***WARNING - POSSIBLE SPOILERS***

It’s been about 7 years since we last saw the two most famous FBI agents in the world and despite the series winding down in popularity (and credibility) towards the end, they left us wanting more. Well, now, all these years later we get more. Mulder and Scully, now no longer employees of the FBI are enlisted by the bureau once again, this time to help find a missing agent with the help of a convicted paedophile priest (Connolly) who also claims to be a psychic.

So, what have the agents been up to for the last 7 years? They were left on the run weren’t they? Mulder had been found guilty of Murder hadn’t he? Alien powers had all but taken control of the FBI right? Well let me tell you right from the start, if you want answers to these questions (Let’s face it, all us X-Fans do) then you’ll be sorely disappointed. They not only avoid the answers to these questions, they completely disregard major plot points in order to get the characters back in play. I’ve not seen such a vulgar display of shark-jumpery in my life. An example of this is when the FBI offer Mulder a deal; Help us find our missing agent and we’ll drop all charges and give you a clean slate. Well, given the events of the final episode fo the series, this is just plain impossible.

Ok, ok, this might be a tad geeky… what about the story at hand? I mean all the shark jumping and unanswered questions can be ignored if the story itself is a good one. Just like in the days of the series’ hay day when all talk of the overall conspiracy could be suspended for an hour while the agents were hot on the tail of the latest Monster-of-the-week. Well this movie, unfortunately falls very short of the mark in this department as well. For a movie based on a TV series based entirely on paranormal phenomenon, not much paranormal shit goes down. Sure there’s a psychic but a really boring one. There’s also some wierd science type experimentation involving dogs and humans and stem cells but we hardly see any of that and the point of it all is hardly explained at all. The plot, then is, in a word, weak. Characters are not developed and the choice Chris Carter made to have one of the main plot devices be Scully’s ongoing battle with her faith and the evidence just seems odd. Amanda Peet, wasn’t so bad as Agent Whitney but Xzibit just pissed me off as Agent Drummy (yeah… I know.). Even Billy Connolly, who I was expecting to brighten up proceedings, even though his character is truly dark, just didn’t. He was very dull indeed, an unfortunate motif for the entire movie.

The Agents though, was it good to see Mulder and Scully back on the screen again? Well, sadly, no. As FBI agents these characters were deeply interesting and could seriously kick ass. Now, they’re just rather boring. Mulder has lost his intensity and even his usual quick wit, mustered nothing more than a slight grin from most of the audience. Scully seems to have regressed deep into her scepticism for some unknown reason which makes her dull and kind of frustrating. After all, one of the main points of the series finale was that Scully had been ultimately convinced of the truth and had become a full blown believer in all things paranormal. The one character that hadn’t lost any of his original chemistry was Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) but the fact that he was even in the movie was a total farce! - See paragraph 2.

All in all then, I was completely disappointed on all counts. This is even more of a shame seeing as Carter had two possible avenues for success and he didn’t take either of them. He could have answered the fans’ questions… but he didn’t. He could have made a really dark, yet blackly comic monster-of-the-week type film, like the old days… but he didn’t. What we have instead is a forced, poorly acted and boring re-incarnation of two classic characters that just leaves you asking “why?”

Verdict:

Of course we can’t call the problems that the iPhone is experiencing DLL hell because the iPhone, in no way, runs windows. However it is quite plausible that the same issue is happening with the iPhone OS. What made me think about this is Chris Pirillo’s video about his Iphone problems. Basically, if you couldn’t be bothered to watch the whole video, the gist was he has had to re-format his iPhone about three times because after a short while he was unable to run any third party apps. Now, from that video you can just about make out he has about 8 pages of apps on his home screen, which lead to many live viewers saying that it was the sheer amount of apps he had installed that was causing the problem. Pretty logical, I thought. Pirillo, however, later dismisses these theories as “idiotic” which, truth be told, kind of blind-sided me.

I mean… why is it idiotic to think that an OS, when loaded with a ton of apps, might start to cough? Windows has done it since the beginning. Are apple now becoming a victim of their own strain of DLL hell? Quite possibly. What Pirillo also adds in that video is that at several times he thought that he’d pinned the culprit down to one particular app, only to uninstall it and the problem continue. That’s a classic DLL hell symptom if I ever saw one. Look at this scenario: You install your 50 apps, one of them goes away and does an update… that update replaces a file that another app, or several other apps also use, these other apps, now no longer recognise that file so they crash. So let’s say you’re fortunate enough to be able to see which app caused these changes and then you uninstall it, this won’t cure the problem because the shared files are left behind in their unrecognised state, your other apps will still crash.

Let’s not forget that these apps are being built by anyone and everyone. Amateurs in their bedrooms are making apps that, could quite possibly render other apps useless and it’s not their fault. I mean, how can they know if another bedroom developer is building an app that will want to make it’s own version of a file that their app also uses? So I’m not blaming the developers, this is Apple’s problem…The apps themselves have little or no awareness of one another so it is up to the OS to ensure that they don’t replace crucial versions of files with their own. But I’m not blaming Apple either. Let’s not forget it took Microsoft like 6 or more versions to free windows of these issues and to all intents and purposes, they’ve not succeeded 100% to this day so for Apple to have as few issues as this and only be on Version 2.0 of the OS is still quite an achievement. As Pirillo, himself, said in that video; this software is not yet mature… we have to expect bugs like this. If we don’t we’re just being unreasonable.

