matgb | Entries tagged with films

K, trying to break the block, finally got around to setting up

fantastic_films, a blog community about the best of classic science fiction, fantasy and horror movies. The idea is to come up with ideas for showing at the annual Fantastic Films weekend, as the organiser is always open to new ideas.

Given that Ghostbusters is being shown on Fiver and I'm sitting through it in growing horror. I loved this film once. Am I being overly cynical?

Who you gonna call?

Crossposts: http://matgb.livejournal.com/437862.html

Seriously, 5 days after Bart and I wrote about it, her people have issued a statement saying 'Dragon Tattoo' Rumor Is 'Absolutely False'. This is because The Sun and Metro.co.uk ran it as a story yesterday

Tabloids, not only do they get the stories completely wrong, they get the stories wrong 5 days later than a pair of bloggers...

Crossposts: http://matgb.livejournal.com/435086.html

So, Emma "Hermione" Watson has had a rather drastic haircut. So far, so "girl gets haircut", and while she does look rather pretty with it, who cares? Quoth

bart_calender:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest cover

Emma Watson's hair

1. In London they are currently trying to cast the role of Lizbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

2. Emma Watson suddenly releases this picture of her "new look" to the media.

3. All of the stories about it somehow work in that she's finished shooting the last Harry Potter movie and is now out of her exclusive contract.

Coincidence?

Now, I've not, yet, read any of Larsson's books, but that picture does look ramarkably similar, n'est ce pas? While I was writing this, it appears MTV think along the same lines, although not quite sure she's ready to do an Aliens franchise reboot, what do we think?

ETA: 5 days later, Emma Watson officially denies interest in Dragon Tattoo role.

Crossposts: http://matgb.livejournal.com/434199.html

I knew, when I moved in with

miss_s_b, that I was moving in with a massive SF geek. What I didn't realise at the time was the extent that I was moving in with two SF geeks, one of whom was 4 and will be 6 next month.

Today, we took her to see her first film in the cinema. Given she's watched every single episode of TOS and has the Animated Series in her pile of favourite DVDs, the choice was obvious and we figured there was a good chance she'd enjoy it.

We were slightly worried, as it's certificate 12A, which means kids only with an adult, but I did look it up on the rating site and the reasons given made it look like it was fine for her. It was—she had to hold Mummy's hands a few times and give her a hug when Mummy got upset and emotional, but, y'know, what are 5-year-olds for if not to look after their big soppy mother?

I'll spare you the acclamatory review. The casting was excellent, the characters were played perfectly, the whole establishment of the parallel universe thing was cool, the science was suitable crap and full of PSB, they made up at least two impossible plot devices, and I didn't want to kill Simon Pegg. Nimoy was cool, the girl playing Uhura was gorgeous (#29), and there were lots of big bangs and cool explosions.

They didn't destroy the Golden Gate Bridge, but came close—perhaps an actual Trekkie can explain to me why they built the HQ of Star Fleet, the most important institution in the galaxy, on the wrong side of a major fault line?

Anyway—go see, and if the kids like SF, take 'em, just be prepared to hold their hands a few times.

Her review? As the credits rolled:

Is it over? I don't want it to be over.

On the way to the car:

Me: What was the best bit Miss Holly?
amazing_holly: All of it.

She was genuinely upset that there wasn't more to see. Wrath of Khan with her soon then (we've got two copies of the DVD after all).

ETA: Jennie's write up is here.

Yesterday, I did finish reading

autopope's Jennifer Morgue. It's a damn fine James Bond pastiche with casinos, yachts, a submersible car and Great Old Ones—I commend it to the ~~house~~readership.

By random chance, It was revealed today that my good friend

innerbrat, despite being a smart, educated Brit in her mid twenties, has never seen a Bond movie. Now, while I am tempted to complement her parents for managing to raise her and not once have ITV on on a bank holiday, I am completely and utterly amazed that she has managed to never see a Bond movie. Given that I am always aware of the potential problems caused by the small numbers fallacy, I thought I'd find out if she's actually less unusual than I think. Poll time:
[Poll #1296178]
See, I read the books mostly when I was a kid (I distinctly recall reading a fair few while on the caravan holiday in France, which dates it to 1986 just before I turned 12 and started grammar school). I can remember both enjoying reading them and being surprised at how different they were to the films—Bond got married in one, and was getting over her assassination in the next, there was distinct character development and Moneypenny was a bit part.

