The Android's Conundrum

I wasn’t hugely hyped for this movie, partially because...

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:03:00 +0000

I wasn’t hugely hyped for this movie, partially because I’m still sceptical about 3D, but I ended up seeing Avatar in 3D today and I completely loved it. There is so much to praise in this movie that I almost don’t know where to start. (I’ll avoid spoilers because I do think people should go see this film and experience it firsthand.) Firstly, the film itself is just fantastic, with a simple but strong environmental and anti-war plot, great in-depth world-building, and well-developed characters. It also successfully manages to be a good action movie without sacrificing any intelligence. Then on top of that, there is the incredible special effects; the film looks fantastic, with the CGI enhancing everything to create this world on screen, and the 3D adding to that in a way that really works. It was entirely immerse and although the film is long it never seemed to move slowly, as I was completely drawn in. It’s hard to describe how I felt watching it, but suffice it to say that I loved the film and the experience of watching it too. I really cannot recommend this enough, it’s definitely worth seeing, and definitely worth paying the extra cost to see it in 3D.

What Are The Scariest Children's Films?

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:51:00 +0000

What Are The Scariest Children's Films?:

This post brings up the interesting fact that a lot of children’s films are almost too scary for children, or at least, they may appear that way from an adult perspective. I’m not sure how I’d have felt about some of these as a child, and certainly don’t know enough children (thank god) to comment on others. Others were definitely a little creepy or scary when I was a kid. The blog mentions some great examples such as Where The Wild Things Are, Coraline, The Witches, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (though while most people I’ve spoken to about this maintain that the psychadelic boat ride terrified them, I used to find it quite soothing!).

Octopus Snatches Coconut and Runs

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:13:26 +0000

Octopus Snatches Coconut and Runs :

This is incredibly cool: underwater video footage of an octopus picking up a coconut shell that has been dropped into the water and running away with it along the seafloor. Well worth watching, equal parts fascinating and hilarious.

Shaun of the Dead Reunion

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:59:34 +0000

Shaun of the Dead Reunion

Paper Heart is a ‘documentary’ about Charlyne Yi and...

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:17:41 +0000

Paper Heart is a ‘documentary’ about Charlyne Yi and how she is incapable of love. It follows her as she travels around interviewing people, trying to find out what love it. Along the way she develops a relationship with Michael Cera, and struggles with the director of the film over the intrusiveness of the project into her life. It’s a movie that I have very mixed feelings about, though overall I can say that I didn’t particularly like it and was definitely bored while watching it. The only interesting aspect of it is the fictionalised nature of the documentary. The actors claim, in the film at least, to be playing themselves, but it is then revealed in the end credits that the ‘director’ who appears in the film is actually portrayed by an actor. This raises all kind of questions about how fictionalised or staged the film is, and from what I’ve read on the Internet, it seems as though the whole aspect of the film dealing with the relationship is fiction, used to back up the original documentary idea. This does provoke some interesting thoughts about the nature of a documentaries of the sort that follow events, and just how fictionalised they are, but the problem with this one is that it doesn’t really follow up on that in the film itself. So while this project as a whole has the potential to be interesting, I really didn’t enjoy it, and what is covered on screen is pretty boring.

I just saw Where The Wild Things Are, a movie that I had very...

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 10:46:11 +0000

I just saw Where The Wild Things Are, a movie that I had very high expectations for despite not really being familiar with the source material. It ended up being everything that I had hoped for, and I adored it completely. I could really identify with Max, who reminded me so much of how I was at times when I was a kid. I loved how the film dealt with the issues of growing up and realising the consequences of your actions, though in that respect I thought perhaps it was not that suitable for children, being a bit too complex and requiring more of an adult perspective on childhood. It’s not perfect, but it looks great, sounds great, and I thoroughly loved it, in a way that made me so happy and sad at the same time.

I just finished reading Transition by Iain Banks. Banks is one...

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:51:37 +0000

I just finished reading Transition by Iain Banks. Banks is one of my absolute favourite authors, and I was very excited to start reading this one after having heard him read the prologue twice (at two different book readings I went to). The interesting thing is that he publishes under two names: Iain M. Banks for science fiction, and simply Iain Banks for his non-genre books. Up until now I’ve read mostly his SF books, which are really brilliant, though I have read a few of his mainstream novels, which I’ve also greatly enjoyed. His SF works tend to be space opera type affairs (though ignore any negative connotations from that term, these are very well written and intelligent books). This newest book is a bit strange in that, while obviously SF, it has been published under his non-SF name (at least here in the UK, though apparently in the USA it’s still with the SF publisher). The difference seems to be that this one is not set in space or the future, but rather here on Earth (or a version of it), and as such is more of slipstream book (bridging the gap between the SF genre and mainstream fiction). The book is told from the perspective (in the first or third person) of several different characters, all of whom have some connection to the Concern, which is an organisation that controls the ‘transition’ of people between alternative parallel worlds (essentially travelling within the multiverse). A schism within the Concern is the major plot point, and the book follows characters from either side as the events around this unfold. I absolutely loved the book, not least of all because it contained a lot of the aspects of Banks’ writing that I most appreciate, such as the multiple (unreliable) narrators, the non-linearity of the plot, and the great story combined with interesting ideas. Whether SF or mainstream, Banks is a fantastic writer, and I would definitely look forward to seeing more of this cross-genre type book from him in the future.

