Went and saw True Grit yesterday at the pics in Cineworld, and despite the massive queue to get in (well it was a Saturday afternoon, in fact can't believe the difference between that place and Clydebank where there is hardly anyone and you can stroll in!).
And as it was a Cohen brothers movie it was quite entertaining, while certainly not their best movie it was definitely worth a watch. Having not seen the original I can't say how it compared, but I thought overall Jeff Bridges gave a fine performance as the old chiselled veteran marshall Rooster Cogburn (even though you can't make out what he says half the time!). The rest of the cast were also fairly impressive with Matt Damon (I didn't even recognise him at first!) as a Texas ranger, and most notably the young Hailee Steinfield as the plucky girl Mattie who calls upon Cogburn's services to bring back the man who killed her dad, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) to justice. I thought it was high time the Cohens did a Western as they have sometimes had an affinity about making films about people from the South so why not do a Western. The tone of the film is also surprisingly fairly light hearted for the Cohen's while they are no stranger to comedy there is always a dark tone to their movies, but despite a couple of moments, its all rather jaunty and pleasant. As usual visually its a very appealing movie as the superb Roger Deakins provides the cinematography duties again and Carter Burwell also produces a fine elegiac score befitting the period. The only downsides as I said were the western accents are pretty thick so its hard to make out what some of the characters are saying, particularly Jeff Bridges and or two others, also the timeline of the film appears to be askew, as the young girl Mattie at the end of the film is supposed to be 40, but the woman playing her appears much older! Also Josh Brolin's part in the film was very small, surprisingly he was only in it for maybe 10 minutes at the most! Doubtless his fee for the film would have been very good!
Regardless of that True Grit is an enjoyable Cohen brothers pic, while not worthy of their best work, it is a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.
Moving onto the tennis once again, I caught up with watching the finals of the Qatar Ladies Open today, and was really pleased to see that Vera Zvonareva (my fav female tennis player at the mo, and rather nice) defeat Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets scoring 6-4 6-4. It was quite a good final although I think the windy conditions made it difficult for the match to really flow, as both girls kept making alot of unforced errors and double faults. But therein I think Vera was able to hold her own in those conditions while Wozniacki struggled to as she was broken several times, it was also good to see her be challenged, and having to respond. Admittedly I did feel a bit sorry for Caroline toward the end when she tried to return a shot in a rally and she lost her balance and missed the ball which bounced just within the baseline, and in frustration she slammed her racquet down. But in the end I think Vera deserved the title, she battled through two tough matches in the quarter and semi finals and she held her composure and pulled through. Also it was her first title in over a year, so well done lass!
Speaking of first titles in a while, I was also pleased to see the return of Juan Martin Del Potro, who this year has made his comeback after a serious wrist injury in 2010 knocked him out of play for the year. After undergoing surgery, he's now back in the game and he won his first title tonight at Delray Beach since winning the US Open in 2009 against Federer. It must be one of the quickest return up the rankings in a while as Del Potro started off the year as about 486, and after making 2 semi-finals this year and winning at Delray Beach, his ranking will go back up to within the top 100. This year could also potentially see Del Potro resurging back into winning the Masters tournaments, if not a Grand Slam, well perhaps not, but you never know. Federer and Nadal watch out!
Speaking of which, onto the last tennis tournament of the weekend I'll mention, it was good to see Djokovic carry on his winning streak at Dubai as he defeated Federer in straight sets 6-3 6-3, proving once again how formidable his standard has become. This has to be Djokovic's year, if he carries this on he will certainly win a couple of Grand Slam titles, so Wimbledon and US Open definitely might be in the cards. Unless Del Potro beats him there first, mind you that could take a miracle for that to happen again, but as Federer once said "tennis is a crazy game".
Anyway enough blogging for one night. Tara!
Sunday 27 February 2011
Friday 25 February 2011
Sketches, exams and wummin's tennis!
