Author: Mosh

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!

What a long name for a film. And it’s even got a different one in the US (Pirates! Band of Misfits) just to confuse matters. Anyway, the local Cineworld had a showing for £1 this Saturday morning (although you have to take a child with you to get in) thus demonstrating one definite advantage in having a couple of nippers in the house. I took Little Mister while his big sis, and gestating little sis, were at a guitar lesson.

The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists!

“I HATE PIRATES!”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Crap pirate tries to win Pirate of the Year prize by being less crap, but still while made of Plasticene

See it if you like: the other Aardman films, and very impressive animation

Just a quick review as I’m rushed for time. On the whole, not a bad film. The animation is probably the best I’ve ever seen from Aardman, with some astoundingly details scenery and characters. I gather there is a touch of CGI, mainly for things like water and the sky, but everything else is hand-crafted and absolutely beautiful to behold.

Little Mister didn’t seem to be enjoying the film as it progressed and I can kind of understand why. Kids need a simple, obvious good character in a film to root for and there simply isn’t one in Pirates! Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) is the one who comes good at the end, but he’s not really good. He’s just crap at being a pirate along with the rest of his crew. Throw in the nasty competitors for Pirate of the Year, a backstabbing Charles Darwin (David Tennant) and an insane, scary Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton) and I can see why he said on a few occasions that it was “too scary”.

Having said that, by the time the titles were rolling I had to encourage him out of his seat and he was chattering about how much he wanted to tell mummy about it. So like Pirate Captain, I guess it came good for him in the end!

There is a good run of humour through the film from chortlesome slapstick to the typical wonderful visual humour that Aardman seem to just throw around as if anyone can do it. A chief example is Bobo the monkey who “talks” using pre-printed cards. There’s no explanation as to where these cards come from, or how they happen to have the right words on. They’re just there. And they allow a degree of comic timing that any stand-up comedian would kill for.

The story is good and it doesn’t run for too long. There is a wealth of background gags, so it would probably stand up to repeat viewing by adults – and if you get it on DVD for the kids, you just know you’ll be subjected to it multiple times. If I had a problem with it, it was that the volume of the voices seemed a little low at times which made it difficult to pick up some of the quick one-liners. However, there’s always the possibility this was an issue particular to the cinema.

Not bad, and enjoyed by a 4 and a 38 year old today.

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Interest on “Interest-Free” balance transfers?

Credit Card
Credit Card (Photo credit: 401K 2012)

Watch out for this one…

I took out an Amazon credit card via MBNA some months ago. They offered an interest-free balance transfer (subject to the usual small fee) which I made use of. In addition, they run a points system which builds up towards Amazon vouchers based on the amount you spend.

All fine and hunky-dory.

However, I noticed that I was being charged a small amount of interest each month despite paying off all purchases I made on the card as soon as I made them. Three pounds one month, £1.23 the next… that kind of thing.

I rang and the chap on the phone apologised, said he couldn’t work out why this was happening and refunded the money.

Over the next three months, it continued so I rang again. Once more, I checked my purchase/payment procedure with them, clarified the position as regards the outstanding transferred balance, the chap apologised, refunded and all was fine.

Surprise. Three months on and I had another three charges on there – £1.00, £1.21 and £1.00. I’ve just called them *again* to sort it, but this time I’ve been informed differently.

Because I’m making purchases, I have to clear the *entire balance* each month – not just the purchases – otherwise I incur interest. This seems to be the case even if I buy something then immediately go online and make a debit card payment onto the card before it’s appeared on any statement.

However, if I don’t use the card – which is where MBNA make their money! – then I don’t incur interest. This doesn’t make sense to me, as it’s using the card for purchases which nets the issuer a fee from the retailer. With the current scheme they’re encouraging me *not* to use the thing!

In addition, the card promises “up to 50-ish” (sorry, can’t recall the actual amount) of days interest-free on purchases. This obviously isn’t the case as I’m being charged interest on purchases which I’m paying off – at the most – a couple of days after I make them.

Obviously, the solution is to pay off the entire transferred balance first and then start using the card as normal but that’s just not how it was sold to me, nor explained by the first two people on the phone.

At least I know where the charges have been coming from at last, and they have all been refunded to date – though I’m aware there will be *another* pound on next month’s that I’ll have to ring up and contest.

So keep your eyes open, folks, and check those statements!

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Internet access *is* a Human Right

English: Emblem of the United Nations. Color i...
Emblem of the United Nations (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thus sayeth the UN after a resolution was passed unanimously by their Human Rights Council.

This is a Good Thing, as the resolution declared that the right to be able to get online and express oneself freely was a right of every person on the planet. Wonderful, and something I wholeheartedly agree with.

However…

a) How could China, with it’s famous “Great Firewall“, sign this with a straight face? While Chinese people can access the internet, they do not get access to the same level of information as people in the West. They also certainly cannot express themselves freely as many recent news stories have demonstrated, with people being arrested for even drawing attention to certain topics let along going into detail about them.

b) France has a “three strikes and you’re cut off” policy for those accused of (note: not necessarily “found guilty of”) downloading copyrighted material. The UK has been looking at similar plans as have other countries. This resolution is going to knock that kind of legislation for six, surely? It’s worth pointing out that neither France nor the UK are current members of the United Nations Human Right Council, so did not sign the resolution.

