Dependence

In the last few months I have gone through the agonizing process of acquiring the internet for my new house. Orange aren't the best at sorting things out quickly...and the flipping engineer hooked up the landline to a dead line!! Clever much?!


The point is that I went without the internet for around a month. This made me realize how much we depend on the internet, social networks etc. The few moments when I had access to the internet at friends houses and coffee shops where like coming up to the surface to breathe. Without the internet I felt like I was drowning in a sea of isolation and my world suddenly expanded. Our world is contracting, we scarce have to leave the house now with our friends, banks, shops, work, news, information, entertainment all at our finger tips a few key strokes away. I asked myself...how did people find out information before? They had to walk, talk and actually put in a bit of effort. 


We are used to having things so quickly and for such a minimal amount of effort that surely we don't value what we have as much. If you work for something, you enjoy it that much more, or alternatively if you make a mistake you learn the lesson, because of the effort you put in. Facebook is an excellent example of this. Currently I have 584 "friends" on Facebook, many of them are genuine friends who I love to spend time with and strive to keep in contact with. However there are many "friends" on Facebook that I haven't spoken to in years. There's that girl from high school, the same one that I never spoke to in high school, the same one that I haven't spoken to since  high school and the same one I wouldn't clock if I walked past them on the street. Another thing, you know when you "chat" with someone on Facebook and all is hunky dory....and then you see them in person and conversation disappears like a fart in a gale! Its totally different! Our perception of "friend" is being twisted by the internet.


Imagine if the internet died worldwide, forever. We would become fitter, more communicative (in person), place value on things that mattered and be really poor for ages because the world economy would be in the bin. Once more people would want to explore the world and its mysteries rather than just look at it on Google Earth and swiftly return to blasting away a few virtual people from across the world on COD.  


We depend on it...a lot! I challenge you, write a letter not an email the next time you want to catch up with someone, give them a call rather than "chat " to them through a keyboard.


Right I'm off to do my Christmas sopping on Amazon...LOL

A Journey: Newcastle - Cardiff

My Brother Ladies and Gents!

Watch him move!!

Rugby or Football?

Ok, for me this is actually a no brainer! If I had the choice to watch a premiership rugby game or a premiership football game, I would watch a rugby game any day of the week. There is no dispute however that there is substantially more money in football and is the more popular sport in the UK.

There is one thing however that really gets on my nerves. When rugby fans try and justify why rugby is better than football, more often then not the only reason they give is that it's more dangerous/violent! Pathetic reasoning, that's just a bit barbaric. For the same reasons I don't like the supporters culture in football. Some of the chants are just plain rude and the battle supposed to be played on the field moves to the stands. This doesn't mean that rugby fans lack passion! The atmosphere at international rugby games are SO good! When those anthems ring out, and some players are moved to tears you see the passion! Where as half the England football team don't know the words to it, and lets be honest, its not a hard anthem to know.

Respect! doesn't matter if you ware the word on your sleeve, when your mouthing off in the face of the referee, you don't need to hear what they are saying to know what words they are using. Rugby players swear, that's not the difference. The difference is that they don't shout it in the face of the ref, or the camera (Mr Rooney, I don't care if you were happy or angry, your life must be pretty good and there is no need for the language). I love it when you hear the rugby players addressing the ref as "Sir"! Too Flipping right!

To be honest, liking a sport, purely for the sport is totally up to the person, and rugby wins it for me. There are some elements of the football culture that I think are totally wrong and there is way too much money involved in football.

Super 8 is "MINT"

To say I liked this film would be very correct! It kept me captivated from beginning to end! 

With this film JJ Abrams remains as high as he has ever been in my opinion. In fact with this effort he has risen. Star Trek, Cloverfield, Mission Impossible 3 and any others are all films that I have enjoyed greatly. Super 8 however is in my humble opinion...the best. 

It very much takes a leaf out of Cloverfield (Big mysterious monster we don't see for ages). Considering I loved Cloverfield, that's fine with me. If you could stomach the way it was shot your enjoyment of Cloverfield was probably increased due to the fact that you didn't see the monster. A fear of the unknown. Same tactic in Super 8, there's something out there...BUT WHAT!!?

What made it great in my mind though, was the parcel in which the monster was delivered! That the main characters were a group of school friends trying to shoot a movie. The acting was "mint"! The Characters had depth and identity, their own background and past making them unique to themselves, but a unit as a group of friends. For young actors I think they did remarkably well. The very fact that they were young meant that you felt their peril so much more. If the characters had been adults there would be the sense that most of them were all monster fodder! As they were children, whenever  they were in danger you were seriously worried something would happen to them, any of them.

The monster itself was done really well in that we didn't see it at all for a great portion of the film. The film was surprisingly jumpy and it was good fun not knowing when something was going to happen. When we do see the monster and find out a little bit about it, it's always going to be a tad anti climactic, that fear of the unknown is gone. Despite this it was an interesting monster and I feel the ending supported the rest of the film as best it could.

Was a great watch, go and see it asap if you haven't. I reckon 80/100!! IT. WAS. MINT!

Captain America - Pretty Poop

 

It was a standard Wednesday evening... "what shall we do tonight?" says I. "I fancy going to the cinema" says my sister. "But there is nothing good out" I did retort "the only thing I might want to see is Captain America, and as its Orange Wednesdays so we won't waste full price on it" I add. "Agreed" say she. 


