The Good Films are never quite as interesting to talk about so I'll just let you know my top films of the year and throw a few recommendations at you.
So best film of the year is too hard to call so I've chosen 2: In Bruges and The Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight
Unless you've been living in a box you'll know what The Dark Knight is all about so I won't drone on about it too much simply to say that I absolutely loved it, it certainly helped that both times I saw it were on IMAX screens. I've always been a big Batman freak, Christopher Nolan is a genius who had already proved himself to be more than capable of doing a batman film, and the cast was just superb so it was already a recipe for success and it was better than I dared to hope! Highlight for me has to be Heath as the Joker - absolutely mesmerizing, and the opening sequence robbery.
In Bruges
In Bruges is on an altogether lower key - two hitmen (Brendan Glesson and Colin Farrell) are directed by their employer (Ralph Fiennes) to lay low in Brussels for a few days after some event (which is revealed part way through the film). It's an extremely black comedy about life and death, hell and redemption, as things in Bruges start out dull veer into excitement before heading to dangerous. It's excellent to see Colin doing some decent acting again it seems you have to wait years between his good performances as he calls in his performances in Hollywood blockbusters, presumably for the money, in this it certainly looks like he's doing it for the love. Hard to pick a highlight as its consistently excellent and the interaction between the two leads is perfect, Brenden Gleesson is always a pleasure to watch and this is going back to classic I Went Down territory.
Very worthy of mention: Pineapple Express; Burn After Reading; Be Kind Rewind; There Will Be Blood; Son of Rambow; Juno; Iron Man; Frost/Nixon.
Films I somehow missed and must get round to: No Country For Old Men; Gone Baby Gone; Sweeney Todd.
Ok on to the Bad Films. To be perfectly honest I watch a lot of bad films (I watch far too many romantic comedies for a start) but most of the time I'm prepare for the films to be nothing more than popcorn entertainment and that's all I want - I'm fairly forgiving to bad films. That said here are some stinkers I saw in 2008:
I'll start with the worst, Lost Boys 2 - I'm not sure that Lost Boys was what you'd call good but it was a lot of fun and certainly has a place in many hearts of my generation - to anyone who regards it fondly I would issue this warning - Stay away from Lost Boys 2, it's worse than you could imagine! Mind you Corey Feldman is vaguelly amusing to watch as he hams like never before! People who aren't bothered about the original are hopefully smart enough to stay away from the sequel anyway!
Close second has got to be In the Name of the King, all in all it was a pretty bad year for Jason Stretham, lets be fair he's never going to be a good actor but his hard man formula should at least deliver some entertainment, shouldn't it? Deathrace and Transporter 3 using hard man plus car formula were watchable nonsense but poor imitation of earlier hits. In Bank Job he attempted some acting as a cockney hard man (not much of a stretch there) and managed to be almost plausible as a human being, almost. The less said about In the Name of the King and War the better.
Also a pretty bad year for Mark Wahlberg - We Own The Night had all the ingredients of a great movie including a pretty ace looking cast but vered wildly between gritty and realistic and action packed, in the end failling to be either and ending up pretty boring. Marky Mark took scowling to a whole new level in the frankly baffling computer game movie Max Payne, didn't expect much and got about that.
Plentiful "weak, lazy, and generally half-arsed comedy" awards get handed out including Love Guru, Tropic Thunder, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Step Brothers.
There were a whole bunch of totally underwhelming films this year, not necessarily bad just chronically mediocre most notably The Day The Earth Stood Still, Hancock, and 21
So a lot of middle of the road rubbish in 2008 rather than anything overtly offensive, I think I may have carefully avoided the real dross. I am incredibly glad to have (deliberately) missed Mamma Mia, Sex and the City, and The Happening.
