Ok, own up.  Who has kidnapped Guy Richie and replaced him with someone who can make appealing movies?  Seriously, I only decided to go see this because of Robert Downey Jr (who along with Ed Norton is my favourite actor working today), but I have to hold my hands up and say that I loved it.  Not something I've been able to say about a Guy Richie film since "Lock, Stock...".  Getting rid of that sinewy hag (Madonna to you and me) has clearly done the man good and the creative block has been lifted.

RDJ and Jude Law are both on top form - and it's really not often I have good things to say about Jude Law, believe me.  RDJ is clearly loving every minute of this re-imagined character and makes it completely his own.  This is not Holmes in the classic Basil Rathbone / Jeremy Brett tradition.

Sherlock Holmes is a lot more fun than it has any right to be.  They seem to have taken inspiration from a couple of places.  Firstly and most obviously, Holmes has basically become Batman.  He's off-the-chart smart but he also fist-fights, is stealthy, and survives explosions that would have killed normal people.  Sounds tacky but hey this is fantasy and it works well.  Having done a bit of digging however, it seems that in the original books and stories, Holmes was an accomplished fist-fighter and martial artist, so clearly this interpretation has gone back to the basics but then taken a different path from earlier adaptations.

The second inspiration seems to me to be from "House", the medical drama starring Hugh Laurie.  Now, given that "House" is directly inspired by Sherlock Holmes, things have come full circle.  It's most obvious in the Holmes / Watson relationship, which mirrors quite closely the House / Wilson relationship in the TV show.  If you're familiar with the show you'll see what I mean when you watch the film. 

The plot, about a practitioner of Black Magic, walks a thin line - at times it could go either way but for me it never slipped over into ridiculous.  Instead it reminded me of some of the classic Hammer Horror movies, like "The Devil Rides Out", as did the main villain (an excellent Mark Strong who I had never heard of until now).  It's intriguing, and you don't have the ending telegraphed to you, which makes a change.

Special effects - top notch.  There is a sequence with a boat which was especially spectacular, and the look of London is astonishing.  The whole film looks lush.  Even Mr Richie's trademark slow-fast-slow editing doesn't detract - in fact this works really well when you're being shown Holmes train of thought through flashback or flashforward.

So there you are, go see it.  This is definitely on my must-buy list for the New Year, hope they can get the BluRay out before Summer - but I may well go see it again at the cinema before that, that's how much I liked it.

Trailer below:

Tags: awesome, geek, movies, opinion, reviews, trailer, youtube
Categories: Geek | Movies | Opinion | Reviews | trailers | TV

Like an idiot (a particularly *bored* idiot) I decided to venture out this morning.  TV and radio had told me that people weren't attending the sales - or at least hadn't been thus far.  So, as I said, being bored and an idiot out I go.

It's hell out there, people.  I was lulled into a false sense of security by the roads leading to the massive out-of-town retail park being reasonably quiet, and by the way I got a parking space quite close to the door at Ikea.  Then I actually got inside...

Nothing is actually on sale.  Nothing you'd want anyway, sure you can get a pack of 8000 tealights for £3 now instead of £4, but not really what I was looking for.  Was the coffee-table I was after reduced at all? No.  How about the small 2-seat sofa?  No.  And being Ikea I wasn't about to head off with the mooing herd to the underground cavern of wonders that lay between me and the exit, oh no, I've fallen for that before!

So I went back.  Now, if you've ever tried to follow anything but the proscribed path in Ikea you'll know what I was up against - it's like batting a raging river of people.  You're dancing around tables and between beds and chairs trying to stay off the main path - I was tempted to roll a 12-sided dice to see if I could use a +50 shelving unit to clear the way...  Finally you get to the main stairs and have to go down while everyone coming up is wondering what the hell you're doing.

Anyway, I finally escaped.  In retrospect it was quite lucky that I didn't buy anything as I found the boot of my car was frozen shut, so I'd never have gotten anything in anyway - you can see how well planned this excursion was. 

Negotiating the roads *away* from the shopping centre is like escaping the seventh level of hell.  To quote Dante:
"The violent, the assasins, the tyrants, and the war-mongers lament their pitiless mischiefs in the river, while centaurs armed with bows and arrows shoot those who try to escape their punishment. The stench here is overpowering."
I can only assume that people either lose the ability to drive, or the people who normally drive every day to work decide they can't be bothered and leave the driving to the elderly, infirm, blind, or just plain mental cases.  How there aren't more accidents I will never know.

