transformed

Jude has turned me into a ferret!

A FERRET!!!!

I am, of course, referring to my "meet your daemon" test result (which clearly I took more seriously than I originally intended, ha!) which initially gave me a majestic tiger. The results allow friends of mine to answer similar questions to those I answered in the original test to see if my daemon is accurate. Jude took it... and turned me into a ferret.

To make matters worse, she has since taken the test herself and got... yes, you guessed it... a TIGER. Bah!

This can be rectified... please take my test in my previous blog post*, thinking tigerish thoughts while you answer! I WILL re-earn my stripes!

*those of you reading this imported in facebook will need to go to my blog to see the flash presentation of the ferret!

the golden compass

Dan and I saw The Golden Compass last week.

Surrounded by controversy, the film had sparked several discussions before it was even released;
- In the 3rd book, Pullman kills "God", maybe we shouldn't support it?
- Pullman has made his atheist beliefs extremely freely known (just google him...), maybe that's a reason not to see it?
- The books are said to be a thinly veiled attack on the Catholic church, perhaps we shouldn't go and see or support such an statement?

Personally, I think it's just literature. Literature which has been adapted for the big screen. So Pullman is an atheist. He's still a good novelist. I'm sure if we looked into the spiritual/religious backgrounds of several other authors we'd find stuff to disagree with there too.

As for the attack on the Catholic church, Pullman is reacting publically to what he sees and dislikes in the church in the world. In some ways, he's probably right and we should be challenged by it. In other ways, he's got it all wrong but we won't know that if we shut it away and refuse to watch will we?

The storyline in which Pullman kills "God" in the third book is one I don't know much about first-hand. I've not read the book (got bored mid-way through the second and gave up) so don't know what it says but from what I've heard, he presents God as a weary, tired and apathetic character who is fairly ineffectual and dies with a sense of relief. If that's who God is, Pullman does us a favour by killing him off. I believe in a God who is full of life, never sleeps or tires and is bigger and stronger than any who might oppose him. Pullman's impressions of God, and those similar, aren't doing us many favours so they might as well go.

The film itself, as Matt reviews, is weak and slow. There are plenty of opportunities for action and, apart from the bear fight, it's disappointingly flat. You could easily miss the "climactic battle" at the end if you dropped your popcorn at the wrong moment. Much of what makes the book such a good read is omitted or dumbed down. It's not a bad film as such; just not a very good one. It's worth seeing just for Nicole Kidman's part, which she carries brilliantly.

I think that if we take a "moral stand" as Christians and boycott the film we'll be missing out. With such big press and public debate about the spiritual standpoint of the film, we need to be informed and aware so that we can continue to be part of the discussion. Otherwise, we'll only be able to chip in down the pub with "Yeah but from what I heard...." and to be honest, that's not a particularly reliable opener is it?

The Golden Compass raises some excellent questions for discussion. Here are just a few that we thought of:

- Pullman introduces the idea that every person has a "soul" which is permanently with them, in the form of an animal (called a daemon). Obviously we don't have the animals but we do all have souls. Pullman's characters die if their daemon is damaged in any way. How much are our souls an intrinsic part of who we are? Can they get hurt or damaged? How? What effect does this have on us?

- Pullman's daemon system is such that children's daemons can change their form according to the situation. Adults, on the other hand, have one fixed-form daemon. This is because children are more open-minded than adults who are far more fixed in their ways of thinking and expectations of how this should be. Do we do this too? How do we restrict our spirits?

- Lyra uses the alethiometer to read the truth in situations. Would this be useful in this world? How different would the alethiometer's version be to real life?

- The animal form of the daemons is used to show a person's character - the "baddies" having creatures such as snakes and insects whilst the old, wise characters have big cats and strong animals. What would your daemon be and why?

Whilst we're on that subject of the last one, the film's official website has a fun "Find your Daemon" quiz where they allocate you an animal based on a few questions. I was quite pleased with mine*



*Don't worry, I really did only do it for fun, I don't really believe in them and I'm not about to turn atheist or Pullmanist!

see the resemblance?

Remy, star of the new Pixar animation, Ratatouille


my Ratatouille

blades of glory

Will Ferrell and Jon Heder's usual standard of comic genius. Go see it!!

