1987, six years after his previous film. It's about a boy named Puyi who was made emperor of China when he was 3 years old. And it's really good. It was the first time ever that a film was given permission to shoot footage inside of the Forbidden City, the actual place where this guy lived.

Puyi is made emperor of China in 1908, when he is just three years old. But it's just out of convenience really, China now has a president who controls the show. Puyi can do what ever he wants except leave the grounds of the Forbidden City. Why? I don't know. Powerful people like to make rules like this. So at 7 years old (big word alert) he abdicates the thrown. So he gives up what little power he had, which was like none. A Scottish tutor, played by Peter O'Toole, arrives to educate the boy on all of life's lessons. He's a worldly knowing type, whereas Puyi only knows about the goings on of his prison like home. So Puyi is impressed by the tutor, and now wants to "spread his wings" and fly the coop. He wants to be a modern man with a modern wife who can dance.

When Puyi is in his 20s he is forced to leave the Forbidden City. So happy days, that's what he wanted. He moves to Japan, because the emperor there is the same age as him and they become buddy buddy with each other. Puyi turns into that "Asian trying to be a Westerner type" and we see him with a western style haircut, he refers to his wife now as Elizabeth, and we see him in a tux leaning against a piano crooning to some hip western tune.

Japan has an agenda going meanwhile. They want to take over Manchuria from the Russians, as a strategic base for when they bomb the Chinese. They're gonna set up Puyi(Manchuria was his birthplace) as a puppet ruler. Puyi thinks that the Japanese are just doing him a good turn. When this happens(alot of Chinese are killed under Puyi's "return" in the process), the Japanese slowly start to take more and more control of the running of things. Puyi got played. Then the Russians land and take Puyi as prisoner. Things rapidly go downhill for ol Pu man. He's transferred as a war criminal into Chinese hands, where he will enter a re-education camp.

So he's being re-educated as well as being interrogated in this camp, and the story of his life is told through these long flashbacks that make up the entire film. It really is brilliantly done. John Lone does a great job portraying Puyi from the age of 20 or so on. The scenery is really amazing. The constant yellow and red colouring of the Chin Dynasty is seen throughout his childhood, and the flushed out colour of his time in the prison camp gives you that depressed, sick of life, everything is terrible feeling. The costumes are brilliant and really make you feel like you're seeing the real thing. The only complaint is that the Chinese spoke plain English. I can read subtitles! Make them talk Chinese and let it be authentic!! But I got over that soon as this is a really awesome film!

Tony Manero (2008)

Tony Manero is a Chilean film directed by Pablo Larraín, and it's about a guy who's obsessed with John Travolta's character in "Saturday Night Fever". It's one odd film. But brilliant at the same time.

Alfredo Castro plays Raúl, a guy that has a one track mind. To the escape the brutal realities of Pinochet's Chile in 1978, he tries to become his idol, Tony Manero. At the start we see him waiting outside of a local television set. He's there to become Chile's next "Tony Manero" in a dance off competition, the top prize is a blender. But he's got it wrong, this week is the best Chuck Norris lookalike competition, the Tony Manero Dance Off is next week. Now this guy is a walking zombie. There's no emotion from him. He doesn't get angry, but is just like "OK" and walks off. You never know what he's really thinking, or if he's even thinking at all. There's no emotion whatsoever.

So he's got a week to kill before his television appearance. He's got no job. And I assume that he just sponges off of people to get by. He is one seriously dislikable character. Sitting in his apartment, he hears commotion outside. A couple of thugs have robbed an old lady. Raúl runs downstairs to help, or so we think anyway. She's so grateful to him that she invites him for tea. After a while, having eyed the colour television set, he bashes the old lady's brains in. Seriously this comes straight out of left field. I never saw it coming. It is seriously disturbing.

What Raúl does for a living is dance. He's in charge of a low rent dance troop that practices Tony Manero's dance routine. Two of the dancers show him a couple of original moves that they have come up with to add to the show but Raúl replies "That's not in the movie!". He's got a serious case of assholeness. So they practice and practice and now they get their chance to perform for like 8 or 9 people lookin for cheap entertainment. Raúl has constructed a glass dance floor that glows from beneath just like in "Saturday Night Fever"(well not exactly alike but that's what he thinks) as well as his own disco ball(a soccer ball with broken bits of mirror stuck to it). You just have to applaud the guy for his effort.

