No, I'm not returning to blog here, I'm letting those few people who followed me that I'm starting to blog somewhere else. Here is the new one that I just started:
http://cardboardcutoutbadguy.tumblr.com/
Happy 2014, see you there.
Thursday, 2 January 2014
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
The End... Or Is It?
(Note, this part of the post salvaged from one I didn't finish back on the 17th November.)
Well, at about 2am this morning, I concluded Episode 13 of Season 5 of Resistance, my post-apocalyptic super-hero script. That means that in the two years I've been tapping away at this project, I've done 65 episodes, each one 42 pages long. That, by most people's standards, is a hell of a lot of writing.
See, thing is, is that when some friends of mine read over the first few episodes, they pointed out a few typos and mistakes that I didn't catch onto at first. Did I go back and change them? No, not really. Haven't done so unless I was in the middle of the episode and realised back then.
So that means that all 65 of those episodes were first drafts. I just did a first draft for five seasons of a tv show. And probably quite an expensive first draft, looking at the special effects suggestions that I made. Not that I expect anyone will ever see most of them.
(This part of the post now written on 4th December)
So yeah, I've gone back and looked at some of those earlier Resistance scripts from two years ago. Man, do they need a second draft. That aside however, I was amazed at how the characters had developed over the years and seasons. Now, I'm not one for much characterisation when writing, I tend to just lay it all down and see where it goes, with characters acting themselves really, tapping into that part of my brain where my actual concious thought dare not to tred.
And you know what? It works, it really does. Maelstrom has the most pronounced change throughout the story, mainly towards the end, while Stonewall has kinda the inverse of hers. Nathan was always my favourite character, how he went from being quite a dick to being a confusion spouting idiot savant. Rush and Regiment had the least changes going on for them. In Rush's case it's clear I don't really get teenage girls, while for Regiment, well he was perfect from the start.
Do I like it? Yeah. Will I do more? Maybe. Will anyone ever read all of these? Dunno, how patient are they?
GOOD COP
(from the BBC)
When the first episode of Good Cop hit the iPlayer I didn't really bother with it, I trust the acting capabilities of Warren Brown, but what with him being the sidekick in Luther, was hoping not to see him in anymore police drama unless it was either a spin off of Luther or more Luther. Because man, do we need more Luther in our lives.
The premise was fantastic, a bad day for a beat cop turns worse when his best friend is murdered by a group of thugs. He decides to take matters into his own hands
Well, at about 2am this morning, I concluded Episode 13 of Season 5 of Resistance, my post-apocalyptic super-hero script. That means that in the two years I've been tapping away at this project, I've done 65 episodes, each one 42 pages long. That, by most people's standards, is a hell of a lot of writing.
See, thing is, is that when some friends of mine read over the first few episodes, they pointed out a few typos and mistakes that I didn't catch onto at first. Did I go back and change them? No, not really. Haven't done so unless I was in the middle of the episode and realised back then.
So that means that all 65 of those episodes were first drafts. I just did a first draft for five seasons of a tv show. And probably quite an expensive first draft, looking at the special effects suggestions that I made. Not that I expect anyone will ever see most of them.
(This part of the post now written on 4th December)
So yeah, I've gone back and looked at some of those earlier Resistance scripts from two years ago. Man, do they need a second draft. That aside however, I was amazed at how the characters had developed over the years and seasons. Now, I'm not one for much characterisation when writing, I tend to just lay it all down and see where it goes, with characters acting themselves really, tapping into that part of my brain where my actual concious thought dare not to tred.
And you know what? It works, it really does. Maelstrom has the most pronounced change throughout the story, mainly towards the end, while Stonewall has kinda the inverse of hers. Nathan was always my favourite character, how he went from being quite a dick to being a confusion spouting idiot savant. Rush and Regiment had the least changes going on for them. In Rush's case it's clear I don't really get teenage girls, while for Regiment, well he was perfect from the start.
Do I like it? Yeah. Will I do more? Maybe. Will anyone ever read all of these? Dunno, how patient are they?
GOOD COP
(from the BBC)
When the first episode of Good Cop hit the iPlayer I didn't really bother with it, I trust the acting capabilities of Warren Brown, but what with him being the sidekick in Luther, was hoping not to see him in anymore police drama unless it was either a spin off of Luther or more Luther. Because man, do we need more Luther in our lives.
