So today we had a first - Little one and I met up with a friend and her kid to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D. It's the first time we have gone to the cinema since she was a tiny baby.
We have the film on DVD but I was amazed at some of the detail that came out seeing it on a large screen. I am not sure if that is down to the 3D effect or the big screen. In parts it was quite ropey. As a spectacle wearer I'm not keen on those heavy 3D glasses that start to hurt the nose after 2 mins. Also I question if3D is appropriate for every film out there. In fact, the cynical me would argue that adding a few extra screen details to a 2D flick, labelling it 3D and hyping it up is a bit exploitative.
Taking kids to cinemas...kinda an exercise in patience and a lot of shushing. I still don't know what was suddenly so interesting on the cinema floor halfway through the film. Hopefully not that snake that used to come on the pre-show trailers. Gulp.
Despite the moaning, I enjoyed myself and I think the little one did too. May even go again.
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Who's afraid of ....
I was very sad to read that Elizabeth Taylor had died. Easily one of the most beautiful women in film in her youth, I preferred her dark beauty to other [blonder] stars. She had a good innings though lasting until the grand Dame age of 79.
Happier memories too today as I wish Happy Birthday To YOU, Happy BIIIIIIIRTHDAY, to Akira Kurosawa who was born this day 101 years ago. Without him, I would not have the wonderful Seven Samurai nor a lot of films to look forward to enjoying when I retire (many of which star the excellent Toshiro Mifune).
Happier memories too today as I wish Happy Birthday To YOU, Happy BIIIIIIIRTHDAY, to Akira Kurosawa who was born this day 101 years ago. Without him, I would not have the wonderful Seven Samurai nor a lot of films to look forward to enjoying when I retire (many of which star the excellent Toshiro Mifune).
Thursday, 20 January 2011
My life in film
Sometimes, for fleeting moments, I feel as if I don't belong. I mostly attribute this to being born abroad though we came here when I was very young. It's also partly because of the schitzo existence of many Asians I know who are British in school/work but at home have an Asian family life. Very rarely, it's due to being the only brown face around though thankfully around Plumstead this is not an issue as it's such a rainbow borough.
In these moments, I find it hard to state where home is. But the other day I caught "Last Chance Harvey"* on the box featuring Dustin Hoffman and the excellent Emma Thompson - large parts of the film are shot on the South Bank around the NFT and Royal Festival Hall. As I watched, my heart soared as this is one of my favourite areas of London, second only to the British Museum. The film also struck a chord as it was about finding love late in life rather like Mr Plummy Mummy and I who got together in our late 30s. Our first date was at the NFT and we have subsequently returned there to watch films. I have other fond memories here of walking around the second hand book stall in front of the NFT cafe, of having drinks in the Festival Hall bar and going for countless meals around the area.
I didn't get quite the same feeling when the British Museum featured in the Mummy (it made me laugh with joy rather than feel gooey eyed) but I did enjoy when it showed up in Doctor Who and in the recent TV adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. So though not my life in film, these locations have been wonderful parts of my life and let me feel very much at home and that I do in fact belong in this wonderful city.
* Last Chance Harvey though not a bad film, is nowhere near as good as Stranger than Fiction...if you haven't seen the latter, give yourself a shake and order it from LoveFilm, or should I now say Amazon?
In these moments, I find it hard to state where home is. But the other day I caught "Last Chance Harvey"* on the box featuring Dustin Hoffman and the excellent Emma Thompson - large parts of the film are shot on the South Bank around the NFT and Royal Festival Hall. As I watched, my heart soared as this is one of my favourite areas of London, second only to the British Museum. The film also struck a chord as it was about finding love late in life rather like Mr Plummy Mummy and I who got together in our late 30s. Our first date was at the NFT and we have subsequently returned there to watch films. I have other fond memories here of walking around the second hand book stall in front of the NFT cafe, of having drinks in the Festival Hall bar and going for countless meals around the area.
I didn't get quite the same feeling when the British Museum featured in the Mummy (it made me laugh with joy rather than feel gooey eyed) but I did enjoy when it showed up in Doctor Who and in the recent TV adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. So though not my life in film, these locations have been wonderful parts of my life and let me feel very much at home and that I do in fact belong in this wonderful city.
* Last Chance Harvey though not a bad film, is nowhere near as good as Stranger than Fiction...if you haven't seen the latter, give yourself a shake and order it from LoveFilm, or should I now say Amazon?
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Blake Edwards
I didn't know the man but enjoyed some of the films he directedand/or wrote which were fluffy fun. Here is a list of my faves. RIP Mr Blake.