A year (in movie time) after the caped crusader appeared on the streets of Gotham City, Crime is coming to an end. Mobsters and thugs who were previously untouchable are being brought to justice and corruption is dying a death. A new District Attorney, Harvey Dent (Eckhart) is finishing the work Batman is starting by seeing the criminals put behind bars in their hundreds. But the criminal element in the city finds unlikely… and deadly support in the form of an unknown psychopath known as The Joker. It soon becomes clear that Gotham now needs Batman more than ever before.

Waiting for this movie to be released was like waiting for the Christmas present that you asked for most of all and you know your parents have bought you. You see it there all wrapped up, knowing it’s going to be so, so awesome… but you can’t have it just yet. Very little of the plot was released to the public, prior to release and the trailers that were released also gave away very little but were some of the best I’d ever seen. The viral marketing campaign, frankly, kicked ass. The “I believe in Harvey Dent” websites and posters, the mysterious joker websites… the lot.

I’m going to come right out and say something bold before I go into specifics… This film, for me, is quite possibly the best film of the last 5 years. It’s most definitely in my five favourite movies of all time and in the space of it’s running time I had forgotten all about Keaton and Nicholson, the previous Batman/Joker combination, even though they always held a place in my heart.

The casting… well, if you look at my 5 favourite actors post you’ll get a good idea what i thought about the cast. Bale is the best Batman we’ve ever seen, Ledger is the best Joker and Oldman is the best Jim Gordon. I was both pleased and slightly saddened that they dropped Katie Holmes for Maggie Gyllenhaal in the role of Rachel Dawes as Gyllenhaal isn’t exactly attractive in the traditional sense but she is, by far, the better actress. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent was a superb choice. He pulls off the public hero with a mean streak role to perfection. Backtracking however, the star of this movie, and not because of his tragic death, is without a doubt, Heath Ledger. I don’t think anyone imagined that the Joker could ever be played like this. He is truly frightening and is the reason I disagree with the BBFC’s decision to give the film a 12A rating. One thing I know for sure is that The Joker will never be cast in a live action movie again, and if he is, those involved need locking up.

The movie runs at 2 hours and 32 minutes which is mammoth compared to the normal 90 minutes to which we are accustomed as moviegoers. At no point during this time, however did I feel the slightest bit bored. It is a roller-coaster in every sense. It was as tense and suspenseful as any movie I’ve ever seen and at some points I found myself so close to the edge of my seat I nearly fell out of it. I actually saw a review on the Odeon website that said this film was boring and the guy kept looking at his watch wishing it was over… well, to be perfectly honest, he can’t have been watching the same movie! I haven’t been that excited and entertained through a movie that long since Lord of the Rings. I’m not going to give away any more because I’m not into spoilers. I want you to go and see this film and enjoy it as much as I did, knowing as little about it as I did.

All in all then, you need this film in your life. Go and see it… do it now! Come back and let me know what you thought.

Verdict:

Of course it’s not as simple as I just put it but the more and more I look at it, the more I see that it is in fact a lot easier than getting an existing theme and tweaking it… and a hell of a lot more flexible. I should have some screen shots to give you in the coming weeks but below you can take a look a part of the re-design flashing some cheeky ankle… suits you sir ;). I won’t be radically changing the general layout of the site, It’ll still have the sidebar on the right with my latest twitter update and links to my archives and other sweet blogs and the main content area will still contain the latest post in full and the start of the previous four with “more” links. I’m just giving everything a fresh new, more bespoke look. Personally I’m stoked because this isn’t just a chance to get my blog lookin fresh, it’s one hell of a learning experience because every time I build something in WordPress from scratch it gives me a better insight into it’s inner workings. What this means is that I’ll be able to build any kind of site I like using WordPress like a CMS and produce blogs and portfolio sites to other people’s specifications. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to do it too so if you want anything like that doing, get in touch.

So what else have I been up to recently…. hmmmm well, it was recently my boy Brahn’s birthday so we went out for dinner at Le Bistrot Pierre in Derby… it was real good. Before that, though, we took a trip up to the peak district and took some photos which I’ll get up on flickr soon for your viewing pleasure. For his birthday, Brahn got a remote trigger for his EOS 400D which we discovered also worked with Nat’s 350D so we were able to set up a couple of different angles and trigger the shot on both cameras simultaneously. Managed to get some nice shots with that. What we were planning on doing in the near future too is setting up a camera on a tripod and doing some long exposure night shots so keep your eyes peeled for those. While on the subject of flickr, I need to buy my pro account which they only sell in USD for $24.99 or something like that. Problem is I don’t know if my bank will charge me anything for the currency conversion if I pay on my debit card. If anyone knows the answer to this I’d love it if you shared the knowledge.

Oh yeah… on the iPhone front, I’ve pretty much decided to not bother with one unless O2 can match, exactly, my current plan with Orange. Something funny I’ve seen this week though, is how the Apple-loving twitterverse has been talking about the launch. Hard-core iPhone lover Graham Gilbert was one of the greatest, actually tweeting while standing in a queue outside the phone shop waiting for it to open! It’s nuts! Other reactions to Apple’s latest object of desire have been less than gleaming, however. Gav Strange (Jam Factory) lovingly had the following to say….