The premise was fantastic, a bad day for a beat cop turns worse when his best friend is murdered by a group of thugs. He decides to take matters into his own hands
Saturday, 1 December 2012
Like You Did In Goa!
So, Hindu wedding time! For me this happened back on the last weekend of August, the one that had a Bank Holiday Monday on the end of it. Now, my cousin Clare (like me, pale as the driven snow) has married a Hindu bloke, Aron. Aron's a great laugh and has been 'with' the family for a while now, first met him a few years ago and nobody was surprised when the wedding got announced, mostly they were thinking 'about time too'.
So finally it's time for them to get married and we're told that there's two ceremonies, one on the sunday and one on bank holiday monday. The first one is a Hindu ceremony while the second one is a White Wedding (and it's called that because the colour of the dress, not because I'm as racist as I might sound in the next few paragraphs, that's a fun warning to give). So we set off to Wolverhampton at 7:30 in the morning.
My parents were here for it, my brother had just finished work (so he'd been up for about 24 hours by the end of it) and we get to the funtion hall in Wolverhampton. My mum finds all the bridesmaids in the ladies' loo trying to put saari's on with the air od youtube on their iphones and a few cousins and uncles of mine are standing around, so we join them.
At this point, it should be noted that we were the odd ones out in skin tone, there may as well have been a sign hanging over our heads that read 'confused white people'. Then people start filing out of the hall and we all think 'do we follow them?'. So being good Brits, we do exactly that, walk out the door, fifty feet down the road and then turn a corner. When we get there, we see the groom being hoisted onto a horse.
A horse.
Now quite frankly, any wedding that I go to from now on that does not include a horse? I shall be disappointed. I shall inform the wedded couple that their wedding featured no horses and I shall be miffed for the whole day. Getting back to saturday morning however, we then follow the groom as he rides this horse round the corner, back the fifty feet we just strolled and then gets off it again. While we're all scratching out heads, my cousin Claire arrives and she looks absolutely divine in this red and gold traditional Hindu dress and headgarb that they have her in. It looked awkward to move in, but it certainly caught all eyes.
She is walked up to the tent by her entire family (and there were a few of us there) and then the ceremony starts. We actually had no idea that the ceremony had started, because the parents, couple and priest are all in a tent and the rest of us don't matter. All the other guests (who were used to this) were all having samosas, texting and chatting away. Never seen anything like it. We were told that this was an abridged ceremony, lasting only an hour and a half, unlike the three-day ones that you can get. Also, no sense of personal space, people were just going up and leaning in to this tent, taking photos and eating all those samosas.
When this is drawn to a close, the group all moves over to the dance floor and tables and the food is brought round, then first of our Punjabi Disco's is kicked off and then there's four or so hours of dancing. Oh yes, the Hindi Beats went on for long after we left, we were there for a good few of those hours with our family, then my brother really needed some sleep, so we headed back. He got to get a few hours before he had work again that night. In the meantime, my parents and I packed up our stuff and headed out to Chalfont the next day for Wedding-stage 2.
We had a big family barbecue, then checked into the hotel where the wedding was taking place. We gave Aron the room that dad had booked for my brother (because he was still working). The next morning my brother drives up to Chalfont straight from work and does the second of his megalithic days (think this one was 31 hours or so) and we go to our second wedding ceremony (we understood this one), our second wedding meal (sadly, no samosas) and our second Punjabi Disco. In between were some moving speeches, some good family moments and a fair amount of cake. My uncle's brass band played some Glenn Miller classics before the disco though, and there was some serious dancing going on there, my brother is a smooth operator with the ladies when the trumpets get going. Then as the disco started, some dude with a thick Indian accent tells me that I must 'Bust a move! I saw you on Saturday! Bust that move! Like you did in Goa!'
I have never been to Goa, but I can certainly bust a move with the best of them.
By 1am, I'd carried my brother to bed and was amongst the last standing, me and one of the bridesmaid's boyfriends helped carry Aron back to his room, while Claire watched and chortled. Got to wonder why she only chose bridesmaids who had boyfriends or were related to me though, no pulling there.
