"Maximus Decimus, Maximus Decimus, riding through the glen" - Movie Review of Robin Hood
It's a little like the "which James Bond?" or "which Doctor Who did you grow up with?" questions, (Connery and Troughton since you ask) and my default Robin Hood was always ITV's Richard Greene, a stiff upper lip outlaw, a Robin with a very British sense of fair play, I recall lots of tights and jerkins, fairly un-dastardly villains and, incongruously, the William Tell overture as theme tune. Most other Robins have left me, at best, 
neutral, Errol Flynn was far too pantomime, Disney's fox, don't get me started, Costner was usurped and upstaged both by Morgan Freeman as his sagacious blackamoor cohort and memorably by the excessively over the top Sheriff of Rickman.
Robin and Marion with Sean Connery also worked for me, I think I responded to the painful exposition of middle-aged reality hitting idealistic fantasy. I'm sure we all remember what it feels like to wake up in a forest, (no matter how splendid the revels of the preceding eve), unkempt, unwashed, stiff, a gritty, uncomfortable, grubby experience, no? oh, just me then?
So, Gladiator in tights. Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe together to tell an epic historical(ish) tale. I really liked it, Yes it was redolent of Gladiator, humble lad, (chock full of integrity and honour), does good, effete scheming monarchy, venerable and noble father substitute, feisty female love interest, slow motion action and butchery, monochrome flashbacks and intermittent Enya.
However, Gladiator was a big film, visually, in scale and scope, this offering, whilst the action scenes are stunning, is on a more local scale, more embraceable, a scaled down saga for an imaginary England where Nottingham is little more than a couple of pigsties and taverns. (insert your own sarcastic jibe here). This movie delivers something that Gladiator didn't and couldn't, a little gentle humour, and that along with a faultless performance from Crowe (whose much decried accent seemed fine to me) makes it a real winner in my book (or blog). Cate Blanchett, was perfect as Marion despite being made to do a little silliness in the final battle, the villains, Mark Strong and Oscar Isaac were exceedingly evil but blessed with some delicious lines, as you'd hope. For those of you who use the Mrs Stuffy pillow-ometer as a guide to watchability you'll be delighted to hear that she remained snore-free throughout the movie.
Sorry Richard Greene, you're usurped, I have a new favourite Robin Hood, and I really do hope that they do get to make the planned sequel.
A medieval Haiku
Lambs become Lions
in England's Lincoln green and
pleasant, peasant land
Movie Review - Iron Man 2
Apologies to my legion of Twitter followers (@stvtomas) for the delay in posting this review, I've no real excuse but I wanted to wait until the political situation stabilised.
So, Iron Man 2, long awaited and teased by a tremendous trailer I was really looking forward to this. There are, (as some real film reviewers have pointed out) many turny, twisty plot-lines going on but, for me, they don't really get in the way of the important stuff, some great action scenes, stunning CGI, Mickey Rourke being awesome (essentially as Mickey Rourke with a cod Russian accent). Robert Downey Jr does the Tony Stark thing very well and I really like Gwyneth Paltrow in the Pepper Potts role (although Mrs S is not a fan).
As a bonus, I've always found Scarlett Johansson pleasurable to watch and I thought she looked very natural, accomplished and comfortable both in tight black leather and as an action hero.
As both my loyal readers will know I do like comic book based films (obviously the Fantastic 4 and Daredevil excepted) and I enjoyed this outing immensely, let us not however ignore the rigorous and incisive analysis of Mrs Stuffy to wit "too much shooting and zipping about!"
Sometimes dear reader, I despair
Haiku time
Rourke roar, Scarlett pout
Robert shooting, zipping about
When's number 3 out ?
A rustic idyll, bucolic enterprise abounds at the Barn
It was a very exciting time over the Bank holiday weekend.
Mrs Stuffy has decided she'd like to "do some gardening". Now neither of us are blessed with green fingers which historically means that the eminently sensible approach of a mix of woodland (occasional chainsawing), lawn (occasional mowing) and hedgerow (occasional berry-picking) works for us.
But alas, no longer, egged on by Sister-in-law Jo, the fragrant Mrs S has decided that she fancies growing some fruit'n'veg, which I'm happy with in principle but I couldn't help noticing that their effort consisted mostly of shopping, for trowels, dibbers, seed labels and a "scarecrow kit" (a broom handle and some sacking before you ask, by that definition a toilet-roll tube and a box of matches would be "a firework kit", a bunch of grapes and an empty bottle "a vintners kit").
So they did shopping and I "helped out" by sewing the bloody scarecrow together, building two raised beds, manhandling massive railway sleepers, turning over the sod, driving in a dozen fence posts and knocking up a
rabbit and deer-proof fenced enclosure.
Meanwhile her Ladyship, Cha-Cha (the scarecrow decorator) and glamorous assistant Jo prodded the mud with sticks, inserted millions of pounds-worth of fresh young seedlings before collapsing, exhausted and demanding that I "rustle up some Margaritas".
I feel like an overworked Mellors (without the perks).
The week
end was made even more agricultural and rural,by the long awaited arrival of my bees, they're now installed in the wood, well away from people and are presently working their way upward in this traditional hive,building honeycomb and storing nectar, pollen, honey and thousands of baby bees and gradually moving from their current home in the black bit at the bottom up into the green section from where I'll transport them to their new home in the stunning purple polycarbonate "latest thing in beehives", the BeeHaus defined by my beekeeping chum Ian as "HOW MUCH ?"
Watch this space...
neutral, Errol Flynn was far too pantomime, Disney's fox, don't get me started, Costner was usurped and upstaged both by Morgan Freeman as his sagacious blackamoor cohort and memorably by the excessively over the top Sheriff of Rickman.
