A rough account of what I did with Emacs recently.
August 30
Happy birthday, Lou!
August 25
Played wasn't anywhere near as bad as
the reviews on ScreenClick suggested, but
it did end a bit abruptly, and really didn't have quite the level
of intrigue and suspense it was trying for. Not a complete waste
of time, but not run-out-and-watch material, either.
August 24
And so off to the cinema again to see The Dark Knight. Wow. The only
really negative thing I can say about this is that it ran too
long, but even for that it maintained constant quality
throughout. Seriously wince-inducing in places, lots of depth
behind the characters, the storyline, the whole thing. Heath
Ledger is every bit as good as everyone said he was; Maggie
Gyllenhaal didn't quite work for me as the Katie Holmes
replacement, although maybe that's because Holmes' character was
quite weak in Batman Begins. Oldman once again turned in a perfect
Jim Gordon, Caine was made to play Alfred... I could go
on. Really, though, if you thought that Batman Begins was dark,
you have to see this.
August 23
Well, the plan was to go see Dark Knight, but by the time I got
to the cinema it was sold out so I saw Hellboy II: The Golden
Army instead. Easily as good as the first movie, although
there were a few slightly lumpy bits. The whole Abe/Hellboy
heart-to-heart bit was hysterical, and for some reason the mention
of "the county of Antrim in Ireland" got a laugh from
the back of the cinema... oh, and of course the finale of the
fight was one of those typical "now, if that had happened
right at the start of the movie... we wouldn't have a
movie" bits, but that's ok. Definitely worth the price of a
cinema ticket.
August 21
True Romance: excellent. I was
watching the opening credits thinking it was an amazing cast, but
of course a lot of the roles amount to being cameos. Tony Scott's
off-centre focus technique makes an early appearance, and
Tarantino's interwoven storyline (and a number of the casting
choices) foreshadows Pulp Fiction somewhat. Well worth
seeing.
August 18
Juno is absolutely classic. Funny dialogue
throughout, poignant in spots, a little too clever in one or two
places but you'd forgive that because the rest of it makes it
worthwhile. If you've not seen this, you're missing
out.
"I just like being a
piece of furniture in your weird life."
- Juno
August 15
The L.A. Riot
Spectacular is pretty awful. I spent most of the movie
wondering if it could get worse, and it didn't fail to deliver on
that count repeatedly. Avoid.
August 10
The Kingdom was an excellent
movie right up until the trite last scene which was, frankly,
unnecessary. But aside from that, well worth seeing.
It's been long enough since I read the book that I don't really
know how The Golden Compass differs
from Pullman's source material, but it's a lot of fun, and some of
the casting (particularly Lee Scoresby) is absolutely spot
on. Well worth a look.
August 7
My two
weeks in Cyprus. Photos linked from the end of the page; I
will revisit this and insert some photos inline later. Perhaps
over the weekend.
August 3
Back from recharging. Still contemplating what to do with my
website, however, so updates will continue to be intermittent
until I figure that out.
August 1
[just stuffing this in here to mark the fact that this diary is
now eight years old.]