Avatar

Don't get me wrong, I thought Avatar was kinda fun, and had some nice 3D effects. The storyline, however, was a bit predictable - this is probably why:


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The power of editing...

I recently came across this movie trailer on YouTube:



Perfect, or what? :)

Transformers is the Best Movie Ever

So, I was a bit wary of going to watch the new Transformers movie, because I'd heard awful things about how it screwed with the original series, and all of the trailers made it out to just be a bunch of robots with special effects.

With this suitably low bar in place, there was no way the film could possibly dissapoint. I'm pretty sure the film was just pure awesome, but in case it was just my mindset, I'd advise equally low expectations when you go to watch the film.

I won't ruin the plotline for you, mostly because you'll already know it if you watched the cartoons, and if not you can guess it in about 5 minutes, so it'd be pretty hard to ruin. I will, however, tell you that the entire film is crammed with more awesome army guys than Black Hawk Down, more laugh out loud humour than American Pie and more giant robot fights in New York than...um. More giant robot fights than A Clockwork Orange.

If you're male, you have to go and see this film for yourself so you can feel like you were 8 years old again. If you're female...I think one of the robots has emotions for about four seconds before blowing something up.

Lucie is Awesome

Had a great long weekend at home with Lu, back in Reading now though, working away.

Friday I arrived in Cardiff town centre just as Lu & friends were getting hair ripped from various parts of their body through the application of burning hot wax. Cleverly realising this was hardly likely to leave them in bright moods I bought cakes for the lot of them, from the most ditzy Greggs assistant I'd ever met. Every single time I asked her for a specific type of cake she seemed utterly confused, and asked me a really bizarre question about it. My favourite was "Do you reckon they swap the words in France?" when I ordered my first cake, a chocolate eclair. I hope that took you as long to work out what she was on about as it took me...

We spent the night at home, watching the first of many episodes of Heroes (which I'm now re-addicted to...I'm going to have to get back onto Jericho soon too, before I forget what happened in the past).

Saturday was sweet too, went outside and played with a flying disc (alas, not a Frisbee) and those 'velco-ball things' (I believe that's the official term for them). Lu cooked in the evening, which was slightly surprising as I wasn't entirely sure she could cook before. Seems I won't be making every meal in the future, as she did a great job of it.

Saw Transformers on Sunday, as well as reaquainting myself with her piano (Einaudi is, unsurprisingly, quite hard to play). Also popped home to see my mother and brother for a while too, and got another nice meal out of that visit.

This morning I worked from home, whilst Lu lay in bed making me jealous. She did, however, bring me up breakfast, so I can't complain too much.

Almost forgot to mention my new presents, I finally got my last birthday present - a pure silk Thai kimono (So. Awesome) which I'll try to remember to get a photograph of up at some point. She also gave me a frame for that picture she drew me for my birthday, but I liked the sketch she put inside that frame so much that I left it inside, and as such still need a frame for the first one! Apurva and Ben thought it was a professional picture (I put it up in the lounge), not bad eh?

Xx

Home for the weekend

So, in case it wasn't obvious that the subtle third person references in the post below actually all referred to stuff I've been getting to up - I'm off home for the weekend to spend some time with Lu :)

Apparently she's devised many a fun plan, though I'm not yet sure of many of them, except to go and see Transformers butchered on the big screen (but, with such a big budget, hopefully butchered with loads of cool explosions and robots)

By the time you read this (I could probably put buying an internet connection on the train down under 'expenses', but after how much of the morale budget I drank on Tuesday night, I guess I can pass this time), I should also have the infamous present #21, which took many months being shipped from Thailand. If it's a hooker who died of suffocation about 9 weeks ago I'll be very dissapointed. On the other hand though, I'm not really sure what Thailand's famous for exporting, so it should be interesting to see.

Well, that's the end of this post, and in the spirit of always ending on a laugh:

A blind man walks into an all-women's biker bar and orders a pint of ale. As the bartender's hands it to him, he says to her;
"Hey, want to hear a blonde joke?"
"Sure", says the bartender, but before you tell it, I should probably warn you about a few things;
"Sitting to the left of you is a blonde professional weightlifter.
The blonde to the right of you won a wrestling championship last week.
The lady over by the pool table is blonde too, and has been arrested for fighting three times this month.
The girl waiting to be served has blonde hair and a wrench in her hands,
and I'm blonde too, and about twice your size.
So, still want to tell that joke?"
The blind man pauses for a second and says "No, I guess I don't", and sips his ale a couple of times before continuing "Not if I have to explain it five times".

Blades Of Glory

More homo-erotic innuendo than Top Gun.



It was however, highly entertaining, and the skating was actually pretty impressive in its own right. Certainly one to watch if you fancy a laugh. Or you're into rampant homosexuality.

Spalding, part II

Like Back To The Future part II - but less interesting.

