Strangely compelling

Ookay. Them Chemical Brothers be getting weird.

Thank you, Scott

Thank you baked potato.

Damn straight 2: Damn straightier

Which 24 Character Are You?
	You are Jack Bauer. You are an aggressive and heroic figure. You think rules are only for kids, and try to break them at least once everyday (or hour). You like to get help from others especially your best friends. To complete a task, you are willing to do whatever it takes - be it the right way or the wrong one. Also, you could totally kick Chuck Norris' ass.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

I KNEW IT!

Damn straight.

Which Heroes Character Are You?
	You are Hiro. You are everyones favorite Japanese tourist. Your time is well-managed and you make sure things get done. On top of that, the girls always want a second chance with you.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

I always knew, deep down, that I was born to be a Japanese nerd.

Maybe we'll win this time

Bill Bailey previews his entry into next year's Eurovision:



This isn't a joke, by the way so is very awesome.

Hopefully that will get his excellent TV series released on DVD.

Dammit!

Again the BBC teases me. See this story on their website, the headline when it appeared in my morning news alert was "Monster attack steals user data". I naturally thought this was an actual monster attack not an attack on the Monster job website.

Dammit.

Film review: The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Ultimatum @ IMDB

The review begins, as ever, with a tale.

My good friend Ryan called and asked if we'd like to go catch the new Bourne film. I said, hey, I love Jason Bourne films. He killed a guy with a magazine and a toaster. What's not to love about that?

So he said it's on at 6, he checked teletext, I said cool, it's a date. So he picked me up from my work place, we drove down to the cinema, looked at some Transformers*, strolled across to Burger King, grabbed a burger and chewed the fat both figuratively and literally.

Then I get a phone call. My other good friend, Meat, is joining us and since it's nearly 6 he's already at the cinema.

And there's no 6 o'clock showing of Bourne. The conversation pretty much went like this:

"Really?"

"Yeah, there's nothing on the screens for six. Eight thirty, yeah. Six no."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"It's nearly six so it might have dropped off the screens."

"I asked. No six."

"What's going on?" Ryan pipes up.

"There's no showing at six, idiot."

"Are you sure?"

Etc etc. So we walk up to the cinema and, waddyaknow, there is no showing at six. Ryan swears that there was, it said so on teletext but the evidence is against him. So we go back to his house, check teletext and do you know what?

It did say there was a showing at six. Teletext lied!

But this is a film review.

My first piece of advice: Do not sit in the front row if you suffer from motion sickness. The film is in a great documentary-style which is shorthand for the camera shakes all over the place. Now, I don't suffer from motion sickness and within half an hour I thought I was going to puke in Ryan's lap.

Now that the safety message is over with, on with the review.

Bourne is still on the run and looking for information about his past. That's pretty much it. Yes, there is a lot of CIA shenanigans going on but that's the thrust of the story.

Basically, everything that was great about the previous films is here and still great . Matt Damon's performance: great. Supporting cast: great. Action: superb.

It's all great. The main strength of the Bourne films is the tension that gets cranked up straight from the off. There is a great scene in a train station that is unbearable. And when the action kicks in, it's a great release to see this visceral, in your face, brutal action.

Highly recommended.

Bourne gets a stick, a really brutal stick that Bourne could use to pummel you senseless in, like, 2 seconds before you could even see him.



*Ryan's eye was caught by a Commerative Edition of Soundwave which he was going to buy. Until he saw it was £25 which was too rich for his blood. He wouldn't admit it, but he shed a tear over that.

The Bourne Wikipedia

Saw the new Bourne film last night which is a tale to tell and the full review will follow when I get home later on. But my BBC Daily News email had a related interesting little story, a new web tool that can show changes make to Wikipedia pages by the CIA and other organisations.

Moving past the issue of surely they have better things to do with their time like ensuring world peace, it would be interesting to see what pages they edit. If it's mainly altering arcane bit of Star Trek cannon they we have an issue that needs raising.

I still love my new laptop

I do. And I've been playing with it loads which is why I haven't posted on here for a bit. But anyway, initial thoughts:

1) Sony laptop screens are fantastic. Really clean, clear and bright.

2) I love burning DVDs. I love burning CDs. Just being able to burn anything is great.