So I finally escaped, and having learned my lesson I went home to read a good book... HA, just kidding, that would be no way to end this would it, lord no, I WENT TO BIRMINGHAM!!!

Why? Why did any part of my brain think it would be a good idea to do that?  It's probably a good thing that I didn't actually find a parking space, but just did a lap of the city centre like a depressing Monaco Grand Prix, and then went home.  On the bright side all the roads out were clear, as everyone else was no doubt trapped in the One Way system passing the same half-dozen multi-storey carparks again and again and again.  I'm sure they're still there now, or maybe they have actully made it inside the great hallowed halls of the Bull Ring only to find that the sales are a lie, but to justify their time and effort they have to buy *something*, even at the same price it will still be next week.

I should have known.  I used to work in retail.  The days after Christmas we knew full well that people only came to the stores to get away from their families who they had been cooped up with for more than a few hours.  It doesn't matter if you have anything good on sale, they will come anyway.  I don't know what I was thinking, but this is what boredom does to me I guess.

Tags: rant, opinion, zombies
Categories: General | Opinion | rant

As a bit of a geek, I've been quite looking forward to the two-part Doctor Who adventure being broadcast over Christmas and New Year.  I don't watch a huge amount of TV, but there are some things I will take the time out to sit down and watch.  Ideally I'd like to be able to watch this with no preconceptions but I've been prevented from doing so by an almost pathological insistence by the media and the internet to tell me almost every detail of what is going to happen.

I've noticed this getting worse over the past few years. One of the worst offenders in my realm of interest has actually been Doctor Who - Russell T Davies seems completely unable to contain his excitement about what he has just written, and how clever he is, and how every Who fan is going to be excited that just about everyone to ever set foot on a Doctor Who set would probably get screentime at one point or another.  The BBC cannot stop releasing teaser trailers, taking full-page ads in Radio Times, spilling info to the red-top press, etc.

By June (at the latest!) you usually know who the Big Bad in the Christmas Special is going to be.  This year we knew that the Master was coming back, and so were the TimeLords (no, no, not the KLF spinoff).  Previous years it was the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Cybermen (again) plus the Daleks (again), Davros (guess who he brought with him?).  Does any of this actually make you want to watch and heighten the experience when you do?

I'm not sure it does.  Having almost all the information about a show presented to you well in advance doesn't make you sit and think "I can't wait, I wonder what will happen".  No, what it does is make you mentally fill in the gaps, then almost always be less than impressed when the missing pieces are different from your imaginings, or even worse, don't make sense.  This is fine when you only have one or two pieces of information about the show or movie because you cannot formulate the entire story, but when you have 80% of the story, plus speculation from the internet, plus interviews of the actors and writers and you only have bits left to fill in the capacity for being disappointed is increased immensely.

I had the inverse experience a few weeks ago while watching the latest season of Dexter.  In case you're not familiar, Dexter is an American TV show about a blood-spatter analyst working for the Miami Metro police department, who just happens to be a serial killer on the side.  He only kills other killers who escape the justice system, so that's alright then.  It's a terrific show and I recommend it very highly.  From previous seasons of the show you know that Dexter will usually be pursuing a killer or other bad guy throughout the series.  Of this I knew in advance only that John Lithgow (from Third Rock from the Sun) was signed up to be the Big Bad, Dexter's nemesis for this season.  Nothing else.  No other tidbits.  I watched it week-to-week, and it was one of the most tense things I've ever seen.  A couple of episodes literally left me staring open-mouthed at the screen as it faded to black.  Astonishing stuff.

The one single time when this was broken was when I accidentally caught a trailer for the next episode.  This was edited to include what turned out to be the MASSIVE cliffhanger at the end of the next episode!!!  I mean, what the hell is the point?  I really wish I'd not seen it as the effect it had was for me to sit watching that next episode waiting for it to hit all the points in that trailer.  I told friends who were also watching Dexter to make sure they avoided it, as it really took the edge off.  Admittedly, it does give you a frisson of excitement at the point you're watching it, but that is only diluting the effect that the show itself will have.  Surely something good is worth waiting for?

I also believe that with the right kind of personality (ie, mine), spoilers heighten your cynicism.  Recent example, Avatar.  I've still not seen it.  I'm not that bothered precisely because of the trailers, spoilers and hype.  I've heard from people who's opinion I trust on films that it is actually pretty good, but I know I'm still going to go in there arms folded thinking "right, impress me then Jim!".  It's kind of depressing.  All because I know (or think I know) too much about it.

