Hope Springs (2003)
It's only been a little while since my last post, but in that time three things have happened.
1) My knee has continued with pain
2) I went to London
3) I caught Olympics Fever. Again.
1) Yeah, so contrary to sod's law, my knee has been buggering painful for the last week. But at least it meant I was able to get a diagnosis. Which was? Wonky Kneecaps. I'm not even kidding. I think it's called Patellar Tracking Disorder. Basically means my patella doesn't quite sit in its grooves right, so it rubs and causes pain. Both my knees suffer from the same thing, the right more than left. Besides pain, there are a couple of other symptoms like your knee randomly buckling and clicking and sliding of the kneecap that I also get occasionally. Hopefully, physiotherapy will sort me out. I had a telephone consultation yesterday, where the woman on the end of the line who I assume was qualified physiotherapist agreed with my doctor's diagnosis, and today they sent me a list of exercises to do. Have also been referred to see an actual physio at the hospital down the road, but of course that will take 4 or 5 weeks. For the particularly acute flare up I am suffering through right now, my doctor has prescribed me some anti-inflammatories, but they aren't having quite the desired effect. Taking the edge of the pain a little but not eliminating it, and for funsies, I am skipping tonight's dose because I was suffering stomach cramps this afternoon, and that is a potential side effect. Realised that I might have taken two doses a little too close together, so am giving tonight a skip to start again properly tomorrow. If I get pain again, then I guess it's back to the doctors. This made more sense when my stomach was hurting more than my knee, but there you go. Will also go back to the doctor if the pain hasn't eased by the weekend.
2)And this probably didn't help my knee, but I spend Saturday afternoon wandering around the Covent Garden / Leicester Square area. Had Ben's cookies, found the tiny cinema shop nearby, wandered around Forbidden Planet and bought comics and the first two Nikki Heat books (the Castle tie in books. Which, by the way, I have read both of and they are fantastic. They are not great books. They are not. But they are perfect. They are exactly what you can picture Castle writing. They draw on bits and pieces of the show, so you can see what inspired him to write what bits. You can see which bits are wish fulfilment. All in all, very clever). And then I went to see Rock of Ages. And guys, it was better than the film. You know how I raved about how much I loved the film? And how it was wonderfully mad and fantasically rocking? What I didn't realise was that the film was taking itself seriously compared to the show. Let me state that again. A film in which Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand are the cutest couple, and Tom Cruise is a sexy, fucked up, mental rocker with a Baboon called Hey Man is the serious version. The show has no fourth wall installed. The act one finale ends with everyone doing Jazz Hands because the one character who is also the narrator read that that was what should be in the number in Breaking Into Acting for Dummies.
It is one of the funniest shows I have seen period. And it manages to have *even more* awesome music than the film. Also the plot is almost entirely different, but who cares about plot.
Also, Shayne Ward, he of winning the X-Factor about 7 years ago, is in it playing Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise's character), and you know what? He is FANTASTIC. Really great.It just makes me sad that Justin Lee Collins was having his day off. Because it was one of those casting choices that just made me go o_O and now I really want to see what he did with it.
Although the real star of the show is the guy playing Lonnie, the narrator / Russel Brand's character. Basically, he steals. Every. Single. Scene that he is in. And it. is. GLORIOUS.
Is it going to take a place in my top 3 all time favourite musicals? No. Would I pay to see it again? Hells to the YES!
3) You don't have to know me very long to know I'm not really a sporty person. Know me a bit longer and you discover my fondness for Rugby Union in general and the 6 Nations in particular. However, you have to be around me for a very specific two weeks every four years to discover that during the Summer Olympics I become something of a sports nut. I will track the British medal table daily. I will watch any sport where there is a Brit playing if there is even the slightest hope of a medal. I will briefly become an expert on whatever sport I am currently watching, and most importantly, I will become a store for pointless facts. This year, I have both the official 2012 app and the BBC olympics app on my phone. I check the schedules nightly to set reminders for every event the next day that a) will be awarding medals and b) has someone on Team GB competing. I have had various events on in the background whilst I have been working most of the day. And I have been staying up far too late to watch the daily round up.
It all started during the 2004 Athens Olympics when I was 15. That summer my dad had had a double hernia operation, and so was basically stuck sitting in a chair for about 6 weeks whilst he recovered. My brother was thus being looked after elsewhere, and I had bugger all to do, so I would go over as much as I could to keep him company. During this, the Olympics was on. And so, me and Dad watched a *lot* of Olympics. He was watching it every day, basically everything that was on, so would be able to tell me all the random facts about everything. And it was that year that sparked my interest. That was the year where I discovered, to paraphrase John Finnemore's fantastic bit on the subject on The Now Show Olympics Show, that watching people do anything exceptionally well is utterly brilliant.
