Musings - Book within a film...

Do you ever watch a film and they mention another film or a book but then when you hunt for it you can't find? And you end up disappointed?

Well I love Field of Dreams and they state that a certain book had an impact on them...

'The Boat Rocker' by Terence Mann.

Well this week I googled that book and look what I found!!!!


It's a real book of philosophical poems by a man who might not be thee Mann but it's near enough!

Am I a geek to find that really exciting? And an even bigger geek because I bought it? :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Review - Batman Part 3...

I went to see ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ because Tom Hardy was in it.

I’m honest at least! I was conscious that his face would be covered the whole 165 minutes and bar about three seconds it was; but I am a die Hardy fan (get it?) and let’s face it… his face might have been hidden but those muscles were not.

And you know what? He was out done. I went for Tom but was bowled over by Joseph. But before I wax lyrical about young JGL…



As an ending to the trilogy this film was immense. I never get to use that word on a day to day basis but in a one word summary that is it… IMMENSE!

The score, the visual effects, the acting (minus Christian Bale – wooden as ever), Anne’s bottom and the twists of the story kept you so entertained that the three hours (including trailers; I quite fancy going to see ‘Lincoln’) flew by. I love my action and I was not disappointed. I was not expecting such a poignant ending either but it worked. The whole thing worked and without revealing any spoilers I have to demand / scream / chant… that was so a hint at another movie!!!!

So, Joseph Gordon-Levitt… I know him of old; at university we had a poster of him up in our bathroom. His wee self would grin at you the whole time you were in there. He saw some sights, owes all our fathers a few goats. And he grow up FINE! And he can act! The last thing I saw him in was ‘500 Days of Summer’ which was fantastic though it did not offer him up as Man of The Week potential. In TDNR he was phenomenal (see another of those big out of the norm words), intense, emotional, charming, buffer than usual and he utterly stole any scene he was in.

He definitely has MOTW contender status.

Overall I would highly recommend the film; even if you haven’t seen the first two you can always back track when you get home.

Score, hmm… 8/10. A little more facial offering from Tom might have gained those extra points. Ha ha. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Photo - Gereing up...

You may have noticed my spelling mistake in the title above... It's intentional!

You see, today in the post, Richard arrived in his glorious white suit. Richard Gere that is (get it) and the film being An Officer and a Gentleman.


My friend had never seen it, and despite us believing otherwise, neither me nor my Mother owned it. So I bought it. For £3.65.

I can't wait to watch it! The eighties had the best films. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

MOTW - The Boy's Hardy...

As you know I am a fan of all things movie, all things beefy and all actors that I can class as my Man of The Week.

Well, for the last few weeks my MOTW has gained that status by a narrow margin, that is there have been several contenders but non have really made a fantastic impact. These men have not earned the glory but more stumbled upon it because nothing greater has come along.

Yesterday afternoon, lazy Sunday... I witnessed the greatness that so far much of 2012 had been lacking.

Yesterday I watched 'Warrior'.

Yesterday a tiny bit of me fell in love with Tom Hardy.





Not only is he one of the most versatile actors around at the moment but he is home British grown and absolutely mesmerising to watch. His character in the film was conflicted, violent yet vulnerable and Tom played him with such majestic force that it was hard to take your eyes from him when ever he appeared on screen.

Brains and brawn in a package of outstanding talent; so far he is MOTW without a doubt.

Let's just hope he can hold on until Saturday when the final decision has to be made.

What do you think, is he worthy? :) xx

Posted while the husband tries to get the offspring to sleep...

Musings - We are addicted me thinks...

Me and (now) the husband are big film fans. We love all genres and a wide variety of actors and can honestly say that it is the experience of watching a film rather than the film itself that we often look forward to. Our DVD collection hints widely that we are addicted...

Across the top of the TV there are approximately 70 DVDs

and over 100 down the right hand side.

We have two crates holding approximately 300 DVDs in each.

These are our TV box sets ranging from Angel and Buffy to The shield.

But you might be thinking that everyone can have a collection but do you actually watch the films?

Well... this week alone we have watched:

- Fair game

- No Strings Attached

- I am Number 4

- True Grit

- Paul

- Tangled

- Saving Private Ryan

- Gnomeo and Juliet

- X Men: First Class (Cinema)

- The Day The Earth Stood Still

- A Cinderella Story

- Shooter

- How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days

- Finding Forrester

- Labyrinth

And I have still had time to indulge my love of E4, raise my daughter, be a house wife and read two and a half books. Impressed? Ha ha. :) xx

Musings - Adaptations...