JamFactory just learnt that the iPhone Apps DONT work on “old” iPhones? What a crock of shit, Apple you are starting to try my patience!

So looks like, following O2’s epic fail last week with the pre-order/upgrade site falling over under the workload that they didn’t expect (yeah right!) the actual device is starting to show cracks. Other tweets point to some of the phone’s apps dramatically killing the battery and as I type this Graham Gilbert has tweeted about the phone getting seriously hot when running any third party app! Not good. So yeah.. if this continues no amount of bending over backwards on O2’s part will make me get one.

Well, that about wraps it up. Until next time sports fans!

The iPhone has a lot going for it, not least of all the fact that it’s from Apple, the “coolest” technology company of the moment, but as a steadfast PC user for many years, none of this matters to me. I’m not some hip sandal-wearing metro-sexual hanging out at Starbucks with my obligatory MacBook Pro. For me, it’s about function and value and finding the right balance of the two to meet my needs. Take my recent purchase of a laptop for example. I chose to buy a Dell machine with a decent spec, similar to that of a MacBook Pro because when I weighed things up, I realised I could get a very similar spec’d machine for what turned out to be roughly 1/3 of the cost. Of course I had the mac lovers on my back talking about “it’s the OS that makes it better” and I do agree to a certain extent. It doesn’t take a genius to see that OSX is more stable than Windows and is known to be less prone to viruses. What it boiled down to was that the extra OS stability wasn’t worth the better part of £1000 of my money. This is with computers though, this post is about phones and what can I compare the iPhone 2.0 with? Well, I can confidently say that, at present, there are no competitors that compare on all levels. There was the LG viewty which there was a lot of hype about but on closer inspection it didn’t come close. The interface was infuriating and it, incredibly, lacked Wi-Fi connectivity. This was seen across the market. All the so-called “iPhone killers” have fallen short, at least in some areas. The iPhone 2.0 looks to continue this trend, at least for the near future.

Feature wise, the iPhone could be of great benefit to me, especially with the unlimited data package. I know from experience that the iPhone’s browser handles web content very well and many sites are now making iPhone specific style sheets. There’s even a WordPress plugin to make your blog play ball with the iPhone!

So, excellent stable OS, unmatched user interface, improved tech specs and all for way less than half the price of it’s predecessor? Why wouldn’t I get one? Well, for a few reasons. Firstly the reason I find most annoying is that the iPhone 2.0 will still only be available on O2, a network I moved away from nearly 2 years ago because, as well as getting piss-poor network coverage (What good is unlimited 3G if you’re in a 3G blackspot?), the calls and text package I got was a joke. Also, don’t get me started on the O2 customer service or lack thereof. Like I said, however, this was some 2 years ago, with 3G becoming the norm and customers demanding data packages, O2 have likely improved their network. Certainly, several friends of mine have nothing but good things to say about them. the other reason is that, although they have made several other big improvements, Apple have yet again neglected the camera and there is still no sign of any flash or auto-focus on the 2 mega pixel on-board camera. It does support video now but, come on, that’s a given, right? Lastly, I’ll admit it. I’m a tightwad. I’ve never paid anything for any contract handset… ever. As a matter of fact I demand my handsets free or I leave the phone shop. The fact that O2 holds exclusivity means that the £99 price tag is non-negotiable. “You don’t want to pay? Fair enough, next please…” I’ll also have to look at what sort of calls and texts package I’d get because at present Orange make sure my text and minute cup runneth over… and I get free cinema tickets.

Check out O2’s full range of iPhone tariffs.

So, the question remains. Should I buy one? I’d love to hear your opinions.

Dan

Looking online briefly it seemed that the one people were talking about at the moment was the ixus 80IS which came in at about £169. Not too bad I thought, so I began reading reviews and what soon became clear was that this camera was good but not significantly better than it’s predecessors the ixus 70 and the ixus 75. So I looked at them because, hey, I like saving cash where I can. The ixus 75, despite having a larger LCD screen looked flimsy and a bit tacky to me. The ixus 70 on the other hand, looked like a little gem! sleek, robust looking and packing a more-than-adequate 7.1 mega pixels it seemed like the one to go for. Looking around revealed some bargains; Amazon had the camera listed at £113 delivered, a bargain… even more of a bargain when my mum revealed that it was being bought for me out of my step dad’s recent compensation claim for an accident he had at work!

On Friday last week, it arrived in all it’s brushed aluminium glory and I started snapping away like a man possessed. What instantly stood out about this camera was that, like the ixus 50 I’d used previously, it had an exceptional macro mode allowing me to take intriguing, vivid close-ups of things like flowers and leaves that you’d need a very expensive lens to replicate with an SLR. Other sweet features include face detection which can detect and track up to nine faces per frame and automatically adjust shutter speed, ISO settings and various other aspects to get the best shot.

So now I’m set. Expect some photoriffic blogs coming your way soon. In the mean time however, here are some shots I’ve taken since I got the camera… just a few tests, I’m not 100% down with all the features just yet.