I remember when we were kids and Claire was this little bratty girl who always wanted to get her way and seemed annoyingly smarter than me. Well, she's still smarter than me, but she's grown out of the rest. I really do wish her, Aron and their burgeoning family business well.
It was an epic weekend.
LAWLESS.
Wasn't expecting to see this movie and it didn't go down well with Corn Exchange audiances. Who did it go down well with? Me, that's who. This was a great film, and I normally can't stand Shia LeTwatface, this was a geat film for him and an even better one for Tom Hardy (who said about eight words and managed to have the presence of particularly angry Titan throughout). Hats off also to Jason Clarke and Guy Pearce for their truly great performances.
This was a brutal, bloody film with a great story and some quality grit to it. It was halfway between a Western and a Gangster film and had all that I wanted from both. While it was based on a book by the descendant of Shia's character, it didn't seem biased towards these violent thugs, but they were endearing characters who knew what they'd gotten themselves into. The personal legend of Forrest being unable to die was a real clincher in how vital he was to the story.
I'd heartily recommend this film to anyone who has a strong enough stomach for it.
Next up: GOOD COP (from the BBC)
So finally it's time for them to get married and we're told that there's two ceremonies, one on the sunday and one on bank holiday monday. The first one is a Hindu ceremony while the second one is a White Wedding (and it's called that because the colour of the dress, not because I'm as racist as I might sound in the next few paragraphs, that's a fun warning to give). So we set off to Wolverhampton at 7:30 in the morning.
My parents were here for it, my brother had just finished work (so he'd been up for about 24 hours by the end of it) and we get to the funtion hall in Wolverhampton. My mum finds all the bridesmaids in the ladies' loo trying to put saari's on with the air od youtube on their iphones and a few cousins and uncles of mine are standing around, so we join them.
At this point, it should be noted that we were the odd ones out in skin tone, there may as well have been a sign hanging over our heads that read 'confused white people'. Then people start filing out of the hall and we all think 'do we follow them?'. So being good Brits, we do exactly that, walk out the door, fifty feet down the road and then turn a corner. When we get there, we see the groom being hoisted onto a horse.
A horse.
Now quite frankly, any wedding that I go to from now on that does not include a horse? I shall be disappointed. I shall inform the wedded couple that their wedding featured no horses and I shall be miffed for the whole day. Getting back to saturday morning however, we then follow the groom as he rides this horse round the corner, back the fifty feet we just strolled and then gets off it again. While we're all scratching out heads, my cousin Claire arrives and she looks absolutely divine in this red and gold traditional Hindu dress and headgarb that they have her in. It looked awkward to move in, but it certainly caught all eyes.
She is walked up to the tent by her entire family (and there were a few of us there) and then the ceremony starts. We actually had no idea that the ceremony had started, because the parents, couple and priest are all in a tent and the rest of us don't matter. All the other guests (who were used to this) were all having samosas, texting and chatting away. Never seen anything like it. We were told that this was an abridged ceremony, lasting only an hour and a half, unlike the three-day ones that you can get. Also, no sense of personal space, people were just going up and leaning in to this tent, taking photos and eating all those samosas.
When this is drawn to a close, the group all moves over to the dance floor and tables and the food is brought round, then first of our Punjabi Disco's is kicked off and then there's four or so hours of dancing. Oh yes, the Hindi Beats went on for long after we left, we were there for a good few of those hours with our family, then my brother really needed some sleep, so we headed back. He got to get a few hours before he had work again that night. In the meantime, my parents and I packed up our stuff and headed out to Chalfont the next day for Wedding-stage 2.
We had a big family barbecue, then checked into the hotel where the wedding was taking place. We gave Aron the room that dad had booked for my brother (because he was still working). The next morning my brother drives up to Chalfont straight from work and does the second of his megalithic days (think this one was 31 hours or so) and we go to our second wedding ceremony (we understood this one), our second wedding meal (sadly, no samosas) and our second Punjabi Disco. In between were some moving speeches, some good family moments and a fair amount of cake. My uncle's brass band played some Glenn Miller classics before the disco though, and there was some serious dancing going on there, my brother is a smooth operator with the ladies when the trumpets get going. Then as the disco started, some dude with a thick Indian accent tells me that I must 'Bust a move! I saw you on Saturday! Bust that move! Like you did in Goa!'
