Films
Films, Alexander’s really awful crappy day
So, another daddy daughter trip to the cinema. The cinemas always a good option because it’s simple, but there was a terrifyingly heartbreaking moment when I learnt the children’s film every day was the ‘Frozen’ singalong, but fortunately Alexander’s crap day was also on. I can’t remember the full title so I apologise.
Yep, it was entertaining, and even quite funny at some points. I personally felt it was another example of a film that can’t decide between being a kids or adult film and it needed to be either less or more risqué. The girl didn’t laugh a great deal, but there were a good number of chuckles, a few giggles and then suddenly Steve carrell chases a kangaroo and she’s shrieking.
The big realisation for me was that Jennifer garner has reached a point in her career where she’s just a generic character in these films- Steve carrell too to a point, but he’s had some success and can afford to relax- she’s at an age where there clearly aren’t any outstanding roles for her, but she’s a good enough actress’s to keep getting cast in films. I’ll have to look into that, a lot of her films seem to be the same situation.
Anyway the film was entertaining, a good time was had with the girl and I got to spend some money on geeky stuff too.
Films, a list from my big weird diary
So, another list I found in my big weird diary, this time of films. This I think was just a list of films I like. I may have to watch them all again to review them.
Big fish
The wedding singer
Anger management
Karate kid
Star Wars
The notebook
Drop dead Fred
Lord of the rings
Toy story
Jodha akbar
The shawshamk redemption
Clockwork orange
Forrest Gump
The matrix
One flew over the cuckoos nest
Team America
Braveheart
A nightmare before Christmas
The three musketeers
Dead poets society
Blast from the past
Gran Torino
August rush
Meet joe black
The last samurai
Zulu
Good will hunting
Borat
Ground control
It’s funny, reading through the list and seeing classics mixed amongst crass low brow comedies, I don’t know if this list was in any order, I doubt it. But I’ll try and watch them in this order.
Life, what am I going to do next
So, tonight in the pub I scribbled down a list of things that I want to achieve by the end of the year.
The intention of course is it achieve all of them. Realistically if I can achieve the majority of them then it sets me up to achieve more next year
Here’s the list
Win a game of x wing
Play an x wing tournament and not finish bottom
Paint some kind of wee man from start to finish
Find some productive way to get out of the house more often
Find a good balance of drinking- ie less time drinking lots at home, a little more time (perhaps a regular) drinking a couple in the pub
Write something- no more half started ideas, fully write something, with plans and expansions, submit it for critique online and begin the rewriting
Teach the girl to ride her bike
Teach the girl to tie her laces
Talk to the boy more so he can pick up a word a day (minimum)
Teach the boy something
Have a good time away with my partner
Make some new friends
Write three full chapters of my rom com novel
Clear away all my crap from the house
Get a new suit
Pay off my overdraft
Reduce my loan ahead of schedule
Close my littlewoods account
Cook once a month
Close my bank credit card
Get credit rating to top bracket
Do something I haven’t done before
Go somewhere I haven’t been before
Learn to budget properly
Run 100 miles
Do something weekly with the boy
Give blood twice
Take the girl to wookey hole
Travel somewhere for me
Make someone I don’t know laugh
Make someone I don’t know smile
Play a game of pool
Play a game of warhammer
Play a game of something new
Inventory my wee men collection
Do a car boot sale
Do something amazing for the kids
Do something special that makes my partner say ‘I love you’
Get better at tolerating morons
Get off the anti depressants
Get a friend to visit
Get in touch with some old friends
Try some food I haven’t tried before
Approach someone I don’t know and start a conversation
Plan bigger better targets for next year
Reestablish routine in my life
Decide where I want to go/what I want to do with life
Make a plan to make it happen
Pre thirty bucket list
Find a way of making more money
Persuade my partner to join something
Fill my days with more activities, less vegging out
Discover a new band
Music magpie my DVDs
Maintain my blog, including scheduling future posts
Make friends with a school parent
Get my body sorted
Read 4 ‘classic’ books
Watch 4 ‘top 250’ films I haven’t seen
Watch 2 foreign language films
Rewatch Jodhaa Akbar
Play a game of chess
Get boy off dummies
Find a new hobby
Find a geocache
Learn to use washing machine and tumble dryer
Listen to 4 ‘top 250’ albums I haven’t heard
Watch all Star Wars films with girl
Watch x men days of future past
Rewatch firefly
Watch a life of pi
Watch the hobbit desolation of smaug
Learn something new
Have a ‘dinner evening’ with friends
Invite one of the girls school friends to play
Drink whiskey without watering it down
Buy a bottle of wine that isn’t gone in an evening
It looks like a random list, and essentially it is, I’ll be updating midway through the remainder of this year
Films, the lego movie
So, today was daddy daughter day, something we don’t do often enough but that the two of us always enjoy.
We went to the cinema, then to mcdonalds followed by the park and the pub. She enjoyed the pub because she could drink ‘beer’ with daddy- or lemonade.
We saw the lego movie (first I should say that I was finally able to experience cinema kids clubs as a customer, not as a member of staff- all those times picking up popcorn etc suddenly gain context).
Anyway the film, well it was great, clearly it won’t change your life nor win any real awards aside from animation ones, but if you’ve ever collected/played lego then this films fun, from the variety of historical lego sets and bits to the standard troubles of building/playing lego there’s something there.
Little references to kit numbers, jokes about infamously failed lines and even the 1980s space man with broken helmet. It was great, and also raised a vital question; should you always follow the instructions? I think the answer is clearly both, but it also raises bigger questions about lego in it’s current format.