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Operation Petticoat
Blind Date
Pink Panther series of films
The Great Race
10
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Operation Petticoat
Blind Date
Pink Panther series of films
The Great Race
10
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
o2 / myVue / Iron Man2
I'm a bit of a cinema snob. I like my cinemas to be clean, not too big, not full of oinks who eat noisy food and talk all the way through to each other and to unknowns on their phones. I like the Curzon Soho, the Phoenix in East Finchley and my own front room (alas, not a cinema but if I sit close to our TV, it can feel like it!).
Various things had previously put me off going to the cinema at the o2. - the crowds, the price of tickets, the cost of parking and the lack of direct public transport from Plumstead Common. However, thanks to a lovely mate, we were able to have a rare night out at the pictures. And luck was a lady last night as we picked a day when there wasn't a big gig on and there weren't too many people about. Plus we found out parking is free for cinema goers who use car parks 2 and 4.
Booking tickets online was a bit painful but when I rang the helpline, the operator was very pleasant. And when we got to the cinema, we were ushered past the bouncers on the o2 door with a smile, breezed up the machine and collected our tickets within 30 seconds. We had opted for the Adult VIP seats - the fun began with trying to find our way into that part of the screen. Lots of escalators later, we managed and then were miffed to find that our seats were separated by a table - something not evident on the cinema ticket site...very poor usability. Worse still, the view was obscured by a handrail. Luckily, the place was empty and we managed to move along a bit. If you are paying that much for tickets, you don't want an obscured view.
If a film has not been made specifically for Imax, and is a huge blockbuster than it's well worth giving screen 11 a go rather than going to the Odeon (or the Odious since it's such a nasty experience using the Odeon in Charlton).
The sound was loud but very clear. Good for a rock based soundtrack on Iron Man 2. And good as the first 20 - 25 mins of the film was so boring that I would have fallen asleep. However, when the action kicked in the film livened up. Again we are shown visions of touch based technology and impressive hardware on show. You also get a real sense of the speed at which Iron Man travelled in the suit as he whooshed across the huge screen.
I didn't think much of the Gary Oldman lookalike who played the Hammer, Stark's competitor. There was even a scene where he was showing weapons that reminded me of Fifth Element scene where Oldman's character Zorg is selling weapons to the aliens gits Mangalores.
Robert Downey jr was on top form but I had hoped for his acting talents to be more stretched. The same for Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johanssen. I felt they were all underutilised. But then again, this is a comic book action flick and not Shakespeare. The men have their eye candy in the form of Johanssen's Black Widow costume and her fight sequences.
It's funny that Nick Fury is now a black guy as in the comics he was a ginger haired agent who took an Infinity formula to stay young. But Samuel L. Jackson is infinitely preferable to David Hasselhof who played Fury for a TV show.
The best bit for me was after the credits when you saw a teaser for Thor. OMG I am so excited about that film having been a reader of the comics when I was young. I wonder if and who will play Loki.
As for the o2, on a dark windy bank holiday, gig free day, I'd be tempted to go there again.
Various things had previously put me off going to the cinema at the o2. - the crowds, the price of tickets, the cost of parking and the lack of direct public transport from Plumstead Common. However, thanks to a lovely mate, we were able to have a rare night out at the pictures. And luck was a lady last night as we picked a day when there wasn't a big gig on and there weren't too many people about. Plus we found out parking is free for cinema goers who use car parks 2 and 4.
Booking tickets online was a bit painful but when I rang the helpline, the operator was very pleasant. And when we got to the cinema, we were ushered past the bouncers on the o2 door with a smile, breezed up the machine and collected our tickets within 30 seconds. We had opted for the Adult VIP seats - the fun began with trying to find our way into that part of the screen. Lots of escalators later, we managed and then were miffed to find that our seats were separated by a table - something not evident on the cinema ticket site...very poor usability. Worse still, the view was obscured by a handrail. Luckily, the place was empty and we managed to move along a bit. If you are paying that much for tickets, you don't want an obscured view.
If a film has not been made specifically for Imax, and is a huge blockbuster than it's well worth giving screen 11 a go rather than going to the Odeon (or the Odious since it's such a nasty experience using the Odeon in Charlton).
The sound was loud but very clear. Good for a rock based soundtrack on Iron Man 2. And good as the first 20 - 25 mins of the film was so boring that I would have fallen asleep. However, when the action kicked in the film livened up. Again we are shown visions of touch based technology and impressive hardware on show. You also get a real sense of the speed at which Iron Man travelled in the suit as he whooshed across the huge screen.
I didn't think much of the Gary Oldman lookalike who played the Hammer, Stark's competitor. There was even a scene where he was showing weapons that reminded me of Fifth Element scene where Oldman's character Zorg is selling weapons to the aliens gits Mangalores.
Robert Downey jr was on top form but I had hoped for his acting talents to be more stretched. The same for Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johanssen. I felt they were all underutilised. But then again, this is a comic book action flick and not Shakespeare. The men have their eye candy in the form of Johanssen's Black Widow costume and her fight sequences.
