Blue Gold

This is another of the "world is in crisis" movies. Blue Gold: World Water Wars is all about the world's water, how it's being used, how it's being over used and how it's going to run out.

That is to say: the usable water is running out. Pollution and purity and other factors make what water there is not palatable for human consumption, so we need to get it from other places. And where there's (now) a need for getting water from one place to another, there's a place for corporations to step in and make profit.

And even if it's not moving, corporations move in anyway, and charge people for their own water. Until there's nothing but profit and no water...

This is a rather disastrous state of affairs. Ultimately, whether we do anything or not, this will resolve itself. Although, at the current rate we are doing things, this will resolve with no water for anyone, and the planet reaching a new equilibrium, possibly with a new range of animals living on it...

Blue Gold goes through all this, and suggests some options. However, it also highlights the big problems, of politics and corporations. Until the heads of the corporations feel the bite, I remain cynical.

But definitely check out this movie. Another scare piece that needs to be seen.

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Runaway Train, Never Coming Back

Plot? You want a plot? How about a runaway train that could killed thousands of people? Now that's a plot!

... and that pretty much is the plot. Insert every basic idea you can think of from other movies that tried to stop runaway trains, and it's here as well. Of course, this movie has a leg up over other movies in that this is based on an actual story, and, aside from extreme over-dramatisation for movie purposes, what happened there happens here.

But it's also a buddy pic. He's a long time train worker, with lots of experience. He's a young brash kid, not really invested in this job. Together, can they find a way to work with each other, and maybe unite to stop a train?

Check out those names: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Dunn... And I don't know how much was shot real, or manufactured, but it looks good.

Basically, yes, we aren't talking great human stories here, but the point is... this is fun. It's a runaway train, people try to stop it, town and cities are in danger, people are yelling at each other, two guys are bonding... low grade thinking, high grade action! Fun!

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Newtown, My Town

This is the view from the top of the hill I live on. They cut away the trees, so there's a brilliant view down into Newtown itself.

No, it's not a great video, but then it wasn't a professional movie camera. I replaced the audio with a new commentary. Still, I gave it a go.

I would also like to try a night shoot, but am wary of trying that path at night...



No, you cannot see my house from there...

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HP.7.1

Who's going to earn a ton of money then? The first half of the last one, that's who.

Do I need to go over the plot? Harry and co go camping and three hours of all our lives later, they are still there! It's just as boring on film as it was in the book! Oh, there are some other scenes happening, but the "we live in the woods" mini-movie overwhelms the mind...

I think this movie does show that CGI and motion capture and other effect technology has reached a good point where it is seamlessly integrated onto the screen. Eyelines might still be a little off, but camera moves hide sins and, yeah, it's all working fine.

And there's a nice sequence where we learn about the Deathly Hallows themselves, in that it's done in a nicely animated sequence that harkens back to shadow puppets yet still with CGI stylings. Well done.

Given the build up over the years (and, to be honest, I'd forgotten the Half-Blood Prince, so this will be a set of movies to watch back-to-back, as no doubt many cinemas will do to get more money), and given this is a "they are in the woods" movie, aside from the main three actors, every one else is largely bit parts. It nice to see the cameos, but they aren't really in there. Instead, it's all about Daniel, Emma and Rupert... and it could be said they're getting tired of this series. Certainly, I'm sure while they like the attention, they'll be glad when filming is finished (I'm sure there'll be some minor stuff for Part II that still needs them).

If you've seen the other movies, you'll see this one. If you haven't seen them... don't go to this, number seven is not the jumping on point. It's ending!

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Funny Guys, Part One

I like humour, and have been watching a fair few comedians recently.

Eddie Izzard (Live From Wembley): He knows what he's doing, going for some of the more absurd style of comedy (transvestite super hero!), I felt the show was a bit weaker than others. Like the material wasn't as polished as other performances.

Jimmy Carr (Making People Laugh): Now here's a comedian that's constantly honing his craft. One liners, observational humour, anecdote humour, a full range of laughs. Should check out all his shows.

Billy Connolly (Live In London): Hilarious! And it's not just me who thinks so! Billy spends more than a few minutes laughing at his own jokes. Lots of anecdote comedy, so he's lucky a lot of funny stuff happens to him. Hoarse Scottish voice still in fine form.

