Slight correction

I just posted a new entry below and realised it said it was monday on it. Now I could change this to say tuesday but then I wouldn't get to vent about my attempts to post the aforementioned entry yesterday. I spent a good deal of works time creating the below post only for it to fail when uploading to the site, then it disappeared. I thought I'd lost it all and i wasn't happy. but then I arrived this morning had a look and there it was. it seemed it had saved after all. Hurrah for Blogger.

That was the weekend that was.

It's Monday so the weekend has just past. My weekend was mixed, I wanted to get my hair cut but then some one at work said they wanted to work Saturday so I thought I'd bring them in as well cause they really needed the money and It wouldn't hurt my pocket either. Then Friday evening I get a call saying he's had a better offer and wouldn't be coming in. Fricking wonderful, so I dragged my sorry ass in to work only to find that there is only 2 of us now working. That was not good. But in the end we pulled it oput of the bag and kicked ass.
I finished at twelve and headed to Joes house, most of you don't know Joe but he's cool. We sat and watched my new favorite Sci-fi show Firefly and Kiss of the Dragon starring Jet Li which was nice. We shot the shit for a bit, put the world to rights and then I left.
Sunday saw another trip to Nottingham to catch some filmic delights. And what a delight on offer. First film we took in was the one and only Ghostbusters. It was the first time I'd seen it on the big screen and despite the dodgy print the film rocked even more than when I watch it on DVD, about every month. I'll talk more about it in another post.
Second film we saw was The squid and the Whale a film by Noah Baumbach the co-writer of Wes Andersons "Life Aquatic." The first thing to say about this film is that it's characters are not the nicest of people which made it really hard for me to warm to this, if I ever did.
Saying that though I did like it, if it's possible to "like" this film anyway. It charts the breakup of a marriage and the effect that has on both the adults and children involved. Jeff Daniels is a horrible person, he has a high opinion of himself and a low opinion of others. His eldest son is no better, trying to emulate his father in all the worst ways. Laira Linney's mum character is a little more sympathetic but has had at least one affair, but we don't get to see anything about what led up to the breakup so we don't know if anything drove her to adultery, she doesn't seem particularly sorry though. The youngest son has problems, ranging from Masturbating in the library and wiping it on the books to getting wasted at home on his dads beer. Of course this could all be put down the confusing surrounding his parents separation.
I really wanted to feel for these characters because you can see they are going through hell but they are just so unlikable you can't bring yourself to empathise with them.
A good raw film but one which I couldn't get emotionally involved in.

My new MoBlog...

I've just created a new Moblog..It's like a blog with pictures from your mobile. It's quite addictive too.
http://moblog.co.uk/blogs.php?show=7531
I've only one picture on there at the minute but that should grow very soon. If you want to see it go to above link.
It should turn out to be a nice little visual record of things I do.

Easter....It's that time again.

So it's almost here Easter.. The celabration of all things chocolate and egg shaped....No wait have I missed the point some where?
This time holds a double edged sword for me at times, well times when I have a girlfriend anyway. If I've got a girlfriend around Easter we always end up having the same conversation.
Me: Would you mind if I didn't get you an Easter egg?
(A slightly confused and hurt look comes across her face)
Girl: What? Why wouldn't you want to get me an egg?
Me: Well it's a little bit disrespectful isn't it.
(More confused looks and a not so hurt but angry expression.)
Girl: Why is buying me an Easter egg disrespectful?
Me: Well we're kind taking this very important Christian festival and using it as an excuse to buy each other egg shaped confectionery.

At this point she usually starts to well up.
Girl: Well if you don't think I'm worth buying a fucking Easter egg for you coulda just said.

and then she storms out. Now it's not always like that but you get the idea.
It just seems that even if your a non Christian you can't get away from taking part in their celebrations.
"Your not buying any Easter eggs this year!! What's wrong with you"
"I'm not Christian"
"What has that got to do with it.."

That seems to me to be the attitude of many people nowadays. I feel a little sorry for real Christians who have seen the celebration of the resurrection of their Lord Jesus Christ boiled down to some thing completely and utterly unrecognizable from it's origins. You get shot for mentioning Jesus or a cross or resurrection in the same sentence as Easter now.
Shops can't use any religious imagery to promote goods of a supposed religious holiday.
The whole thing is very messed up and I think the US and the UK are the worst offenders.

Three Burials and a River.

