Author Archives: tony

Movie Memories: True Lies

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In August 1994 I went to see True Lies at the cinema.  I think I was living in Rotherham at the time, which means I would have seen it with Jack, Phil and Chris.  However, it’s also possible I had just moved to Teesside in which case it may have been Charles and Ness.  I changed jobs in August of that year but I can’t remember when.  I have a very strong feeling it was Rotherham, in the multi-screen complex in the Meadowhall Shopping Centre.  Note: frankly, I can’t remember who I went to see it with, for which I am eternally ashamed, in my defence I claim complete and utter memory crappyness.  I really did like you, and I enjoyed your company, whoever you were.  I swear.

If you’ve seen the movie, you know it almost appears to be a serious spy movie at the start, and then as it progresses it becomes clear it’s not as it seems, and the comedy begins to ramp up.  It remains an action flick, but definitely changes in in tone.  Well, we were happily watching True Lies, and had just gotten to the part where Harry starts chasing a bad guy with Harry being on horseback, and chasing him into a hotel of some kind.

At that point, the fire alarms went off (we weren’t sure what it was at first) and we had to evacuate.  We were a bit incredulous, but we did as we were asked.  The cinema gave us replacement tickets, and we went back at a later date and watched the movie again.  The weird thing was, having seen the first bit, the tone of the movie changes almost at the flick of a switch moments after the scene we saw before we left.  Up until then it had been at least semi-serious, but the scene we didn’t see was Harry attempting to jump across from the roof of one building to another on his horse, and the horse baulking with a silly face.

Totally comic moment.

It just sticks in my mind because the interruption of a few days meant we all went back expecting the serious tone to continue and were jarred when it didn’t.  My lasting memory of that movie is expecting fire alarms to go off whenever Harry’s horse goes into the cinema.  The more I think about this film the more I have an image of going up some narrow escalators surrounded by a food court of some kind, so I’m growing increasingly convinced it was Meadowhall shopping centre.

I really enjoy the movie, have seen it a bunch of times now on video and DVD, and although some parts make me cringe in general I think it’s a pretty solid action comedy worth your time.  Just don’t smoke.

2009 Battle of the Robots

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So, in 2009 we have Transformers 2 and Terminator Salvation.  Both are going to be huge whichever way you paint it, even if they suck.  Both are going to contain people fighting robots and probably robots fighting robots.  Both are going to be special effects extravaganzas.  Which one will win?

Who knows.  My advice is watch them both for what they are.  When I watch Terminator Salvation I won’t be going to watch the continuation of the Terminator story, I’ll just be going to watch huge onscreen explosions, people being crushed by robots, people blowing robots up in amusing ways and adrenaline pumping robot destruction action.  I don’t think it’s wise to go along expecting any serious continuation of the Terminator story, that path leads to dissapointment I feel.

But I’m looking forward to see Bale running around being manly and destroying robots.  Check out the latest trailer over here.

And Transformers 2 (Revenge of the Fallen)?  Well, the first one was silly and inconsistent and flawed and amazing, so I don’t expect anything different in the second.  There’ll be sillyness (these were toys after all) and there’ll be inconsistencies (because this isn’t trying to win Oscars for best screenplay) and there’ll be action and hot trailer trash chicks and guns and robots and explosions and more guns and tanks and planes and oh my.

Should be a good year.  Best Man vs Machine action since The Matrix Revolutions.  Maybe.

I, Robot

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A lot of people didn’t like I, Robot but personally I thought this was a decent sci-fi action thriller with some nice twists and some excellent scenes, certainly better than average with much of the uplift coming from Smith.

Tree Time

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Grete sorted out tree out today.  It’s only small (since our house is small) but it’s bright (fibre-optic) and shiny and festive.  Here’s a few (bad) photo’s.

Before

During

And after

And two cool shots while Grete was turning the tree to put the beads underneath.

Constantine

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Keanu does well in a role that could have been created for him, and despite the changes from the source material Constantine is a good interpretation of the comic book with some worthwhile scenes and some surprising twists.