Death Becomes Her +The Eye (original)

So then, I've been on the waiting list for a while now to get my nose fixed (I can't breathe properly, and it's all lumpy), and was set to be on it for a while longer, but the surgeon phoned me today, saying that there had been a cancellation, and I can have it done on Thursday! Absolutely terrified about having an operation unconscious and staying overnight at hospital, but it'll end up good.

Also, I'm starting a job on Sunday; not a major one, just directing traffic at the exhibition, but it's money until I can find somewhere in town...

Yesterday I saw Death Becomes Her; it was pretty good - The effects were, given the film was made in 1992, excellent. Only one scene really seems to have dated; the rest were still very convincing. Bruce Willis was cleverly cast as a boring, henpecked husband, completely against his Die Hard typecasting. Goldie Hawn was very good at the variety of scenes she had to play, but Meryl Streep tends to annoy me ever since I saw Mamma Mia... She did play her somewhat limited part well, but I can't help noticing the odd over-dramatic movement or emotion she makes, reminding me of her flapping her arms around in "The winner takes it all"... *shudders*. Back to the main film though, the story was very clever, even though I found it quite slow at times, but that's possibly because it was trying to combine two completely different types of film; a love-triangle romantic comedy and a slapstick horror. At the same time, combining these two genres and creating a coherent, enjoyable film must be unimaginably difficult, so the makers were very successful in that. None of the jokes really fell flat to me, and most of the film was entertaining. However, the ending was very very strange; leaning more towards the slapstick side than the rest of the film tended to. Overall, 7/10.

Tonight I saw the Eye (the original Chinese one). From the DVD case and a few other vague sources I was under the impression that it was a very scary and/or gory film (especially when you look at the cover). It was in fact very sparingly gory and the frights were more tension and suspense than jump-scares. I was pleasantly surpsied by this, as this gave way for a very interesting and intriguing plot. It came across to me as a low budget film, as all the suspense was created by very simple means such as camera angles, sound, focus, and slow reveals. To me this is often scarier than the american style of scaring you. I was constantly guessing throughout the film as to what would happen next, and certain changes in direction really surprised me, and the DVD case's promise of "a spectacular finale to rival any blockbuster" is not wrong in rivaling hollywood, but the ending is not what I would call spectacular; it fits in with the rest of the film by focusing largely on the characters and their feelings (albeit with one shot of rather poor cgi). All the cast played their parts really well, and the girl playing the main part was very good at playing someone who had just regained her sight; she conveyed the confusion, and emotion of the experience. 9/10.

In the Name of the King

Up until yesterday I had only heard legends of Uwe Boll's directing; some comparing him to Edward D Wood Jr, or Ed Wood - director of such "classics" as Plan 9 From Outer Space. He has won many Razzies, inlcuding "Worst Career Achievement". Yesterday I decided to watch one of his films; In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Unsuprprisingly it's based on the Dungeon Siege series of games, none of which I've played. I was expecting it to be either hilariously bad like Troll 2 and Ed Wood's films, or just terrible. It was actually quite good.
I say it was good; in actuality it was pretty terrible in terms of film making, but it was very good fun, and it kept me entertained for 2 hours. The lead role is played by Jason Stratham (Crank), who is adequate. His gravely London voice reminded me a lot of Beowulf, but he managed to play emotional scenes as well as fight scenes, so meh. The rest of the cast are pretty much the same; not particularly good, but not bad either. The special effects were pretty bad, with the very few CG models being SO obvious. The "magic" effects were good, but they can be done by 1000 people on youtube with a hacked copy of After Effects. The general look of the film was interesting; all the scenes looked like HDR photos, which is something I've not really seen done in this way in a film before. The downside of this technique though is the general downside of HDR photography; it can destroy the quality. All too frequently, the backgrounds are very grainy (especially noticeable on Blu-ray), and occasionally the skyline shows the "Halo" effect that is a sign of over-manipulation. Still, the appearance was interesting, and given better effects, it would have looked brilliant. The fight/battle scenes reminded me greatly of Power Rangers; with the over-the-top leaping around, with every move emphasised and shown from various angles. This was more true at the beginnig of the movie, and once it got to later battles, it was far better. Still, this added to the fun of the film for me. The WTF moment of this movie came in the form of the smallest regiment of the king's army; they were never referred to, but featured heavily in later battles... Ninjas. There's not much I can say; they're ninjas. The second they appear will prove a turning point for most people - either they've completely suspended disbelief, and are enjoying it for what it is, or will be shocked/confused/outraged and shall turn it off immediately. I understand either response, but I was the former, and actually enjoyed seeing Ninjas in a Medieval Lord of the Rings/Arthurian battle... now that I put it like that it seems even more strange.