Unapologetically, I will say I love the Olympics.
And then there was the Opening Ceremony. I think even the most cynical of people were thawed by that. It was one of the most wonderful, uplifiting, and simply fantastic events I have ever seen. A glorious celebration of everything that makes me proud to be British.
I think we dun good this time.
Anyway, on to the review!
Hope Springs (2003)
A film on my list because Colin Firth.
Oh, but I did enjoy this film. It was very silly. Very light hearted. Very fun.
My first inkling that I was in for a treat was the credits.Oliver Platt's name comes up, and he is always wonderfully watchable, if not downright hilarious in everything ever. And my faith was justified when he utterly stole almost every scene he was in.
The film starts with Colin Firth on a plane, staring into nothing. He lands in New England. He gets on a Greyhound Bus. What follows perhaps the best "being bored" montage ever committed to film. It mostly involves Colin Firth pulling ridiculous faces.
Turns out his fiancée had been cheating on him, and the first he heard of it was when he received an invite to the wedding of his fiancée and the guy she was cheating on him with.
So the obvious response to that is to go to a tiny town in New England. He becomes something of an object of interest for all of the townsfolk because he is new and unusual.
Did I mention he was an artist? He goes around drawing people and stuff. And his name is Colin.
Then, inevitably, he falls in love with a woman in the town. Via montage. Including Colin Firth on a bouncy castle. And doing yoga.
And then his ex-fiancée turns up. And it turns out she's not marrying someone else. She just decided to send him that invitation in nudge him into marrying her. Because that is a sensible and reasonable thing to do.
Colin, utterly sensibly tells her to stuff it because what she did was frankly quite horrible and he's not getting back with her. Also he's fallen in love with someone else.
Then inevitable miscommunication and hijinks ensue.
The best thing about this film is not just that is very silly. It's that Colin Firth is very silly in it. It doesn't happen all that often. He's in comedies somewhat regularly, but normally he's serious in them, even the straight man. He doesn't very often get to be silly. Except in this.
Example: this is from a scene in which he dances across the room using the scarf as nipple tassles.
A ridiculous film. I loved it.
1) My knee has continued with pain
2) I went to London
3) I caught Olympics Fever. Again.
1) Yeah, so contrary to sod's law, my knee has been buggering painful for the last week. But at least it meant I was able to get a diagnosis. Which was? Wonky Kneecaps. I'm not even kidding. I think it's called Patellar Tracking Disorder. Basically means my patella doesn't quite sit in its grooves right, so it rubs and causes pain. Both my knees suffer from the same thing, the right more than left. Besides pain, there are a couple of other symptoms like your knee randomly buckling and clicking and sliding of the kneecap that I also get occasionally. Hopefully, physiotherapy will sort me out. I had a telephone consultation yesterday, where the woman on the end of the line who I assume was qualified physiotherapist agreed with my doctor's diagnosis, and today they sent me a list of exercises to do. Have also been referred to see an actual physio at the hospital down the road, but of course that will take 4 or 5 weeks. For the particularly acute flare up I am suffering through right now, my doctor has prescribed me some anti-inflammatories, but they aren't having quite the desired effect. Taking the edge of the pain a little but not eliminating it, and for funsies, I am skipping tonight's dose because I was suffering stomach cramps this afternoon, and that is a potential side effect. Realised that I might have taken two doses a little too close together, so am giving tonight a skip to start again properly tomorrow. If I get pain again, then I guess it's back to the doctors. This made more sense when my stomach was hurting more than my knee, but there you go. Will also go back to the doctor if the pain hasn't eased by the weekend.
2)And this probably didn't help my knee, but I spend Saturday afternoon wandering around the Covent Garden / Leicester Square area. Had Ben's cookies, found the tiny cinema shop nearby, wandered around Forbidden Planet and bought comics and the first two Nikki Heat books (the Castle tie in books. Which, by the way, I have read both of and they are fantastic. They are not great books. They are not. But they are perfect. They are exactly what you can picture Castle writing. They draw on bits and pieces of the show, so you can see what inspired him to write what bits. You can see which bits are wish fulfilment. All in all, very clever). And then I went to see Rock of Ages. And guys, it was better than the film. You know how I raved about how much I loved the film? And how it was wonderfully mad and fantasically rocking? What I didn't realise was that the film was taking itself seriously compared to the show. Let me state that again. A film in which Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand are the cutest couple, and Tom Cruise is a sexy, fucked up, mental rocker with a Baboon called Hey Man is the serious version. The show has no fourth wall installed. The act one finale ends with everyone doing Jazz Hands because the one character who is also the narrator read that that was what should be in the number in Breaking Into Acting for Dummies.
