And the "totally misleading trailer of the week" award goes to Bridge to Terabithia. Given the current cinematic drought, I was happy to catch a preview of something which showed every sign of being a cheap Narnia rip off. What I actually got was something rather better - a fine character piece with a few effects sequences along the way (whilst ( Read more... )

So, I went to see Hot Fuzz today, another excellent piece of it's-not-quite-a-spoof-it's-just-really-funny cinema from the team behind Shaun of the Dead and the ultimate fanboy sitcom, Spaced. The gentle comedy of the first half does a great job of setting up the full-on (albeit slightly silly) action movie second half. Pegg and Frost are on form ( Read more... )

As alluded to in my earlier post, I spent most of today watching The Lord of the Rings - all three extended editions back-to-back. Damn, but I'd forgotten just how good those films are. Admittedly, watching them all in one go (I've done it in three consecutive days before) is a bit of an endurance test - in the best possible way, of course ( Read more... )

So, it's been a busy week on the Star Wars front, starting with the release of the long-awaited "Limited Edition" DVDs of the original trilogy, featuring the unaltered theatrical Han-shoots-first-dammit versions of the movies which George Lucas swore would never be released on DVD except if he could make a really big pile of money. Actually, they ( Read more... )

So, this weekend, I left the noble university town of Oxford to brave the home of the Fenland Poly¹. It didn't really get off to an inspiring start on Friday afternoon when the 3½ coach journey was further extended by a passenger swearing at the driver, then getting of and standing in front of the coach until he was dragged away kicking and ( Read more... )

Notes to self:

1. Do not use the washing machine and the tumble dryer at the same time.
2. Spare fuses are good things to have.
3. When a plug is scorchingly hot to the touch and both it and the 4-way it was plugged into have melted patches, that's bad.

Laundry is such fun ( Read more... )

This will be a random entry.
Last weekend I was up in Yorkshire, visiting the lovely frayer. Whilst on a brief expedition to the pretty city of York, we discovered the ideal solution for those little snack cravings - ( Kinky Donuts. )

So, I saw Howl's Moving Castle yesterday. Speaking as someone who first read the book many, many years ago and has read it many times since, I would have to say that this was probably the worst mutilation of a book on its way to the screen that I've ever seen. The result was a plotless mess - good looking, to be sure, but nonetheless a plotless ( Read more... )

So, I've had a look over the casting choices for the movie adaptation of The Da Vinci Code. I can't argue with the acting ability of most of the choices, but the producers seem to have (in most cases) chosen people who completely fail to fit [my mind's eye view of] the characters. What do you think? Obviously, it would be rather pointless to try ( Read more... )

Everything's funnier with pants.

Using this hypothesis, I conducted an experiment. I took a very funny film, namely 'The Princess Bride', and carefully grafted the word 'pants' into a few select lines.

The proof is in this (somewhat nutty) pudding, so I will leave you with the evidence. I am sure you will agree with me...

( The Princess Pants )