But there's that really, really dark side to Raúl. He'll do anything to improve his standing in the world, including murdering an old lady as I've already said. When his local cinema starts showing "Grease" instead of "Saturday Night Fever" he flips his carrot and murders the projectionist. When he's buying the glass for his dance floor, he murders the seller because he hasn't enough money. And there is absolutely no emotional reaction at all when he does these things.

There's also a really great parallel drawn by the film. Raúl represents Chile in a way, and the search for it's identity. In the film notes the director talks about the way in which "Chile has blood on it's hands, but tries it's best to be trendy and stylish, dancing under flashing strobe lights all in the name of progress". Raúl never reflects on the things he has done. He's always on the lookout for the next best thing to improve his standing. He thinks that by pretending to be Tony Manero, that all his problems will disappear. But they're all hollow dreams. He lives in fantasy land, and never deals with reality.

Overall this is one seriously interesting film. There's very few things to laugh at, but I'd say after a while when you think back over it you'll be in stitches laughing. It's like experiencing a really horrible incident, but thinking back over it a month or two later it sounds hilarious. But very, very, very disturbing at the time.

Shutter Island (2010)

Well, well Shutter Island. I love this film. I am actually in love with it. Everything about it is pure genius. Martin Scorsese is the effin man. Can I praise it any more? Will I praise it any more? Yes and yes. Scorsese is simply a master at storytelling. There's few films that have this sort of effect on me. Chinatown, There Will Be Blood, Kill Bill 2 were examples and now I'll add this mo foer of a masterpiece to that list. Everything about it blew me away and I'm not being pretentious about that.

Where to start? Honestly. It's fantastically amazing! OK I'll try and tone down the excitement already. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a U.S Marshall sent to Shutter Island. On this island is Ashecliff Hospital, it houses the criminally insane. Apparently, one of the inmates(a woman that drowned her three children) has escaped, or more to the point seems to have vanished into thin air. He has been sent here along with his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) to investigate her disappearance. The head honcho on the island is Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley), this smart academic type who has a smell of Nazi about him. As Teddy interviews some of the nutters, he begins to grow more and more suspicious of the hospital's psychotherapy treatments. But there's another reason for Teddy being here. He's here to find a man that he believes has killed his wife. Along the way Teddy starts to doubt his own sanity. More and more he starts to distrust everyone around him. And then there's one mother of an ending to top things off.

I'm reminded alot of Hitchcock's movies when I think about this film. Films with great stories and great characters, that delve alot of the time into psychological territory, and shine a light on the madness and violence that live in some people's minds. You start questioning everything in Shutter Island. What's real? What is not? What the hell is going on? But you're always in very safe hands with Scorsese. Sure there's lots of twists and turns along the way but for some reason there's no feeling of total confusion. The basics of it are easy enough to grasp. Well I might be blowing my own trumpet a bit but I found it easy enough to follow. This is one great, great movie.

Home Alone (1990)

Home Alone is one of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen. It's directed by Chris Columbus, written by John Hughes(Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and stars Macaulay Culkin as an 8 year old kid left at home alone. There's alot of mixed views on this one, and you'll either love it or hate it. I can't believe that someone could actually hate a film like this.

Kevin McCallister(Culkin) is left behind accidentally as his parents and 8 other siblings fly out to Paris for a holiday. He hasn't been getting on with his family recently, and is over the moon about being left alone for once in his life. Two bumbling burglars Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern pay a visit to the neighbourhood, aware that there'll be a few empty houses over the festive period. Kevin decides to take a stand and defend his house at all costs. Why didn't he just ring the police you say? Who'd really like to see that film?

Ok, now for some of the arguments against the film. "The film is contrived in every detail". What films aren't contrived? Films are inherently unnatural due to the fact that.........they're not real!!! So the tarantula is conveniently placed on the stairs in front of Kevin when Daniel Stern is pulling at his leg. So all the realist boring people out there are saying "That would never happen!!!! How convenient!!! So contrived!! OOooohh I hate it so much!" Come on.

