I think I understand what 'cabin fever' means. I've been holed up at home all year so far, kept indoors following my operation on 30 December and the snow and ice we've had for the last week or two - I've rarely ventured outside due to the fear that I might slip and undo my stitches, sad but true. I can count the number of times I've been outside my front door on the fingers of one hand and all but one of those adventures comprised a slow and very careful walk up the road to the High Road to
Sainsbury's. Following the rain this morning, most (but not all) of the snow and ice has vanished and if you can understand my physical joy in being able to stride out while walking at last, then you've probably been in a similar situation at some time. It felt *so* good.
So, to celebrate being able to go outside without the fear of slipping I took myself up to my local moving picture emporium (opposite
Sainsbury's, so not that adventurous) to see 'Avatar' in 3D. The last thing I saw in 3D - and, I think, the only thing I've ever seen in 3D - was Santa Claus throwing presents right, left and centre while flying in his sled down Fifth Avenue. And yes, I did raise my hands to catch a non-
existent present. That was one of the opening sequences to the Christmas spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in New York a few years ago.
The trailers for the film seemed to all be for 3D films so we're going to be inundated this year with special glasses every time you go to the picture house. Doubt I'll see many of them but one of the trailers was for a new '
Shrek' so I hope to see that one.
Anyway, 'Avatar'. At some unspecified future time we discover a planet with incredible mineral wealth that is only spoiled by having
indigenous humanoid life-forms. Isn't it annoying when that happens? So the very clever scientists grow false
indigenous bodies and (somehow) transfer the mind of humans into the bodies to animate them so we can learn about the world and its peoples while we start mining operations. Naturally there's the scientific community, the business corporation and the military contingent.
Then along comes our hero, a young man in a wheelchair replacing his brother who has inconveniently died after his
indigenous body has been grown and agrees to take his brother's place since they share the same DNA. The young man gets separated from the scientists on his first venture out into the forests of the planet, gets attacked and saved by a native, and eventually becomes part of the local community (that lives in a
hooooj tree). Then the humans decide to blow up the tree since it sits on the biggest mineral deposit and it's total war.
It's a little far fetched and full of hokum but is, nonetheless, totally fab at the same time and, for a very long film, the pace of the movie kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what could possibly happen next. And the 3D and special effects were amazing. This is state of the art film technology folks, so who knows what we might be seeing in a year or two's time based on this. It is visually stunning and the 3D made me move a few times to avoid things flying out of the screen.
It was a typical 'noble savage' mixed with
Gaia kind of storyline, with our hero going native when he understands that all the world is one and all things are linked. This is graphically demonstrated during the war at the end when the world turns all its creatures against the invading humans. It worked for me.
I'm quite envious of the creature-makers - they
must've had the best time imagining outlandish creatures and then giving life to them. Loads of them had four front legs and two back legs, dragon/
pterodactyl-derivatives, mega-rat-things and all sorts of creatures. I *want* to be a
creature-maker. Imagine the power of dreaming up some
weird creature and giving life to it the next day? I'm sure it took longer than that but it's a nice dream.
There were only three things that slightly spoiled it for me, in total taking, maybe, 30 seconds of the film, so totally insignificant but they stick in the mind. One was our hero in his
indigenous body shagging his
indigenous girlfriend -
c'mon people, this was the cartoon bit, do they really need to have sex rather than simply joining their hair filaments or something (you'll understand the hair filaments if you've seen the film). The second was seeing
Sigourney Weaver run like a middle aged woman. That is just plain wrong -
Sigourney *does not* run like that and I fully blame the director. There was a nice nod to
Sigourney's (and Cameron's) past glories by using the mechanised body skeletons (the 'Get away from her, you bitch!' scene from 'Aliens') as part of the invasion. But I repeat, that's *not* how
Sigourney runs. The third was letting the heroic, plucky and spunky woman pilot (whose name I can't even remember) just get blown up without her moment of glory (she's obviously this film's Vasquez).
I'll happily give it five stars. I wonder if it looks very different in 2D? I might have to go back to see it again to check it out...
Last night I discovered one of the most colourful films of all time and one of the best, most infectious and joyful film songs I've heard in a long time. Yes, I watched 'Om Shanti Om' on C4 as part of its 'Indian Winter' season. Back in the early '90s C4 used to show Bollywood films and television series' so it was nice to see a Bollywood again, and what an epic film, lasting round three hours. The fabulous song is 'Deewangi Deewangi' by Shaan, Shreya Ghoshal, Rahul Saxe, Sunidhi Chauhan, Udit Rayan & Vishal-Shekhar and goodness knows who else (see below) - it's in Hindi but with a chorus in English of 'All hot girls put your hands up and say Om Shanti Om, All cool boys come on make some noise, say Om Shanti Om'. It's fabulous and was a hit everywhere that appreciates Bollywood.
