December 2005 Archives

Inside information passed on to me from a work colleague from Waka Daka Daqa regions:

One particular Christmas season a long time ago, Santa was getting ready for his annual trip, but there were problems everywhere. Four of his elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones, so Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind schedule. Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her Mum was coming to visit. This stressed Santa even more. When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two had jumped the fence and were out, heaven knows where. More stress. Then when he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked and the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys. So, frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of coffee and a shot of whisky. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered that the elves had hidden the scotch and there was nothing to drink. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the coffee pot and it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw from which it was made. Just then the doorbell rang and Santa swore all the way to the door. He opened the door and there was a little angel with a great big Christmas tree. The angel said, very cheerfully, "Merry Christmas Santa. Isn’t it just a lovely day? I have a beautiful Christmas Tree for you. Where would you like me to put it?" And thus began the tradition of sticking the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

To all you people that bother visiting my site. (& maybe some select others). Meri pronounce merry in hindi means 'my' .. MY xmas!! Jus so you know & that when I tell you so next year you can look clever by finishing my sentence. ;) mayhaps.

King Kong' ..
Runtime: 187m 20s - UK Rated: 12A
Tagline: The eighth wonder of the world.

Plot Outline
Set in the 1930s, this is the story of a young and beautiful actress Ann Darrow from the world of vaudeville who finds herself lost in depression-era New York and her luck changes when she meets an over-ambitious filmmaker Carl Denham who brings her on an exploratory expedition to a remote island where she finds compassion and the true meaning of humanity with an ape Kong. The beauty and the beast finally meet their fate back in the city of New York where the filmmaker takes and displays the ape in quest of his fame by commercial exploitation which ultimately leads to catastrophe for everyone including a playwright Jack Driscoll who falls in love with Ann and plays an unlikely hero by trying to save her from Kong and her destiny.

Overall Impressions:
Classic tale of Beauty & The Beast in true Peter Jackson style, but is this such a great thing?? In a nutshell: Yes, m0stly. Admittedly I'm no big fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy & found them far overrated by critics & public alike. The reasons were they were visually a treat, something new. Kong needed just that for the story & this works perfectly. In my personal opinion the duration could have been snipped by a half hour quite easily. Some of the earlier parts before they reach the island & even some parts on the island seemed stretched but putting these aside. An impressive film. An odd misfit of casting but clever, I wouldn't have thought of the cast to work except Jack Black however everybody was competant in their respective roles. The performance that stood out a mile was Adrian Brody who made an impact with quite a minor role, (certainly picking the right films to do), Jack Black was totally awesome as always though I didn't like his evil streak (too convincing), Colin Hanks was passable, Naomi Watts sufficed but didn't have much scope to display histronics & Andy Serkis (after Gollum) was a total natural as Kong too.

A personal note: To make the character of the director (Jack Black) interesting they seem to have inspired it by the life of Charlie Chaplin in the earlier reels. Eg; the part where he runs away with the footage he has shot before boarding the ship. - I totally felt the pain when he lost his film footage on the island. His life's work. Some things can mean the world for some people yet nothing to others. Best Line: "Defeat is only for a moment."

Worth the watch - Unsure if you'd put yourself through it again though.

Its not even end of the year yet & I am boosted about a film out next year (May in U.S) .. The teaser trailer has only helped .. Looks frickin sweeeet ..

I like the way its been done, if you watched it in cinema like most non-geeks, until half way you woudn't even have any idea what was coming ... Watch it here!

My favourite part is the smashing glass from the back of the car as Ethan smashes into it. Let me know what you think. Amusingly Robo-san at work picked it to the simple 3 part process of how that was created. Frickin robots - no appreciation I tell you ;)

Definitely one to watch out for .. X-Men III & Superman Returns are taking the backseat by comparison as far as I am concerned (for now anyway).