Overall it was, as I said, terrible. But because I enjoyed it, it entertained me, and I am likely to buy it cheaply and watch it again, has it completely failed as a film? I feel that movies are taking themselves too seriously in recent years, and something like this takes us back to good, fun films of the 80's. Films aren't supposed to be hyper-realistic, with every action being pheasable in the real world; they're there to entertain people - a lot of people seem to be forgetting that, and are making films look too much like documentaries. For it's sheer entertainment value, I give this film 5/10.

I was going to end that review by sticking up for Uwe Boll, suggesting that he is harshly criticised, but in looking up about him to write the intro, I discovered that he is a tool.

In other news, Little Boots' new video, Remedy, is online. BBC.co.uk had the exclusive showing of it, but Perex Hilton managed to download it, and upload it onto his own website, BBC watermark intact. Perez Hilton once again fails. It would be hilarious to see Little Boots punch him in the face... Will.iam "boom-boom-powed" him, so what would little boots do? "Meddle" with his face?.. nah. Forget I said anything...

Musical Merriment of the day - Little Boots - Remedy - Not really a surprise... the video's more low-key than New in Town, but it fits the song and Little Boots in general more. And the song is perhaps my favourite of 2009 so far. *Bonus Round* Spot Little Boots' signature Unicorn figurine and you win a prize. Not really, but look for it anyway.

Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince

Saw Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince - it was brilliant. I liked pretty much everything in it; the comedy scenes were pulled off better than most comedies of this year (year one?), actually making the WHOLE cinema laugh; the teenage love side of it was not over cheesy or dramatic - pretty realistic actually... Action scenes were the best I've seen this year; the scene in the reeds near the Weasleys' house was very tense and unusually shot, the opening scene with the flythrough of London is astonishing, and the handheld camera work in the bathroom fight was really well done. I am also pleased to say that Warner Brothers bought at least one tripod for this film, using it for all necessary scenes. Some minor changes to the plot were made as usual, but most of the ones I noticed were fine with me; the only one I was a little bit miffed at was when Harry kissed *spoiler*. The wasy that happened in the book was better I feel. However, they still made it 150 minutes which is pretty damn long for a family film, so any fanboy omissions were necessary. The scene in the cave with Dumbledore was genuinely terrifying; when a particular jump-scare happens I left my seat and may have uttered an expletive as my friends later enlightened me to. The actors are now perfectly suited to their parts, and it's only with this film that I've started to see them as actors in their own rights, with most of them being in completely different projects. I don't see them being typecast later on. The main "crew" are brilliant, and Snape is fantastic; Alan Rickman plays his part better in each film.
They got everything right in my opinion, so 10/10.

Also Luna Lovegood is awesome. I just found out that the actress that plays her is a vegetarian... I'm a vegetarian too! It's a match made in heaven.

One the bus home, I was befriended by a drunkard, greeting me thus; "Hey there ya hairy bastard!", in a friendly manner. He went on to invite me to his house for a party. I declined.

Then walking home (at Midnight) I met a couple of tourists walking along the road past Borlum, who in a thick accent started cooing "ghooost! GHOOOOST!"

No.

Denied.

In the interview it turned out I need to be 18 to do the full job. fail.

Saw Tim Minchin Live last night (On TV, not actually saw him). It was brilliant - he's amazing on the piano, and very very funny - I recommend everyone to watch his show.

Little Boots' new video is supposed to be premiered on the BBC website today, so I'll keep checking that.

Very short post today.. not sure what to put.

Feeling more ill that ever. meh.

Musical Merriment of the Day - Yurima - River Flows in you - it's lovely and I can finally play it. It's NOT from twilight though; it was shortlisted for the Bella's Lullaby scene, but Howard Carter's shitty piece was used instead.

Could it be...?

Today I applied for yet another job, but this time, only 30 minutes later, I got a phone call! I have an interview tomorrow!!!
Other than that, I found out that no one has a clue what illness I've got; just that I feel crap. Yet more blood tests.
I have perfected playing River Flows In You by Yurima on piano - it's a lovely song and it's really nice to play once you get the hang of it.
Little Boots' new video - Remedy is due to be released tomorrow; if so that's musical merriment of tomorrow sorted!
I have ended this quite good day on a severely high note; the teaser trailer for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland was released tonight - I'd give a link, but Disney's cleaning up all the youtube videos very quickly; people will keep uploading it though, so have a look - it looks amazing. The visual style is beyond what I imagined, and Johnny Depp is bizarre as the Mad Hatter; what the hell is that accent? I can't describe it; just watch the damn trailer!!

Musical Merriment of the day - Wonder Girls - Tell Me - Korean awesomeness.

