Spoilers ahead!
I really want to like this one. It had quite a lot going for it: Danny Boyle, character-based rather than bug-eyed-aliens-and-fancy-weapons based, etc.
And it kind of worked.
If you ignore some stuff. Like:
- The way it went from psychodrama-thriller to shock-horror
- The visual effects on the guy in the shock-horror bit
- A computer that can override one command decision (removing manual flight control when the oxygen garden was burning, in order to save the flight), but not another (change course to intercept Icarus 1, even though that puts the ship in danger cause the twat forgot to repoint the heatshield)
- Icarus 2 used a sling-shot effect, looping round Mercury 3 or 4 times, to get enough speed to reach the sun. But then has enough fuel and accuracy to stop stationary alongside Icarus 1. I suspect that the fuel used to manoevre like that would have been an interesting amount for someone who aimed to come home afterwards.
- Why was Cillian Murphy the only one who could set off the bomb? Looked like all he did was pull a lever....
And I'm sure there were a few others. The use of gravity on the ship was one alarm bell that rang.
So... should have been good. Looked impressive. Didn't quite deliver. Too much like Event Horizon at the end (although I like Horizon more).
Labels: movies
Went to get a nice beer from the fridge yesterday to have with dinner, but... shock horror!... there weren't any on the shelf.
A bit later, I went in for something else, and saw a sneaky beer stuck in the door, rather than where it should have been on the shelf.
It was the best beer I've ever tasted....
Labels: beer
I know this film got a bit slated by everyone, but there was no way I was passing up the opportunity to see some more of Keira "Posh Totty" Knightly.
And I don't think the film was that bad. Clive Owen (as Arthur) comes across a bit wooden, but I think that's because of the lines he had, not his acting. I know he's supposed to be the future King of England, but I'm sure he relaxed a bit occasionally, and didn't speak in sound bites.
The fight scenes were pretty good. Ray Winstone (Bors) and Mads Mikkelson (Tristan) were pretty good, standing out from the others in their own way. And Stellan Skarsgard (aka Bootstrap Bill from the Pirates movies) was good as the uber-calm but menacing leader of the Saxons.
Overall not bad. Although I did wonder where the woads suddenly got their trebuchets from.... if they had them all that time, why not use them against the Romans earlier.
Oh, and it was nice to Ken Stott doing a non-Scottish accent. He was still playing Ken Stott of course, but that's what he's best at :-)
Labels: movies
OK, so everyone and there dog has seen this already, but given my social life, it's not surprising that I haven't.
And it's probably the best sequel I've seen. Loved it. Same shlock-horror as the first one. Actually, a bit more, unless my memory fails me - eg, Robert Carlyle squishing people's eyeballs instead of eating them straight away.
Great use of unusual shots - overhead shots (internal and aerial), through sniper scopes with and without nightsight, through CCTV, etc.
Great use of sound - alternating between silence and auditory cacophany.
And some pretty good CGI, eg where London is strafed to take out the new infected. The scenes where the fire (napalm, I assume) is running through the canyoned streets and spreading up side-streets is fantastic.
And a good, if predictable, finale.
Labels: movies
And, in keeping with my last post, I've decided that A) as I'm working at home so much, and B) my "watch these movies soon" list is has never gotten any shorter, I'm planning on watching one a week and sharing my insights and wisdom about it.
First off: Pan's Labyrinth. I watched Del Toro's "Devil's Backbone" a few years ago, after seeing it recommended on some DVD rental club I was in (forget it's name now). Thought I'd give it a shot. Loved it. Couldn't wait to watch Pan. Missed it at the movies.
It's the second of Del Toro's loosely-related trilogy set during the Spanish Civil War. Both films (the third has not yet been undertaken) feature a young kid caught up in a small part of the conflict, and overlays a ghost/fantasy experience that the kid lives through.
Both films are in Spanish, which I know drives some people nuts, but I like foreign language films when they are set in the original country, as it adds to the sense of this being somewhere other than Anywhere, Middle America.
Pan features a couple of strong performances, surprisingly one is the girl in the lead role, but also the Captain, leader of an outpost of Franco's forces trying to hunt down the rebels in the area. He's a right sadistic bastard, to put it bluntly. Fortunately, the film's not a gross-out on that front. Just a few hints to show what he's like.
And the film keeps you guessing whether Pan is working with Ofelia, the young girl, for good intentions or bad, so you're never quite sure of where it's going.
Labels: movies
Reading
Madjock's "Song of the Week" series, I was reminded of my Music To Listen To series, which got to a grand total of ... er... Number 1. Which was promptly dissed my DJ Fly because I made a fatal error on the music front.
Whatever. Get over it. Things Gonna Change still rocks, no matter who plays it...
Anyway, on with number 2
Some background. There was I a few years ago. Single. Feeling sorry for myself. A week off work because I had some holiday to use up, but nothing doing as I had no woman, no friends, couldn#t be asked going "darn sarth" etc, etc.
Result: A week watching Sky Movies. Lots of them. Even the shitty day time ones.
Well, one of them, "Cowboys and Angels", was as shitty as the rest. It was about... well, a modern day Texan or whatever cowboy who ... well.... meets an angel. Like I said, shitty.
But... It had a sublime motif running through it. Not a full track, just background music repeated a few times. Kind of operatic, but not classical opera. More like a soprano singing in another language (Italian, I thought at the time, although I wasn't sure even though I speak a bit), over a modern beat.
Sounded pretty good, so I watched all the way through to the credits (not advised! - definitely wished I had it on DVD so's I could fast-forward), and found out some details of the composer (not the singer).
Internet research revealed... nothing. Nada. Zip. Couldn't believe it.
However, I kept coming back to it every few months, and eventually found a post on a newsgroup where someone was selling not-generally-available film music via CD, and had this track on one of them. Got the CD... sounded pretty good. Then, by coincidence, I found out that the singer was Sasha Lazard, and she was releasing an album The Myth Of Red shortly thereafter.
Ordered it, and the new re-mixed version of the single, "Angelli" (Angels) is just fucking beautiful. Starting with a chilled-out cello section, it seques into Sasha's trained operated voice overlaying a slow modern beat.
(Incidentally, this was my intro to so-called "cross-over" music - classical + modern, principally opera-light vocals over a modern background - and the delights of Emma Shapplin, Sarah Brightman, Filippa Giordano and other not-so-beautiful artists, including Thomas Otten, who bizarrely sounds like he sang the theme music from Blackadder II, but can be quite good regardless).
Haunting. Enchanting. Magical. And dare I say it, angelic. It really is the most beautiful piece of music in my collection, only beating "Evenstar" by a smidgen.
Summary:
Every time it comes on, my soul recharges a little bit...Labels: cross-over, music, opera
