Some films.....

...that we've watched recently!

"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan": As offensive as the censors would allow, yet rather interesting to watch. Sacha Baron "Ali-G" Cohen takes on the role of the bizarre Eastern block journalist touring the USA, and thanks to his rather rudimentary grip of the English language, this results in some amazing reactions. You will *cringe*! Maybe 'the joke' wears old over the course of the running time, but overall "Borat" is a very funny film. It features some hilarious moments, whilst providing a disturbingly sharp look at ordinary people's attitudes and opinions. Racism, sexism, narrow-mindedness are all exposed.

Oh, one of the cut scenes on the DVD that features a poor supermarket worker is comedy gold!

"The Queen": A marvellous film which focuses on the British Royal family during a time of national crisis: it is August 1997 and Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed are killed in that infamous Paris car crash. Helen Mirren is wonderful in this role, as are the supporting cast. Apart from dealing with a delicate time for the Royal Family, it explores the early relationship between her "old" values and traditions, and the new vision of the country from the recently elected Labour party. Tony Blair (ingeniously played by Michael Sheen) has the difficult task of re-connecting the public with the Royals. Worthy of its Oscar and box office success.

"Talk Radio": A late 80's Oliver Stone film about a Dallas radio 'shock jock', Barry Champlain. Stars Eric Bogosian, who also wrote it with Stone, and is based on the original stage play and book. Excellent and tense character study of an arrogant person who thinks he can help the common man though satirical attacks on his listeners. A complex film that I will definitely enjoy watching again.

I also bought "Doom" and "Clockwise" DVDs the other weekend as they were cheap, but we haven't watched them yet. I remember hiring "Doom" about a year ago and enjoying it for its sheer grade Z naffness! Soon we want to see "The Prestige", "The Notorious Betty Page", and give "Casino Royale" another viewing.

Meerkats and Lemurs

Just got to tell you all about two wonderful shows on TV at the moment. "Meerkat Manor" on BBC2 and "Lemur Island" on Channel 5. I don't usually watch nature programmes but I'm hooked on these two! Both shows follow the lives of these little creatures - and they are both fascinating and cute in the own little ways. I particularly like the Lemurs when they sit "Buddha" style-ee in the morning sun! Haha! :)

A Ring-tailed Lemur...sunbathing!...and some Meerkats chillin' out!! :)

Saturday cleaning and citizenship paperwork

It's been an easy going Saturday - didn't do anything special today. Carla was at work so I managed to do a few bits in the flat before going over to meet her, and do some food shopping on the way home. Cleaned the computer's internal fan out as the whole machine was *rattling* due to being clogged with black dust bunnies! Ugh. Then I cleaned the shower out and did a whole load of laundry, while watching "The Pink Panther" on DVD. I also managed to fit in a Tom Holland workout (I have two of his DVDs.) I like doing these but admit I don't work out enough for it to count (over the last three weeks, only 1 workout per week.) I seem to have lost my way with fitting them in! :(

As I type here, I'm looking at the DVD and bookshelves to my left, and they are a bit of a mess! Hmmm....need to have a re-think and a sort out. Also, Partners (the Stationary shop) in town have a really nice glass computer desk for sale, which if it fits nicely in this alcove, I may well go for it. Trouble is, I'll have to upgrade to flat screen monitor as well. I don't have one yet as this iiyama one has worked perfectly for years and provides a lovely crisp image.

Yesterday, I took half a day's annual leave to come home early and go with Carla to a local solicitor to get her citizenship documents all in order, so we could send them off for her UK citizenship application. I guess we have to wait now for a few months while the Home Office do their stuff. Let's hope for a speedy and positive decision. (see Carla's blog here.)

Good luck to our pal Tess who may well soon start a spot of world travelling and work experience. Her blog is in my list of friends. I have also added Mary Jo's blog in that list. Go there for loads of fun Star Wars chit chat!

Life on Kazakhstan

Here is the latest. Not much since the last entry but, hey, typing keeps me off the streets.

~ Carla passed her "Life in the UK test" today in Birmingham. Woohoo! This means she can hand in the forms and apply for citizenship. Well done the Mrs!

~ I'm reading a fantastic book called "The Prestige". It's about the rivalry between two stage magicians in the late 19th Century. Spooky and odd, but riveting. Christopher "Batman Begins" Nolan made the film version of this, which is out on DVD next week. Looking forward to seeing it, but I will finish the novel first. Looks like a great cast and I like Nolan's style.