We laughed, cringed, chuckled and tried to remember lines to use in conversation later. It's just one of those films. Surprisingly it didn't make me want to skate as much as I thought it would. Worth a watch though, definitely.

My greatest achievement today was buying a pair of sunglasses and losing them within the hour. Grrr!

public health warning

WARNING: Any involvement with this man will seriously take over your life!*

Back in September, Kim and Steve lent us 24 series one on DVD. A few sleepless nights and many hours of tense viewing later we were hooked.

October half term couldn't come quick enough and we devoured series 2, knowing that in order to maintain sanity and for any chance of either of us not falling asleep at work we'd have to save the next series for the Christmas break.

Weeks passed, Christmas plays came and went until finally it was time. Gav and Em were the lenders this time. As soon as series 3 hit the DVD tray we were consumed. Every spare 45 minutes became an episode opportunity. This time, most of the nail-biting hours were seen on my laptop in the smallest hours whilst staying at mum and dad's. No longer did we think of getting in from visiting someone and going to sleep - not a night went by without at least one episode.

We finished series 3 on Saturday morning just gone. As keen as we might be to start series 4, we're going to have to ration ourselves once again. February half term might be a possibility but seeing as we're hoping to be somewhere else it might have to wait even longer.

Be warned though. 24 is great but its totally engrossing. Be prepared as soon as you open the box to sleep less, eat less (OK, maybe not that), do less housework, go out less, talk less and, err, do everything else less for as long as it takes to reach the conclusion of whichever series you happen to be watching.

*OK, so I admit I actually mean "watching 24 will seriously take over your life." Not ever having had contact with Kiefer himself, I can't comment on any other sort of involvement. Please don't sue me!

bigger man

If you'd have asked me yesterday what the last thing I saw at the cinema was, I'd have had to have hung my head and shamefully admitted that it was Little Man. Thankfully that has now been put right and the last thing I saw at the cinema was Casino Royale.

I'm not the world's biggest Bond fan. I guess I might be now but growing up, it just never seemed like the sort of thing I wanted to watch on boxing day so I never bothered. CR is probably only the 3rd 007 film I've watched through from beginning to end. Don't ask me what the other 2 were called!

Anyway, CR is very good and I will openly admit that I enjoyed it - maybe I should watch some more Bond films while I'm in the mood?

I've heard many people raving about "that scene" (pictured) where he comes out of the water in "those trunks" - a tip of the hat to the scene in the original. So it goes, the scene wasn't meant to be in this film, the crew made it as a joke but, having seen it, the female contingent of the crew campaigned for its inclusion in the final cut and it was kept. Unfortunately, my first thought was that his head is too small compared to the rest of his body.

Anyway, great film, go and see it now. Oh, not now, learn to play poker first - you'll enjoy it much more if you know what they are trying to do with the cards and what Bond needs to win.

pirates of the caribbean ii - dead man's chest

This is a very silly film.

I love it.

float like a cadillac, sting like a beamer

After a lazy day at the beach, from which I'd just like to report that mum and I were the only two brave enough to swim in the sea, Dan and I went to Truro to see if they had cinema in Cornwall.

Cars. Disney Pixar's latest animated offering has had extremely mixed reviews. Well... we liked it. It felt quite long and the storyline is a bit weak and predictable but its good nonetheless, having that modern fairytale quality that Pixar manages to get in all of its films. It's your basic, hot-shot character cares about no-one but himself and learns the lesson the hard way moral tale. I think, though, that this is its only weakness. Everything about the film more than makes up for it.

The characters are brilliant, drawing on all the stereotypes regarding the kinds of drivers you'd find in each type of car. I particularly liked the male MPV and his smaller car wife, obviously on holiday, obviously lost due to his continuing stubborn refusal to ask for directions! I suspect, also, that if you're into motor racing in America, there are plenty of parodies and references to the stars and catchphrases in there too. But I wouldn't know. Great casting too, including a genius role for Jeremy Clarkson as Lightning's manager.

The animation is just beautiful. Pixar's attention to detail never lets them down. The cars are shiny, the scenery is breathtaking, even the rust is believable. And it's their attention to detail that makes all the incidental funnies so good too - who'd have thought of making a car movie where even the insects are cars? (little VW beetles with wings!)