It's funny that Nick Fury is now a black guy as in the comics he was a ginger haired agent who took an Infinity formula to stay young. But Samuel L. Jackson is infinitely preferable to David Hasselhof who played Fury for a TV show.
The best bit for me was after the credits when you saw a teaser for Thor. OMG I am so excited about that film having been a reader of the comics when I was young. I wonder if and who will play Loki.
As for the o2, on a dark windy bank holiday, gig free day, I'd be tempted to go there again.
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Kurosawa
Easily one of my all time favourites is a Japanese film called Shichinin no samurai [The Seven Samurai]. It was part written and expertly directed by Akira Kurosawa who was born 100 years ago today. So happy birthday to him. Think I'll get my copy out and have a look in his honour. I'll get my hankies ready as it always makes me cry.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
3d fantastic
One good reason to try out the 3d IMAX screen at Charlton is Tron, the Legacy. I am so excited. I can't wait to see this film!
Then again...do I really want to see Jeff Bridges face in 3d. YES I DO! and Bruce Boxleitner.
Then again...do I really want to see Jeff Bridges face in 3d. YES I DO! and Bruce Boxleitner.
Monday, 18 January 2010
Avatar - a visual feast with little drama
I've saw Avatar in 3d about 3 weeks ago. I put on the funny specs and sat down to be absolutely astounded by the visual feast presented to me. This was not 3d that came out at me but 3d that pulled me in. Yet, halfway through the film I began to get annoyed at the limitations to my feast imposed by the screen - I literally wanted to step into the window that the screen had become. And as it's a long film I found the hardware on my face a bit heavy especially as it sat on top of my own glasses.
3 weeks on I have not been tempted to see the film again - once the amazingness of 3d wore off, it doesn't stand up as a story for me. There were very few points that were new instead just a rehash of the "we are one with the world" message. I felt no empathy with Jake Sully and didn't really learn much about the Na'vi. My usability head also kept getting in the way as I wanted to know how he coped with the interface of living in another very different body especially as he had to switch over to his own so frequently. I assume things would smell, taste and feel different and wanted to know how that affected his perception, personality and movements.
Contrast this to one of my all time favourites "A man called horse" made 40 years ago, starring the talented Richard Harris. In that film, you got an essence of how the man changed and a real view of the life the Sioux lived - though I don't know how accurate it was, it felt very real to me.
3d is in it's early days. Tot will be able to see Avatar in 10 years time and I hope by then we will get both the depth in vision and in drama. I also hope they figure out a way for us to watch 3d without needed any special eye furniture.
3 weeks on I have not been tempted to see the film again - once the amazingness of 3d wore off, it doesn't stand up as a story for me. There were very few points that were new instead just a rehash of the "we are one with the world" message. I felt no empathy with Jake Sully and didn't really learn much about the Na'vi. My usability head also kept getting in the way as I wanted to know how he coped with the interface of living in another very different body especially as he had to switch over to his own so frequently. I assume things would smell, taste and feel different and wanted to know how that affected his perception, personality and movements.
Contrast this to one of my all time favourites "A man called horse" made 40 years ago, starring the talented Richard Harris. In that film, you got an essence of how the man changed and a real view of the life the Sioux lived - though I don't know how accurate it was, it felt very real to me.
3d is in it's early days. Tot will be able to see Avatar in 10 years time and I hope by then we will get both the depth in vision and in drama. I also hope they figure out a way for us to watch 3d without needed any special eye furniture.
Thursday, 17 September 2009
A visit to the South Bank / NFT / RFH
My mother in law, tot and myself went into town today to have lunch with the hubby and walk around the South Bank which is one of my favourite parts of London.
We took the train into Cannon Street where some lovely railway men helped us take the push chair into a lift, even pressed the button for us and when we got out told us the trolley friendly way to go. So nice, so unexpected.
Walking down Thames Path, we passed a cafe where to my great surprise I saw an old colleague who I last saw 8 years ago. The remarkable thing is he lives in Edinburgh and was just down for the day on business. What are the odds? So we had a quick chat before having to rush off to meet hubby under the one wibbly wobbly Millennium bridge.
We had a nice lunch in the Salvation Army cafe just by the bridge where the food is not cordon bleu but edible and in a great open space. This is the first time I've gone in to meet hubby for lunch and it was such a enjoyable experience that I think I'll do it again.
He then had to go back to the office and we three girls continued our tour of the South Bank. Crossed the bridge, went "Oooo" at the view, took pictures then ambled into the Tate Modern. I was a bit cross at the all the young folk waiting at the lifts and kept muttering rather loudly that the lazy sods should take the stairs. I love the turbine hall and with great excitement took my MIL there. Only it's empty as there is an exhibition under construction. As we didn't fancy taking tot around the galleries we made our way to my ultimate fave place - the NFT passing Gabriel's Wharft and the National Theatre which is currently decked out in lurid orange.