Well its been a fairly busy time of late, as I'm studying away on my IT apprenticeship program with Whitebox Digital, and I will be resitting my A+ Certification exam(s) this Thursday coming, well one of them, as I previously sat these exam 6 years ago. But since then there's been alot of updates so I needed to retake the course, so hoping to get a pass next week, otherwise its £64 I'll need to fork out to resit it!
Other news is due to my studying its not managed to leave much time for the acting side of things, but I will be performing a Monty Python sketch, the argument clinic one, with fellow Ramshorn member Will Spiers at the Ramshorn's comedy a la carte next Sunday. So far we've had one rehearsal and it was great fun, but the sketch is a tricky one due to the rapid back and forth nature of the dialogue, but the scene is pretty much in my head, it just remains to just batter it out amongst ourselves. It will be fun just hoping we do great job, which we should (we will, Will!). I also recently auditioned for Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy at the Ramshorn as well, unfortunately I didn't get a part in it, but I guess you can't win them all. Rather disappointing as I've been a fan of the show for years and me and my friend Stephen recorded a version of it years ago when we were both teenagers. Ironically I also had some people actually tell me I would be perfect for the part of Arthur Dent, but I guess I lost out to the "favourites", but that's the way it goes, regardless it should be a good fun show and I'll look forward to seeing next month.
Finally onto my latest crazed addiction, which is nothing other than the tennis, in fact my addiction has reached to the extent I am now watching the women's tennis as well. And I'm pleased to say its pretty much as good as the men's tennis, admittedy the fact they only play the best of 3 sets in Grand Slams is actually irrelevant, as 3 set matches can last almost as long as 5 setters at a real push, as Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kunetsova's match during in the Australian Open proved, as it lasted nearly 5 hours! Also unfortuantely due to Eurosport only covering the women's tennis, I can't watch the men's unless I had Sky Sports but I guess in a way its no big deal.
While the men's players have some true greats such as Federer, Nadal and Djokovic and Murray, the women's tennis also has some real greats just now, such as Kim Clijsters, Francesca Schiavone, Jelena Jankovic, and my current fav Vera Zvonareva (pretty nice she is too!). In fact I've been watching the ladies open at Qatar all week and its been pretty good overall, but Vera's games have been the real highlights, especially her great 3 hour long quarter final yesterday with Huntachova, and today's semi with Jelena Jankovic. Unfortunately the one woman's player I'm not as impressed with or frustrated with is the current number 1 Caroline Wozniacki, while she is a great player, I get frustrated at how one-sided alot of her matches are. I guess its good to see a great player play really well, but she breezes through alot of her matches too easily, it would be better to see her get challenged more, but alot of the player's seem to fold under her game. It just makes the match more disappointing and boring to watch, Vera plays her in the final tomorrow at Qatar, but no doubt Wozniacki will beat her, but I hope Vera gives her a mighty hard time in the process.
Acchh anyway that's enough for one posting, later.
Other news is due to my studying its not managed to leave much time for the acting side of things, but I will be performing a Monty Python sketch, the argument clinic one, with fellow Ramshorn member Will Spiers at the Ramshorn's comedy a la carte next Sunday. So far we've had one rehearsal and it was great fun, but the sketch is a tricky one due to the rapid back and forth nature of the dialogue, but the scene is pretty much in my head, it just remains to just batter it out amongst ourselves. It will be fun just hoping we do great job, which we should (we will, Will!). I also recently auditioned for Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy at the Ramshorn as well, unfortunately I didn't get a part in it, but I guess you can't win them all. Rather disappointing as I've been a fan of the show for years and me and my friend Stephen recorded a version of it years ago when we were both teenagers. Ironically I also had some people actually tell me I would be perfect for the part of Arthur Dent, but I guess I lost out to the "favourites", but that's the way it goes, regardless it should be a good fun show and I'll look forward to seeing next month.
