Movies and Stuff
Oops.  I knew I'd been putting this off, but it's been 15 days since my last entry.  That's shocking.

Stuff...

The Rugby world cup was on last year, and it was good.  Rugby is a great sport to watch and really shows the difference between the softness of football players who roll on the ground when the air brushes past their ankle and rugby players who beat the air into submission with their ankles.  But the best part of the cup for me was in a game between .... it was so long ago I can't remember... I think the ref was Australian though, but anyway, listen to this and see how these words would diverge in other sports.  The ref called these two guys over and said, "I got word from my assistant and some punching has been spotted between you two, that's not allowed, so don't let it happen again.  Okay?  Alright, on you go."  Magic.

Atom :- This was a three episode show on BBC4 about the atom.  It very simply explained the process the great humans of the past went through to get to our current level of knowledge about the sub-atomic world.  It was so watchable and understandable I think even my mum kept up with it all.  So if you want to know the broad strokes, and even some of the finer strokes about atoms, then watch this show.

Tribe :- was a show about tribes.  Bruce Parry went to stay with some of the world's tribes, for about a month each, and gave you a glimpse into the lives of people you would otherwise never know about.  We're not talking just African or South American tribes either, he even goes to live with Reindeer herders in Siberia.  Anyway, it's a great show, and there's a book too if you want it.  I'm sad it's finished actually.

Standoff :- was one of the shows from last year I didn't watch right away, but it got good words said about it so I eventually watched it... and it was great.  The characters were lively, the dialogue snappy, and that's the kind of thing that makes a procedural watchable every week.  It also helps that the theme tune was massively catchy, and of course, in the current TV climate, that it actually had a theme tune.  Naturally, because I liked the show and watched it every week on my TV when it actually aired, it has been cancelled already.  Shame.

Movies...

The Bourne Ultimatum :- What a wonderful way to end a wonderful trilogy.  Full of action, full of intrigue, full of scary American government workers shooting at ghosts in the dark.  The film also has one of the best fight scenes and car chases ever put on film.  I don't even know why I'd try to review this, because if you've seen the first two you'll be watching this anyway, and then you'll know for yourself.  Great movie, and it ends the movie making all three one coherent piece, but the way the start is nested in the end of the second marks a separation between the three films, like they should be watched as independent entities and not as one long film filmed in three parts.  I'll tell you about the books later.

Stardust :- is a fantasy film, but that doesn't mean orcs and elves or even pesky hobbitses.  Instead Fantasy in this sense is the kind you get in fairytales where everything is wondrous and just off to one side of the real world.  A boy promises to catch a retrieve a falling star and bring it back to the girl that he has a crush on.  So he runs off to do that, but finds himself in a fantastic world on the other side of an old wall where he encounters princes, and witches, and the star herself.  It's a delightful movie, and if you like fairytales, or other fantasy movies like The Princess Bride, you'll like this... though it might change your perception of Robert DeNiro forever.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3 :- The third in this series, just as adventurous and fun as the rest.

Spider-Man 3 :- Some people don't like this film because it's too long.  I didn't notice that.  I didn't really notice anything that took it out of the same mould as the first two.  Are there too many bad guys in this film?  Maybe... but the worst thing in this is the changing of what happened to Uncle Ben.  It's just unnecessary.  It's trying too hard to add emotion to the fight with the Sandman, when there's already enough emotion flying about with the Symbiote's manipulations of Peter's actions towards Mary-Jane, and with the stuff with Harry, and even with Eddie trying to take his job.  Overkill.  It's still an enjoyable movie in the action sense though, and the effects are incredible when it comes to the Sandman.

I Am Legend :- I can't help but compare this to the old Charlton Heston version in my mind, which was spookier, until he started talking with the bad guys.  In this version the bad guys can't speak, which gets rid of some of that problem.  It's strange watching a guy chase deer through the city in a car, with a rifle, when he could easily stop the car, get out and shoot a deer before they got away.  Maybe he just wasn't hungry enough.  Anyway, disease, monsters, devil dogs, good dogs who die because they're saving their owner who won't get up and run in time even though he does so moments later, last minute saves, clever zombie traps... there are lots of things in this movie... including some kind of teleporter which takes the main character from his bathtub, where he falls asleep, to his bed, in the middle of the night.  It's okay.  It's not great, but it's far from bad.  So a pretty run of the mill sci-fi actioner, which looks nice.  I really need to read the book.

AVPR : Aliens vs Predator - Requiem :- I have no idea why the predator decided to take on the infestation alone, but this time a little town in the US is infested with Aliens.  I think you can imagine from then on what this movie is about, but you may not be prepared for how out in the open it all gets.  You kind of expect the predator to stay hidden which he doesn't, and the aliens usually don't just run around everywhere killing everything in their movies, but here they do.  I'd say it's a good solid two and a half out of five movie, but then I was reminded of a scene next to a swimming pool and subsequent cool death, so I think that bumps it up to three stars.  Lots of action, lots of danger, and no idea who, if anyone, gets out alive.  That's all you're looking for in a movie like this... and you get it.

The Covenant :- Why do people think that lifting someone on wires makes it look like they're flying?  It doesn't, it makes it look like they're on wires.  There's a bit of an interesting take on magic here, except for the ridiculous willing people your power concept.  Some great effects are in evidence too, but in the end a story that starts well with a group of friends, a new girl, a relationship on the rocks, and some idiot bullies, turns into a one on one battle for ... a couple of years worth of power... which takes some of the characters away from the main focus of the movie, leaving them out in the cold as people who appeared in the movie at one point but are now in no danger, and it also leaves you having to identify with the leader of their group, or you have nothing invested in the end.  At least if you take the whole gang into the danger area if there's one you identify with more you can experience them being in danger even if you don't feel for the rest.  One good thing about it though is that the bad guy never quite seemed ... right... before he's revealed as the villain.  That's good because mostly you get films with a completely normal and rational looking character who turns into some cackling psycho once the reveal is made... which just doesn't fit in with any reality I've ever known.  So good points and bad points, but no better than average, and full of things they could and should have done.

Next time: whatever I write next time.