I have been inspired this week by a modern day adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.

It is my favourite fairy tale and I try to read and watch as many different versions of it as I can. As I said, this week I was inspired and that inspiration came in the form of 'Beastly' by Alex Flinn. Not only was I entertained by the modern plot but the characters were both easy to like and by the end of the book I felt that I knew who they were and what they had achieved.

Not able to put it down I read all 300 pages on Friday which had been a personal goal as I was to see the movie version of the book at the cinema the day after. While the film was not an exact copy I was able to appreciate that the changes they had made were an improvement to transfer the story from page to screen.

I will not go into detail as, this being a well known tale, I do not want to spoil the magic of Flinn's adaptation. But I will say please read the book and make sure that by cinema or DVD you make sure that you set eyes on Alex Pettyfer in the staring role. I only hope he did the author proud.

:) xx

Diary - July 30th to August 5th 2010

Diary – 30th July to 5th August

This week has been about three things…
1. Pitying the fools who don’t go to see The A Team at their local cinema,
2. Stocking up at the Library in anticipation of my days off,
3. Trying to survive without the presence of my husband for the first time in 8 years!

For weeks we have been tempted by the adverts; every time we have been to the cinema we have been presented with the Orange collaboration of tomfoolery but finally on Friday night… we saw ‘The A Team’. Doo dee doo doo, doo doo doo. (You get the drift). And it was fantastic. Everything about it stayed true to the original television series but at the same time it had the ability to modernise and even laugh at itself. The amount of well placed and dry humoured slapstick meant that everyone stayed entertained throughout. The castings were well placed as was the always welcome addition of Brian Bloom, an actor I have followed since my early teens. This is definitely a film to see on the big screen but be warned, it’s loud! :)

Saturday was spent in town. Two hours in the library choosing books to read on my break and then dress shopping for my friend. While wandering around, I overheard a conversation in WHSmiths regarding CDs and how this store no longer stock them. Halifax officially has no music shops other than those selling second hand copies. It’s depressing. Actually its more depressing that we don’t have a book shop but if I was to start listing all the things we don’t have this would turn out to be the longest blog diary in history.

Tuesday morning, through to late Thursday, Kieran was away down south with his work. This meant that it was me and Rohan all to ourselves. It’s the first time in 8 years of living here that I have spent such an amount of time in the house without adult supervision. It was strange, I missed him loads, I filled my time to the hilt in an effort to make the time fly. It failed; I just ended up being super efficient. It’s odd that I can’t settle on my own anymore; damn husband getting me used to him being around. Guess I will have to keep him. Over these days I was also alone in the office at work which meant that I felt I hadn’t talked to anyone for weeks. I felt silent but I know all the words are stored up somewhere waiting to get out. We did okay though, the pooch and I. We blogged, we cooked, we watched old re-runs of She-Ra and even learnt how to make an Origami Lotus Flower out of a square of flexible (after much trial and error) paper. It was fun. Without the crazy influence of her Daddy, Rohan was much calmer and less ‘Argggggggghhhhhhh’. Thank heaven; I don’t think I could have coped with a Border Terroriser on my own, ha ha.

Also, out of vegetating and trying to make the time fly there have also been an abundance of films watched in the Redmond house this week:
- She’s Out of My League (8/10)
- Inglorious Basterds. (2/10)
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (6/10)
- Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightening Thief (7/10)
- It’s Complicated (7/10)
- Pandorum (6/10)
- Public Enemies (4/10)
- Almost Famous (8/10)
- Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (7/10)
- Because I Said So (7/10)
- 10 Things I Hate About You (6/10)

Next week… I’m on holiday, whoop whoop… well from work anyway. I just need the relaxation time.

Diary - July 23rd to 29th 2010

Diary – 23rd to 29th July

This week has been about three things…
1. Bizarre conversations that have left me shrugging,
2. Pondering over the fact that every dream or aspiration I have is getting further and further away,
3. Loving a film… up until the last ten minutes when it was ruined.

Friday was the first of many days over the summer when I will be the only staff member who is manning the office. It will happen within both the departments that I work for but strangely I am looking for to the quiet and lack of drama. I found I was able to concentrate on the jobs I had that needed no distraction, though by the afternoon I must admit that I was getting a little sick of the silence. So I logged on to http://www.we7.com/ and listened to some back albums of Jason Mraz, Lady Antebellum and the latest from Plan B. I now have some definite ideas for my birthday. :)

The weekend saw me searching in the town centre for an 18th birthday present for our niece. It took me a while and a lot of different shops but I finally decided to get a variety of amusingly random gifts rather than a typical traditional piece of jewellery or what not. She’ll love them and if she doesn’t I’ll have them back because I do! I can’t tell you what they are in case she happens upon this blog but once Monday is over I will fill you all in.