They were, without doubt, a product of their time, which is why the new films are even further away from them, even if elements (Bond's character) do seem closer than the earlier films. At times I consider going back to reread them, then decide life is too short and I've got far too many other books to read (like the rest of

autopope's books for a start). Anyone else read enough of them as an adult to have an opinion one way or t'other?

Jennie posted a slightly different poll rating the movies awhileback for those of you that are poll obsessed or merely didn't see it.

I think I'm beginning to recover from the exhaustion now. Had a simply marvellous (darling) weekend, involving meeting many people, consuming much alcohol and watching many many many films. On Friday alone I was sat in various cinemas for over 8^1/2 hours. So, for those interested, a summary review of the films I watched, in order of showing.

Jennie and Mat
Photo by karohemd

Day one: Friday 13th

( 12.00: Brain Dead—but not the one I expected )
( 14.15: Vampire Diary—including unexpected friends in the crowd )
( 16.00: Black Christmas—traditional college slasher pic )
( 18.15 An American Werewolf in London—so much better than I was expecting, and I knew it was good. )if like me you've never seen this film?
Go and watch it. Now.( really, just do it )
( 20.15: The Mist )

Aftermath

After that, we went to a local Moroccan restaurant for a meal (hint to the waiter—if you want a decent tip, try to avoid serving the chicken dish to the vegetarian and telling him it's cheese), then onto the Gasworks. I was at this stage utterly exhausted (films tend to tire me anyway, enclosed atmospheres, etc), but it was fun. We eventually rolled home in the early hours.

I'm posting this via the flickr blog this tool from

karohemd's picture of yself and

snapesbabe in front of

pmoodie's poster art, I'll do day two and three later.

One of the things that always bugs me online is different peoples reactions to plot 'spoilers' for media things—unpredictable and at times downright weird, as Nick Mamatas demonstrated last month. Now me, I tend to seek them out for shows I like—before the internet I had a subscription to SFX partially for the spoiler zone section, I loved reading about shows way in advance and knowing what would happen. But then I tend to rewatch stuff I like a lot anyway. So, inspired by this old poll at

nmg's, I thought I'd update it a bit.

Warning though, below the fold are some minor spoilers for recent films such as Iron Man, Harry Potter 5 and Spiderman, and also endings/character reveals for Hamlet, Sixth Sense, Citizen Kane, the Star Wars trilogy, Soylent Green and Fight Club. Nothing is revealed that isn't on this classic t-shirt but if you really are that averse, just scroll to the last question...

[Poll #1199471]

Obviously some things, like the end of a genuine mystery, are worth hiding if that's how it's written—knowing who did it never seemed to hurt my enjoyment of Columbo though, and a chunk of my reading is always history books where, y'know, I normally know the ending. It's not what happens that matters to me, it's how—I'm there for the ride, not the big splash at the bottom. You?

So I thought I'd post a poll on this auspicious date. Oh, and ask opinions on the new Indy film as I've sen mixed reviews from people that normally have similar opinions.
[Poll #1193737]
Also, am watching Sunshine on DVD. It's shit, unfortunately, I'd heard that people that liked Event Horizon liked it and others didn't, as I liked that film, I thought I'd give it a go. Ah well.

ETA: It's stripped out the link to John's Wedding speech from the anniversary bit, silly LJ.

Royce's Random Thoughts - Five Minute Iron Man

Spoilers, natch. SCENE: Many, many, many Testing the Suit scenes, ending with a pretty cool flight over Malibu, a crash through two levels of Tonyâ™s house, and an Oscar winning performance by Freddy the Fire Extinguishing Robot.

(tags: Humour films iron+man)

drjon: After a short stay in America, David returned to Florence...

Picture. Rather amusing

(tags: Humour)
Time Freezy HyperSlush(tm)

picture. Also funny

(tags: Humour)
DS is 'toxic drug' that poisons children, claims Daily Mail DS news, Pocket Gamer

Rosie Millard: worst parent ever to write an editorial?

(tags: Rosie+Millard Nintendo+DS)
Has the heaviest element been found? - New Scientist Space

I think I even understand the science of this one; thanks pTerry! Could a superheavy element â“ heavier than anything previously found in nature or made in the lab â“ exist naturally in the rocks of Earth?

(tags: science)
baseballchica03: Indiana Jones, woot!

