Category Archives: Movie

Rambling update

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Made it through to Friday, pretty tired today generally.  Lovely weather outside, bright sunshine, crisp.  Bubbles is out there somewhere baking herself in what are probably the last few days of warm enough sunshine.  She’s got conjunctivitis the poor bugger.  We’ve got some ointment to put on twice a day, she’s been pretty good about it despite the whinging.

Watched Fright Night last night after recording it on Sky+.  Classic movie, how on earth did we find those special effects ((special in the loose sense)) scary?  Not even sure why it’s an 18, I guess some of the more fleshy scenes are the cause of that.  Evan watching stuff like that the experienced is improved with the surround sound, we’re still really pleased with it.

I got sick of paying for a Sky Movies subscription and not watching anything.  It’s because we don’t sit in front of the TV these days unless we’re doing so to watch something we recorded, so I went through the entire week ahead and set 4 movies to record (Clerks II, Fright Night, Deja Vu, American Gangster) and I’m going to try and do that every few days and record anything I’ve not seen or not seen for a while.  Pan’s Labyrinth was on a week or so ago too, so recorded that and not watched it yet, and Hairspray was on Sky Anytime so I’ve ‘recorded’ that for Grete.

Still pleased with the 5.7% HbA1c result.  Found this nice little chart in case you wanted to know more about the test,

HbA1c
Normal/abnormal
Average blood glucose
4-6.5% Normal for those without diabetes 3-8mmol/L
6.5-7.5% Target range for those with diabetes 8-10mmol/L
8-9.5% High 11-14mmol/L
Greater than 9.5% Very high 15 and above

I bought a Marathon bar ((yes, yes I know, but I like living in the 80’s)) on Wednesday to eat after I got the results, either as a celebration or a commiseration depending on how the results went.  Celebration was a good option.  I never ate a lot of chocolate or sweet stuff before being diagnosed, but I did enjoy a Snickers bar every now and then.  Almost amusingly, they don’t have a totally terrible effect on my blood sugar because of the high fat content, but as you can imagine I’ve had about three since I was diagnosed.

Roleplaying tonight, 4th edition D&D, first time we’ve played (rolled characters up last week), so should be interesting.  Always takes a while to get ‘into’ any campaign, never mind one with a new ruleset so I’m expecting tonight to be pretty slow.

My good friend Simes blogged about some TV he’s been watching.  It certainly feels like the TV schedule has picked up, mostly stuffed with American TV.  The Fringe pilot was cool, the Burn Notice pilot was also interesting and we’ll be watching that to see where it goes.  We’ve got quite a wait for the new series of Criminal Minds sadly, but Bones is back on and is as good as ever (I think).

And I’ll leave you with this,

And I think Pirates would kick both their asses.

Clerks II

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This is a deeply religious movie with strong moral overtones and an solid core of existential theory running through it.  Our heroes must come to terms with their place in the world and learn how to stretch their own minds to release their inner sanctity.  Once accomplished, only then will they realise the true nature of the universe and achieve everlasting happiness.

Or, it’s a rather amusing comedy from Kevin Smith about a couple of guys pushing burgers who discover friendship is stronger than a small fire, and that you should look at that which you take for granted for the love you so dearly need.

Funny, light-hearted, good natured and surreal in a Blues Brothers way, Clerks II was worth watching and has given me an appetite to check out Mr Smith’s other films.

Edit: I know right, you’re thinking omfg how can he NOT have seen any Kevin Smith movies? I know, so sue me.  I’m fixing that right now, it was like, I knew they were there, but I just felt, I dunno, ok? right? is that clear?

Empire’s top 500 movies of all time

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Empire magazine (online) has published a 500 greatest movies of all time, as voted on by 10,000 readers, 150 random hollywood folk and 50 film critics.

The format is a bit annoying (it means you have to click through lots of pages to see everything), but it makes for an interesting top 500.

You can probably guess #1 without much effort, but there was some surprises in the list (although with 500 movies, that’s a lot of variation in opinion and not much between them).

Lethal Weapon 5

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So it looks like Lethal Weapon 5 may soon be in production.  Little bits of news and rumour here and here.

Oh and it looks like the rumours of a Blade Runner 2 weren’t quite as accurate as feared.  Which is good, because I truly can’t imagine a follow-up movie being any good.  I guess if they did an Alien -> Aliens kind of thing where the second one was set in the same world but had a totally different slant it might be worthwhile.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

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I wonder sometimes why I write reviews for movies which are, all things considered, pretty old ((let’s be honest, I wonder sometimes why I bother writing anything, but there you go )).  However, I guess I do it because I enjoy writing movie reviews.  Before watching Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (LS&TSB) I’d seen maybe one 5 minute section I caught accidentally one day flicking through the channels, and I’d never seen a Guy Ritchie movie.