So, for those of you that haven't guessed, or that I haven't already told, the reason I went to the lovely place known as Spalding was to visit my brother for a couple of days. As promised, here's a little recount of what we got up to.

First off Gareth took me to Sergi's deli, a simply amazing place filled with foods you might never even have heard of. Given a large enough wallet, one could happily eat there for weeks, never having the same thing twice and never having a bad meal. We passed on the haute-cuisine this time though, and just had some sandwiches made, which were ace.

Got back to Gareth's flat, which is surprisingly large, and nicely kitted out (though, oddly lacking a bed), and then went out to see some of the independent shops, including the bookstore mentioned in the first post. The lack of bed wasn't really an issue, as I had a comfy mattress to sleep on, though I'll admit I almost had a heart attack when I found out that the only (rather small) mirror was the one above the sink in the bathroom.

We also went out to see Ayscoughfee Hall, which is now a free museum with some pulchritudinous gardens attached, which are open to the public 24/7. The museum itself is quite interesting too, with a lot of interactive exhibits - which I enjoyed, despite the fact they might possibly have been originally intended for someone with at most half my years.

The museum included a short video, intended to give viewers an overview of the fens, and the growth of the area known as South Holland. Unfortunately, the opening sentence was "Our understanding of the fens is more of a mystical feeling, than a geographical reality.", and after that it was hard to take anything seriously.

It's quite interesting how the fens have been drained, and the effect this has had on the local land. On the one hand, the place is now inhabitable, instead of just marshes, but this has also causes the area to shrink, so that the school where my brother teaches is now almost in the sea, whereas in Roman times it was miles away from it.

With the local butchers (real Lincolnshire sausages..drool) and other such places about, we ate well the whole time, and I found a great little independent clothes shop called Take 2, selling exactly the sort of thing I like to wear. I got two new pairs of trousers, and a new top, all for the princely sum of £9, though I think I gave the old lady behind the counter a heart attack when I tried one of the tops for size, I'm not sure she's ever sold one to a male before.

Watched a bunch of films too (Borat is *so* much better than I was expecting), went out to see Springfields (as described in part I), and also saw Wales get absolutely thrashed in the rugby, with Chris Czekaj getting a broken leg too, to rub things in. It still seems weird, watching him playing international matches, when I remember playing against him myself at school - though he was, admittedly, a little better than me even then.

Edit: See comments for corrections on geographical issues, if you're into that sort of thing ;)

Two down

Just had my second exam, which was an absolute joke. I spent ages revising for it, and it was probably the easiest exam I've had since starting Uni. Almost managed to turn up half an hour late for it, which would actually have been fine, as it was 2 hours long and I was done by the first hour. Should be 100% :)

Watching Back To The Future now - the film that showed us skitching is a viable means of transportation. 80's tastic. Gotta love Michael J. Fox.

Films on the big small screen

Although this post is about films I've watched, in bed, on my unbelievably awesome new TV with my gorgeous 7.1 surround sound, I'll try to just keep it about the films. No promises though, when I first got the thing, I found it hard to form sentences without replacing most of the nouns with 'TV'.

Snakes On A Plane
Awful. Absolutely awful. With a premise like this, it was never going to be good, but I've never seen something as bad. The snakes were obviously CGI, Samuel L. Jackson was just prostituting his otherwise great reputation, as opposed to developing it, and no-one else in the film even knew how to act.
Saying that, I quite liked some of the outro music. A film you have to watch, so that you can then legitimately compare every other awful film to it.

The Illusionist
Particularly enjoyed this film, though I can't quite put my finger on why. The attention to detail in all of the locations around turn of the century Vienna was remarkable, and the acting was superb all around. The plot became a bit predictable towards the end of the film, but by the time you've realised what is going to happen, you're already completely enthralled in the film and watch anyway. Highly recommended.

The Prestige
Another film about magic, and set at the exact same time as The Illusionist, though this time in London. Full of twists and surprises the whole way through, the drama and rivalry between the two magicians is built up brilliantly, and superbly acted. A great performance from Michael Caine too, as the creative genius behind the tricks. I really liked the flavour for the show-biz world of the time, and the (sometimes gruesome) details behind all of their tricks.
Unfortunately, the film rather lets itself down when it overplays the rivalry between Edison and Tesla (played, for no reason I could discern, by David Bowie), and comes up with some fantastical sci-fi that doesn't really fit in. A pity really, as the film overall is great.

Scoop
Hugh Jackman again, this time effortlessly pulling off the role of an upper-class brit, despite, in true Hollywood style, not actually being British. A fun and entertaining film, but unfortunately lacking in substance. The plot is transparent from the word go, and Woody Allen is unfortunately playing..Woody Allen, who I simply can't stand. When he's out of the picture it's a charming and utterly believable film, but overall it was just too hard to airbrush him out in my head.


Thanks to Smigs for the post...format..idea, thing.