I have never been to Goa, but I can certainly bust a move with the best of them.
By 1am, I'd carried my brother to bed and was amongst the last standing, me and one of the bridesmaid's boyfriends helped carry Aron back to his room, while Claire watched and chortled. Got to wonder why she only chose bridesmaids who had boyfriends or were related to me though, no pulling there.
I remember when we were kids and Claire was this little bratty girl who always wanted to get her way and seemed annoyingly smarter than me. Well, she's still smarter than me, but she's grown out of the rest. I really do wish her, Aron and their burgeoning family business well.
It was an epic weekend.
LAWLESS.
Wasn't expecting to see this movie and it didn't go down well with Corn Exchange audiances. Who did it go down well with? Me, that's who. This was a great film, and I normally can't stand Shia LeTwatface, this was a geat film for him and an even better one for Tom Hardy (who said about eight words and managed to have the presence of particularly angry Titan throughout). Hats off also to Jason Clarke and Guy Pearce for their truly great performances.
This was a brutal, bloody film with a great story and some quality grit to it. It was halfway between a Western and a Gangster film and had all that I wanted from both. While it was based on a book by the descendant of Shia's character, it didn't seem biased towards these violent thugs, but they were endearing characters who knew what they'd gotten themselves into. The personal legend of Forrest being unable to die was a real clincher in how vital he was to the story.
I'd heartily recommend this film to anyone who has a strong enough stomach for it.
Next up: GOOD COP (from the BBC)
Monday, 19 November 2012
Felt The Need
To write a blog post. I've been up for about 24 hours now, in order to reset my lousy sleeping pattern. I'm not all that tired yet so I should be good until about 10pm or so. What have I done with those hours? Worked for a few, me and my brother got take out and then watched movies, then we played Dungeons and Dragons for about six and a half hours, listened to some serious Linkin' Park and went to Tesco to buy Cherry Coke, copious amounts of pizza, crisps and some of those Southern Fried Chicken sticks I've taken a liking too. Then I spent the last eight hours on my sofa, in my pyjamas playing Xbox games. It's a monday.
I love being an adult sometimes.
ANNA KARENINA
For those of you expecting another cop-out costume drama from the inseperable team of Joe Wright and Keira Knightly... you're only half right. It's got all the trappings for being a stodgy look at pretty frocks and overpaid actors... but the theatrical motif that the film is presented in is head-scratchingly beautiful, the script is tight (as tight as a script adapted from one of the most sprawling Russian epics ever written can be) and the acting is pretty good all round.
I really wasn't expecting to like this film, it's not my normal cup of tea. I genuinely felt like it knew that it lacked originality in some areas, so it had to make up for it in others, which it managed to do with the whole 'we're in a theatre but not really' scene setting. I recommend it, but go into it knowing that it's a long old haul and you may need to take notes on who knows who and why are there two main storylines that only have the slightest bit of interaction... what's that? Tolstoy was an arse? Yep, sounds about right.
Good to see Ruth Wilson in work and Jude Law gives one of my favourite of his performances in this piece, and I don't say that lightly.
Next up: LAWLESS
I love being an adult sometimes.
ANNA KARENINA
For those of you expecting another cop-out costume drama from the inseperable team of Joe Wright and Keira Knightly... you're only half right. It's got all the trappings for being a stodgy look at pretty frocks and overpaid actors... but the theatrical motif that the film is presented in is head-scratchingly beautiful, the script is tight (as tight as a script adapted from one of the most sprawling Russian epics ever written can be) and the acting is pretty good all round.
I really wasn't expecting to like this film, it's not my normal cup of tea. I genuinely felt like it knew that it lacked originality in some areas, so it had to make up for it in others, which it managed to do with the whole 'we're in a theatre but not really' scene setting. I recommend it, but go into it knowing that it's a long old haul and you may need to take notes on who knows who and why are there two main storylines that only have the slightest bit of interaction... what's that? Tolstoy was an arse? Yep, sounds about right.
Good to see Ruth Wilson in work and Jude Law gives one of my favourite of his performances in this piece, and I don't say that lightly.
Next up: LAWLESS
Saturday, 10 November 2012
He Ain't Heavy...
