matgb | Entries tagged with reviews

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.

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?

Well, I tried setting up the deli.icio.us cross poster (again), but it keeps crashing on me, so here's my linkspam of the last day or so redone with stripped html—sorry about some of the weirdness.

New Statesman - Richard Reeves

Wrote the bio of JS Mill I'm currently reading, which means I like him already. Very interesting set of columns, well worth looking over, even if they are in Staggers.

to columnists media journalists

Edible Dirt,—Easter Sunday, Jesus wakes up

Not original, probably offensive to those that care, rather funny

to easter jesus funny webcomics

10 Unfortunate Facts of Life | fcking cnts

This amused, it's about time I cleared it from my linklog and actually posted it somewhere

to funny life sex ...

theweaselking: Abortion discussion

Key quote from comments: "It's a hard enough choice without having to make it in an alley. I'll always be pro choice, period."

to abortion freedom rights

Why I am an abortion doctor

Read this: 'I can take a woman, in the biggest trouble she has ever experienced in her life, and by performing a five-minute operation, in comfort and dignity, I can give her back her life' Safe, legal, rare, why is there still a controversy?

to abortion politics rights freedom ...

How to Pack Up & Leave LiveJournal (A Tutorial) (://URLFAN)

Not a bad little how-to. Not how I'd do it specifically, I've already backed up everything including comments to a Wordpress install, but still not bad.

to livejournal blogging lj2wordpress ...

drjon: The LJ Strike (which is today)

Containts a nice little history of previous fusses on the site, with a balanced overview and points out that, well, we've won already

to livejournal blogging boycotts

Pharyngula: EXPELLED!

Creationists premiere dodgy movie near home of famous science blogger, specifically ban him from viewing, but not his family or his guest. This is a really dumb move...

to atheism Creationism Evolution science richard+dawkins

It's Just a Game... - Review: The Bible

Funny: "Summary: A confused film, half effects laden, no-brain blockbuster, half cinema-verite talking-heads, lacking a conclusion or climax to justify the budget. Poor plotting and characterisation lead the audience to sympathise with the villains rather

to religion funny

FT.com | The Undercover Economist | Dear Economist: How can I create an incentive scheme to keep our house clean?

Sounds familiar: "My fiancee is moving in with me. We’ve lived together before, and we hate housework. Before, we didn’t do work in retaliation for housework not done by the other." Good to know that even economics doesn't have all the answers

to economics life marriage

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.

Oh dear. Laurell K. Hamilton has, it appears, had her own Anne Rice moment. Getting something straight:

They aren't comfortable books. They are books that push my character and me to the edge and beyond of our comfort zones.

OK, got that, bad things happen.

The characters aren't real to you. They are real to me, and to a lot of other people. I, and a lot of readers, would feel an emotional loss if some of these guys died.

Right. So, about this Comfort Zone thing? ( Further pisstaking and opinion (with updates!) )She makes one point that I agree with though.

If that's not want you want, then stop reading.

I did. (via John, Nick and James)

Never mind. There's a comic adaptation now. Ah, oh dear. It's worse (via)

The only comic I buy regularly these days is 2000ad. It's British, it's normally well written, it's grown up with its reader base ( ... ), and it's an anthology.

The advantage of an anthology comic is that there's always something you like( ... ), there's always something I like, even if it's just one little story in an issue full of dross. With the current arcs, I'm a bit meh ( about most of them ). But Malone? Who cares? It's the denouement today, the final installment, it's even on the cover. Meh, says I, but buys it anyway.

Y'see, Malone is the story of an amnesiac drifter ( ... ) So far, so dull. Last week, at the end, a character shows up at the door who knows who he really is. The art is pretty poor, but it was a character that looked vaguely familiar. Meh, says I, I still care not, it's a crap strip, move on.

This week? I read it through, again, as I always do on Wednesday lunchtime. The guy introduces himself as ( Spoiler ). My memory refuses to tell me who that is. I turn the page, still not caring. I turn the page to the next panel, he's going to say who Malone is, I'm hoping it might pique my interest. Speech bubble. "Your name is ( Spoiler - it's a big one )". Interest piqued. More than piqued.

Oh boy did that get my attention

It's no longer a Malone story. It's no longer a story abot an obscure backwater colony world. It's about ( Spoiler ). It's about ( Spoiler ). It's about what happened. It's cool. Crappy story about a character I didn't care about? It was until today.

The art's still crap though( ... )

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

Mat Bowles

Dreaming in Digital

Entries tagged with reviews

Fantastic Films festival at the Media Museum

Day one: Friday 13th

Aftermath

Hot Fuzz—an apology

Linkspam: Random economies of failed web tricks

New Statesman - Richard Reeves

Edible Dirt,—Easter Sunday, Jesus wakes up

10 Unfortunate Facts of Life | fcking cnts

theweaselking: Abortion discussion

Why I am an abortion doctor

How to Pack Up & Leave LiveJournal (A Tutorial) (://URLFAN)

drjon: The LJ Strike (which is today)

Pharyngula: EXPELLED!

It's Just a Game... - Review: The Bible

FT.com | The Undercover Economist | Dear Economist: How can I create an incentive scheme to keep our house clean?

The Golden Compass

Laurell K. Hamilton: The new Anne Rice?

2000AD: Malone's shocking identity

Oh boy did that get my attention

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