Gym update.
Went last Tuesday and this morning. Last week I did the treadmill – changed speed a bit, but probably averaged out to about 15 minutes at 8.5 kph.

This morning did the ergo – 3k in 14.05 minutes, followed by 3 minutes on the treadmill @ 9 kph, before it hurt to much to continue! :)#

A great action film about a super secret agent who forgets his identity and has to try and work it out, while being tracked down by the very agency which created him.

Seen at Ster Century, Leeds

I have to say I was a little disappointed by this film. I’d seen all the best bits in the trailers, and I felt like Will Smith was struggling to hold the film on his own.
Tommy Lee Jones is once again the man – his comic timing is faultless, and he plays off the other characters so well. The baddie was also just great this time.
… but it was just lacking something. The freshness of the original film wasn’t there, and although many of the old characters were back, somehow the magic wasn’t.

Another Jack Ryan number – just as good, just as worth seeing!
Manages to keep up the tension and excitement throughout, and it’s nice to see the familiar characters doing their piece again.

Seen at Ster Century, Leeds

This is a fantastic film – raises lots of interesting questions about human rights and free-will, but is ultimately an action movie, with a heavy dose of intrigue/thrill.
I enjoyed it hugely – the Speilberg/Cruise partnership has paid dividends. Seen at Ster Century, Leeds.

The Time Machine – H.G. Wells’ classic story of a man thrown into the future, where the human race has split in two.

I have to say that this is actually a fairly good adaptation. The suspension of disblief is very easy – aided considerably by some of the best special effects I’ve seen for a while – but yet it manages to keep hold of it’s B-rate sci-fi origins (and I mean that as a complement!)
The whole moon destruction thing was a work of genius, as is the holographic librarian – very nice plot devices to explain the storyline, and to help our hero make sense of it all!

I did end up seeing it twice, and it certainly survives two viewings (it was actually on the second viewing that I figured out that the time machine is storing up time, and when it explodes at the end a billion year bubble of time passage is released in an instant). Worth catching on video.

Seen at Ster Century, Leeds

Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, AWESOME, awesome. 🙂

Probably the best film of the year for me – was instantly hooked and
drawn along – I laughed, I cried, I marvelled at the cinematographer,
I sat on the edge of my seat.
I’m a huge fan of the Spiderman animation on TV, and I felt like this
film captured that perfectly. Whoever cast Tobey Maguire is a
genius,
what a wonderful Spidey/PP! I was slightly less enamoured with Kirsten
Dunst as MJ. Her acting was acceptable, but the character just seemed a
little shallow and ditzy somewhere, which is a shame because I’m very
taken with the comic’s MJ.

But the story is dealt with beautifully, the special effects are
but perfect (best use of bullet-time post-Matrix), casting spot on
(except perhaps MJ) – simply breathtaking.

Best of all, I watched the credits going “Noooo – you can’t stop now”!!
Possibly Spiderman II is now my most eagerly awaited forthcoming film
(although it’s a close run thing with all the sequels that are on the way)
Seen at Ster Century, Leeds

Well, another day, another diary entry..

Just spent my lunchtime fixing this website, thanks to the W3C HTML Validator. Lots of petty things can up (like the fact you are supposed to use quotes if you do something like <td width=”50%”>), but there were loads of proper HTML errors too, especially in my tables (</tr></td> is always a good ‘un).

So anyway, apologies for any of you who couldn’t read my tables!!

Also, off to Stirling on Wednesday for a week’s graduate school – should be fun!

Star wars – what can you say? I thought Phantom Menace was a huge disappointment, and a recent re-watch on DVD only confirmed this opinion.

Clones is a different matter. I was distinctly underwhelmed on my first viewing – just seemed to be another film entirely consisting of ‘set-up’ with no substance. Anakin also completely failed to grab me – I know he needs to make the transition to the dark side, but he just comes across as a petulant teenager who’s sulkly and with a huge chip on his shoulder. And this is a 20 year old with a decade of Jedi training?
Similarly Padme falls down on this point – the way he talks should make her run a mile, not give in to his charms..

That said, the acting generally rocks – nice to see Obi Wan lighten up a bit, plus the interplay between Obi Wan and Anakin is very poignant given the scenes on the Death Star in 2 movies time.. Natlie Portman is a complete star, Samuel L is, as always, the man, and as for Yoda…

I decided to give it another shot though, and was much happier with it second time round. The humour is spot on – very understated, in-jokes a plenty (did you spot the Millenium Falcon?), and the action scenes are actually quite breath-taking.
Plus the end fight betweem Dooku and the Jedi – most cool. Plus the plot is starting to get more interesting.. I was muttering to myself about ridiculous plot-holes and continuity errors, when I suddenly realised the game the Dark Side’s playing – very crafty (although I remain unconvinced on certain issues).

So, on balance by no means a classic film – barely scrapes in a being worthy of the title ‘Star Wars’, but then that’s a high accolade.
Seen at Ster Century, Leeds

Firstly I’m going to come out and say I’m a huge Jodie Foster fan, which will inevitably bias my view!
.. But I really enjoyed this film. Thought that the casting was spot on, the story’s a good yarn (and mostly believable) – the ‘home alone’ moments were played very well, and yet there was also the constant spectre of horror hovering, which more often then not was never delivered (thank goodness!).
The ending was a little weak and cliched, but otherwise a fine film. Seen at Ster Century, Leeds.