A quick précis of the review for the impatient: It was pants.
Right then. Penny and I went to see it on Sunday in between our two climbing sessions. As background to this review, Penny has just recently finished reading the book by Arthur Golden, which she enjoyed immensely. I have never read the book.
Right, personally I thought the film was drab and uninspired. It made me feel how it must be living a life on anti-depressants. No excitement, no awe, no sadness, no joy, nothing. The only thing it made me feel was it made my arse ache from sitting there all the time. As a film of a very symbolic subject matter, set in a very ritualistic society, it lacked all the hallmarks of an Asian film. Hell, even Last of the Samurai was better in it’s use of Eastern symbolism than MoaG! So overall, somewhat interesting but really nothing to write home about at all.
Penny despised it with a passion. Apparently, if I hadn’t been there too, she would have walked out of the film after about the first hour. She stated that the characterisation was extremely poor and that the entire story was robbed of pretty much all of it’s subtlety and grace and been replaced by a kludgey story that was about as subtle as a smack in the head with a brick.
It’s not that she generally objects to film adaptations of books, generally she has enjoyed most adaptations, even if it means considering them as independent entities. This one had her facing away from the screen for periods, muttering curses at the director under her breath.
Ah yes, the director. With hindsight, that might have been the problem. It was Rob Marshall, the director of ‘Chicago’ (a poor adaptation of a theatre musical) and a TV rendition of ‘Annie’. That’s it. I think we know where the blame falls.
technorati tags: memoirs of a geisha, movie, review
Media – Last week, Christmas and last year
Long weekends rock – So does Potter
You’ll probably have spotted the trend that very, very little happens on Sundays so I’ll skip straight to Saturday.
Saturday morning was an early one, despite the late arrival the previous night, because Penny and I were off to see Neil Gaiman’s signing at Forbidden Planet in London. We were queuing from 9:30, the doors opened at 10:00 and we were finished by 11:00. It was really hard deciding what to take to get signed as we’d been told we were allowed three books and it was unclear whether or not we had to buy a book when we get there.
I was really gutted when we got there and discovered that not only did we not have to buy a book, but we were actually allowed six! I’d brought a spare and bought one book on site (couldn’t resist). So the books I managed to get signed were ‘Anansi Boys’ (his newest), ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ (an excellent book of short stories), ‘Good Omens’, ‘Coraline’ and the MirrorMask screenplay. If I’d have known how it was going to work I’d have brought ‘Signal to Noise’, ‘Midnight Days’, ‘Sandman’ or ‘American Gods’ (which I couldn’t find on Saturday morning). Penny brought her much-loved copy of ‘The Wolves in the Walls’, which is illustrated by Dave McKean.
Neil himself was very friendly and affable and much amused by the fact that Lenny Henry had accused him of smoking giant reefers with Dave McKean when writing MirrorMask. He also revealed that a new anthology of short stories is due soon, assuming he’s got enough material. I presume it will be published sometime after his next work, a children’s book.
All that done, we did some exploring (Hamley’s and Liberty’s) before ending up in Vinopolis in the afternoon. Situated under London Bridge, around the corner from the London Dungeon, the Vinopolis is a wine museum and wine tasting experience. It was definitely worth visiting, though it would have been prohibitively expensive had it not been for the two for one deal we had. As it was, we decided to go for some whiskey tasting too. Some of the wines we tried were average at best, but we also discovered some absolute gems like a 2003 Israeli Riesling/Chenin blanc, a Californian Muscat and the Crofts Triple Crown port. Among the whiskey tastings we particularly liked the smoky flavour of the Talisker.
After that, it was Pizza Express for dinner, a train home and a much-deserved 10 hour coma.
Quite a day!
technorati tags: vinopolis, wine, neil gaiman
Dave McKean, stock market bars and how tequila can lead to goose-stepping – Part 1
Wow, what a week it’s been! No blog for the last week and a half due to an enforced absence in
Saturday the 30th of October
It all began on Saturday with Kev’s birthday party. Penny and I arrived what we thought was late, but we ended up getting to Kev’s a good few hours before anybody else gave an ETA. It was a good party and good to see everyone again. It was the first time I’d seen Russ and Andrea since the infamous Night of the Jentalist! Lynsey’s cooking was excellent and the wine bountiful.