As usual I blame the internet.  Forums, blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook - too much instant in-your-face information which reveals far too much even at the most cursory glance.  It's back to the Information Overload thing I wrote about a while back, which is both a blessing and a curse.  It's all about having things right now, not having to wait, and the short attention span effect that has, such that we have to keep being shown more and more to make us actually pay attention to the final product.

I have some more to say about this but that will have to wait until another day, in a post I'm working on about procrastination - oh wait, sorry, [SPOILER].

Tags: geek, opinion, sci-fi, tv, rant, spoilers
Categories: Geek | Movies | Opinion | Sci-Fi | TV | rant | spoilers

As mentioned in an earlier post of mine, I've become quite a fan of US TV drama & comedy series.  Thankfully, after everything I said in my last post about these things not being quickly available in the UK things are changing, and more quality shows seem to be finding their way here much sooner than they have previously.  This is a Good Thing.  Anyway, here's my thoughts on some of the things I've been watching lately

Heroes
So we're into series 4, but does anyone really care anymore?  This is apparently the most downloaded show, but I'm kind of at a loss to see why.  The writers don't seem to have a coherent plan, everything is fragmented and the whole Carnival thing (which started off quite promising and creepy) just isn't being explained enough... maybe the next ep with the return of Mohinder will sort things out?  Doubt it, but still...

Dexter
Again season 4, and still as good as ever, but I really think he has to be found out by his sister soon, and this series would be a good time to do it I think.  Best thing this year is the incomparable John Lithgow as Trinity... a revelation if you've only known him from comedy, he goes from civil to psychopath in the blink of an eye, and manages to be terrifying even when acting normally - he is this show's Hannibal Lecter.  Wonderful.

House
Most watched TV show in the world for one reason - Hugh Laurie.  Man is awesome, and deserves every plaudit.  What can I say, if you don't watch House, you really should.  Do your self a favour and get the boxsets and have a marathon.  Yeah, ok it has a formula, but it's the performances that make it compelling.

Castle
Only introduced to this a few weeks ago - it's Nathan Fillion's (of Firefly / Serenity) current project.  How can I describe it?  It is on the surface your typical ABC afternoon drama show, but after the first short season it has finally found it's stride and is a pleasure to watch.  Basic synopsis - famous author follows police detective around to do research for new book, helps to solve cases, bit of romantic tension thrown in for good measure.  That may well put you off but the show is carried ably by the two leads - Fillion with his wit and charm, and Stana Katic by being hot and funny.  This actress is one to watch, like a younger Courteney Cox meets Penelope Cruz (hang on, let me just visualise that...), with good comic timing.  It's entertaining in kind of a Moonlighting way, but without being as self-aware as that show.  Check it out anyway.

Flash Forward
The new "Lost"...? I never got into Lost but I'm trying hard with this one.  They seem to be throwing a lot more information around, which may or may not be a good thing.  I'll stick with it though, if only to see how they deal with the episode set on the day of the FlashForward next April.  That will be the decider I think...  I still reckon iit will turn out to be one of Derren Brown's "Events".

Stargate Universe
Robert Carlyle is the main reason I'm still watching this.  At the outset they said "people will die on this show", and I'm still waiting for them to jetison more of the annyoing cast - I think they lost one character and have stranded 2 on a planet (possibly, they sent them through a gate but they may have gotten back off-screen as it's not been mentioned since).  I'm still worried it's going to turn into "this week's dilemma / race-against-time", but it seems to still be teetering on the edge of being a great show.

Big Bang Theory
Hilarious, no other way to describe it.  The "Rocky" montage and the Wil Wheton ep were laugh-out-loud funny for me, which is rare.

V
Is this a right-wing dig at Obama?  The aliens are all good looking, have a united society (clearly Communism, right?) "come in peace" and literally promise "universal healthcare".  I think this maybe a parallel to BSG which was a response to 9/11 and Iraq.  Will be interesting to see how it develops - only 4 episodes coming before it disappears until March, so they have to come up with a massive cliffhanger to get people to tune back in.  

Breaking Bad
Only just started watching this, and good to see Channel 5 have picked it up in the UK.  Bryan Cranston (dad from "Malcolm in the Middle") plays a fifty-year-old chemistry professor who finds out he has lung cancer and only months to live.  Wanting to provide for his family he makes an ill-judged choice to use his chemistry knowledge to get into the drugs trade by cooking Crystal Meth... Best way I can describe the first couple of episodes is like a Coen Brothers movie - very funny but with a dark streak a mile wide.  This is definitely one to check out.  There are 2 seasons so far, the first only has 7 episodes so I hope C5 shows both back-to-back.

