Sandeberg Rising

I had my scepticism about 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to Danny Boyle’s excellent 28 Days Later, especially as it seemed to be an over-the-top, Americanised sequel to an excellent, low budget British horror movie. However, Spanish-born Juan Carlos Fresnadillo did an okay job at the end of it. While definitely different in mood, this is very much to Aliens as 28 Days is to Alien. A different feel but definitely solid continuation of what went before. I think a lot of the feel of the sequel came from the soundtrack by John Murphy and the re-scored version of In the House – In a Heartbeat that gave the original such moody weight.

Set-wise, they obviously tried to capture that eerie feeling of seeing a deserted London, but on a wider scale. Largely they managed it, though sometimes it did seem a bit forced. Crucially, as in the first film, much of the horror was not in what the not-zombies did, but what people are willing to do to each other.

To sum up, an enjoyable film, though this may be partly due to my low expectations. But I’d rate it above both Spidey 3 and 300 for this year’s cinema releases.

Edit: Before I forget, I also read through the graphic novel ‘28 Days Later: The Aftermath’ which is supposed to fill in the gaps between the two films. Short summary: All filler, no killer. The writing is jarring, being split into four interwoven, but separate stories, and the art is uninspiring.

Tell them they can’t eat any more Mars bars, because their manufacturer, Masterfoods, has started using animal rennet in them instead of their vegetarian alternatives.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6653175.stm

As a public service, here’s a list of the products that do or don’t contain the stomach linings of calves:

Vegetarian Suitable Products:

Confectionery:
Aquadrops ®
Skittles Fruit ®
Starburst ® Sours/Fruits/Strawberry
Tunes ® Blackcurrant/Cherry/Strawberry
Lockets ® Blackcurrant/ Extra Strong/ Honey & Lemon

Ice Cream:
Starburst® All: Varieties

Milk Drinks:
Mars ® Original Drink/ Extra Chocolate/ Thick Shake
Galaxy ® Smooth and Creamy/ Thick Shake
Maltesers ® Chocolate
Bounty Frappe®
Bounty Drink®

Powdered Drinks:
Galaxy ® Hot Chocolate/ Hot Chocolate With Caramel/ Hot Chocolate Bliss
Maltesers ® Hot Chocolate

Vegetarian Unsuitable Products:
i.e. Products which may contain whey Derived from animal rennet:

Confectionery:
Bounty ® Dark / Milk
Celebrations ®
Flyte®
Galaxy Ripple®
Galaxy Minstrels®
Galaxy ® Block/Caramel/Fruit & Hazelnut/ Hazelnut
Galaxy Promises ® Cocoa Crisp/ Caramel Crunch/ Roast Hazelnut/Rich Coffee
Maltesers ® Original / White
Mars Original ®
Mars Delight
Mars Planets®
Milky Way ® / Crispy rolls / Magic Stars
M&M’s ® All Varieties
Revels®
Skittles ® Sours / Rainbow
Snickers®
Topic®
Tracker ®Chocolate Chip / Forest Fruit / Lemon / Roasted Nut
Twix®

Ice Cream:
Bounty ® Ice Cream
Galaxy ® Caramel Swirl Ice Cream / Vanilla / Triple Choc
Maltesers ® Ice Cream
Mars ® Ice Cream / Xtra Ice Cream
Snickers ® Ice Cream / Xtra Ice Cream

Not that I am vegetarian, but this does strike me as a rather dubious policy and the Vegetarian Society is trying to get people to complain to Masterfoods. Personally I’ve just been enjoying the looks on people’s faces when I tell them…

Edit: Okay, I was out by 2 million on the number of vegetarians…

I always say I won’t do these anymore, then I get lax for one reason or another and do another catchup post. But, here we are again and once again my assurance that this will be the last of it’s kind unless something dramatic happens in the form of the destruction of the internet, abduction by fae who see in me their long-lost and recently reincarnated god-king or I happen to catch ebola.

And so, in roughly chronological order:

• I am the happy owner of a Sony Playstation 3. I am very pleased with my investment and have been getting a lot of pleasure out of it. This warrants it’s own, in-depth, post which I hope won’t take another month to emerge.
• Penny went to Iran, had a good time, was fascinated by the cultural differences, saw interesting sights and missed a crackdown by the morality police by 24 hours. She is slowly but surely uploading pictures to her Flickr account and hopes to blog her experiences.
• As Bryce blogged, I spent a weekend up in Cheltenham, drinking beer, hiking, observing the local predators at play and taking a steam train around the villages. Most enjoyable.
  
• Since I last blogged I saw two movies in the cinema, both of which I was disappointed by, namely 300 and Spiderman 3. The former was either too hammy or the hamminess was not done by actors who could actually pull it off. The central themes and black humour of the graphic novel were not sufficiently present and the whole thing came off as a very pretty hack fest. Pretty, good battles but soulless. Spiderman 3 was great on special effects but it rubbed me up the wrong way with it’s constant lame gags to distract the kiddies from the darkness and the massive emphasis on Forgiveness. Do all superhero films now have to have a moral? All in all, watchable and fun, but does not compare favourably with it’s superior predecessors. This makes this years personal cinema chart look as follows:

1. Hot Fuzz
2. In Pursuit of Happyness (sic)
3. 300
4. Spiderman 3

• Next cinema films I intend to watch are Pirates 3, Harry Potter 5, Stardust, 28 weeks later, Bourne Ultimatum and Beowulf.
  
• Music-wise I’ve been mostly listening to the Klaxons, Bloc Party and Brand New.
• In books, I’ve been devouring Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series about a tough Chicago private eye… wizard. Excellent stuff, very good escapism.
• Penny and I went camping last weekend down on the south coast. The little village of Rye is incredibly charming while the Camber Sands Leisure Park where we pitched up is dire beyond mention. Pictures of Rye here. It was a pleasant weekend and the new tent, a Terra Nova Laserlarge 1, held up spectacularly in adverse conditions. All the more impressive considering the minuscule weight of just over 1kg.

Right, I’ve probably missed bits out, but it’s a good start!