Nominations, Baby!

Oscar Nominations were announced yesterday - yay! No major surprises, unless you look deep enough.

This year the Best Film category was expanded to include ten nominations, which I think is an excellent idea. The aim is not to ignore an intelligent summer film, as the Academy sadly did last year with The Dark Knight (2008), which should have been nominated and only had a couple of effects Oscars & Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger. The biggest surprise here is District 9 (2009), along with the rather wonderful news that, for only the second time in Oscar history, an animated film is nominated for Best Film, Up (2009) which is a shoe-in anyway for Best Animated Feature. The likely winner will be Avatar (2009), though this will also win all the effects Oscars this year - interestingly, no actor nominations for it or script nominations.

Best Motion Picture of the Year Nominees:

Avatar (2009)
The Blind Side (2009)
District 9 (2009)
An Education (2009)
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)
A Serious Man (2009)
Up (2009)
Up in the Air (2009)

The Actor and Actress categories are less surprising, in my opinion. It's wonderful to see Colin Firth up for Best Actor, though the trend seems to be at the moment to give Jeff Bridges his long-overdue award - a "Scorsese moment" as it shall now be known. However, you shouldn't count your chickens too soon. Let's remember what happened last year, when Mickey Rourke was winning all the awards for The Wrestler (2008), only for Sean Penn to clinch the Oscar for Milk (2008). British wise, Carey Mulligan and Helen Mirren are up for Best Actress - isn't it amazing for Mulligan, who's probably pinching herself. If she doesn't win, which she's unlikely to as the money's on Sandra Bullock, this nomination will really boost her chances at getting more meaty roles, particularly in Hollywood.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Nominees:

Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart (2009)
George Clooney for Up in the Air (2009)
Colin Firth for A Single Man (2009)
Morgan Freeman for Invictus (2009)
Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker (2008)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Nominees:

Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side (2009)
Helen Mirren for The Last Station (2009)
Carey Mulligan for An Education (2009)
Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)
Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia (2009)

Supporting nods have gone to a nice mix of actors and actresses. One would argue that the fight for Supporting Actor will be between Matt Damon for Invictus (2009) and Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (2009). In the Supporting Actress category Penelope Cruz, last year's winner here, gets one of only a few nods for Nine (2009), but everyone is talking about Mo'Nique for Precious (2009), which will probably be one of the few Oscar wins that actually deserves it.

It would be a shame if The Hurt Locker (2009) didn't win anything. At the very least, it should win Kathryn Bigelow Best Director, as she won the Director's Guild equivalent recently, but chances are her ex, James Cameron, will win instead. If he does, I don't mind saying that it will annoy me a lot. Cameron is NOT a film maker, he's an event maker. If Avatar wins Best Film that's fine, but if you want proper suspense and real life drama, then The Hurt Locker is your cup of tea.

The last few surprises for me are as follows:

1. Five nominations for Best Animated Film, with Coraline (2009) and Fantastic Mr Fox (2009) standing up for Stop Motion; also The Princess And The Frog (2009) has brought traditional hand-drawn animation back in a big way.
2. No nominations for Let The Right One In (2009) in Best Foreign Feature, which is a real shame. Money is now on either A Prophet (2009), a winner at Cannes, or The White Ribbon (2009), Michael Haneke's latest.
3. Absolutely no nominations for The Road (2009).
4. No Screenplay nomination for The Hangover (2009). Now, admittedly, this wasn't the greatest film in the world last yer BUT if the Academy were trying to be more inclusive for a year's worth of features rather than a few months then they've completely overlooked the top grossing comedy for last year, unlike BAFTA who have nominated this film in this category.

Finally, it's good to see Nick Park nominated again for Best Animated Short for his latest Wallace & Gromit film, A Matter Of Loaf & Death (2008), though it wasn't as good as some of their previous outings and the brilliant The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (2005).

Some interesting choices, then, and some rather more obvious choices too. But, like I said, we should never take Oscar for granted; he always has some tricks up his golden sleeve.

Laters.

Score

There seems to be nothing - absolutely nothing - that the tabloids love more than a good old fashioned sex scandal. Over the last week I've become aware of two rather interesting cases: one over here in Blighty, the other over the waters in the US of A.

First, to the home grown territory. John Terry, captain of the English football team and also captain of Chelsea FC, has been scoring away from home (not my pun, sadly) with the ex of one of his England team mates, Wayne Bridge. The girl in question is a French underwear model. But then, she would be, wouldn't she?

My comments to this, I must say, are no way connected to the fact that I am an Arsenal FC supporter and Terry plays for Chelsea: He's an idiot. First of all, have you seen his wife? Seriously, she's stunning. Why the hell would anyone want to cheat on the likes of her? It's about as likely as a porn script winning Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, but it happens all the time. Footballers' Wives, the rather hit-and-miss soapy gloss that ended here a few years ago, was all fun and naughty make believe but this is serious stuff. Terry has kids, and they're bound to be affected by the excrement that's due to hit the fan.

Terry was booed by Burnley supporters on Saturday night when Chelsea played away at Burnley, and he scored the last winning goal for his team (again, scoring away from home, and again, not my joke) - this conduct towards him is going to continue at every away game for the next few months. Should he be sacked as England captain? That's for the manager, Fabio Cappello, to decide. However, ideally the decision should be made on whether this revelation is going to affect Terry on the pitch. If it does, then maybe a break wouldn't be such a bad idea. Give someone else a go for the World Cup campaign, maybe.

