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Proms Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

I started watching when they began to play Tchaikovsky's MASTERFUL, AWESOME, MASTERPIECE of a symphony, Symphony No. 5.

People who neglect 'classical' music sure are missing out on something truly spectacular. My god, goosebump city.

Is there much point in agreeing with you when you know I agree with you!?

Ah well, nothing wrong with secondary back up I was going to play this symphony but I can't damn well find it?

Amongst many gems that series has my all time favourite episode 'To Kill A Mocking Alan', where he grossly insults the Irish ( potatoe famine : "well, if you can afford to emigrate you can afford to eat in a reasonably priced restaurant" ) and meets his creepy "No.1 fan".

Complete and utter brilliance.

Finally then: The Dark Knight

This must be one of the grimmest films I've seen in ages.
There's an overbearing sense of despair and helplessness pervading the film: what is anyone, even The Bat, going to do when none of the rules apply any more?
And how did this happen?

I'm thoroughly impressed by how Nolan and the script writers have managed to combine two of the best and most involving aspects of the Batman mythos:
(1) the vision of writer/artist team Loeb/Sale that emphasized the Batman's Film Noire aspects
(2) Frank Miller's psychological/sociological take which questions the Batman's own role in the ascension of social chaos, considering that the Batman and The Joker aren't opposites: they are symbionts of sorts. There cannot be one without the other. An extreme action will have an extreme reaction.

These two elements make this the most dramatically interesting and intellectually and morally challenging of all the Batman films so far, and I found myself quite drained after the show.

First of all: this Joker is NOT funny. Oh sure, there was some chuckling in the cinema at his one-liners, but they were...uncomfortable. As if people weren't entirely sure whether it was supposed to be funny. Let me put that to rest: it wasn't.
Nolan's Joker is almost alien: he does not conform to the same rules, he cannot be reasoned with, he cannot be reached, he can't even be hurt. It's like all the tools we have for interaction -including intimidation and physical abuse- have been rendered absolutely useless.

Hence the Batman's (and Gotham City's Finest') dilemma.

And the viewers' increasing unease.
The Joker is not an agent of evil. He is an agent of chaos.
He will deconstruct and corrupt for deconstruction's sake.
He cannot be stopped by any conventional means.

Any interaction with him results in loss of innocent lives. By design. The public in the film is forced between choosing the preceived lesser of two evils every single time ("kill a person, or a hospital gets bombed" ) and we, the audience, feel our own moral boundaries slipping away. As every choice starts to become immoral, we feel increasingly content with the idea of bending the rules of society just a bit to just STOP the madness.
Bend them a little bit.
Juuuuuuuust a little bit.

It's all SO understandable...and then of course the Joker wins.

This makes the end absolutely heartbreaking. And a huge eye-opener and stuff for long, long evenings of discussion:
The fabric of society is not equipped to deal with chaos.
To stop this chaos, you sometimes have to step outside of society.
And once you do, you can never come back.
Worse: while being its very counterpart, you still have become part of the chaos, and will be reviled and presecuted for it. That's the price to pay to keep the darkness at bay.

Thus the tragedy of The Batman.
What he does is unacceptable. What he does is incondonable.
What he does is unavoidable.

This is an VERY good film, very powerful and extraordinarily clever. It works both as a 'mere' action flick (and a very good one) if you would choose to watch it like that, and it also works as a proper moral (intellectual) challenge.

The acting is uniformly excellent.
Standouts are Joker Ledger, who gives a one-dimensional, inscrutable character some true meat on the bone, Batman Bale, who makes the self-doubt and despair shine through by sheer body language and Oldman as the reluctant Chief Gordon.
Caine and Freeman are good in their bit parts, though not exceptional.

5 out of 5.

I honestly went in with an open mind, but the music was beyond annoying.
Imagine two and a half hours of FAR too loudly mixed non-stop Immediate Music trailer music and you get the idea. Though made from sheets of metal, still undeniably still musical wallpaper. Childish nonsense.
BAH! This film deserved a LOT better.

1.5 out of 5.

Just in case you didn't, Symphony No. 5.

Any spoilers in your review Martijn? I'm just being careful.

Thanks pal! Now I'll read it.

Flyboys

An enjoyable if not slightly cheesy action flick from director John Mills. The combat scenes are riveting and explosive enough to keep you distracted from all the expected clichés and hammy acting but the somewhat insipid romantic sub-plot does sadly push the running time past the two hour mark. Really only worth watching for the exciting visuals, state-of-the-art CGI lends a thrilling zip to the aerial sequences and shines realistically through every sepia-tinted frame.

3/5

I don't think there's enough symbolism in the film.

How big was this spider? Is there a clip or picture from this documentary?

I've seen some spiders recently (and I had one in my hands! That was a smaller one by the way) and one of the species could have a span of 9.5 inches. It was huge! We got a good picture of him (not for Martijn, you are warned) :

Tarantula


[EDIT] Hm, funny, I'm now at Shelob's Lair, listening to the trilogy today!

I CLICKED.

I am scarred for LIFE!


Where's the port?
At least after enough intake I know any crawlies I detect from the corner off my eye are simply delirium tremens induced.

NOT looking.

Spiders are awesome. Miracle of evolution! They're so cute with their little pincers, beady black eyes and hairy little legs. You know you want one as a pet, Martijn.

I say kill the f***ers!

Or at least move them outside.

Martijn, have you ever played Half Life 2 with the toxic headcrabs and all? *shudder*