December 2006 Archives

Night at the Museum'
UK Rated: PG
Runtime: 108min 27secs
Tagline: Everything comes to life.
Director: Shawn Levy

Plot Outline
Good-hearted dreamer Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), despite being perpetually down on his luck, thinks he's destined for something big. In the meanwhile, he accepts what appears to be a menial job as a graveyard-shift security guard at a museum of natural history. He's instructed specifically not to let anything in or out. -- "Out??"

Yep, during Larry's watch, an extraordinary thing begin to occur, that's right just as stated in the tagline -- Everything comes to life. Mayans, Roman Gladiators, Cowboys, Exotic animals, many numerous other beings that you might find in a history museum and not forgetting a huge skeleton of a T-Rex. Amidst all this chaos, as many wage wars, the only person Larry can turn to for advice is a (now alive) wax figure of President Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), who helps our hero through his shift.

Product Placements
Actually, none noted & I was looking, there was a dude near the beginning with a number of phones attached to his belt (like Batman), but no brand names visible which is novel. I wonder if the actual museum exists?

Overall Impressions:
I feel inclined to first clarify that though this is a Ben Stiller film, its not a Ben Stiller film. Okay I shall rephrase that. Ben Stiller films generally fall under a certain category of humour which is aimed at a niche market of people. A lot of people don't like them. This film however doesn't meet that criterion. This is no Dodgeball or Zoolander or Starsky & Hutch type fair. This one is for absolutely everyone, even the people that can't stand his other films.

Its entertaining from the very outset & this is where it scores its points, there is very little smoothing in, it doesn't spend an hour doing a leadup to some huge climax, its just a hell of a ride from the very beginning. How he manages to get through his first shift is just the beginning. There is far more beyond this as we see his second, he thinks he's got it sussed but still manages to end up in a mess, how he resolves the issues at hand is very well written and acted out in a totally believable manner (even the things being alive part, while watching, I believed).

I mean sure you could pick it apart for how they manage to clean up after each night, but its all semi-explained just by the fact that this magical thing happens each night. Leave your logic at home & enjoy the ride.

All round fun for all the family, not crucial for cinema watching, but a must buy DVD (7.5 out of 10)

Why you ask? .. Homer felt lonely .. besides I think he should leave Marge now, its time he moved on
.. how else will his kids ever grow up? it's the only way ...

Bhagam Bhag'
UK Rated: PG
Runtime: 157min 21secs
Director: Priyadarshan
Screenplay & Dialogue: Neeraj Vora

Plot Outline
Champak [Paresh Rawal] has a theatre group and he performs shows all over the country (in India). Bunty [Akshay Kumar] and Babla [Govinda] along with numerous others are actors in this group. These two in particular are quite the trouble makers who never miss a chance to flirt with girls, especially with the girls in their group.

At the completion of one of their shows, an organizer [Asrani] who is mighty impressed with the glamourous heroine of the play [Tanushree Dutta] offers Champak's group an opportunity to perform some shows in England.

The actress promptly opts out due to Bunty & Babla's misbehaviors toward her, thankfully for Champak, the deal has been signed already so the sho will go on, but the place of the missing heroine does need to be filled.

Once they reach London, the mischevous Duo are introduced to Gullu [Rajpal Yadav], a local in-the-know taxi driver who offers his advice to resolve their problems & being of general good service to his fellow Indian brothers as instructed by the organiser, Bunty and Babla are in search for a girl for their play, but naturally this leads to many hilarious misunderstandings.

Bunty and Babla's failed endeavours are amusing in themselves, how they also manage to get into trouble with a drug baron [Manoj Joshi], get nabbed by the Police who due to the language barriers call in their Police Comissioner [Jackie Shroff] add to the comedy of the first hour & we watch & enjoy as on the run they go.

How they get themselves a 'heroine' would form the crux of the film, or so you are led to think. The tale takes a twist when eventually they do find a willing lady for their show, as the baggage that comes with this is the story of mishaps that follows.