Passion Pit - Little Secrets (I just picked up this album and I...

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:51:29 +0000

Passion Pit - Little Secrets

(I just picked up this album and I completely love it.)

One of the strangest things that I saw on my recent trip to...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:07:14 +0000

One of the strangest things that I saw on my recent trip to London was a group of cycling Santas. Other, more conventional, photographs from my trip can be viewed here.

I am definitely very confused, but I do like Venn diagrams.

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:02:41 +0000

I am definitely very confused, but I do like Venn diagrams.

This image comes from an article titled Robert Downey Jr.’s...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:02:35 +0000

This image comes from an article titled Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock — Faithful or Flawed?. While it’s interesting to see that the movie seems to be making an attempt to stick to some aspects of the Holmes canon, I’m still utterly convinced that the movie will be awful, at least from a Holmesian perspective. All of the trailers have filled me with dread, and the only positive I can think of is that at least they’re avoiding the false stereotype of the bumbling, hopeless Watson. It’s definitely true that not all previous films are strictly to canon, and even my favourite screen version of the Holmes stories, the 1980s TV series starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, makes some major changes. But the difference as I can see it is that that TV show, while changing some details, absolutely kept the tone and style, the feel, of the books. The trailers for the new movie make it look like someone took the idea of the Holmes character and shoehorned it into a non-Holmesian story. *shudder*

The Sandman, the epic comic book series by Neil Gaiman, is what...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:59:16 +0000

The Sandman, the epic comic book series by Neil Gaiman, is what got me into reading comic books (yes, I’ll call them comics rather than the more pretentious and (pedantically) incorrect graphic novels). Since then I’ve read a lot of different comic book series, but The Sandman remains pretty much my favourite (with a few close runners up which I hope to review in the coming months). I’ve also become a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s work overall, and with the possible exception of American Gods and a few short stories, I still think this is his best work. I’ve read the whole series through twice before, but after discussing it with a few friends recently I was overcome with a great urge to revisit it. One of those friends had never read it (a crime, considering that he is otherwise a huge Gaiman fanboy) so I agreed to lend him the books. Therefore, I’m rapidly reading through them myself, trying to keep one volume ahead so that I can let him borrow them as I finish them. I’ve just finished the first volume, which is universally regarded as the weakest, but already I’m completed hooked again.

I'm Going On Holiday!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:50:00 +0000

I’m going on a mini holiday this week, visiting London. It’ll be the third time I’ve been there in the past two years, and each time I’ve gone it’s only been for a few days at a time, which is why I keep going back to see more. This time, rather than going alone, I’m going with my mother, which may sound a bit lame, but I’m looking forward to spending some time with her, as we get on well and I haven’t seen her as much since I moved a few months ago. (It’ll also be nice if I can scam her into paying for most things!) Normal service will resume when I return on Friday.

A Follow Up Post on Movies and Piracy

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:47:09 +0000

A few days ago I posted something about movies and cinema attendance (see here). Following that I read this post on a similar topic, and thought I’d post my own thoughts in response. (I’m not simply reblogging it, because I’ve yet to figure out a way to format reblogged post that doesn’t annoy me!)

My original post had stated, to paraphrase, that I’d much rather go to the cinema to see a film than torrent it or watch it only on DVD (though I should have pointed out at the time that this applies only to movies that I’m really looking forward to seeing or films that I really like, and that there are indeed still films that can only be considered ‘rentals’).

One of the arguments that is made in support of piracy (well, maybe not support but more by way of an explanation) is that some people prefer not to go to see movies in the cinema, in part because of negative experiences there (ironically brought about by strict anti-piracy measures). Personally, while I do love seeing films in the cinema, I have increasingly found it less than pleasant.

The two local cinemas that I attend are quite different: one is located in the city centre, has only two screens and is part of a government-supported arts centre (the same building also houses various art exhibitions); the other is an Odeon multiplex on the outskirts of town. The former is wonderful for showing indie and foreign films, has nice seats, and the employees are always polite; it’s also a lot cheaper, as tickets cost £5.40 in the evening, with discounts during the day and for films that are part of specific programmes. The latter is pretty much what you’d expect - rather shabby, expensive (£7 regardless of the time of day), staffed largely by unpleasant people working dead-end jobs, and frequented by annoying people who talk and send text messages during the film.

