Films

I went out to see the new Harry Potter film with my brother last night. It was fairly good. Not really as good as the last one (where was Gary Oldman?) but still better than the first one. The effects were good, the pacing was pretty good, the creepy bits were very creepy... The plot was good, if slightly cut down from the book. The one thing that sucked was the editing. Dear goodness. Some scenes just barely made sense! Hermione's little strop after Ron ruined her night at the ball was almost incomprehensible, though that may just have been an attempt to convey how insane teenage girls are, in which case I salute the accuracy of the portrayal. Anyway. It was pretty good. Trailers for Narnia and King Kong too, which both look pretty promising.

It was good to see my brother too. I've not seen him in ages. He's shaved his head which is kinda weird. He looks a bit more like me now, except he has a beard and stuff. He's doing well at the moment, though his house is likewise freezing. Rubbish.

I've trawled around my site an found a bit of code which may well have been responsible for the pop-ups, so I've removed it. There shouldn't be any more problems.

Word has it that Wallace And Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit has topped the box office charts in the USA. I was rather surprised to hear this, as I wouldn't have expected such an altogether English film to fare well on the far side of the pond. However, having seen the film last night I can certainly see the appeal. It's very funny and entertaining, with an almost non-stop barrage of jokes, many little visual things that have to be looked out for. The characters are amusing and well voiced by the likes of Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes, along with old hand Peter Sallis as the familiar Wallace. The plot is silly in the extreme, being a nod to old skool horror films with many references to King Kong, The Fly, Jaws and so on. The animation is incredible, not least because it took 5 years to do, and some sequences are incredible to watch. That anyone is still making claymation films in these days of computer generated films is amazing, if again rather English! Anyway. The film is brilliant, and well worth seeing - I'd recommend it to everyone.

PS There's a little short film about the penguins from Madagascar at the start which is quite funny too. Funny enough to get Alison and I thinking that we ought to rent the DVD of the original film when it comes out.

So, on Saturday Alison and I went out with my brother. We went to a pub with a hearse parked outside it (no word of a lie) and had a drink and a chat. My brother has just finished uni. He got a 2:2 and was declared employee of the year in Bars/Ents, so that's pretty well done. It was good to chat and catch up and hear about what he's doing. Alison laughed a bit at the pair of us ranting away, putting the world to rights. Still, someone has to do it, eh?

After the pub, we went along to the cinema to watch Batman Begins. I indulged my Revels habit for the first time in ages, which was nice, and had my phone on vibrate so my dad could text me the result of the Murray/Nalbandian match. Gotta admit I was quite gutted at the result, but a good effort nonetheless. Anyway. The film had pretty naff trailers with the exception of a proper full on long trailer for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Woohoo! However, as Alison said to me, it's still difficult to tell if it will turn out to be any good at all. I have faith in Tim Burton as a weird, dark director and Johnny Depp's ability to act like a total nutcase, so I have faith that it will turn out well. I'll let you all know what I think in a month.

Batman was rocking. It's dark and gritty in the way that the first two (Burton directed) films were, along with the comic books and the like. It's good to see Bruce Wayne creating Batman out of what has happened to him, and all the training and so on. The development of all his gear, the Batmobile, Batcave and so on is also well done. You really get the feeling that this is where Batman, uh, Began.

The cast is absolutely wonderful. Bale is great as the cold, hard Batman and as the smooth Wayne. Morgan Freeman does a fine turn as the research lab type person, and Michael Caine very nearly steals the show thanks to some great lines. It's even got Gary Oldman in it as Sergeant Gordon! Amazing! Liam Neeson as the trainer is great too. The villains do a good job of being weird and creepy.

The action and the effects are good. If I had any complaint it would be that it was hard to spot quite what was going on at points, but I guess the point is that Batman is fast and near impossible to follow, because that's how some of the action turned out. The plot is good, barring obvious movie physics microwave related idiocy, but we'll let that slide. The pacing works well, and the tension builds very satisfactorily towards the end.

Go and see it. It's awesome.

Alison and I went to see Sin City on Friday. I've not been to see an 18 at the cinema in ages, so the adverts for online gambling and Southern Comfort surprised me a bit, but there you go.

The film was heavy duty - lots of violence, sex, violence, nudity, violence, blood, violence and violence. It was pretty violent too. In many ways it's impressive that they made a film out of it all, given the brutal, gritty nature of the original novels. They've done it though, and they've done well.

The film isn't all that deep in terms of story or character, but it does extremely well with what it's got. The stories and characters are engaging, and there's enough of what's necessary to get you engaged and close to the characters and what they're doing. I loved Mickey Rourke as the unstoppably hard Marv ("Is that the best you've got, you pansies?") on his rampage to find who killed the one woman who ever showed him any affection. The cast as a whole is very strong, with Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Bruce Willis... you name it.

The big deal with the film is the stylisation. The whole thing is in black and white with selected bits in colour to highlight things, mostly blood but also people's eyes and a couple of other things. The whole procedure leaves you with a very high contrast appearance with a few details picked out for extra emphasis, much like the comic books it's based on. It works really well, and it is like watching a full motion graphic novel.

