Catch-up!

It seems a comonly recurring thing now on my blogs to apologise for the lateness of the post. Unfortunately i must carry on form with this one. I had hoped to get this up last week but i had some issues with broken discs so had nothing to talk about! But its all fixed now and ive managed to watch the films in question so sit back, relax, and enjoy :)

This edition's films are the new(ish) Astroboy film and Ponyo. I shall also include my opinions on Alice in Wonderland as i have finally seen that now. Ill begin with Ponyo as i have been looking forward to seeing this film for a few years now due to a school trip i was on to Nagano, Japan. On this trip I was part of a homestay with a primary school child. Around this time Ponyo had just come out in Japan and my host sister was completely obsessed with it to the point that the theme song was the only thing we listened to on any car journey, on repeat! So by the end of this i knew the song off by heart (albeit in Japanese!). So every time i now hear this song it brings back some very fond memories of mine which, i think, means i enjoy this film more than i usually would. The reason i say this is that Ponyo is not Hayao Miyazaki's finest film. It is still a very good film, packed full of adventure and the bizzare that is so common in Miyazaki's work but it is just missing that edge that Totoro and Spirited Away had. Despite this i urge anyone who enjoys animated films to check this out, it has been translated very well into English with the voice talents of Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon and Noah Cyrus, all of whom make the language barrier non existant.

Next up is Astroboy. Having watched Astroboy on TV alot as a child i was definately wary of this film and hoped that it would not tarnish my fond memories of the robot child. All i can say here is that these fears were completely unnessesary. In my opinion this film is up there with some of Pixar's work. The graphical styling is spot on and the whole thing looks absoloutly gorgeous, from the towering skyscrapers of Metro-City to the wreckages of the Earth below. To complement this look comes a brillient voice cast including Bill Nighy, Nicholas Cage, Eugine Levy and Kristen Bell to name but a few; all bringing the characters to life marvolously. The story behind the film is also brilliently written by Osamu Tezuka who stays true to the history of Astroboy that he created all those years ago. This is a brillient family film but also a must see for any fans of the TV series, the manga or any sci-fi lover or closet nerd.

Last but by no means least in the film section of todays blog is Alice in Wonderland (a la Tim Burton). This film was released to incredibly mixed reviews and was quite quickly characterised as a 'marmite film,' mainly due to the vast number of both 4/5 starsalongside just as many 1/2 starred reviews. So what side of the fence do i fall down on? For me, i am well and truly on the 'love' side. This film completely blew me away to the point where i ordered the Blu-Ray as soon as it finished. I believe that Tim Burton was the perfect man for the job. No other director can contend with the way he portrayed the madness of Carroll's world. The whole film is a treat for the eyes with so much detail in every scene; the art department truly deserves an award for what they have produced. Along with the art comes the actors in this all star lineup. Mia Wasikowska, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway; Matt Lucas, Timothy Spall, Michael Sheen and Barbara Windsor all play their parts faultlessly along with the rest of the cast. Though none of them match Johnny Depp's inspiring take on the Mad Hatter in all his excentric glory. When you then add these to the story that intertwines both books and adds a little extra to boot you get the perfect package that has now achieved top spot in my personal film top 10.

Continuing on this positive streak i bought The Beatles: Rockband special edition this week as it was on a truly brillient offer at HMV (£129.99 down to £49.99!!). This comes with a copy of the game, a microphone plus stand, a guitar controller (made to look like Sir Paul McCartney's Hofner Violin Bass) and a drum kit (made to look like Ringo Starr's Ludwig kit). I'm not going to go into the games merrits as that has previously been covered in my previous posts. This small section is just to say how wonderful these instruments are. They have been made to a wonderful level of detail and are a pleasure to play as well as look at. It is clear to see that a lot of work and love has gone into the design and creation of these most impressive of peripherals.

Now just before i go i would like to inform you all of a new project of mine that i have just started. I am now going to attempt to create a series of vlogs that will be going up on my YouTube channel (http://bit.ly/bYPvYt). I have 1 vlog up at the moment and i must apologise for the sound quality which went really quiet for some reason when it finished uploading. I am aiming to produce semi-regular vlogs and hopefully the more i do the better they will become. So id like to ask you all kindly to check them out :)

Thats all for now then, i hope you enjoyed today's blog,

FT

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This week!

As i mentioned in my last blog i was ment to be getting the new Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton from LoveFilm. This did happen but, much to my disgust, the disk was a bodge and wouldnt play :( To make up for this failure of epic proportions i popped it back into the post today and LoveFilm will be sending me a new, working copy. Due to this then i cannot review it or give my opinions, i hear your pain! But fingers crossed the new working one will arrive soon and will hopefully make it onto my next blog. Despite this crushing dissapointment i still have a few other things to write about so do not dispair...

Films shall front this blog methinks so i shalll start off with The Invention of Lying. Written, directed by and starring Ricky Gervais this film has a rather sterling premise. In a world where noone can lie and everyone tells the truth one man tells the worlds first lie and his life is followed through this period. Unfortunately that is where it all ends. The actual excecution of the film is very bad indeed, the story is very predictable and some areas that scream out for some hilarious incidents just arn't included. This is possibly due to Gervais's style of humour which, i believe, is wrong for this type of film; the dry humour that works so well for the Office, for example, just doesnt gell with a story that needs more of a slapstick, laugh out load style. Gervais has produced some hilarious work in the past but you cannot help but feel this part lends itself better to Jim Carrey or Steve Carell. Another aspect that greatly dissapointed me about the film was how blatent the product placement was. The number of refferences to Pizza Hut, Budweiser and Coke became one of the films biggest jokes. This is a film where product placement is done wrong, done right it can be ok; after all most people could tell if a beer was budweiser without the label pointed directly at the lense, then lifted to the lips still with the label pointing at the camera. Its unnessesary and detracts from the film itself. In essense then this is a very poor film and i reccomend you avoid it if your given the choice.

On a lighter note i have recently been playing The Beatles:Rockband which is a immensly fun game. Taking the well tested and user friendly Rockband experience and filling it full of The Beatles. The upside of this is that you know nearly all of the songs even if you are not the most avid Beatles fan, this makes singing and playing that little bit more fun as you have a sense of where the song is going. As The Beatles music is so renowned this game is fun for everyone be it at a family get together, on your own or with your friends. Tied in with the main career are a series of unlockables, including never seen before photos and video clips. Along with information about the band which gives it a nice touch of nostalgia for those who were around when The Beatles were at large and some insight for those who were late to the party. If i had to complain about the game it would be that some of the big hits are not included in the game such as Hey Jude, Elenor Rigby, Penny Lane and a few more. A few of these are included in the form of downloadable content but not all of them. This is quite a big dissapointment but you still have the majority of their big hits to play around with. I would highly reccomend picking this one up as i am still having a great time playing it and will definately be buying it myself after it returns to LoveFilm.

Thats all that i can think to report for today, tonight i am going to The Moonwhiskey Soul Jam's final gig at the Maze in Nottingham which should be great fun but quite sad at the same time and my results arrive tomorrow. So expect both of those things to crop up in the next blog, hopefully alongside Alice in Wonderland.

FT

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