Cyberclogs

Welly not too much to report the now, except for on the Patter Merchant front things have gotten into gear as the rehearsals have started and its early days as we've only had one so far (the second is tomorrow night) but things should start taking shape nicely as we progress.

On another note I'm still doing Iain McAleese's classes, which I've quite enjoyed so far, although the choice of plays have been a bit unusual this time, with MacBeth, which to be honest I'm not a big fan of Shakespeare, however this week we covered Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit which was very enjoyable to do (with Ann who has come back to the class, doing a grand job as the ghostly mischievious Elvira) and next week we shall cover Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, which as a play I liked but it left me somewhat disturbed. The Homecoming is definitely quite a shocking play for its time and I did like it but the characters in it are quite repellant and its hard to empathise with any of them, the end of the play also left me a bit disturbed and in a state of disbelief (PLOT SPOILER!! The character Ruth who is married with 3 kids to Terry one of the family's brothers, decides at the end to go on the game and work for the family out of the blue!). Perhaps though the state of disbelief is Pinter was after with this one. Anyway that's for next week, so we'll see how it goes.

Went and saw Gran Torino at the Springfield Quay last night and I'm pleased to say I thoroughly enjoyed it, partly because I had no idea just how funny it was going to be. Clint Eastwood (who directs it too and this is apparently his last acting role, why Clint?!) plays a retired Polack American car worker Walt Kowalski, who is cantankerous, stubborn, and above all xenophobic. The fact that his neighbourhood have all but become populated by Asians makes his life even more difficult as he has to adapt to them. However things change when one of the Asian group's family's teenage son Thao (nicely played by newcomer Bee Vang) gets bullied and goaded by a local Asian gang, Walt takes matters into his own hands and stops them. After this the Asian community suddenly become friendly toward walt and are indebted to him, soon after, Thao is given to Walt to repay a service to him.

Gran Torino is suprisingly hilarious as it is Clint's acting swansong it provides him with a great opportunity to show off his natural comedic acting skills not to mention that cantankerous film personae he has developed over the years. But it also provides some powerful moments of drama as well as Walt makes a stand against a local Asian gang things get more serious as it effects Thao and his family also. Despite the powerful drama that underlies the humour this film could honestly be classed as a comedy on its own because it so funny, Walt's prejudices are so amusing in a shocking kind of way (saying "what are you gooks looking at?!") and even though they sound offensive because of his old school mentality they never seem to dissuade the people who are subjected to them. It is an interesting film as well as it tries to bridge age and race gap and show more of an understanding on both sides of the fence for the Asian community and Walt.

So Gran Torino is an excellent fairwell to Clint Eastwood the actor, with the only off note being the very end where we hear Clint sing over the credits (mental note, Clint, you ain't no singer, stick to directing!).

So the Patter Merchants is making a comeback pretty soon folks! So far we've done a few workshops together in the new Patter Merchant line up that were to do with voice, movement and text analysis, the workshops have been good fun and interesting, pretty soon we will start on the rehearsals for our scenes (which start this Friday) so I'm looking forward to that. I have to say the process of this Patter Merchant group has been more enjoyable this time round as the workshops have let us have a little bit of bonding time and sorting the scenes has been a bit more straight forward. I won't say too much about what scene I'm doing just now I'll keep that for a bit later on, but hopefully it will be a good one.

On a different front, note, thingy, I bought Resident Evil 5 last Friday there when it came out and I very pleased to say that I think its an excellent game, after playing the somewhat infuriating demo, I was relieved to see the game itself is far more forgiving and playable. There of course been some naysaying (when isn't there?!) about the gameplay and control mechanics, and that the movement is a bit too slow and you can't run and shoot, ok fair criticism, but personally I find the movement in the game to be largely fine. The gameplay itself is great, as largely follows the same format as RE4, with the third person camera view in front of you, the zombies are again very similar to RE4 as well, as they have been infected with the Los Plagas virus and charge, stalk, try to infect, kill, stab you, just the usual niceness you'd expect from an infected livestock. The action in the game is of course RE5's strongest point, the action zips along at a great pace and the graphics are nothing short of stunning, with some of the best most realistic looking character models yet seen (the character Captain Josh Stone looks lifelike!). Also having a partner with you in the game, Sheva Alomar (looking good!) also keeps things fresh and the inventory sharing system actually works very well, you can quickly grab or stash items and share them between the main character Chris Redfield and Sheva. My only criticisms of the game so far are yes I have to admit there movement is a bit quirky at times, when you auto aim at something sometimes you spin round and face the wrong way! Also those chainsaw zombie guys are a real pain in the ass to kill, you constantly run away from them before they chainsaw you to death. Apart from all that Resident Evil 5 is an excellent sequel to the superb RE4, it may not last quite as long and it isn't quite in the same league, but it is a damn good game. Thankfully it is a game I can see myself playing again unlike say GTAIV, RE5 has more to offer in that respect and keeps the great name of CAPCOM. They know how to make a good game.