I think my absolute favourite moment was the scene in which the loveable Mater takes Lightning out "tractor tipping" in the night. I won't say any more because it'd spoil it but the film is worth seeing even just for this.

When you do go, make sure you stay right to the end. Pixar always throw in an "after the movie gem" or two. Cars is no different, with car versions of all their previous films - Toy Story, Monsters Inc etc.

Brilliant brilliant brilliant. This film made me wish I had kids so that I could send my father in law (who'll love it but probably won't see it otherwise) out to the cinema with them.

da dum da dum (click, click, click) da dum da dum....

Very.

Silly.

Film.

kong - film or playstation game?

That's not a film!! It's a very large, expensive advert for a playstation game. It's even organised into levels for easy transition to console format.

After the introduction, the levels begin:

Level 1: Endurance - successful players must sit through an agonisingly slow ship journey across some ocean or other while nothing much really happens.
Level 2: The natives - shoot them all, they speak a different language to you.
Level 3: Adventure - get your team across the bridge and onto the island.
Level 4: Dinosaurs
Level 5: More dinosaurs
Level 6: Weird leechy things with big teeth
Level 7: Insects the size of dogs
Level 8: Honeypot game - snatch the girl away from sleeping Kong
Level 9: Bats
Level 10: Empire Status - climb the ladders up the outside of the Empire State Building wearing silver stilettos
Level 11: Kong - stop him before he destroys the whole of NYC

I haven't seen the original film so I don't know how similar this one is. Don't really feel like I've missed out though. This one is long, slow, disjointed.....

we're not heroes, we're from Finchley...

What a weekend! Very busy so I'm going to bore you with the details. Nothing profound, just my weekend news.

Friday night - off to Barry and Sharon's for a fab home-made curry. Great food, nice wine, good company and some quality time with the dog.

Got home to find Anna and Stu in our house (we were expecting them) so drank lots of tea, ate yummy Green&Black's chocolate, talked lots and went to bed far too late.

While the others slept, I was up early Saturday morning to sit my Driving Theory Test in town. Unusually for me I was a little nervous as I hadn't had any time to do any preparation of any sort. I had managed to sit the two online practice tests which hadn't helped as I'd managed to score one less than the minimum pass mark on both occasions. In the end, the test wasn't so bad and I passed. Hurrah.

Bought a frying pan and headed back home for breakfast with Dan and Anna. None of us could be bothered to move so we just sat in the lounge all day. Anna and I did manage to get Naomi's wedding invitations finished which is a great relief.

Stu returned and we hit the pub on the corner of the road for a cheap and cheerful pub meal. Discussed the multitude of ways in which we could dispose of the irritating chirping Christmas birds behind the bar who were movement-activated and shrilled nasty arrangements of Christmas tunes incessantly.

Then to Narnia. Well, actually, to the cinema to see Narnia but you know what I mean. Great film - much more true to the book than the BBC dramatisations which felt a little rushed and certainly fairly dumbed down for a younger audience. A must-see this Christmas.

Sunday morning we were late for church as usual. I'm beginning to think it might be worth us changing every single clock in our house just to make sure we get anywhere on time! Dan was playing and I was doing coffee with Michelle. Managed to flood the kitchen with boiling water TWICE but the insides of the drawers are very clean now.

After church we joined the M1, expecting to sit in long slow queues into the cloud of black smoke that was Hemel Hempstead. We were only going as far as Luton and, as it happened, there was hardly anyone on the road. More yummy home-cooked food, this time my Mum's roast - the usual Sunday lunch but this time in celebration of my other Uncle, Derek's 50th birthday. Ate lots, completed the Telegraph crossword chatted lots...

Then to London, winding down unknown country roads through black smog, to Dan's parents. More tea, more chat, more home-cooked food (fish pizza this time - the best ever) and a few random items to put on ebay, including a programme from a West End musical in the 1930s.

Loooong slow journey back to Coventry up a very foggy M40, a bit of essay writing and a lot of sleep, disturbed only by the open window allowing wind to blow the blind in the bathroom out and push all the bottles off the windowsill and into the bath.