Official website: missionimpossible.com

Firstly I shall state what little I know about Mayfair. In a game of Monopoly, its the more prestigiouse (ie; expensive) place to buy. Logically this means the rent is high when people from the opposition decide to stop by. If you have a house they're you're loaded, if a hotel you're GOD! Well our xmas party was in a hotel at Mayfair (on the 10th), a champagne reception at 7 followed by dinner at 8 and a flush supply of drinks on the house throughout the night. The dresscode was black tie, though bow ties of the red & blue varieties were spotted in the midst of the crowd. All provided by the lovely Fidessa people it was a good night out. I heard mention that not including drinks it cost them £600 quid a head, makes me glad I brought a guest, I tried champagne for the first time ever, (was quite excited about this), saw The Farmer & many others make fools of themselves, hit the dance floor as soon as the heard the sound of the dhol, I later even managed to say a couple of things I now wish I hadn't but probably nobody remembers, or so I hope ..

Some Photos from the event:

Geoffrey Banks - Ghost Buster

Kin Ho - Thundercats Hooooo

Matthew Browne - Matt Daymon

Oliver Wardell - Hollywood Warcraft

Paul Skelly - Dr. Skeletor

I'll add more photo's picked up of Network drive at work later as a separate entry ..

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' ..
Runtime: 140m 3s - UK Rated: PG
Tagline: Evil Has Reigned For 100 Years ...

Plot Outline
Based on the classic novel by CS Lewis - During the German air raids of WWII, the four Pevensie children: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are sent out of London to take shelter at the country home of eccentric Prof. Digory Kirke, who happens to be the owner of a curious wardrobe. Peering into this wardrobe one day, Lucy finds herself in the snowy land of Narnia, which is mired in never-ending winter thanks to the magic of the evil White Witch, who has proclaimed that it will be always winter but never Christmas in the mystical land. Eventually the other Pevensies find themselves in Narnia, and the four children learn that they alone are the key to breaking the Witch's eternal winter. But while three of them trudge through the snow with some helpful Beavers to join forces with Aslan, the mighty Lion, the fourth takes a more treacherous path and falls in league with the Witch.

Overall Impressions:
Firstly I'll mention I haven't read this book since I was a wee ickle boy. (9 or so), The film was very well executed & brought it all back & full anamorphic widescreen, better than I had imagined it when I read it no doubt about that. It had all the colour & underlying dark tones in correct proprtion just as required. I can see it being compared to Lord of the Rings and in my personal opinion excelling for its duration wasn't as far stretched. The child artistes were all great & Duccard Liam Neeson was brilliant as the voice of Aslan. The only let down & this is quite personal is I found the story a bit of a let down, it reminded me that I liked this book as an infant but I wondered why?! *shrugs* ..

ram-jaane I guess :)

DooM' ..
Runtime: 104m 44s - UK Rated: 15
Tagline: Hell Breaks Loose.

Plot Outline
Something has gone wrong at a remote scientific research station on Mars. All research has ceased. Communication has failed. And the messages that do get through are less than comforting. It's a level 5 quarantine and the only souls allowed in or out are the Rapid Response Tactical Squad - hardened Space Marines armed to the teeth with enough firepower to neutralize the enemy... or so they think.

Overall Impressions:
You expect another AVP type film & this is precisely what you get. Cheese galore, however due to expectations being just that it doesn't at all seem a letdown. The Rock is back in his usual 'big strong man' image after his Be Cool experimentation. The rest of the cast fit in to the Tee. In the initial reels this reminded me of Predator & it took a turn for the better once momentum picked up. The first person shooter scenes were novel & will receive appluade for sticking to source material and nostalgia of playing the game. The climax was expected but certainly plausible and entertaining. Let's just hope they don't get carried away making movies based on video games like that seem to have done with comic books over the years.

I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine. - Fritz Perls

It is now official I will soon be moving homes again. No dates set in stone as of yet, but within the next 2 months I will be moving to Wandsworth/Clapham (between the both.) I've seen the flat I'll be moving into. Once I get the keys I shall inform all the key individuals of my new address, if I forget you or you feel you should know, send me a quick email & I'll consider your stalker requests based on your attached C.V and merits ;).

I know I haven't been paying much attention to the blog in recent times in more personal depth but I'm in more of a position to play catchup & make an effort now. Over the next few entried I shall fill you all in on changes that have occured over the last month or two.

Meanwhile in Gotham City .. POW!