Sunday
Sunday began with us all watching Blade Trinity – AKA bloody bubblegum for the eyes. (Note to self: Use less weird metaphors). In the late afternoon Penny and I rushed off to go and See Dave McKean’s ‘Mirrormask’. We were much pleased to find out that not only was Dave there to introduce the film, but he was doing a Q&A afterwards, he’d brought the cast and Lenny Henry (friend of McKean & Gaiman) decided to show up too.
The film itself was a fairly simple family story at the heart of it, but the visuals and the storytelling together (especially the visuals) made it an awesome experience. Sadly, Penny – exhausted from the previous night’s excesses and lulled by the warm theatre – dozed off from time to time, thereby missing chunks of a film she’d been clambering to see for some time.
After the film was the Q&A session which was more entertaining than informative. The cast were pleasantly ‘normal’ rather than showbiz and Dave himself seemed rather unsure of all the attention. The best line came from Lenny Henry, when asked about the creative process of Gaiman & McKean: “Have you seen the film? They were obviously on drugs! I turned up and they were smoking giant reefers, like rolled up Persian rugs!”
technorati tag: mirrormask
Mirrormask
All kinds of stuff going on this weekend, principally Kev’s 30th birthday party.
And then, on Sunday just before I fly out for the week, Penny and I are going to see MirrorMask at the London Film Festival. The DVD already has an Amazon entry, though as you can see, it’ll be a long time before it’s available…
mirrormask
Originally uploaded by sburn01. Click to enlarge
technorati tag: mirrormask
I forgot to blog this last week: Last weekend Penny went to visit her Dad and his wife, Betty. They had just returned from a trip to Italy and wished to regale Penny, her sister Donna and Donna’s husband Andy with their tales of Venice. Sadly for Betty the trip was made less pleasant by a comobination of factors. Firstly, it was rather expensive; Secondly although Betty apparently likes to emerge herself in the culture of her holiday destinations, found that language was somewhat of a barrier to this. But the third, and worst, thing that ruined Venice? Those ghastly Germans! They were everywhere!
Now, I should point out at this point that within Penny’s family only her sisters know of the fact that she is seeing me. Her ‘rents have no idea and, to be honest, this suits me fine. My parents are enough of a handful, quite frankly!
So after Betty rops her clanger about those ghastly Germans, it goes quiet for a second while Donna and Andy look over at Penny to see how she reacts to this statement.
Penny’s face goes deadly serious and launches into “Oh, I agree, those Germans, they’re awful! Oh no, the Germans! They’re just horrible!” She has so much fun with this that Andy and Donna join in as soon as they know it’s safe, encouraging Betty to more and more extreme statements against Germans, before they al finally tire of the game. To cap it all, Donna manages a venom-filled “And we certainly wouldn’t one of them in our family!”
On Penny’s return to Aldershot, she managed to exercise levels of restraint that were superhuman (for her) by waiting at least 2 minutes before spilling the whole story out. Most amusing! However, she did deliver a vicious taunt too… Her souvenir was a mug, labelled Bardolino. Why is this a taunt? I’m very fond of a bottle of Bardolino wine which can be hard to get hold of in shops. Grrr….
Personally I blame the Germans…
Weekend was a good one. Penny and I had been together for a year on Saturday, so we went out for a meal and went to see ‘The Corpse Bride‘ a Tim Burton movie in the style of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’, which was muchly enjoyed.
technorati tags: germans, wine, corpse bride
New James Bond set to be unveiled
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | New James Bond set to be unveiled: “The mystery over which actor will become the new James Bond is finally nearing an end, with the next spy star due to be unveiled on Friday.
Film fans will discover whether Layer Cake actor Daniel Craig has been chosen to take over from Pierce Brosnan, as widely predicted in the press. “
I quite liked Daniel Craig in Layer Cake, so I think that could work well…
‘Real’ books
I need something fairly brainless in the mornings to read, so I bought the newest Tom Clancy paperback, ‘Teeth of the Tiger’. If I’m reading for quality, I steer away from Clancy, and his politics do often grate with me, but it’s a fairly decent techno-thriller that you can read with only half of your brain switched on. When I finish that one, I’ve got a collection of H.P. Lovecraft’s work. All praise Great Cthulhu! After that I have ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell’ by Susanna Clarke to read. I didn’t really get into it last time, but I’ve got enough time in the evenings to dedicate to it now.
