In an odd way, she's a reminder of the real world to me. It's kind of easy for me to be locked away in my room with my radiator and my gaming books and laptop and forget about the real world, just as long as I stick to my writing quota then everything's fine as far as I'm concerned. Then I go online and talk to Justine and it reminds me that some people have to work 12 hours a day every day for very little money and it can wear you down after time.
Now, I'm not trying to comment on her life, I have a great deal of respect for her (although don't tell her I said that), since she works at what was her parent's dream, to make it happen for them, and it's helped her a great deal as well, it's just not easy and there's no real end in sight.
We all have to work, we all have to flail around with money and banks and councils and officials and people that tell you that you're wrong and you owe them and whatever... I guess in my life I've been quite fortunately sheltered from a lot of this, but I've had almost my share, I think.
So, hats off to the French girl, it's good to see her and it's good to know that she's doing okay. Now, back to being mean to her!
In other news, I got the essay back, the one that I ranted a fair deal about in a previous post. You want to know what I got?
66%. That's a 2:1.
Now, I have no idea what I did to deserve that. My essay was largely drivel stuck together with consistent sub-headings and sarcasm. I can't believe that Sara gave me the mark she did, even after she explained why to me I still can't quite get my head around it. I'll actually qoute some for you now:
"But that's just what I think, and what do I know? So, to find a collection of pretentious Frenchmen who've been dead for forty years to back up my claims, then my essay can be considered to have some academic weight."
And that got a 2:1. I mean, can you believe it? Apparently if I'd dropped all the sarcasm (which would have involved a fair amount of cutting, around 30% of the essay), then it would have been 1st territory, according to Sara. It's baffling, I know that I'm not that clever, why don't they?
Been talking about the French a lot, apparently, there's all sorts of influences they have. Half the characters in my latest novel attempt are French (that's Imperia, for those of you in the know), a fair few in Servants of God are French, by neccessity (they were there, after all).
I should reconsider learning French, perhaps.
SKYLINE.
Well, I can safely say that if I hadn't seen the Clash of the Titans remake at the start of the year, then this would have been the worst film of 2010. As it stands, it's the second worst.
Aliens invade Los Angeles. Survivors hole up in an apartment and watch some of the carnage, waiting for a chance to escape. Air wars outside. Giant monsters. Hynotic blue lights.
And it SUCKS?!
I mean, this is the kind of thing that I actually *like* movies to be about! This has all the ingredients for a movie that I would really, really like to enjoy! But somehow, this movie went from a promising opening 45 seconds to the biggest waste of 90 minutes since the Titans remake. I mean seriously, it's not hard to do this kind of thing, given all those ingredients and a half decent special effects budget then you can actually make an enjoyable movie without getting out of bed.
I mean, look at Cloverfield, look at District 9, look at Alien, all of these were shot on a shoestring and all of them were frickin' awesome movies.
This films has two main flaws and they're normally the ones I don't pick on, since I'm normally focussed on the writing side of things. They are:
ACTING and DIRECTING.
Acting. Now, don't let me say that I judge people on the quality of their name, but Eric Balfour and Donald 'Turk from Scrubs' Faison don't instantly inspire confidence when you hear that they're the title cast. I'm all for giving little players a chance, but if they're going to simply phone it in like they did in this movie, then screw 'em. Even the owls had more conviction.
Directing. The Brothers Strause need to be taken out behind a barn and shot. Repeatedly. While being filmed. Without any CGI. These guys couldn't make a decent movie if someone else did it for them. These guys are such talentless wastes of space that I'm pretty sure my pneumonia-stricken puppy could have done a better job at inserting tension and narrative into this movie.
This film drags its knuckles through overly shiny alien monsters and drools quietly in the face of cool as it speeds on by, oblivious to the fact that it sucks. Because at least the creatures are pretty, right? And the CGI? More CGI, yeah?
Mind you, this movie does have one thing going for it. When Battle: Los Angeles comes out next year (a film about aliens invading Los Angeles that's actually inspired by real events), this movie will make B:LA look AMAZING by comparison.
Next up: MACHETE
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