Review:
The first half of this slapstick has its multiple laugh-out-loud comic moments - it should be said quite early on that when I say this is slapstick I do mean by that to switch your intelligence to that of a young child if not totally off and take what you see as is. Logic has no place in viewing this (at all).

For modern-day slapstick fare, its pretty a pretty decent job, but since slapsticks aren't everybody's cup of tea in this day & age, it seems the writer here has tried to keep an audience outside of this engaged too, by having a murder mystery thrown in the mix at the intermission point (& the second half), this turning point from which it becomes a whodunit venture, you do feel engaged by the on-goings however it loses some of its original charm as its primarily seen & advertised as a comedy & the problem lies in that it tries to maintain this even when the plot has become rather serious. This is where ther writing certainly does falter some.

The pace also drops at this point and we end up seeing the best of neither worlds. The climax of most Priyadarshan films get rather silly & this one is no different. Though there is a clean resolution to the mystery which was introduced at the interval point, it lacks impact. Since we also have all the other comedy subplots hit centre screen at the climax point too - it kinda reminds you of the old skool Charlie Chaplin films, where there is total chaos, everything is going hectic. This fits in with the look & feel of the film but it seems to ensure you do notice that the murder mystery in the midst is a huge blemish - it just doesn't fit in. (I can't even imagine it in a Charlie Chaplin film).

Music:
The opening credits with the song 'Signal, Pyaar Ka Signal' (The Signal of Love) was a great start, The picturisation is done well capturing the colour you expect from theatre, but the ongoings with Akshay & Govinda fighting over the girl reminds us of the Big B & Govinda track 'Makhna' from 'Bade Miyan Chote Miyan' (Big Man Little Man) fighting over Madhuri Dixit - which was a superior song.

Tere Bin picturised on Akshay Kumar & Lara Dutta juts before intermission is a nice one, this is the one I'd play the soundtrack for. Watching it you'd think the streets of London are romantic or something. HA!

'Afreen' merely appeals for its picturisation as & ongoings as it does capture the theatre feel about it plus the mystery.Probably not one you'd listen to otherwise. As a sidenote, they seem to have found some 'heroine' after all & its not Lara Dutta, nor is it one of those special appearances that we in Bollywood do so well. Just another point of many telling you to leave your thinking caps off.

'Bhagam Bhag' (On The Run) in the closing credits is passable to watch, no real reason to have this in the flick but sure it makes the credits a bit more interesting I guess, its a decent enough song, I think its somewhat wasted thrown in to the end of the film.

'Aa Khushi Se Khud Khushi Kar Le' (Come & Happily Commit Suicide) wasn't in the film but is a pretty catchy number, it fits the feel of the rest of the tracks & voiced by Sunidhi Chauhan it is apparent that if it was picturised it would have been upon Lara Dutta as she has suicidal tendencies in the film from the very moment you see her - another hilarious angle.

What the soundtrack seems to lack in my opinion is just a simple theme tune, the piece from the 'Signal' track which is used in the theatrical trailer & the chase scenes. Instead there are remixes of pretty much all of the above tracks. Ah well *shrugs*

Performances:
Govinda is seen as the King of comedy & though he's been in hybernation his comeback is more than welcome. I wouldn't say this is his career's best performance or even close, but you have a certain expectation of a Govinda film & this criteria is met. He entertains, He makes you laugh.

During Govinda's absence, the close contenders for the top spot are none other than Paresh Rawal & Akshay Kumar and they aren't outshadowed even slightly. It becomes a little of concern that these two are becoming typecast for comedy like Rani Mukherji is for her crying, but unlike Rani this is okay, as the audience isn't fed up yet.

Lara Dutta is the sore thumb if there is one, it may just be me but she comes of as trying too hard & still failing when it comes to the moments of emotion. That said the ongoing little rants she has about how she wants to kill herself are highly amusing.

From the rest of the cast the one man that stands tall to the main cast is Rajpal Yadav as the taxi driver. His comic timing is absolutely perfect as always. I've yet to see a film where he is not on form. Bravo.