Till next time…

Dan

After a 19 year hiatus from the silver screen, everyone’s favourite archaeologist and adventurer returns. On the trail of a mythical city of solid gold, Indy and his new found sidekick Mutt Williams (LaBeouf) must seek out a lost crystal skull, said to have untold power. Hot on his tail, however is Irina Spalko, a Russian scientist and lunatic obsessed with the possibility of psychic warfare. Indy must not only find the skull and city of gold before they fall into the hands of those pesky reds but he must also deal with some hard-hitting surprises a lot closer to home.

I got some free guest passes to see this movie but, to be honest, I would have been happy to pay full price. Indiana Jones has always been one of my all time favourite movie characters and I have loved every one of the original trilogy. No surprise then, that I have been practically shaking with excitement about the release of ‘Crystal Skull for months now. However, as much as I was excited about it, I was also incredibly worried, as I know many Indiana Jones fans were. You see, big studios have a knack for messing up a good thing that should be left the hell alone. What sets this fourth installment of Indiana Jones apart, though is that all of the major original production team are back; Stephen Spielberg heads up proceedings, George Lucas wrote it and John Williams returned to do the score. Also, as well as Harrison Ford returning as Indy, Karren Allen makes a come back as her character from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Marrion Ravenwood.

I do want to clear something up right now though… This is not an Indiana Jones movie like the original trilogy, It is a different breed of animal that draws it’s differences from the fact that we no longer live in the 80s and the film is no longer set in the 30s. If you want to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark, watch Raiders of the Lost Ark. This can’t really be called the 4th in a series, it is more like a new movie with nods to it’s predecessors and personally, I liked it. It was a fun, fast-paced romp with plenty of action, humour and the over the top, far fetched story we’ve come to expect from Indiana Jones. Plenty of people at IMDB and RottenTomatoes.com have slated this film for the very reasons that it is a success… I just don’t get that.

The story, again is very different to what we’ve seen from Indy in the past but it has enough in common to keep the characters alive. This time we see a very sci-fi esque theme, something George Lucas knows a thing or two about, which adds something fresh and original to what could have been a quite tired regurgitation of the “seek mythical religious artefact and kill bad guys on the way” formula. Again, I can’t see what people are bitching about. As it stands, I thought the plot stood up well and was certainly worthy of the great Dr. Jones. While on the subject of the title character, he’s changed too. Not for the better, yet not for the worst either… he’s just changed the way that people do over 20 years. He’s much more calm and mature (though he can still throw hands with soldiers half his age!) but still has that sarcastic dry wit we’ve come to love.

Casting, couldn’t have been better. Excellent choices were made as far as supporting cast goes with Blanchett as Spalko being particularly good and very, very “Indy”. Ray Winstone was as charismatic as ever and John Hurt, despite having little dialogue was superb in his role. Karren Allen returning as Marion Ravenwood was nice to see, especially as her character remained the same as the last time we saw her, feisty, argumentative and independent. LaBeouf as Mutt Williams was excellent, a big relief as, to my mind, it would have been LaBeouf, if anyone, that ruined the picture. He starts out as a bit of an ass hole with an Ark of the Covenant sized chip on his shoulder but soon becomes a very witty and likable character who is extremely reminiscent of a young Indy.

The film isn’t without it’s flaws, however. The climax seemed slightly too over the top, even for Indy and some of his miraculous escapes from almost certain death were a stretch. I can’t hold these shortcomings against this latest outing too much though because it’s not like the original trilogy didn’t have it’s “yeah, right!” moments and I gotta say, it felt nice to be able to suspend belief for two hours and just have some fun.

Over all, I have to say ‘Crystal Skull was my least favourite of all the Indiana Jones movies to date but then again it was always going to be. It had the impossible task of breaking through 20 years of nostalgia. That said, it was still a very very good adventure movie with a character that, even today, leaves Lara Croft and Benjamin Gates standing. The plot, although far fetched, still beats the hell out of anything we’ve seen from Tomb Raider or National Treasure, Indy’s modern day counterparts. I disagree with what so many have said about it being a film that any true Indy fan won’t like. I think if you accept that this is 20 years on in REAL LIFE as well as movie world, you can enjoy this as much as the original trilogy.

Verdict:

So far this year we’ve had a pretty mixed bag, as always. We’ve seen some monumental success stories in the shape of CloverField and Juno as well as some, frankly awful pieces of crap such as Aliens Vs. Predator 2 and Meet the Spartans. We’ve also had some surprise hits, like Street Kings which saw Keanu Reeves getting his gritty cop action on once again and action/shooty/CGI fest in the, surprisingly good, Iron Man. All in all, I think it’s been a better than average first half of a year with my reviews for the most part hitting 3 and above. I have to say though, summer and autumn look to be even better with some truly massive titles still looming large on the horizon.

Sitting in the mix like a giant anchovy on a mini pizza is the forthcoming; Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. How many movies can you say you’ve been looking forward to for 19 years? Especially one which features a 60 something man who wears more brown than any man should wear but still manages to be cool. Since my last blog entry on the subject back in December, we’ve heard pretty much naff all else to do with the plot other than Indy must seek out a mythical crystal skull before it falls into the hands of the evil doers, who this time seem to be Russian. Does this lack of information mean I’m less excited about it though? Hell no! The only thing that worries me is that early leaked first impressions speak of it being terrible… please, movie gods, don’t let it be true!! But seriously, I’m still so excited about seeing this I can barely contain myself. Indiana Jones has been one of my favourite all time characters since I came outta my momma… well just about.