The 25th was my friend’s birthday so we had a girl’s day. We had Sunday lunch in the Toby Pub and Carvery where we were provided with Yorkshire Puddings the size of a child’s head. It was a delicious lunch and she liked the presents that I had gotten her. We then took the Leeds Road and headed to the Showcase Cinema to watch the newly released ‘The Rebound’ starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Justin Bartha. It was extremely funny and flowed really well… up until the last ten minutes when it seemed to have no where to go so decided to baffled the audience with a montage of travel clips, to show time passing, before ending with a stilted awkward conversation in a restaurant supposedly five years later. We left disappointed when for most of the film we were enjoying ourselves. Tut.

Monday was my day off, another random day to use up my holiday hours, and I spent it at home doing more painting with my Mother. We were doing the white gloss which ended up everywhere courtesy of the lovely Rohan, ha ha. She does love to help out. The day, as expected, went very fast but knowing that I had accomplished something during the day rather than just sitting on my ass meant that I didn’t mind. Enough time for relaxing when I am off for the entire week; which will be happening in five working days time. I can’t wait. I am starting a list of stuff that I want to do which involves the sofa and a giant bag of Minstrels.

The rest of the week, as usual, was spent going to work and coming home wiped out. Everything drains me at the moment but I know that it is more psychological than physical. I did manage to stay awake long enough to watch ‘The Book of Eli’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Both were surprisingly entertaining in completely opposite ways. I would definitely recommend either, though Johnny Depp is once again a little too sinister for a children’s adaptation.

Next week… I’ll be ‘loving it when a plan comes together’.

Musings - Mixing your Shakespeare...

I saw a film yesterday with a Romeo and Juilet theme which quoted Hamlet and as it was a beautiful quote at a great moment I will share it...

Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love.

Hamlet
Act II, Scene II

Diary - April 30th to May 6th 2010

Diary – 30th Apr to 6th May

This week has been about three things…
1. Being chewed, spat and stomped on – resulting in a bad back,
2. Working the entire three day weekend,
3. Whoop whoop getting my exams results.

People find it really easy to be evil to me. I don’t know why. Okay it’s most likely because I am easy going and generally even tempered and they figure that I will just shrug my shoulders and let them get away with it. Mostly I do, usually because I don’t care enough to bother. Friday I was spoken to and treated so appallingly by someone senior to me that I was left reeling for days. The conclusion is that I am no longer going to be a push over, a ranting board or a vent for anger brought on by someone else. I am going to say, ‘Oi, Back Off!’ and point a finger as I speak. Yeah! Strength here I come. Admittedly if it is the same senior person mentioned above I might still be quaking so don’t expect too much Boudicca yet.

As a, no doubt, result of all the tension of Friday I developed a bad back. The pain and stiffness was akin to having a pole stuck up my arse. Sitting made me look ninety, as did rising, and sleeping was a lack lustre affair as every time I turned I woke in agony. In the end I got out the Radox and soaked for an hour in the bath. Getting in and out was not a pretty or speedy mission but it worked wonders. It also gave me time to cultivate a steamy shower scene for two characters I am working on. It took me about five days to feel like I could stand for more that fifteen minutes without personifying the Tin Man but I am in working order again. Phew. I suppose I didn’t really need to tell you my bad back story but this week has been so sloooooow I needed some filler.

In fact this week has just been so ridiculously dull I am going to bullet it:
- Had lunch with a friend who moaned for the whole time we were together
- I went to Ikea with the folks so they could get some plates
- I vegetated while working out retention and achievement statistics
- I got a new boss to replace the other new boss that lasted three days (bets are on)
- Watched Avatar
- Got up at four on Tuesday to take the husband to work
- Watched Blind Dating with Chris Pine
- I did my presentation again. HE was there, looking right at me, I wish I could read his mind. Grrr.
- Looked for a new living room carpet
- Ate too much crap

I did get my exam results back from last week and I passed with flying colours. Distinction in fact. Next exam on the 13th of May but as this is open book I am not as stressed about it.

And that’s it. I did warn you.

Next week.,, I go to a Tattoo Convention about which I am slightly scared.