And on a different note last night I went to see Doves at the ABC and they were pretty bloody good also, the played a fine set list of material along with some new songs which are from their forthcoming album Kingdom of Rust, which isn't out until April and yep they were pretty good too. The lead singer bassist Jimi Goodwin provided little moments of banter in between songs (not much though) I liked the bit where they were about to play Pounding and he said to the audience "How do you say it here? Is it Poonding?!". Also I liked the moment where they played the theme from Knight Rider and little bits of Golden Brown, although I was hoping they would show more back projection of them going to the pub whilst waiting to go back on stage for an encore. But a very good gig from one of the best British indie rock bands out there. And well that's enough for now.

Well (that's another post beginning with "well") rather than go back to the cinema again so soon, I decided in view of all the fuss I had heard about Slumdog Millionaire, I thought I would bit torrent it instead and I've just finished watching it. I have to say I did enjoy it and it was a good film but in view of all the hype I was sort of left expecting a bit more from it. Thankfully though it is an intelligent film and also quite thought provoking, the whole idea of a slum kid winning a million bucks (or 20 million rupees) and knowing all the answers (or most of them) based on experiences from his life was really quite original (well you can't say too many contestants would really have answered all the questions in real life like that!).

The largely unknown cast were all quite impressive too Dev Patel in the main role of Jamal Malik was very good (actually a British born actor), Anil Kapoor as the host of Who wants to be a millionaire was great too, and Freida Pinto was good as the lovely Latika, whom comes across as a very sympathetic character. Danny Boyle keeps the whole film moving along at a nice pace and I was glad that he didn't sacrifice the ending (for a major feel good copout). All the same though I wouldn't say I was totally bowled over by the film, parts of it did kind of leave me wondering, for example how did he actually manage to get on the show, unless I skipped that bit I don't think they actually show you. I also found although I did sympathise with his tough upbringing and life, that Jamal's character always seemed to know the answer to the questions through some horrible experience in his life (bar the first one!) rather than from something a bit more silly or spontaneous, but I guess that was to add more realism toward the proceedings.

In the end Slumdog is in my humble opinion a pretty good movie, but not necessarily a great one. Anywayys that's enough critiquing.

Just got back from the cinema (for the first time this year!) after seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and I quite enjoyed it although I did find it to be a bit overlong. Nonetheless the story was suprisingly quite charming and pleasant, which is a real change of pace for David Fincher (if you think you will see Brad Pitt in this film beating the shit out of some bar patrons think again). The story follows the eponymous Benjamin who is born with a strange condition that makes him appear old as a baby with wrinkly skin as he grows up though he actually becomes younger and younger. During his life though he meets his life long companion and partner Daisy (Cate Blanchett looking rather radiant here!) and they throughout the events of his life they part and meet up again, but Daisy grows older Benjamin is getting younger.

So for once here we have a Fincher film that doesn't rely on fancy camera moves, loads of profanity or serial killers or people just being beaten and stabbed, I'm not dissing Fincher at all here, in fact its quite a pleasant story. Its subject matter is also quirky enough to keep it from becoming too sentimental or gushy, Fincher also provides some laughs along the way too the old guy getting struck by lightning 7 times and the scene where Brad and Cate finally get it on is funny:

Cate: Sleep with me.
Brad: Absolutely!

I didn't think the film struck me as one of the Fincher's best works but I think the fact that he can handle such material in an intelligent and sensitive way without turning it into a version of Forrest Gump was quite impressive. Its only the film's leisurely pace that kind of lets it down as it feels the pacing should have been tighter. But the cast are all great, Brad does fine in his quiet and assured role, Cate is terrific once again, there is also a nice cameo performance from Tilda Swinton (who faintly resembles Cate too). The aging makeup is terrific too, Brad's transformation from an old man into a shockingly young looking Pittster is totally believable looking (especially that towards the end where he literally looks about 18! Its quite freaky!).

So if you've got a few hours to kill I'd suggest you go and see Benjy's Button, its worth a watch.