Another one: "The film is incredibly violent". An iron hits Daniel Stern on the head "Oh my God!!! It's just too horrific for my eyes!!" Wait a minute, Wile E. Coyote gets flattened with a giant boulder in nearly every episode. "Why wasn't that show pulled from kids television, it's so violent!" Why not? Because this world would be an incredibly boring place if these people were in charge.



"Macaulay Culkin's acting was unnatural" another person said. He was like 10 years old!!!!! I can't believe that someone would take a person of that age's acting so seriously.

The reason that I haven't concentrated on the actual film, and rather on the reactions to it, were most of the reviews posted by super highly, intellectual people who look for the bad in everything while trying to impress people with negativity. Rather than just giving an honest opinion on something, they have to intellectualize it to death. And now I'm just extremely bitter because of it!!! Approved Tomatometer critics at Rottentomatoes gave the film an aggregate score of 47%!!! Read some of the reviews. They're hilarious.

The reasons why I loved the film? The film is honest with itself. It knows that it's being sentimental, and it's aware that it looks contrived and says to hell with it!!!! Let's just believe in it as long as the film lasts. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are magnificent. The theme of everyone being against Kevin, and Kevin taking on "the world"(well I think that's how he sees it) is brilliantly done. The slapstick comedy is hilarious!! The tarantula on Daniel Stern's face is one of the funniest scenes I have seen in my entire life!! Daniel Stern's performance was the icing on the cake to this already brilliant film. The tone of it all is just fantastic. It just seems very optimistic, an innocent blah blah blah. It really is just a great, great film.



Absolute Brilliance!

Jerry Maguire (1996)

Jerry Maguire is directed by Cameron Crowe, and has a stellar cast consisting of Tom Cruise, Renée Zellweger, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Jonathan Lipnicki. This is a great movie with a few moral lessons thrown into the mix without being all preachy about it.

Tom Cruise plays Jerry Maguire, a hot shot sports agent who one day developes a conscience. He's tired of being just another "shark in a suit" and he wants to feel the way he did when he first started out in the business. So he writes a new mission statement for his company: "The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business". It's his brutally honest thoughts on the state of the agent trade. So everyone's so impressed with his memo, but a week after writing it he's fired by Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr), a man who's career he helped build. Adding to the insult of it all, Bob Sugar steals most of Jerry's players except for football superstar Frank Cushman, and the lesser known, trash talking Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr). Jerry starts his own agent business with the help of Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger), and a bit of romance developes. Jerry must fight to keep his career alive, and keep his players from abandoning him.

This movie starts off where most movies end. It explores the aftermath of making the breakthrough of deciding to stay true to oneself, and being honest and all that saintly, heavenly stuff. It's saying that it's not a walk in the park once you decide to do it. People take advantage of honest Jerry. So Jerry must learn how to play the game, while still trying to be "Jerry". What happens is that there isn't a complete transition from slimey, money worshipping Jerry to upstanding, do the right thing all the time Jerry. He becomes a slightly better person, but he's still a money hungry agent. He's just trying to be very successful on his own terms.

The casting is excellent. Cuba Gooding, Jr. is brilliant as the loudmouthed, cocky Rod Tidwell, and his award for best supporting actor was well deserved. Renée Zellweger has her usual charm. Tom Cruise was an excellent choice. He normally plays that asshole that gets everything that he wants, but here he's at his best where he's that asshole who has come to the realisation that he's an utter moron, and decides to change. All in all, I'd give it a 8/10.

The Man with Two Brains (1983)

The Man with Two Brains is directed by Carl Reiner and stars Steve Martin and Kathleen Turner. It's a spoof of mad scientist movies. If you're not a fan of those types of movies some of the jokes will fly over your head, but there's still enough non- referenced humour to laugh at.