Friday, 16 January 2009
Thursday, 15 January 2009
2008: A Year in Numbers
I'll probably do a review of 2008 in words at some point but for now here are some numbers for anyone who is interested:
5000+ Photos*
217 Films, 30 of which in the cinema
30 Years old
27 Buildings stayed in
21 Books
21 Blog entries here
13 Birthday Parties
9 Flights
7 Concerts
6 Countries
5 Blog entries on Things We Know
4 Continents
5 Boat Trips
3 Plays
2 Book launches
1 Stagg Do
1 Rugby Match
1 Wedding
*Everyday in 2008 I took at least one photo, depending on how many photos you can be bothered to look through (366, 53, 12) click one of the links:
Best of the Day
Best of the Week
Best of the Month
5000+ Photos*
217 Films, 30 of which in the cinema
30 Years old
27 Buildings stayed in
21 Books
21 Blog entries here
13 Birthday Parties
9 Flights
7 Concerts
6 Countries
5 Blog entries on Things We Know
4 Continents
5 Boat Trips
3 Plays
2 Book launches
1 Stagg Do
1 Rugby Match
1 Wedding
*Everyday in 2008 I took at least one photo, depending on how many photos you can be bothered to look through (366, 53, 12) click one of the links:
Best of the Day
Best of the Week
Best of the Month
Monday, 12 January 2009
Photoshop = Nazi Propaganda?
I don't really want to be excited about Valkyrie but it's hard not to be after all Bryan Singer is one of my favourite directors and the cast is a veritable who's who of excellent actors including Ken Branagh, Terence Stamp, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Christian Berkel (if you haven't seen Das Experiment you really ought to check it out), Kevin McNally, and err Eddie Izzard (last seen as a talking mouse). Not to mention Tom Cruise of course who I'm loathed to admit is a pretty good actor if you're prepared to over look the whole weirdy-evil-brainwash-psydo-religion-cult stuff!
The film centers around the attempted assassination of Hitler by his own people during the second world war. For obvious reasons this is a story close to the heart of many Germans and Claus von Stauffenberg is seen as something of a national hero due to the part he played in trying to kill Hitler and hopefully save Germany before it was too late.
Germany doesn't like Scientology and has not recognised it as a religion due to the fact that it has primarily economical interests and as such is a commercial enterprise. In fact the cult has been declared unconstitutional (way to go Germany!) I may be reading too much into this but I should think Germans are very aware of the dangers of cults and brainwashing... Anyway all this bad blood meant that when Tom Cruise was named as the actor to play Stauffenberg, Germany basically told the production company to naff off if they thought they were going to be allowed to film at key historical locations. Scientology 0, Germany 2!
Eventually after much negotiating and, lets hope, lots of money passing hands filming was allowed. This was not the end of the trouble of course - during filming 11 men were badly injured when the side of a truck fell open when cornering at speed and spilt them onto the road. Also a huge chunk of material had to be re-shot after reels of film were wiped!
But the latest and to my mind scariest controversy has not been widely reported. United Artist released a pair of promotional stills - one a profile of the original Claus Von Stauffenberg and the other Tom Cruise in costume and the same pose, and my word don't they look similar! Perhaps they are related some how? No, the original has been altered to look more like the Cruiser! Hopefully you can see for yourself that the image has been altered: its been stretched, making his head shape longer and narrower; the chin has been given the Cruise dip; the nose has been given a bit of a curve (the original Claus has a very straight nose); and finally it's been aged and degraded to my mind a forgivable crime but one which help disguise the other alterations.
I'm not going to go in to any technical detail but what interests me is the morality of it, as most of you know I'm a big fan of digital art, altering photographs, and of course photoshop. I've always seen it as fairly harmless but this seems to be actually altering our historical record and here we enter the territory of 1984's Ministry of Truth. My worry is that most people are not very aware of Von Stauffenberg, I for one knew little more than the fact he was involved in a plot to kill Hitler with a bomb in a briefcase, and we're naturally going to pick up more knowledge from Valkyrie and probably start to associate Tom with Claus anyway. It would be nice to think that the film will encourage people to learn more about the real history and perhaps people will wonder if Claus looked anything like Cruise - that's certainly the kind of thing I end up wondering about these kind of films - so after leaving the cinema we head home and tap "Claus Von Stauffenberg" into a Google image search - first result is Tom in a still from the film and the second is the two pictures released by United side by side! So all of a sudden the main reference picture for Claus is the one which has been doctored by United Artists (allegedly).
