And now for something very similar...

Busy. Busy, busy, busy! EVERYONE is busy or at least should be. It's been a great week, mostly thanks to Gillian's Suckerpunch shoot which gave me a lot of insight into the efficient running of a set and some great tips from (18 YEAR OLD) Carlo who was the DoP on the shoot. My main jobs were ferrying actors/crews/lunches to and from the set on top of helping out whenever a loose end needed tidied/held/fixed. There were a few embarrasing moments on myself, Mick's and Lanni's part (I'm not a sound man, but even I know that the receiver has to be plugged into the mixer and the transmitter plugged into the mic) but it was a great learning experience. While the main crew must have been feeling the stress, I didn't feel this filter down to myself for the most part since everyone knew what they were doing. Something which is much easier said than done, especially considering the crew was quite little compared to our own for Charlotte's Little Clown. It did take me a while to get my head around allowing people to tell me what to do, since usually on sets I'm in a more essential role but it was certainly something that can't be taught. If I had any ego before it was certainly put into place on the shoot. I LOVED driving the van though and it was only when we were returning it that I'd realised I had turned it into my own cockpit. I wish I could take on more similar work but just now, it ain't possible.

A return to the Academy on Thursday and I found out that the production department had been busy while our own department had been less so, actually, we hadn't progressed at all. It was frustrating but really there isn't much we could do without either Ray or a detailed shot list or storyboards. The production guys are certainly laying more than enough road ahead for our camera team to come and track over in the future. Mucho respect to them, even if in the near future we do bash heads and (verbal) fists are thrown. After Ray's talk today with the camera team, I got quite excited, since I realised that we are now a proper team, inside another proper team with real heirarchies and everything. Something you don't get when you're helping your friend film in the local park. My own responsibilities are certainly new for me and like the runner job, I'll have to get used to being told what to do, though this time I have people (Luke) to delegate to. I'm looking forward to the shoot so much! It's quite a shame pre-production exists at all! Roll on next week where our department will be starting tests and learning about new (for me at least) kit.

I think I'm getting around to a very real way of thinking, no longer do I have the boyhood dream of simply wanting to write and direct, I'm thinking I'd much rather be working in the camera department. Who wants to write/direct anyway? Having everyone know your thoughts/feelings/opinions through words on a page is just dull! Should I be saying that? It could come back to bite me in the arse! I just don't think I could cope with being in charge of everything, I'd much rather be a facilitator than an originator.

We all have stories we want to tell, so maybe my thoughts will change if the right idea comes along.

TV

I've kept it simple in the past while, the odd episode of Malcolm In The Middle, Fresh Prince and Supernatural. Supernatural is always great but as talking to others has shown me, not many people are interested in the show. I still love it and will shout about it, I'll just not do another "I love it" episode post.

I miss Lost.

FILM

Film? FILM? I don't have time to watch film's. At least I havent this week. Makes for a nice short blog post! I have began re-re-reading Stephen King's - The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger. Many things have got in the way when I've read it before but now I'm making a point of reading it in managable sections. The book can be, at times, quite complex (for a simple mind like me at least) with flashbacks and stories being told by characters but the book paints some great mindscapes in an excellent Sci-fi/Fantasy based world. I look forward to getting back to it tonight actually, I can't actually remember the last time I got excited by a book! As usual I'm also reading Empire and Total Film which I purchased the new copies of today. Great train reading in the morning!
**********

"I think that the film Clueless was very deep. I think it was
deep in the way that it was very light. I think lightness has to
come from a very deep place, if it's true lightness."
Alicia Silverstone - Actress

Schaefer, cliffhangers and juggling clowns

More Showlight:
My Monday wasn't the greatest, on the universally agreed least exciting job: Vision! I did however get some good ideas out of it, since I was racking for the little half day. Adjusting the exposure was great fun and it was like being on camera, but with all the fun of a swivel chair. Gareth was a great laugh though, even if he was on facebook for nearly the entire time. At lunchtime, we had a special personal chat with Roberto Schaefer (Marc Forster's DoP) and Roger Simonsz who was DoP on an upcoming film called 9 Miles Down, which through my handheld camerawork the previous day I managed to catch a few promising glimpses of. They all gave us some great advice, from a cinematography stand point and while I asked all the questions my limited cinematographic brain had, I wished I could think up more, though as anyone knows, I'm not always the best on my feet. I loved every second of it all and while Roberto's talk with us somewhat overlapped with his presentation the next day, I could have listened to him go on for hours, even if he did light one of the lesser Bond's. I really wanted to ask him about setting up geography!

