Results tagged “movies”

• I noticed a lot of people on their bikes this morning. People who bike to work in Phoenix in the summer are either extremely dedicated or completely mad. For the sake of their co-workers, I really hope their offices have showers.

• Amazon's iPhone app is extremely well designed and easy to use. It even made me grin when I viewed my empty cart.

Did you catch that? My cart lives to serve me. I tried to get it to make me a cup of coffee but there appears to be a bug.

• I finally finished Dan Brown's, er, masterpiece last night. The story was entertaining. I'm going to leave it at that. Now I'm reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. Compared with Mr Brown's tome, this is a little more brain taxing. And tiny font alert! They really need to try and fit more words on a page. Good lord I'm going to need a magnifying glass.

• I used craigslist for the first time last night. My immediate thought was "ahh, my eyes" as the page partied like it was 1997. Not exactly pleasant to look at and not immediately intuitive to use. Or maybe I'm too stupid to figure it out?

• Netflix streaming was down last night. The horror of it. The site itself was slow, then it worked, then it was slow, then it was down. A quick check of twitter showed hundreds of "is netflix down?" and "no netflix wtf ttfn bbq?" type posts so I knew it wasn't just me. Got to love twitter for the real time info.

Movie Of The Year

We went to see Inception at the weekend. So very very good. I don't remember the last time I had that sitting on the edge of my seat feeling when watching a movie. As it finished everyone around us let out a little sigh, and there was clapping. Been a while since I've been in a cinema when people clapped at the end. I know some people say it wasn't that good. But what do they know? Go watch it forthwith. 10/10

Living In A Flyover State

As tour schedules for bands come out I often get excited especially if it's a band I haven't seen before. Unfortunately because of where I live, just because a band is on tour, doesn't mean I'll get to see them. For Arizona is one of those pesky flyover states that bands like to avoid. If you live in LA or New York you're golden. Arizona is all a bit hit & miss. Take Interpol for example. Their tour schedule came out today. Notice anything missing? Phoenix maybe? Grrr.

Being Brown

Unless otherwise shutdown by federal judge, SB1070 goes into effect at midnight tonight. If it does, it will be a very very sad day for Arizona indeed. Not our finest hour.

Update: parts of SB1070 have indeed been blocked.

• We went to see Despicable Me at the weekend. The cinema was absolutely jam packed and we were lucky to get seats together. It was really really good. Not Toy Story 3 good, but good nonetheless. Go see it, 8/10.

• While coming back from the bathroom at the cinema, The Sorcerer's Apprentice ended and a flood of people came out all looking happy. Loudy McShouterton announced "that was awesome" at the top of his lungs. Not sure I'm going to take his word on that, but he sure was enthusiastic.

• For the first time ever, I watched the British version of The Office last night. I've got to be completely honest, I didn't think it was that good. Perhaps if I'd seen the Gervais version first before getting hooked on the Steve Carrell American verison I would have liked it more. I dunno.

• What is it about Mini Coopers that makes them so bloody irresistible? Just for the record, I'd love one. So if anyone reading this would like to buy me one or contribute to the buy Kevin a Mini Cooper fund, just shoot me an email and we'll have a very pleasant chat.

On Friday night we went to see Knight And Day. My immediate reaction was something approaching meh. It wasn't that it was a bad movie. It just wasn't particularly good. I mean, the CGI action scenes were awfully well done, and the live action stunts were impressive. But take those out and you're left with, well, not very much really. Save your money, go see Toy Story 3 instead.

I suppose I could end this blog post right there. A nice one paragraph movie round up. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Grandad Spencer here dozed off halfway through the flim. I can come to two possible conclusions as to why that was. (1) the movie was actually worse than I thought and was in fact an actual snoozefest. Or (2), I'm getting old and have officially become my Dad - whose powers of cinema sleepery are stuff of legend. I think it might just be because I'm getting old.

