Alice in Someplace Else

Saw 'Alice in Wonderland' last night. The title is misleading. It's not quite Alice in Wonderland - more like Alice through the looking glass but she didn't go through the glass, she went down the rabbit hole - all a bit confusing really. They mashed the stories together. Very Weird. But good on the whole. I saw it in 3D. It's a Tim Burton / Danny Elfman / Johnny Depp production, so very quirky and colourful and strange. A lovely adventure into escapism which was very welcome. Three and a half out of five for me.

Harry Potter 6

This weekend I went on a marathon watching session of all six currently produced Harry Potter movies. Today was a bank Holiday, so it had been a long weekend and as I am pretty much cash-less and very much bored, all I could afford to do was re-watch my dvd's and then scrimp on my food budget to go to the local cinema for a five quid movie, and what better movie to see when you're starving than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?

Well, I enjoyed it as I enjoyed the rest of the films, as an exercise in escapism with some smiles, some frights and some feel-good moments. I enjoy the books more, as pretty much is always the case, but c'est la vie. It was no better or worse - although, the acting from the kids does get better each time - than any of the other films. And I do enjoy the music and seeing the realisation of my imagination on the screen.

But the movie theatre itself was more of an adventure than I bargained for. HP6 been out for a while now - I have been putting off seeing it to avoid the crowds - so I was expecting it to be shown in a smaller cinema rather than on a bigger screen, but I didn't expect the size of screen I got. It had to be the smallest theatre I've ever been in, including the one's when I was a kid on summer holidays at the caravan park in Lorne where the movies were shown in the local guide hall. This was a tiny room. The screen wasn't much bigger than a large plasma, about four feet by seven I'd estimate, and the cinema wouldn't have had more than 100 seats. The lighting was all red, and I mean blood red - I felt like I was in a bordello - and the elevation... well, there wasn't any. I could hear the film whirring in it's reel behind me and every whisper of every patron was perfectly clear.

All-in-all, I think that next time I want to see a film here, I won't wait to try to avoid the crowds. I seriously could have had a better viewing experience on my laptop.

Ah well, lesson learned and experience experienced.

Star Trek and Coraline

On a cold recovery day in Stockholm, I decided not to play tourist but to play at relaxation instead. So I went to the movies. Then, as my brain was muffled nicely with drugs, I couldn’t decide between seeing Star Trek or Coraline – so I went to both. Star Trek was first.

I think the movie is just called Star Trek but it probably should have an additional title as it is the 11th movie in the franchise, however, as it goes back to the beginning of the Kirk / Spock timeline, I’m not sure where it fits in. I’m not enough of a Trekkie to know, but somewhere in my back brain is the information that the Star Trek: Enterprise, series was set before the original Star Trek series, so maybe this film comes after that? I mean, I know that Star Trek: Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are timed after the original series, and that the first six films were between the original and Next Gen… and maybe I am a Trekkie. Oh Dear.

Anyway, the movie makers have re-started the whole universe off on a tangential time line, due to an accident caused by Spock in the future, so all that has gone afterwards is now non-existent and the slate is clean. For instance, while Kirk’s father in the original series was a great influence on him, in this movie, he dies as Kirk is being born and so Kirk grows up a lot wilder. Spock’s mother is likewise killed, rendering him a lot more emotional, and Spock ends up captain for a while whilst Kirk is thrown off the ship as a lowly cadet. The love story is also nicely twisted - Uhuru was Spock’s love interest of all things.

It really was a who’s who of recent actors. Spotting the famous face became a delight. Eric Bana played a grieved baddie Klingon, which was fun and Winona Ryder, plays Amanda Greyson – Spock’s Mother. I know Uhura (Zoe Saldana) from the dance movie Centre Stage and Kirk’s father was played by the Home and Away actor Chris Hemsworth. Kirk’s mother (Jennifer Morrison) is of 'House' fame, the actor who played Bones was Eomer in Lord of the Rings (Karl Urban) and Scottie turned out to be the guy from Shaun of the Dead (Simon Pegge), very appropriately I might add. Sulu, Checkov, Spock and Kirk were really the only unknowns to me.

All in all, though it was great fun, it was just another Star Trek with the usual mix of adventure and daring-do, and I was a little disappointed that it didn’t break away from it’s progenitors as much as it could have. There were lots of explosions and fist fights, angst and moments of light levity. All ends happily. A great escape movie. Mind you, I enjoyed it for what it was and had a great ride, so all’s good.

The movie Coraline was a different matter altogether. From start to finish, I loved every minute of it. What a fabulous production! I saw it in 3D, and that made it that extra bit special.

I was terrified at first that it was going to be dubbed, being a kids movie, but it was only the opening titles that were in Swedish, and soon we were off. Dakota Fanning voiced the perfect Coraline, with Teri Hatcher (of Desperate Housewife’s fame) playing the mother(s) and a wonderfully disguised Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders playing Miss Forcible and Miss Spink respectively. The movie is all done in stop-motion animation and everything was made by hand. It was awe-inspiring. The cat was creepy, the garden amazing, the whole other world… wow. The story was tweaked a little and an extra couple of characters were added but this didn’t change the integrity of the original so all was good. It was just the right mix of fairy-tale and nightmare. Loved It!

