Been a little unwell of late, so no gym.
Other excitements – started to knock down a wall in our new house – converting the bathroom and toilet into one. That’s a new experience for me (and a vvery messy one).
Seen a couple of films recently – Tomb Raider and Miss Congeniality.
Tomb Raider was actually better then I was expecting, because everyone had slated it so much. First of all the DVD is packed full of extras, which we like, and the sound (dolby digital) is reasonable too. It seemed to be heavily biased towards the bass, and the dialogue didn’t really seem to be loud enough to hear (unless you wanted to be knocked off your seat by the explosions). That might just be my set-up.
As far as the film goes, it’s pleasingly enough on the eye. Angelina Jolie does a fair job of Lara Croft, but the ’emotional’ scenes (of which there are many) fail to engage, and the sub-‘plots’ (I use the term loosely) are just plain obtuse. One’s left not caring enough to try to work out who’s thinking what, or who has just changed sides (or not). Worse perhaps, it’s often only clear that a figure on screen is not a major character when they get killed by some ancient creature or mechanism.
Awesome CGI though – especially love the stone creatures in the Cambodian temple, and it must be said the sets and scenery are breath-taking.
Miss Congeniality is a real “Ronseal” film – it does exactly what it says on the box. No plot surprises (not even a hint of a twist) no gratuituous ‘dressing-room’ scenes (which would have been oh-so-easy), no mental energy required.
Sandra Bullock really shines though as FBI Special Agent Hart, who has to enter a beauty pageant as Miss New Jersey. She doesn’t really convince as the hard-as-nails one-of-the-lads tomboy, but has the fish-out-of-water slighty accident prone woman discovering herself down pat.
I actually really enjoyed it though – very very funny in places, extremely camp throughout, and no-one in takes themselves seriously at all (which is always fun to see).
Have to say a quick word about Michael Caine (who trains her up) – absolutely fantastic, and in some danger of stealing the film.
Finally the DVD – only watched it in stereo, and the sound was fine, picture quality and so on excellent. The extras rock too. Lots of lots of them, and well worth a scan. I unfortunatly didn’t have time to watch them, but there seemed to be a lot to choose from.