A sine 9

Still experimenting with my Unlimited card, I’ve been off to see Happy-Go-Lucky tonight. Having never seen a Mike Leigh film before, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie. I’ve heard that his previous films have been darker and more rebellious than his latest offering which may have left some out in the dark, however from my position this film stands out as a piece of great realist cinema.

Relying on the actors to flesh out the characters, as Leigh has done here, really allows some well developed personalities to show through. Particular kudos needs to go to Sally Hawkins as the main character, someone who undergoes one of the most believable character development’s I’ve seen, and also to Eddie Marsan who has managed to create a believable yet terrifyingly off-base driving instructor.

At times I felt conscious that scenes went on a bit too long, sometimes verging on voyeurism and I was hoping for a climactic scene for one of the main characters, but on reflection that seems to add to the odd style of uncensored cinema that Leigh creates.

Enjoyable yet slightly hard work, Happy-Go-Lucky should be watched by everyone, save possibly your summer blockbuster acquaintances.

Just got back from watching Son of Rambow, courtesy of my new fancy-dan Cineworld Unlimited card, and I’m thoroughly impressed.

Coming from the same stable as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a film which aimed high but just fell short, Son of Rambow pulls the quirkiness of the Guide into a context where it strangely finds a home; childhood in the 80s. I can’t help but identify with the kids in this film, I grew up mucking around in our local river and recording radio shows with my friends, but this certainly doesn’t make this a kid’s film. True, you could take the family to see it, but I don’t think that Junior would appreciate the story that much, in fact marketing this film to kids seems to miss the point. Son of Rambow is a pure nostalgia trip, plugging the highs and lows of growing up, but never labouring a point and steering well clear of any emotional hand-holding. Spielberg could learn a lot by watching this film.

Essentially a film about film, Son of Rambow won’t please people looking for a new Napoleon Dynamite, but anyone who loves movies should at least enjoy it if not love it. All said and done I enjoyed it, leaving the cinema with a grin on my face and a happy feeling that there are still more excellent movies to come this year. Four out of five.

This might not be your idea of a good time in EP format, but it sure is mine. Besides it’s free so why not?

From the site:

‘This is a concept album. The concept is that I tell a bitch to go buy me a hot dog, and she does. While she is buying me a hot dog, I wait patiently, and do The Robot. I eat the hot dog and it is delicious.’

Electro/Industrial never tasted so good. Bogart Shwadchuck is some kinda genius. Eris is pleased.

UPDATE: Forgot to add that you NEED to donate if you enjoyed this. If you don’t you may feel depressed. Also your balls will drop off.

I’ve just finished watching 30 Days of Night and Planet Terror. 30 DoN is OK, decent scrip let down by emotionless performance by Josh Hartnett, but I really feel the need to rant for a while about Planet Terror.

I really can’t remember a watching a film where I’ve laughed quite so much. Robert Rodriguez’s contribution to the Grindhouse projet stands our as the best piece of parody cinema in a long, long time. With his tongue firmly lodged in his cheek, Rodriguez has built a film that both pays excellent homage to Troma era movies, whilst at the same time pointing an accusing finger at their trademark trash.

It’s not only the comedy elments that had me giggling. There’s plenty of cameos, out and out craziness and snappy dialogue to keep any fan of trashy moves happy.

I really can’t reccomend the film enough, even of it’s only to see Tom Savini go out the way he would have always wanted. Next is finding a copy of Death Proof and seeing how Tarantino’s effort measures up.

My one problem with the Grindhouse series is that I’ve not seen any sign of a boxed set of both films along with the trailers that were originally included when both films were shown together as intended. Allegedly there’s one directed by Rob Zombie, which I really need to see.

Huzzah! It’s only 4 days until Script Frenzy 2008 kicks off. After failing spectatcularly at NaNoWriMo last year I figure I should have a crack at writing a screenplay, so enter Fried Slice.

This is an idea me and Ralph came up with in the pub a yonk (standard British measurement of a period of time relating to things said/done in pubs longer than one month hence) ago. In precis, it’s about a Gulf War veteran who returns to the UK and sets up a greasy spoon cafe in Skegness. He is cruelly betrayed by his daughter in cahoots with a Korean DDR champion who wants to build a gym on his land. Unfortunately his murder does not go as planned as exposure to depleted uranium has made him near unkillable, so horribly disfigured and missing a hand Fried Egg Man takes his revenge on the society that wronged him using various kitchen implements and wearing a face mask made of two fried eggs.

It practically writes iself! Anyway, I’m not allowed to put digital pen to paper until April 1st, so I’ve got until then to get my ideas down. If you play your cards right, I might post some stuff about my progress. Thankfully the whole idea of Script Frenzy is to write a draft of 100 pages within April, so maybe this whole slipshod idea might get further than the musings of drunken fools. Then again…

I’ve just noticed that Copper is updating again!

If you’ve never read Copper before, go do so now. I vow to thee; thou shall know no disappointment. The webcomic is written by Kazu Kibuishi, one of a number of contributers to the fantastic Flight books, and if you’ve never read a Flight book, you’ve never lived.

I’ve just finished reading Speaker for the Dead, the second novel in a quartet of books written by Orson Scott Card and I can’t recommend the book enough.

One thing keeps bugging me though. Through the two books of his I’ve read there are ongoing messages about truthfulness, honesty and the potential of humanity, but reading his Wikipedia page I cane upon the following paragraph:

He believes homosexuality to be a sin, and has called same-sex marriage a “potentially devastating social experiment.” In his essay “The Hypocrites of Homosexuality” he advocates laws against homosexual sex, “not to put homosexuals in jail,” but to encourage gay men and women to have sex only in secret “so as not to shake the confidence of the community in the polity’s ability to provide rules.” In the same essay, he claims to have a number of homosexuals as “dear friends” and speaks out against the use of “ugly words like faggot.” Homoeroticism is a main theme of his book Songmaster.

I wasn’t sure if this was just Wikipedia vandalism, but I followed links to other sites mentioning this. I guess this just shows that he’s a human guy with the same seemingly bizarre ideas we all entertain, but I just found it hard to reconcile the statements that he makes with the picture I’d built up of the author.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that I’m not sure about the next in the series, thanks in part to this XKCD comic. Curse you again Randall Munroe!

Just because I can’t be bothered to post anything but Youtube videos recently. But still - Woot!.

Those crazy Koreans, eh? We can only hope Capcom take note and produce a beautifully animated, HD Street Fighter dance-’em-up. Put it on the Wii, and you’ve got a sure fire hit.

Well, I’ve spent all day thinking about posting an entry, so here it is. Yup, I’m that stuck for ideas.