The other big hitter which is approaching is The Dark Knight, Chris Nolan’s long awaited sequel to Batman Begins. Early indications seem to suggest that this could easily wipe the floor with most anything else released this year, if not for anything else, because it is, sadly, Heath Ledger’s final on screen performance as he barely finished filming before he died earlier this year. The movie sees Ledger starring as The Joker and the mighty Christian Bale returning as, rich boy who does a lot of push-ups, Bruce Wayne who defends the city of Gotham as Batman. It also sees Aaron Eckhart making an appearance as Harvey Dent, who as Batman fans will know is transformed into Two-Face in a yet to be revealed accident. The latest Trailer gives a very brief glimpse of this but gives nothing away. *gets all giddy and runs around*

The superhero seems to be getting more than his share of cinema time this year with Iron Man being a big success and Batman and the Hulk on the way too but it’s not just the classical superheroes that are making an appearance this year. In July, Will Smith stars as Hancock in what could easily be the summer’s surprise family hit. The story goes; Hancock is a hard-living superhero who’s reckless methods and heavy drinking have caused him to fall out of favour with the public he protects. So with the help of a PR specialist he tries to re-invent his image and restore faith in superhero-kind. The trailer makes this movie look amazing. There’s no denying that Smith is still on top of his game and it’s good to see him back in light-hearted mode even though his role in I Am Legend was what saved that movie. Even though Hancock looks like a fully family orientated movie, I’m still super excited about it.

Other movies that I’m excited about are The X Files: I want to Believe, which you’ll know all about if you read my last blog post about it, M. Night Shyamalan’s new thriller The Happening and Pixar’s latest effort Wall-E which sees an old abandoned robot find friendship on an abandoned planet earth. Indeed, it’s all looking bright for movies in the remainder of this year, with the exception of those “comedy” ass hats who are cranking out yet another diabolical spoof movie, this time called Superhero Movie. I can’t actually believe that those piles of stinking crap actually make enough money to break even, let alone get a green light to make more of them. They give comedy a bad name. But anyway I hope you’re all as excited about the raft of up and coming new movies as I am. As always I’d love to hear what you’re looking forward to.

Dan

When billionaire CEO of weapons manufacturer Stark Industries, Tony Stark, is kidnapped by extremists in Afghanistan his eyes are opened. He must protect the world from the weapons he once created. By building a state-of-the-art suit of mechanised armour, Stark becomes Iron Man. But will he be in time to prevent untold carnage at the hands of people who he once called friends?

Although I never read the comics, I have always been aware of the general story of Iron Man through appearances in other comics and in cartoons and I always thought that a live action movie, done well, could be excellent. With that in mind I held out high hopes for Iron Man… especially when i found out Robert Downey Jr would be playing Tony Stark. After all, who better to play a millionaire playboy who lapses into alcoholism than a millionaire playboy who lapses into alcoholism? The studios did a very good job over the past year feeding us nice glossy images and tantalising clips a plenty but in the back of my mind I had a fear that it would be a victim of it’s own hype like so many movies these days. Let me say right off the bat that this is not the case with Iron Man.

As far as cast goes I think it was pretty good with the exception of the lead…. which was EXCELLENT. Just enough A-list clout to balance out Downey Jr’s huge on-screen presence but not so much as to steal the show. My only real gripe about any of the cast was Jeff Bridges as Obediah Stane/IronMonger who seemed kind of out of his element playing a larger than life super-villain. That said, his dialogue wasn’t that great so it could well be partly the fault of the script writer. But other than that hiccup, I have no complaints. I have heard some people say they weren’t happy with Paltrow as Pepper Potts and that may have come from them getting a very good mental picture of the comic book version of the character. I, personally, thought she was a good fit for the on-screen version. Performances, with the exception of Bridges were all decent enough and made Iron Man, acting wise, one of the better superhero movies of the last few years.

The plot, I think suffered in the exact same way that the first installment of the X-Men trilogy suffered. That is, once the hero has his powers and is organised, the movie doesn’t really know where to go and ends rather abruptly. That said, Iron Man is a great deal better (in my opinion) than the first X-Men and there is certainly enough action and superb special effects to make up for this. I think, with Iron man still number one at the box office, it’s safe to say we will see at least one sequel. Indeed, this movie laid some outstanding ground work, paving the way for a very good franchise. I hope that they keep Robert Downey Jr on board though, because if he’s not playing Tony Stark, I have little doubt that any sequels will flop.

So, all in all Iron man was a great success but I think it needs at least one sequel (In the way that Cloverfield DOESN’T need one) to really do the character justice and give the fans all of what they want.

Verdict:

Thursday we just had a lazy day and watched a lot of telly. We went for some lunch at spoons and then I went and had my hair cut. It’s now the shortest it’s been for over a year. I just got totally fed up of it being in my eyes. With plans of going to Sheffield the next day we decided to continue to take it easy and stayed in watching movies all evening.