Jackie Shroff, Asrani, Manoj Joshi, Arbaaz Khan, Sharat Saxena & Shakti Kapoor are functional as the other people, but the principal characters get most of the screen space & rightly so.

Product Placements:
Highway Coaches, the coach company that brings the theatre company to the residence arranged for them. There was a Subway in a short swift view of the exterior area of the house too. At some point I also recall a sign for Brunel University.

A pan of the streets covered a sign for the BBC Proms, in some other such scenes were some generic London busses, however the National Express coach in this may have been placement, as later when they go to the Fast Track travel agency, there is National Express advertisements to be seen everywhere. (They even mention a phone number for the place 0207 745 1234 -- which me being me gave a call & it is in fact incorrect, I ended up calling some Hotel!! Having googled for a fast track travel agency it seems this could be anywhere - maybe a fake).

Okay, not all of these can be counted as placement per say as I doubt all the chocolate bars vaguely visible in a vending machine would count, but anyhow's there was a vending machine at Brighton's train station which seemed predominantly populated with Mars Confectionary near the climax of the film (including Bounty, Snickers, Maltesers, Mars & others that I've now forgotten).

The one that was really stuck out as a definite placement was the Ford Mondeo & all the other multiple Ford Police cars throughout that kept ensuring that the Ford logo was more than visible. Well, there we have it. Funny how much flies by you when you're not looking for it huh'

The locations around central London, especially around the Bank Tube station are noticable too if you know the area. Quite a lot of shots include exit 8 & show the Starbucks from which I got my swanky Starbucks Card, I mention this last because you can't actually see a sign, just the building, but I know what it is :)

I guess this whole film can be seen as an experiment gone a bit wrong on the writing side, but the direction is good & the performances are good, leaving to us the question of overall is it worth the watch?

Blemishes aside & I'm going to go ahead & say 'Yes'. Even with the blemishes, its a pretty fun film.
Worth a watch if you like silly films & I do mean really silly (6 out of 10)

If anyone fancies getting me anything for xmas:

or

Huge amount of funding to make movies too would be very much appreciated. :)

Flushed Away'
UK Rated:U
Runtime: 84min 50secs
Tagline: Someone's Going Down.
Director: David Bowers & Sam Fell

Plot Outline
Roddy (Hugh jackman) is a decidedly upper-crust "society mouse" who lives the life of a beloved pet in a posh Kensington flat. When a sewer rat named Sid (Shane Richie) comes spewing out of the sink and decides he's hit the jackpot, Roddy schemes to rid himself of the pest by luring him into the "whirlpool." Sid may be an ignorant slob, but he's no fool, so it is Roddy who winds up being flushed away into the bustling sewer world of Ratropolis. (that looked a lot like a mini-London, however I hear in the US of A, this film was titled Ratrolpolis. I wonder if Metropolis has a London Eye and a Parliament building .. *shrugs*)

Anyway, there in Ratroplis, Roddy meets Rita (Kate Winslet), an enterprising scavenger who works the sewers in her faithful boat, the Jammy Dodger. Roddy immediately wants out, or rather, up; Rita wants to be paid for her trouble; and, speaking of trouble, the villainous Toad (Sir Ian McKellen) who royally despises all rodents equally, making no distinction between mice and rats wants them iced ... literally. The Toad dispatches his two hapless hench-rats, Spike (Andy Serkis) and Whitey (Bill Nighy), to get the job done. When they fail, the Toad has no choice but to send to France for his cousin--that dreaded mercenary, Le Frog (Jean Reno).

Overall Impressions:
This is simply a fun film to watch, with voice casts of talents including Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman, & Ian McKellen, it is nice to see the little touches for the adults too, this is what gives it the upper edge above the recent Happy Feet, the fact that it is less preachy and less trying to win over your sympathy is why it reaches out to me on a more personal level.