Jen has a poll and some scans on the new film. Which I'm going to go see. Even if I go alone. It's not Bond, but it's still cool.

(tags: Indiana+Jones)
Games - About Dyson

Annoyingly addictive, the telescopes game especially

(tags: games flash+games)
Solar System Visualizer

Flash thing. Fun

(tags: flash cool maps planets astronomy science)
George Orwell, 'Politics and the English Language,' 1946

Justin linked to this earlier, and it's as true today as it was then.

(tags: politics writing language George+Orwell)
Milk and Cheese @ MySpace Dark Horse Presents

A reason to go to MySpace regularly? This are not good. Actually, it is good, it's damn good, Milk and Cheese are back online. This are very very good.

(tags: MySpace comics)

Independent dubs El Reg lesbian | The Register

Why I rarely buy the IndyTab anymore: The final para begins: "So the trial of lower-case lesbian vs upper-case Lesbian is going ahead. Now, a lesbian on-line magazine called The Register has put forward a solution..."

(tags: newspapers the+register the+independent)
Johann Hari: BNP votes are a cry of white working-class anguish - The Independent

Hari is one of those people that I either agree with strongly or disagree with vehemently. This analysis of WHY people voted BNP is better than many I've read, and accentuates the futility of the No Platform posturing.

(tags: politics Racism bnp voter+behaviour)
How Little Do Users Read? (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

Nielsen is awesome, again, and proves why formatting matters: On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.

(tags: web+design usability nielsen)
Passive Voice Is Redeemed For Web Headings (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

Mostly agree with this one to: Active voice is best for most Web content, but using passive voice can let you front-load important keywords in headings - This enhances scannability and effectiveness.

(tags: blogging usability writing)
Alertbox: Jakob Nielsen's Newsletter on Web Usability

Started reading Alertbox before I learnt the basics of HTML, it's definitely helped in my approach, especially for blogging - I break the rules more often than I follow them, but when I really want people to read you'll notice

(tags: blogging nielsen usability writing web+design)
Fight for your writes | Comment is free

Zoe's spot on here - if a newspaper copies your entries wholesale and reprints them then they need your permission and they ought to pay. Exerpts for critique are fine, but substantive content isn't

(tags: blogging copyright writing)
Anti-Social Networking - Full Frontal!

Some good observations on blogging - there's a reason I always write in my name, gives me control: In a Google-Indexed Universe where the lines between online and offline lives are blurred, you don't have to fill in all of the blanks.

(tags: blogging)
Marvel's machine in gear

I grew up on Marvel comics, from the stuff I bought in the store at Butlins aged 5 through to the Transformers when I was 10 to the X Men when I fell for Psylocke. But comics take loads of money. They're doing The Avengers. Properly. Woo Hoo!

(tags: marvel comics films the+avengers)
Hancock Trailer

We saw this before Iron Man and, well, we loved it. I await the actual release as Smith really can act if made to, and he can definitely do comedy. I even laughed at the bit with the whale. Um, sorry bout that.

(tags: Hancock Humour films Will+Smith)
Coalition for Choice

Site campaigning on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, going through parliament, because it has widespread implications for ordinary Britons. Next due on May 12th, more to follow when I've time, and a big reason to dislike Mad Nad

(tags: abortion freedom rights)
Shakesville: Take My Arm, My Love

What it's like being part of a gay couple, even in supposedly liberal, civilised areas, still. From Debi, comes with a challenge I doubt I could manage at all: Spend an entire week pretending that you're not a couple.

(tags: sexuality equality relationships)

It has come to my attention that a correction must be made to previous comments made about the above named film starring Simon Pegg and others. Comments made in the past such as I thought it was arse. All the good bits are in the trailers, Do not go to see Hot Fuzz and funny at times but not funny enough to make up for The Stupid, nor for the awful plot may have given the impression that this movie was a waste of celluloid unworthy of consideration. In fact, the only comments made that, on reflection, appears to be true, was some great set peice sequences and damn fine acting and a drunken night in front of the DVD might be worth it because that's what we did last night, and I loved it, laughed all the way through it. The first-person-shooter pastiche, the cop/buddy movie pisstakes and the overall quality of the cast really did make for a nice end to a great day.

So I must apologise to those of you who listened to my opinion and avoided the film—have a few drinks, and rent it to watch in good company. It's great fun. I must've been hungover or something.

