[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

Well, the movies I've seen recently:

On the film channel How To Train Your Dragon. Twice. Enjoyed it a lot!
Watched it with my hubby a while ago, then last week with my kids. The music is great too.

Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. Cute. Better than I expected from a part two.

Date Night. In the evening I like to watch comedies that are nice for age 6+ or 9+ as well so the kids can watch it too. When you read the story it sounds like yet another stupid comedy, but it was actually fun. With Tina Fey and Steve Carell. Had some really good jokes! And even a sweet story to it as well.

Then in the cinema: Rio!
Awesome. The opening put tears in my eyes really! With all the colours, the music and we saw it in 3D.

Kung Fu Panda 2. Also in 3D. Very nice.

You know I've noticed that (animated) movies come up with very interesting maintitles or end credits. Really arty stuff. For instance Nanny McPhee 2ends with the movie characters in paper / origami kind of style. Kung Fu Panda 2starts of with that beautiful Azian shadow play and ends with playful drawings of Poo's life. Very creative. End titles from How To Train Your Dragon are also beautiful with the dragon drawings. I really love that kind of stuff!

On DVD

MONSTERS

Brilliant! I enjoyed it, the film makers got a great holiday, this is superb maverick film making.

THE PRIEST

Not a very bad way to burn 2 hours and some brain cells I found (movie) parts from Tron's futuristic landscapes, the motorbikes crossed with every vamp movie ever made, some wild west elements too and a bit of Da VInci code so it's a cross of genres. Nothing too good nothing too bad. The score is simply kick ass and elevates 2 scenes in particular - greatly.

Yes, I did.
It felt VERY much like an introduction episode. A prequel edition if you will.
Nothing much happened, except suggestions that a lot WILL actually be happening.

It felt like a 25 minute episode (which would to my mind just have been enough), padded with a lot of explosions and gunfire to get to the obligatory full hour slot.

I didn't mind the music. In fact I prefer Gold's take over Foster's Sturm und Drang. It's a bit more subtle.

I think this series might be interesting, and I rather like the America-centric focus this time around.

Just finished the last season of Ashes To Ashes.
I am so glad I let Timmer persuade me to try this series after a string of negative reviews on the web.

It's EXCELLENT!
I absolutely ADORE the fact that even though the story wraps up most satisfactorily, not everything gets fully explained away, and we are left with some gaps we are perfectly able to fill in ourselves...whether correctly or not. (Lost should have taken a leaf out of the book of THESE writers! Kudos, kudos, kudos.)

Oh, and the styling and "sense of eighties" (even if factually off at times) is absolutely spot on in its feel and delivery. Music (the title theme blows several REAL eighties police series themes out of the water for sheer...erm....eightieness), locations, hair, clothes. Excellent!

Yes, Life On Mars does remain superior (if only due to its novelty and its absolutely gut wrenching finale), but Ashes To Ashes comes VERY close behind and I was very sorry to have to let these characters go. The character progression, their motives and fate are very well written and -in what is almost a fairy tale or morality tale setting- utterly compelling and believable. I was especially impressed with the continued change in the character of the ogre-ish D.I. Carling. Very, very moving.

All in all some of the best TV I've seen in years.

I loved the addition of DCI Jim Keats from Discipline And Complaints in the third season, and the descent of Gene Hunt into a darker, more insecure role.
It was never quite clear who the actual antagonist was.

They tried roughly the same in the second half of the second season of Life On Mars (with a very different pay-off), but this was done much more coherently and cleverly.

Oh, and the continued use of the Audi Quattro as a "cool car" was GREAT!
That Dukes Of Hazard like screeching and turning made me smile every single time.

Can't recommend this series enough.
In fact I rather envy anyone not having seen either series.
I'd love to go back and have that experience again for the first time.
Erm. Well. You know what I mean.

Yeah, I love Curb Your Enthusiasm

And yeah also to checking out LIFE ON MARS

Harry Potter 8


The 1st point. The death of he who must not be named is much more cinematic and character-driven than a certain other Dark Lord who went out as a panicked lidless eye.

The 2nd point. British acting royalty cameos rush by at a rate of 2 per minute, giving George Stevens' Greatest Story Ever Told and Robert Altman's Gosford Park a run for their money.

The 3rd point. This one was for fans of the book.

The 4th point. For someone who just knows the films, it was nice to see a resolution for Alan Rickman's character.

The 5th point. It's a strange achievement for a filmmaker to make Desplat's distinctive musical voice seem boring.

The 6th. You can't just crossfade to John Williams music from the first film after ignoring the style for 4 films and not have it stick out like a sore thumb.

And the 7th. Don't tell me the 3D glasses were there to see the old age make-up peeling off?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

And it was the first score of James Bernard

Ha! Nice!
Pretty groundbreaking stuff then!

The second episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day was better than I was expecting. But it did have some bad sequences (making EDTA/cyanide from raw materials on a plane). Music for this episode completely passed me by.

Quatermass and the Pit (1967) starring Andrew Keir, Barbara Shelley, and James Donald. This was the third in the series and a very good one. The special effects were good for 67. Keir was great.
Tom

My daughter is watching Tron: Legacy at the moment and it is reinforcing how awesome the music is.

I have the album but I realise now that I haven't yet listened to it from start to finish.

This says a lot about my listening habits of late.

This needs to change.