Current kits allow you to build what’s I the box (following the instructions of course) but whilst traditionally there has been emphasis on rebuilding other things you can now only really build a crappier version of what’s in the box. For some people this isn’t an issue, but I find a big box of lego to be far superior to individual model kits- just so long as you keep the instructions the you can always have the choice.
Just never use C R A F T G L U E and everything is awesome!!!!!!!!
Films, Robocop
So, recently I watched the Robocop remake and I can’t remember it, I’m sure I said it was ok but just not the same. Tonight I watched the original
Yeah, it’s really shit, but it’s also really awesome. The satire is sharp, and has over twenty something years become even sharper, and the gore and mindless violence does a lot to hide it. No, not hide it, but disguise it. You know it’s in your face but that’s ok because someone’s just had his hand blown off.
Yeah, I really enjoyed watching it. So i said I’d be in bed shortly (to my partner of course) but Robocop 2 is there so I can’t guarantee it.
Then again it’s just loaded up and the bright blue armour is a put off
Films, New Year’s Eve
So, tonight we had an impromptu date night and my partner selected a film for us, New Year’s Eve, a romantic comedy style ensemble montage thing set on New Year’s Eve.
The focus was on love, family and hope for new beginnings and was what I would term as ‘nice.’ A ‘nice’ film, the message was simple- love people and there’s always a chance to make your life better- and no real risks were taken with the story telling.
It was enjoyable because everything turns out well for the characters, the setting of New Year’s Eve immediately prompts nice feelings in most people, but the film felt as though it never got out of second gear, there was no major drama and no real twists and turns, just a flat jumping from story to story with no real links between the settings. Links aren’t vital, but they are one of the things that made love, actually so enjoyable
The other issue I had with the film was that in trying to promote the feelings of hope in the future and redemption of past issues, it created a sense that it was a sequel, too many storylines lacked the explanation and depth that they implied was there for each of the characters.
But it was nice to cuddle up and watch a nice film with my partner
Films, final fantasy advent children
So, I skipped most of this one. I remember watching it once before and enjoying it, but this time I just couldn’t stay focused on it.
Maybe it’s a lack of memory or attachment, but it was just a bit slow.
It was nice to have so many nods, from the use of fringe characters, to the battle winning tune as a ringtone.
Tifas not quite as hot as a Japanese girl either.
Films, x men first class
So, xmen days of future past is out soon (tomorrow I believe) and I had the chance to rewatch first class in anticipation of probably not getting time to see days for a few months.
I really like xmen, in any form there’s always something good about it, even the crap ones.
This isn’t a crap one, I think the casting of James mcavoy and Michael fassbender are fantastic, and the mutant selection smart.
The story was ok, I feel perhaps they moved too far too soon, I’d have liked to have seen more focus on Charles and Eric, and on their friendship before it all goes wrong (a few weeks just isn’t enough time). I also feel the selection of mutants were largely irrelevant to the film. Yes they were cool to see and yes it meant more stuff was happening, but none of them got any proper coverage or attention, the bad guys especially. Sebastian shaw (another good choice in Kevin bacon) was good, but otherwise the bad guys were barely referenced with any story or attention.
The good guys got a little more, if sitting around chatting about powers counts. I’d have liked a slightly smaller team, perhaps banshee, mystique, professor x, magneto and beast. Others could have come later.
But it’s enjoyable, and I am excited to see the new one, except that wolverine gets far too much screen time. I get it, he’s cool and he’s popular, but I want to see other mutants get their time on screen too
Films, Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter
So, with my attendance of the local gaming night occurring on our traditional date night- not that traditional, but we’re trying to maintain it- Saturday became our date night. After a day out with the kids and my partner we were tired so I let her choose the film without any input from me, and she chose abe Lincoln vampire hunter.
Now, I hate vampire films, or at least the vampire films she likes (twilight and that sort of crap), but I was ok with a historical approach. The film actually turned out to be quite enjoyable, the approach felt original enough, and the action scenes were well done (not all in darkness this is a big deal for me )- specifically the horse stampede fight was a cool approach to the traditional fight on a train.
What was also enjoyable was the links to reality, the names, dates and events were all true to abe Lincoln’s life and the American civil war, with the addition of hunting vampires.
It was also nice to just cuddle up on the sofa (a very new, very expensive sofa I should add) have a beer and some pleasant time with my partner, Iv been struggling and exhausted, whilst she’s always exhausted and having a bit of a downer at the minute, so to switch off to trash that turned out to be quite good was a nice end to a good family day
Films, dark knight rises
So, again the hype of a film has ruined it for me. Yeah, I finally watched the dark knight rises and you know what? It was quite good, but the hype and praise it recieved completely overshadowed it.
Batman begins was fresh dark and exciting,
The next one was overshadowed by health ledgers death. The problem is that his performance was fantastic and the film successfully continued it’s dark gritty efforts, but whenever someone dies it changes all perception.
This one was the same, yes ok, there was no death but the appreciation of the film was the same so the hype was mental and everyone declared it a best ever.
But it had some problems for me, first off, batman was crippled, then he recovers, then his back was broken, then he recovered, then he couldn’t reach to escape the pit, then he could with no further preparation. The general story was mostly predictable, and the ending was cheesy and corny all in one hit.
Like I say, it was good, but overshadowed massively and not what I’d been led to believe it would be.
hobbybutterfly 