In fact I have loved Neil Gaiman’s work for years now. I first read his graphic novels thanks to R and then fell in love with his twisty, dark mind in Neverwhere, Anasi Boys and Stardust. He is such a different story-teller to my usual favourites. His writing is like a blast of chill wind when I’m burning with fever, so refreshing yet also startling and unexpected.

So yeah. A good romp followed by a good mind-twister. Just what the doctor ordered.

A Lovely Valentines Day...

Being a confirmed bachelorette, St Valentine’s Day doesn't mean an awful lot to me. Most years I don’t even notice it happening and couldn’t care less. However, this year, in this city, I discovered it is a day to avoid. It is a day to avoid getting caught by red, heart-shaped decorations hung diabolically and designed to entangle you. A day to avoid getting scratched by bunches of red roses applied with deadly force by men who don’t know how to carry such unwieldy objects. A day to try to avoid being sick when you see the 50th couple in a row snogging their brains out with tongues so far down each other’s throats I’m sure their stomach contents were re-eaten.

It actually made me feel sick.

Anyway, to avoid the unavoidable, Jane and I went and saw a movie. We saw Juno. And it was fabulous. I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it to anyone. It was cleaver and funny, the story was intriguing, the character development was real, the action flowed from who the characters were, and it presented a take on teen pregnancy which I found earthy and entirely plausible. It is a lovely feel-good movie, but it is also intelligent and not at all soppy. I walked out feeling really good.

And then I went out for a night cap in Earl's court. I'd never been to Earl's court before – It’s known as kangaroo court so I've avoided it like the plague because I don’t want to be a typical Aussie in this city – but Rod K, father of Nick K, was in town for one night, and so it was worth an investigation just to catch up with the GS icon. We went to a lovely little café. The food was gorgeous (I had an apple crumble that was to die for), the hot chocolate perfect, and the company excellent. As ebullient as ever and always really good company, the K's are the perfect anodyne to anyone’s bad day and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with them. I came home feeling really good about life and pretty happy with the world in general.

It was absolutely lovely. So Valentines Day wasn’t such a bad day after all!

The Demon Barber of Fleet . . . Street

Not sure that the most appropriate emotion to have coming out of the cinema was joy nor the most appropriate expression a grin but I had both. I really enjoyed Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I've read some criticisms of it, and yes it wasn't perfect, but it was satisfyingly good. Most of the songs from the musical were there, the actors did a great job of singing and acting at the same time, and being a Tim Burton's film, it was as atmospheric and moody as you could wish for. I liked how dark Johnny Depp was as Sweeny, and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett and Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin were as disturbing and repulsive as they should be. Add to that literally gallons of blood and quite grisly ends for everyone and it was as true to the original as it could be. Loved it!

Recent movies...

Saw the movie St.Trinians. Not impressed really. Mildly amusing romp with no real story line and no satisfying conclusion. Would prefer not to have paid to see it really.

Also saw the movie Charlie Wilson's War. Better, although I hated the absence of an ending. Interesting story - it's based on true events - and it kept me chuckling along nicely but I found that it didn't inspire me in any way. And the director tried to manipulate the audiences emotions too much at the end, probably because there really wasn't one.

So two mildly disappointing films really.

Stadust

Saw the movie Stardust last night with Jane.

It was a lovely movie. A bit scatty I thought, but an enjoyable interpretation of Neil Gaiman's novel none the less. I'm sure it will become a cult classic like The Princess Bride, to which it keeps getting compared. It's a feel-good fairy tale and worth paying for in the cinemas just to experience the magic of the film and I really enjoyed it but I didn't fall in love with it.

However, it did enervate me and inspire me to stay up so that I could start writing my NaNoWriMo story on the dot of midnight... I only wrote 200 words mind you, but I did write!!

Anyway, I recommend seeing the movie if you have a fantasy bent like I do. 4/5 stars.

Hairspray!

I went to see the movie 'Hairspray' last night with Hilary, Rachel (cousin of Richard) and Jane. It was hilarious, but oh so cringe worthy! John Travolta as the mother made every scene he was in riotous. His hamming absolutely made the movie for me. According to Rachel he was in both the Broadway and West End live productions, so it was a role reprisal for him, and he was wonderful. Michelle Pfeiffer looked a little old as the bitchy mother / TV producer – I’m sure she was supposed to, but I’m not sure I like her in such roles. There were lots of new and young talents that I hadn’t seen before but their level of energy was impressive and the dancing and singing were all really good. I think I spent about 50/50 of my time either scooching down in my seat thinking ‘Oh no, get me OUT of here!’ or laughing so hard I gave myself a stitch... generally in the same sections of the movie.

It was fun – but there were also some real ‘You can’t be serious’ moments as well. Kinda like ‘The Producers’. Painfully Funny.