Steve Martin plays Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr, a mad scientist that has developed a new type of brain surgury. He screws off the tops of his patients heads to make things easy peasy japaneasy while he works his magic on thier brains. Kathleen Turner plays a gold digging biatch from hell, Dolores Benedict. Hfuhruhurr knocks her down with his Mercedes, and has to perform brain surgory on the lovely Dolores. The operation is successful and the two fall in love and get married, and everything is hunky dory, ....or so it seems. Dum, dum,duuuum. Dolores is only after his money, Hfuhruhurr falls in love with a brain in a jar, and somewhere thrown into the mix is an elavator serial killer who injects people with window cleaner. Will we find out who the serial killer is? Will Hfuhruhurr and Dolores's relationship last? Will Hfuhruhurr's love affair with the brain in the jar be found out? Dum, Dum, Duuuum.

It's actually really, really funny for the first hour or so. Then the laughter peters out but it's still interesting enough to watch. This is the funniest I've ever seen Steve Martin. Kathleen Turner is savagely sexy, and spoofs her sultry image of that time quite well. It's just very enjoyable and there's nothing to really hate about it. I'd give it a 7/10.

Kingpin (1996)

Kingpin was directed by the Farrelly brothers, and stars Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid, Vanessa Angel, and Bill Murray. It's hilarious at times, and at other times the jokes just bomb. Maybe the intention was that they knew that some of the jokes would be so bad that they'd turn out funny in a camp sort of way, while really the fact is that some were just terrible. But, as I said, there were some really funny moments as well.

Woody stars as Rory Munson. As a kid, he's taught the ins and outs of bowling by his dad. Rory developes amazing bowling skillzzzz. When he's around 19 he plans to go on the Proffesional Bowlers Tour, after winning the 1979 Iowa state amateur championship. He wins his first tournament on tour by beating Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray). Soonafter, he teams up with McCracken as they try thier luck at bowler hustling. After beating a redneck priest, they are found out and McCracken ditches Rory. The rednecks stick Rory's hand into a ball retrieval mechanism, and he looses his hand. Cut to 17 years later, and Rory is an alcoholic with a comb over, and a hook for a hand. He makes up for unpaid rent by having sex with his disgusting landlady. He comes across amish Ishmael Boorg (Randy Quaid) bowling with a 270 average. (I don't bowl but I'm guessing that's good). Rory convinces Ishmael to go along with him to a $1,000,000 winner-take-all tournament in Reno, Nevada. Along the way they pick up the super sexy Claudia (Vanessa Angel). Ishmael must win to save his amish land, and there's a bit of a love story that developes between Rory and Claudia.

As I said, at times it can be hilarious(Claudia to Rory,refering to his hook hand "Must be hard when you're spanking your monkey". Ishmael to Rory "You've got a monkey?"), and at other times the reliance on the disgusting jokes are nothing but disgusting and far from funny. There's homages to films like "the Hustler" which I found quite interesting, having LOVED The Hustler. Bill Murray is quite good as the arrogant, slimey, cocky, king of all assholes Ernie McCracken. As others have commented, more Ernie would have done the film alot of good. The film also feels very disjointed at times. Characters dissapear for ages then return and you're like "where the hell was he for the last half hour??"

Overall, this is a movie with a few decent strikes, but a lotta gutterballs.(hahaha............)

The Oscars 2010

I've got to admit that I never really watch the Oscars. I mean I've seen bits and bobs here and there but I've never really sat down to watch an entire show. Well I did now and here are my thoughts on the whole affair: Entertaining enough. Better than I expected. You've got to take the good with the bad.

The Red Carpet
Well I watched E! for all the red carpet stuff, and Ryan Seacrest is a bit of a twit, but I got over that. Some of the jibber jabber is quite entertaining once you start to take an objective look and just observe the craziness as it's presented in front of you. Giuliana Rancic and the gay guy(can't find his name anywhere) commentary is hilarious, and not because they're funny themselves. When they spot an actress it's "Ok, Ok freeze the frame right there. Loooovin her, looovin this right here, all this bit here, the way it starts off small and then goes around the back....loooovin it" and they can both start to disagree, before sussing each other out and finally coming to the same conclusion. Normally "she's loookin stuuuuning!" while really it's far from the truth. Keepin it real alright.

The Show
George Clooney looked a bit drunk, and there's a debate going on whether he was in on the act when Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were taking shots at him. I myself think he was in on the act. And if not, who gives a crap.

The Presenters
Steve and Alec as mentioned above were really entertaining in a "we can't present!! what are we doing here???" sort of way. Some of the jokes bombed, but you'd still had to laugh.