Finally onto my latest crazed addiction, which is nothing other than the tennis, in fact my addiction has reached to the extent I am now watching the women's tennis as well. And I'm pleased to say its pretty much as good as the men's tennis, admittedy the fact they only play the best of 3 sets in Grand Slams is actually irrelevant, as 3 set matches can last almost as long as 5 setters at a real push, as Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kunetsova's match during in the Australian Open proved, as it lasted nearly 5 hours! Also unfortuantely due to Eurosport only covering the women's tennis, I can't watch the men's unless I had Sky Sports but I guess in a way its no big deal.
While the men's players have some true greats such as Federer, Nadal and Djokovic and Murray, the women's tennis also has some real greats just now, such as Kim Clijsters, Francesca Schiavone, Jelena Jankovic, and my current fav Vera Zvonareva (pretty nice she is too!). In fact I've been watching the ladies open at Qatar all week and its been pretty good overall, but Vera's games have been the real highlights, especially her great 3 hour long quarter final yesterday with Huntachova, and today's semi with Jelena Jankovic. Unfortunately the one woman's player I'm not as impressed with or frustrated with is the current number 1 Caroline Wozniacki, while she is a great player, I get frustrated at how one-sided alot of her matches are. I guess its good to see a great player play really well, but she breezes through alot of her matches too easily, it would be better to see her get challenged more, but alot of the player's seem to fold under her game. It just makes the match more disappointing and boring to watch, Vera plays her in the final tomorrow at Qatar, but no doubt Wozniacki will beat her, but I hope Vera gives her a mighty hard time in the process.
Acchh anyway that's enough for one posting, later.
Monday 7 February 2011
Jack Bauer's last 24
WARNING: PLOT SPOILERS AHEEED!
Well this weekend I finished watching the last season of 24, which brought an end to one America's most entertaining and enthralling, yet preposterously over the top series. Perhaps that was one of the flaws of the series, at the start 24 was quite incredible but as the series progressed the scenarios get more outlandish. Jack Bauer has been through more than most soldiers in war have even gone through in their lives maybe! (well perhaps not). One of the minuses of the show in a way has always been that annoying digital clock which chimes throughout the show, I can swear the clock is actually saying "Cheekbones, cheekbones". Listen to it, I maybe mad but I can swear it is lol!
But I must admit I always get a kick out of the watching it, especially when the main baddie gets their comuppenace from Jack, or Jack torturing one of the real bad guys of the show. Although I do think at times 24 crossed the uncomfortable line of what is acceptable in a TV show and what isn't, as torture is a frequent inclusion of the show, and Jack Bauer is frequently shown as a man who will do whatever it takes to get information out of one of his enemies. Its also funny how you see Jack go from a loving family man with a daughter and looking for her, to becoming a vicious agent who will shoot, garrote, torture to get what he needs. One such incident in the last series (PLOT SPOILER coming up!) is when his lover Renee is killed by an assassin, Jack eventually captures the assassin, whom he beats, attacks with pliers, sprays with oil and a blowtorch, and finally disembowls him in order to obtain a SIM card from the man's chest. By 24 torture standards that one was pretty strong.
All the same the show was great for melding its multiple plot strands together, also many of the major twists and turns involving the main characters over the years can be quite thrilling and unpredictable. Some of the best characters of course have included the seemingly good Nina Myers who went on and killed Jack's wife (Jack gets revenge and shoots her in season 3 of course), President Palmer, a man of strong conviction and decency, although he resigns his presidency and later only to be assissinated. Jack Buchanan, another decent guy who later on also gets killed in an act of self sacrifice during an attack at the Whitehouse. And of course there is Tony Almeida, who once was the Director of CTU and also a decent guy, but he turns bad in Season 7 after he felt betrayed by the Government after the death of his wife.