Went to the cinema on Sunday, watched 2 films. One good one not so Good.
First the River. Made in 1951 by Jean Renoir this was supposed to be some kind of classic. It was I guess in some ways a classic. A classically bad film...haha. Yeah great joke there. But seriously I didn't really enjoy this. It was pretty dull through out and although only had like an hour and 45 running time seemed to drag on sooo long. The characters are flat and dull and despite being set in Indian the Direction is dull and the scenery is dull. The acting is atrocious and the script was hammy and clunky and crap(yes I know I need to extend my vocabulary.)
The second film was The Three burials of Melquiades Estrada. The directorial debut of Mr Tommy Lee Jones and he does a solid enough job. Not a lot of flair, very workman like. Very much the same as Jones. The story centers around Jones' Pete and old Rancher who's best friend and illegal Mexican immigrant is shot and killed by a border guard. The police want nothing to do with it and refuse to investigate. Stuck in a corner Pete kidnaps the border guard, makes him dig Melquiades up and then embarks on a cross country horse back ride across to Mexico to bury Melquiades in his home town.
The film explores the clashes between the old and the new, the changing lives of all rural peoples and the sad situations when people die and no one cares. The film is emotional, funny and thought provoking and ultimately satisfying.
Not a great film but a good one none the less. It's only on limited release but catch it if you can.

Vicky and Adrienne

So although not completely off the wall, my weekend was pretty entertaining. Went out on Friday night which I don't do very often. We started in the hole that is Newark(if you don't know it, please don't try and find out.) It was a guy at works leaving do and office politics kinda decided I should go even though I've never spoken to him before. After about an hour in this little room they'd hired at the back of a dirty pub four of us left and went to carry on our night in the slightly nicer and more familiar Lincoln. We got into Llyods about ten and began drinking in earnest again. Llyods isn't the greatest place on Earth but then no bar ever will be but they do serve cheap drinks. £1.65 for a Jim Beam and coke!!!Justt too good to turn down.
I'd noticed these 2 girls wandering around not out of lust or longing just one looked far too young to be in there and the other looked far too drunk. A little while later they sat behind us and then it happened. They came and sat down next to us...The young looking not so drunk one was called Vicky the ugly as sin(no offence) blasted of her face one, I think, was called Adrienne.
Apparently Vicky was actually 18 so more than legal although she did look young and was slightly strange. Adrienne was 22 although she looked about 40 and like to spit on you when she slurred at you(difficult to call it speech) Any how after a while Adrienne went off to the toilet and left Vicky there. We had a talk it was all very nice, she seemed cool after all if still a littleweirdd. Then the DJ piped up that some girl was passed out in the ladies and they were looking for her friends. As I listened to this Vicky kept chatting at me. "I think that might be your friend. We haven't seen her in a while"Ii said. "I don't know. Shedisappearss all the time when we go out. On new years eve we went out and she disappeared, didn't come back until she wanted the house keys."
A little worried by Vickysnonchalantt attitude to her friends disappearing act I just nodded and kept sipping theJimm.(insert gay joke here) about 10 minutes later we heard the same announcement from the Dj. "Look I really think you should go check if that's your friend." I said.
This time Vicky decided that maybe she should go and check. So she got her coat and wondered off to the toilets. As she left I thought to myself, "Damn should of got her number. Hopefully it's not her friend and she'll come back." Yes she was only 18, yes she was a little weird and yes she had a dog ugly friend but she seemed interesting. You don't find interesting people very often.
Of course it was her friend. Sprawled out on the toilet flaw twitching by all accounts. The ambulance came and picked her up and as they brought Adrienne down stairs from the toilet and went to see if I could speak to Vicky again. I was stood behind her as she came down the stairs. Adrienne was white as a sheet and still out cold. Poor Vicky looked pretty shook up. I decided it wasn't the most sensitive thing to do, asking for a girls number as she gets in the ambulance with her sick friend.
We stayed and drunk a bit more and then left getting home about half one time. We sat back with a cuppa tea and a few spliffs and watched Ong Bak until about half four when everyone went to bed. I was staying in the living room so I rolled myself another spliff and watched Fraiser at 4.30 Saturday morning. It was one I hadn't seen and it was goooood

Syriana

So to Georges second offering in quick succession. He has a little less to do in this as he's just one of the many stars and not directing. It follows several different characters from several different worlds who are all in some way affected by the oil industry, from the biggest oil company exec to an Iranian prince and a lowly disillusioned teenager. Syriana is the directorial debut of traffic scribe Stephen Gaghan. Gaghan provides the script for this too and it's all very familiar in content and also a little more surprisingly style. I did like Sryiana but unlike Matador where I'd find it hard to pin point things I didn't like and Good night and good luck where there are no things I dislike, Syriana does have it's bad points. Like traffic it's some times a difficult film to follow as it shifts between it's different characters and locations. Although all the acting is top dollar because of the constant shifting of locale and personals it makes it difficult to identify with all the players. Clooney, maybe because he has the most interesting character and story pulls this off the best.
I enjoyed this film though, first time I saw Traffic I wasn't at all convinced but Syriana gripped me and despite early troubles of remembering who everyone was I eventually got to grips with it all.
If you liked Traffic you'll like this. If you've never seen Traffic watch this first and if you watched Traffic and didn't like it then this may not be for you. But if like me you didn't like traffic the first time you saw it but then watched it again and decided, actually yes this isn't bad, then I like you'd like Syriana.
Peace out.

