Attack the Block

You may or may not know, I am a big fan of Adam and Joe.  I have followed their careers from The Adam and Joe Show to their regular Saturday radio show on BBC6 Music.  They style of humour suits me to a tee.  Funny middle class men using their slight poshness to make us laugh, what's not to laugh at?


Last year, Joe embarked on an great journey to direct his first film.  All the filmic influences he has had over the years all rolled into a neat little film about an alien attack in a South London block of flats.  Genius I shouted.  Its about time we got a films set in a real London location. Where real people live, not like stupid Notting Hill.  I expected his comedy would shine throughout the film.


I saw it last Thursday and can't tell you how excited I was.  The great Cornballs debut feature.  I mean, he was also writing the Tintin script for Spielberg, this has got to be good.
After about 20 minutes in I realised a few things:


There was no humour:  Not one joke, quip or witty line.  The kids cast were great but I didn't see the point of what was happening.


The story seemed aimless, the female character seemed to forgive her vicious attackers within seconds.


And then there was the aliens.  Dudes in furry black suits with illuminated teeth.  Scary = no.
The film stopped and started with no point, no reprimanding of the bad kids, and all selling weed like no tomorrow.  This script played like the kind of story a man writes when he has no experience of real tower blocks in London, the real ghettos.


The film never really reaches its crescendo and instead just flails miserably to its finish.
Joe Cornish is not ready to write and direct films.  I think being around other writers and directors on Tintin will help to grow his talent.  He obviously has something going for him.


Disappointed but not completely turned off, I am willing to stick around for a bit.  But Corndog needs to shape his shit up.


Stephen!*

*Just coming...

Tell No One

I can't tell you how wonderful this film is.  French films always have a lyrical sense to it.
Stunning and intriguing, a book adaptation (although not read the book) that speaks well on film.


Its rare I find a film that pleases me in every way, makes me truly happy, scared, and sad.  I end up thinking about the film for days afterwards.  It effects me in such away that not many films do.


The story plays out like reality, as in I can't believe what I am seeing and I want to keep watching through my fingers.  And when the climax of the film happens, I am in floods of tears, unable to control my emotions.  Guillaume Canet, beautiful French dude from The Beach, makes his directorial debut with Tell No One (Ne Le Dis A Personne).  And my what a great debut it is.  Another director to watch.


The French know how to show love in many ways.


I need to get me one of those ;)

Hanna - handy with a Spanner and other weapons.

Went to see Hanna last week.  I didn't really know much about it, had seen the trailer only once and already had preconceived notions about it.  Young person trained to be a killer from a young age, to be a fighting machine.  Bred as a clone to create a new army of fighters.


Fair enough, action story with savage young female lead.  Thriller by numbers, right?
Wrong.
This film not only entertained me but surprised me.  Sharp, savage, funny, political and camptastic.
I found the story riveting, the casting perfect, and Ronan's acting sublime.  I think it could have been a little shorter, but in saying that it was beautiful.  Blanchett is well cast as the villain, with those steely eyes  and porcelain skin, she even scares me a bit.


Saorse Ronan is one to watch.  Yes she did a duff film in The Lovely Bones, but you couldn't fault her acting.  It was the rest of the film that was shit.  Atonement is one of my favourite films of all time, and her casting in that film is what set her apart from all child actors these days.  She will stick around and keep acting.
Just Fabulous.  Go and watch it folks.

Confusing Commuters on the Central Line, one sticker at a time...

My new fave site.  I use the Central Line on the tube daily.  Its hot, sweaty and full of tourists.

These clever peeps decided it would confuse the fuck out of everyone, one sticker at a time....

http://stickersonthecentralline.tumblr.com/

Enjoy!

 

Osama-lama ding-dong

Osama Bin Laden found and killed, then thrown in the sea.


Yep, you read it right.  Seriously, they paraded Saddam Hussein around until he was the shadow of the Dictator we all knew him to be then hung him with so little security that youtube videos appeared of his horrendous hanging.


And yet, they are able to attack and shoot dead Bin Laden and then offer him up to countries that don't want him, before throwing him in the sea.  All in 24 hours?  And where is the evidence he was caught?  Why the secrecy America?  This 'man' has plagued this world with such ferocity for over 20 years and yet you kill him and 'throw him in the sea' without so much of a photo?


All smells like bullshit to me, but I guess we will never know.

A Right Royal Knees-up

A Royal Wedding to end all Royal weddings.


I remember Diana and Charles' wedding, although being only 2.  It lasted a long time and I wore a very cute Princess dress for occasion.


Fergie and Andrew's wedding was less interesting to me, I barely remember any of it apart from her flame coloured hair.


William and Kate's wedding has been in planning for 7 months.  I ignored it mostly and some days even forgot.  The day began to loom on me and I pushed it out of my mind even more.  I mean, is there any point in having cameras outside Buckingham Palace the week before looking at Royalist camping outside to be first in line to see the new Royal couple?


However as the day approached, I got more and more excited.  Wills and Kate seem like lovely people.  Whatever anyone ever said about Diana, she was only ever nice to me while I was growing up and her sons were equally as lovely too.


The monarchy has taken a battering over the years and many have lost respect for them.  I being one of those people that doesn't see the point of them and doesn't believe in so called 'blue blood'.  But I got completely caught up in the romance of it all.  They look like they are so much in love.  The whole event was so beautiful and stunning, I found myself wanting it to go without a hitch.  It seems rare to find true and real love these days and I hope they continue to love for as long as they live.


I think we all secretly want to be that woman, who is plucked from the masses and steals the Princes' heart.  To live that long and happy life full of love and romance.


