I saw The Hobbit last week, and I’ve been asked if I would write a bit about what I thought, given I was so reluctant to see it based on what I’d read. Note that I’m not commenting on the technology since I saw the 2D and regular frame-rate version, although a trusted source told me that he thought both… Read more →
So I mentioned a while back that I’ve been following the new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice – The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Since Christmas we’ve seen the start of the story arc with Lydia and George Wickham, which is climaxing this week with the revelation of a sex tape. I’d been wondering for a while what the writers would do… Read more →
Never Let Me Go is a wonderfully bittersweet film and a great example of how to adapt a book into a movie. First get the author involved and make sure that you can justify your changes to him; make sure that he’s aware that a change of medium necessitates a change in what can be presented to the audience and how the story is told. Since I know that there are readers who haven’t read or finished the book and those who haven’t seen the movie, I’ll continue the review after the fold (thar be spoilers ahead, matey!). Just let me say that I think this film is very good and much better than most of the commercial pap currently showing.
Reading this article about Midsomer Murders, I’m reminded of Neil Gaiman’s admonition to a letter writer that  George R.R. Martin is “not your bitch”. Bobbie and I have joked now and then about the whiteness of Midsomer, and it is a very artificial world that is portayed; somewhat of a bubble of 50’s country England, albeit with modern accouterments. Whatever you… Read more →
I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – it was ok. They managed to shoehorn horror and romance together without too much of a WTF! factor. Now there’s a new book based on Sense and Sensibility. Danya and I saw copies in Better Read That Dead last night, and I was almost shocked; I’d seen a youtube clip some time… Read more →
Well… how do you know? I received the latest Gleebooks Gleaner yesterday, and saw that the last of my trio of classic favourite films was finally available on DVD. Mind you, there’s classics and there’s classics. Ask me to sit down and watch Casablanca with you, or The Third Man or… I’ll not refuse and I’ll enjoy myself. Ask me… Read more →
…and all hail the Ponyo theme song 🙂 As I walked out of the cinema, people were still singing away. Yeah, I know; you’ll listen and say we are all tragics. Still, we enjoyed ourselves so you can all go and be grumps elsewhere. Ponyo is a real kids movie, but it’s beautiful and has a heart-warming theme. The audience… Read more →
Bobbie just called me out to watch a segment on the news about the bushfire devastation in Marysville Victoria; it was pure disaster porn. The reporter went up to several survivors, who were obviously in shock, and asked them if they knew anyone who died, and how they felt about that – were they taking it badly… One of them… Read more →
And he gives substance to my decision to avoid the film Australia. Not that David and Margaret’s review on At The Movies endeared me to it, although it ended with the hope that people embrace it. Anyway, Peter makes the point that a movie with such a grandiose title sets itself up as being more than a love story –… Read more →
The Stolen Earth – second last in Season 4, if I calculate correctly – screened last night. It was a fun romp and I enjoyed it as much as the rest of the new series, but something was missing. As I was watching it, I was wondering who the kid was with Sarah Jane, and what was the deal with… Read more →
I just came out from watching Hellboy 2 (which, by the way, I felt wasn’t as good as the first one). This however, is not a review but is instead a semblance of a mini-essay, or a rant, or a collection of semi-coherent and hopefully linked observations. As I watched the final act of the movie, it became more clear… Read more →
I guess Daniel Day Lewis is assured an Oscar for his work in There Will Be Blood. Unfortunately, the rest of the film doesn’t live up to his standard. If ever there was a film to base a thesis on how little a good actor can carry a poor film, this is it. I walked out feeling fairly disappointed with… Read more →
and for fans of animation… Neil writes that a trailer for Coraline has been leaked to the web, and that the production company have given them a better quality version to distribute. It’s a nice little teaser, and I imagine it looks spectacular in 3D.
And the guns went off in my chest Remember carrying the baby just for you Crying in the wilderness …………….. All together, now: It’s a wide open road, it’s a wide open road. Now you can go any place that you want to go…. And I suppose it’s pretty obvious that I have just seen [tag]The Triffids[/tag]. Well, anyway, A… Read more →
I was going to title this post “Suck it, Libtards”, but I guess that’s a bit crass… It looks like Australians have remembered my birthday in a big way, and its the present I always wanted – John Howard’s government out of office. I just hope that the people of Bennelong were attentive to my late additional request and get… Read more →
I heartily recommend Across The Universe. It very aptly puts a whole lot of Beatles classics into a decent context, with some lovely reinterpretations in the mix. Contrary to what David and Margaret said, I think that the storyline is fine. Of course the movie is a musical, so that sets the bar a bit lower than normal… You’ve also… Read more →
Last night I went to the local Dendy cinema to see Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. Beforehand there were three shorts, all for movies that interest me: Ne le dis à personne, The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward, Robert Ford and Control. In contrast, last week at the commercial alternative – Hoyts – I’ve been recently presented… Read more →
I’m not much of a follower of rugby league. In fact, I’m more than likely to derisively refer to thugby league. However, the last few weeks have seen me paying more than passing interest in the code. I guess I’m always sympathetic to an underdog, and Souths fit the bill. The last few weeks, the ABC has screened a documentary… Read more →
This weekend, I saw references to forthcoming films that are billed as “loosely based” upon a SF book. One is “The Golden Man”, released as Next, in the US. A plus is that Lee Tamahori is the director, and Nicolas Cage can act when he gets good material work with. Unfortunately, Philip K. Dick’s dark tale of the future of… Read more →
I guess that Raimond Gaita’s book must be a good read, given this review. Certainly the movie is wonderful. Eric Bana proves again that he is masterful actor, and Franke Potente is also great, but Cody Smit-McPhee has to be the standout as the young boy struggling to come to terms with the tragedies that are his parent’s lives. The… Read more →