I've come across some complaints that the movie ends up being style over substance. In many ways it's an accurate statement, but I don't think it's a bad thing. The style is so tied in with the substance that you couldn't really separate the two. The substance is that it's set in a gritty city with nasty, brutal characters committing grevious acts of revenge and violence. I'm not sure there is any other style than film noir for that something this intense. You couldn't do this sort of thing in full colour, partly because of the violence, but mostly because it would spoil the effect. The whole thing works together - you are telling comic book stories in a comic book manner.

On a slightly tangential note, I've read a site or two this morning commenting on all the terrible things that go on in this film - the parental watch type sites. I find it slightly amusing to be honest. When you're dealing with a film called Sin City, that is rated 18, I think it's a bit redundant to be counting how many times someone says "ass" and taking note of who's smoking cigarettes and drinking irresponsibly. When people are having their limbs cut off and being decapitated, there's bigger things to worry about. I think it's fair to say that people under 18 shouldn't be watching this. For that matter, a lot of people over 18 probably shouldn't watch this, but I doubt they'd want to in the first place. Anyway!

The film is very good. It's hard hitting, grim stuff and it does exactly what it says on the tin and more. The characters, plot and dialogue are extremely suitable for the genre. The photography, effects and overall look of the film are stunning. The violence is outrageous and over the top, but if you can stomach that then the film is great.

Rambling review over.

It's election day today... I'll be voting after work. I suspect Labour will win, though the Lib Dems are looking like they could make serious inroads into the opposition given the Tories' laughable chances. Anyway. I'll probably write more about it tomorrow when it's done.

Bank Holiday weekend was good. We went to visit an old friend (Sarah De Hoxar for those of you to whom it means anything) for dinner on Saturday which was nice. It was good to catch up. She's changed since I last saw her. I think her and Alison hit it off pretty well which was cool.

On Monday we went to see The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy. The film is polarising people such that they either love it or hate it. For the record, I liked it. However, the world and his wife seem to be discussing this film though, so I'll not go on about it. Instead I will discuss... the trailers.

• Batman Begins
  It's a widely accepted fact that Batman is cool. And hard. So a film about how Batman got to be cool and hard can only be a good thing. Christian Bale will be great as Batman. The film also has Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Ken Watanabe in it. The love interest is Katie Holmes. There is, as far as I can see, no way that this movie can be anything but utterly awesome.


• War Of The Worlds
  
  We only got a little teaser trailer of this... I'd forgotten it was due out. It should be pretty good. Spielberg directing, Tom Cruise starring. It'll be a manic special effects fest, which could turn out amazing if they get it right. Another one to see this summer.


• Kingdom Of Heaven
  
  Orlando Bloom stars in a film about the crusades. So... that'll be a big huge epic battle type film like Gladiator or Troy or whatever. About the only interesting thing about this film is the idiotic controversy it's stirring up. Oh no! The film features violence between Christians and Muslims! We must ban this to prevent such things in this dangerous and terrifying age! Yeah, nice one, let's just censor our history.


• Monster In Law
  
  This film stars Jennifer Lopez's Ass and The Rotting Carcass Of Jane Fonda's Movie Career. It is Meet The Parents. Oh yeah, except this time it's the wife to be and the mother-in-law having trouble, as opposed to the husband and father-in-law. Yeah, I know - original, huh? There's scenes that look like they were lifted almost verbatim from MTP, like Jane Fonda quizzing J Lo about her sex life, which is just a wee bit reminiscent of Robert De Niro hooking Ben Stiller up to the lie detector. Honestly, they've already had two films out of the Meet The Parents mould, must they make another one? Avoid.


• The Pacifier
  
  Vin Diesel could have been great. For goodness sake, Spielberg added his part in Saving Private Ryan especially for him after seeing some of his early work - that's quite high praise! Sadly, his career rather fell off the rails once he got big with The Fast And The Furious and xXx and the like, and it's been all downhill from there. This new vehicle of his is just Kindergarten Cop with Vin in Arnie's shoes and a slightly different setup. Wake me up when Hollywood does something original, OK?

So that's two good, two bad, and one I'm fairly indifferent about. Bring on Willy Wonka. That's the next big one as far as I'm concerned.

Lunchtime. Bye!

Thursday night is shopping night. A trip to Tesco for food and whatnot. It is also often DVD renting night, assuming there is something we fancy seeing and we have a bit of cash.

Last night we got Napoleon Dynamite out. I'd heard a bit about it when it was released, and that it was quite popular in a kind of underground, cult sort of way. We didn't get around to seeing it at the time, so we figured it'd be worth a shot now.

I have to say it was one of the weirdest films I have ever seen. It's about a loser guy at school in Idaho. He's got a Mexican friend who's running for class president, a weirdo dad who's got a girlfriend on the Internet, a crazy Uncle making money any way he can, and a girl who kinda fits in there somewhere. And... um... that's about it.