So my brother just moved out, he's been living with me for the best part of seven months. We swapped as to who got the bedroom and who got the living room a fw times, but mostly it was him upstairs and me downstairs. He works as a night porter for a hotel just outside of town, so that involves a great deal of sitting around, watching dvds, not doing much work and being paid more than I do for it. Damn him.
It's been good having him around, there's always someone to talk to about gaming, he does more housework than me, Kerry and Naomi combined and he brought his TV with him, which will be leaving soon. I didn't want to kick him out, really, but I'd already signed a pact with a panto actress and she's moving her stuff in right now. There is some hoovering going on upstairs... thought Jon said he'd hoovered before he left...
Anyway, means my house will be slightly less gamer tastic, but at least the money situation will improve, what with all the shelling out I've had to do on behalf of my two actual flatmates, they ain't seeing none of Amy's rent cash.
Haven't done much blogging lately, have I? Do wonder if I've lost a passion for it. Got films to review out the arse, but I'm not that fussed anymore. I'll struggle on through a few more, see how I feel. Next one I'm definately talking about that Hindu wedding, I suspect that'll be a long one. As for other stuff... yeah, got no news really, was gutted that I couldn't go up to Manchester for Will's birthday, but that's about it.
DREDD 3D
"I am! The Law!" was the line that Stallone used to sum up the character of Judge Dredd, the brutal, uncompromising, facist who shoots people in a dystopian mega-future. And while I still look back and enjoy Stallone's Judge Dredd movie, it was more really a Stallone film with flying bikes, rather than an actual Judge Dredd movie. I should probably say that while I sound like I'm defending the 2000AD comic strip that it's all based off, I've never actually read any of it.
However, the one thing that everyone knows about Judge Dredd is that he never takes his helmet off. Stallone took his off inside of five minutes and it stayed off. Now Urban? Karl Urban kept his on the entire film and it was AWEsome. The plot for this film is effectively simple. New drug being peddled by violent psychopaths. Dredd goes to arrest violent psychopaths. Violent psychopaths lock building, then try to kill Dredd. Dredd do the shooting thing. Lots of the shooting thing.
Alex Garland, the writer of this new and improved Dredd, hit it on the head when he said that the problem with Dredd is that the main character has character development in the same way that continents have drift. Technically it happens, but realistically we don't see it. Having a sidekick, in this case the psychic Anderson, allows for Dredd to be himself and Anderson to do all the developing and so on. It works, it really, really works. This is a great movie with some absolutely beautiful violence.
I highly recommend it, just for the action scenes if nothing else, but it's definately one to check out.
Next up: Anna Karenina
It's been good having him around, there's always someone to talk to about gaming, he does more housework than me, Kerry and Naomi combined and he brought his TV with him, which will be leaving soon. I didn't want to kick him out, really, but I'd already signed a pact with a panto actress and she's moving her stuff in right now. There is some hoovering going on upstairs... thought Jon said he'd hoovered before he left...
Anyway, means my house will be slightly less gamer tastic, but at least the money situation will improve, what with all the shelling out I've had to do on behalf of my two actual flatmates, they ain't seeing none of Amy's rent cash.
Haven't done much blogging lately, have I? Do wonder if I've lost a passion for it. Got films to review out the arse, but I'm not that fussed anymore. I'll struggle on through a few more, see how I feel. Next one I'm definately talking about that Hindu wedding, I suspect that'll be a long one. As for other stuff... yeah, got no news really, was gutted that I couldn't go up to Manchester for Will's birthday, but that's about it.
DREDD 3D
"I am! The Law!" was the line that Stallone used to sum up the character of Judge Dredd, the brutal, uncompromising, facist who shoots people in a dystopian mega-future. And while I still look back and enjoy Stallone's Judge Dredd movie, it was more really a Stallone film with flying bikes, rather than an actual Judge Dredd movie. I should probably say that while I sound like I'm defending the 2000AD comic strip that it's all based off, I've never actually read any of it.
However, the one thing that everyone knows about Judge Dredd is that he never takes his helmet off. Stallone took his off inside of five minutes and it stayed off. Now Urban? Karl Urban kept his on the entire film and it was AWEsome. The plot for this film is effectively simple. New drug being peddled by violent psychopaths. Dredd goes to arrest violent psychopaths. Violent psychopaths lock building, then try to kill Dredd. Dredd do the shooting thing. Lots of the shooting thing.