Good Night and Good Luck..

I must admit to not knowing a huge amount about McCarthy era America. I know they didn't like communists and I know the cold war was in full swing. I knew absolutely nothing About Ed Morrow though until I heard that Clooney was making a film about him and his issues with Mr McCarthy. It got some positive buzz though and Mr Crawford highly recommended it so when the chance to see it arose I decided to go for it.
I really enjoyed this film, it was interesting, engaging and Intelligent. It had a lot of things to say that I may self feel are very relevant in today's world. The film is opened and finished with Mr Morrow making a speech to I think some TV industry bigwigs in which he underlines how important TV can and should be if used correctly, which I whole heartedly agree with.
I love television and film and think they can be used in such better ways than they currently are. TV should be used for entertainment and information and in the current hunt for ratings I feel the quality interesting and intelligent programs are being forgot about in order to accommodate one more brainless reality/gameshow.
I'm all for stupid TV I've spent many an hour sat in front of the TV watching Takeshi's castle, which isn't exactly mentally strenuous viewing. It's just I'd like a choice.
I've kinda gone of the point here haven't I... The films shot in glorious black and white and it really feels like your in the studio with these guys. The acting is all top notch and Clooneys direction is flawless, very simple but very effective. A nice little period touch is the fact every one in the film smokes, constantly. It takes you back to a time when smoking was what cool people did, not a habit that will eventually lead to your horrible death.
The films really good, see it if you can.

The Matador

I thought I'd start my run down of the films I'd seen recently with the first one out of the bunch I've seen in the last few weeks. Makes sense really when you think about it.
First thoughts on coming out of the cinema afterwards were, "yeah I liked that..Not really sure why" Matador follows pierce Brosnan's slightly, shall we say fucked up hitman. He's loosing his touch and wants a break but as we all know it's not that easy when you're a hitman.
Greg Kinnear plays a struggling business man looking to get his break in Mexico city when he meets Brosnan. They form a kind of disfunctional friendship during their brief stay(Brosnan naturally doesn't have a lot of friends being a hitman so doesn't have great social skills. He tries to start telling a joke as Kinnear is telling him about his dead son)
Once back on home soil Kinnear and his wife are living happily enough when Brosnan shows up at their home in the middle of night. He eventually reveals why he's there. In order to save his live he needs Kinear to help him kill one last person.
I don't want to say much more, I don't want to ruin it for people not because I'll spoil any surprises It's just I have a hard time making things sound interesting.
This film was compared a lot to Grosse point Blank and I can see why, not so much in the overall story but in the whole "I liked that but I don't really know why."
Both films seem to make me feel the same after I've watched them. They both have some very funny moments but both feel a little light some where.
Brosnan is great in this, a real delight seeing him let go after bond and the opening scene in which he lampoons his old pals way with the ladies.
It's funny to say but seeing Brosnan, stressed, a little wired and technically loosing it. All in all a good movie. But I'm not sure why really.......I really suck at this film review thingy.
Go to Crawford on film for a proper review. He got on Brosnans official website with his Matador review.

Snakes on a MuthaF**king plane!!!

See told you I'd be back. I had to tell the masses about this. If you haven't read my good friend Alex's "Crawford on film" blog then you're in for a real treat.
Samuel L Jackson is to star in "Snake on a plane.." and it's actually what says in the title. Snakes are actually going to be on a plane. The blurb says that a deadly assassin gets on a flight intent on killing his target, then he releases a load of poisonous snakes. I for one I'm wetting my self about this film and may display half wood at times when thinking about how great it good be.

Long time no sea Hombre..

Hazarr I'm back. After having been moaned at by three separate people that I hadn't posted for a while I've got my ass in to gear to write this. It's amazing really 3!!! people apparently bothered enough about these ramblings to mention that I hadn't posted in a while. It almost gives you hope for humanity.
I've been actually busy at work so I haven't had chance to post(screw doing it on my own time)
I've seen a few films since we last spoke. The Matador, Good night and good luck and Syriana. I'll put my thoughts together on those in another post, save this one becoming long and more dull.
The only other real thing of merit to put down in writing is that I'm now sporting a spiffy semi-beard. It's not quite a beard as I have pathetic facial hair but as I leave shaving longer and longer the semi-beard goes from strength to strength. In fact you could probably call it a three quarter beard by now. Apparently it suites me so that's good to. Any way I've posted now so the masses will get off my back. I promise to back sooner rather than later....