It worries me, photoshop is a very powerful tool and as Stan put it: with great power comes great responsibility! Just because we can do an alteration and get paid to perhaps we still have a duty to question whether its the right thing to do.
Of course these are just opinions I can't prove that doctoring has occurred but I don't feel the need to I would like to believe that (along with a number of others) I am wrong, after all Tom is an actor and really shouldn't need to look identical to the person he's portraying - Joaquin Pheonix did just fine as Johnny Cash despite not looking a great deal like him.
Interestingly this article now has a correction at the top which sounds suspiciously like something that has come as the result of legal bully from United Artists and basically states that the writer of the artical hadn't done their research properly and had overlooked the archive image that United Artists had found and released!
The film centers around the attempted assassination of Hitler by his own people during the second world war. For obvious reasons this is a story close to the heart of many Germans and Claus von Stauffenberg is seen as something of a national hero due to the part he played in trying to kill Hitler and hopefully save Germany before it was too late.
Germany doesn't like Scientology and has not recognised it as a religion due to the fact that it has primarily economical interests and as such is a commercial enterprise. In fact the cult has been declared unconstitutional (way to go Germany!) I may be reading too much into this but I should think Germans are very aware of the dangers of cults and brainwashing... Anyway all this bad blood meant that when Tom Cruise was named as the actor to play Stauffenberg, Germany basically told the production company to naff off if they thought they were going to be allowed to film at key historical locations. Scientology 0, Germany 2!
Eventually after much negotiating and, lets hope, lots of money passing hands filming was allowed. This was not the end of the trouble of course - during filming 11 men were badly injured when the side of a truck fell open when cornering at speed and spilt them onto the road. Also a huge chunk of material had to be re-shot after reels of film were wiped!
But the latest and to my mind scariest controversy has not been widely reported. United Artist released a pair of promotional stills - one a profile of the original Claus Von Stauffenberg and the other Tom Cruise in costume and the same pose, and my word don't they look similar! Perhaps they are related some how? No, the original has been altered to look more like the Cruiser! Hopefully you can see for yourself that the image has been altered: its been stretched, making his head shape longer and narrower; the chin has been given the Cruise dip; the nose has been given a bit of a curve (the original Claus has a very straight nose); and finally it's been aged and degraded to my mind a forgivable crime but one which help disguise the other alterations.
I'm not going to go in to any technical detail but what interests me is the morality of it, as most of you know I'm a big fan of digital art, altering photographs, and of course photoshop. I've always seen it as fairly harmless but this seems to be actually altering our historical record and here we enter the territory of 1984's Ministry of Truth. My worry is that most people are not very aware of Von Stauffenberg, I for one knew little more than the fact he was involved in a plot to kill Hitler with a bomb in a briefcase, and we're naturally going to pick up more knowledge from Valkyrie and probably start to associate Tom with Claus anyway. It would be nice to think that the film will encourage people to learn more about the real history and perhaps people will wonder if Claus looked anything like Cruise - that's certainly the kind of thing I end up wondering about these kind of films - so after leaving the cinema we head home and tap "Claus Von Stauffenberg" into a Google image search - first result is Tom in a still from the film and the second is the two pictures released by United side by side! So all of a sudden the main reference picture for Claus is the one which has been doctored by United Artists (allegedly).
It worries me, photoshop is a very powerful tool and as Stan put it: with great power comes great responsibility! Just because we can do an alteration and get paid to perhaps we still have a duty to question whether its the right thing to do.