It is one of the funniest shows I have seen period. And it manages to have *even more* awesome music than the film. Also the plot is almost entirely different, but who cares about plot.
Also, Shayne Ward, he of winning the X-Factor about 7 years ago, is in it playing Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise's character), and you know what? He is FANTASTIC. Really great.It just makes me sad that Justin Lee Collins was having his day off. Because it was one of those casting choices that just made me go o_O and now I really want to see what he did with it.
Although the real star of the show is the guy playing Lonnie, the narrator / Russel Brand's character. Basically, he steals. Every. Single. Scene that he is in. And it. is. GLORIOUS.
Is it going to take a place in my top 3 all time favourite musicals? No. Would I pay to see it again? Hells to the YES!
3) You don't have to know me very long to know I'm not really a sporty person. Know me a bit longer and you discover my fondness for Rugby Union in general and the 6 Nations in particular. However, you have to be around me for a very specific two weeks every four years to discover that during the Summer Olympics I become something of a sports nut. I will track the British medal table daily. I will watch any sport where there is a Brit playing if there is even the slightest hope of a medal. I will briefly become an expert on whatever sport I am currently watching, and most importantly, I will become a store for pointless facts. This year, I have both the official 2012 app and the BBC olympics app on my phone. I check the schedules nightly to set reminders for every event the next day that a) will be awarding medals and b) has someone on Team GB competing. I have had various events on in the background whilst I have been working most of the day. And I have been staying up far too late to watch the daily round up.
It all started during the 2004 Athens Olympics when I was 15. That summer my dad had had a double hernia operation, and so was basically stuck sitting in a chair for about 6 weeks whilst he recovered. My brother was thus being looked after elsewhere, and I had bugger all to do, so I would go over as much as I could to keep him company. During this, the Olympics was on. And so, me and Dad watched a *lot* of Olympics. He was watching it every day, basically everything that was on, so would be able to tell me all the random facts about everything. And it was that year that sparked my interest. That was the year where I discovered, to paraphrase John Finnemore's fantastic bit on the subject on The Now Show Olympics Show, that watching people do anything exceptionally well is utterly brilliant.
Unapologetically, I will say I love the Olympics.
And then there was the Opening Ceremony. I think even the most cynical of people were thawed by that. It was one of the most wonderful, uplifiting, and simply fantastic events I have ever seen. A glorious celebration of everything that makes me proud to be British.
I think we dun good this time.
Anyway, on to the review!
Hope Springs (2003)
A film on my list because Colin Firth.
Oh, but I did enjoy this film. It was very silly. Very light hearted. Very fun.
My first inkling that I was in for a treat was the credits.Oliver Platt's name comes up, and he is always wonderfully watchable, if not downright hilarious in everything ever. And my faith was justified when he utterly stole almost every scene he was in.
The film starts with Colin Firth on a plane, staring into nothing. He lands in New England. He gets on a Greyhound Bus. What follows perhaps the best "being bored" montage ever committed to film. It mostly involves Colin Firth pulling ridiculous faces.
Turns out his fiancée had been cheating on him, and the first he heard of it was when he received an invite to the wedding of his fiancée and the guy she was cheating on him with.
So the obvious response to that is to go to a tiny town in New England. He becomes something of an object of interest for all of the townsfolk because he is new and unusual.
Did I mention he was an artist? He goes around drawing people and stuff. And his name is Colin.
Then, inevitably, he falls in love with a woman in the town. Via montage. Including Colin Firth on a bouncy castle. And doing yoga.
And then his ex-fiancée turns up. And it turns out she's not marrying someone else. She just decided to send him that invitation in nudge him into marrying her. Because that is a sensible and reasonable thing to do.
Colin, utterly sensibly tells her to stuff it because what she did was frankly quite horrible and he's not getting back with her. Also he's fallen in love with someone else.
Then inevitable miscommunication and hijinks ensue.
The best thing about this film is not just that is very silly. It's that Colin Firth is very silly in it. It doesn't happen all that often. He's in comedies somewhat regularly, but normally he's serious in them, even the straight man. He doesn't very often get to be silly. Except in this.
Example: this is from a scene in which he dances across the room using the scarf as nipple tassles.
A ridiculous film. I loved it.