After a long gestation period at the halls with some hilarious, and sometimes offensive banter, we carried to the Old Fruitmarket...eventually. I had a decent enough night, even if the blue collared boy in me shone through. A little quip of mine did not go down well with the company owner next to me. We had to take our name badges, glasses and serviettes to the next table. On top of this, I commented that maybe we should take a bottle of wine also, to which the gentleman to my left just stared at me. Either I wasn't funny or he has no sense of humour. Thankfully, the table move came like a massive black hole to suck me to the next table and boy was I thankful. Not to say that it was much better, but if it hadn't been for both Murdo and Phil, I may well have been choking on my size 8 Converse shoes by the end of the night!

Unlike everyone else, we didn't get to sit next to anyone exciting, there seemed to be more arrogant people than anything else and much more interested in making money than having fun, if I ever get that way I will call for my own assassination. On our final table, when the party wrapped was when I had more fun, even if I did think our director was calling me an infamous offensive British term beginning with W. I don't think I'm supposed to be at expensive dinner parties!

Tuesday was the greatest day, it could have only been better if I got a full day doing handheld! I picked up vision mixing fairly quickly, probably thanks to the limited NGC based experience I have. Even though I was mainly two extra hands for the director, I often found myself making choices that, after later discussion, may have worked out that bit better. I did make the odd mistake but I at last got to appreciate Derek's quips properly, compared to before when I could only snigger behind headphones. Mine and Gavin's editing race in the last hour was great fun also, with me on a dummy vision mixer listening to Derek's directions while Gavin piloted the Death Star control panel. Out of the corner of my eye I found us both slipping at points, sometimes I'd be cutting that fraction earlier sometimes a fraction later than Gavin. Still, amazing fun even if I wasn't doing it live.

All in, a fantastic experience and one I would quite happily go through on a more serious program again whether it be in vision mixing or on camera though more likely camera. Even if only to payback the cable bashing favour for Allen. It was good to be part of a group where the majority of us got mucked right in and suffer our own little problems and overcome them with the BBC crew assistance.

Wednesday was a return to Andy's class and a never-a-dull-moment documentary called Easy Riders, Raging Bulls which actually did have me excited throughout, hearing the truths of the mega-buster money makers who are household names these days. It also followed what I thought would be an amazing assignment when, as I found out later, we got a pretty mediocre-average film which I really didn't get into, mostly since none of the characters were introduced or set-up. Though that will be fleshed out in the next week.

Thursday we finally found out what happened to our scripts and one was chosen, Charlotte's Little Clown script. We'll be having more time to prep and Ray or Gav will be there to support us technically on set, with the idea being that by third year, we should be making great works of art. Obviously that statement comes with no pressure at all. I think this is the best option the lecturing team at the academy could have come up with and it allows everyone to properly get their feet wet in a somewhat larger production than before, since we all now have dedicated roles. I have the highest hope for the outcome and have the utmost confidence in everyone but if our class are turning out scripts of this quality just now, what will we be like come next year. Since, really, we should be getting better. Again, no pressure I imagine. But very well done to Charlotte for coming up with a great, fairly simple story that will tell itself visually, a wise choice by the department. Now to go blow that budget! I do however like Murdo's idea of a behind-the-scenes/EPK style thing! Something else to look back on! Production Blog style maybe?

Charlotte and her young lead,
a production photo 3 weeks in the future.