Jennie and I got a free trial of LoveFilm through one of my agencies awhileback and are still using it, rather good service, happy to recommend it. You can register for a free trial with this link (I hope) and if you like it enough to sign up we get some free credit, which can't be bad, right?

Right then, only two left to go in the film quiz, so here are some hints.
Quote 2 is from an SF film that only 13% of you owned up to not having watched.
Quote 12 is by one of my favourite directors, you might guess which one by looking at the other films already guessed.

( Scorecard )

I suspect both

draich_goch and

baseballchica02 would've got more if they'd got in before I did the first point scoring. Jennie suggests next time I do it as a poll with text boxes, which might work well.

Oh OK then, I was going to do this when I first saw it, but I finally got my round tuit supply in.

Rules:
+ Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
+ Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
+ Post them here for everyone to guess.
+ Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
+ NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.

( 15 film quotes )There's at least one trick question, a few sillynesses, and one so obvious that I expect you all to get it.

In a little twist, comments screened, you have between now and whenever I get bored to answer as many as you can, points awarded for bragging rights, etc...

ETA: ( Results so far... )
ETA 2: Comments still going to be screened, answered ones (and therefore some hints) are unscreened. And no, 7 has nothing to do with any Terminator movie.
ETA 3: All done after I dropped a few hints.

OK, it's 2.30am and I'm wide awake thanks to a very ill 4-year-old, who's now off to the hospital with Mum and Granpa. So random amusements before I go to clear up.

Via a locked post from a normally great source of info, a rather off-the-wall webcomic, no ongoing plot, just many many silly vignettes, this one is class:
obersalzberg:: The home of Hitler, 1933--Doubt creeps in

And in good news for those of us still using the place, Facebook has woken up to the application spam problem and given many many ways to fix it. I reject almost all invites out of hand these days, I never did want to be a bloody vampire thankee muchly, and I definitely don't want to find out how gay I am. Of course, that half of the apps are made by data miners, spammers and arseholes makes me even more cautious, I'll stick to the ones that are actually useful. Or made by people I trust.

Meh, rambling. The rest of these I got from random people and don't appear to have saved who from, bit of a backlog. Long term readers will know I tend to like remakes, re-imaginings and new versions of old classics, so that they're redoing The Day the Earth Stood Still could be a good thing. Except they've cast Keanu as Klaatu. All aboard the failboat now? I don't recall ever seeing that boy act. Ah well. Indiana Jones IV: I need a pension is on its way, I'm looking forward to it, but it appears I need a companion, any volunteers? Jennie thinks, and I quote, that it's mysogonistic boy's own adventure bollocks, so is refusing, which is fair. Given that exactly the same can be said for Bond and she's a huge fan I don't really get it, and that it's boy's own adventure bollocks is surely the entire point? Anyway,

aaronace gives us a nice fan-mix of the theme tune with clips from all the films. I liked it anyway. This one's a bit late, but meh. Some random bloke's guide to a succesful relationship and not being that ex. Think I mostly agree, opinions? Last up, how to make money in an era where copies can be made for free.

I sleep now, I hope. G'night all.

Last night, Jennie and I went to see Aliens Vs Predator-Requiem, for a full review including a few minor spoilers, her review is here, and while I agree with her, my review is slightly more succint: it's shit. Pretty, and vaguely entertaining shit, and a bunch of you will love it for the gore and the fight scenes, but the plot was arse, the idea poorly implemented and the dénoument was piss poor. Fun, but arse.

In completely other unrelated,

harlotqueen took his camera for a walk around Exeter and has a nice little photo blog post with some cool pics of my old town. I've also never seen the weir that high, and I really like his cityscape by twilight.

Last Friday night, we went to see The Golden Compass, adaptation of Pullman's Northern Lights. It's a book I'd started reading, then stopped as I was enjoying it but had many other books on the go at the same time and wanted to watch the film fresh--I find that if I've recently read a book, I watch the film in "compare" mode, and I've long held that films should be different from the book, else what's the actual point, films are a different medium and thus require different narrative devices to get the same characters and plot across. But in this case, I think my holding off was a waste of time. Jennie reviewed it Saturday, and while I'm not going to review it myself, this review from

absinthecity pretty much says what I would:

What this film is, is a series of 'set pieces' taken from the book - the fight scenes, the escape scenes, the meeting scenes - all stuck together with very little in the form of narrative 'glue'. As you'd imagine they are beautifully rendered, with some genuinely well-advised use of CGI, and the acting is first class. But the emotional element...was almost completely absent.