At the cinema we did arrive, to find a healthy  looking queue. A little later "Two for captain America please" - and so we proceeded up the stairs. If the queue downstairs was "healthy" the queue upstairs was obese! "This can't be for our film" I did exclaim, and walk straight on past it to the cinema door and the ticket collector. I was encouraged by the digital sign saying "Captain America - Take your seats". As the queue wasn't  moving I did assume it was for something else. "I am sorry sir, you will have to join the back of the queue"... apparently they were still cleaning the theatre. As we turned to join the back of the queue that was now trying to back down an escalator going up a girl from the queue piped up "Captain America is popular you know!", alas I obviously didn't know that! 


"So all these people are actually here because they have been waiting for this film?! - they're not just filling an evening like us?!". I was almost heartened by this, maybe the film was good after all... 


It wasn't. Apart from Tommy Lee Jones and Hugo Weaving, it wasn't. There were many things that got my goat about it. Firstly, the inevitably pathetic girl who falls for the American hero was British. Well done Hollywood, America is a bit bigger now!! Next, imagine every cheesy cliché from every other superhero film and put them all into the same film, yes yes, then you have Captain America. After a promising start where the small weedy guy is getting turned away from the army, all affinity with the character was lost when he became incredibly muscular and I was backing the bad guy for the rest of it.


Despite the 2 for 1 offer I still feel a touch robbed of my money, would have preferred to play scrabble at home...on my own. I give it a 48/100.     

Hollywood these days...

This post is to express my annoyance at Hollywood, or at the fact that they have realized they can make large profits by remaking films that have only recently come out. This behavior is seen in the remaking of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and "The Amazing Spider-man". 

In 2009 The first of the Millennium trilogy was released. An adaptation of the novels of Stieg Larsson, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" was a low budget Swedish production that to date has grossed upward of $10,000,000 and was generally considered an excellent film. Now in 2011, a mere two years later, the remake is being made. As far as I am aware, the film follows the same plot, has no extra special effects and is in English (maybe its biggest selling point). With Daniel Craig in the lead role, the film will make money. What annoys me is not them realizing an English versions potential at making money, my annoyance is at the fact that  that it will make money from being in English. Its a shame that subtitles are a deterrent for people to the point where they miss out on watching a great film. In my opinion the original Swedish brings a great element and authenticity to the film. Shame people won't get that with the remake.

On to "The Amazing Spider-man"...

In 2002, Spider-man was one of the most anticipated films in years. It made over $800,000,000 at box office. Now 9 years on from one of the most successful films of all time, "The Amazing Spider-man" is being released/made. Whether it will be as successful as the first is hard to know. Its the beginning of Peter Parker's adventures...again. Remakes are good, if the original was a long time ago and film technology has allowed film makers to radically improve its portrayal. 3D might be responsible for the remake, but I don't think it warrants another high budget film with the same plot as one of the more successful films of the last decade. 

Wild Target

Just to reiterate my policy on films…if you finish watching the film and to are happy to have watched it then it’s a good film, forget what others say about it, don’t shun it because your mates did. If you enjoyed it then it must have been compatible with an element of you.

Here is my opinion on “Wild Target” starring Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt and Rupert Grint.

On the whole I enjoyed myself a lot, the plot wasn’t particularly thick, but the focus of the film was how the trio, played by the above tree stars, get on with each other. I found it very humorous; Bill Nighy playing a well-seasoned British assassin was class. Rupert Grint’s character, you know nothing about, a clumsy juvenile that keeps randomly showing sublime skills of a future assassin, which I think he pulls off well. Emily Blunts character was not particularly fun.

I found the film a laugh, especially the bit when Bill Nighy’s assassin Mum (80s at least) opens a can of whoop-ass!  I would recommend it for a rent and give it 65/100

Lets get some clarity!

I was born in England, however I moved to Wales when I was 2 years old, and live there still. Being the youngest of 4 my siblings had a bit longer in England and were able to develop an attachment to it before we moved.

England and Wales have always had a heated relationship especially when in comes to rugby, my favourite sport. Whenever the sides would meet, six nations, world cup, whenever, I watched it knowing I was born in England, therefore I was English! This brought me some grief in school, especially when Wales occasionally beat England (blast you Gavin Henson and Neil Jenkins). This only resulted in me supporting England more fervently than ever.

When I came to University in Newcastle, I suddenly found people making snide comments about sheep, leeks and valleys! when meeting someone new and responding to the question "Where are you from?" I answered, "born in England but live in Wales" just to make sure people knew.

I am English, but if someone asked for my nationality I would say British. Wales just happens to be a nice place with nice people and many sheep that the family home resides in.

Clear?

A little bit of me...

First Post - well where to start? 

Think I will start very plainly. Film is a passion of mine and I don't pretend to know a lot about it or be a connoisseur, but I greatly enjoy watching them. My theory is, if you watch a film and enjoy it its a good film. The great films are those that stick with you, resonate with a part of you , and make you think, cause you to get excited long after you have watched them. Different films, different people, different results. 

I watched "I am number four" last night, and wasn't expecting much. The plot is fairly unoriginal, last members of an alien race hunted down on earth - standard. The acting struck me as nothing particularly special. What made me enjoy the film on the whole though was the love interest. Her hobby photography, she uses a collection of different cameras, some battered with light leaks creating amazing patterns on the prints. Whilst the film is on the whole not great, her character brings the film at least some depth. I would rate the film 57/100.