TV

Lost - ****HEAVY SPOILERS****


The finale for the season was nothing but fantastic, at least for the first hour and 20 minutes. Jacob was revealed (in good depth)/the four-toed statue was revealed in great depth/the bomb storyline was great and the Locke reveal had my jaw on the floor. Though my only problem with it comes with the final seconds, I'll not spoil it entirely but if you've watched it you'll know what I'm talking about. The show now has a clean slate and while initially I thought this to be a terrible thing, it does mean they can begin checking answers off the list but never has a cliffhanger frustrated me so much as this one. The Season 1 cliffhanger was terrible, but this blows that one away to another time-period and while it will leaving me chewing every little rumour for the next 7 months, it will also leave me frustrated in the same period. When is a good cliffhanger not a good cliffhanger?
****END SPOILERS****

Heroes - I wanted to write about the Heroes cliffhanger but (un)fortunatly, I've forgetten anything that happened in it. Yep, it was THAT good.

BEEB, brainstorming and The Female Anatomy.

Another great week, possibly the best, if only for today!

My tutorial with Richard this week went so much better, mostly because I put more thought into my ideas and possibly because I developed them as well, I find it hard to work on just a sentence. I've not get anything that screams "make me" yet but I'm getting there.

Monday afternoon was exciting, pitching our storylines to Kim and by the sound of it she loved all of the stories. It's been great working with them at this stage and it could tie in well VERY nicely to Adam's class next year.

Tuesday, a neat little day with Ray giving us some pointers on the upcoming shoots and also a little update on the status of our 3-minute films to-be. Though we've still not been told which ones are being made and I hope we're all put out of our misery (but in a good way) soon. Myself, Graeme and Luke decided to mess about with some lamps and a camera and came up with a little short that sorta works, considering it was thought up in 10 minutes. Yes, it does kinda show!


Thursday (I think) was Adam's class. Myself and Benoit hadn't developed the idea loads but since it was an idea I adapted from my series that I had to create for Adam earlier in the year, I had a little background on where I wanted to take it. I look forward to taking these ideas much further and developing the sort of image book thing as well. Our ideas for 360 degree content and a sort of business plan seemed to go down quite well with Adam who also loved the title; The Female Anatomy, which is the name of the band in the show. I REALLY want to make it! Adam saw that the show had some long term potential and his suggestion of the style changing as the show develops is something I'll certainly keep in mind. My odd, brain-not-in-gear question to Adam about

Friday morning was great but was nowhere near what I expected. I expected John Yorke would just come in and talk to us about his career and a few of us had questions ready but the amazing and sadly quite short writing academy-like talk made me wanting so much more. I loved every minute of it and felt a great connection with him, despite the power he actually has in the world, mainly due to the few f-bombs here and there, which we know everyone does as soon as they leave professional situations anyway. Our class seems to get wrapped in cotton wool far too often, we're all grown-ups and having someone come in and totally be themselves was quite refreshing. The day we study adult entertainment (hey, it is a genre...sort of) may be a little step too far...maybe. I hope he comes back at some point.

On Friday afternoon, I went to see Star Trek, for the 3rd time and I still loved it, much more than I did watching The Dark Knight recently for the 3rd time. I have to agree with Gavin, it is MUCH better than The Dark Knight. The third viewing made me pick up on little things like Nero's ear which you should watched out for, after the 3 year time jump, he loses the tip of his right ear which happens during a deleted scene which relates to the Klingon war ships being destroyed...roll on that DVD!

Yesterday was our first day at Showlight 2009 at the BBC building in Pacific Quay and I was on camera, though it only consisted of getting comfortable with the set-up. The equipment is quite different and while I've done some multi-camera shoots over the past year, none can compare to this, the talkback especially is exciting, more so because the director is such a cool guy.

Today was the test of our mettle however and while I think the 3 camera 'bods', myself, Gavin and Ross made the odd rookie mistake, I think we all did amazingly good, considering none of us had worked in a situation quite like this before. The real fun, for me at least, came in the afternoon when I was on the handheld camera and the first half didn't go too well, my very unsteady hands showed quite badly on the big screen. After some good advice from our mentors and even a Showlight delegate, I returned for the second half and I think I had improved, surprisingly I took in something someone had told me. I loved offering the director a few shots and working with what he was wanting in perfect silence, at least from me. It meant that I couldn't and didn't have the time to discuss a shot like you would in a drama and I found this great experience to just go with the director and if it doesn't work, work on it from there. I could have done with another day to really polish any skills but I'm in the vision department tomorrow, which word on the gantry is that it's quite dull. Can't wait for vision mixing on Tuesday! Everyone has been extremely accomodating of us all and I should mention both Derek and Allen for keeping us entertained during the presentations and afterwards also. We should be regulars at the BBC!