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The Amazing Spider-Man

With the surprise additions of Little Miss who decided to extend her “world’s latest bedtime” record until after 11pm, we opted for cheap-o-vision rather an IMAX to see the umpteenth version of the Webbed Wonder. Astoundingly, there were more 2D than 3D performances at the local Cineworld so we didn’t have a problem getting tickets.

The Amazing Spider-Man

“You seriously think I’m a cop in a skintight red and blue suit?”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Seriously? OK… boy gets bitten by spider, gets spider powers, faces big nasty bad guy. Happy?

See it if you like: Comic book adaptations with a very strong story, which don’t stay as close to the version you’re used to as you may expect

First things first – did they deliberately hunt out a director called Marc Webb purely for this film or did he change his name for publicity reasons? Either way, he’s done a good job and even turned a doubting Thomas like me into a believer. I simply couldn’t believe they were “rebooting” a franchise that was barely ten years old, with the last instalment not even five years ago.

Reboot they did, though, and relative unknown Andrew Garfield was cast in the Peter Parker role. A part, incidentally, he’s very good in. He has all of the confused teenagery-ness that Maguire had… and then some. Parker’s “proper” girlfriend as per the older comic history, Gwen Stacey, is drafted back in in the form of Emma Stone. Pretty, yes, but definitely doesn’t pass for a high school pupil. At all. Denis Leary is superb as her dad, Captain Stacey, and it’s great to see him in a film role for the first time in ages (not counting voicing animated sabre-toothed tigers).

There are many other differences between this and the last series, which is a good thing. I really enjoyed the previous trilogy, and it’s a welcome thing to see that they’re not effectively being remade. The basic story is still there (MINOR SPOILER: orphan who lives with aunt and uncle is bitten by spider, develops powers, has fight with uncle, uncle dies, boy tries to hunt down killer) but beyond that we’re in fairly new territory.

Despite appearing in the previous films, Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) never actually featured as a villain. In this, he’s the central one and a great character with two very interesting sides to his story. There are many nods to other parts of Spidey-history that fans may be familiar with, but they are really just on the periphery – The Bugle, OsCorp and so on.

Oh, and of course the obligatory (in fact, I believe contractual) Stan Lee cameo. This is the best one he’s done so far. Even better than that from Thor (which was, let’s face it, the only good bit in that film).

If there’s a problem with the film it’s that it’s a bit too drawn out and slow to get going. Gillian and I felt it, but it didn’t bother us too much. Little Miss, on the other hand, definitely needed the action to kick in a little earlier. At 137 minutes long, it’s a long time to wait to see some ass-whupping. Having said that, once it gets going the action sequences are superb. Not too fast, while still being clear and imaginative. Much use was made of acrobats and actors rather than CGI and it shows in the character movement making them all the more realistic and enjoyable to watch.

Would this have been worth the extra cash to see in 3D at the IMAX? Yes, I think it would. There are enough huge scenes that I think it would benefit. However, there’s nothing wrong with seeing it in good old-fashioned 2D.

A cracking film, and a good take on what’s becoming a very familiar story.

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Ice Age 4

Time to take the kids to the cinema for a change, and with the holidays here (or “coming soon” if you’re south of the border) we’ll shortly be inundated with choice. Right now the big release is:

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift

“Holy crab!”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: as the earth starts to reshape itself, Manny and his crew become separated from the herd

See it if you like: the other films in the series

And the ongoing saga of the mammoth, sloth and sabre-tooth continues in this fourth instalment. After a disappointing and mawkish sequel, things perked up with the third film. So how does episode four match up?

The first point to note is that it held Little Mister’s attention for pretty much the entire duration. This is a Good Thing. Even around the hour mark when he informed me that he needed to go to the toilet, I had to walk him out backwards so that he could keep watching the screen until we got through the doors! Little Miss seemed to enjoy it, too.

Like more animations these days, the story and humour are on several levels and IA4 does manage to appeal across the board. The animation is bold and impressive. The geek in me is still impressed with realistic hair (Manny’s daughter Peaches is the great example of this) and the movement of the characters is a joy to watch.

Thankfully there’s only one song in the movie with the exception of the awful mess in the end credits, so the story doesn’t really slow down too much. Of course, being a kids’ film there’s a lot of focus on not being mean to people, family being important and all that. Getting past that, though, there’s enough other stuff going on to distract adults from the forced moral issues.

Star of the series, if course, is Scrat the squirrel-like creature in constant search of the perfect acorn. He doesn’t disappoint during his sequences here and – as ever – is by far and away the highlight.

Oh, as a bonus there’s a Maggie Simpson short before the main feature that is well worth catching. With no speech at all, it’s a bit of a novelty as far as Simpsons episodes go, but it’s cute and clever at the same time.

I’m sure Ice Age 4 will be decreed as “unsuitable” by the more extreme Christian web pages as it deals with evolution and continental separation. From the point of view of a non-idiot, it’s a fun film for kids with enough going on to keep their accompanying parent-folk happy.

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