Product Placements (a new addition to my reviews hereon)
  •  Can of Heinz Baked Beans used as a part of the Jammy Dodger.
  •   Weetabix box also part of the Jammy Dodger, (though strangely the Weetabix website advertises Happy Feet

So did you see any that I missed? I'm sure there were plenty more .. the wolverine outfit doesn't count :-P

Much better than Happy Feet and well worth a watch! (7 out of 10)

My initial impressions of the Nintendo DS were that it seemed rather pointless having 2 screens + its just a gameboy. I later learnt that it included touch screen functionality rather like a PDA & even wifi for interweb & connecting to other DS's, still not seeing the why 2 screens would be necessary. I later also heard about the 'DS lite' which by its very name appears as a cheaper lower functionality gadget, but in fact is a smaller-sized very same functionality console. Then came the Chris Tarrant advert about "Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training". This is probably the point I was intrigued enough to want to know more.

After hearing Vithaldas repeatedly failing to get his hands on one of these & his glee when he finally did, I thought to myself, Hmm .. I should get one. Now its not very like me to go ahead purchasing something (especially computer-chip based) without doing a bit of research, but what the hell nobody'll have it in stock anyway I thought. That lunchtime I headed into the shops & as expected the 1st 3 shops had none in stock, the fourth had some 'white' ones, but me being a racist in every drop of my blood would only settle for 'black' (or 'silver' as a secondary option. The pink one people speak of doesn't really exist as far as I am concerned).

Anyway, at the last store they had two in stock. There was a note up on the shelfy saying none in stock, so let this be a lesson to always ask, as i did, and this lovely girl (whose name, number and date of birth i'm yet to find out) broght one down for me. I immediately tendered by black credit card & told them I would want some of this brain training stuff with it, as though I don't appear it, there is a small chance I am plain stupid. Little did I know at this point that later on this day the bloody thing would in fact tell me I have a brain age of Passenger 57.

Moving on, now having got my hands on the console it looks pretty damned sweeet. I have researched on the marvellous interweb & learnt a few things that had I known earlier, I probably would have bought the thing earlier, much earlier:

a> it also plays Gameboy Advance games (not that I have any, yet)
b> since I hate using 'my' original discs/cartridges to keep them in pristine mint condition ;-) the use of backups is quite an easy job with the DS. -- i suggest reading on if you're suddenly now interested..

Black Christmas'
UK Rated:15
Runtime: 84min 27secs
Tagline: On the 25th day. Of the 12th month. One man will creep around your house. And leave... no one alive.
Directed by: George Miller

Plot Outline
Remake of a cult horror by the same title from 1974, where the original was written by Roy Moore, The story of a young boy named Billy. who is locked in the attic of his home by his mother and her lover. One day Billy breaks out of his musty attic and murders them. In the present day, 8 girls, and their house mother, find themselves living in Billy's old home, now a sorority house. Billy decides to come home for the Holiday season, and hides away in his familiar attic. Through the night, the house receives obscene phone calls, and the sorority girls start to go missing die.

Overall Impressions:
My only reason to see this was that it had cool publicity, the poster & trailer though told us nothing as such, they did make it look like it could be a decent slasher. I mean I'm no huge fan of horror, but I can appreciate a good one. Alas, this one does not fit the bill. I only found out it was a remake quite recently & I'd now be interested to watch the original (since it carries an over 7 rating on IMDb).

This one however, *shakes-head* no sense of horror or thrill past the first scene which was decent enough, from there onwards, nothing, makes me wonder what the hell they were thinking making it. Anyway as the girls start dying you simply want them to hurry it all up, when its all almost done with, its not, we still have a scene or 2 to wonder about the last two in the cast, will they won't they? - just lame & long. For a flick less than 90 minutes, I shouldn't really have the chance to feel so restless.

As for the cast, I only recognised Michelle Trachtenberg (the Key/Buffy's Sister) and that's about it. No hidden talent outshining the terrible here I'm afraid. They were merely pretty girls to the slaughter. If you fancy a decent slasher flick, watch Scream again.