I've noticed a couple of other little niggling signs that I'm not a spring chicken anymore. My short term memory is absolutely atrocious. I'll be in the shower and think to myself, did I wash my face already?. I'll be walking into my office building and think did I lock the car?. I'll be walking back from the local park and think did I bring the little one with me. Ok I'm totally kidding on that last one, I'd never walk back from the park.

So yeah, I'm going with age. And it absolutely wasn't all the pizza and beer we consumed before walking across the street to the cinema. No, that can't have been it at all.

After renewing my Netflix subscription last November, I have to say I'm a very happy customer indeed. Add DVDs to your queue, the nice postman brings them to your house, you watch them at your leisure, and then you pop them back in the mail. Rinse, repeat. What could be better than that?

I'll tell you. Instant gratification. While waiting for DVDs to arrive is fine most of the time, sometimes you just want something right away. Sometimes your inner tantrumy five year old stamps his foot and wants to get his way.

That's where Netflix instant streaming is wonderful. You browse their site, find the movies you want, click 'Play' and et voila, movie plays right there on your computer. Depending on our mood, we sometimes watch directly on the laptop but mostly just hook the mac up to the big screen TV and stream fullscreen. For the most part, we've had no issues whatsoever.

Well, that's not entirely true, there are a couple of things I've had a wee grumble about. I've noticed that a couple of movies have looked a teeny pixelated. It's not so bad as to be distracting and it doesn't happen all the time. Perhaps some were encoded differently than others? Perhaps it's just my eyes. Old man Spencer.

Then of course not all movies are available to stream. Which can be a little annoying. Like, for example, you're really in a Ghostbusters mood. You go to Netflix, see that Ghostbusters 2 is available to stream but, wait for it, not the first one. So WTF?

Still, the oh hey, look, we can stream that one, let's watch it right now factor is so much fun that any annoyances can be easily put up with. So yeah, very happy customer indeed.

Well, sometimes all you need is one word.

• One word movie review - Shrek Forever After: good.

• One word weather forecast: hot. (110° yo)

• One word concert announcement: Pixies. (hell yeah I said Pixies - woohoo)

• One word iPhone 4 reaction: drool.

• One word music review - How To Destroy Angels EP: amazing.

• One word describing 12 year old staying with us for the weekend: tiring.

• One word reaction to oil covered wildlife: anger.

I think I'm a little sad to see my local Hollywood Video closing down. They've had an "everything must go" sale for the past week or so and the staff, while putting on a brave face, are understandably somber.

With the Blockbuster closing down the street, there will be no video stores near me whatsoever. None. If you want instant gratification now, your options are to go and buy the movie or go find one of those Redbox machines.

I think it's a shame as I can remember going into my first video store back in England as a kid, seeing a copy of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and The Black Hole, and thinking it was the most amazing fantastic store ever.

"You mean we can borrow these, take them home, and watch them?"

Being able to wander around the store looking at all the titles was mesmerizing and just think that generations from this point will grow up never experiencing that. It's the same thing I felt when I found out that Circles was closing. An end of an era, the walk through the store chatting to people looking at titles era.

Of course, I'm part of the problem mind you. I'm a Netflix user...

• Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone. Or as @kapgar retweeted earlier...

...which made me giggle. So, as you do, I'll be having a beer for you all tonight to celebrate. You're welcome.

• Trent Reznor's new project, How To Destroy Angels posted their first track online yesterday: A Drowning. I love it, and I think you will to. Either that or you won't but that's what you get for listening to me ;-)

• Date Night one word movie review: disappointing.

• Cinema we watched movie in one word popcorn review: AWESOME.

• Our local NBA Basketball team, Phoenix Suns, are going to wear their 'Los Suns' jerseys tonight to protest Arizona's immigration law. Which is cool.

• The user interface for dropbox is really really nice. If you need to share files with anyone, I heartily recommend it. Free accounts max out at 2GB but it's perfect for sharing photos with family.

Good.

Ok, I suck at one word movie reviews because I can never leave it at one word. Actually I suck at movie reviews in general but there you go.