FILM

Sideways - Richard has talked about this film for a while and it was on my "To Be Watched" list (or it would be if I had one) but finally sitting down to watch it at a mate's was an odd experience; it's the first time I'd watched a film on something other than my 32" TV or projected at the academy or cinema for a good long time. I have no idea whether any of this was a factor in my opinion but it may have been. The story is fairly simple and the main complications come from the intricacies of the characters and the two leads, Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden (Sandman) Church are excellent in their roles but I felt I could sympathise with the Giamatti's character more. The men are almost polar opposites but still have a strong friendship which also seems steeped in history. It is all very well written and while I couldn't tell a bottle of Vino from a bottle of Merlot, I was still able to enjoy the fairly contained story, which looks quite pretty considering it doesn't feel like a big-budget movie.

The film had me thinking of the technicalities throughout, I have no idea yet whether this is a bad thing or a good thing. It made me look at the frame in 3rd's and I felt I was slowing it down in my head, contemplating why the director decided to settle on that framing, why something was handheld or why certain items were out of focus. It's a first for me, either being a filmmaker is truly spoiling all films for me or I was distracted by the film. There was one scene however that I loved, in terms of what the camera was telling us about the story and what was going on in the characters head: Giamatti is drunk dialling his ex-wife and from the soft focus jump cuts to the odd framing on his eye or chin gave me a great disorientation, much like I believe his character was feeling at that point.

If you want to see Giamatti in a totally different role, I suggest you watch Shoot 'Em Up. It's REALLY dumb action fun but it's hilarious and he is great playing a fairly sadistic bad guy.


Bonnie & Clyde - I think I'd saw parts of this before and I think it took away from it slightly but I loved it all the same. A nice little film but I didn't find the "gore" or violence at all distressing. Should I? Am I just now so de-sensitised? If I am, then I don't see it as a bad thing, the same way I don't get offended at all by nudity. Why should I? Under the clothes we wear every day we are all naked! But yes, great film!
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I still need to blog about the Lost and Heroes finales. The Heroes one was average, the Lost one was the best but also the worst episode, possibly of the entire show...I will NOT be able to wait until January.

Time, Trek and Cheese Graters!

What a week! Exciting and enlightening, amongst other things. On Monday, myself, Murdo and Graeme were helping out with Duncan's grad film, Shrinkwrapped. An early rise was in order, but it was all worth it in the end. When we were offered an important job, I thought in sarcasm, I jumped at the chance since things were going slow after the initial set-up and I ended up being the clapper (loader?) for the day. It was great fun, being right next to the camera department at every moment and picking up little bits of terminology and how a professional set should be run. I'm hoping our sets are this professional when we grow up!

Tuesday was Gavin's editing assessment where I had to edit Ross' Love, Mugs and Stickmen. I struggled at many points since I was often cutting for continuity but I think I got a pretty decent edit out of it with some fine ideas.

Wednesday was a screening of Paradise Now followed by a talk from the lady from FilmG. I'd loved to be involved in it, but I'd find it hard to come up with an idea and learn a touch of Gaelic in the process.

My Thursday consisted of essentially being a runner for the art department on Duncan's shoot. It was great fun and quite interesting, as speaking to Kenny, their art department guy, I learned a lot of how things should work and sometimes don't work in that department. It was certainly good experience...even if to only see a producer almost physically crap themselves when I hit a bin with the van.

Friday was a return to classes and Andy's class was great, I personally preferred the documentary on 25 years of Channel 4 which was entertaining and now and again shocking, but even the shocking stuff I found hilarious...cheese grater anyone? A lot of it brought back memories however, especially of Brookside, which I used to loath as a child in primary school, since it's end usually signalled when I'd be sent to bed. The afternoon was short but worthwhile, I had a few questions for Abigail on how and why it all works and how things are dealt with when the camera department run over. I think I disappointed her a little when I said that I had no interest in producing but I think she understood when I told her I hate phones, phoning and generally contacting people even though I think I can pull of the organisation side of things quite well.