Over in the States, it's a politician in the docks (the other most famous kind of tabloid scandal usually involves politicians). John Edwards, a one time presidential hopeful, is involved right now in a damning sex case where his former mistress, a Rielle Hunter, has won the right to claim back a sex tape that the couple made, as well as some interesting photographs. His former aide, Andrew Young, has just published memoirs which claim these exist, and further proving the point that he was asked to claim Hunter's daughter as his own and not that of Edwards, which she so obviously is.

Edwards' wife is leaving him, his political career is in tatters, and now every dirty old man and interested student is going to be surfing the world wide web for a One Night In Paris scenario featuring Edwards and Hunter.

Peter Griffin says in an episode of Family Guy: "Oh, it's fun to watch rich people be naughty". And it is, in a way. Affairs happen 24/7; there's probably one going on right now as I type. It's tragic, stupid and immoral (unless you happen to be in an open relationship, in which case, if that's what makes you happy, go with it). But when rich and famous people get caught, we feel like it's some kind of vindication. Yes, if we get caught then there's bad news on the horizon for us. But at least we won't get the media attention that Terry and Edwards are now having to face. At least we won't get booed by thousands of people at football games and political rallies.

Celebrities need to take more care in their lives - it's incredibly difficult, I'm sure, as we're such a celebrity hungry culture that we just eat this stuff up for breakfast. But what kind of a message does it give people? Mind you, the fact that it's been treated in such a negative way may arguably seen as a good thing. After all, if people see how much rubbish is thrown at you if you are guilty, maybe then people will think twice before cheating.

Laters.

The Book Of Eli Review

Warning! Spoilers!

In the growing popularity of post-Armageddon films to come from Hollywood, there has to be a gimmick, a twist to the tale to make another version seem more original. In the case of The Book Of Eli, this gimmick is certainly a clever, if slightly predictable one. Sadly the rest of the film, save for one or two moments of potential brilliance, does not live up to the expectations that you may have after watching the trailer or seeing the cast list.

Eli (Denzel Washington) walks the land of ruined America, armed only with a very large machete and a backpack containing, among other things, the only surviving copy of the King James Bible. He is heading west; a voice has told him he will find the place for the book there. Along the dangerous path, he walks through a town ruled by Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a cruel dictator type who, like Eli, knows of the power of the words in his book and wants then for himself...

There's no denying the anticipation one feels about a film starring Washington and Oldman, two heavyweight actors - sadly, it feels for a lot of the time that they're sleepwalking the parts, that this is just another day job for them. Substantially better is Mila Kunis in the role of Solara, the young girl who joins Eli on his journey. Having only heard Kunis in Family Guy as the put-upon Meg, and seen her in That 70s Show, it is probably going a little too far to describe her performance as a revelation (no pun intended), but it is still more impressive than the two leading men. The film is also enlightened by brief but hilariously strange cameos from Michael Gambon and Frances de la Tour as two deranged survivors living on a farmhouse packed to the brim with automatic weapons.

When the action happens it is fast but far between. The scenes are played out well, with plenty of gunfire and explosions and even in a couple of cases decapitations to keep an action buff happy. But the scenes are sandwiched in to a script that relies heavily on deep, meaningful, and often somewhat preachy dialogue about the nature of the Bible and words. Though there are a couple of rather excellent twists towards the end, it is marred by a rather strange final ending which seems to want to evoke the final scenes of the excellent Aronofsky film The Fountain (2006), but fail sadly.

There will probably be many people who go to see this film and are surprised at just how religious it actually is. Perhaps that was not the true intention of the film's directors, the Hughes brothers, whose last film was (ironically) the adaptation of the graphic novel From Hell (2001); perhaps what they are trying to do is to look at what we look to for hope when there seems to be absolutely none left, and how powerful inspirational words can be. Unfortuatley, their reliance on the Bible squashes these intentions, and I think a lot of people will leave the film very disappointed.

6/10

Love Your Inner Loser!

Thank the good Lord for Glee.

I'm always excited about new years and new seasons on television - we've got a lot to look forward to over here in Blighty. Next week sees the return of some of my favourite dramas, Shameless and Skins; a brand new season of Doctor Who is on it's way; and there are some excellent one-off dramas on the horizon too. I'm always looking forward to the shows that come over from the States too. The Big Bang Theory has started again over here, and I'm interested in the first episode of The Good Wife, to be shown here on Saturday. Nurse Jackie has been another glorious find too.

But the pick of the crop so far has been Glee. I gotta be honest, I was never expecting to like it as much as I do. It looked a little too twee for my taste, a little too High School Musical. How wrong I was. This show has been described as the anti-High School Musical, and rightly so - somehow I doubt any of the HSM franchise would feature a line as darkly funny as "You think this is hard? Try living with hepatitis, that's hard!" screeched through a megaphone to a pack of cheerleaders.

Glee is about the losers, the dreamers, and the always hopefuls. For pursuing what you love the most. In this case, a glee club: singing in a harmonised fashion with some simple dance steps thrown in for good measure. They are the sub-basement of school life, lower than even the kids playing 'Dungeons & Dragons'. For now, at least.