~ We watched the latest episodes of "Life on Mars" and "Heroes" this week. Both shows are very entertaining, if a little bizarre...but that's what makes 'em fun.

~ We have the "Borat" DVD waiting to be watched. Probably will fit that in tomorrow evening. Looks like a great laff! :)

~ Still drawing Scottish woodland maps at work. This project will go on for a looooooooong time!

~ I still have to sort out that huge pile of papers/junk in the spare room. A weekend job, me thinks. Hello paper recycler.

a visit to the theatre and a birthday social!

Carla and I had Friday off work, so we got tickets to see the musical "Chicago" at the Cambridge Theatre, central London. Musical theatre is a growing interest of ours, and as we had both enjoyed the 2002 film version of this long running show, we thought it would be great to see it on the stage. It certainly did not disappoint! The show was really fun to see. The vocal performances were excellent and the dancing top notch from all the cast. Tony Hadley plays the role of Billy Flynn, Chicago's top sleazy lawyer. He was brilliant, but I've always liked his voice from his Spandau Ballet days. The two leading ladies were excellent as well. The songs are the stars of course and they are simply great. Highlights included "All That Jazz", " Razzle Dazzle", "Cell Block Tango" and "We both Reached for the Gun".

I think the show is definitely better than 'Wicked!', which we saw last November: the lyrics of the songs are superior and are more 'show classic' and less 'pop' in tone. It also has a dark feel to it, which really interests me, not surprising as it came from the same team behind "Cabaret" (Bob Fosse etc).

After the show finished we headed on up to Milton Keynes to stay with Mark. It was his birthday that weekend so people were congregating there to celebrate. Another friend of ours, Jane, was already there. They were kind enough to meet us at the railway station (in the rain) and after the hugs and hellos; we caught the bus up into the city centre to do some food shopping at Sainsbury's. Alas...no PG tips monkeys in stock! (see earlier post). When we got back to his house in the suburbs, we had a nice little meal and watched some of the newer "Battlestar Galactica" series on DVD. I also gave him his Darth Vader birthday card (which went nicely with his Anakin Skywalker one somebody had got him!)

The next morning we had a slow lazy start. We had short walk around Furzton Lake, which is in the park at the end of Mark's road. The large open green area and lake is pretty in a 'new man-made' kind of way. Mark informed us that the homes around the lake are quite expensive, so I suppose they are all owned by "city" types and the successful dot.com lot. It was lovely to see the a large variety of waterfowl, and seeing some geese having a bit of an argument was sooo funny! Nice walk as the sun was shining but it was soooo windy!

When we got back to Mark's place, some other pals turned up (Tim and Sharon) and after the obligatory cup of tea, we all walked to Bletchley Park museum. There we met up with some other pals (Jamie, Theresa and Joe) and we spent the afternoon there looking around. The museum is excellent and fascinating. It mainly covers the part played by the code breakers of the 2nd World War: the 'Enigma' machine and all that. There are also other mini museums/exhibits that cover such things as cinema projection technology, old toy trains and toy collections, and life in the early part of the 20th century. I particularly loved seeing the old toys and packaging materials! The mansion itself is an interesting example of varied architecture, having been built from different design influences. Shame we couldn't see more of the interior. (Pic is of us with the giant goose statue at the museum!)

We had had a little while back at Mark's place, then said our good-byes and made our way home by rail. We got home and had a lovely dinner while watching the latest monsters of the week (killer Do-dos this time!) in Episode 4 of "Primeval".

Today (Sunday) was rainy all day. Ugh. We did venture out for a few essential groceries and buy the film version of "Chicago" at HMV, which we watched over lunch. Fantastic!

poor Wall-E misses the latest episode of Lost!

I see that the CGI wizards at Pixar are developing a flick called "WALL-E", about a cute looking maintenance robot who tries to clean up a polluted future Earth. It looks like it could be wonderful. The robot looks sweet. Let's hope its not to maudlin and schmaltzy though. If its half as good as "Happy Feet", I'll be chuffed.

In the news today was the great BSkyB TV v Virgin Media fist-y-cuffs. Oh dear, I do hope this is sorted soon. At least one of my pals (hello Mandy) has suffered here because of two billionaires having an right ding-dong over cash. So at the moment, as far as I understand it, if you subscribe to Virgin Media cable tv you no longer get Sky One and Two, Sky Sports or Sky News etc…and you wont until they come to some arrangement (i.e. BSkyB TV get the dosh they want from Virgin - which looks unlikely to happen). Bugger. What a way to miss seeing "Lost" or "24"!

