Alex's Adventures on the Infobahn - films

Paperwork

2008-12-01T12:44:00+00:00

We went down to London on Saturday to join some birthday drinks while enjoying the Wales-Australia game (the pub not wanting to splash out 20k on the Sky Sports license for the England-All Blacks game). It was a good choice to as we were treated to a nice close game which was won by the home side. Well done Wales!

Sunday was a lazy day of TV watching as we spent around 5 hours sorting through a few months accumulated paper work, filing a large chunk of it and re-cycling an even larger chunk Boring work but needed some sorting out.

We did watch a few films over the weekend including the rather touching dystopian Wall-E. It's a lovely film and very well presented. There are a number of references/homages to other science fiction films including the obvious Silent Running which is now on our rental list. I was also quite taken with the space travel sequence which was heavily influenced by the Star Trek: Voyager title credits. Wall-E is certainly a worthwhile addition to any collection.

The three cultures of Alex de Bennee

2007-07-31T23:40:00+01:00

The weekend involved several brushes with the arts (of sorts). Saturday saw me join Mikey and co to see the robot movie Transformers. Friends reviews have been quite varied. My personal take on the film is if you turn your brain off for the plot and want to see giant robots fighting in glorious CGI then this film delivers.

Sunday saw me joining Phil and Karl for an open air production of Twelfth Night in Wythenshawe Park. It was a fantastic show and ticks another live Shakespeare off my list.

On Monday the company social fund paid for a trip to the cinema to which I took the opportunity to see the Simpsons Movie in the gallery of the Filmworks. The film was pretty good although it did feel a little padded. I was less impressed with the Gallery experience. Although I wasn't expecting the alcohol to be inclusive the snack selection was less than stellar. Yes the seats are bigger but you'd still be better off buying a normal ticket and what you actually want to eat over the counter.

Routine is the Enemy of the Conscious Mind

2007-05-30T14:07:00+01:00

It's easy to make your mind switch off by following a fixed daily routine. Things are likely to go wrong when you mess with that routine even with a few small details. For example my daily commute involves reading the free sheet, listening to the radio on the way in. When I get to town I drop the free sheet in the recycling bin and possibly drop of a DVD in the post box.

Today I decided to skip the free sheet to do some actual book reading on the Metro. I also had a DVD to return by post. I'm sure you can guess the rest.

Friday night was a boys night out with Lee and Mark (joined by Jeff, Chris and Chris). After a curry with what can only be described as an heroic amount if garlic in it we ended up in Ara. Lee had neglected to tell me to wear black but they are a pretty accepting lot there :-) I came home to the lovely surprise of finding Fliss back from her brief sojourn to London. She had decided that heading home before a Bank Holiday weekend was a little silly.

I had made drunken plans with Lee on Friday night to try out Caged Asylum but after canvasing for interest we decided to postpone until we could raise a larger pose. Instead we had Lee, Anne and Paul around for board games and films. We watched the rather dire Smokin' Aces. Overly complex and involved, the only highlight was watching Ben Affleck's character being killed in a random drive by shooting.

Sunday saw Fliss taking advantage of my car to drive us to Rich and Al's for (not) BBQ and chance to play with their Wii. I must say I like the controller concept. The jury is still out on if I should buy one for the social aspect. There is still an element of isolation of watching two people play console games. Maybe this would be different with 4 controllers? I has earlier seen a PS3 for ?299 in my local games store. It was a Japanese version but apparently the only limitation was it wouldn't play PS2 games as there was no region locking on the PS3. However I held off buying it until I get a chance to play with one. I can after all wait a year or so...

We also took a break during the proceedings to join some of the others down at the local cinema to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's Endthe latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I enjoyed the film a lot more than the second instalment although would of preferred some more mass naval battles. I quite liked the film makers solution to how they could get more Johnny Depp into the film.

We visited Bolton again on Monday for Fluff's birthday meal followed by a few drinks at Ye Olde Man and Scythe before heading home to sleep.

14 Days Later

2007-05-25T01:19:00+01:00

Fliss has headed back down to the big smoke after spending a lovely two weeks visiting up north. While work has been going crazy it's been really nice to come home to my lovely girlfriend. I'm more than a little sad we are seperated by geography again. On the plus side my house is a lot tidier and I'm sure she's happy to be looking after my car. I'm fighting the urge to pine....

I joined Aidan, Dave, Jacob and (alt) Marcus to watch 28 Weeks Later. It was pretty much as expected although I did find the large amount of shaky cam a little annoying at the end. It also confirms my belief that the majority of the population in horror movies are obviously far too stupid to be allowed to survive. TJ would have fits at some of the lapses in risk assessment portrayed in the film. For one thing an Access All Areas pass for site services shouldn't include the room your keeping you confirmed infected hosts in. Having said that it was a fun enough film. We shall see what Pirates of the Caribbean : At Worlds End is like on Sunday. Some of the reviews I've seen so far have not been promising.