'Om Shanti Om' is a film of two parts - the first is set in the '70s with the awful fashions and massive over-acting but it makes it the most colourful and daft thing I've seen in a long time. The second half is more serious, set in the present day and deals with the consequences of the action in the first half. Both aspects of the film have the mandatory big song and dnace numbers and they're great. The film's in Hindi (so I read the translation) but every now and then they'd drop an English word or phrase into the script which was most odd. 'Om Shanti Om' is a film within a film and, since it celebrates Bollywood, was packed with Bollywood stars doing cameos. The stars of the film are Shahrukh Khan as our hero and Deepika Padukone as our most beautiful heroine, both playing roles 30 years ago and today, with Shahrukh as the reincarnation of a film extra who loved the film star played by Deepika.
So, to celebrate being able to go outside without the fear of slipping I took myself up to my local moving picture emporium (opposite Sainsbury's, so not that adventurous) to see 'Avatar' in 3D. The last thing I saw in 3D - and, I think, the only thing I've ever seen in 3D - was Santa Claus throwing presents right, left and centre while flying in his sled down Fifth Avenue. And yes, I did raise my hands to catch a non-existent present. That was one of the opening sequences to the Christmas spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in New York a few years ago.
Then along comes our hero, a young man in a wheelchair replacing his brother who has inconveniently died after his indigenous body has been grown and agrees to take his brother's place since they share the same DNA. The young man gets separated from the scientists on his first venture out into the forests of the planet, gets attacked and saved by a native, and eventually becomes part of the local community (that lives in a hooooj tree). Then the humans decide to blow up the tree since it sits on the biggest mineral deposit and it's total war.
It was a typical 'noble savage' mixed with Gaia kind of storyline, with our hero going native when he understands that all the world is one and all things are linked. This is graphically demonstrated during the war at the end when the world turns all its creatures against the invading humans. It worked for me.
There were only three things that slightly spoiled it for me, in total taking, maybe, 30 seconds of the film, so totally insignificant but they stick in the mind. One was our hero in his indigenous body shagging his indigenous girlfriend - c'mon people, this was the cartoon bit, do they really need to have sex rather than simply joining their hair filaments or something (you'll understand the hair filaments if you've seen the film). The second was seeing Sigourney Weaver run like a middle aged woman. That is just plain wrong - Sigourney *does not* run like that and I fully blame the director. There was a nice nod to Sigourney's (and Cameron's) past glories by using the mechanised body skeletons (the 'Get away from her, you bitch!' scene from 'Aliens') as part of the invasion. But I repeat, that's *not* how Sigourney runs. The third was letting the heroic, plucky and spunky woman pilot (whose name I can't even remember) just get blown up without her moment of glory (she's obviously this film's Vasquez).
Who? That was my first question when I came across the name - 'who is Cynthia Schloss?' Followed by 'and why haven't I heard of her before?'.
Not only did Gareth blog about ageing in terms of getting fat, beardy, balding and grey (which rung bells with me), but I accidentally saw the review of Sandra Bullock's new film and, liking Sandra, thought I'd look at her wiki entry. Then saw her age. How on earth does she look like she looks and I look like I look and yet she's only four years younger then me? There's something wrong there. Devil worship or simply mileage, I don't know. But something's going on here.
It's a big, brash musical mainly set in the studio with the same set, slightly changed, used for most of the big musical scenes, and that worked really well for the most part. It's the tale of a famous Italian film director (Daniel Day-Lewis) in the late '50s/early '60s who is days away from starting his latest film venture but he doesn't have a script or any ideas. The film shows his predicament and his agonies (allowing Daniel to 'act') as he suffers 'directors block' and then runs away to a spa on the coast to escape everyone - except they soon catch up with him. The film flashes backwards and forwards showing the past and present of the director and his muses and stars, moving at a nice pace.
Of the ladies, I'd highlight Penelope Cruz as a sex kitten with some nice dramatic moments; Judi Dench made-over into a voluptuous siren with a sexy French accent in her song (but not in her speaking voice, which was odd); and Fergie, who surprised me with the power of her voice and presence on screen, showing off her 'lady bumps' to good effect as the local whore of the director's town when he was young. Her 'Be Italian' sequence was excellent.
Sophia Loren was a pleasant surprise and Nicole Kidman looked good and sang one song, but the real kudos should go to Marion Cotillard who was excellent, a gentle and under-played presence on the screen with two emotional songs which she sang with a good voice, particularly, 'My Husband Makes Movies'. I'd also have to mention Kate Hudson's 'Cinema Italiano' sequence with her in shimmery miniskirt and full-on '60s girl singer moves. Great stuff.