3) Windows Vista. Now, I may have previously groaned about the newest version of Windows but, you know what, it works. It doesn't do anything new or amazing that blows you away. it just works. It's like all those old promises made by Microsoft about how Windows will work, how easy it will be to do stuff, they seem to finally be getting near to that. Not much different than XP but very pleasant to use.

4) I love being able to put my memory stick from my PSP straight into the laptop and copy stuff over quickly and take it out straight away. Love it.

5) The battery on my old laptop was getting worn out, So worn out in fact that if you booted it up without it being plugged in, by the time you got logged in and everything the battery would be practically dead. Not so on my new laptop. I've been using it unplugged for ages and the battery keeps on going. And, it has yet to catch fire.

6) Games! I won't be able to play Crysis but things like The Movies will run on there which is good enough for me.

7) My dear wife attempted to name the new laptop Betsy. I said no, this laptop is a lady. A classy lady. She needs to be called something like Mercedes or Versace. To put it in perspective, the old laptop is now called Godfrey.

I miss my new laptop

Stupid work. Obviously couldn't bring my laptop into work so have to sit here with it far far away. Not fun. Got DVDs to burn, Vista settings to play with, Google Earth came pre-installed on it and I've not even started it yet!

5 o'clock is a long time away. I bet he's missing me.

I love my new laptop

I reaaaally love it. No problems with Vista yet and I can now start burning my episodes of Consolevania to DVDs now. Love it. Love it love it love it

The Best Trailer Ever.

I'm not even joking. Less talk, more action:



I saw this when I saw Transformers. It deserves it's own post. I sat there in that cinema, stunned off my face.

I got home, stole my laptop off my good lady wife and fired up Wikipedia. Apparently, the film has no name but is known as Cloverfield.

My God, do I want to see this film. Inspired by seeing Godzilla toys in a Japanese shop? This movie is made for me!

Film Review: Transformers

Transformers @ IMDB

Now, I am a child of the eighties. Not just because I was born in 1980, either. All of the great 80s Icons were imprinted all over my childhood bedroom: A-Team curtains, an ET doll, Castle Greyskull in the corner of my room, a pirate copy of Ghostbusters ready to watch and Transformers wallpaper.

Giant robots fighting? I'm in. Orson Welles as the voice of Unicron? Sold. A live action Transformers movie?

My heart said yes, my head said oh dear. Which is right?

The Autobots have come to Earth to find the All Spark, an ancient artifact that could save or destroy the Universe. Unfortunately, the Decepticons were here first.

Just typing that, I cannot believe this has been made as a proper film for real people. Autobots. Cybertron. All Spark.

That last one. Hmm. Not a great idea. Could have gone with something from Transformers canon, like The Matrix of Leadership, rather than inventing something new.

But I digress. Shia LeBeouf takes the lead. Who he? I don't know but he carries the film well. He is our point of view, our anchor and if he slips up the film slips up. He doesn't and he is one of the 3 pillars that makes this a great film.

The other pillar?

BIG FREAKIN' ROBOTS FIGHTING EACH OTHER!

Make no bones about it: these are The Best Special Effects in The World. Seriously. The best. Like that song from the Karate Kid. THE. BEST.

Every criticism about the film: yeah, I'll give you that. The script is a bit dodgy, do we really need that shoot out in the library and the Michael Bay Shake-O-Cam raises it's ugly head several times.

But the third pillar, Senor Speilbergo, gives the film a light touch and a streak of humor. And it is really funny in places. Bumblebee pissing on someone is a bit weird* but some scenes are laugh out loud funny.

So. You've got all the usual Summer Blockbuster problems: running time, script, etc. But, if you held those toys in your hands as a child and wondered what they'd look like 30 feet tall, go see this film.

This film gets a sword, a huge sword that only Optimus Prime could use.



* Why does he need to piss on someone? This also furthers a trend, as Scrappy Doo pissed on Daphne in the Scooby Doo live action movie. What is it with Hollywood making our childhood icons piss on people?

Nevermind, eh? At least Joel Schumacher is still alive.

So that's one legendary director dead not long after another legendary director died. They're like buses aren't they? And, I don't believe I've seen any of their work. Can't say that I've seen anything more than the bits they would show in that stupid 2007 in Cinema trailer.

I can't say that I'm devastated either. Not to be harsh or anything but it's not like John Carpenter has died or anything. Now that would be devastating.