Review - Clash of the Titans (2010)

Last night I took my husband out on a date. We don’t go on dates that often but when we do I have usually dragged him to Ikea, the local Chinese Buffet place or like last night… to the flicks.

My husband, where ever I take him, requires bribes. With Ikea it’s the meat balls, Shopping means a trip to HMV and our local cinema sees him loaded with popcorn and the promise of a boys film in the near future.

Last night was the promised boys flick… last night was Clash of the Titans.

Now I vaguely remember the original, not necessarily from 1981 but from the countless reruns played throughout my twenty-nine years. I prefer Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger or Jason and his Argonauts better but alas it was Perseus’ tale remade circa 2010.

Okay, so I admit that the advert with all those men in action… I was persuaded.

It was just after 8:30pm when we entered Screen Six with our giant salted popcorn, our giant fizzy drink, share bag of chocolate sweets and our 3D glasses. Since seeing Avatar in 3D Kieran gets all excited at the idea of an evening as Roy Orbison; me, I just get to look foolish with the big black goggles on over my prescription specs.

The film itself was to be a cast of all stars. Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, good old Pete Postlethwaite and Sam Worthington completing his hat trick. A Terminator, A Blue Alien and a Demi-God – all in the space of two years is not bad going at all. He is due a Romantic Comedy now, me thinks.

Visually the next two hours were fantastic. Liam and Ralph as the brothers Zeus and Hades were compelling for their entire stint on screen. The monsters, while not as entertaining as the Harryhausen verity were seamless and worthy of their Mythology. The storyline of Perseus and his quest to decapitate the head of Medusa and wave it at the Kracken was well plotted for a modern audience; though in places it felt a little rushed with our favourite parts from the original pushed aside or left out altogether.

The costumes and make up set the scene, again it was Zeus and Hades who stole the show visually. Each character, however minor, was thought out and well rounded. Perseus, for me, needed more depth and inspiration. Other than wanting Sam Worthington’s lovely face to prevail in the end I didn’t feel as strong as a connection as I did to the other characters. Perhaps it was the face that distracted me? Perhaps I was biased to his stellar performance in Avatar?

My overall verdict of the film?

Good Points:
- Visually exciting
- All star cast
- Entertaining adaptation of a classic tale

Bad Points:
- Perseus? Oh him.
- Fast pace that little too speedy
- 3D felt a waste of the extra cash.

I recommend this film for a viewing, well worth seeing on the big screen before simply waiting for the DVD. Even if you haven’t seen the original, or maybe more because you haven’t, Clash of the Titans (2010) is an excellent instalment on the list of Blockbusters to watch this year.

The big question from last night is did Kieran like it?
7/10 was his verdict though he was most upset that the little Golden Owl only got a 10 second cameo as apposed to its previous starring role.

Men!

Diary - February 12th to 18th 2010

Diary – Feb 12th to 18th

This week has been about three things…
1. Finding blue people strangely attractive
2. A family do and the memories it conjured
3. The library and its Revelations

We went to see Avatar for Valentine’s Day. Well, actually we went on Friday the 12th as I had booked a day off but the romance was there hidden in the cheesy nachos and the giant sized Pepsi Max. The film was amazing. It took me a while to get used to the 3D glasses but once my seasickness had disappeared I was in awe. Sam Worthington, while not instantly heartthrob material, was interesting and well worth the watch. His character portrayal was real and three dimensional (ha ha) even when he was a blue alien with a long tail and tiny loin cloth. What struck me about the film was that, despite the science and the destruction of the planet, it was actually very romantic. Well done Mr Cameron… again.

I spent some time in the library this week. I had my laptop out with its fast decreasing battery, my Creative Zen whispering The Fray in my ears and my chosen books surrounding me. I am currently working on a project about Angels. Hence, I was surrounded with Bibles, books about Saints and even a Guide to Channelling your hidden Guardian. I got some funny looks but at least I was able to stop myself from reading out loud from Revelations. I am pleased to note that my knowledge of The Seals is no longer limited to the time I spend watching Supernatural.

There was also a family do. My Uncle’s something birthday. There were nibbles and music, random people who looked vaguely familiar from shindigs past and music from the 50s which always comes hand in hand with these types of occasions. It was fun. We all swapped tattoo stories, my mother got giddy and we sang a little.

“Keep your mind on your driving, keep your hands on the wheel,
and keep your beady eyes on the road ahead. Cos we’re having fun,
sitting in the back seat, kissing and a hugging with Fred.”

“Oh Freddie!”

Next week… I finally get to see George!