Who let the dogs out? Who? Who?

The rabbit complicates matters

Before the rabbit arrived letting the dogs out into the garden was relatively straightforward. You had only to recognise that one, the other, or both of them needed to pop out to powder their noses, open the door and let them out. Then either remember to leave the door open or to let them back in.

Now there's a little brown rabbit taken up residence. Nice. Cute little thing, it hops around, eats grass and stuff and isn't out anywhere near the road, at risk of getting run over, and that's all good. The letting the dogs out flowchart has become more complicated now. First you have to check for the rabbit. If it's away elsewhere, then no worries, proceed as previously. If it's there, things change. If we're on the 'yes' arrow of the flowchart, then there's the 'bang on the glass' instruction, and another question. Did that work? That is, did he scarper off and disappear, in which case proceed as normal. If he stayed put or moved a bit but remained visible to the canine eye, then you have to bang again, and consider cracking the door open a bit and shouting at him (or her) to clear off or risk injury or death.

Although she's caught them before, white dog is no expert. She adopts a half-creeping up, half outright “comin' right at'cha, rabbit” ram-raid approach, neither Arthur or Martha, doomed to fail. She must've found a couple of rabbits too laid back or bone idle to run away. Black dog? She'd just jog up to say “hello Mr Bunny, what a lovely white tail you've got.”

21 Grams

We watched 21 Grams, BLISS and me, yesterday. Inarritu directs magnificent films. I'm not really film-picky, but when Hollywood is obsessed with 3D, CGI, sequels, prequels, and, in all honesty, just-the-same-thing-again-but-too-soon-to-be-called-a-remake-quels, when something of real depth and quality hit the screen you're watching, you can't miss it. BLISS had a brief chunter about the non-linear approach, but after minutes she was too involved to care.

Cube, Hypercube, Cube Zero

In Cube, people wake up in a man-sized, oversized Rubik's cube, where all the cubes have six entrances / exits, some of the cubes have deadly traps, and every now and again, just to make life extra-hard, the cubes have a shuffle round to stop you reaching the edge. There's no explanation about what the Cube is, why the people are there, or what the whole thing's about. It's gloriously minimalist in terms of how and why and that focuses your attention on the group trying to get out and their dynamics.

Hypercube is Cube but with mind games and physical effects (gravity reversal, time slowing down or speeding up, that sort of thing) replacing the cheesewire and flamethrowers. There's some hints at a conspiracy theory, but again the focus is on the people and not on what the environment they find themselves in is all about.

Cube Zero is set about equally in the Cube, a lower-tech version than the Cube one, so it's a prequel to the first film, and the control room monitoring the progress of the people in it. It seems they're all facing the death penalty and have signed up for the Cube rather than face execution. Predictably the control room guys become involved with trying to get people out and the whole thing develops from there. There's the added bonus of the chief control-room villain being a dead ringer for Rik Mayall.