Absolutely dire. I've wasted my time on it. Save yours. (3 out of 10)

Kabul Express is the first international feature film to have been shot entirely in Kabul after the end of the Taliban. It was shot over a perios of 45 days last year. The cast and crew were sent death threats by the Taliban to stop shooting but the Afghan government provided tight security and enabled the shoot to be completed. On some days there were more armed soldiers than crew on location.

Kabul Express - UK Rated: 15 - Runtime: 104mins *ing John Abraham, Linda Arsenio, Hanif Hum Ghum, Salman Shahid, Arshad Warsi

Plot Summary
In a nutshell: Two Indians, an American, one Afghan and a Pakistani on a journey together, just like the poster says. Set in the post 9/11 land of Afghanistan, it is the Journey of two 'rookie' journalists from India trying to get their break by getting an interview with a representative from the Taliban. Little did they know they would be taken hostage by one on their travels.

Review
Let it be said from the very outset that this is not your average Bollywood glitz and glamour. It's different. It's only 12 reels (under 2 hours) & has no songs. The debutante director Kabir Khan who is known in India as a highly respected documentary maker, clearly believes in enlightenment above entertainment. Now that's been said I'll add this still holds as a Bollywood entertainer - thriller in fact with a strange humour about it.

One of the first things I noted was the use of multiple languages, English, Hindi and Afghani are used throughout and though this may sound off-putting I must admit it was actually very efficient. The language barrier between the characters was the first of many levels of humour I noted. What works for it is its totally natural. It doesn't matter what grim circumstance you are under, some things are universally amusing, using these situations is a definite one of the plusses in the writing of this film throughout. Obviously taking into consideration the politics and the events of the past few years into account.

A snippet of another reviewer (Sweta_B) that said it spot on:

Everyone takes this subject matter so seriously (as they should) because it is happening at present, but this film dares to add comedy at the most unexpected times, to the most unexpected situations, while still being informative and paying respect to the subject matter.

The initial 3 days in, followed by a rewind, and swiftly coming back to the point where they are blindfolded wasn't necessary but adds to the drama as you want to know how the 2 reporters got there. I guess this kind of jazz also compensates for the fact that its a low budget film and noticably so.

However each character is well defined and we know what their individual goals are from the very outset. Even with all the knowns, we learn more about each of the characters as the narrative unfolds & we can empathise with each of them, right through to the climax.

Performances:
Arshad Warsi brings the best timing with his expressions and dialogue, considering he is the comic relief, its fair to say he had the most challenging role in this enterprise which he has given total justice to. You can't take offence to anything he says, which I guess is what was to be avoided. John Abraham is on form but unfortunately has very little scope to shine. So that's the two Indians.

The American played by Linda Arsenio seemed out of place, I mean she looked pretty and looked the part, its her dialogue delivery that seemed off, considering her dialogue was in English throughout, it just seemed a little surprising that she seemed to struggle delivering it. A total judgement on my part here but I felt as though she had no clue what was happening in some scenes & so didn't seem sure what her dialogue was contributing to the scene - a good example was the Coke-Pepsi scene.

This leaves the Afghan & the Pakistani, both topnotch performances by total unknowns, they seemed to share some natural chemistry, you genuinely believed they'd kill each other given half a chance when they kept hurling abuse at each other and getting into arguments about where this whole war began & whose fault it is.

Overall Impressions
Though the pre-climax doesn't really leave much to be guessed of how it will all end, this isn't such a bad thing. Since the aim of the whole film is very much about the journey being had & we with every one of them have undergone a number of emotions - anger, fear, sympathy .. that's what counts.

At the end of the day, I'd say this is a human bonding film, if any message is to be had it is that we should be looking for the good within us, rather than the bad in others & though the first thing I said was that its not a Bollywood Fluff film, its still very Indian at heart, the fact that it incorporates talks of the universal conversation factor to any Indian (Bollywood films & Cricket) certainly ensures that :).

A special mention is needed to the background score of the film, it fills in for those moments where dialogue would be too much & does a damned good job of it. The cinematography & direction too is spot on, but you'd expect no less from someone who is used to doing live documentaries.