See.... I told you it was dull!

(P.S. if you're wondering, the quote in the title is from the Narnia film)

films

Seen a few films recently...

The Constant Gardener

Beautifully made. Feels quite like The Interpreter in style but nothing like it in content and much better in plot. It's got a very strong political agenda so don't go if you're just after a lighthearted bit of entertainment. Great story though, good characters and cast, good ending... worth seeing.

Shirley Valentine

Yes, an unusual choice I know but I saw it on the shelf and remembered my parents raving about it when it came out. Haven't actually watched it all yet so can't really comment but I think that also shows how much it really mattered to me that I saw it all!

Swordfish

If anyone could explain to me what actually happens in this film, I'd be extremely grateful.

Keeping Mum

Rowan Atkinson is just brilliant - there's something kinda right about him being a vicar! The rest of the cast are great too. This film just had us both laughing out loud all the way through (went with Katherine). This film has got to win "Best Use of Song of Songs in a Film" awards too.

madagascar

From the makers of Shrek and Shark Tale comes this latest animated film offering, Madagascar. Infinitely better than Shark Tale but nowhere near the heights of Shrek, Madagascar is a fun film to watch, a good use of 88 minutes!

Although the main characters are strong, the plot is relatively weak. Nothing really happens. It's not boring though and the peripheral characters keep the film going and the audience laughing. The monkeys are funny, the lemurs (led by Sascha Baron-Cohen) are very entertaining and the SAS Penguins are genius. I think it was the penguins I laughed at the most.

In a way, this film is like going to the zoo - you come out with your head filled with the animals you've seen, trying to decide which was your favourite etc.

Fab film but it's going to take more than that to knock Shrek off his "King of Animated Feature Films" throne and I think Mr Incredible is next in line anyway.

wilbur wants to kill himself

This is one of those films that has caught my eye every time I've been in a video shop but until last night I'd never actually picked it up. I'd actually already decided to watch Huckabees but on picking up Wilbur, I changed my mind and replaced the Huckabees box (those white ones you get in Blockbuster) back on the shelf.

When I got to the counter it turned out that I'd actually replaced the Wilbur box on the Huckabees shelf so I ended up watching Huckabees anyway. To be honest, I was a bit bored by it. It's not as funny as the Royal Tenenbaums, the plot is pointless and I guess I wasn't in the mood to search for all the quirky postmodern hidden meanings.

So... at the end of the film I took Huckabees back to Blockbuster, retrieved Wilbur from where I'd left him amongst the Huckabees and rented him instead.

Great film - under rated I reckon, given that I'd never heard of it except for seeing the box on the shelf so many times. As it starts with "W" it's always right at the bottom right hand corner of the very last shelf you look at in Blockbuster, by which time you're bored of looking and have probably already selected a film to watch anyway. Poor lonely Wilbur!

It's a great film, quite sad but well made with a good dose of comedy. Wilbur and Harbour (brothers) run a bookshop they inherited from their father which Harbour loves but Wilbur hates and wants to sell. Enter Alice, a single mother who sells books that patienst leave behind in the wards she works in at the hospital to raise money for her and daughter Mary to live on. Cue love story, more suicide attempts, strange German psychologist and crazy nurse, terminal illness, love story with the other brother and another suicide attempt.

It's beautifully made, minimalistically done with barely any characters, well acted by a relatively unknown cast. You can really get into the characters and their interactions. The bookshop setting is great too - it's hard not to love a bookshop full of old dusty books.

And it has a fantastic quote in it:

Harbour: What's it like, being dead?
Wilbur: It's dull as dishwater. It's silent and completely dark... it's like being in Wales.

vera drake

If you haven't already seen this film, stop whatever you are doing, go to Blockbuster and rent it now.

We just sat saying "wow" all the way through. It's a film about a woman who does backstreet abortions for "girls in trouble". It's quite amazing - none of her family know what she does and she goes about it in a very matter of fact way, just part of daily life. She doesn't get paid for it, she just does it because she believes people need it and have no-one else to turn to.

The film is strong and extremely moving, and harrowing in places, following what happens as Vera gets found out and her family discover what she's been doing all this time. Whilst you know that what she does is a criminal offence, you can't help but be on her side as an old lady who just did what she believed was right.

