Journal
I went to see The Golden Compass last week - the film of the book with the same name (although sometimes called Northern Lights). I mentioned the trailer before, and though tit looked great, but wasn’t sure what to expect of the movie itself.
I read the book some time ago so remember the story in broad sweeps but don’t remember the specifics - thankfully the film was laid out in a similar fashion. A quick discussion with my friends afterwards (who have re-read the books recently) tells me that basically they took the story and abbreviated things considerably. From my own memory I am sure the time in Bolvangar took place over several days (weeks? months?) where in the film it’s squashed into about ten minutes.
Of course edits and abbreviations are necessary for pretty much all book to film translations. Thankfully The Golden Compass is more Lord of …
When it comes to movies I’m a huge fan of fantasy and mythology.
When it comes to myths you can’t get any more classic than the epic poem, Beowulf.
When I found out that Beowulf was going to come to the Imax, in ‘proper’ 3d (glasses and all), I knew I had to go and see it.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis (Polar Express, and Back to the Future) and starring a proper Londoner - Ray Winstone - along with a bunch of other well known actors, Beowulf is a big budget movie using some pretty unique technology.
Like it’s technological predecessor, Polar Express, Beowulf is a 3d animated movie (think Toy Story… then turn up the realism) and uses full body motion capture for 90% of the animation. They used the actors who voiced the characters to perform the physical roles, giving an extra edge to the realism and coherence …
Stardust is a fantastic film about doing what is right and the quest for love (and the fact that you won’t always find love where you expect too).
The story is based upon a Neil Gaiman comic book and was turned into a movie by Jane Goldman (Jonathon Rosses better half). I went to see it with Jo recently and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
The film has a wonderful feeling to it, it’s almost eccentric an has a very English feel to it. It reminds me somewhat of the old fantasy films that I loved from my childhood (Hensons Labyrinth and Dark Crystal for example) however it has technology on it’s side and is much better for it.
The cast list is astonishing - as well as the English actors and comedians (anyone else spot Adam Buxton and David Walliams in there?) there is a whole host of Hollywood actors and actresses, …
Went to see Run, Fat boy, Run at the cinema the other day. It was really good.
I’ve become a bit of a fan of Simon Pegg, Hot Fuzz being one of the big reasons why. Somehow he has made being a geek quite cool, and that can only be a good thing. However if you go into Run Fatboy Run expecting something like Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead then you are likely to be rather disappointed.
Run, Fat boy, Run is a much straighter comedy than either of those, the jokes are more traditional and the story is almost normal, realistic even. That said there are still some classic Simon Pegg moments (the blister) and a handful of cameos from English comedians (”Can you give me something in the shape of a fish?”).
The story is reasonably generic, a man loves a lady but can’t commit - ditching …
Shortly before we went to see Damien Rice my girlfriend bought tickets for us to go and see Athlete at the Norwich UEA LCR (University of East Anglia LCR… don’t know what the last bit means). Last night it was finally time to go see them, and we had a great time.
It was actually part of the UK tour for their new album, Beyond the Neighbourhood and naturally I hadn’t listened to it, so I spent the whole day with it playing on a loop. Jo got home from work at 6 and we had a crazy rush to eat and get dressed so we could get there in time for the doors opening… and it’s a good job we did. The venue was, what some would call cosy. Thankfully getting there early meant we were able to get a pretty decent view.
The support act(s)
Very soon after we got …
September 14, 2007 | Reviews
JazJaz.net was the winner of my links competition and his main prize was a permanent review on my site, so I thought it was about time I pulled my finger out and wrote the thing.
The Site
First some background. JazJaz.net is a blog consisting of a multitude of short, pop culture inspired, articles. Many are geeky, many are daft, but all are interesting (to me at least). The reason I picked JazJaz as the winner of the competition was simply that his site had the content I found most enjoyable.
Things I like
The content. I know I said it above but the content is great. It’s actually almost a tumbleblog style affair but without the mindless nonsense and just the geeky goodness I love
The design. I realise the site is built on Wordpress, and I realise it uses a theme which itself is the offspring of two other themes, …
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