It has to be said that not an awful lot happens. No one dies, the world doesn't get saved, robots don't take over... next to nothing. It made me think a bit of Lost In Translation in that whole nothing happens but hey - that's real life for you sort of way. So on the one hand things are quite normal, but on the other hand everything and everyone around him is a bit weird.

The whole weird thing worked well for me - I found it very funny. The characters are quirky and peculiar and the circumstances and happenings are very amusing, but in a normal sort of way, as opposed to Hollywood's usual teen comedy with hilarious consequences! kind of way. The dialogue was very funny, but in a kind of offbeat way - it was all fairly obscure and out there. So... yeah. I thought it was hilarious. I haven't laughed so much in a long time. It was also quite an endearing film, and the characters had a lot of humanity to them. I think most people could find someone in there to relate to, as I think it's fair to say we've all felt like a loser or a fish out of water, or been surrounded by weirdos or whatever.

Anyway. It's probably not for everyone, but I think it's worth a shot if you like kinda kooky films.

Look at what I'm wearing people. You think anyone wants a roundhouse kick to the face when I'm wearing these bad boys? Forget about it!

Genius.

Right. I'm back on the Wirral again. I've had the afternoon off work so I could come and see the dentist to have my teeth polished, my X-rays from last time checked, and the weird blue thing in my palate looked at. My teeth have been polished, my X-rays show I need a feeling, and the dentist wants to refer me to an oral surgeon about the blue thing in my palate as it might be a cyst. Well, 1 out of 3 ain't bad. Hmm. More on the filling on the 1st of June, and more on the cyst as and when we get in touch with a surgeon who can X-ray my palate.

So, I've just had supper with my mum and I'm about to head back to Leicester. Another 120 miles of driving. I think my mp3 player is about to run out of batteries too, so I can't listen to my ELO albums. Curses. I got Discovery (disturbingly, the Amazon page shows I am in the company of people who buy Olivia Newton-John records... hmm) at the weekend and I'm in the process of assimilating it. It's good, but it'll probably take a bit of time. Mind you, Out Of The Blue took me a while, and I now consider it one of the best albums I've ever heard, so there you go.

Alison and I watched Vanilla Sky at the weekend. It was OK. I guess in the realm of "it was all a dream" (if you've not seen it, I've just spoilt it, but come on... you're a bit late, huh?) type films it does a fairly good job of things - it certainly goes all out in making the dream dramatic and what have you. It just feels a bit shallow after all you've watched, to find out that that's what was going on.

I finished Half Life 2 as well. It was great. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm now looking forward to upgrading some of my PC hardware so I can enjoy it in it's full glory with some nice high detail settings. This, of course, requires money. Time to get saving.

Right. Time to drive back to Leicester. See you soon.

"crazy" is "majority rules". Take germs for example.

Germs?

In the 18th century there was no such thing! Nobody'd ever imagined such a thing -- no sane person anyway. Along comes this doctor...Semmelweiss, I think. He tries to convince people... other doctors mostly...that there are these teeny tiny invisible "bad things" called germs that get into your body and make you...sick! He's trying to get doctors to wash their hands. What is this guy...crazy? Teeny tiny invisible whaddayou call 'em?..."germs"!

So cut to the 20th century! Last week in fact, right before I got dragged into this hellhole. I order a burger in this fast food joint. The waiter drops it on the floor. He picks it up, wipes it off, hands it to me...like it was all okay.

"What about the germs?" I say. He goes, "I don't believe in germs. Germs are just a plot they made up so they can sell you disinfectants and soap!"

After years of science, big bang and evolution, I think I may be becoming something of a fundamentalist Biblical creationist.

Hmmm.

Today is my birthday. I am 23. I woke up this morning to find that it had snowed. For the first time that I can remember, there has been snow on my birthday. Very strange. Alison will be cooking me steak for tea tonight, as a birthday treat, and tomorrow we are going to go to the cinema. We were going to go see Hitch, but it's not out till next week so we might go see Hotel Rwanda instead. Expect a critique of some film or other on Monday.

Talking of films, there's a new trailer for the Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy out and about on the web. You can pick it up over here. The site has it in various formats and sizes and whatnot. It looks pretty good. Interesting casting, good looking effects. There's some furore over Ford Prefect being black, but I hardly think it's worth causing a fuss over. So long as his personality fits Ford, that's fine. It's not like we knew for sure what Ford looked like in the radio shows or even in the books, so I'm not too bothered. The film is due out in June, I think, and I'll definitely be going to see that.

While I'm on trailers, there's also a Charlie And The Chocolate Factory teaser trailer, which you can pick up over here. I think it's really too early to say how this film will turn out. On the one hand it's a great story, it's got the excellent Johnny Depp in it, and it's directed by the brilliant Tim Burton. On the other hand... well, watch the trailer. It's twee in the extreme, but I think that's intentional. I'm sure the final film will be very dark and weird. I'm hoping so anyway.

Right. Back to work. See you all on Monday...