Okay, so some of the elements of the show are a little predictable. You've got the star quarterback who has a wicked voice, and you have the very likely romantic relationship between him and the club's loser star female; but then it throws it right back in your face with the quarterback having major issues in...shall we say, holding back his excitement?

What really sells Glee, though, is the music. Taking classic songs, both contemporary pop/rock and old musical favourites and presenting them in an infectious glee club style has already sent many songs into the Billboard top 100, and does wonders for the original versions too. Case in point: the Glee version of "Don't Stop Believing" is currently at Number 5 in the UK charts and heading further up, breaking into the top 3 at the mo. Journey's version, albeit already helped by its use in last year's (shudder) The X Factor, was Number 6! Versions of Rhianna's "Take A Bow" and even, I'm predicting, Kanye West's "Gold Digger", will only serve to do exactly the same to the already great originals.

I've only seen two episodes and I'm already addicted. Glee is funny, warm-hearted and very loud, with an ability to seem fresh despite it being based on a formula we've seen a lot of over the last twenty five years or so. It's just what our television screens need in this rather bleak time - it's bright and colourful and absolutely rocks! It also won the Golden Globe for Best Television Programme - Musical or Comedy at this year's awards. So there you go - Hollywood Foreign Press loves it, so thats gotta mean something.

Laters.

The Assasination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford Review

Warning! Spoliers Alert!

There are perhaps few films in which the basic synopsis of the script can be summed up in the title. One thinks of lesser fare than this, certainly (Zack And Miri Make A Porno, for example) or rather interesting Spanish translations of titles (classic Family Guy joke here, top prize for whoever gets the reference first). With this film, the title does just that - it is about the assassination of the notorious Western criminal by one of his associates, Robert Ford, who ends up being defamed in the history books as a coward, and the time line leading up to the aforementioned event. Simple.

But not quite, for, as with most great films, there is always something more, another message that the film is trying to say. And this is a great film. A really great film.

Visually, it's stunning. The bleak Western landscape perfectly captures the mood of the story, with slight out of focus shots beautifully helping to add to the unhinged portrayal of the anti-hero James by Brad Pitt. This is one of those films where you suddenly remember that Pitt, the second half of 'Brangelina', can act occasionally. It's a fantastic performance, showing James as an out of control beast, but also with some very quiet melancholic foreboding, as if he knows he's living on borrowed time.

It's matched, and perhaps even bettered, by a superb performance by Casey Affleck as Ford; Affleck is a dreamer, a man refusing to grow up, whose fantasies of riding with the James gang and being the criminal's best buddy seem to have corrupted his naive innocence. When the cold-blooded reality sinks in of the true nature of Jesse's work and Jesse's character, it becomes unbearable. There are other terrific performances in the film, not least from Sam Rockwell as Ford's older brother, whose own gullibility is soon swallowed up by fear, and a short but mesmerising turn from Garret Dillahunt as Ed Miller, whose paranoia costs him his life and lights the fuse for James' own fragile sense of trust to be shattered.

The script is well paced, exploring the story like a history documentary with Hugh Ross' calm narration. There's no point in hiding the ending - the title's given it away already. Instead, the script is full of explanations, showing why Ford did what he did, and leaving it up to us to determine whether or not it was a good thing and whether or not he really was a 'coward', as suggested in the ballad sung by one of the film's co-composers, Nick Cave. He and Warren Ellis do a fine job with the score, leaving it subtle and calm, and adding to the quiet life out in the wilderness.

Overall, the film is about fame and the hunger for fame. James is famous for his notoriety, a man who, like the characters played by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers, becomes famous for all the wrong reasons. Ford wants the same kind of fame, but when he gets it in the aftermath of his role in James' death, he finds it stifling and unsatisfying, and over far too quickly; the fame of a coward does not last as long as the fame of a 'hero'. And so the film speaks volumes for us today, in this age where we've lived through the last decade as the Decade of 15 Minutes, the decade where anyone and everyone can be famous for as long as Ford was, and can still find it as he does.

A fantastic film.

8/10

Apocalypse Now?

There's definitely something pessimistic in the atmosphere in Hollywood. Though big-budget, large-scale disaster movies have never really disappeared (instead returning as forms of aliens attacking, be they serious or non-serious), recently the focus seems to be more and more on the end of the world as we know it. 2012, The Road, The Book Of Eli (out this Friday and one of my Top Ten Of 2010) - and more are on their way.

What gives? Why all of a sudden are we so obsessed with Armageddon? 2012 makes a little bit of sense - it's timely, with now just two years to go until the Mayan predicted catastrophe. The Road makes sense too in a way; filmmakers jumping on the Cormac McCarthy bandwagon after the massive awards success of No Country For Old Men.

But The Book Of Eli and co...now there's a bandwagon jumper, right? It just seems that, having done every and any kind of disaster imaginable, both fictional and non-fictional (one could easily argue that the gripping United 93 is a disaster movie), we've run out of them and now have to look to the Big Daddy of them all. The end of everything. Well, that's jolly, isn't it.

Still within these kinds of films, there is at least one certainty. People wouldn't dare make them without at least some kind of hope, some survival. And at the end of the day, in theory, that's what Armageddon will ultimately bring - survivors, a heck of a lot of them too, mark my words. Some we'll know why they survived, others we'll have no bloody clue - just like any good disaster movie.