Obviously I tend to favour seeing films in the arthouse cinema, but I still do need to go out to the multiplexes to see bigger films that don’t make it to the smaller cinema. As pointed out in the post that I’m responding to, recently there is another problem with attending the bigger cinemas, which is there over-the-top anti-piracy measures. These include things like bag searches, but also the increasingly annoying anti-piracy advertisements. It’s ridiculous that they show an advert in front of the movie, thanking you for coming to the cinema rather than pirating it, because of course, if you’d pirated it, you wouldn’t have to sit through the annoying advert.

Furthermore, I’ve never seen anyone attempt to pirate a movie, and I’m not even sure that I could tell the difference between someone recording the film and just being a dick who is using their phone during the film. I also don’t think that most pirated copies of movies come from regular cinemas (especially ones here in the UK where more films we have have already been released in the US and other countries already). It’s more likely that they come from within the film industry (cynically I’d suggest sometimes they are even released intentionally to create hype) or that people who work in the cinema are the ones responsible.

This video by Mark Kermode, linked to in the post I’m responding to, pretty much summarises that key point, which is that people pirate movies because they want the choice over where and how to see them, and unlike the music industry, the movie industry hasn’t yet provided decent legal alternatives. It’s still not something I’d opt to do personally, but I do wish that the cinemas here (especially the multiplex ones) would improve the atmosphere and do more to combat the problems of over-priced tickets, annoying patrons, and limited choice, than the insignificant one of piracy. Because if the cinemas don’t improve, it’ll only cause more people to choose to watched pirated copies of films.

Juno is a movie that I have somewhat mixed feelings about. It...

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:47:01 +0000

Juno is a movie that I have somewhat mixed feelings about. It was hugely hyped up at the time of its release, and when I saw it at that time, I found it to be mostly entertaining though not as good as some people had suggested it would be. Over time, as I thought about it and discussed it with other people, I came to find it more and more irritating. I saw it again this weekend, against my better judgement, and this time I think I have a better idea of how I feel about it. My two main issues with the film are 1) that the main character Juno is unbearably annoying, such an indie cliche, and yet is portrayed as though she’s incredibly smart and cool, and 2) that the plot is a ridiculous piece of pro-life propaganda. There is only one part of the film that I find gives it some redemption, and that is the interaction between Ellen Page and Jason Bateman, because in those scenes Juno is revealed to be the naive and arrogant teenager that she is (and yet the film still doesn’t expand on that at all). Overall it’s not all bad, as it’s certainly entertaining enough to watch and there are some moments of comedy and drama (I especially like JK Simmons and Allison Janney as Juno’s parents). But I do find it insistently annoying at times.

I love going to the cinema to see films. My local arthouse...

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:35:29 +0000

I love going to the cinema to see films. My local arthouse cinema has shown quite a few old movies, including ones that I’ve seen before, and I’m still often willing to pay to go see it on the big screen, even if I own the DVD. The Prince Charles Cinema in London (the one pictured) is possibly the nicest cinema that I’ve ever been in, and while it’s true that some big multiplex chains can be pretty nasty and not provide the best experience, there is something about seeing a movie on the big screen (in a good cinema) that gives it an edge over just watching it on television. I don’t necessarily agree with the opinion expressed in the picture however; I live in a small town and there are lots of independent or foreign films that never get shown anywhere near where I live. I don’t see how torrenting a film that you wouldn’t be able to see otherwise would hurt a cinema, as you’re not depriving that cinema of business. However, that being said, I don’t torrent movies as I’m happy to wait for DVDs in those case, and I certainly wouldn’t torrent a film when I could see it on the properly on the big screen. Now if my local cinemas could show all of the films that I want to see, rather than devoting most of the screens to crap blockbusters, then I’d really be happy.

