I just spotted that a UK company called Photobox are prepared to make a donation to one of three charities when you make a purchase through them. The charities are the Alzheimer’s Society, TreeHouse and – I’m very happy to say – the Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation.
So if you happen to be in need of a greetings card (or a box of them) then do take a look. I think I’ll be using them for Mother’s Day!
As an alternative, Blue Dragon do their own line of cards. Email them at info@bdcf.org to ask about them.
Well the whole world seems to be watching the Watchmen. So I went to watch it. On IMAX in Melbourne. And the first thing I’d say is “save your cash – if you’re going to see it, then see it in normalvision”. It’s good, but it doesn’t make as much use of the screen as, say, The Dark Knight or Spiderman 3.
Mind you, seeing Malin Akerman pretty much naked on a screen the size of a house… She has just taken Alicia Silverstone‘s crown for “most fit bird in a superhero film that I’d really, desperately like to shag”.
Sex rating of the top totty aside, how is it? Well… it’s OK. I remember loving the graphic novel all those years ago (damn, I’m old) but the film didn’t quite conjure up the same magic. It’s not that it’s bad. Far from it. It’s an excellent adaptation and I understand why some of the original story had to be dropped. 2 hours 40 minutes is long enough – a full adaptation would be nearer three times that.
The story’s good, the pacing’s spot on, the cast really couldn’t be better, the visuals are superb, it’s nicely grisly in places, the sex scene had me wishing I was in a darkened room at home with a pause button… all well and good. But it just didn’t tingle my spine like Superman Returns or make me sit in awe like the previously mentioned Dark Knight.
It is nice and dark, though. Whereas the return of Batman took us down dimly-lit alleyways, Watchmen splashes through the sewers and digs for the secret stuff in underwear drawers. We all know Batman’s little secrets – it’s what makes him so much more interesting than any other superhero. What Watchmen does is expand that out to encompass all costumed crusaders. And it asks the questions of what happens when it all goes wrong?
I do recommend going to see the film. It’s not really a superhero film in the traditional sense. The plot is much deeper than anything else similar you’d like to compare it to. And aside from The Punisher you’re not going to see as much graphic violence. However, I do think that the best way to film it would have been as a high-budget 10-episode TV movie or similar. The original comic has a plot that really does deserve that.
In the meantime, though, this is as good an adaptation as could have been hoped for.
Don’t mix up the cooking oil with similarly-coloured washing-up liquid. Although the pot will be very clean afterwards, your popcorn turns out tasting ******* horrid.
For some years now I’ve been harping on about how great Nationwide are as the only UK bank with a debit card you can use abroad for no fees. Likewise, their credit card is one of only three (along with Abbey National and the Post Office) with the same no-fee deal. I even changed my regular current account to them to take advantage of these.
But – you guessed it – no more. From 6 May for its credit card, and 1 June on the debit card, you’ll pay an added 0.84% on spending outside Europe, jumping to 1% in July. Their wording is that they themselves are not adding a fee. They’re simply no longer going to “absorb” the fees that Visa charge to the bank. It’s still – I believe – less than virtually every other bank’s existing charges.
So, without doing a huge amount of research it seems that changing the credit card could be worthwhile but that the debit card (for ATM withdrawals) is still a better deal than any other.
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