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