So, yeah, Alice In Wonderland. I liked it. I knew it wasn't a remake of the original so went into it with an open mind. Johnny Depp was really good as the Mad Hatter, as was Helena Bohnam Carter as The Red Queen.

We'd waited a while to see it so we could find out if it was going to be too scary for the little one. It wasn't and she absolutely loved it. Which to be honest, is worth the price of admission alone. Which, by the way is a fucking ripoff these days but that's a post for another day ;-)

Being rather late to the whole AIW party meant that we had the entire movie theater to ourselves. Which was nice - no loud talky douches, kids kicking the back of your seat or texting addicts.

So if you're one of the three people left on the planet who haven't seen it yet, I say you go. Or not, and just wait for it on DVD. But you'll like it regardless, or you won't, but that's what you get for listening to me.

Recommended. 8/10

I must admit, sunlight sparkling aside, I've quite liked the two Twilight movies so far. Haven't read the books mind you so I've no idea how they hold up. But as far as teenage angst vampire movies go, I was quite entertained thank you, and I guess that's all you can really ask for in a film right?

As we watched New Moon over the weekend I was really surprised at how much I was digging the music throughout. I can't remember the last time I've been tempted by a movie soundtrack. In fact, good lord, the last one I bought was probably The Lost Boys soundtrack and that seems like a whole lifetime ago now. But tempted I was, and it's now firmly in my iTunes library.

The whole album just works really well but to be honest, the Editors and Thom Yorke tracks are worth the price of the album alone. Hearing Damage by Thom Yorke is the stand out track on the album and has quickly become my fave song of the week. Thoroughly recommended. 8/10

Track listing:

Meet Me On The Equinox - Death Cab For Cutie
Friends - Band Of Skulls
Hearing Damage - Thom Yorke
Possibility - Lykke Li
A White Demon Love Song - The Killers
Satellite Heart - Anya Marina
I Belong To You - Muse
Roslyn - Bon Iver & St. Vincent
Done All Wrong - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Monsters - Hurricane Shells
The Violet Hour - Sea Wolf
Shooting The Moon - OK Go
Slow Life - Grizzly Bear
No Sound But The Wind - Editors
New Moon (The Meadow) - Alexandre Desplat

Excellent. Go watch it. Really. Go on, I'll wait.

Somewhat bleak. Funny. Bleak. Funny. Made me laugh. Bit bleak.

Clooney excellent. Kendrick excellent. I like Jason Reitman movies.

Jason Bateman has a beard. Clooney doesn't. Airports. Luggage.

Cinema popcorn is expensive. Never enough toilets when the movie ends. Very popular date movie.

Would watch again. 9/10

Well, I must really live in a cave as I had no idea another Ghostbusters movie was even being considered. Not only is it being considered, it's being made. With Ivan Reitman at the helm once again.

I loved the first two movies so much and I was even completely addicted to the Commodore 64 Ghostbusters game as a kid. That was the one when you pressed the spacebar on the home screen, the little C-64 speech engine happily shouted "Ghostbusters". Which at the time was the coolest thing ever invented.

I might, er, even have a couple of Ghostbusters t-shirts in my closet. Maybe. Or not. Anyway, the more exciting news, is that Reitman isn't the only one returning; all the old cast are back.

With this news it looks like what was once assumed to be Ghostbusters for a new generation is instead a reunion for the principals involved with the first two films. Reitman, of course, produced and directed both the 1984 original and it's 1989 sequel, so it's comforting to know that he is now returning over twenty years later for the new film. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Sigourney Weaver are all, barring some kind of cataclysmic, joy-hating turn of events, returning as well (I haven't seen confirmation on Ernie Hudson). And if that's not good enough news, even Rick Moranis is said to be willing to leave retirement to reprise his role as their accountant, Louis Tully!

Of course, as with all remakes & sequels of late, I'm muttering please don't suck, please don't suck.