Alex Garland, the writer of this new and improved Dredd, hit it on the head when he said that the problem with Dredd is that the main character has character development in the same way that continents have drift. Technically it happens, but realistically we don't see it. Having a sidekick, in this case the psychic Anderson, allows for Dredd to be himself and Anderson to do all the developing and so on. It works, it really, really works. This is a great movie with some absolutely beautiful violence.
I highly recommend it, just for the action scenes if nothing else, but it's definately one to check out.
Next up: Anna Karenina
Saturday, 20 October 2012
Making Up Lost Time
So actually a fair few things have been going on for me in the last few months, I just hadn't been around to report on them in this vast online forum that hundreds of people read. Oh wait, about five people read, sorry, my mistake. So I should either talk about the zombie hunting some more, or the Hindu wedding I went to a few weeks ago, or the new business I'm trying to set up. I could talk about how my gaming group is getting on and there's more DVD's that I've got that need a four line review.
I could talk about how my beloved tennants in Southampton have made me do a massive facepalm, but that might be pusing the boundries. I've also had some massive trouble concerning this sodding flat I'm living in, so I'll get round to that at some point. To be honest, I'm not sure where to start, so I'll start next time. There's changes afoot at Rios, and I just want to shout out my kinsman, Wiggy, who's been a staple in front of the grill there for five and a half years, he's moving on to Reading.
Gonna be weird working there on a friday and saturday night without him. Probably a bit less stressful, 'cause he does tend to make things that bit more stressful, but then he is a chef, and that's just what they do. He's a good bloke and he deserves this fresh new start to go well. With him gone and the new girl being an unknown quality (as in, it's unknown if she made it through her first week at the job), I'll be doing more hours and at more responsibility than before. We'll see how that goes.
See you, buddy.
BRAVE
While I do immensely enjoy this film, it's not the best that Pixar have ever produced. In my personal opinion, that's still WALL-E, but this is an achievement in itself for Pixar, being the first time they've tried a film with a female protagonist. It's an interesting one, gender politics in film. On the one hand, there's actresses who complain that there aren't enough powerful female roles available (*cough* Heigl *cough*), but on the other there aren't as many female writers out there.
The correlation seems obvious to me, men write men best, women write women best. Unless your surname is Whedon, in which case, do as you will.
However, kinda strayed off topic here, so. Brave. Clearly divided between it's two director/writers, it seems very much a film of two halves.
While the story seemed to be going in one direction, what with the whole clans gathering and highland games and that, it took a very different turn with the witch and the curse and then everyone was turning into bears... well, it's good fun and the animation is some of the best Pixar has ever produced, but there was some further refinement of the script that should have been done, but really wasn't. It's still a perfectly good film, very heartwarming, very well animated and very entertaining. I'm not going to say that it's a 'must see', but it's worth it.
Also, that chick's hair? Unbelievable when you look back at what they were boasting about Final Fantasy: Spirits Within, eh? And what Scottish movie wouldn't be complete without a bit of Billy Connolly as her dad?
Next up: DREDD 3D
I could talk about how my beloved tennants in Southampton have made me do a massive facepalm, but that might be pusing the boundries. I've also had some massive trouble concerning this sodding flat I'm living in, so I'll get round to that at some point. To be honest, I'm not sure where to start, so I'll start next time. There's changes afoot at Rios, and I just want to shout out my kinsman, Wiggy, who's been a staple in front of the grill there for five and a half years, he's moving on to Reading.
Gonna be weird working there on a friday and saturday night without him. Probably a bit less stressful, 'cause he does tend to make things that bit more stressful, but then he is a chef, and that's just what they do. He's a good bloke and he deserves this fresh new start to go well. With him gone and the new girl being an unknown quality (as in, it's unknown if she made it through her first week at the job), I'll be doing more hours and at more responsibility than before. We'll see how that goes.
See you, buddy.
BRAVE
While I do immensely enjoy this film, it's not the best that Pixar have ever produced. In my personal opinion, that's still WALL-E, but this is an achievement in itself for Pixar, being the first time they've tried a film with a female protagonist. It's an interesting one, gender politics in film. On the one hand, there's actresses who complain that there aren't enough powerful female roles available (*cough* Heigl *cough*), but on the other there aren't as many female writers out there.
