On the road...

I find myself using the Blogger mobile app for the first time.

This is because The Holiday Inn expect me to pay an extortionate amount of money to access their wifi connection. The prices are as follows:
1 hour - £5
24 hours - £16
If I wanted Internet for the duration of my stay (6 days) - £70

Now this may or may not seem reasonable to you. I would have thought they same, only I'm spending time during my stay with a gentleman who used to work for Sky Business. He was someone who would have dealt with businesses such as the Holiday Inn. He informs me that should an establishment take out a commercial Sky package ( I can confirm that they have Sky. I watched Sky News this morning whilst eating my breakfast ), they also get wifi....wait for it...completely free of charge! So on top of the overpriced rooms, that are drab at best, they make pure profit from any poor fool who pays to connect to their wifi hotspot.

To top it off, this is the view from my room....

Do people do this for a living?...

Having recently watched 'Moon', a film from 2009 starring Sam Rockwell.  Someone I had only previously known as Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2, and also someone I now know to be 44! Wow, the guy's aged well.  I felt compelled to write something about such an interesting, intelligent and understated film.  When it was originally released I completely over looked it, under the impression that it would be slow, boring, and weighed down by a lack of characters.  I was wrong.  So I'm reading around about Sam Rockwell, and Duncan Jones (who also directed Source Code), when I stumbled upon this:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182345/trivia?tab=gf

Now I realise that this is a section that IMDB has on any film you choose to look up, and that it is on the main page.  I suppose I have just never scrolled down far enough.  I also realise that there are entire TV Shows dedicated to showing us all the goofs and blunders that occur in films.  Take the one on the BBC, 'Great Movie Mistakes'. With Robert Webb presenting, they brought us movie mistake classics such as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxDYlYZxI7E

But if you go back to the first link, which will take you to the IMDB site listing all the mistakes in the film Moon, you will see that there are 42 in total!  It's not the number I find staggering, just the attention to detail that some people have put into the film whilst watching it.  A great example of this is when they list the mistake where Sam pulls a tooth out of his mouth, and due to the number of roots it has, point out that he pulled it out of the wrong area.
I must say that I only notice 2 of the mistakes when I watched the film.  One, where Sam is punching the numbers of the keypad 2 at a time to launch the HE3 canister at the beginning of the film.  The other, when he is sick in the toilet and you can see the crew member's reflection in the metal.

Not that I needed a reason to watch Moon again, I think I've found one all the same...

Life after Chronicle...

On February 1st 2012, Chronicle released in the UK (2 days before it was released in the US, strangely) and whilst I was extremely excited I wasn't sure whether the film would live up to my expectations.  There was one very good reason why I was not only get excited, but also extremely nervous about how Chronicle would measure up.

I want to see the live action version of Akira made.

From what I had learned about the film pre release, there were similar themes running through both.  Teenagers and super powers.  Having watched the film, the similar themes continue.  You have the exploration of the bond of friendship, and the crescendo to the all out set piece finale.

Needless to say, I thought Chronicle was a fantastic film.  Made even more so by the fact that it came a bit out of nowhere.  It had a fantastic opening weekend in the US, surpassing the much anticipated Woman In Black, and was number 1 internationally.  A reception I hope will breathe new life into the Akira project, which has stalled yet again.  This time, it looks terminal too.  Surely Chronicle is proof that there is a market for this type of film, without needing a blockbuster budget, just a fantastic story to propel it along.

Maybe, if Akira's issue is budget, which is what the stories seem to suggest.  They need to take a leaf out of the book of Iron Sky, and the Wreckamovie crew.  Sweeping through the Berlin Film Festival and causing quite a stir, in no small part due to it dealing with Nazis in space, Iron Sky is a collaborative production from Wreckamovie.  Based at www.wreckamovie.com, this site encourages enthusiastic film lovers to get involved in productions.  A great example to follow for all aspects of film making.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed....

Mission Impossible?

I hope that the decision to do away with the number, and go with the title of 'Ghost Protocol', is less about leaving the door open for the franchise to continue an more about taking your mind off the fact that there were 3 other movies previous to this one.

Let me start by saying that I thought the film was good.  It has the locations, the gadgets, and the action sequences.  If the high rise antics in Dubai don't get your blood pumping, the subsequent chase through the sandstorm is fantastic.

There are only two things that let it down:

- I was constantly reminded that Tom Cruise is nearly 50, and now, 16 years after first appearing on our screens as Ethan Hunt, is staring to show his age.  Now don't get me wrong, I hope I look as good at 50, and am even half as active.  I just think it's time to leave this character alone now.

- The cameo by Ving Rhames.  This is for the very same reason.  He just doesn't look good, and certainly not like a secret agent anymore.

The bottom line with this, is that you get exactly what you expect.  With the added bonus of it being visually stunning, from both an action and location point of view.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and feel old myself....Mission Impossible....1996!!  That's 16 years ago!!  Damn.