Moonwalk One + Public Enemies

The title pretty much sums up my last 24 hours. Firstly, last night I watched the premiere of the recently discovered 1970 Documentary "Moonwalk One", about the Apollo 11 mission. It was awful. So dull and really bizzare at times. Also a lot of the scenes were undoubtedly fake; I'm undecided about the actual moonwalk, but some of the shots from the shuttle/rocket were not real; there would have to have been a camera attatched to the outside of the ship. Nowadays that's easy, but not in 1969; there would have to have been an endless reel of tape to record the stuff, and the camera would have had to have auto-focus to achieve the shots shown; another thing unavailable in that era. Also, some clips of the astronauts' daily life aboard Apollo 11 were excellent quality, and some were pitiful (as I would have expected them to be). Lastly, when "the one whose name no one can remember" was alone, orbiting the moon, who was holding the camera? It was panning around and stuff filming him when he was "alone"... My Dad, who has never questioned the moon landing is now a sceptic having watched this documentary. Nuff said.

Today I saw Public Enemies - it was below average. Johnny Depp was brilliant, as were Christian Bale, Marillion Cotillard, and the rest of the main cast. The problem was Michael Mann's direction. He pushed it too much towards an action-packed exciting film, and away from the exciting-at-times, but interesting and thoughtful biopic that it should have been. There was minimal characterisation; none for anyone other than Johnny Depp's character, meaning all the characters were so dull, drawing out the 140 minutes running time, and removing all of the shock or upset at characters' deaths or pain. The action scenes were too plenty; quite often unneccessary, meaning actually plot-specific action scenes lost all impact or tension. Johnny Depp portrayed John Dillinger in an interesting way; as a fairly immature, naive man trying to live like his heroes from the ganster movies, but the film overlooks this most of the time, and simply recounts his "adventures" in a tired, cliched, unoriginal way. My final gripe with the film was that NOT ONE SCENE had a tripod. I can't stand shaky cameras during "talky" scenes - in an action scene, it sometimes fits, so fine. But NOT during a quiet scene. This film gets 4/10.

On the way home from Public Enemies I was very nearly in a crash when a car pulled into a layby RIGHT in front of us.

Lastly I feel like poo. I'm back to the doctors tomorrow to see if I'm dead. At the moment I fear I may be.

Musical Merriment of the day: 32 Songs in 8 minutes - Pure genius.

Arr!

Today was relatively uneventful. I did, however, find a download of all the sheet music for the complete soundtrack to the Pirates of The Caribbean trilogy. Klaus Badelt's music for those films is some of my favourite film music; it's very powerful. Also loads of other awesome sheet music was on this site, like Duel of the Fates from Star Wars Ep.1. Here they all are. My only dilemna now is what to learn first.

When reading Battle Royale the death of Takako in issue 4 made me a wreck, I'm not ashamed to admit it. It was just TOO emotional for it's own good - it's like the writer has killed each character in a different scenario so that every reader will be emotionally destroyed by at least one - that's both genius and evil.

It goes without saying that I still have no job.

Musical Merriment of the day: John Williams - Duel of the Fates - it's so damned epic; imagine it on piano!! *geekgasm*

Mother's Birthday. Huzzah.

This counts as yesterdays post, as I couldn't get to a computer. As the title suggests it was my mum's birthday. Thus it was raining, as it always does on my Mum's birthday. Went to the Caley Thistle car boot sale (which I've never been to before) which was AMAZING. I bought far too many DVDs and such. Incidently, here's a page showing every DVD I own.
As you can see, I have nothing really interesting to write about.
Perhaps something interesting will happen today making the next post a bit more exciting.
In other news, I drew Ryuk from Death Note.


Musical Merriment of the day: Ringo Hiyori - Wolf Whistling Song - The happiest song in the world.

I am blog. But not job.

Here goes, the last thing that I have hated for a while, and am now doing. Twitter was the big one; now I am hooked, so we'll see how blogging goes. I have nothing interesting to say about what I've done today, because if I did, I'd probably not be bored enough to start a blog.

I am going mad looking for a job - Countless applications; one interview; zero job. Have now signed up to reed and monster... stv jobs (oh give me oh give me a job! job!) have not given me a job, as the site was apparently designed by chimps with crayons.
So far the award for callous rejection goes to Sky who emailed me to inform me that they won't even look at my application because too many people have applied...

Unfortunately due to the high number of applications we receive, we are unable to provide feedback on your application.

The award for gracious let-down goes to Gekko who informed me I have to be 18 to have a job, but invited me to reapply when I turn 18, and they will "gladly consider" my application.

Should this type of employment still be of interest to you once you’ve reached 18 please re-submit your application and we will be happy to review at that time.

Aww.

Credit Crunch does not taste nice.

A lot of people end their blogs with a song reccomendation, so I shall join that too;

Musical Merriment of the day: Little Boots - Remedy