Last.fm [Takes a moment to populate]
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- T-shirt Hell - NOTE Please check current import duty restrictions for sending stuff to the UK. Order too many and the bastards will charge me!
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April 27, 2013, 11:17 pm  First cinema film in almost two-and-a-half months around work, baby and other commitments. It better be worth it…
Iron Man 3
“Where’s my sandwich?”
Plot-in-a-nutshell: Nasty bad man starts blowing places up and Iron Man / Tony Stark decides to stop him
See it if you like: well, Iron Man and Iron Man 2. Dur.
So how does this do as a rounding-off to what’s apparently going to be a trilogy? Very well, in my opinion. Not perfect, but good.
As has to be the case, it’s much “bigger” in terms of wow factor than the previous two. How you manage to top that kind of thing on an ongoing basis is probably what limits most films to trilogies. Iron Man 3 manages it without getting (too) stupid and also without just being a repeat of the first two.
There is a little less of the wise-cracking in this one, and this is in part due to the overall darker tone. IM3 has a much more complex plot and a much nastier villain to go with the increased action quotient. The effects are also staggeringly good as well, due in part to the huge digital effects crew listed in the end credits.
For once, though, Robert Downey Jr has serious competition as the best actor. Ben Kingsley is simply superb as the evil Mandarin, a terrorist seeking to overthrow – or destroy – the US government.
There are some nice moments with Stark dealing with children in various situations which manage not to be at all mawkish, and an under-running theme of “how did you get out of that wormhole in New York?”
As ever, no spoilers, but there is an end-of-credits sequence. I shall say no more.
Oh, do watch the start of the credits up until the part where the big text list appears even if you’re not staying until the end. They’re made up of flashes from all three films, put together in a 1970′s-esque TV montage. It seems to suit the Stark image perfectly.
March 23, 2013, 10:31 am  Asterix would be proud (Photo credit: Wikipedia) We had a little household incident the other day which some may find amusing.
A couple of years ago, I used to take great delight in asking Little Mister what a big boat was called. His mispronunciation of the word “ship” was, to my childish sense of humour, the best thing ever. Especially when I asked him to say it louder as I hadn’t heard. And louder. And louder.
While in the check-out queue at Asda.
This time we has a slightly more private and accidental experience. Words have been changed to make things a little more family friendly. I shall leave it to the reader to translate into “gutter”. I’ve also slightly changed the names, but if you can’t guess who the people are then I recommend you begin your education again with Topsy and Tim just to keep things nice and simple for you.
Mummy Hen (that’s one of the characters I’ve renamed, by the way) was making dinner the other night. Unfortunately, she burnt her hand on one of the oven trays and let out a fairly sincere “Cluck!” (sort of).
Seconds later, a small song was heard from the dining room. Little Mister Hen was singing – to the “Go Compare” tune – “Clucking Bell! Clucking Bell!”
Over. And over. And over.
It’s very hard to tell a child small chicken off when you’re laughing so hard, especially when they don’t know they’ve done anything wrong
March 17, 2013, 2:56 pm  Grab those tracks (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Yes, it’s possible. The instructions are buried on one help page amongst dozens and you’re limited to downloading one at a time… but you can do it. Personally I’m just loathe to install a piece of software just to download one album every third blue moon, which is as often as I buy music from Amazon. One of the reasons for this is their insistence on making you install crapware just to get at the items you’ve legally purchased.
So, go to Amazon and purchase your album. Click the option to go to the Cloud Player not the one to download.
Locate and select one track to download by ticking its checkbox in the left hand column.
Click on the “Download (1)” button and you’re presented with the usual “Click this huge button to install the crappy download software” popup. Down at the bottom of this box is a little link to “Skip installation”. Click this instead.
You’ll now get your usual download dialogue allowing you to actually gain possession of the media you paid money for.
You can download more than one track at a time if you’re quick enough to uncheck one box, check the next one and click “Download (1)” again. This time you won’t get the annoying popup, instead just being presented with your web browser’s standard download dialogue.
Why Amazon have to make thing so bloody awkward, I don’t know. A simple “click to download ZIP” or similar would do the job. Regardless, I now have my free Nuclear Blast album downloaded so I can pop it on my phone and listen in the car. Happy now.
March 2, 2013, 2:40 pm  A very swift review more for me to record the fact that I’ve seen it than anything else. I’m reaching that age where I’m looking at a film’s title – or even a trailer – and wondering whether I’ve already seen it or not. Argh.
Man On A Ledge
“That’s what’s great about this county. If you want it bad enough, you can make it back. Hmm? In this city, on this island, we don’t go to work, we go to war! And if somebody takes something from you, you take it back. And more.”
Plot-in-a-nutshell: Ex-cop banged up for a diamond heist stands on a window ledge 21 floors up to help prove his innocence.
See it if you like: Crime thrillers and heist movies
Fairly enjoyable if nothing new, some nice moments and ideas and a truly nasty bad guy. It’s not going to blow your socks off, but on the other hand it’s not a waste of an evening. A perfectly slightly above-average heist movie.
Trivia point – the guy who plays the hotel valet also played the Grim Reaper in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey!
February 15, 2013, 1:57 pm  These days we need an excuse to get to the cinema, so with Valentine’s Day popping its ugly head over the Hallmark parapet we grabbed a nice dinner at the new ASK Italian then over the road to Cineworld to see the newest rom-zom-com:
Warm Bodies
“They’re not curing themselves. We’re their food source. They are not becoming vegan.”
Plot-in-a-nutshell: walking dead becomes walking slightly-less-undead when he falls for a survivor
See it if you like: Funny horror films, basically. And cheese. Lots and lots of cheese.
While Shaun of the Dead couldn’t really be held responsible for a “slew” of spin-off comedy zombie films, there have been a few kicking around over the last few years and the success of Pegg’s film is bound to have had some effect. This one is based on a novel and one I do want to read if it’s as good as its adaptation.
The tale definitely owes a nod to Romeo and Juliet as our “hero” zombie R (he can’t remember the rest of his name, played by Nicholas Hoult) hooks up with Julie (Teresa Palmer), a survivor of a plague that turned most of the world’s population into shambling brain-eaters. Those which go even further down the infected line lose all their skin and turn into skeleton-like “Bonies”. Fast-moving, fierce and not-very-well-CGI‘d, these are the real bad guys in this piece.
As well as this “stages of zombieness” idea is a nice twist where it’s explained why zombies eat brains in the first place. I won’t spoil it though!
It’s apparent from the start that “R” is a little different, holing up in an aircraft with a collection of stuff that makes him appear like a shambling WALL-E. A lot of the dialogue is voice-over material as we get to share his thoughts, a novel idea for a zombie flick where we normally assume that they don’t have any.
Soon enough, he rescues Julie and the two start to bond. She, of course, is the daughter of the leader of the anti-zombie forces (Grigio, played by John Malkovich) which is bound to cause some problems should she try to take her new boyfriend home to meet daddy.
The film follows their development as a couple, the changes it makes to “R” and also the other zombies. This is definitely not a fast-paced, taught zombie fest. This rom-zom-com focusses heavily on the “rom”, has novel ideas about the “zom” and manages very well with the “com”. The audience in the cinema (sold out) were very vocal with their laughter around a lot of the dialogue – deservedly so.
Simply, it’s a nice film. Not excessively gory, though the Bonies would likely give younger viewers a few nightmares. It doesn’t run too long, it’s a clever idea, the cast work well and the jokes don’t fall flat.
Gillian really liked it, I enjoyed it and we’d both recommend it.
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