Cruisin' 2019

Back in March I went on a two week cruise... and I'm lazy enough to only get around talking about it now. And even then I'm not going to talk about it much. just a picture per place. While the cruise started and ended in Melbourne, it was all about New Zealand. Full photo album here.

Sounds:

Dunedin:

Akaroa:

Wellington:

Gisbourne:

Tauranga: (which they insisted on pronouncing Too-wrong-a)

Auckland: ... okay, no picture of Auckland, but if you want to see how far I traveled:

[END]

Read more!

Heckboy

It is apparently internet dictate to hate this movie. Ehh... not really.

A bad guy recreates the Blood Queen who will bring about the full potential of Hellboy and end the world. Too simplified? Probably, but there is a lot of scenes, and I don't want to go into them all. And don't worry if you don't know who these characters are, there are backstory flashbacks for everyone to let you know their story. I actually lost count of the number of flashbacks, that's how many there were. But aside from that, this is a traditional movie story of "oncoming big bad we need to fight".

I refer to this movie as "90%". As in, "what about this aspect of the movie?" It's about 90% done. Script? 90%. Acting? 90%. Effects? 90%. This isn't saying that if it was 100%, then this movie is perfect, but it would be a full proper movie then. As it is, it feels like their vision was just outside their grasp of their talent.

I know this movie is being downvoted a lot, and I do wonder how much of it is "not GDT then 0!", but there are issues with this movie on its own. But I do think people are overreacting to "not quite there", possibly too used to finally honed and polished movies. I know I've seen plenty of dreck (looking at you Netflicks movies) that I'm not holding high ideals, but this movie just isn't as bad as everyone is complaining out. It's not great, but it isn't terrible either, not in the way of what a terrible movie usually is.

So if you are going to see this movie, just set your expectations to about "90% of good enough".

[END]

Read more!

Leggo my Movie Again!

I'm not sure if I saw the first one in the theater... but I definitely saw the second one there!

The brother and sister are playing together, but of course the brother and sister can't really play that well together, and so we have the lego figures, who are living in the battle that ensues between people not wanting to share their toys but having to. But that's all backdrop as the heroes we know from the first movie are kidnapped by aliens and need to find a way to get back, while also dealing with the obvious extreme brainwashing.

It's a lot of fun, let's start with that. This movie doesn't take itself at all seriously, and that's a good thing at the moment. Even the dark moments are done with poking fun at itself. And the songs... they are intentionally written as catchy and insidious, but fortunately my brain has already recovered from them.

While there are all the characters we remember, the main focus is Emmet, Rex and Wyldstyle... and they kinda miss an important point they themselves raised. Wyldstyle did all the work in the previous movie, but Emmet is considered the leader. The movie brings this up... but then again makes the movie all about Emmet. Either actually make Wyldstyle the lead, or don't point it out if you aren't going to follow up on it.

We get more of the 'real world', and how the lego figures exist in it, but I have to say I had to actively suspend my disbelief at what was happening with the crossover moments. They were emotional beats and funny moments (with the kids in the audience liking one particular scene), but you really don't want to think about what it means in the universe of the movie.

Anyway, although we got this movie about a month or so after it was released elsewhere, it's worth the watch!

[END]

Read more!

Well, that's Album of the Year sorted...

New album from Madonna is "Madame X" due in June. Here's the first track.

[END]

Read more!

Shaz 'em!

Apparently each DC movie is better than the last, so this post is redundant.

To be honest, it's been a few days since I saw this, and already it's starting to fade. Which isn't to say this is a bad movie, but I can't recall more than the basics of the plot, kid gets superpowers, fights another guy who didn't but has different powers, only it's a lot more about family than it is about the fighting.

As mentioned above, people are claiming this is the best DC movie, better than Wonder Woman and Aquaman. And this movie certainly is... the latest. It doesn't get gloomy, it isn't dark (as in visually, you can actually see the characters!) and it romps along well enough.

Just that... this is an origin story, and I don't feel like I need another origin story. A lot of people won't know about Captain Marvel/Shazam, so we need an origin, but this runs through the basics so nothing really is a surprise. You can see the character arc (kid becomes a superhero, needs to learn how to be a hero) coming a mile away, and you can call the beats as they happen. At least the villain is played by Mark Strong (who's previous DC villain role was Sinestro), and I always like his performances.

But at least I found out some useful information about how to act at movie theaters. Did you know that it is now acceptable etiquette to take, and tweet out, selfies during the movie? And that when they say things like "turn off your phones", that doesn't apply to Apple watches? The more you know...

[END]

Read more!

Oos

Yep, there is Get Out and now there is this. I'm in, let's check it out!

A family goes to a beach house where the mother rather a rather traumatic experience... and now there is a mirror family that is after them. (I don't really want to say more, and this is what is in the trailer, so, yeah.)

I know I watch a lot of films in fast mode, so that might have an impact, but... this movie felt really slow. Like I got what was happening quite quickly, so have the scenes just play them out slowly just felt like it was taking too much time to get on with it.

And then when we get what is going on... I get that as well. I still have questions, but I guessed the twist at the beginning, so was waiting to see which way they were going to go with it, and while some things make sense, a lot doesn't.

Good? There could be more done with it, I felt.

[END]

Read more!

The Wand or Ring Earth

Big budget Chinese movie that, from the trailer, looks reminiscent of 2012.

With the sun dying, the people of earth decide to leave, so gather together to install large engines on the equator and smaller engines on one side, and push the earth into orbit around a different star. However, as they get close to Jupiter, some issues occur that puts that plan in jeopardy. We follow a brother and sister as they first go joyriding, but then get caught up in the race to save the planet, at whatever the cost.

So family based drama, and global catastrophe. In that way, like 2012 check. In terms of a story that actually brings you in, and has you invested in whether or not they survive, this beats 2012 in spades. Not to say there aren't overly emotional moments, but they actually help the story to move on and not just one selfish guy trying to get his family to safety to spite everyone else.

But the physics... oh, the physics. Whenever they said 'the engines do this' or 'the earth does that', I was like 'nope, physics don't work that way'. I get they needed to for story purposes, but even so, I couldn't hang my disbelief that much.

Well, considering the number of big budget pictures fired at the Chinese market, about time we had something come back the other way. Although since it would involve reading, I can see this not being successful in the USA... BOO-YAH!

[END]

Read more!