Friday we got up nice and early and headed out to Meadowhall. For those not aware, Meadowhall is a large shopping mall on the outskirts of Sheffield. It was once the largest of it’s type but that’s no longer true. Still, it’s pretty impressive and worth a visit. First store we went in was the Apple Store to look at the shiny objects of desire. In there I saw an old man talking to a member of sales staff about an iMac he was thinking of buying. It was funny but at the same time I felt sorry for the guy. He clearly had zero comprehension of computers, even ones as simple to use as Macs. I just got thinking that the guy would probably be so much happier living out his remaining years in ignorance than going through the stress of learning something as fundamental as using a computer at that age. It’s true that you become less and less able to learn new skills the older you get and at that guy’s age I couldn’t imagine wanting that extra stress… I’d want a life of leisure.

After some wandering around Meadowhall, we headed, via tram (Taking advantage of free parking) into Sheffield city centre. We grabbed some quick pub lunch and headed down devonshire street to some cool shops in The Forum. In one of the shops, the name of which escapes me, Nat found a white 8mm Tunnel, something she’d been looking for for a long time. I also bought her an awesome robot necklace and some spotty earrings that she liked… because I’m nice In another shop Nat bought me a rubber duck because of my current home’s lack of a shower. After some more wandering around in the city we decided we wanted to head back to Meadowhall to close out our day. Nat bought some clothes from H&M and I took advantage of HMV’s pretty decent 3 DVDs for £20 offer and bought Superbad, Death Sentence and The Bourne Ultimatum. I was pretty stoked to finally get the third in the Bourne Trilogy and, because I’d heard some good things about Death Sentence I thought it’d be a good chance to pick it up. After some more wandering around we grabbed a coffee at Starbucks and rested our feet before heading home. On the way back we picked up some wine to sit in front of the TV with. After watching The Friday Night Project and Balls of Steel we hit the hay.

Saturday, Nat had work at 4 and left my house around half past one. I decided I was gonna watch movies. I started with Death Sentence. I thought it was pretty good although I don’t agree with some people who said it was better than The Brave One. After that I watched The Bourne Ultimatum which I haven’t seen since I watched it at the cinema. I enjoyed that as much as I remember and the scene at Waterloo Station, in particular was excellent. Classic Bourne. After that I was pretty damn hungry so decided to get my Dominoes Pizza on. It must have been my lucky day because when the girl behind the counter called my ticket number she handed me, not the one large pizza I ordered, but TWO large pizzas and two side dishes!! Weighing up the fact that the second pizza would have just gone to waste I gave it back to her but kept the side dishes which turned out to be a portion of potato wedges and a portion of Belgian waffles. Good times. When I got home I ate my pizza and sat down to watch Jurassic Park 2… After that i watched a little more TV before heading to bed to watch Superbad followed by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest followed by V for Vendetta.

On Sunday Nat came over about 12 and we went out for some dinner at The Peacock. They have some good roast dinners there and boy, do you get a lot. I must have been starving because I cleared my plate. No easy feat considering how much you get. To avoid a closed road, we went back home a different way along a nice country road. Just before re-joining the A38 we went past what was possibly the weirdest thing I’d seen all weekend… in fact, all week. Stood at the side of the road beside his car (Remember this is the middle of nowhere) was a man playing the bagpipes. Of all the activities one could partake in while at the roadside, playing the bagpipes is about the least likely. Completely random. We chilled out for a bit letting our dinner settle before going to visit my mum. While we were there the first lightning of the year hit. I love lightning storms, I find them fascinating. That’s about it. A very relaxing but fun weekend.

Hit men Ray (Farrell) and Ken (Gleeson) are sent to Bruges, Belgium following a semi-successful job in London. Unsure about why they have been sent to Bruges the two men try and make the best of their 2 week stay. But soon it becomes apparent that their purpose in Bruges is not all together savoury. What ensues is a blackly funny chain of events that will leave many dead and many more offended.

I’d seen the adverts for this several months ago and, to be honest didn’t think that it looked like much more than a throw away comedy. However, on the strong recommendation of a friend and several decent reviews, I decided to check it out. I have to say, although Nat hated it, I thought this film was excellent. I can always tell when I’ve really enjoyed a film by the amount of lines I quote from it on the way back from the cinema… and in this case, I’m still doing it. The script was very good indeed, vulgar and hilarious. I don’t think I’ve seen such a use of the C word in a movie for quite some time. Now, although this isn’t a word I like, I do feel it suited this movie well and I don’t think any scenes that featured it suffered. Political incorrectness seems to be the order of the day with In Bruges with no subject being taboo.

Casting was superb as well. Colin Farrell speaking in his native accent was refreshing and Brendan Gleeson played the seasoned hit man with a wit as dry as the Sahara to a tee. I think the star of the show, for me, though was Ralph Fiennes as Harry, the two hit men’s boss. His dialogue combined with the way Fiennes delivered it made his character brilliant.

I don’t want to give too much away about the story as there are some surprises, so I’ll keep this review brief. I will say though, if you’re a fan of comedic British gangster movies such as Lock Stock, you’ll love this. Oddly, I’m not a fan of Lock Stock or Snatch but i still loved this as it is a lot more of a comedy than those two movies. Towards the end In Bruges gets very gory and is definitely not one for the squeamish. Although there are a couple of slap stick laughs, this movie is all about the humour in the dialogue so if your attention span is a little short or you prefer your comedy a little more animated, then perhaps give In Bruges a miss. Otherwise, get down the cinema and enjoy what is a very accomplished, funny and unique movie.