Sit back and enjoy the ride. But ask yourself this: will I be a survivor? And if not, how can I become one? I'm going to say that you can take these questions anyway you want - I don't expect a lot of people to take them religiously, but that's fine, that's your interpretation. That's what makes us all unique and brilliant. And, in the end, that's what will ultimately mark us out as survivors.

Laters.

Michael Clayton Review

WARNING! SPOILERS!

If you're looking for an intelligent, sharp, edgy thriller about big corporations, law firms and the little people, then this is the film for you. If that's not your cup of tea...well, then, obviously...yeah.

George Clooney is the title character, a "fixer" or "janitor", hired to clean up the mess when one of the most infamous lawyers around (Tom Wilkinson) goes off his medication and puts an important law suit into jeopardy. At first Clayton thinks the same as anyone else: that his friend and mentor is just feeling the after-effects of his condition. But when the man later turns up dead in slightly suspicious circumstances, Clayton realises there's a lot more to the case then meets the eye...

At first the plot moved a little too quick for me. You've got to give the film your entire concentration, otherwise you'll be lost very easily in all the fast-talking dialogue. However, I soon got back on track and thoroughly enjoyed the remainder of the film. Clooney is in his usual fine form, a perfect straight man to the wonderful wild acting of Wilkinson and the nervous twitching of Tilda Swinton's character, who is more involved in everything then she would like to be. However, one cannot help feeling that we do not see enough of her character. And there is a very good hangdog performance by the late great Sydney Pollock, who was also one of the producers on the film.

The script is tight as the plot thickens throughout, throwing a mini-twist that, though perhaps slightly predictable, does not make it any less satisfying. Overall, a perfectly fine intelligent picture, though you do need to give it your full attention to give it credit.

7/10

Laters

RIP Sgt Pepper.

The album is dead. Long live the album.

All throughout 2009 the slow disease was spreading, quietly, stealthily. The "bird flu" of the album, the Internet and downloads (both legal and illegal), all helped to start nailing the coffin lid shut. Sure, there was fightback; there was resistance like any body puts up when faced with a sickness like this. But the signs were not good. Now all we have left are the survivors, fighting valiantly by day and hiding from the infected by night, like something out of 28 Days Later or a George A Romero film.

During the last year, single sales have risen by 32.7% to a record 152 million, with 98% of those being digital downloads. Artists such as Lady GaGa, whose brilliant "Poker Face" was the top selling single of last year, have benefited hugely from this. Christmas also helped, what with so many people being given mp4 players and iPods. As for the album, it's having to try and fight back with downloadbable versions of itself. And what are we left with in terms of physical albums on CD that you can actually hold in your hands and place inside a stereo system? Susan Boyle's I Dreamed A Dream is the top selling album of last year. Hang on...just going to go and get the shotgun and take this sick animal out back...

Okay, so maybe it's not all as bad as I'm making it out, but it is an undeniable fact that the single is the new king of music, the great survivor in the digital boom, in the Age of Information. The golden age of the album - where an artist would release one single as a teaser before giving us all the juicy goodness of the other songs and often making the rest of the singles released somewhat obsolete.

It's not necessarily a bad thing. A couple of years ago I got the debut album by SugaRush Beat Company for Christmas on the back of two of their songs, which I thought were quite a soulful, funky kind of music. Imagine my disappointment when I played the first track and heard a loud cacophony of drumbeats and electronic whines that showed why we haven't heard any more from this group. I would have preferred for my parents to have bought me just the two songs now rather than that rubbish again.

There are, in my opinion, two ways in which the album could survive. Although "SuBo" (shudder) has been the top seller, close behind her was the aforementioned GaGa, whose brilliant The Fame just keeps on delivering. GaGa is such a creation, such an artist, that one could almost mistake The Fame for being (whisper) a concept album. Just like the glorious Sgt Pepper by the Beatles or 3 Feet High And Rising by De La Soul, it seems like an event album, something fresh and original. This does not mean that albums should all revert to this. I'm a huge fan of them - I got at least two albums by single artists for Christmas this year: the latest offerings from Jamie Cullum and Nerina Pallot. But none of these would have been top sellers (least of all, sadly, Nerina, who is brilliant but completely underrated).

The other way the album can survive seems to be compilation albums. The Now series is still going strong - I've had nearly every single one since Now 36 when I was eleven years old! Most of the time it saves money for yourself, because then you don't spend it on the actual singles, knowing you'll get them anyway for a fairly reasonable price. This does also mean, however, that once more you aren't paying for a regular album. No win.

The last post is about to be played. It's the last gasp for the soldiers in the ranks. It seems like the only thing left to do is something drastic - to go over the top. And we all know how that usually ends up.

Rest In Peace, Sgt Pepper.


Laters.

Top Ten of 2010!

So here's a list of the ten films I'm most looking forward to next year (2010), in no particular order except alphabetical.

Alice In Wonderland - Tim Burton. 'Nuff said.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part One - The last film in the series was one of the best since "Prisoner Of Azkaban". It's going to be darker and darker still.

Inception - Christopher Nolan's never made a bad film in my opinion, so I'm looking forward to this one. Not that we know what's going on in it yet.