That wedding day re-instilled all of those hopes and dreams I had lost through out the wear and tear of my life.  Perhaps my Prince is real after all...?

Raise the Roof Kenya

A friend of mine set up a charity after a trip to Kenya to raise money and help the kids that live on a landfill area there, who live in extreme poverty, with no access to schooling and even clean water at times.


Raise the Roof was set up to help those kids, to give them a little joy in an other wise intense life.  To give them the childhood they crave and deserve.


Please go to www.raisetheroofkenya.com and see the good work Holly is doing there.  Donate to your hearts content.  


You can also buy a fab wristband in support for only £1!  Cheap as chips.


Wristbands modelled by Moi. Only £1!

I just donated a ton of Bras to her too.  They need even the things we take for granted.  If you wish to do more or be more involved, do email Holly via the website.

Summer Lovin

Ah Spring Fever.  I comes around every year and every year it surprises me.
It shouldn't surprise me, I know its coming.  But when you hear stories of couples breaking up in early Spring, you can't help but feel how fragile this life is.

Relationships also follow seasonal patterns.  The moment Spring hits, women and men become sexier.  FACT.  Everyone begins to walk with a strut of confidence that has been in hibernation for a while over winter, and now they are born anew.

What happened to just wanting to see how things go and nothing to do with seasons?
It's sad that there are so many fair weather daters out there.

Not Bette Davis' eyes...

Big thanks to The Manc for sending me this link.  Just Genius.  And for those that are interested, the Rut is getting smaller....


http://chickswithstevebuscemeyes.tumblr.com/

Not so much a rut, more like a little bump in the road...

In an update to my last post regarding The Rut, I have slept better and had a few days of just calm.  Was it just a case of airing my problems that made the situation a little better?  Admittedly, this is all before a major business trip next week, calm before the storm perhaps?

Stuck in a Rut?

I have been working in TV for 12 years in September this year.  I busted a gut, worked my ass off, late hours, got RSI, the works.  TV is my life.  It has been my life for so long.  But recently I have been feeling a little different about it.


I am less interested about what is happening in the TV world.  I go to work, work my ass off, I go home.  I don't even want to turn the TV on at all.  I don't want to be reminded of work.  I have never felt this way before where I am almost a little repulsed by the stupid box in my front room.


From talking about it with friends, I have figured that maybe I am 'stuck in a rut'.  I know a few people that have been through the same thing.  You work up to a point in your life and then wonder what's next and why you worked to hard to get there in the first place.


I keep myself busy, its not like I am short of things to do but I have this creeping feeling in the pit of my stomach everyday.  I go to sleep with it and wake up with it.  The 'rut' is slowly taking over my life.  From seeing it in other people, I know there is the 'other side' where you come through blinking in the bright light of the new step in your life.....but I am so stuck in it, I am wondering when the bright lights are coming to me.


I don't have a diary, I probably don't 'talk' as much as I should, so I thought I would write it like this to help me understand how I feel about it and might make it clearer for me.


Should I do something completely different (another hobby perhaps) that might take my mind away from the 'rut' enough to see it clearer and therefore see the other side?


Or should I just stay stuck in it for a bit, just wallow in it and let it take over me?  Maybe I will get bored of it and wake up one day and it will all be over? I might think differently about it in a few days perhaps......

I Can't Get No Satisfaction

This video made me snort my tea out in hysterics.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_aubcM-vIs


Check it.

Epic Failing

Charlie Sheen has been publicly killing himself for a little while now, and although I am not a fan of the wife beating, drug addled half actor, this video is bloody hilarious.  He's come a long way since Hot Shots.


Charlie Sheen - Bi-winning.

Why You're Not Married

Sorry I have been away for a while, been travelling around the world for work.  I know, such a hard life I lead.

Anyway, in coming back and settling back into daily life for a short while before I jet off again, I see an article in The Guardian online as a rebuttal to an article written by one of the female writers of Mad Men.

The rebuttal comes in form of scathing criticism of a woman who believes it it a woman's fault she is single and unmarried when others are.  They say she is socially unaware of what will happen when other women read this article, that perhaps it was irresponsible to write such a thing.

This peaked my interest and I decide to go read her article, read here Why You're Not Married but Tracey McMillan.

Before I have even read it, I am prickly.  How dare she judge all single women like that?  We all have our reasons and experiences that leave us single.  And men aren't entirely blameless.

So I start to read.  And the first thing that is clear is that she is no advocate for relationships.  3 failed marriages in and she is no less scared of men than she was before.  She made the wrong decisions to fit in with societal pressures she says.  Which I can understand, many women as soon as they hit 30 are told to settle down, get married, have kids.  Got to think about that ticking body clock.  I tell them to suck it.  I am more aware of my own fucking body clock more than anyone, shut the hell up!

But the more I read, the more I kind of agree with some points she makes.  We are so worried about being happy and making the right decision for the rest of our lives, that we end up wasting valuable time in finding the right man.  We all know that love isn't what makes a marriage work.  Its a good start, a good foundation to build on.  But love doesn't cook the food, or wash the dishes or get the kids to bed at night.  Its probably why the divorce rate is so high at the moment, too many get married thinking that honeymoon will last forever.  But it doesn't.  It goes away and what is left is trust, respect, companionship.  Love is still there, but is encompassed on all these other things too.

I, by no means, am an expert.  Almost 32 and no man to speak of, but I know that 'He' doesn't come in a perfect package, and I don't expect that because I am not a 'perfect package' either.  Of course I want the dream love affair and wedding, but I know that is not all of it.  I want the person who will do all those practical things in life with me and not want to kill me in the process.

Fuck, I think this is what I call personal progress.

The Kings Speech.

Lovely little film, might win some Oscars.  

That is all.