This certainly is not ground breaking cinema if viewed on a world-scale, from an Indian viewer pesrpective however, a definite step in the right direction to getting noticed. Its films like this that will allow outsiders to see that we aren't limited to the sterotypes of Bollywood Masala flicks.

Worth a watch for sure, probably not a film to take a date to though - (7 out of 10)

Well actually today I am to attend the xmas curry with the 'Support' department, but last Saturday we had a company party, of a similar scale to last year but this time not in Mayfair.

The Venue:
The Riverbank Park Plaza, 18 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TJ

The Event:
6.45pm Drinks Reception - The Thames Suite
7.45pm Dinner - The Ballroom
10.30pm Entertainment and Dancing
1.30am Coaches depart
Approx finish 2.00am

We were unfashoinably late, (we being Demon & I, since I don't have a hot girlfriend or any girlfriend for that matter, I just fill in the space with fellow comrade's from my time in 'naam).

... but fortunately the open bar ran til 2am and utilised thoroughly by my goodself and many others. We then hungout in the 'other' bar until about 3. Unfortunately no funny stories to tell, Demon drank far too little and was far too sensible, damned it. I wanted him to excel and outshine the Farmer who came along last year, hit on every female there, got hit on by some welsh guy, left his jacket there, puked up as soon as we got home & even got offered a job. Ah well .. Guess if I'm there next year Charlie won't let me down!! :D

ooh & some pics (which I will update and add to) .. naturally I filtered out any pictures where I look below average because you know they don't really exist .. Looking through I seem to nate a certain lack of the Demon, I really didn't see him much at the party .. I recall telling him I'm going to now mingle and then spotting him on the dance floor 3 or 4 hours later .. Hmm .. Good Timez ... uh 1am ... shud sleep considering I'm in work at 8 .. Zzzzzzzzzzz

Déjà Vu
Tagline: If you thought it was just a trick of the mind, prepare yourself for the truth.
UK Rated: 12A
Runtime: 126min 19secs
Directed by: Tony Scott
Screenplay by: Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio

Firstly, a little something about the poster I'll point out, I like the fact that this film is about time and they have relayed this idea through the media of film, (no i'm not just saying I like films - everyone knows that, even me), I'm talking about the actual celluloid film, like the negatives in old cameras. When I worked in projection back in the 90's this is precisely how I envisioned parallel universes & time travel. Mere a reel of film, spinning away in parallel at various speeds.

It also means borrowing/stealing the DTS sound disc to add on to some DivX Cam Rip would be useless for it wouldn't play on anything by itself & obviously lubbering about the entire print wouldn't be practical, conisdering each second is 25 frames, the sheer weight of it would kill you, not that we would try anyway, for moral reasons, I mean it'd be "wrong" ... + I don't have a 35mm projector at home (yet) :-P

Plot Outline
A ferry filled with crewmen from the USS Nimitz and their families was blown up in New Orleans on Mardi Gras. ATF Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is brought in to assist in the massive investigation, and gets attached to an experimental FBI surveillance unit led by Agent Andrew Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer), one that uses spacefolding technology to directly look back a little over four days into the past (as this isas far back the feed can stream). While tracking down the bomber (Jim Caviezel), Carlin begins to have doubts about the machinery of the FBI, and whether its is simply surveillance or more.

Overall Impressions:
Well, Denzel doesn't go nuts when he finds out and start to interrogate people with unimaginable pain (or imaginable pain for that matter), but that was merely my desire after Man of Fire - not my expectation. So what were my expectations? None. Let's not forget that Tony Scott's more recent flick Domino was a notch below average, he's a hit and miss guy. Fair Play.

Is this one a hit or a miss? In my opinion a definite hit. Denzel is simply Denzel but whoever will complain about that? He's a legend. Val Kilmer and his crew of nerds complement each other as a team and are likable enough, the innocent dead girl played by Paula Patton is a pleasure to watch and not irritating (tis all I ask of the Damsel in distress) & well, Caviezel's role shift from Jesus Christ to Terrorist with a plan to destroy & ensure producer Jerry Bruckheimer's trademark explosions are present is impressive & this is just the performances.