Kick Ass - Looks hilarious, but also a welcome reality check for all the superhero films that are beig made (with the possible exception of "Iron Man 2", which isn't on the list because I'm still to watch the first one!)

Paul - Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are an excellent duo of actors/writers. Looking forward to their first proper foray into Americana.

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time - Probably will be the summer's biggest blockbuster, next to aforementioned "Iron Man 2". Two words for me: Gemma. Arterton.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World - Not read the graphic novel this is based on, but I'm already looking forward to discovering them.

The Book Of Eli - Another post-apocalypse film, but this one has Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman as the bad guy. Excellent.

The Expendables - It's going to be rubbish, but WONDERFUL rubbish. Stallone, Statham, Lundgren, Willis and Schwarznegger. No Seagal, though...shame.

Toy Story 3 - Could be brilliant. It is Pixar, after all. But is it one sequel too many?

So there we go. I'm sure there are others more deserving and, probably, as this year, some I will actually find myself more excited to watch then the ones on here.

Cover Alls That Don't Quite Cover All

Found this on the good ol' World Wide Web this morning: a list of the Top Ten worst covers in (British) Music History. Here you go:

1. William Shatner: 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds'
2. Britney Spears: 'I Love Rock 'N' Roll'
3. Gareth Gates: 'Spirit In The Sky'
4. Kelly Osbourne: 'Papa Don't Preach'
5. Terry Wogan: 'The Floral Dance'
6. Madonna: 'American Pie'
7. Gareth Gates: 'Unchained Melody'
8. Rolf Harris: 'Stairway To Heaven'
9. Rik Waller: 'I Will Always Love You'
10. Alexandra Burke: 'Hallelujah'

It's a funny creature, the cover. You either love them or hate them. Some artists seem to be addicted to making them (particularly boy bands such as Boyzone or Westlife). Others will bow down maybe once to them - Britters at Number 2 has done perhaps two or three, but that's it. The cover song has also being adopted by charities - Children In Need, Comic Relief - as a quick, go to for raising more money for their respective projects. That's a little sneaky, because then you can't be too cynical about them, as its all for the greater good.

No, perhaps the most annoying use of covers recently has been with a little programme called The X Factor, a show like American Idol, (and its other counterparts - I dunno, is there a Kazakhstan Idol?), which is based solely on the idea of a bunch of un-famous people doing rather OTT cover versions of famous people's songs. The winner then releases another cover as their debut single, which then goes straight to Christmas Number One...annoyingly.

Last year the series spawned two cover singles. The first was a cover of Mariah Carey's 'Hero', which was sadly a charity single for British Troops, so again I'm forced to be as un-cynical as possible. I also have to sadly admit that it sent shivers up my spine the first time I heard it - I must be getting soft in my old age. But the true abomination was the winner's single, which you can see up at Number 10 on the list, Alexandra Burke's version of 'Hallelujah'. Now, admittedly, this has been one of the most covered songs ever, and in my opinion (and also the opinion of Leonard Cohen, the original artist) the definitive version was made by Jeff Buckley. Burke's is all about the glory and ooh, look at me, I've just won a meaningless talent show.

Alas, even Leona Lewis, the only success story of The X Factor, had to start with a cover version, and recently she did a cover of Snow Patrol's 'Run'. The difference is she makes it her own, as Buckley did with 'Hallelujah'. That's the recipe for a truly great cover version: it re-defines the song, re-imagines it. Let's have a list of those. I bet you it will be much shorter than the one of worst covers.

************************************************************************************

Had a rather surreal evening last night. Our power went out, then came back on as if it was running incredibly low on juice. The lights were dim, the television was at time unwatchable (in terms of the picture, not the programmes), and the oven was making odd noises. Then, as we were flicking through the gradually distorting channels, we were able to see a game show called Golden Balls - I'm not sure exactly what happens in it, but appearing on the show last night was my ex-girlfriend's boyfriend. If it hadn't been for the power going wacky, we would never have seen that. Surreal at best. And he didn't win, poor chap - he was voted off before the grand final.

Laters.

2009 At The Movies!

Last year I only had about five films that I knew would definitely distract me from writing: some of them more than lived up to my expectations (Sweeney Todd, The Dark Knight), some were a little disappointing (Quantum Of Solace, Inkheart) and one of them I never even got to see (Cloverfield, though I did get the DVD for Christmas! Haven't watched it yet, though.) )

But this year - this year I can think of at least ten films that could pull me away from my computer as I try to get on with my work! I've put the list of them to the side in a brand new list box thing, but here they are for you in all their glory!

Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince: big fan, been waiting a while for this one.

Public Enemies: Johnny Depp in a 1930s gangster film!

Sherlock Holmes : Robert Downey Jr in a Guy Ritchie film!

Star Trek: Small, low budget astronomical feature...I think.

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button: Brad Pitt re teams with David Fight Club Fincher.

The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus: Terry Gilliam's hopeful return to the top, and Heath Ledger's last ever film.

The Lovely Bones: Long awaited Peter Jackson film, could rival Heavenly Creatures.

Up: Pixar. 'Nuff said.

Watchmen: The Comic Book (sorry, Graphic Novel) film of the year.

Where The Wild Things Are: Always loved this book as a kid - hope Spike Jonze don't muck it up.