Verdict:

David Ayer brings us another hard-hitting, street cop story of corruption and betrayal with Street Kings. Reeves stars as Tom “Lud” Ludlow, a borderline alcoholic who’s indiscretions have been skillfully covered up by his team and his commanding officer, Jack Wander (Whitaker). But when Lud is implicated in the death of another cop he is forced to turn against the force he loves and men who were once his friends and find out if he has been on the right side from the start.

Other than the odd TV trailer I hadn’t seen or heard much about this movie and I have to confess that when I walked into the cinema I had every intention of seeing In Bruges but it didn’t start for nearly 3 hours and I couldn’t be arsed to wait that long. Street Kings, however started in under an hour so I bought my ticket for that. From the word “go” this had David Ayer all over it and I began making comparisons to Training Day and Harsh Times straight away. In many ways this movie is very similar to both of those movies but that is no detriment to it as I absolutely loved them, especially Training Day which remains my favourite ever cop movie (Oh god, I hope they don’t spoof them all and call it Cop Movie… I can’t take any more.). So yeah, criticising the writing and direction for being too similar to Training Day and Harsh Times would be like criticising your wife or girlfriend for looking too much like Angelina Jolie. The film is different enough for you to be surprised but familiar enough for you to enjoy the similarities.

The cast was very good but it was obviously a huge risk. After all, who’d have thought of casting Keanu Reeves in a role where he’d have to display some emotion? But they did it and I have to say he really delivered. This takes the number one spot away from The Matrix for the best performance of Reeves’ career in my opinion. Forest Whitaker was good too but this wasn’t his finest hour by any means. That said, my opinion of the man hasn’t changed, he’s still one of my favourite actors. Supporting cast were also very good but not obvious choices. Hugh Laurie gave a good but slightly too familiar performance as House MD… erm oops, I mean Captain James Biggs and Chris Evans (Human Torch, not Annoying Ginger) was convincing as wet-behind-the-ears Internal Affairs Detective Paul Diskant. My biggest problem with the cast was the smaller supporting cast of small time drug dealers and gang members… in this area the casting showed no real originality like the bigger roles in the film. Noel Gugliemi played the obligatory hispanic gangster… AGAIN! and The Game showed his stroke-victimesque face as the token black gang member/snitch (AKA Snoop Dogg’s role in Training Day) Although these guys both played their parts pretty well, I just wish that they had gone with some unknowns so you didn’t know what characters they were before they spoke a single line. Cedric The Entertainer made an appearance as Scribbles, a heroin addict forced to snitch or be sent to prison… he was okay (He said “Be cool” ) but when was the last time you saw a fat heroin addict?

Smaller casting problems aside I still have to say this movie is pretty damn good, if you enjoy this type of thing. It has plenty of action and a story that is complex and interesting enough to keep non-action fans watching. If you weren’t a fan of Training Day or Harsh Times then I’d suggest you stay away because you won’t like this either.

Verdict:

An absolutely fundamental part to any opening credits sequence are the credits themselves. Some movies forego the cast and crew credits and simply show a title but these are rare. Most movies show the title, Director, main cast and main production crew in their opening credits. Typography is very very important in achieving a successful sequence. A perfect example of where the typography proved to be the dominant feature in the sequence is Panic Room (2002) where the credits were rendered in 3D and worked into the camera shots of the cityscape. Through clever use of CGI the words seemed to slot between buildings, cast shadows and even have shadows cast upon them by other objects in the shot. The result is superb and it remains one of my all time favourite opening credit sequences.

See the opening title sequence of Panic Room.

Now for use of visuals. I don’t think you need to look much further than Ridley Scott’s Alien to see a perfect example of how an opening credit sequence can set the mood for the whole movie. Created by legendary titles man Saul Bass, these credits were even given a nod in the opening sequences in the two following sequels Aliens and Alien3 although not to the same effect. The bleak emptiness of space is the main theme in this movie (as the tag line “In space no one can hear you scream” suggests) and a basic title sequence depicing deep space served it perfectly.

See the opening title sequence of Alien.

The third very important factor in a successful opening sequence is music. Some movies don’t use any at all and, indeed this can have as much of an effect as using a full orchestra. I think a perfect example of the right music being chosen to reflect a movie was seen in the opening sequence for Sydney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon. Those of you who regularly read my blog will know that Dog Day’ is one of my all time favourite moves and the opening titles are no exception. Although the music doesn’t really reflect the sequence of events that take place in the move, it suits perfectly the mood of that time period, the early 70s. The song was Amoreena by Elton John and it has a very care-free, uplifting feel to it. This same mood is a sort of undertone to the whole film. The lead character’s homosexuality isn’t down-played, nor is it particularly pointed out… it just is, and the opening song (indeed the only song in the movie) kind of reflects this mood.

See the opening title sequence of Dog Day Afternoon.

Those three, very different opening sequences illustrate how the use of one of the main three components over the others can help make the titles a true part of the film, just as worthy of praise as the feature itself. I’d love to hear what everyone thinks of the examples I’ve given here and what your favourite title sequences are.

Until next time.

Dan

Star MIT student, Ben Campbell (Sturgess) is offered the means to get all the money he needs to go to Harvard Medical School and much, much more by joining a team of card counters as they take Las Vegas for millions in Robert Liketic’s fun, stylish, yet slightly predictable caper.