FILM

Last King Of Scotland - The hype surrounding this film seemed pretty immense and for a while it's one I've been meaning to see. Sadly, while I thought it was a great story, I was let down by the hype. The dynamic between Amin and Garrigan is certainly interesting, Amin comes off as a very imposing figure, even in his nicer moments and this intensity is due to Forest Whitaker who was due the Academy Awards win for the performance. James McAvoy, an RSAMD golden boy, made me feel slightly conflicted about his character at times. The character means well throughout but all he seemed to do is have more sex than a traditional sailor on a farewell voyage and this becomes detrimental to the characters story when he has sex with one of Amin's wives. Often it seemed either funny, or simply over-the-top, would a qualified doctor REALLY want to just have sex with a different woman in every port? And more to the point, would he REALLY not realise that Amin would find out. At one point, I thought it may have been called Last King Of Scotland because Garrigan was having sex like one, all over the world. His connection with Gillian Anderson (god, she looks like she's getting on) seemed almost entirely pointless. Her character turns up as a love interest but soon fades into the background and is just about entirely forgotten about.

Still, a good film with a strong central performance from Whitaker, and James McAvoy was good, even if I wasn't in love with his character.


Star Trek - I am NOT a Star Trek fan. I'm familiar with the 60's series and would watch it again but besides that, I have no interest in Trek. It was a shock to me though, when I walked out of the cinema, both times, and was in love with the J.J. Abrams re-imagining/reboot/continuation of the franchise. From here, I'm going to talk about it in more detail though and there will be spoilers.

From the opening 10-12 minutes we are treated to the story of Kirk's dad, which is not only a remarkable opening, but also possibly the shortest time I've ever made a strong connection to any characters. The rest of the story is pretty strong and unlike 1 or 2 (well maybe not 2) others, I had no problem following it, if anyone has trouble with the time-travel element, I'm sure I've got it down. The character introductions are all very strong, with the weakest probably being Simon Pegg's Scotty since he isn't introduced until shortly into the films second hour. It does make sense, rather than having him be someone else at the academy but for such an essential crew member, I imagined he'd be introduced sooner.

Ok, now the film would get 5 stars if I had to rate it, but here are my complaints; The sound in space thing, I know it's added for dramatic effect, but there are 2 instances in the film where the sound drops out entirely and yet still feel pretty suspenseful. There are a few problems I have with the start of the film, or at least I only noticed them at the start. Sabotage by The Beastie Boys, really? Hundreds of years in the future and the best song they can use is Sabotage? It's a good song but it feels a little cliche'd. After my first viewing, I didn't understand why the young Kirk story was needed at all, but on my second viewing I realised it's there to play along with the Spock story, though the "James Tiberious Kirk" line is cringeworthy. The bar fight also caused a problem, at least in my eyes. It felt like during the shot-reverse shot dialogue, someone was still setting up the tripod, with entirely pointless shakes, it did lift me out for a few seconds.

An amazing film and one of this summers movies that MUST be seen, everything that follows is going to be disappointing in comparison. J.J. Abrams and his many frequent collaborators have pulled off a classic that makes a franchise notable again, much like they did with M:I:III. Roll on the sequel!

TV

Lost, Follow The Leader: More from camp Abrams and yet again, another good episode even if it does feel like it is there to simply lead us into the finale. This season has taken me just about everywhere I want to go in the Lost universe and finger's crossed they pull off a great finale like Season 3's. Let's just hope they don't kill off the smoke monster, rumour has it he's starring in a new pilot for next season!