Looking at this list, I think I can be pretty pleased with the mixture of my taste - hopefully, I don't look too shallow and pedantic. Also (hopefully) ten films shouldn't be enough to stop me from writing, unless I do a Dark Knight and go and watch them again...and again...and again...and again...

Laters.

Seagal!

I've got a confession to make: I have a soft spot for a little film called On Deadly Ground. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, it is the second best film starring Steven Seagal, that stalwart of really, really bad action movies(the first being Under Siege).

Now, as a red blooded male, I suppose it's only natural for me to enjoy the odd action film with very little plot, and On Deadly Ground is no exception - it makes very little sense, has a very silly plot, and is really a disastrous attempt at making a shoot-em-up film with an ecological message - its all about oil rigs and Eskimos in Alaska, you see. Thankfully, the film is saved by a somewhat staggeringly brilliant cast: Michael Caine is the bad guy, John C McGinley (Dr Cox from Scrubs) is his henchman, R. Lee Emery is the leader of a group of mercenaries who obviously cannot stop just one man ('cos that one man happens to be Seagal), even Billy Bob Thornton makes an appearance. and, yes, at the end of the day, there's just a lot of fun to be had watching one man take on every other single person in the film and blowing things up.

It's a little annoying to realise that action scenes are so much easier to envisage in films (or television) than in books. I find action scenes the hardest things to write, which is annoying when you consider that my books are typical good guy vs bad guy material, and how my first two books end with your typical confrontation. I'm planning to have a great big battle scene in The Witch Sister - a battle scene, for crying out loud! Once upon a time I toyed with the idea of being a writer of thrillers, a la Clive Cussler or even (what was I thinking?) Ian Flemming. But because I felt I was so bad at writing action scenes I realised that it was pretty ridiculous to try and keep this going.

Oh how I wish Seagal was a decent writer. Then we could all send him our ideas and say, "Yo, Steve, how should I end this scene? Should he jump over the side of the boat or should he blow everything up with a match and a line of petrol?" Ah well - we should always stick to what we're best at, as Seagal has found - though all his recent films haven't even been half as good as Under Siege or On Deadly Ground. In fact, god forbid, they've been ten times worse, and not in a good way! Still, at least he tried something new - even Seagal takes creative chances!

Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, just when I get the house back to myself, to really exploit the peace and quiet to concentrate on getting on with some writing, I open my curtains this morning to find the world literally covered in a think layer of the cold white stuff - and I ain't talking vanilla Ice Cream. Cos, you know, that would be kinda weird.

I love snow! Love it! I have made a whole-hearted attempt at making a half-hearted looking snow lump - it's not the kind of snow you can make a whole person from right now. I have thrown snowballs, I have made great big footprints in the garden...

Adult? What adult? I'm 8 again!

Laters!

Writer's Block

It's a funny thing, writer's block. Not funny as in ha ha that's hysterical, ow my sides funny - more like hmm, this is in danger of fast becoming shallow and pedantic type of funny.

The thing is it can hit you whenever wherever, no matter how good you feel about what you;re working on, and then - this is the real killer r- it lasts for random amounts of time. It could be over by the afternoon or it could take up to six months to really finish messing around with your head.

I've found the latter to be the case continuously, especially with regards to The Witch Sister but also, weirdly, with the simple art of writing a cover letter to send to potential literary agents along with my synopsis and first two chapters of Where Wild Things Grow. How weird is that? I got writer's block on an administrative form! That's gotta be worth a place in history, surely?

Oh yeah, and I've spruced up the blog as you can probably tell. Nothing too fancy, just felt the need for a change. Hope none of you find it too shallow and pedantic (I love that phrase!)

Laters.

Happy New Year!

Well, it's come around again quicker than ever - it's the start of a brand new year. Yippee!

To be honest, I don't feel that enthusiastic about the whole thing, but oh well - who knows what could happen? I've already made several New Years Resolutions, after the partial succes of last year (I achieved one - go me!) and am ready to step fprward into what feels like just another day. To bid a fond farewell to 2008, though, here's a list of the top ten films I watched for the first time last year. This means they didn't exactly come out last year, just that I watched them for the first time. Enjoy!

10. JINDABYNE (7/10)
"Nothing seems rushed at all in the telling and unfolding of the story...There are clumsy moments...The race card is dealt, in comparison to the rest of the film, too quickly and swept aside too easily...It is perhaps a shame that, though two arguably very brilliant actors, Linney and Byrne were needed at all...A thoughtful film, though it could perhaps have been a little clearer in what it was actually trying to say."

9. QUANTUM OF SOLACE (7/10)
"(The film) starts fast and furiously and for the most part never lets up...I don't believe you can just watch it as a stand alone film...(Daniel) Craig's Bond takes the character to dark new places...There is a tour de force performance by Judi Dench...Camille is possibly the most interesting Bond girl we've had in a while...Mathieu Almaric does as well as he can...Characters are wasted...Good effort - just not great."

8. NOTES ON A SCANDAL (7/10)
"The power of the diary is paramount to the story and characters...Two powerful performances by two very fine actresses...The book on which the film is based is perhaps more powerful than this better-than-average adaptation."

7. HOT FUZZ (8/10)
"Intelligent, funny and at times pretty thrilling...Great writing, great casting, great stunts and great special effects...(Simon) Pegg and Nick Frost once again make a great double act...There were too many endings...A genuinely funny film to watch with your mates."