What if Raymond “Rain Man” Babbitt had actually understood what he was doing, making all that money in Vegas? Imagine being able to calmly and inconspicuously count into 6 decks of cards so well that you could win big every single time you played blackjack? Well, personally, I think it would be pretty freakin sweet and I guess so did the 6 MIT students who actually did it. It’s these guys that inspired the book called Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich which was the basis for this movie. 21 follows Ben Campbell, a student who has been accepted into Harvard med but can’t actually afford the $300,000 it costs to go there. When Professor Mickey Rosa (Spacey) offers him a chance to join his team of card counters as they take Vegas, the money he needs seems within his grasp.

This film was pretty good to tell you the truth. It was entertaining and I can’t say there was anything really that badly wrong with any of the performances. There were some decent laughs too, indeed one guy in the cinema seemed to have huffed a load of Nitrous Oxide before he went in as he was laughing a disproportionate amount at things that were only slightly funny… A’la Robert Deniro in Cape Fear. Characters were likable, except the “bad guy” of course and I think good casting choices were made throughout. One character that does deserve a mention is Ben’s friend, Miles played by Josh Gad. He really reminded me of a less potty-mouthed version of Seth from Superbad, played by Jonah Hill so was pretty good at providing some of the comic relief. Kate Bosworth did an okay job as Ben’s love interest, Jill Taylor and, again, I have no real complaints.

The problems I had with it however do deserve a mention. Firstly it was really, quite predictable. By about half way through I pretty much knew what the ending was going to be. This wasn’t so bad as to ruin the film, however, because in movies of this type you sort of expect a modicum of predictability. The ending, although predictable was still satisfying. Also, the production seemed a little rushed. Like not a great deal of effort had been given to the finish of the whole thing. This observation could be based on other films with casino scenes that have kind of spoiled me. Ocean’s 11 is the obvious casino caper and that was executed with a lot more flare and style than 21. The other that comes to mind is Casino which, again displayed an excellent finish not seen in 21.

When put into perspective, you can kind of ignore those flaws though. Because when you look at Robert Luketic’s past work, you see thet 21 is a huge step forward for him. So all in all, 21 is a fairly enjoyable movie but not earth shattering. Check it out if you have an evening to kill and there’s nothing good on the TV.

Verdict:

Located out in the sticks in, tiny, Denby Village, Derbyshire, Denby Lodge Steak house is a true diamond in the rough. As I told someone just yesterday; “It’s nearly impossible to get a good steak in England without needing a mortgage” so believe me, it’s worth travelling a decent distance to get to, although I’m super lucky that it’s practically right on my doorstep (Just the other side of Ripley). The place looks big but not over the top. In fact, there are no signs on the outside that make mention to the place as a steak house. Even when you walk inside it just looks like a large country pub with the obligatory brass ornaments hanging over the bar and the old wooden furniture. To get to the restaurant you go through to the back room which is a dedicated dining room. Despite being cozy, the place still looks very old fashioned and unimpressive.

The menu is printed on a single side of A4 but on closer inspection the place begins to reveal what a gem it really is. There is no messing about. There are a handfull of starters, pretty old fashioned like smoked mackerel and prawn cocktail but they’re very reasonably priced. Then on to mains. Now, although there are a couple of other dished (a lesagne and chicken chasseur) this place is called “steak house” for a reason. On offer there is Sirloin (8oz or 16oz), a 20oz T-Bone, and Rump (12oz or 24oz) They also have certain nights of the week where a monster 32oz Rump is available! All are served with chips or jacket potato, peas and salad. Prices may make you go “What? that can’t be right!?” these are some cheap steaks! The 24oz rump I ordered was £10.95 which when you consider just how much you’re getting is astonishing. Nat has the 8oz sirloin which was still an incredible deal at £6.75. It’s not all about quantity though. A steak is only worth it’s money if it’s done right and believe me, the chef here knows what he’s doing! I ordered my steak medium-rare and it came out just perfect; tender and juicy like in the picture (Steak in the picture is not the one I had last night). Nat ordered her’s medium-well and from what i saw, they nailed that too. I will say that in my experience they do tend to ever-so-slightly under cook the steaks so if, like me, you like a steak rare, I’d suggest you ask for it medium-rare at Denby Lodge as rare would be closer to blue.

As if my half cow wasn’t enough, I turned my attention to the deserts menu. There are actually 2 deserts menus; one with ice cream sundaes and another with cakes. I’ve had items from both in the past and they have been excellent. This time though, I went for ice cream and so did Nat. I had a summer fruits sundae which was just perfect following a large steak as the tart berries were a real palette cleanser. Nat had the sundae called Dark Temptation which, as the name suggests, is a chocolate sundae. It also has banana in it and two wafer straw type things. It, too was excellent.

As I’ve already pointed out, the prices are amazing. We had: 1 24oz rump, 1 8oz sirloin, 1 side of onion rings and 2 ice cream sundaes and the bill came to £25.45.

Honestly, I don’t know why it was over a year between visits. I shall definitely make sure that this doesn’t happen again. If you want to check the place out for yourself just enter the postcode: DE5 8PH into your sat nav or Google maps… unless you have your steak well done. If you do, then you don’t deserve to eat it. That is all.