At the moment we only have the five basic network channels. I always new it was a good idea to invest the money into our DVD collection instead!! Still, I'm looking into getting Freeview soon, as its included in the awesome Panasonic DVD recorder I want to buy when it comes down a bit in price...its not in the top price range of Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, but those players costs the equivalent of the GDP of an small African nation, so a bit beyond my shopping basket yet!

a busy weekend

Hello all,

A few things to mention as way of an update....

We had a packed and generally fun weekend, for once doing something "social" three days running! On Friday evening, Julie and her fiancé Pat visited our place for dinner, as they were in the Midlands to attend a sci-fi convention in (of all places in the known galaxy) Hinckley! It was really nice to see them again and introduce Carla to Pat. The Mrs cooked a wonderful meal as usual, and they left on a mission to get their own "Munkeh" toy from ASDA! (having seen ours on top of the telly!)

Then on Saturday, we went into Leicester to meet up with my sister, Josie, to sample the delights of the city's vegetarian restaurants. We ended up in a place called 'East' and stuffed ourselves from the 'all you can eat' buffet - dangerous when I'm around. Then it was a mooch around the shops, Dominoes toy shop being the highlight for me. The 'throw the pigs around' game (can't remember what it is called) was awesome! Before Jo went to get her bus home, I remembered to hand over some old military toys (plastic tanks etc) to her to give to her husband -he is a collector. What was fun was also giving Jo her old diary from 1970, which I found in the attic the weekend before.

On Sunday we went down to the Coventry Odeon cinema to see the newly released film "Hot Fuzz" with our pal Mark, a fellow blogspot man. The film stars Simon Pegg etc from "Spaced" and "Shaun of the Dead". There are loads of reviews of this excellent flick all over the net, so no need to waste space here. Sort of "Midsomer Murders" meets "Die Hard", with West Country accents! Suffice to say that I found it very funny, and I thoroughly enjoyed the cracking action sequences at the end. Highly entertaining, if a little over-long. I loved the swan, BTW! Also recognised the main location (Wells, Somerset) as we had been there about 18months ago. We had some transport issues getting back though as we had to wait for AGES for our bus. :( oh well....

We've started to watch "Heroes", the new US TV show about some remarkable people who have a special super powers. I suppose you could say this is "X-men" without the bright costumes. Really good so far (three episodes in)….. We are both getting hooked as the show is developing nicely. Thanks to Mark G for recording the episodes for us from his cable!

Oh, I got us tickets to see "Chicago" (the musical) on Friday in London at the Cambridge Theatre. Can't wait, as I loved the film.

…..I really must update this more often!!

at home in Gorleston - sorting out toys!

As the title suggests, I did indeed go home to see my mum and dad at the weekend. Long journey over to the east coast but it was ok as I snoozed a lot of the way on the train. This was my usual "hello....your son is here to help!" type visit (so I did the shopping, cleaning etc) but I also did some 'attic' work, which meant going up into the dusty darkness at the top of the house and attempting to sort out another box of old toys/comics/junk. Some of it went to the charity shop, some to the paper recycler, and some will be up for sale soon, such as the Action Man and film related toys I decided I don't want anymore. (Superman plane for instance.) Quite fun when you get into it, this 'muckin out' lark. You find things from the past that bring back simple but nice memories. :) And of course, it was nice to see the parental units as well. I hope to go back soon with the Mrs...so she can help me sort out more junk. haha!

I got mum and dad a PG tips monkey, which are being sold as part of special packs of PG tips t-bags! They love him, and he now lives in the living room!

Watched episode 2 of "Primeval" on Saturday night and as it played, I compared notes about the episode with Carla via txting on our mobiles. I had to tell her what happened at the end as he mother phoned just as the giant time travelling millipede attacked our heroes. This is good, I like the sillyness of it all, For once ITV have produced something worth watching! I guess they are going for the Saturday evening "Doctor Who" market with this.

Carla and I are hoping to get tickets to see the musical "Chicago" in March. It would be fun to see Tony Hadley strutting his ex-Spandau Ballet self on stage, in the role of Billy Flynn.

