Hah! Make me redundant, will you? Try to make me work my notice + pay tax, instead of 7 weeks off and no tax, will you? Stitch this. Working from home and watching movies are back on the menu!
You won't mess with me again, will you, ya fuckers!
Normal service resumes...
So, had to watch it. I'm getting to like the books (not read the last one yet, managed to avoid spoilers, la la lah, not listening!), and the movies are getting better.
But boy do they miss a lot of what makes the later books richer than the movies. Not surprising really, given the books' sizes.
The movie was... well. OK. Some nice effects at the end in the battle between the powers of light and dark, and some not bad acting on the part of Daniel Radcliffe, but otherwise kind of bleeurgh. Nothing special. Things thrown in for no reason (eg, Sirius Black's family house-self - great in the book, on-screen for 2 minutes and thus pointless).
Great acting by Imelda Staunton, as usual, as the political force that tries to take over Hogwarts, and she definitely stole the show.
I guess it was worth watching only for continuity between the last film and this one.
Loved it! (The beauty of keeping a list of films that came out months ago and watching them now, is that the ones with shit reviews get removed from my list, so I keep seeing great films).
Somewhat predictable twist to give the dynamic tension that a plot needs, but well played nevertheless. Nice ending. Action was pretty good, characterisation OK, acting good - some old names in it as well as Mark Wahlberg (spelling?). All round, a well-spent 90 minutes or so
Song of the Week: Budget Meeting
An odd title for the music overlaying the main battle scene in the much-maligned King Arthur, and the tune (in fact, the entire soundtrack) is Hans Zimmer amped up. Everything he developed starting with Crimson Tide - drums, male choir, brass, etc - to make his recognisable sound has been thrown in here and the dials twisted to 150%. A lot of people have reviewed it saying "Hans, do something different for a change", but I feel that this is archetypal, yes, but still powerful.
This particular track is 7 or 10 minutes long (one version is the one from the film, the other version is a different mix), so it comprises several different sections with slightly different feels. A powerful bit, possibly my favourite of this "triumphant" music, kicks in around 4:30 into the film version. A real driving drum beat, with a choir soft in the background, and muted brass giving a motif that can be heard in a few of the tracks in the OST.
For MadJock's benefit, it starts at 2:37 into this Battlestar Galactica mash-up thing:
Edit: Actually, for some reason when I watched this on youtube.com, I could see the time since start + total time, but when embedded here, it's "time left" that I'm seeing. In which case it's 3:55 remaining.
Odd.
Anyway, another one that I want to listen to when I get the surround sound fitted. Or when I get a car with a nice stereo. I think the car's coming sooner....
World Of Warcraft Update
Two words: Pish. Uninstalled.
How they call it "role playing" I'll never know. RPG via a PC changed the day that Baldur's Gate was released. I know WoW is "MMORPG", but it's really "MMO Hack And Slash". Old idea. Very boring. Great for 14 year old virgin American geeks.
But it reminded me I had a copy of Warcraft III, a "demons, zombies, and elves" version of Command and Conquer, and I'm happily playing that when I get some spare time. Good game, even now.
I'm getting quite into movie music: real dramatic Hans Zimmer-esque type of music. The sort of thing you hear on trailers for the Spidey films, LOTR, King Arthur, etc. Lots of choral work, drums, and a big dramatic build up.
And nothing comes more dramatic than Trinity (nothing to do with She Of The PVC Skinsuit in the Matrices).
It starts of real, real quite, just a thrumming baseline, with a subtle brass(?) theme coming in. Then a few drums. Then a choir (very Omen-ish, male choir singing in Latin or something). It all gradually builds up and up into ... well, a masterpiece in triumphant music. Then it goes silent, pauses, and it starts again in mid-level triumphalism, and builds up again.
You've got to hear it.
Loud.
If there was a bagpipe in it, the Scots would have played this at Culloden and might have actually won. Ah well, you live and learn, eh?
It's songs like this that make me wish I had my surround sound installed at home again... I wonder if I can fit it while Her Indoors is out shopping. Think she'll notice??
So, for the benefit of Mad-"If It Ain't On YouTube It Ain't Worth Bothering About"-Jock, here's a Heroes fan movie thing with the music.
What a fantastic film. Nothing like what I expected, at least not in the second half, but fantastic anyway.
From the trailers, I expected a gung-ho, funny-ironic, action film. Lots of guns, bullets, and funny characters. But it turns into this almost gut-wrenching tale of loyalty, revenge, love, betrayal, and justice.
You know the plot: Various hitmen (sorry, hit-people, as some are female) are after a mob informer. Obviously, what happens is they all end up killing each other and the mob guy gets away.
Or at least, that's what I thought. And there is a bit of that, to be fair.
But as the tension mounts, a (somewhat predictable) twist changes the game, and mayhem ensures, including a shoot-out with the biggest sniper rifle I've ever seen outside the Halo games.
Some of the characters are a bit cardboard cut out, and some of the faux-nigga dialogue was a bit hard to follow for a pasty white lard-ass like me, but some gems shone through. The two female assassins started out as wise-ass sistas, but developed a little depth when one of them is injured in the firefighting. The two FBI agents were well played by Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta, and Ryan, to his credit, played the role just right as the twists were unfurled, and the final scene, basically involving just him, was sublime.
"Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti", I thought. "Gotta be good"
And lo, it was true.
Ed Norton plays a stage magician in love with a noble woman who is also feted by the Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Paul G is the chief of police, who acts on orders of the Crown Prince, but becomes increasingly concerned for said Prince's plans.
The noble woman wants to run off with Ed, having been childhood sweethearts originally; the Prince tries to prevent her; trouble ensues; spoilers go elsewhere.
Great film, some fine acting. Visually, it's very sepia-toned, to add an "old age" feel to it, which at times comes across a bit dark (particulary scenes at night), but that was the only downside.
Worth a watch if you're after something a bit quieter.
God, I'd forgotten how much I loved this, back in the day. Ben Liebrand (THE mixmaster of the '80s, in my opinion), mixing Jeff Wayne's prog-rock classic War of the Worlds. Pure class. Big fat orchestral sounds, Richard Burton's voice (made even more melodramatic by a slight change in tone/timbre), and some classic '80s scratchy-mixy type of sounds.
Class.
Of course, I'll be fed up to my back teeth with it by next week, but there you go.