The correlation seems obvious to me, men write men best, women write women best. Unless your surname is Whedon, in which case, do as you will.
However, kinda strayed off topic here, so. Brave. Clearly divided between it's two director/writers, it seems very much a film of two halves.
While the story seemed to be going in one direction, what with the whole clans gathering and highland games and that, it took a very different turn with the witch and the curse and then everyone was turning into bears... well, it's good fun and the animation is some of the best Pixar has ever produced, but there was some further refinement of the script that should have been done, but really wasn't. It's still a perfectly good film, very heartwarming, very well animated and very entertaining. I'm not going to say that it's a 'must see', but it's worth it.
Also, that chick's hair? Unbelievable when you look back at what they were boasting about Final Fantasy: Spirits Within, eh? And what Scottish movie wouldn't be complete without a bit of Billy Connolly as her dad?
Next up: DREDD 3D
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
That's where I left my Blog...
Huh, so... miss me? I decided that I really had neglected my blog for faaaar toooo looooonnngggg and that I should attempt to get back into the habit. Not entirely sure why I let it slip this time, but it's not the first time I've done that and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last, either.
So there's a whole bunch of things that have happened to me over the last few months that I should probably talk about, but I'll start with what I did yesterday, which was go to London and see Gaslight Anthem for the third time. For this, I went with my friend Coates from my uni days.
They are still awesome. They're a great band with good energy and they really bring the room alive when they start playing. For some reason they always seem to pick one good support act (Twin Atlantic, Chuck Raegan and David Hause) and one terrible support act (The Sharks twice now and Blood Red Shoes). It was a good gig and we stayed on the sidelines for this one, normally we try to get further up to the front. Oddly, they didn't play a cover this time, which Coates complained about their lack of playing Baba O'Rielly. Even so, was good times.
Also visited Ed's Diner in Leicester Square, which provided some inspiration and an awesome burger. It seems like a good business model, but we'll see how it works out when we get round to working on opening... The Movies...
So. A film I really should have reviewed already.
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
The Dark Knight Rises. I mean, what a film. As Batman movies go, this is definately in an uneasy position to start with. It has to follow The Dark Knight, a movie that pretty much everyone in the world declared the best thing to ever happen period. It then has to deal with the death of Heath Ledger, the man who made that previous film as amazing as it was. It then had all the negative press around the hideous mess in Aurora. So how did it do, with all that weight around its neck?
Pretty good.
I'm not gonna say that this one was better than the last two of the Nolan Batman films, it's probably the weakest of the three, but if you took it out of that context, you'd hold this film up as a work of high art compared to the Burton/Schumacher Batman films of yesterdecade. The beginning of the plot has a few questions that I wondered about. Basically, he has to learn how to be Batman again, after a long hiatus. Then he goes out and does Batman things. Then he does the fight with Bane, Bane does the thing he is most famous for (a large cracking noise), and then leaves Batman in a pit. Batman then has to remember to be Batman again. Didn't we... didn't we do that already? Pretty sure that we could have cut out half an hour of the movie around there somewhere. Not that there was that much Batman in the movie in the first place...
But that being said, all the other performances were pretty spot on. Marion Cotillard was as enchanting as ever, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is well and truly no longer the kid from Third Rock From The Sun anymore, he's a movie star now. Gary Oldman is still my hero, he's probably the most active actor in this entire film, to be honest. JGL was more of a main protagonist than Batman himself at times, but I don't think this makes the movie weaker, I think it shows that Bruce Wayne knows that his time has come. Michael Caine is as touching as ever, despite the small role he was given. Wasn't entirely sure about Anne Hathaway's Catwoman, but she does look good in that suit, so we'll let her off. And that just leaves Tom Hardy. Nobody thought they could do a badguy as good as Heath Ledger's Joker. All those people? They be wrong.
'Nobody cared who I was before I put on the mask'.
Bane carries every scene that he's in with an unbelievable power, authority and grace, despite his massively lumpen muscled frame. It's hard to believe that this is still Tom Hardy who was so slim and refined in Inception, so freakish is Star Trek Nemesis. This guy is one of the absolute stars of our age and we're lucky to have him on our screens. I don't want to be a downer on Christian Bale, but we always know that, just like Batman himself, Bale isn't normally all that interesting compared to his enemies.