It's a clear fact that good performances mean very little when it comes to the overall impact of a film. This one hits the nail on the head. The story is gripping and keeps you at the edge of your seat right until the very last minute. This on dvd-covers is an over-used phrase, but really in this case - the very last minutes (credits excluded). I can't really go into the details of the plot as spoliers would spill everywhere & you absolutely have to see it.

A smart film, will keep you thinking after the show, pretty damned good. (8 out of 10)

Happy Feet'
UK Rated: U
Runtime: 109min 25secs
Tagline: WARNING: May Cause Toe-Tapping.
Directed by: George Miller

Plot Outline
In the cold land of Antarctica, the Emperor Penguins each express their true love with a special heartsong of their own that expresses their very being. However, the misfit Mumble (Elijah Wood) cannot sing, but instead has an extraordinary talent to tap dance with almost magical energy and expression. Nevertheless, the deeply conformist leadership of the colony fearfully blames the young penguin's unorthodox ways for the lean fishing that threatens them all. Defiant in the face of unjust rejection, Mumble and his true friends set out to find the true cause of the famine. Through the motley crew's trials and perils, Mumble learns many things about his frozen world, not the least of which being that his toe tapping talent may be what he needs to save his people.

Overall Impressions:
My first thoughts were how on earth were they going to maintain a story about a penguin who dances for almost 2 hours, as that's all I knew, what manages to keep the viewers attention is definitely the sympathy you feel for a misfit in society, though they are penguins, some universal aspects lie in our communities, formalities followed, difference frowned upon, etc, etc. This said the novelty does grow old and at this point little Mumble finds his 'true' friends & begins his adventure, amongst his friends is the most memorable character in the entire film & this is Ramone (Robin Williams), I would say he saved it for me, it could have grounded down to a halt but he saved the day.

Moving on I think this is a film about us as humans, we go over and screw up anything nature has to offer - that's the message I got anyway. It isn't as moving as say Finding Nemo but it has its share of emotional doses. -- The warning in the tagline is certainly valid, you do find yourself tapping your feet a little ;) which must indicate I'm happy??!

Pretty average fare entertainer for the musical minded. (6 out of 10)
Ramone: "Just a moment. I hear people wanting something... ME!"

Aane ko hai woh manzil, jiska mujhe armaan hai ...
{ Tis to arrive, that destination, which i dream of }

Have recently changed the structure of how post archives are saved and a few other things.
Will be a little messy on here in the next couple of days, should settle down shortly thereafter.

Holiday, The'
UK Rated: 12A
Runtime: 135min 29secs
Directed & Written by: Nancy Meyers

Plot Outline
Pretty simple: Two women troubled with guy-problems Iris (Cameron Diaz) & Amanda (Kate Winslet) swap homes in each other's countries, where they each meet a local guy Iris's brother Graham (Jude Law) & music loving background score writer Miles Jack Black respectively and somehow fall in love have a good time.

Overall Impressions:
It's not bad, but it's not great either. Generic fluff film I'd say. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law are likable but nothing out of the ordinary here, on form, but merely meeting the stereotypical image we already have about them. The interesting story is far less focussed upon. That is probably my bitterness toward this flick. Eli Wallach playing a Hollywood writer who struggles with old age until she finds a friend in Iris, the temporary neighbour. Even the scenes between Kate & Jack are nice, unfortunately the other pair have much more screen time, or it certainly felt that way.

Well, all's well that ends well they say, which is why I won't give this a sloppy five, as it ends well with an open ending whereby it isn't getting silly, but it fits the criteria of being a decent enough chick flick.

Something you may catch & not switch off on TV during 'The Holiday' season. (6 out of 10)

I knoy'all have missed it .. lol ... actually I did lie, it was only down for 3 minutes .. see, i even commented yesterday to say so .. Well it seems like I have won this one for now .. until the crawlers come back in we're all good!

