Tuesday, August 26, 2008

2 Movie reviews

and not in the Haiku form,
why?
I'll tell you why,
because
Guillermo del Toro uses 6 syllables before I've even started to say anything...


Hellboy 2,

Guillermo del toro, he of the aforementioned polysyllabic monicker makes very, very, beautiful films, Pan's Labyrinth is a gorgeous thing. I was not surprised that Hellboy 2, featured some exceedingly stunning scenery, effects and filming, I was surprised that the characters were so rich, that he managed to imbue a cloud of smoke with an instantly recognizeable, complex and likeable personality. As an action film with some depth, this one really works, it's lovely to look at and Mrs Stuffy stayed awake and laughed a few times. It's a great film, I commend it to you.

Kung fu
panda
Dreamworks have made impressive, clever beautifully executed, well written animated movies, I'm thinking of Shrek, maybe Shrek 2, they've also made many (shark tale, flushed away, over the hedge) that don't come anywhere near Pixar's finest, (The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Ice age 2).



This is another of those 'just doesn't get there' movies. It's well produced and technically neat but the story is rubbish and seems to express the philosophy that working very hard to achieve something is worthy but
not as effective as being lazy, obese and greedy because " it will mysteriously and suddenly all work out fine".

Doesn't seem like a particularly appropriate message for the increasingly indolent and corpulent youth of our nation.
You never saw (still skinny) David Carradine turn down the opportunity to do a little hard graft for a bowl of rice.

Messages aside, it just felt like a formula movie, I watched it on a plane and then found watching the Incredibles for the 4th time on a 2 inch ipod screen infinitely more pleasurable.
2 snores on the Mrs Stuffy scale .



Monday, August 18, 2008

Back from the desert, flat on my back


After a week in sunny Egypt accompanied by seven women, (assorted wives, daughters, cousins, friends of cousins and nieces) and having spent a week hauling 15 litre tanks of nitrox and my neoprene encased body in and out of the Red sea, I discovered (not surprisingly) that the stress and exertion had scrunched a number of muscles in my shoulders and back.


A quick trip to the physio and the lovely Debbie spent an hour manipulating and acupuncturing my knotted tendons. I must say that the treatment was much more effective than the Thai lady who had a crack at me last week, (Her approach to massage was very combatative and her conversation, with the notable exception of "Pain ? - Good !" was unintelligible.

I do always find that acupuncture leaves me feeling a little deflated though ...


I used to be treated by a voodoo acupuncturist, I'd be walking down the street, she'd stick a pin in a wax model 10 miles away and I'd say, "Oooh that's better"

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Haiku movie reviews are the new black, it's the cutting edge of a roller-coaster of a bandwagon chaps, climb aboard while it's still fresh



Nice try by Mark with his Haiku review for the Dark Knight but he's letting his Adam West show through ...

herewith


The Dark Knight



Oscar for Ledger
Christian Baleful, Caine is class
Ferry, very good


and a stunning cgi effort from Pixar

Wall-E



Robots find love in a
funny fantastic future
a vast fast treat

(Kudos to Katie for being better at counting syllables than I am)