2018's Film List [December]

INDEX

01. Flatline - How the Amiga Languished (09.12.18)
Another great documentory by Ahoy. Classy and very well put togther it tells the stroy of the creation and life of the Amiga computer.

02. Unforeseen Consequences - A Half-Life Documentary (15.12.18)
One of the best games ever made. I played it for the first time around 2002 and even then it was what cemented my love of FPS. This is another gret doc by NoClip that lookis into how the game and its sequel forever changed the landscape of gameing.

03. The Nightmare Before Christmas (19.12.18)
Didn't know Jack was voiced by Danny Elfman. My first time seeing this all the way through, it is famous for it's introduction song and it is class. A good film very well put together though the could have been more to the story.

04. Avangers Infinity War (21.12.18)
I have already made up my mind, this is my favorite film of the year.

05. Star Wars The Force Awakens (25.12.18)
Nothing good on TV tonight, needed something to enjoy as I relaxed.

06. Guardians of the Galaxy (26.12.18)
This film has a lot of heart. Fun and moving with some very very cool moments.

07. Mission Impossible - Fallout (30.12.18)
It's got ist head too far up its own continiuity. A good film if very predictible. Good action but I think it was plotted using dart board... in the dark... with a shotgun.

08. Ant-Man and the Wasp (31.12.18)
Such a fun film. A few strange edits that feel like they were for time but on the whole it works well. The use of the powers was good and the villian was strong but not thin.

So that is it for another year. Started strong but the last few months were very slow.

Best? Has to be a tie between two films I haven stopped thinking about since I watched them.

Avengers Infinty War - and - Annihilation

2018's Film List [November]

INDEX



01. They Shall Not Grow Old (12.11.18)
Aw we who are left grow old... On a pure technolical level this documentry is great. The direction and editing are what makes it a spectical. This is the kind of feilm we need, one that shows as much as it can. Required watching.

02. Neila [short] (30.11.18)
It both tries too hard and also dosent earn what is it aiming for. Good little film but it needed more breathing space.


Oh boy what happend this month? I shold get a bit more time in December.

Broken for Now

It has been a troubling few months. It’s been hard work all around. Even though It is coming up to a very busy time of year, I feel like I'm good to go.

 Surrounded by Ghosts

Do first off my knee. It still looks ugly and red, but the is no pain and seems like it will slowly end up as a ugly scar. It took far too long to heal up and the was a small fear of infection but a week later it was on track.

From my knee to my mouth. I kind of knocked out a tooth. Upper front as well, I banged my head (a far too common occurrence of late) and it cracked and came out a day later. The roots are still in as well. The dentist made expensive sounding noises when he looked in my mouth. So I have five appointments coming up and will need a few teeth out. That is not going to be fun, or cheep.

Ouch!

I have finally decide to give John Scalzi a go. He is a Sifi author and I have jumped into his first book. 'Old Man’s War' is was good I feel like it could have dome more with the premise but it is a solid space marine story. I've just about done with the sequel as well.

The style is good and had given me a push into getting back into writing myself. I have decided to give NaNoWriMo a shot this year. I have three ideas of different sizes to focus on and I will keep a daily word count. It should be a good bit of fun. I just ned to find time to give it a go.

Light Drawings

I had a crazy evening a few weeks back, I had two days notice that a choir wanted their concert recording. I didn't have access to all my kit and no time for a good set up but I somehow pulled it off. The edit was a pain having four cameras running at different times. It came out well enough. It could be better but everyone is happy with it.

I even have been asked to do two more recoding for the church in December. They should be a fair bit less stressful. I think I know how I want to do it, though I will need to borrow my brothers camera as well.

The Edit

The was plenty more I wanted to say but this blog has been in the works for weeks so things have fallen away. Oh and here are some photos of fireworks from last weekend.

2018's Film List [October]

INDEX!

01. James Bond Thunderball (12.10.18)
Where to start? It feels like they shot both too much footage and not enough. Very disjointed with a solid start that fall apart when they have far too much going on. Or the try to have lots going on. Still fun bit it is a bad film.

02. Escape [short] (22.10.18)
Stephen Fry voices a AI in a warning about the possible future.

03. The Floorwalker (27.10.18)
An early Charlie Chaplin film. No captions with explanations in this one but the acting is good enough to show the story.

04. The Life of Brian (28.10.18)
This film trucks along. Such a good and clever film. I think only those who don't know enough history could be offended by it (or people who haven't seen it).

05. Pipe Dream [short] (29.10.18)
A blast from the past, this was the internet for me back in the early 2000's. Love the lighting and camera moves. Oh and it goes without saying the music is great.

06. Bohemian Rhapsody [cinema] (30.10.18)
"You will remember When this is blown over And everything's all by the way
When I grow older I will be there at your side to remind you how I still love you, I still love you."

Best: Bohemian Rhapsody.

2018's Film List [September]

INDEX

01. Hardcore Henry (01.09.18)
Like Crank this is a film with a cool concept where the execution is turned up to crazy. Some parts that were shot with a older GoPro had noticeable fisheye that looked bad but otherwise very well shot. Dumb fun with a hint of cool story but faultless effort.

02. Neutral [short] (03.09.18)
Bizarrely compelling. Not sure about the opening shot or the aspect ratio but they are stylistic decisions. The plot is simple with a bit of strange thrown in for good measure. Not even sure if I liked it.

03. Isle of Dogs (05.09.18)
Funny, heart-warming, charming and impactful. Wes Anderson is a master at off beat comedies. This is one of the best films I have seen in ages, the is so much detail and creativity put into it.