I love the NFT. That isn't an statement in the style of Americans who seem to lurve everything but a truly expressed emotion for a wonderful place which is dear to my heart and holds many memories for me. I enjoy seeing films here as there are no adverts, no food and no rude buggers talking the whole way through. It means more to me as it's the first place I saw hubby face to face. We met on the Internet and after a few months agreed to meet there as we both enjoy film. That night we watched the terrifying, disturbing performance by Robert Mitchum in "The Night of the Hunter".
Currently, there is season of Japanese Oshima films on but I've either missed "In the Realm of the Senses" or they aren't showing it. It's a very sexually explicit film and changed the way I viewed eggs forever. I have never managed to watch it to the end as it horrified me. Japanese films have a real power to horrify - if you don't believe me just watch Audition or the original Ring. I would prefer to wait for Kamui, a ninja story, which is part of the London Film Festival - World Cinema offering.
I was a bit sad the benches at the front of the cafe have been replaced by tables. Those benches encouraged conversation with strangers and I have spent many a pleasant time there sipping beer whilst watching people browse the book stalls that are always in front. Today, I decided to forgive Louis de Bernieres for 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' and bought his 'A Partisan's Daughter'.
We then proceeded to Royal Festival Hall and the South Bank Centre. The central bar at the Centre seems to be a haven for mothers as I saw many there including one breastfeeding (yippee for public breastfeeding). We met another baby called Charlie...so many Charlies in the world.
The day ended with a stroll across Hungerford Bridge into Charing Cross and a train journey/bus ride back to the Common. My tot's squealed in delight the whole day whenever she spotted a train and was in 7th heaven on the journeys both to and from old London town.
We took the train into Cannon Street where some lovely railway men helped us take the push chair into a lift, even pressed the button for us and when we got out told us the trolley friendly way to go. So nice, so unexpected.
Walking down Thames Path, we passed a cafe where to my great surprise I saw an old colleague who I last saw 8 years ago. The remarkable thing is he lives in Edinburgh and was just down for the day on business. What are the odds? So we had a quick chat before having to rush off to meet hubby under the one wibbly wobbly Millennium bridge.
We had a nice lunch in the Salvation Army cafe just by the bridge where the food is not cordon bleu but edible and in a great open space. This is the first time I've gone in to meet hubby for lunch and it was such a enjoyable experience that I think I'll do it again.
He then had to go back to the office and we three girls continued our tour of the South Bank. Crossed the bridge, went "Oooo" at the view, took pictures then ambled into the Tate Modern. I was a bit cross at the all the young folk waiting at the lifts and kept muttering rather loudly that the lazy sods should take the stairs. I love the turbine hall and with great excitement took my MIL there. Only it's empty as there is an exhibition under construction. As we didn't fancy taking tot around the galleries we made our way to my ultimate fave place - the NFT passing Gabriel's Wharft and the National Theatre which is currently decked out in lurid orange.
I love the NFT. That isn't an statement in the style of Americans who seem to lurve everything but a truly expressed emotion for a wonderful place which is dear to my heart and holds many memories for me. I enjoy seeing films here as there are no adverts, no food and no rude buggers talking the whole way through. It means more to me as it's the first place I saw hubby face to face. We met on the Internet and after a few months agreed to meet there as we both enjoy film. That night we watched the terrifying, disturbing performance by Robert Mitchum in "The Night of the Hunter".
Currently, there is season of Japanese Oshima films on but I've either missed "In the Realm of the Senses" or they aren't showing it. It's a very sexually explicit film and changed the way I viewed eggs forever. I have never managed to watch it to the end as it horrified me. Japanese films have a real power to horrify - if you don't believe me just watch Audition or the original Ring. I would prefer to wait for Kamui, a ninja story, which is part of the London Film Festival - World Cinema offering.
I was a bit sad the benches at the front of the cafe have been replaced by tables. Those benches encouraged conversation with strangers and I have spent many a pleasant time there sipping beer whilst watching people browse the book stalls that are always in front. Today, I decided to forgive Louis de Bernieres for 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' and bought his 'A Partisan's Daughter'.
We then proceeded to Royal Festival Hall and the South Bank Centre. The central bar at the Centre seems to be a haven for mothers as I saw many there including one breastfeeding (yippee for public breastfeeding). We met another baby called Charlie...so many Charlies in the world.
The day ended with a stroll across Hungerford Bridge into Charing Cross and a train journey/bus ride back to the Common. My tot's squealed in delight the whole day whenever she spotted a train and was in 7th heaven on the journeys both to and from old London town.
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