Review of Stardust

Stardust

"Undemanding enjoyable fantasy romp (PG)"

Came out of the Stardust smiling. I love a bit of swashbuckling, with romance thrown in, and some colourful baddies. Michelle Pfeiffer was a wonderfully malevolent witch, Lamia, radiant at the beginning (my lord, she's 50!)  and then ageing in leaps as the film progresses, and her magic wanes. The main storyline involves our hero, Tristan (Charlie Cox) discovering his destiny, finding his true love, Yvaine (Clare Danes), and ditching the wrong girl, Victoria (Sienna Miller).
Clare Danes begins as a prickly, irritated fallen star (as you would be), and gradually regains her glow as she warms to Tristan. Sienna Miller didn't have too much of a stretch, looking pretty and spoilt. Charlie Cox is the bland, but sweet, hero who saves the girl, and the day.
As well as Michelle's deliciously wicked witch, Tristan and Yvaine are also pursued by Prince Septimus, the ruthless seventh son of the king of Stormhold who'll stop at nothing to accede to the throne.
Robert de Niro looked like he had a blast as captain of a pirate airship, but has a bizarre secret life as an outrageously camp cross dresser (Hollywood still rolling out campy gay men for cheap laughs).
Rickey Gervais can't act, he just plays a variation on the same character, with that inane, annoying grin.

All in all though good fun and who could doubt but that goodness and truth will win in the end, yay.

Rated 4/5 on Nov 20 2007

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Review Tags: fantasy, film camp, romance

Creating space

It's not new, I constantly hear people asking a question but finishing it with "or...?", so in fact the question is being left open-ended; "or" is being used as a prompt for the other person to take the conversation wherever.

Or maybe the questioner, taken aback by their own boldness, retreats into diffidence by tagging on the "or...?". It seems to be used more often by quieter types, not the gung-ho gang who often don't listen to what others say anyway, and so rarely leave spaces in a conversation.

Is that a gun in your pocket, or...?

Do you think Brief Encounter was utter garbage, or...?


Coming soon, "But...", The Sequel

Review of Miami Ink

Miami Ink


Unimaginative, boring, reality TV

Recently I upgraded my Sky subscription to include the Lifestyle mix, i.e. food, gardening, and the Discovery channels. I thought Miami Ink on Discovery Real Time would be regular viewing, being into tattoos n all, but the novelty quickly wore off. The owners are a couple of testosterone-pumped jocks and the show’s formulaic set up is tedious.

Having said that, I’m still looking for ideas for a coverup on my old, faded, first tattoo. At the moment thinking of a Japanese-style chrysanthemum – but that could change next month. Need to check out a studio in Waterford, called Yakuza.

Rated 2/5 on Nov 09 2007 by famron

Review Tags: crap reality tv, tattooing

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Quick cuppa?

I still get the papers, intermittently during the week and then overdose on Saturdays with the Irish Examiner, Irish Times, The Guardian. I’m desperate for cutting out reviews (book and music) and interesting bits from them, then the pieces of folded up paper lie around the house for a few weeks until I either shove them in the back of any old book (though coming across old cuttings can be nicely distracting, ‘why did that grab my attention?’ ‘is it still interesting, or should I just bin it?’) or I put the relevant review into the purchased CD.

Several months ago I cut out a snippet on the Tefal Quick Cup, thinking it looked like a great idea. The cutting has been resting on my fridge (with the aid of a Toro fridge magnet) until this week. Basically, it heats a small amount of water in 3 seconds for a cup of tea/coffee etc (notice the word ‘heat’, not boil). It’s supposed to save money compared to using a kettle.

I went online to check out reviews of the product, the first couple were positive (not that I’d suggested they were ‘planted’ in any way), but as I dug deeper I found more and more negative ones, especially from tea drinkers. Essentially, the Tefal Quick Cup doesn’t boil the water, it’s simply not hot enough to make a decent cup of tea, it can also leave a scum on the tea, and is noisy. So it’s a no, then.

Farmers' Markets - U.S. style

Don't be hungry if you're going to read this article in Greenlight online magazine.

I love how for the Austin, Texas market, 'local' means within 150 miles.

Giuliani for President?

Interesting, and extremely negative, take on Rudy Giulani's bid to become U.S. President in The Guardian.

Music with legs

I buy music CDs every so often (although I’ve an iPod I’ve only ever bought a couple of singles from iTunes. I still like physically having a CD, the artwork and the liner notes). Very occasionally it’s radio stuff, but more usually it’s not. I get tips on new music from media reviews, blogs, and Tom Dunne on Today FM.

Recently I got Animal Collective (Strawberry Jam), yet another Canadian band. The instant hit for me on it is Peacebone, and the other tunes have been slowly growing on me. Peacebone has a great hook – last week in the dinner queue at work I found myself swaying back into the guy behind me as I replayed the chorus in my head (not on medication yet).

Of the CDs I’ve bought over the last couple of years, some I still regularly play, including, Broken Social Scene’s eponymous album and the Arctic Monkeys first one.

CDs I’ve bought over the last 12 years or so, and which I still listen to occasionally, include all of Yo La Tengo’s stuff, Liz Phair (the 2 early albums), the ‘Amateur’ soundtrack, ‘Ocean’s 11’ soundtrack, Mary Margaret O’Hara, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ soundtrack, The Pixies, The Sundays.

Strangely, I used to be really into Kirsten Hersh/Throwing Muses but haven’t listened to either in years, maybe all of that painful intensity is just too much now.