Sometimes a short opening paragraph is all you need. So, in no particular order of preference, here are the movies I'm really looking forward to watching this year.

Tron Legacy

I mean, come on, it's a Tron movie, and Jeff Bridges is reprising his role as Flynn. Granted, that doesn't necessarily mean anything and the potential for suckery exists but I loved the original when I was a kid and I'll admit I'm excited about this one.

Inception

Leonardo DiCaprio in Christopher Nolan's hush hush 2010 release. Seems a bit sci-fi'y, gravity changey, and I'm intrigued enough to want to see this already. Any director whose resume includes The Dark Night is worth watching.

Alice In Wonderland

I know Johnny Depp already got his Willy Wonka out a few years back, and it wasn't very good. But this time when Johnny plays Willy Wonka The Mad Hatter, I'm hoping it will be better. Oh, and it's a Tim Burton flick to boot. Big fan.

Robin Hood

Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott back in the saddle again. Er, so to speak. Anyway, you couldn't do any worse than Kevin Costner's disasterpants effort last century. And who doesn't love them a good Robin Hood story eh?

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time

Loved loved loved the video games. The first POP game on the PS2 was nothing short of a masterpiece. Now, how well that translates to a movie remains to be seen. But I, for one, can't wait to find out.

Iron Man 2

Really, is there anyone with a heartbeat that doesn't want to see this? The first one was so very very good. How perfect was Robert Downey Jr eh? When you're looking forward to a movie this much, potential for disappointment is high, but it's Iron Man!

The A-Team

Yes, I said it. The A-Team. Watched every episode when I was a kid and I can't wait to see how they translate that to the big screen. There's an excellent cast involved, Liam Neeson as Hannibal, Bradley Cooper as Face, and Sharlto Copely as Murdock. If nothing else, I want to see if they've got better aim than they did back in the day. Just how many bullets did they fire and no one ever got hit?

Watch

I think I was one of the few people left on the plant who hadn't seen District 9 yet. And if you're also one of those few, I heartily recommend that you watch it forthwith. One of the best films I've seen in a long time and so well done. Innovative and gripping. One thing is for sure, I'll be on the lookout for anything with Neil Bloomkamp's name on it after this impressive debut.

Listen

You remember the death of my favorite gadget back in September. Since then I've tried to live an iPod-less existence. Which actually meant lugging my laptop around just so I could listen to music. Including some rather dodgy set the laptop on the front seat of the car and connect it to the car stereo shenanigans. (shudder).

Rejoice, for the circle of gadgets is now complete. I have a new trusty iPod. And it goes with me everywhere.

Read

I'm currently juggling two books. You know, as you do.

First up, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Some people love to lambaste Brown's writing style. And sure, he's not going to win any awards, but his books keep me entertained. And that's why I read books in the first place.

I'm also laughing and edumacating myself on the finer points of beer by reading The Naked Pint. A thoroughly entertaining read.

Smile

I love getting blast from the past photos. This one is a rather younger me posing (top row, third from the left) for the Cambridgeshire county Rubgy team many many moons ago. Nice facial expression Spencer.

One of my favorite films from my childhood has to be The Black Hole. I must have watched it about 50 times and even taped the audio onto cassette to listen to before I went to bed. I remember wishing I had my own V.I.N.CENT. Who didn't?

Today I'm simultaneously excited and nervous to read that a remake might be in the works. How exciting is that?

Joseph Kosinski and Sean Bailey, the director and producer of Disney's new "Tron: Legacy," and screenwriter Travis Beacham are teaming up for what is being labeled a reinvention of the 1979 sci-fi film, which at the time was the most expensive movie Disney had ever produced.

The details of the update are being kept secret, but it's known that the take will ground the story in the science of a black hole, much more so than in the original. The character Maximilian will return.

Good lord I can't wait to watch that. I'm already saying it out loud please don't suck, please don't suck.

I was beginning to think we were the only people on Earth to have not watched, er, Earth. So watch it we did last night.