Of course these are just opinions I can't prove that doctoring has occurred but I don't feel the need to I would like to believe that (along with a number of others) I am wrong, after all Tom is an actor and really shouldn't need to look identical to the person he's portraying - Joaquin Pheonix did just fine as Johnny Cash despite not looking a great deal like him.
Interestingly this article now has a correction at the top which sounds suspiciously like something that has come as the result of legal bully from United Artists and basically states that the writer of the artical hadn't done their research properly and had overlooked the archive image that United Artists had found and released!
Monday, 29 December 2008
Why are you in Blighty?
Some people have spotted that I'm back in the country and though some people are a little nervous about asking (in case I have a breakdown or something) I think people generally want to know why... to be honest I'd quite like to know myself! Depending upon my mood these are the potential answers to the question why are you in Blighty?
- Plans change
- I had a good holiday in Australia but decided that that was enough and I had got what I wanted from the trip
- I never wanted to live perminantly in Oz and once I established that I was not going to be able to get the job I wanted out there finding other temporary or random work seemed fairly pointless
- I missed you
- I know what I would like in life and that will probably be in the UK so I would be as well to start on the road to getting that sorted. So anyone who has a job, girlfriend or house in the country for me should send them over at once
- I have no idea, I probably need my head checked... by a professional
- Sun and relaxed attitudes don't suit my depression or need for pathos
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Sydney, so good they named it!
So I've been in Sydney a while now and as ever there are some photos in the usual place.
What have I been up to? Well, I've walked most of the city; lived on the 72nd floor in a luxury apartment; gone to Manly on a ferry (this is NOT a euphemism); eaten pancakes on Darling Harbour (nope not a euphemism either); seen the Opera House (a lot); climbed over the Harbour Bridge; seen rain; visited the Art Gallery; been to Bondi Beach; stayed in 3 different hostels; been involved in the rigging of a pub quiz; been attacked by birds; slept in bunk beds; watched thousands of bats fly across the city in the twilight; been round a random photo exhibition; seen the cleverly named Blue Mountains and Scenic World; been to the cinema; done some work experience with creative retouching specialist Electric Art; and yeah probably some other stuff.
And on the off chance you didn't know - I have another blog, the latest article on which is about Australia! Click here for things I know.
What have I been up to? Well, I've walked most of the city; lived on the 72nd floor in a luxury apartment; gone to Manly on a ferry (this is NOT a euphemism); eaten pancakes on Darling Harbour (nope not a euphemism either); seen the Opera House (a lot); climbed over the Harbour Bridge; seen rain; visited the Art Gallery; been to Bondi Beach; stayed in 3 different hostels; been involved in the rigging of a pub quiz; been attacked by birds; slept in bunk beds; watched thousands of bats fly across the city in the twilight; been round a random photo exhibition; seen the cleverly named Blue Mountains and Scenic World; been to the cinema; done some work experience with creative retouching specialist Electric Art; and yeah probably some other stuff.
And on the off chance you didn't know - I have another blog, the latest article on which is about Australia! Click here for things I know.
Tuesday, 28 October 2008
Can you hear me, Toecutter?
I have toured the wastelands in the last V8-interceptor, bumped into Tina Turner, Bruce Spence gave me a lift in his gyrocopter, and when I look up at the night sky I remember his name - the Night Rider!
Ok so maybe that stuff just happened in my brain but I did see some ace things. The Road trip took us north from Brisbane to Bundaberg (a small town spread over a wide area) then north again Agnes Waters and the town of 1770 to go out to see the Great Barrier Reef. Post reef back south again to Brisbane via the Glass House Mountains then a few days on the road down to Sydney stopping at Gold Coast (on Indy night), Coffs Harbour and Newcastle. And here comes the big boring list of things I've seen
Wild stuff seen on land:
An eagle feasting on some smaller unfortunate beastie.
Kangaroos bounding across the road, just like on the warning signs.
Parrots flying around like regular birds, who do they think they are? And Gallahs too!