Scrubs: I'm watching through season 6 and all is well so far. I just passed the musical episode which is hilarious, I think the reason I love it so much is that I know the characters inside out and even little lyrics seem to be a wink and a thank you to it's faithful audience. Let's hope they do ACTUALLY finish it this year though, before it gets too long in the tooth. As an example of the greatness of the musical episode, here's the best song from it:

*******************
More soon!

"As you know, these are open forums. You're able to come
and listen to what I have to say."
George W. Bush

Paradise Now - Short Blog

Said and Khaled are both Palestinian and both have strong political views, believing they are being oppressed by the Israeli regime and that something must be done to show resistance. Neither of the characters seem to be overly willing to become suicide bombers and feel that they are simply doing the duty of their countrymen, even if it means losing their lives in the process. The change of heart of the Khaled character later in the film, after talking to the female character, shows that he probably had his doubts going in, while Said was certain he was doing the right thing besides being slightly hesitant at the start. The film humanises characters that could be misrepresented if western filmmakers were telling a similar story. The situation of the film feels grounded in truth and presents a side of the conflict we never see through news reports or media in general. Coming from what must obviously be Palestinian filmmakers, I don't feel the film mis-represented in any way.

Stop motion & Dwayne Johnson, with claws!

The end of last week we had perhaps the most monotonous exercise yet; A script breakdown in Abigail's class. While I understand it's importance, the sheets were far too much for me to cope with, I'm not one for manual/old-school writing. If the sheets had an electronic version, I'd maybe be able to tolerate it but writing "Floating Is Easy" at the top of 30+ pages and now the "8ths" crazyness when in fact it should be "6ths" *sigh*. If producing consists of lots of handwriting tasks, then I choose death before producing. Maybe too harsh?

Monday was another broken day, a less than good tutorial with Richard were we came to the conclusion that of the 10 premises, only two work and the two that work could only probably be theatre pieces or features. Some further work required on my part. In the afternoon we watched through our rushes with Gav and his input was useful and sometimes hilarious. I'm looking forward to the final edit.

Tuesday was a light assessment with Gav which was great fun and on Wednesday, we watched In The Heat Of The Night in Andy's class. Thursday was a double-barrelled class and I was shocked to hear that during my latecoming, Andy showed the class a photo of Megan Fox to which no-one answered when asked who she was. I shall say no more except I was shocked, though everyone now thinks I have an unhealthy obsession with the girl, which is quite untrue though I can't say she's unattractive...

Thursday afternoon was an episode of Boys From The Black Stuff which I've heard parents and uncles e.t.c. talk about for years and now I'm glad I've watched it. It was very good and while it was often depressing, it was often also funny and I'm interested to see the rest of the episodes. Adam's class on Friday was interesting and I plan to do some research into some business models, I have faith in mobile/web content. The afternoon was taken with Abigail giving us another assignment, at least this one involved colours, which made it so much more exciting!

FILM

Race To Witch Mountain - Kids films, I find them very hit or miss, more often than not miss but I thought this was fine. It needed more humour and while I don't mind The Rock being considered an actor, something seemed amiss in his character. However, I just couldn't imagine Carla Gugino in a Disney film, she was naked in Sin City, something that recurred in my mind throughout. The film worked quite well as a kids film, though the fight scenes were some of the worst I've seen, I could barely see if anyone was fighting in them. I'm getting quite annoyed by this shaky-cam stuff especially when sometimes it feels like it's only being used to cover up flaws.


Tell No One - I can't remember how it ended up on my rentals list but Andy bringing it up at some point may be a factor. The film is paced quite well and slowly builds to the action, doing intrigue and getting you invested in the characters long before you travel with the lead to find the answers. The one gaping flaw I did feel, was that the end of the film contained far too much exposition, which screams MAJOR SCRIPT FLAW to me but I forgave it, since it was just about believable. Worth seeing since thankfully, the book wasn't bought by Hollywood allowing a more independant filmmaker to keep the story focussed on the characters rather than having just another generic thriller.


Coraline - The director of Nightmare Before Christmas (far from my favourite film in the world) returns with another stop motion movie and while I found the story a little week, the film was great in 3D with some strong visuals and a decent voice cast. Some of the characters seemed a little unnecessary however but a certain sequence involving mice (you'll know when you see it), will live long in my memory.


