I saw Tarantino’s new film ‘Inglourious Basterds’ yesterday.
There are very few films that come out today where you actually give a rat’s arse how it ends. There are very few films that come out today that actually make your heart race. There are very few films that you’re willing to wet yourself in a public cinema so that you don’t miss a second of it. Inglourious Basterds hits absolutely all of these things that make a great movie.
I’m neither a history nor a film academic (unlike Hannah and Jo, with whom I saw it, who probably enjoyed it even more than me) but from what little I know I was still able to follow the story (which is either good storytelling or lacklustre historical facts, you choose). I wondered quite early on how historically accurate this film was, suffice to say that by the end you know EXACTLY how accurate it is. I have to say that it was, most of the time, the score that gave this film such tension and added to the drama on screen so much so that it literally took my breath away. Admittedly, this film is 2 and a half hours long and there are certainly large chunks of time that the film could afford to take out which, as far as I can see (Jo and Hannah may disagree), have no real dramatic or historical relevance. But certainly this time does make you clench your buttocks to an almost painful extent (try getting that image out of your head for the rest of the day) and I suppose it is there to build up tension is such a way as I clearly noticed. Brad Pitt, the token hollywood name in this film, is actually not as bad as I thought. Evidently, there’s no hidden depth or room to build up character, and Tarantino seemed to wholeheartedly intend this, Aldo Reign is a very simple (American) man who wants simply to kill Nazis and end the war. There are only 3 British characters in this film, two of them only appear for one scene (one of which you may recognise), and the other doesn’t remain a main character for long, I did feel a little bit ashamed by this character but when you see it you won’t be able to deny, us Tommy’s got style! If you’re not much up for gore, of which there is a great deal, though nothing gut-wrenchingly horrendous, then perhaps give this a miss. But if you enjoy film, and want to see a film that will become one of the classics in the cinema, book a seat NOW!
My DVD rental spat Best of Monty Python’s Flying Circus at me yesterday. I forgot how much I loved the Python stuff even though I’ve got most of their films and have seen almost all the sketches on the DVD before repeatedly. But this title has 5 discs to it and I’ve only watched one of them so as I get the oithers I’m hoping that the rest of the DVDs will be mostly ones that I haven’t seen before, but I’m a pretty big Python fan so that’s a big hope. Especially given that when I was in Year 10 at school we had to do an English unit on media, which my English teacher turned into one about British comedy of the late twentieth century. So basically we spent 3 months watching endless Goodies, Monty Python and the occasional Fawlty Towers, culminating in a short and badly written essay which my teacher barely read and gave anyone who managed more than two pages an A (including me thanks to some well-placed images) and that’s how I know so many of the sketches.
Making my usual slow pace through my current book, Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. I won’t give away the plot but in the first couple of chapters the book moved quite quickly and was quite exciting, after that the remaining 100 pages, of which I’ve read, are fairly slow, a bit dull and lacking much action. However, I get the sense that this is all building up to something big that, if the first chapters are anything to go by, should keep me reading so I don’t end up with another Poppycock (I’ve adopted this as a term I’ll use when I find a book that I find too boring to continue with, not that Mud, Blood and Poppycock was boring, just not my cup of tea).
My dad gave me his old Blackberry (when I say old, I mean it, this model is discontinued) and bought an O2 sim with a data bolt on to test it out with. But I guessed his company, from whom he gets blackberries, may’ve locked it into the service provider he had before (makes sense seeing as they paid his bill for it), but apparentely they haven’t so I don’t know what to do. I was planning to write a review on it for here, talking mainly about how old models can still cut the mustard (why am I talking like a British army officer today), so I may have to do it without data speed analysis.
I’m still trying to work out how I can sort out my own wordpress template/theme so I can set up this blog on my own web address, have full control over the design and coding but still use Wordpress’ tech to update/write the blog. I’ve been trying but seriously have no idea what I’m doing or where to start, which you can’t deny will hold me up a tad. If anyone can offer help please do so.
It’s been a bit quiet on the old tech front of late, but the IFA Consumer Electronics show starts tomorrow and is running until Wednesday so will have more stuff coming. I better rest my cynical gland ahead of it, I just wish I could afford to go to Berlin so I can express my arrogant incredulity in person.
As soon as the paragraphs start to get smaller and smaller I know I’m running out of things to talk about.
Now then, if you are a regular reader, you know that I don’t have/want a Mac, my thoughts are they’re too expensive and not a high enough spec to justify the cost. However, as a tech reviewer I have to be fair, and fair I shall be, so here is a review of the latest Mac operating system Snow Leopard, BUT considering I haven’t tried it/can’t afford it, I put out a call on Facebook for people to write a 500 word review for me to post. Nobody wanted to write a full review but many gave me a general overview, so here are the comments.