Stranger Than Fiction'
UK Rated: 12A
Runtime: 112min 41secs
Tagline: Harold Crick isn't ready to go. Period.
Directed by: Marc Forster
Written by: Zach Helm

Plot Outline
Karen Effiel (Emma Thompson) is an author writing her latest novel about an isolated man named Harold Crick (Will Ferrell). What she doesn't know is that her fictionalized character is real. The real Harold Crick is an IRS agent who has lived a dull existence and one day begins to hear Karen's voice as she narrates what she puts on paper to what Harold has and is doing. Because of this Harold enlists the help of a literary professor (Dustin Hoffman) to find out what is happening and ends up changing things about his life including beginning a relationship with his IRS client, a government-hating bakery owner named Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Harold, however, finds trouble when he hears that Karen plans to kill him.

Overall Impressions:
Little did I know, this film would be so capturing. I saw this over a week ago and still keep coming back to it, thinking about it. Definitely one of those films where its not what happens but how it all happens that's key. The hero of the film is the writing but don't let that pass as a comment against the performances. Will Ferrel's best performance to date without a doubt and surprisingly different to his previous outing as the loud comedian, he's anything but that here, I'm sure this film will do his career a hell of a lot of good and I really do hope to see more performances like this from him. The remaining cast are their competant selves and totally on form too.

An interesting concept & film, What if your life really WAS a book?, definitely recommended, even if you don't like Will Ferell's previous roles. (8 out of 10)

Hopefully this will be a temporary & short-term thing, while I work out how to hunt down & assasinate the spammers with my sweet nunchuck skills & bow hunting skills etc etc ..

Okay seriously .. the issue is this, my swanky new host Thinkivity have informed me: The script (/usr/bin/perl -w mt-comments.cgi) was using more than 50% of the servers CPU and more than 80% memory usage. More than 20 instances of this script were running at the same time.

If this continued it was likely at some point the whole thing would crash, as had done in the past while I was with Fuitadnet (except them buggers didn't know why & just restarted the server). So I need to take some serious measures to stop the spamming. - Investigation Pending.

Frontpage updated. looks sweet in IE and a scrambled heap in Firefox, probably due to some css error or form defaulting left alignment or something .. working on it.

Well I shopped around some and have settled with a new Web Host, they're called Thinkitivty, and so far they've been top notch, i had a couple of minor issues during setup, but they saw to it pretty much within the hour (on a Sunday). So Yea, fair to say I'm impressed.

While switching over I also took the opportunity to upgrade Movable Type to version 3.33 from 3.31, this has caused a couple of problems rise, which I am in the process of investigating, as always should you find any bugs, please please do let me know.

At the moment it appears that when rebuilding entries or archive pages it decides to set the CHMOD values of these to 666 rather than 755 - this brings up an error, as a workaround I am curently resetting the values to 755 until a proper fix is found.

<-- edit --> Sorted this one. 666 was the default, needed over-riding .. new functionality i think + it also hold for uploaded files which makes sense, so randoms can't upload shite and run it without your consent .. not that i let you guys upload anything anyway ;) <-- end edit>

I know my front page is currently a mess but new swanky superstuff is en-route so fret not :)

As you must have noticed I'm going for a new look with the whole blog thing, please report any bugs you find over the next few weeks to myself. I figure this whole Xmas period thing where my anti-social behaviour tends to be at its peak each year should be used efficiently. I'm also considering getting webspace hosted by some other as fuitadnet who I've been with a couple of years now hasn't been the best for a number of reasons, the fact that it got hacked, the fact that they lost 3 days of blogging at one point & the fact that their 24 hour support team, though friendly don't give you any hope that it won't happen again (& simply apply a short term fix) are a few of many reasons I feel I should try someone else. Any suggestions welcome, I would need a reseller type acccount so I can manage my multiple domains under one admin account. This is prety much my only distinguished requirement. You have our demands - peace out'