In The Loop - With some excess time on our hands, myself, Gavin and Graeme decided to catch this. The film is often laugh-out-loud hilarious and is thankfully (for me anyway) is fairly low on the political jargon, allowing the comedy to come from just about anywhere. Peter Capaldi steals just about every frame he is in but sadly, the rest of the cast remained barely memorable. The style of the film annoyed me slightly as well, feeling very much like an episode of the office, trying a little to hard to look like it was shot on-the-fly. That is a personal thing however and it didn't distract from my entertainment, definetly worth a watch.


X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Showing up at 10am on a Wednesday morning to see a comic book movie, meant that we were stuck next to a few sterotype geeks, this wasn't helped by the cinema supervisor telling us that Star Trek tickets can now be booked. Ok, I AM going to see it in the first few days of it's release but I found it all quite funny.

So the film, I loved X-Men, I love X-Men 2 and X-Men: The Last Stand was fine but nothing special and Wolverine, is probably on par with The Last Stand. The film opens with, what I thought was a great montage showing Wolverine's history with his brother Sabertooth. The story plods on and on and it never really takes any major twists but the fights make it very interesting. Wolverine has less quips than he seemed to have in the other movies and this came as a disappointment, I thought it would have more in a movie about him. The supporting cast are decent, for what there is of them. If you look at the poster, you'll see that Ryan Reynolds is just about as prominent as Wolverine, something which isn't reflected in the film, far from it in fact.


The Boat That Rocked - Ok, I guess. The film is one of the worst written, Richard Curtis needs a few weeks with Richard Smith to get a grip on screenwriting. Lots of incidents happen and yet never quite paid off, characters are setup and then never developed and the film has some terrible plot holes. It worked as a distraction but I think I only enjoyed the music and only because of my upbringing with 60's music. My 60 year old father enjoyed it more than me though, constantly reminiscing about Radio Caroline throughout.


In The Heat Of The Night - A great film with some amazing performances though I have to admit I only heard of Sidney Poiter through South Park. The issues raised in the film are clearly evident, though I can't say I was truly shocked about the shocking incident but I understand that it would have been, back in the day. Thankfully the Sidney Poiter character wasn't shown to be divine in the film and his temper gave a human side to a character who might have otherwise, only been used to address issues raised by the film.


Moonraker - I really can't recommend this one at all, it's the first of the Bond movies that I've watched back and felt bored. The opening ski-diving sequence is amazing, but besides that, Moonraker just ticks boxes all the way through and seems only to cash in on the space race in the late 70's since post-Star Wars, every movie studio and franchise wanted a slice of the Sci-Fi pie. The zero-gravity scenes look pretty decent, but having Jaws fall in love and a dull baddie make this entry a huge let down. The only person who should have ever had this on their CV is Ken Adam, whose production design is amazing in this one, each of the corridors and rooms are quite remarkable. If you ever watch through the Bond films again yourself, you'll be forgiven for missing this one. From Russia With Love on the big screen on Tuesday will help me detox.

TV

Planet Earth - Yes, I'm still watching this and it's still beautiful, there's so much of our world that goes unforseen and forgetten. The birds of paradise clip is amazing and watching the Planet Earth - Diaries after the episode showed just how long it took to get this one shot. One cameraman waited weeks, around 8/9 hours a day in a hide, in silence, that's dedication. Though the clip below shows that the experience will be comforting for him, on top of the no doubt fat paycheque.

Lost, The Variable - This is the 100th episode which itself is exciting. The Variable, is a sequel of sorts to last years episode The Constant, which I think is perhaps the best and most emotionally rooted hour of TV for a long time. This time we follow Daniel Faraday, played by Jeremy Davies who I adore on the show and anyone who watched The Constant will know the key role Davies played in that episode, which makes this weeks episode that more exciting. An essential episode, even though it wasn't quite as remarkable as I'd hoped. Only 3 episodes left of the season! Exciting!
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More soon, watching The Last King Of Scotland tonight and the penultimate season closer of Lost this week! Bring it. Oh, and Star Trek!

"These, they're very dangerous. They trap you. Especially these
furry ones...It's these furry guys that get you in real trouble.
They can reach out and listen to something so - keep it respectful here."
George Bush Snr, speaking to Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1991 about the need to be careful when speaking near open microphones or, as they are known in top level politics, 'furry guys'.