Movies I am looking forward to
Ocean’s Thirteen. woohoo!! I loved Eleven, thought Twelve was a bit average although it had a brilliant soundtrack – it let itself down – and, from the ad I just saw, it looks like Thirteen is going to go back to being smart-ass, sassy and very clever. I really hope so.
Die Hard 4.0. Oh. My. Goodness. A fourth?! Is Bruce Willis out of money? Hopefully, this will learn the lesson of Lethal Weapon 4, and be aware of the fact that its protagonist is too old for this sort of shit, and make jokes about that. But, seriously – more Die Hard?! It can only be good!!
Transformers. Hurry up already.
Shrek the Third. J hasn’t even seen the first yet. Bad; very bad. I really, really hope it’s as good as the first two… this is the sort of series that could very easily do a belly flop, though.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Looks very dark and very good. And I can’t wait for the last one to get published, so I can hurry up and read them….
Not Bridge to Terebithia. Boo hiss. Travesty of a marvellous book. More boos and hisses.
Not Nancy Drew, either. Gosh they were bad – although I loved them as a teenager (although Trixie Belden was better…). I read one at age 19 or so and just laughed myself silly. And then just recently I found out that they were syndicated – not written by the same person! (And same deal for Babysitters’ Club!). Oh the shock, the horror.
Ain’t no faffin’ around for my boy
So, on Monday, I was stuck on the Calder Fwy for an hour and a half because (it turned out) the alternator died. Fortunately, I realised something was going wrong with it, so I managed to pull off the road and not be a prime target for someone barrelling alon at 110kph.
This was after a weekend of discussion with my mother about how the poor old Subie was getting a bit old and J was looking online at car ads, teasing me that a van would be a good idea.
We bought a new (used) car on Friday. Fortunately for me, J recognised reality – that there is no way I’ll drive some monster to school – so it’s another Subaru.
See what I mean about no stuffing around?
Pirates Mk 3
I enjoyed it. I really, really did. Despite the high school kids in front of us who thought it was a good idea to send texts in the middle of a film… texting I don’t mind, but the bright screen in the corner of my eye really bugged me.
It’s very different from the first. While the first was a jolly romp aimed at kids, with some funny lines and so on thrown in for their parents, this one is aimed much more at adults, I think. It’s still a jolly romp, but there’s not going to be that many 12 year olds who will be entirely happy at sitting through 3 hours, I would have thought. And Jack Sparrow in Davy Jones’ locker was pretty wacky even for me; I think someone in their early teens would probably just be bored by it.
All that said, it is still a jolly romp. Geoffrey Rush is magnificent – Barbossa just keeps getting more interesting (and we find out his first name!). Orlanda Bloom – well, Will gets more complex and devious, and a bit more angsty (and I don’t usually much like PrettyBoys, but gosh he’s pretty). Keira Knightley continued to mostly annoy me, but Elizabeth did have some interesting lines – and nicely choreographed fight scenes, too. Yun Fat-Chow was brilliant as Sao Feng; a bit stereotyped as Bad Chinese Dude, but then I guess many of the other characters are ‘typed, too. Finally, finally, after all the promises and rumours, Keith Richards does indeed make an appearance – complete with guitar – and very cool he is too. And Johnny Depp… well, mostly he was brilliant, as you’d expect. Sadly, though, there were times where I was just a little bored by him. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m just used to Jack Sparrow now, so it’s not new and outrageous, or if they really have toned him down a bit. Of course, he was still entertaining and fun, but I felt it lacked a little something. Maybe I can put it down to the exigencies of having been in DJ’s Locker.
As for the plot… sometimes it really annoys me when stories have that “Ta da! Something we never mentioned nor even hinted at before is now going to be crucial!” moment. And Pirates 3 has that. (Don’t worry, I don’t intend to spoil it… I haven’t seen any ads for the movie, so I have no idea what’s been revealed or hinted at there.) But I do understand that sometimes a big revelation is the easiest way to add drama and interest etc to a story, so people take that option. I quite liked the bizarro thing they added to the movie – not sure it entirely fit, but it was entertaining. And the conclusion… well. Completely unexpected, which in itself was completely unexpected.
Go see it. It’s good.
Randomly Yours, Alex 