I was in Leeds this weekend with a hungover brother and entourage, thus the DVDs came out.
After having watched Patlabor (a personal favourite) and Die Hard (you'd have to agree a bit of a classic), we pulled out Superbad.
I was pleasantly surprised by this film.
The trailers hadn't given me high hopes: another teen movie about trying to, with hilarious consequences, lose your virginity.
Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill) are long-time friends in the last year of high school, about to leave for different colleges.
Their friend, Fogell, (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has plans to acquire a fake ID, so Seth agrees to buy alcohol for a party his crush, Jules (Emma Stone), is hosting. Evan also offers to buy Goldslick Vodka for his long time crush Becca (Martha MacIsaac).
The ca-razy high jinks turned out to be surreal in the extreme and there was a fair amount of heart and good character development.
The oddness of the situations some how made the whole thing inexplicably more believable.
So it turned out to be a particularly good example of this genre.
Good fun if you're at a loose end and want something easy to pass the time.
Don't expect anything particularly intelligent, but it is very sweet and very funny.
Monday 28 July 2008
Friday 11 July 2008
Iron Man
Yes I snuck off to the cinema again yesterday and managed to catch Iron Man at one of about only two cinemas still showing it in London.
Iron Man is an origin story.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Junior) goes out to Afghanistan on a business trip, his business being weapons, to demonstrate the new weapon Jericho.
He gets captured by Afghani rebels and in order to escape invents the suit that makes him the superhuman Iron Man.
This film was less of a spectacle than I was expecting, not that there aren't some brilliant explosive action moments - I just expected more.
The plot is a lot more political than I expected as well, which made me happy.
Ok the idea of an arms dealer re-assessing his life is a bit far fetched, but you know it gives you hope even if it is only fiction.
There are some nice witty touches throughout the film and Downey Junior has a talent for carrying those kind of wise cracks off whilst also giving a convincing performance of a man filled with arrogance and later consumed by inner demons.
Gwynth Paltrow's character Pepper Potts makes for a good side kick, though she does prove to be a bit worryingly wet in the finale, but she makes up for it with her final lines.
It's a shame that it's too late to see it at the big screen as the effects certainly benefit from being HUGE, but invest in a large TV and rent it when it comes out.
You won't be disappointed.
Iron Man is an origin story.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Junior) goes out to Afghanistan on a business trip, his business being weapons, to demonstrate the new weapon Jericho.
He gets captured by Afghani rebels and in order to escape invents the suit that makes him the superhuman Iron Man.
This film was less of a spectacle than I was expecting, not that there aren't some brilliant explosive action moments - I just expected more.
The plot is a lot more political than I expected as well, which made me happy.
Ok the idea of an arms dealer re-assessing his life is a bit far fetched, but you know it gives you hope even if it is only fiction.
There are some nice witty touches throughout the film and Downey Junior has a talent for carrying those kind of wise cracks off whilst also giving a convincing performance of a man filled with arrogance and later consumed by inner demons.
Gwynth Paltrow's character Pepper Potts makes for a good side kick, though she does prove to be a bit worryingly wet in the finale, but she makes up for it with her final lines.
It's a shame that it's too late to see it at the big screen as the effects certainly benefit from being HUGE, but invest in a large TV and rent it when it comes out.
You won't be disappointed.
Thursday 3 July 2008
The night I met John Kennedy
Back in the world where I have a social life again and I'm off to another They Came From The Stars I Saw Them gig.
This time it was at The Barfly in Camden for Xfm's regular Xposure Live event.
Hosted by the beautifully, wonderful, genius that is John Kennedy.
Turned up in time to see some of the first act, who were ok but nothing very memorable.
Then the Stars got up onto the stage and this little man, who looked really familiar came and said hello, mainly I think at Adi but looking back I like to think in general.
Then the little man got up on the stage to in-tro-duce the Stars.
So in case you aren't good at the maths the little man that seemed so familiar turned out not to be an acquaintance of ours through the Stars or such like, as we both kind of assumed, but John Kennedy.
John Kennedy spoke to me!
I know this is pathetic, but I love this guy I felt the same way as I did when I bumped into Simon Amstell and at least this time I didn't recognise him straight off, being more used to his voice than his face, and start babbling at him star struck.
The Stars of course were brilliant and it was hilarious watching the Camden cool set doing or being baffled by the rabbit, seal, monkey dance.
The headlining act were nothing on The Chap and not much on the Stars, but of course that's what most of the cool set had come to see, so after a couple of songs we left them to it.
Everyone!
Rabbit.
Seal.
Monkey.
This time it was at The Barfly in Camden for Xfm's regular Xposure Live event.
Hosted by the beautifully, wonderful, genius that is John Kennedy.
Turned up in time to see some of the first act, who were ok but nothing very memorable.
Then the Stars got up onto the stage and this little man, who looked really familiar came and said hello, mainly I think at Adi but looking back I like to think in general.
Then the little man got up on the stage to in-tro-duce the Stars.
So in case you aren't good at the maths the little man that seemed so familiar turned out not to be an acquaintance of ours through the Stars or such like, as we both kind of assumed, but John Kennedy.
John Kennedy spoke to me!
I know this is pathetic, but I love this guy I felt the same way as I did when I bumped into Simon Amstell and at least this time I didn't recognise him straight off, being more used to his voice than his face, and start babbling at him star struck.
The Stars of course were brilliant and it was hilarious watching the Camden cool set doing or being baffled by the rabbit, seal, monkey dance.
The headlining act were nothing on The Chap and not much on the Stars, but of course that's what most of the cool set had come to see, so after a couple of songs we left them to it.
Everyone!
Rabbit.
Seal.
Monkey.
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