The Interpretive Dancers
Who the hell are these guys???!! Sure they're good at what they do, but what's it all about really?? If you just stopped for a second and said to yourself "what the hell is really going on??" without getting caught up in it all, you'd see it's just a bunch of people jumpin around doin their own cool little moves. There were moments when there was synchronicity(hope that's a word) but the rest of the time it was just absolute madness.

The Awards
Well The Hurt Locker cleaned up, and to be honest I was quite surprised. I mean I loved The Hurt Locker, but Avatar did shockingly bad. It got best make up(whatever the award is for that), best special effects(no brainer) and Best Cinematography. Hurt Locker, after taking everything at the Baftas, continued the form with best director, best picture, two awards for sound, best editing, and best original screenplay. Nothin for Tarantino! Where's the justice?? Well I.B was never gonna win much, but I'd have liked to have seen a bit more appreciation for it. Christoph Waltz did win for Best Supporting actor though. And he deserved it.

Overall, not a bad night's entertainment.

Ben-Hur (1959)

Ben-Hur(1959) is an epic film directed by William Wyler starring Charlton Heston, and it's 3 hours thirty two minutes long. It's incredibly long, but somehow it's not quite the bore that I thought it might turn out to be. The thing that really stands out in this film is not the performances, and certainly not the dialogue, but there are some great action scenes and incredible set designs.

Charlton Heston plays a well off merchant Jew, Judah Ben-Hur. His childhood friend Messala(Stephen Boyd), originally a jew, has returned as a Roman Tribune(one of the higher ups in the army). They're all buddy buddy happy to see eachother once again, but things soon turn sour when Messala asks Judah to basically become an informant, and turn in some of the Jews who are rebeling against the Roman occupation of thier land. Judah refuses and Messala is very angry about this, boo hoo, and they both go thier separate ways. When a Roman Governer visits the town, Judah's sister accidently knocks over a loose tile from the roof, and it falls hitting the Governer and killing him. Messala arrests Judah, even though he knows it was an accident, and sends him to the galleys. Judah's mother and sister are also arrested for no reason and are sent down into the dungeons. Judah vows to return and take revenge on Messala and reunite with his family. Revenge! Hell Yeah!

The chariot race is obviously the best part about this film. It's simply fantastico. I don't need to go on about this. Most people know that there is an awesome chariot race that everyone needs to see once before they die. But it really is that good. The one thing that annoyed me about this film is the religion aspect of it. Spoiler! Judah basically gets kicked in the nuts at every turn he makes, and it's cool to see him rise up and take revenge against Messala. But just when he's about take on Rome(now that would have been cool to see), since Rome the empire is basically THE enemy throughout(it turned his old Jewish pal into an almighty prick), religion creeps into the movie and saves the day! Basically magic happens. Hocus pocus. Judah's family, who bacame lepers in the dungeons, are totally cured because they see Jesus being crucified! What the hell is that about?? So the message is that no matter what happens, believe in Jesus or something, and one day if you're a leper some sort of wizardry might happen and totally cure you???? I could go on about it but you really have to see it for yourself to make your own mind up about it. That part made no sense to me.

Anyway, overall this was not such a chore to watch, given the length of time and all. Charlton sucks as a hero(I think that he'd have suited the villain role much better, he's just that sort of asshole), but the action scenes and some of the revenge themes makes this somewhat enjoyable to watch.

Righteous Kill (2008)

Righteous Kill is a film directed by Jon Avnet, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, and is seriously one big waste of time. It tries so hard, tries it's best to fit in with the cool kids of crime thrillers, but really there is no point to the film at all.

Two New York police detectives, Turk(De Niro) and his partner Rooster(Pacino), have worked as a team for years. They've grown tired of seeing criminals walk free because of lack of evidence and other such things. We get a sense that Turk especially is goin nuts. We are constantly interupted throughout the film with footage of Turk confessing to a number of killings. And when we join the pair throughout the working day, they come across murders that appear to be have been commited by a cop. Ok so we get the "subtle" hint that it's Turk. It's up to a rival duo of detectives who are suspicious of Turk to bring him down.