LS&TSB is good.  It’s clever, witty, well paced and very stylish.  I like that style, I enjoy the little voice over narration and the slow motion / paused motion shots.  I liked the characters and I really enjoyed some of the performances.  The dialog felt reasonably natural although it was obviously styalised to fit with the theme.  The plot was good and interesting and although I saw the little twists coming, they were so well delivered it didn’t really matter.  I really don’t normally enjoy a lot of different characters in a film, but I managed to hold it together during LS&TSB thanks to the actors and the script.

Overall, watching it was a really good experience, and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s not seen it.  If you’re not British, you may struggle with some of the accents and the slang, but hey, it’s your turn to cope for a change (or was in 1998).

I am Legend(arily Cynical)

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Oh dear,

Yet Warner Bros. has $584,151,304 reasons to bring Neville back for another I Am Legend, and today they announced plans to do just that, with Smith, director Francis Lawrence, and producer, Akiva Goldsman all returning. How so? Are you ready to say the magic word?

Prequel.

Yes, they’re making a prequel to the movie that butchered the book ((except you know how these things work, and it may never happen, all disclaimers apply, standard caveats, etc.))

Also, looks like it might be a blogful day with 3 posts already and it’s not even 9am yet.  Sorry.

Avast!

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There’s a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie ‘in the works’.  Johnny Depp is signed up (he’s going to be busy), but that’s all I can find so far (although it’s early, and I’m not looking very hard).

Depp is also going to turn up as The Lone Ranger (Jerry Bruckheimer) and the Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland – Tim Burton).

edit: Aha, more detail here.

Walt Disney Studios held a massive event today at the Kodak Theatre in LA, during which the Studios’ chairman, Dick Cook, made a string of announcements about their upcoming movies over the next few years.

And Johnny Depp was at the heart of it all.

and

That Depp will return as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates Of The Caribbean 4.
• That he will star as The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s next movie, Alice In Wonderland.
• Neither of those were huge surprises, but the next one was. Boy, was it.

For Depp has signed on to star as Tonto in a movie version of The Lone Ranger, which will be produced by Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Speakers II

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Both the rear speakers are attached to the stands (these ones btw) and they don’t look too bad. The speakers are quite big and the stands lean into the room because the carpet is higher at the skirting board, but otherwise I’m quite pleased. They are obvious, but not in the way they have been for the past couple of weeks (i.e. sitting on the arm of the sofa and the windowsill) and the sound they emit is definitely behind our heads, which is an improvement.

Now we need to find a fun movie to watch with lots of 5.1 ‘special effects’ that come in from the back.

Maybe Aliens.

The Hobbit

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I re-read the Hobbit recently, I felt it was my duty since the film is nearing the start of full production. It was a bit of a culture shock. It’s a long time since I read the book, and although I dimly remembered it being more childish (not in a bad way) than Lord of the Rings, I had completely forgotten the entirely different style.

The Hobbit is fast paced and told in a story-telling 3rd person view. The narrator knows what is going on and also how things are going to end. It’s told from Bilbo’s point of view and is essentially as if someone were reading Biblo’s account of the event, as well as having access to what was going on in the world around it.

What amazed me initially is the amount of ground Biblo, Gandalf and the dwarves cover in the first few pages of their expedition. Before we know it they’re in Rivendell and setting out beyond it. Compared to the journey in the Lord of the Rings they’re travelling at light speed. Obviously there are both physical and story-based reasons for the speed in Lord of the Rings, but it still caught me off-guard in The Hobbit.

Anyway, it’s a really enjoyable book, story and tale and I recommend everyone re-reads it. It’s certainly reminded me about a lot of stuff I had forgotten was in the tale (like Beorne) and left me feeling like there’s more to make a movie with than I remembered first time around.

Dog Soldiers

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After enjoying Doomsday last night, we watched Dog Soldiers today. It’s been out a while so I’m just going to write a short little review. It’s gory, it’s a bit scary at the start, and it’s got some jumps. But it’s got a great thread of British humour all the way through it, and the individual scenes are all worthwhile.

There are some elements of the story that didn’t quite gel, but overall the story works really well. I loved the characters, I loved the Britishness and even though it’s not my kind of movie normally, I really enjoyed watching it a second time even though I knew what was coming.

If you’re looking for something to get your adrenaline going and make you laugh at the same time, you should get Dog Soldiers and turn off the lights.