That's pretty much it - just these few shows go to demonstrate the massive gulf in quality between the UK and US.  Thank the lord for the internet.

Tags: geek, opinion, sci-fi, tv
Categories: Geek | General | Opinion | Reviews | TV

As part of my birthday celebrations this past weekend I was treated by some friends to a trip to Bletchley Park.  For anyone in the computer industry or World War 2 afficianados the name should immediately be familiar, it is the place where the German Enigma codes were broken.  This is widely agreed to have shortened the war by at least 18 months, and save countless lives.

It is also the birthplace of the modern programmable computer.  Say hello to Collossus 2:

For me as a geek it was a humbling experience.  We took the guided tour and for nearly 2 hours we saw how everything you take for granted in terms of electronics and computers can be traced back to some of the astonishing work that was done at Bletchley over 60 years ago.  Standing in front of the re-created Collossus 2, you realise exactly how much work must have gone into figuring out what was required to crack the codes being picked up by radio, then having to actually build it from scratch.  It's one thing to do this in a programming language as we do today, it's completely another to have to design and build the hardware from nothing.  For the record, Colossus 1 was running in 1943, so predates ENIAC by a couple of years.  Virtually everything about the project was destroyed, and indeed kept Top Secret until the 1970's, so the fact that a fully working reconstructed version is available at Bletchley is even more amazing.

Moving into the National Computing Museum, it was a trip down memory lane for me.  It was like being in a branch of WHSmith circa 1983.  So many memories.  I came face to face with a Commodore Vic-20, which had started me down the path to my current profession almost 30 years ago.  If it hadn't been for my Dad buying me that machine, and later a ZX Spectrum I can only wonder what I'd be doing today.  It is also weird to think that I am part of the last generation who remembers such a massive upheaval in technology - the days when you could actually fix things instead of just replacing a circuit board.  I wonder how children visiting the museum would see things - so much can be taken for granted now.  Wow, I sound old...

It is made even more poignant by the campaign to give a formal apology to Alan Turing earlier this year.  Thousands signed an online petition which encouraged Downing Street to recognise the work Turing did at Bletchley, the part he played in breaking the codes and ending the war, and to apologise for how he was treated when it was discovered he was homosexual.  Turing killed himself, and the world lost a genius.  It was a shallow gesture by the Government - Turing has no surviving relatives to receive the apology on his behalf so it was just empty words  A better tribute would be for everyone who signed the petition or supported the campaign to go to Bletchley over the next year and see what was really accomplished and how astonishing this man was.  That is the difference between true support and bandwagon-jumping.

Bletchley is in need of your support.  they have only just secured Lottery funding but many parts of the museum do not have any funding at all and rely on donations and visitors and their on-site shop to keep things running.  Its all done from the love of volunteers at the moment, but that only goes so far.  I'd urge everyone with even a passing interest in computers, or history, to take a day out and go visit.  An adult ticket is £10, and it gives you unlimited access for A WHOLE YEAR!!  For a tenner!!!  You will not be disappointed.

http://www.bletchleypark.co.uk

Tags: awesome, gadgets, geek, opinion, reviews, tech
Categories: gadgets | Geek | General | Opinion | tech

Only really one trailer has caught my eye this week and that is the one for the animated movie "9".  Luckily it seems that this will be getting a cinema release over here in the UK in October - hopefuly somewhere local to me will deign to show it.  Aesthetically it looks very different, and has a wonderfully dark feel to it, we need more apocalyptic animated movies!

Trailer

 

While on the subject of apocalyptic things, I've been seeing a lot of tv coverage of "Gamer" over the past week.  As it's made by the people behind "Crank" it probably won't be to my taste, but will it actually be as horrible as I suspect?  Anything with Michael c Hall in it (Dexter) has to be worth a look, and the premise seems similar to "The Running Man" but less campy and more violent.  However, it's based around futuristic technology and the evolution of computer games, so I guarantee I'd be sitting in the cinema picking holes in it and then annoying my friends by complaining at the loss of two hours of my life.  So no, I'll probably avoid and maybe catch on DVD if the reviews are at all favourable.

Trailer anyway

Tags: geek, movies, opinion, sci-fi, trailer, youtube,
Categories: Geek | Movies | Opinion | Sci-Fi | trailers