While the whole idea has potential to be interesting, the script, directing and editing of this film flushes that potential down the crapper. The ending is just so obvious it's beyond rediculous. Towards the end you get a sense that Pacino and De Niro are just having a laugh. They simply couldn't pull this one off by acting alone. This movie is an absolute waste of time.

Top Gun (1986)

Top Gun. Where to begin? Directed by Tony Scott. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Starring the white toothed wonder kid Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Kelly McGillis, Meg Ryan, Tim Robbins(never spotted him at all!), and Anthoney Edwards. Well it's all laughs from beginning to end. It's one of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen due it's pure comedic value. You'd think that they were acually trying to parody the types of characters we see in this film.

I mean did people really think that Maverick was cool back then? I can understand kids liking a movie like this "Wow, planes! Jet-fighter jackets! Awesome!". But adults? Who were the ones forking out $353 million in theatres around the world in 1986, catapulting Tom "You're a Jerk! You're a jerk!" Cruise to stardom? Who's resposible for this!!?? I'd like to know! Questions need to be answered. People need to reflect, and take accountability. This is a very serious matter. Young kids were led to believe that this kind of behaviour was the way to go. "Ok kids, to be cool, to get the chicks, you need to learn cool technospeak, and you need a call-sign like 'Maverick' or 'Iceman', just something thats really super awesome sounding".

The plot is, and I really can't believe that somebody could write a script like this, is: Tom Cruise plays Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, one arrogant, cocky, sonofabitch jet fighter pilot. Him and his pal "Goose" are sent to a Jet Fighter school, where only the elite can attend and they're all in competition with eachother to win the prize of "Top Gun". And they're all really serious about it. It's hilarious. Maverick and Goose's biggest rivals to the Top Gun throne are Iceman(Val Kilmer) and Slider. There's plenty of macho "we're better than you"...."No you're not!" banter going on. Maverick meets a girl in the bar and acts like a jackass....IT GETS COMPLICATED!.......she's the Top Gun flight instructor! OH NO! And the rest of this stupid story just plays itself out with the odd scene of the pilots playing volyball with no shirts and only jeans on and Tom Cruise riding his super cool motorbike really fast whenever he reflects over his stupid life. It's just really, really funny to see people taking themselves so seriously. That's what makes this film so great to watch.

People who are fans of movies like "Fast and Furious" and such will love this film. It's all about going really fast, being the best, and lookin cool while doing it. People who strike poses, suck their stomachs in and lean against objects in a masculine sort of way. I really don't get it. But it's great fun to watch these people.

Notorious (2009)

I have to admit that I actually liked this movie. I fell for it. I could somehow relate to Biggie Smalls and the world that he lived in. He's a guy who has his problems, he wants to turn his situation around, he wants a better life for himself and his mom, move out of the streets, and live life on his own terms. It was great to see him get out of prison and make the choice to use his god given talents of amazing rap skillz(with a z, oh ya like the cool people do it) to make things happen for himself. I really liked the character of the man at the start. Sure he whored himself around the place, dealt drugs, carried a piece but who are we to judge? Who here hasn't dabbled in such business??? Anyone? Anyone?

You all know about Biggie Smalls. The rap dude who had a feud with Tupac Shakur. East side "you guys in the west suck at rap!" versus west "no way you suck!". Well Piff Paff Waddy Daddy "Sean Combes" produced this film along with Biggie Smalls' mother. I DIDNT KNOW THIS AT BEFORE WATCHING THIS FILM. I actually fell for the sensationalism of it all. I thought "hey, Puff is a really cool guy", the way he basically nearly single handedly elevated Biggie Smalls to stardom. "And Biggie's mom, well she is just a heavenly saint. And as for Biggie, well he has his problems but he's just really a big ol' loveable teddybear. Then I listened to one of his songs on YouTube. Honest to God I heard him say something about wacking a kid across their face on communion day. WACK! What a great guy. But then there's the argument "well geez get over it just a song!" Ya but it's stil kindof an odd thing to rap about isn't it?

So basically this film is totally biased. Tupac is portrayed as a raging lunatic who starts the feud. Biggie is the gooddie, Tupac is the baddie, and the record is set straight once and for all! Thanks Puff for sorting that one out!