I'll now be putting the trilogy back on the pile, and if they do make films two and three, I'll likely go see, but not because I expect it to be any good. But just to, y'know, take in the scenery. Especially the Eva Miles shaped bits. As for protestations that the boycott worked? Bollox, it's failed at the box office because it's crap, not because the Catholic League decided to not like it.

( The danger of fear, the value of freedom )
Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up King and Parliament.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
A penny loaf to feed the Pope
A farthing o' cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah hoorah!

Of course, the anti-catholic/anti-popery vitriol is a little, well, disturbing by todays tastes (to say the least), but the fear of tyranny was well founded, if not actually as linked to catholicism as propagandists led the populace to believe. England's never really supported tyrants for too long, and we do tend to like a good party...
( The End of the Parliament? )

So, um, yeah. Did I mention that while I was oop North we went to see that Harry Potter film on the Bradford IMAX? No? Ah well. SB wrote her review so I thought I'd do a quick summary of good and bad bits before the link below:

( Mat's review of HP:OOTP )

There, that's a fairly good review I think. Anyway, for those that haven't seen it, don't want to see it, or simply fancy a giggle,

waka_laka has seen it, and gives a reasonable summary of the main points of plot:

During filming

Emma Watson: *reading the script* Do I FINALLY get a potentially funny line?!
Rupert Grint: Are you sure you can handle it? Can you handle the responsibility that comes with it? You don't want to let me do it?
Emma Watson: Oh RUPERTALD. I can of COURSE do this line expertly for I am EMMA WATSON and I am HERMIONE!
Rupert Grint: *shuffles off back to his ice cream van*

Back to the film -

Hermione: Allow me to introduce you to this female homosapien, Loony Lun- I mean, Luna Lovegood!
Audience: ...
Hermione: ...
Tumbleweed: *blows past*
Audience: Yeah that wasn't funny in the slightest.
Hermione: *turns away and looks embarrassed*
Everyone else in the world: *is embarrassed for her*
Luna: *says ANYTHING and saves the scene entirely*

Go read.

Oh yeah, loads of comments to my last entry, and I'm feeling groggy and not thinking straight, but people seem quite happy discussing it between themselves so, well, I promise to re-read when the Lemsip is working better.

So, last week while she was down, we had one of those "what DVDs to watch" discussions on our one (semi-planned) evening in. It turned out that

snapesbabe hadn't seen Firefly. At all. Now it appears that

tinuvielberen hasn't seen it either (but has now seen the light). This bothered me, y'see, when I first got an LJ, it seemed everyone was a fan, there were Firefly icons everywhere, being a fan seemed like something akin to a cultural norm. Now, of course, I know that's not true, but it sure seemed that way, and for two self-confessed SF fans to have not seen it? Weird. So, poll time:
[Poll #1030452]
Because, y'know, Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, does a proper Sci-Fi series, and Murdoch's Fox network messes him around, but the DVD sales are so good that Universal spring for a mid-budget film anyway? Plus, it's funny. Oh, and one of the opening lines is We're not going to die, y'know why? Because we're so very pretty... Which, y'know, is mostly true. So, via Amazon (UK, don't have the US search installed) the series is £15, the film is only £5.

Oh, and after a bit of pestering, here be a link to my Wish List, which I've started updating again; I used to use it as a handy "to buy" list, but then, y'know, finances collapsed. I guess it makes sense to post it, I'll be 33 in less than five weeks. Ouch.

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Mat Bowles

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Mat Bowles

Dreaming in Digital

Entries tagged with films

Fantastic Films--what're your favourite classics?

Emma Watson officially denies interest in Dragon Tattoo role

Emma Watson signals desire to get tattoo...

Star Trek and the Small Person

Casinos, yachts, a submersible car and Great Old Ones

Fantastic Films festival at the Media Museum

Day one: Friday 13th

Aftermath

The politics of online spoilers

It's nearly the end of May 25th

Linkspam for 12-5-2008

Linkspam for 9-5-2008

Linkspam for 7-5-2008

Hot Fuzz—an apology

Film quiz redux

Guess the film in 15 quotes

Random links collection, with added Hitler goodness

Aliens, Predators and pictures of Exeter

The Golden Compass

Remember, remember the Fifth of November

So, that HP film then...

So then, have you watched Firefly?