Monty Python’s Life of Brian is often regarded as the best...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:11:00 +0000

Monty Python’s Life of Brian is often regarded as the best of the Monty Python films, and I think that may be true objectively, although personally I prefer Monty Python and the Holy Grail slightly more; it’s close though. It’s a great religious satire, but not one that takes itself too seriously. It’s the film with the most coherent plot; there are lots of great scenes, but crucially the film does really feel like a complete story rather than a collection of sketches. All the Pythons have great moments here, with Graham Chapman (my favourite member of Monty Python) again providing the lead character on whom the story centres, with the other actors playing multiple roles in various scenes. Overall, it’s an excellent film and not just one of my favourite Monty Python pieces, but one of my favourite comedies, and one of my favourite films, of all time.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is my favourite of the Monty...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:10:00 +0000

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is my favourite of the Monty Python films, partly because it was the first that I ever saw and so I suppose it holds a special significance for me. I also think that while Monty Python’s Life of Brian is better executed and a more coherent film, this one has more of the energy and absurdity of the original television series. Some of my favourite Python bits are in this film, and it’s one that I (over) quoted a lot for many years (hell, I still do). While it does feel more like a collection of related sketches than a complete film at times (in contrast to Life of Brian), I nonetheless think that this works really well as all of the Pythons have good roles and scenes. As I said in my other review(s), Monty Python’s Life of Brian and Monty Python and The Holy Grail are together two of my favourite films ever, and the highlights of my Monty Python collection.

The Dark Tower Review

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:47:00 +0000

The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed…

I’ve now finished reading my way through The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. As I said when I first started this, I’d read the first four books before, but I was planning to read all seven books this time. I’ve finally finished them (total reading time: September 13th - November 29th) so I thought I’d post my thoughts on the series now.

The series, which is inspired by Robert Browning’s poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, is about a knight-like character, Roland, who is the last remaining gunslinger from a world that has now ‘moved on’. His quest is to find the Dark Tower, the building which acts as a kind of anchor point for the existence of all the universes. Along the way he draws three characters from three different time points in our own universe, who join in his quest, which eventually becomes not just to see but also to save the Dark Tower.

I was first attracted to the series because it is a blend of three quite different genres - horror, fantasy and westerns. I’m not a particular fan of these genres separately, but the combination in these books works really well. Roland is a cowboy, but in the style of an ancient Arthurian knight, while the fantasy aspects combine a Tolkien-like quest with modern day characters and perspectives. I particularly like that the series spans not only Roland’s world but also our own world, with the characters travelling several times between the two.

The first book, The Gunslinger, is actually not particularly similar in tone or style to the rest of the series, and I see it more as a set up for the other books, introducing the main character, his world, and the point of his story. Things don’t really get started until the second book, The Drawing of the Three, which introduces the rest of the main characters. This set up continues into the third book in the series, The Waste Lands. The second half of that third book, however, is where the plot seems to get started properly, as all of the characters are in place, and we start to explore more of the world which is the setting of the series.

Book four of the series, Wizard and Glass, feels to me like a bridge between the first half and the second half. After wrapping up the cliffhanger at the end of the last book, there is then a long story-within-a-story where we get more of the history of the main character Roland and his world.

Wolves of the Calla, the fifth book, is possibly my favourite of the series, as it has strong story that works well as a stand alone story but also ties in to the larger mysteries and plot of the series. Plus it features a lot of my favourite aspect of this series, which is the crossing between the parallel worlds (including 20th century earth). It ends on a great cliffhanger too, which is then resolved in one of the shortest books of the series, Song of Susannah. I didn’t particularly care for that sixth book as much as the others, as it felt mostly like filler between the previous and next book, linking them but not resolving anything.

The last book, titled only The Dark Tower, is a really emotional conclusion to the series. It’s actually the most hit-and-miss book in the series, as there are parts of it that didn’t work very well, but overall it’s a conclusion that is in equal measures satisfying and devastating. Thinking about it, it really is the perfect conclusion to a story that I couldn’t figure out how they were going to end (to say more would be to give too many spoilers away).

Overall, I really loved the series, which is the best of the Stephen King books that I’ve read (though the only other one that I particularly like at all is The Stand). But it’s true that King is a much better storyteller than he is a writer (to his credit, he acknowledges this in the book!) and these books aren’t perfect. There are some questionable things, like King himself appearing as a character, and characters from his other books appearing too. But the story is a strong one, and I love the world that it’s set in - as described in the book itself, it’s a world of ‘robots and cowboys’. Being such a long series, I was able to grow attached to the characters and therefore the events in the last book were very emotional at times (I cried whilst reading the last book on a train!).

I’d really recommend it, though it is quite a commitment to get through all of the books. It’s definitely an epic, which is what King says he set out to write. But I’m very glad that I persevered and finished the series this time. I’m now looking forward to reading the comic book prequels, as a further excuse to revisit Roland and his world.

Books Read in November 2009 The Dark Tower Vol 5: Wolves of...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:24:00 +0000

Books Read in November 2009

The Dark Tower Vol 5: Wolves of the Calla – Stephen King
The Dark Tower Vol 6: Song of Susannah – Stephen King
The Dark Tower Vol 7: The Dark Tower – Stephen King

(Yes, I only managed to get through three books this month, but two of them were over 700 pages long. Plus, now I’m finished The Dark Tower series).