6. SIN CITY (8/10)
"This film blew me away from pretty much the first minute...The little splashes of colour truly make this a fantastical, yet realistic world...The violence is a weird but brilliant mixture of realism and cartoonish...Jessica Alba, though gorgeous, doesn't really have much to do...Nearly all the main blokes sounded the same...On the whole though, a great film."

5. WALL-E (8/10)
"Thank god Pixar have got back on track...(Andrew) Stanton understands the importance of colour, of spectacle, whilst never giving up the fundamental idea of story...The very young...WILL get bored easily throughout the beginning...A very brave film to pull off...the romance that develops between the two robots (is) so sweet and believable."

4. PAN'S LABYRINTH (8/10)
"This film is an absolute Must See...A dark, dark fairy tale for adults...NOT for youngsters...All of Del Toro's trademarks as a director are here...An absolute crying shame that this film was passed for an academy award for Best Foreign Film."

3. SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (8/10)
"Burton never goes OTT with...(the)INTENTIONAL gore...Depp and Bonham Carter are brilliant in their roles...The love story...does suffer from the necessity of cutting for time...The music is extraordinary too...Burton has returned back to his roots."

2. THE DARK KNIGHT (9/10)
"Simply wow. From the very first moment, this film catches your attention and holds it for as long as possible...Truly the work of a genius...Heath Ledger...(is)SO GOOD in the role(of The Joker)...The film is a tad too long...Brilliant."

1. THE FOUNTAIN (9/10)
"This film totally staggered me...Aronofsky gives the plot just enough ambiguity for everyone to have their own opinion on what exactly is going on... (Rachel) Weisz is fast becoming one of my top five favourite actresses...I urge you to see this film...It is beautiful."

And my choice for Worst Film I've Seen All Year goes to: DRAGON (1/10)
"This is a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, BAD film...The acting is almost abysmal...The script is very bad indeed...The action scenes, the few that there are, are either badly choreographed or full of the worst CGI...The film...is just incredibly boring...Pure awfulness."

Happy New Year, y'all!

Laters!

Chicken and "Jindabyne"

Sooooo....still haven't caried out my plan to fulfil the last New Year's Resolution I made all the way back in January, and it's December on Monday. Hmm. Am I a chicken, or have I just not had the opportunity? I think it's a little bit of both. Wonderful.

In the meantime I've been using my spare time by acting in a farce called Off The Hook, which was terrific fun. On the first Monday I've had where I didn't have any rehearsals, I sat down to start watching movies again which I haven't done in ages! This time the film was called Jindabyne. Here's the review down below - as always, watch out for spoilers, and enjoy!

Four men living in Australia go for a fishing trip in the mountains near their home town of Jindabyne. When they discover a young girl's mutilated body floating in the river they are faced with a moral dilemma that continues to haunt and affect them long after they return home to their respective partners...

The first thing to say about this film is that it is slow. It's not that long, but it is slow. Nothing seems rushed at all in the telling and unfolding of the story. It feels rather like the river that the four men start fishing in, in that it trickles rather than races like the threatening rapids one of them (Gabriel Byrne) mentions lie beyond their camping spot.

The film starts with the murderer waiting for his victim, though we never actually see the disgusting act take place - just the dumping of her body by him. He continues to float around the film in brief interludes, sometimes threatening, others just observing, reflecting the way in which we first meet him. What surprised me most was that he escapes justice; the film ends back where we started.

Instead the real crime, apparently, is what happens when the body is discovered. For a brief moment I was caught up with the four guys, enjoying their success at catching the big fish they've always wanted to catch in this mountain river, pushing the dead body away from the scene. Yet she quickly returns, and with her brings a new feeling of uneasy guilt to the proceedings. The town must face up to what the boys were doing - enjoying themselves instead of calling the police instantly.

There are clumsy moments in the film from here on in. In my opinion the race card (the girl has Aboriginal roots) is dealt, in comparison to the rest of the film, too quickly and swept aside too easily from the question of why the men do what they do. Instead it focuses more on the after effects of these actions, in particular on the character of Claire played by Laura Linney, rather than a study of these four men. It is a shame that her character and Byrne's, her husband, are used so much; it reduces one of the four men into a rather two-dimensional surfer dude, and more or less silences the other two. Any other problems faced by the other respective partners, though introduced, rarely get any more screen time.

It is perhaps also a shame that, though two arguably very brilliant actors, Linney and Byrne were needed at all. Though Byrne's presence in Australia is explained by his Irish mother who also lives there, Linney's origins remain a mystery She is obviously American, but how did she end up in Austrailia? Would the film have benefited more from casting two Australian actors in these parts, or was this casting just to try and get international audiences? Perhaps.

On the whole this was a thoughtful film, though it could perhaps have been a little clearer in what it was actually trying to say. Maybe that was the point; you have to make up your own mind as to who is truly guilty and who is not.

7/10

Laters.

Dazed And Confused

Recently I went through some tough times in my personal life. I mentioned in an earlier blog of my recently failed relationship - it actually only lasted a month. It's been nearly a month since the break up itself and what really annoys me is that most of the time I feel fine, yet I only need to see something or hear something and I'm instantly transported back to my friend's study where the deed took place. Not once do I return to any of the (few) good times we had together.

