Tag: films

August 21, 2013
I’ve just watched the film Argo. When I first heard of the story, I wanted to see the film, due to its slight connection to genre, and one of my favourite books, Zelazny’s Lord Of Light. I knew the book wasn’t even mentioned in the film, but it amused me anyway.

Then I heard about the various criticisms of the film, how the film greatly distorted the story, while saying it was “based on a true story”. But I still wanted to see the film, so I put off reading too deeply into it, until I had seen the movie.

March 23, 2013
Just caught this 2007 film – ”The Man From Earth”. A low budget movie that – from the description – I didn’t expect to want to sit through, but the script – by the late Jerome Bixby – was actually quite enthralling. No action at all, really, it was all in the dialogue; it would actually work very well on the stage. Some of the acting was a bit hammy, but the actor in the leading role pulled it off nicely, so all else could be forgiven.

As a professor bids goodbye to his colleagues, he admits that he is actually a centuries-old caveman.

February 19, 2013
I know I shouldn’t have, but I could not resist.

Top Gun has been converted to 3D, and is currently showing in IMAX cinemas across the country. But when I saw it was also out on limited edition Blu-Ray, I knew I had to have it.

January 30, 2013
Once expensive, prescription lens 3D Glasses are now fairly reasonable – I have just purchased a basic pair (RealD 3D only), for 50 quid, from Optics3D. RealD is what my local cinema uses, and is also compatible with my passive screen 3D TV.

This probably seems a lot of cash to those on a budget, but not compared to my spend on 3D so far. I am now fairly committed to the format, so I thought I may as well be comfortable. While my cheap RealD 3D clipons are more convenient than glasses worn over my specs, they are still slightly over-balanced.

January 27, 2013
When I had my lounge decorated in 2011, one of the first things I had to do was pack away all my DVDs and CDs that took up two walls. They got packed into an assortment of boxes. The new lounge doesn’t have the same dust-traps, so I have a small book-case with my “not-watched” stuff downstairs and several shelves of “stuff I’ve watched, but might want to watch again” in my office. This still leaves some more boxes which are mostly bound for the charity shops, but needs me to sort through for any hidden gems.

However, there were some things that I just couldn’t find. Stuff that I vaguely remembered buying, but never watching; DVDs that I said I would lend or give to friends, that couldn’t be found.

November 11, 2012
This film came out last year, but I’d never heard about it before. Made by the BBC, in partnership with others, it was reshown last night, and is on iPlayer until Nov 18. I found it really interesting.

The plot is simple – an unexplained world-wide epidemic that robs everyone of their sense of smell. Just as people are adjusting to this, taste follows.

September 19, 2012
There is a film I saw, when I was young (turns out I must have been about 8 or 9 years old), that I remember vividly, but I could never remember the title. The exciting (to a 9-year-old) climax involves a stranded astronaut, with limited oxygen, walking across the surface of the moon, in search of a kind of life-support-hut.

Yes, it sounds like an episode of UFO, but it isn’t.

February 26, 2012
Just watched Real Steel on DVD and was very pleasantly surprised. Unusually for this kind of flick, it had an actual story (albeit a predicatable one about a father bonding with the son he never knew), and the acting was pretty good too. Good special effects – although they used CGI for the robots for most of the action/moving shots, they actually did built giant robot electronic puppets for specific scenes where they interact with actors – 19 of them, in fact. I think this made all the difference, especially with the scenes with the son.

Well worth seeing, not least to spot the boxing references, both real-life and fictional.

November 8, 2011
October 20, 2011
A while ago, I posted that I had bodged together a pair of prescription passive 3D specs. They worked well, until I decided I could improve on the taping of the lenses, and managed to completely mess one of them up.

Meanwhile I discovered these on eBay. They are framed, and therefore not flimsey like other clipons, they are fairly flat and not curved, which means they fit well to most prescription frames (at least those I have tried). And they are only 4 quid, including postage.

March 18, 2011

What better way to spend a couple of hours on a rainy day than go see a film?

A different cinema today, and a different choice of films.

The Adjustment Bureau stars Matt Damon and is (loosely) based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. Dick’s short fiction has been mined for quite a few movie adaptations, and while this by no means the best of these, it is entertaining enough.

Spoilers may follow