Dara O'Briain (Talks Funny, This is the Show): Mixture of anecdote comedy and talking with the audience, rants on several topics including, yes, religion and other woo topics. Lovely Irish accent, talking really funny stuff.

Sean Lock (Live, Lockaepedia): Not laughing as much at these shows, then again I didn't laugh as much during his comments on QI. Not to say he isn't funny, just not entirely lining up with my preferred styles. Anecdote comedy again.

Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge and Other Less Successful Characters): This is the show he was touring over in NZ a few years ago, but I failed to go to it. Pity, as this is fantastic. His "other characters" are a bit hit and miss, yet the variety keeps up so if you don't fancy one, wait a while then another will turn up. And then half way, he switches to Alan Partridge and great hilarity there. Basically, this man is a serious professional funny man, and demonstrates it perfectly.

Ross Noble (Things): Mad. That's the only way to describe his show: mad. Observational humour, and it's whatever's in front of him at the time. I have to wonder that all his shows within a tour are so radically different, as I could only really spot one bit that could be prepared material, and the rest... trust me, no-one is going to get "Hawaiian Emergency Kit" unless you were there. Mad. Funny... and mad.

British comedians, yes. I saw Heckler a while ago, in which Jamie Kennedy whines about being heckled. Should have interviewed British comedians, mate, you'll see real professionals handle hecklers. If you heckle them, you'd better be ready to stand up to it...

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They Died for Your Money

Ah, Celebrities. Is there nothing they won't do for a charity? In their latest stunt, they died so that you might give money for AIDS.

Now a pause: Giving money for AIDS, in this case to keep children alive in AIDS ridden Africa, is a worth cause. We just had World AIDS day, and this is off that. Now, that said...

What celebrities are doing is nothing. No tweeting. No facebooking. No electronic updates of any kind. These celebrities include Elijah Wood, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake... they are all, digitally speaking, dead.

Until their fans donate one million dollars to this charity.

Um... hang on here... just a small minor thing... and this is something that really annoys me about a lot of charity events...

How much money could be raised if these celebrities, instead of sitting around doing nothing, instead gave one million each to the cause? For a lot of them, that wouldn't be noticed. No, instead, and just like other events like this, the celebrities give up a little bit of their time, and instead it's the rest of us that actually fork over money to the event, when they have a lot more money than the rest of us.

And I would be very impressed if they all turned around said "after you give a million, we'll each give..." however much, even hundred grand over all of them would get over a million.

But no sign of that. Instead, they simply return to pre-tweet lives... which may be hard for some of them, but come on now! They aren't even performing a song or anything to get people going! They are literally doing less in the name of charity than they normally would!

(And the site suggests the rest of us join in and stop online interaction, but if I did that I wouldn't be able to tell you about it.)

As Stephen Colbert says "Donate $999,999", that'll sort 'em out...

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Gotter-GAMMA-rung - 1

The Gamma world is a strange place of crossed time lines, strange creatures, and stranger powers. Myself, I am Karter Hawk, a tree that looks like a man that looks like a hawk. I blame the tree that birthed me, having snacked on a hawk nest that lived there. Bad for the hawks. Not that good for the tree either, to be honest. But I was one result. Whip like arms, leaves for feathers, an ability to fly, and now out in the world.

My companions are a boxy robot gravity controller thing (RK-37), a big tree that causes earthquakes (Treebeard), a human looking man that arcs electricity and seems very aware (Maxwell Dillian), and a cat person creature (Kit [forgotten!]).

We were in the town of Cliffton when some robotical creatures swept in. Kit took too close a look, and got himself and the others attacked. I saw that there was a badger-man in the distance, so looked into that while they took the robots on. Treebeard somehow appeared beside us, and together we took him out (found out he was a slaver). The robots were on a mission to find out what's up with the Alpha mutations, so we decided to backtrack their course.

Coming to a rocky outcropping, we stopped to find the next place (I spotted smoke on the horizon), and found another robot thing. RK-37 conversed with it, and we found out it was from some Alpha University place, under command of a Dr Helen [Magnus!], to find the source of the Alpha stuff. Maxwell destroyed it, because he could, before we could get the really juicy details.

Onwards, into Gamma World and beyond!

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