What worries me is that this is exactly what happened last time, and that relationship had been a lot more serious, lasting almost 2 1/2 years. There were different circumstances surrounding that break up of course, but it destroyed me completely. I was stuck in my University during my first year and, due to a mixture of my own stupidity and other factors, I had at that time few friends. I would have hoped that being here at home surrounded by my friends I would not go through a similar pattern. Sadly, annoyingly, this has not been quite the case.

However, these things help: Madonna and Guy Ritchie - split. The episode of Frasier I'm watching whilst writing this - Ros has just been dumped after confessing her love for bloke. Oh, and I have one more New Year's Resolution to fulfil. I have to. I need to. I'm completely insane to do it, but right now, at this very moment, I cannot see any other choice. I'll let you all know when it happens, as it ill probably the last blog I ever write. Ha!

Laters.

SIA - "Soon We'll Be Found"

Over here in Blighty we have a really good music programme called Later...With Jools Holland, which is where they get as many bands/artists as possible into the studio and spend as little time as possible chatting to them - they just let them play live music which always sounds good. Occasionally you discover an artists you've never heard of before and really get to dig, or maybe just an individual song. This has happened twice for me this year. The first instance was with the SugaRush Beat Company (More about them in a future blog entry), but recently the artist SIA has come to my attention. The Australian singer was not on my radar until a week or so ago, and admittedly I had to get over the rather relaxed way she sings her songs. But there was one she performed which was one of the most beautiful I've heard in a long time. I'm not sure how it will fare in our hit parade over here, but I feel like I should share it with the millions who no doubt read this blog obsessively (Boom boom). So here it is - enjoy!



Laters!

Burton's Ephiphany

Below is the review for one of my most eagerly anticipated movies of this year, Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, based on the epic musical by American legend Stephen Sondheim.

Tim Burton has, despite his frequent insistence on his dislike for the genre, always been a director of musicals. You only need to look at the animated films of Corpse Bride or The Nightmare Before Christmas to see his unique take on show stopping numbers, and in his other films there are often moments of musical tomfoolery, such as in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory or Mars Attacks! The difference between these films and something like, say The Sound Of Music is pretty obvious. Burton is a dark, Gothic auteur whose own brand of black comedy and love of ghoulish storytelling is now legendary in its own right.

So Sweeney Todd was perfect for him. In fact there is no other living film director who comes to mind who would have been as perfect a director of the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's perhaps most celebrated musical (though its more of a light opera than anything else - not in its subject matter, but in the amount of dialogue and songs). The actual show just oozes Burton in its horror story qualities, and you have the chance to bring more gore to the proceedings being much more up close and personal than in the theatre. Yet Burton never goes OTT with this gore, unlike some very unfortunate film franchises that are circulating today. It is INTENTIONAL gore, and though it may shock you when you first experience it (it comes in rather late into the movie) you quickly get over the surprise and begin to enjoy it in a rather unnerving way.

There are other reasons for this other than Burton's handling. Depp and Bonham Carter are brilliant in their roles. Neither are strong singers, yet they perform their songs with such intensity it would be hard to believe they have not performed this on the stage themselves. Depp has added another memorable character to his vastly growing CV of kooks, and Bonham Carter's credibility has once again shot up above the Merchant Ivory costume dramas she was first discovered in. The supporting cast work very well too, though the love story between Todd's daughter and his sailor friend does suffer from the necessity of cutting for time.

It helps that the music is extraordinary too. Though Sondheim has not been as successful in the UK as he has been in the States, its incredibly difficult to grasp just why this show was not more popular over here. The songs segue beautifully into each other , always with a dark undertone lurking somewhere, even in the lighter pieces (and there are one or two). A new production will no doubt be planned in the near future - and if not, why not?

Burton has returned back to his roots after a few films that, though brilliant, were very family orientated. This is a film for grown ups, a fable for grown ups, and Burton does very well indeed with these fables.

8/10

Laters!

Fore!

So I thought I'd spend a little time telling you all about my new job working as a barman in my local golf club. I've been there for almost two weeks now, and, honestly? It ain't that bad!

Sure the shifts are long, and sure most of the time (as I'm restricted to working a lot of weekdays) the most people I serve is perhaps a dozen golfers, and sure I spend the majority of the time on my feet. But I think what I love about the job is that it is completely and utterly different it is to anything I've ever done before in my life.

When I left University with a 2:1 the option was there to stay on and do a Masters in English Studies anywhere I wanted. And the idea still appeals to me. But I never had a gap year before going to Winchester, so I've been in education since I was 5. And to be honest, I've had enough for now. Seriously, any more information/knowledge in this brain and it was liable to explode! So I wanted to do something for a while that was so far removed from English or education that I wouldn't need to worry about the danger of being on the news for having the first self-destructing cranium in history.

The people are lovely, too. My "trainer" is a professional dancer who is just finishing a show in Convent Garden, and although I didn't get to bed until 1:40 am on Sunday morning due to having to work a wedding reception on the Saturday evening, it was still great fun! See, I read that back and I seem somewhat insane, ha! But I honestly enjoyed it all, and still do. Plus, with my days off I can concentrate on my writing - at least, that's the idea. I haven't done any so far today, although I suppose this blog counts for something?

Laters.