Several large bats swooping about the place.
Lots of lizards they seem to be the equivalent of squirrels in this hemisphere - just wandering about and posing for photos! The biggest one spotted being a Lace Monitor lizard who was somewhere around 4 or 5 foot long.
A pair of possums who seemed to live on top of one of the motels we stayed in who were very friendly!
Water beasties - mostly spotted on the Great Barrier Reef near 1770:
A family of Humpback Whales jumping and splashing about.
Blacktip Reef Sharks grooving around by Lady Musgrave Island.
Turtles, one of whom came and swam with me!
An Octopus hiding on the reef who was kind enough to demonstrate his amazing camouflage ability!
And obviously a huge number of colourful fish and coral.
"Big Things" - there seems to be a weird Australian tradition of making huge models of things (vaguely to do with advertising) - for note you should really read Danny Wallace's book "Yes Man" which makes reference to these fantastic "Big Things" as well as saying yes to the opportunities life throws you like quitting your job and going to Australia! Anyway there are hundred's to see of which we spotted: the Big Banana (apparently the first ever "Big Thing"); Big Pineapple; Big Clam; Big Prawn; and a few biggish things - a fly, shrimp, avocado and a strawberry - only about the size of a car; and a small Uluru (the size of a petrol station).
Also worthy of special note is SuperBee HoneyWorld a roadside museum! As ever photos of many of these wonderful things can be seen on flickr with more to follow at some point - maybe even fish photos if they worked!
Ok so maybe that stuff just happened in my brain but I did see some ace things. The Road trip took us north from Brisbane to Bundaberg (a small town spread over a wide area) then north again Agnes Waters and the town of 1770 to go out to see the Great Barrier Reef. Post reef back south again to Brisbane via the Glass House Mountains then a few days on the road down to Sydney stopping at Gold Coast (on Indy night), Coffs Harbour and Newcastle. And here comes the big boring list of things I've seen
Wild stuff seen on land:
An eagle feasting on some smaller unfortunate beastie.
Kangaroos bounding across the road, just like on the warning signs.
Parrots flying around like regular birds, who do they think they are? And Gallahs too!
Several large bats swooping about the place.
Lots of lizards they seem to be the equivalent of squirrels in this hemisphere - just wandering about and posing for photos! The biggest one spotted being a Lace Monitor lizard who was somewhere around 4 or 5 foot long.
A pair of possums who seemed to live on top of one of the motels we stayed in who were very friendly!
Water beasties - mostly spotted on the Great Barrier Reef near 1770:
A family of Humpback Whales jumping and splashing about.
Blacktip Reef Sharks grooving around by Lady Musgrave Island.
Turtles, one of whom came and swam with me!
An Octopus hiding on the reef who was kind enough to demonstrate his amazing camouflage ability!
And obviously a huge number of colourful fish and coral.
"Big Things" - there seems to be a weird Australian tradition of making huge models of things (vaguely to do with advertising) - for note you should really read Danny Wallace's book "Yes Man" which makes reference to these fantastic "Big Things" as well as saying yes to the opportunities life throws you like quitting your job and going to Australia! Anyway there are hundred's to see of which we spotted: the Big Banana (apparently the first ever "Big Thing"); Big Pineapple; Big Clam; Big Prawn; and a few biggish things - a fly, shrimp, avocado and a strawberry - only about the size of a car; and a small Uluru (the size of a petrol station).
Also worthy of special note is SuperBee HoneyWorld a roadside museum! As ever photos of many of these wonderful things can be seen on flickr with more to follow at some point - maybe even fish photos if they worked!
Saturday, 18 October 2008
Photos
Hullo, the first (small) set of photos from Australia are up here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/olr/. I'll get more up as soon as I have more time at a computer of any sorts. In other news my brand new ipod has been wiped by a combination of stupid laptops and stupid apple programming - well I guess it couldn't all be sunshine and laughter!
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