So all in all this is a worth film to finish the franchise on, despite everyone's claims that they can make a fourth one, no they shouldn't and they really won't. Batman has a future, maybe, but it'll be rebooted and made more Justice League friendly, so we'll see how the new Superman film pans out. As it stands, this is a fitting way to see out Batman. For now. The Dark Knight began, fell, rose and then flew. It doesn't get much better than these three films in a franchise. Beware the Dark.
Next up:
BRAVE
So there's a whole bunch of things that have happened to me over the last few months that I should probably talk about, but I'll start with what I did yesterday, which was go to London and see Gaslight Anthem for the third time. For this, I went with my friend Coates from my uni days.
They are still awesome. They're a great band with good energy and they really bring the room alive when they start playing. For some reason they always seem to pick one good support act (Twin Atlantic, Chuck Raegan and David Hause) and one terrible support act (The Sharks twice now and Blood Red Shoes). It was a good gig and we stayed on the sidelines for this one, normally we try to get further up to the front. Oddly, they didn't play a cover this time, which Coates complained about their lack of playing Baba O'Rielly. Even so, was good times.
Also visited Ed's Diner in Leicester Square, which provided some inspiration and an awesome burger. It seems like a good business model, but we'll see how it works out when we get round to working on opening... The Movies...
So. A film I really should have reviewed already.
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
The Dark Knight Rises. I mean, what a film. As Batman movies go, this is definately in an uneasy position to start with. It has to follow The Dark Knight, a movie that pretty much everyone in the world declared the best thing to ever happen period. It then has to deal with the death of Heath Ledger, the man who made that previous film as amazing as it was. It then had all the negative press around the hideous mess in Aurora. So how did it do, with all that weight around its neck?
Pretty good.
I'm not gonna say that this one was better than the last two of the Nolan Batman films, it's probably the weakest of the three, but if you took it out of that context, you'd hold this film up as a work of high art compared to the Burton/Schumacher Batman films of yesterdecade. The beginning of the plot has a few questions that I wondered about. Basically, he has to learn how to be Batman again, after a long hiatus. Then he goes out and does Batman things. Then he does the fight with Bane, Bane does the thing he is most famous for (a large cracking noise), and then leaves Batman in a pit. Batman then has to remember to be Batman again. Didn't we... didn't we do that already? Pretty sure that we could have cut out half an hour of the movie around there somewhere. Not that there was that much Batman in the movie in the first place...
But that being said, all the other performances were pretty spot on. Marion Cotillard was as enchanting as ever, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is well and truly no longer the kid from Third Rock From The Sun anymore, he's a movie star now. Gary Oldman is still my hero, he's probably the most active actor in this entire film, to be honest. JGL was more of a main protagonist than Batman himself at times, but I don't think this makes the movie weaker, I think it shows that Bruce Wayne knows that his time has come. Michael Caine is as touching as ever, despite the small role he was given. Wasn't entirely sure about Anne Hathaway's Catwoman, but she does look good in that suit, so we'll let her off. And that just leaves Tom Hardy. Nobody thought they could do a badguy as good as Heath Ledger's Joker. All those people? They be wrong.
'Nobody cared who I was before I put on the mask'.
Bane carries every scene that he's in with an unbelievable power, authority and grace, despite his massively lumpen muscled frame. It's hard to believe that this is still Tom Hardy who was so slim and refined in Inception, so freakish is Star Trek Nemesis. This guy is one of the absolute stars of our age and we're lucky to have him on our screens. I don't want to be a downer on Christian Bale, but we always know that, just like Batman himself, Bale isn't normally all that interesting compared to his enemies.
So all in all this is a worth film to finish the franchise on, despite everyone's claims that they can make a fourth one, no they shouldn't and they really won't. Batman has a future, maybe, but it'll be rebooted and made more Justice League friendly, so we'll see how the new Superman film pans out. As it stands, this is a fitting way to see out Batman. For now. The Dark Knight began, fell, rose and then flew. It doesn't get much better than these three films in a franchise. Beware the Dark.
Next up:
BRAVE
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