04. Deadpool 2 (07.09.18)
Sags a bit in places but it works well. Some of the best parts had nothing to do with Deadpool, Domino is great and the music choices are great. A fun film with its heart in the right place.

05. James Bond From Russia With Love (09.09.18)
Always strange to have continuity in Bond though it happens more often than I think. I love the plot it doesn't come together until the end but it is very tightly plotted. This is the model bond will follow and expand upon, perhaps the new films should take notes. Also Matt Munro is fantastic.

06. Annihilation (15.09.18)
I paid particular notice to both the music and the tattoo this time around. Such a fantastic film and the kind of sifi that should me made more often.

07. Laputa Castle in the Sky (22.09.18)
Such a wonder filled film. Tooth ache and a bad beer didn't ruin this great fantastical romp. The soundtrack and direction are both top tier. The animation quality and detail is absurdly good. Only my second time watching this and I noticed things that tie it to Nausicaä.

08. Avengers - Infinity War (28.09.18)
Yes again! I could; so I did.

09. James Bond Goldfinger (29.09.18)
A strange beast this, the Bond film that dose most for defining the series but it is also odd. Bond has very little effect on the plot directly, is responsible for getting two women killed and spends most of his time aggravating the villain. The are some strange holes in the actions of Goldfinder as well, why kill the mob bosses and why the act with the one who gets crushed? It is a good film but very lacking in places.

Best? Hard choice this one, I think I'll say Isle of Dogs.

...Fun Few Days

So I'm spending my 29th birthday sat at home struggling to hobble my way around. 

It has not been a fun few days!

Ouch!

I got back from my holiday on Saturday and was looking forward to starting work again on Monday. I still cycle to work, so I got up early dug my bike out of the shed and set off in the light rain. I was going nicely along the canal just about to go past the Lockkeeper, when the next thing I knew I was on the floor my bike twisted under my legs.

I must have landed on my left knee and left handlebar. My knee was leaking a lot of blood and the break handle on the left of my bike had snapped off with a big dint in the end of the handle bar. I hurt a lot. I don’t know how it happened, could be a lot of things I suppose.

New Entrance

I hobbled around in pain getting my thoughts together. I used my water bottle to wash the blood away (it was starting to pool in my sock and boot) it looked like a nice scrape. A quick check found no other obvious injury's. The was nothing else to be done so I gingerly continued on my way to work.

It was not a fun ride. The was a fallen tree over the path at one point, I had to lift my bike over then shimmy under. I took the journey slow checking down at my knee often. The blood had stooped and it was a bit numb. This has been a hall mark of this injury not much in the way of pain.

Coming Through

I managed to get to work in time and cleaned myself up. I had a drink stretched off and felt ok. Until about half an hour into working. They have a good team at work and sorted my injury out and decided I should go to hospital.

Hospital is always fun, it was my first visit in over ten years and it was smooth process (apart from the 6 attempts to took to take a blood sample). Two clean ups with a bit of poking one x-ray and a CT scan. It took a while for them to be happy nothing in my knee joint was damaged so all I needed was a deep clean and stitches. Which would have to wait until the next day.

Recovering

That night was fun. Sleeping on the sofa in a daze created by Co-Codamol. They had put a huge bandage on and movement was difficult but I managed. I was awoken the next morning by a call asking me to git in for day surgery. Most of which was spent sat about waiting.

I have no memory of the surgery and I haven't even seen my wound yet. The bandages need to be changed on Friday so I should get a good look then. It hurts a bit but nothing ordinary painkillers couldn't handle. It is just going to be an awkward few weeks until I'm back up to shape.

Relaxing?

So yeah I'm just catching up on some videos and books for the next few days. I'm hoping to have a bit more movement after the bandage gets changed. Oh and here is a very dumb thing to round things off. I haven been given crutched because the was nobody qualified to tech me how to use them.

It has been a fun birthday on the phone to work to keep them up to date but I now need to make my way over to give in my sick note. Two more weeks of fun.

2018's Film List [August]

INDEX

01. Avengers Infinity War (03.08.18)
The bad guy has to make sacrifices to get what he wants. It is a simple thing that many story mess up, make your antagonist someone who under slightly different circumstances you would root for. Marvel knocked this out of the park and into orbit.

02. The Bourne Supremacy (04.08.18)
This film has a bit of a odd framework. The film is effectively over then we get a very cool car chase. The last two scenes are what makes the bourne trilogy so great, it goes to difficult places and its style is so distinctive.

03. Ant-Man and the Wasp [cinema] (05.08.18)
A good bit of fun, simple and very charter driven. Again a antagonist who is complex and only just falls into being a villain. Some very cool action, jokes are hit and miss but that happens.I did pick up one one or two strange edits, like parts were missing or shortened.

04. The Bourne Ultimatum (10.08.18)
The style is still there but it lacks some of the simplicity of the first. Some very cool moments but lacks a through-line. A very very good trilogy. I suppose I will have to watch the next two sometime.

05. Crank (11.08.18)
It's dose the dumb unintentional funny stuff from bad 80s action movies but on purpose. Very cool concept and the style is odd. Proper dumb fun.

06. Thor Ragnarok (29.08.18)
The directors commentary. A fun film to relax to on a lazy birthday.

07. James Bond Dr No (31.08.18)
I didn't remember the plot going in, now I'm not sure I could summerize it. It falls apart in the final third with Dr No being wasted. Some very cool moments and shots but the dragon set piece is horrendous. So much could be said about early 60s Bond but it is of its time, at least this one is fun.

Best of the bunch? Avengers IW no contest.