But of course one of the best characters of all is Chloe O'Brien, the mouthy analyst who helps Jack immeasurably throughout the show, she may engage mouth before brain, but she sure has a brain! Chloe quite often was the most intelligent character in the show as she frequently showed great tenacity as well as technical skill. Of course she has some ludicrous moments as well, one of which I think was in season 4 when she was in a position where she had to kill a bad guy, so she took out an M14 (or whatever the gun was) and blew the guy away. Ridiculous but great fun of course.
Which also reminds me of one of the show's most ridiculous scenes where Jack dresses in full bullet proof armour suit in Series 8 in order to abduct one of the series primary sleaze ball characters. Great stuff but very silly.
In the end though, the show is about basically fighting terror with terror, Jack Bauer is the perfect anti-hero, but he gets the job done, even if he has to kill, maim, torture and dismember as many baddies as he can throughout the show. But 24 has always been about high thrills entertainment, and definitely will be missed after its 9 year long run, a feature film is in the works so we will see how it goes for Jack Bauer in the future.
Well this weekend I finished watching the last season of 24, which brought an end to one America's most entertaining and enthralling, yet preposterously over the top series. Perhaps that was one of the flaws of the series, at the start 24 was quite incredible but as the series progressed the scenarios get more outlandish. Jack Bauer has been through more than most soldiers in war have even gone through in their lives maybe! (well perhaps not). One of the minuses of the show in a way has always been that annoying digital clock which chimes throughout the show, I can swear the clock is actually saying "Cheekbones, cheekbones". Listen to it, I maybe mad but I can swear it is lol!
But I must admit I always get a kick out of the watching it, especially when the main baddie gets their comuppenace from Jack, or Jack torturing one of the real bad guys of the show. Although I do think at times 24 crossed the uncomfortable line of what is acceptable in a TV show and what isn't, as torture is a frequent inclusion of the show, and Jack Bauer is frequently shown as a man who will do whatever it takes to get information out of one of his enemies. Its also funny how you see Jack go from a loving family man with a daughter and looking for her, to becoming a vicious agent who will shoot, garrote, torture to get what he needs. One such incident in the last series (PLOT SPOILER coming up!) is when his lover Renee is killed by an assassin, Jack eventually captures the assassin, whom he beats, attacks with pliers, sprays with oil and a blowtorch, and finally disembowls him in order to obtain a SIM card from the man's chest. By 24 torture standards that one was pretty strong.
All the same the show was great for melding its multiple plot strands together, also many of the major twists and turns involving the main characters over the years can be quite thrilling and unpredictable. Some of the best characters of course have included the seemingly good Nina Myers who went on and killed Jack's wife (Jack gets revenge and shoots her in season 3 of course), President Palmer, a man of strong conviction and decency, although he resigns his presidency and later only to be assissinated. Jack Buchanan, another decent guy who later on also gets killed in an act of self sacrifice during an attack at the Whitehouse. And of course there is Tony Almeida, who once was the Director of CTU and also a decent guy, but he turns bad in Season 7 after he felt betrayed by the Government after the death of his wife.
But of course one of the best characters of all is Chloe O'Brien, the mouthy analyst who helps Jack immeasurably throughout the show, she may engage mouth before brain, but she sure has a brain! Chloe quite often was the most intelligent character in the show as she frequently showed great tenacity as well as technical skill. Of course she has some ludicrous moments as well, one of which I think was in season 4 when she was in a position where she had to kill a bad guy, so she took out an M14 (or whatever the gun was) and blew the guy away. Ridiculous but great fun of course.
Which also reminds me of one of the show's most ridiculous scenes where Jack dresses in full bullet proof armour suit in Series 8 in order to abduct one of the series primary sleaze ball characters. Great stuff but very silly.
In the end though, the show is about basically fighting terror with terror, Jack Bauer is the perfect anti-hero, but he gets the job done, even if he has to kill, maim, torture and dismember as many baddies as he can throughout the show. But 24 has always been about high thrills entertainment, and definitely will be missed after its 9 year long run, a feature film is in the works so we will see how it goes for Jack Bauer in the future.
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