On top of all that, Mike Leigh directed the entire film by improvisation. He also kept the actors at the same knowledge levels as their characters - until the police turn up, none of the actors playing Vera's family have any idea that anything is happening.

the interpreter

At last! A film we both enjoyed and both stayed awake for!!

The Interpreter, with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, is a relatively predictable security thriller with the obligatory (but not too invasive) romantic edge. Despite this, I loved it - a film that could make me laugh, cry, hide behind my hands and still keep me guessing what was going to happen next.

More enjoyable than anything else I've seen so far this year anyway.

be cool

We chose F Gary Grey's Be Cool for our cinema viewing last night. Dan had heard good things about it and so had I, including a glowing review from Chris Curtis and a slightly more honest but still positive one from Mr Herald&Post Film Reviwer himself, Matt Adcock

The film is jam packed with famous people (yeah, I know most films are but this one more than usual, OK?) with poor excuses for cameos all over the place. It's kinda nice at first, a bit like being in a crowd of people where you keep recognising old friends. But it gets tiresome after a while seeing so many people playing themselves.

As a film, it can't really decide which shelf to file itself on either. It has a wonderfully kitsch 70s feel to it but is also a gangster/mobster movie, a music industry "here's a singer who needs to launch her career who is played by a singer who needs to revive her career in real life" film, a comedy, a self-parody... and flitting between all these styles and genres gets tiring too. In my opinion they aren't well blended enough to make one film.

And as a result it just feels way too long. There are so many sub groups in the double crossing gangster bit of the plot that rather than being clever and complicated it just ends up being convaluted and annoying. And it's one of those films where there are loads of points at which you think "oh good, that'll be the end then" but it just carries on (and on and on and on)

We went to the cinema because we wanted to spend an evening together. We also had a food shopping list in the car, waiting for us to go to Asda afterwards but the film went on so long we didn't have time. The result... me in the cinema totally bored with a snoring Dan sat next to me and an empty fridge at home. We'd have had a better evening together in Asda.

guess the actor

 This is an image from the film I watched last night. Here are some clues as to the actor:

the character in this image is Scarecrow

the actor doesn't look anything like this anymore

you might know him more as a singer

he's been in the news a bit recently

he's been famous since a young age

Think that'll do for now. Guess away and I'll post the answer later.....

hotel rwanda

Hotel Rwanda.... wow! What a brilliant film. Go see it if you can.

It's got all the classic elements of a war action film - even down to the traitor on the inside and yet it's a true story. I love true story films but I've got to admit that the storyline is often more wishy-washy than a fictional film - life's just not Hollywood all the time. But this one isn't like that. So much so that I kept forgetting it was true.

I guess that's like what we did at the time. All this stuff that was going on in Rwanda and we comfortable people in the West just conveniently forgot that it was true. Just like one of the journalist characters said - "people will see this on TV, say 'God that's awful' and then carry on eating their dinner" In that sense, it's a harrowing film - you can't fail to get a "when are they going to do something about this?" feeling as you watch but all the time knowing that actually, no-one did anything about it.

the green mile

I've just finished reading The Green Mile by Stephen King. Wow! What a book. I've seen the film 1.5 times and loved it - you can't fail to be moved by it. But the book... oh it's so much better. I guess my reading of the book was influenced by the film - Paul Edgcombe was already Tom Hanks in my mind, etc. Even so, it's a compelling read and you get so involved in the characters.

Stephen King admitted that he intended the parallels between John Coffey and Jesus - a man who dies for something he didn't do, who has the power to heal and an amazing gift of discernment and who, through his death, gives life.

I think one of the things that struck me most was the emotions of Paul and Brutal and the other guards when they realise that they know beyond all doubt that John Coffey is innocent but that it's impossible to change anything and they will therefore have to execute him. A kind of Pontius Pilate moment I guess? It got me thinking about what it might've been like to be one of Jesus' disciples or followers around in Jerusalem at the time of his execution. That kinda helpless feeling, knowing his innocence but being totally unable to stop the process. The emotion of that is massive.

A great book, I'd definitely recommend reading it if you haven't already, whether you've seen the film or not.