Oh, I must type a big "good luck" wish to my pal Trudi, regarding her nearly completed Phd! :)

Survivors, Doctor Who etc

We've been watching some old BBC sci-fi tv recently. This all started with me borrowing every episode of "Survivors" (on videotape...yes TAPE!) from a work colleague just after Xmas. So back in January over a couple of weekends and a few nights we ploughed through all 38 shows. Brilliant stuff, we both absolutely loved it. We found series 1 and 2 really interesting and generally well written, and we were hooked. Series 3 goes a bit odd: I think the producers lost their way and its such a shame not to see more of Greg Preston, but at least they made Charles 'character more interesting to watch. Especially when he starts his ranting about the re-birth of society and then attacking bad guys by swinging out of trees with a swift ninja kick.

After completing those, I decided to buy some classic "Doctor Who" on DVD. The beeb have released some impressive sets of various episodes with new and rare extras. I picked up "Genesis of the Darleks" and "EarthShock", both top banana adventures ("Genesis" = Tom Baker as the Doctor, 1975, and "EarthShock" = Peter Davison as the Doctor, 1982.) Really great fun to watch! Love those wobbly sets.
"Genesis" is quite dark and violent actually, and marks the first appearance of Davros the Darlek creator. Great character, love his psychotic character. I have the say the production design was impressive considering the budget and time restrictions. "EarthShock" is great, as I love the Cybermen and Peter Davison is my favourite Doctor. Not sure what Beryl Reid is doing in this, though. I think I'll pick up some more episodes, such as "The Sontaran Experiment" when time and money allows. And then perhaps some "Blake's 7"!! haha!!

I read that the BBC is planning a 6-part remake of "Survivors". Let's hope its done properly and isn't naff or cheesey. In the meantime, I got series 1 on DVD to watch again later in the year.

The top TV news is that series 2 of the excellent "Life on Mars" starts on the beeb tomorrow evening! Fantastic. Hopefully we'll find out what's going on with this 1973 time travelling...and of course, lots of '70s cop show car chases and gritty "The Sweeney" style punch ups! Wonderful. :)

The 2007 Bafta awards....

.....are on BBC-1 at the moment. Lots of awards going to people who couldn't be asked to fly in from La-La land. I'm a bit tired so bedtime now, and I'll have to catch up with the rest of the winners tomorrow via the 'net. Glad "Happy Feet" got best animated film though, as I *loved* that. Mumble was wonderful! He actually looked like Elijah Wood. Clever CGI animators.

(Bafta site)

European animations......

I love "Pingu". Those little shows are so much fun! Well, it seems he is now the star of a music video!

Also, I finally found a link to some cute little animations that I saw on Dutch tv in the early '80's. Presenting "Loekie de Leeuw", star of Nederland 1 and 2 channels!

:)

First (past the?) post...

Hi to all out there in bloggy-land,

Just a couple of lines to get this thing going. I think I'll use it mainly for DVD and film reviews, but I'm sure I'll write about some other things....err...when I can remember or be bothered to update it! ;)

We watched "Earthquake" this afternoon...part of last weekend's mega DVD purchase at Nuneaton HMV. Not bad...quite entertaining actually. It has a similar structure to "The Towering Inferno", released in the same year - 1974. (Introduce the characters, then waste a third of the film showing their relationships and situations, then start the disaster!) Charlton Heston was his usual hero self, swaggering through the script with several major stars of the time (George Kennedy, Lorne Greene etc.) The film features some good action sequences and matte work, and yet another great score by good old Johnny Williams. However, there was one effect that was so * B A D * it was funny - the blood splattering in the lift as it crashed down the shaft. Its an *animation cell*! Red paint blobs!! Oh. Dear.
Talking about shaft....Richard Roundtree was in it as well, sporting a groovy stunt biker costume. Can yu dig it?

We watched the new ITV series called "Primeval" this evening. Dinosaurs and other such CGI creatures find their way to suburban England. Cue team of experts to investigate and sort it out. Again, quite fun to watch, although very derivative of many sci-fi and fantasy series...we had some "Jurassic Park" mixed with some "Stargate" and "X-files. Hope it develops well. Next week the preview showed them fighting giant bugs in the sewers! More b-movie rip offs then....
It was nice to see Ben Miller as the cynical Government man. He does the voice of the "PG tips monkey" (or "mung-keh" as he is known.) We both liked Rex, the cute little flying dino. I'm sure if the show is a hit, a toy Rex will be in the shops for Xmas!

Thankfully the annoying snowfall of Thursday and Friday seems to have gone now. All that remains on the square at the back of our flat is a very disheveled looking snow man...his carrot nose fell out as he melted!!

see ya'll soon! :)