I lost count of how many times we said "wow", "look at that", "that's amazing". In fact I think we probably hold the record for oooohhhhing and aaahhhhhing throughout the movie. I mean, let's be honest, that's a big effin' whale isn't it?

Beautiful camera work throughout. Truly amazing stuff. How they shot the waterfalls was nothing short of breathtaking. Sure you're not going to learn an awful lot of new things if you've watched a nature programme ever in your life, but the visuals alone are nothing short of spectacular.

With elephant babies losing their way, blinded by sand, and the polar bear dad dying of starvation on camera it seemed they ended on a down note. And then suddenly had to do a 'hey, I know that kind of sucked for the polar bear, but here's the other breathtaking stuff you just watched' right at the end to perk the audience up a bit. Seemed a little odd.

Bottom line, if you haven't watched it yet, go do so forthwith. 8/10

A couple of months ago I mentioned how much I suck at returning DVDs to the library on time. The library isn't exactly close by and sometimes I'm really not in the mood to drive over there. So I just put it down to that. Nope, distance not a factor it would seem.

You see we have a Hollywood Video store literally seconds from our house which, while awfully convenient for those times where instant gratification is required, didn't really solve the problem of returning the bloody movies on time. A fact I was reminded of after paying $28 in late fees last week. So it became quite obvious what needed to happen.

Now obviously, any sane person would just say, well yes the thing that needs to happen is that you need to just bloody well take the movies back on time. And you know what, they would be right. But this is me, and that's not how I roll at all. I don't take movies back on time. It's just not going to happen.

So, after an 18 month hiatus, I'm giving Netflix another whirl.

Meh.

This one was quite the head scratcher. It wasn't that the movie was bad because, actually, it wasn't bad at all. The story was a faithful adaptation. The animation was good. A little lifeless in parts but good nonetheless. The characters were spot on. In fact Jim Carrey did a really good job of playing Ebeneezer Scrooge and the three ghosts.

So what's not to like?

Hard to say really. Perhaps it's because over the years I must have watched almost every version of A Christmas Carol in existence. Many times over. So going to see yet another remake means it really has to do something special or different to stand out from the crowd. And, decent animation aside, it really didn't.

For me, the Patrick Stewart version is the standard by which all other Christmas Carols are judged. And this 2009 retelling didn't really come close. A good effort, but nothing special.

As an aside I was really quite surprised at how empty the theatre was for an opening weekend. We had the whole row to ourselves and there can't have been more than about 10 other people watching it. Maybe it's because it's still approaching 90° outside, perhaps a little difficult to get in the mood to watch a Christmas movie.

[Moozik: Front 242 - Don't Crash]

Watch

Even if you don't have kids, you could do far worse than go watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The animation is spectacular, has an amazing cast, a good storyline, and to top it off, it's actually quite amusing. We did take the little one and she actually sat through the entire movie. Which is as good a recommendation as you can get ;-)

Listen

After having left all things Pearl Jam behind somewhere around the No Code album, I was intrigued by the decent reviews their new album Backspacer was receiving. And I'm happy to announce that the album is actually rather good. I might have a longer review after I've listened to it some more but for now, go buy it and give it a listen. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[Moozik: Android Lust - Follower]

My excitement level was high, my curiosity piqued, a new Battlestar Galactica movie? Say it ain't so. Then I read the announcement and just rolled my eyes.

Battlestar Galactica is getting the big-screen treatment. Universal Pictures has confirmed blog speculation that Bryan Singer, director of Valkyrie, will take on directing and producing duties for a BSG movie. Glen Larson, who created original series back in 1978, will produce as well. The film is not expected to be a continuation of current popular television show that's running on the SyFy network but will be a complete re-imagining of the sci-fi lore that was invented by Larson back in the 70s.

Wait, what? Another re-imagining? Didn't we just do that with the series on the Sci-Fi channel? Couldn't we at least wait a few years before doing another re-imagining?

Dear Hollywood, please come up with some new ideas. Thanks. Kevin Spencer.