Graphic Novels
I recently acquired, as part of my monthly post-payday Amazon purchase the second ‘Global Frequency’ book and ‘Mr Punch’, a Gaiman/McKean collaboration. I had read GF2 before, but it was quality, so I had to own it. I haven’t read ‘Mr Punch’ yet as it requires a fairly awake brain. I’m getting frustrated that ‘Desolation Jones’ is only bi-monthly and the first (assuming there’s more) storyline is supposed to be six episodes long and I’ve got three of them already. So for those weak in arithmetic, that means I’ve got to wait half a year to finish reading the story. Grrr….
Bryce very kindly brought his library graphic novel acquisitions with him to the game so I had something to read on Sunday morning while everyone else was still asleep. The first was a Constantine book, ‘Highwater’, which was good, and firmly re-establishes Constantine as someone not to be messed with. I quite enjoyed the other book he brought, but am ashamed to say I can’t remember it’s name.
Music
My AudioScrobler profile (see link on right) is slanted. The WMP plugin only records what you actually play using WMP, not what you transfer to your MP3 player. If I’m playing music from the computer, it’s likely to be mellow Sunday morning stuff, or occasional weird stuff, so there’s by plenty of Lamb, Massive Attack, Mr Punch, Goldfrapp etc. However, my MP3 player, which I actually listen to most often, is mostly filled with rockin’ tracks as I’m listening to it on the move and want something to get the adrenaline flowing.
Aside from that, this month’s Amazon purchase included the classic album ‘Moon Safari’ by French electronica outfit, Air.
Films
Haven’t seen any movies recently, not being around in the evenings much. I’ve been filling my time, as mentioned below, watching the second season of 24. However, films I want to see, hopefully are: The Corpse Bride, Nightwatch and Serenity. Next months DVD purchase may include Batman Begins.
The weekend, as is often the case, began on Friday night. A slightly frazzled, ‘work is finally over’, ‘I hate the rush-hour’ Friday night, but Friday none-the-less. As Penny was out gallivanting I finally finished watching the second season of 24. Very enjoyable, and very, very brutal. I won’t spoil it for anyone by detailing why, but wow.
Saturday began with breakfast with Penny before she went off to work. I then got a haircut that took me by surprise. Somehow when I said “just a trim to tidy it up please”, the bizarre acoustics of the barbers translated this to “I’m sick of my crazy uncontrollable locks, make me look somewhat less disrespectable, dammit!”. I must confess it does look more professional, but it’ll take a while to get used to the change in length.
Then, having plenty of time left over of my morning and nothing left to fill it with, it was off to London where I arrived at the usual pub in Canary Wharf about an hour early. Good thing I’d brought reading material with me! And when that ran out, there was always the news to read on my phone. After the usual food, drink and catch-up, off to Kev’s for our game of Aberrant. We didn’t really achieve very much, but we got ourselves in a position where we’ll be ready to move next game session.
The post-game period was spent watching the Top 100 animations of all time. Some I disagreed with (Urutskidoji?! Sure it was only at 85-ish, but still, there are a lot of far superior animes out there that didn’t even make the top 100) and of course The Simpsons made number one. Good program though.
Sunday was spent playing a non-horror game of ‘When Darkness Comes’. It was fun to play, though the rules needed some tweaking. It also took longer than I had anticipated, mainly due to the ridiculous number of botches! I’ll be writing up the rules and posting them to EG. It looks like it’s a game I can run easily at Conception.
Speaking of EG, it’s back up with most of it’s content. The database got corrupted, so some content will have errant question marks throughout it. The only thing lost was the forum posts, news and user accounts, but all the actual content is there. I need to create a new logo too and some icons have been lost. However, security is affirmed and the codebase more stable. Which means that once users are recreated, we can post the Aberrant journals up there.
My movements this week: I’ll be in a B&B until Wednesday night when I’ll be going home to repack. Thursday night I’m flying out to Holland, returning late Friday.