It’s been a while since I saw anything at the cinema, so I’ve had to re-watch old movies on telly if I’ve needed a quick film-fix.
Not long ago, Back to the Future 2 was on. That’s set in 2015 and has quite an, errr shall we say, “creative” vision of the future which is used to great effect. Watching that now, it perhaps seems a little far fetched, but when I was a kid in ‘89 I was sure that this was how the World would be nine years from now (guess there’s still time!).
Anyway, Children of Men is set in 2027. With the above still fresh in my mind, I did find my mind wandering off concentrating on it’s vision of the future. Technology-wise, it’s much more believeable than BTTF2.
London buses are still driving about (hell they last for decades) - albeit with LCD adverts on the sides. Cars don’t fly and are still recogniseable, computer games seem to have advanced somewhat, people apparently still use traditional candescent lightbulbs and the tech future is generally pretty damn similar to the present. You can even still play on a fruit machine whilst drinking a Carling down yer local boozer.
Otherwise things are pretty bleak. The entire Earth’s population has become infertile, immigration has spiralled out of control, bombings are a regular event and we’re talking a Blade Runner type existance. And you thought things were bad because of Carling still being available.
What’s the film like though? Well, the takes are long and continuous, the action is at times intense and it’s always beautifully shot (there’s a lot of handheld camera work). You do really get drawn into to it, which is always a good sign. I did have a couple of slight niggles though, in that the big questions I wanted answered weren’t. In fact, they didn’t even attempt to answer them or really give any clues. Hmmph!
The plot is all quite predictable, but it’s still a quality film, although I’m sure a lot of the cinematography will be lost when it’s transferred to the small screen. Unless you happen to have an enormous fook-off great HD TV in your living room with surround sound. But who would have that, eh? Tcha! 8/10.
Being an old crusty, I don’t really play games any more (and because my PC is ancient), but I couldn’t help but be impressed when I saw this trailer earlier this afternoon.
Long gone are the days of text adventures and Pong, eh!
Well I say “album review”, but you know what I mean. Like I ever review anything thoroughly.
Professional music critics always use bollocks descriptive words like “organic” and then typically shoehorn music into a genre. If they can’t find one, they’ll make a new one up. Neoclassical-electro-punk-funk etc. I think it probably makes them able to sleep at night knowing that everything has been safely pigeonholed.
Anyway, yesterday I got my copy of the new Level 42 album - Retroglide, slightly ahead of the official release date (which is nice). It’s been about 12 years since Forever Now was released, so it’s been a long wait for us L42 fans.
Over the last month or so, the official site has been putting 45 second snippets online. I wasn’t overly impressed! Was buying tickets to two dates of the Retroglide tour a big mistake?
Hmm let’s see, after a few listens, here’s what I’ve got so far. The tracks standing out for me are The Way Back Home, Just For You and Sleep Talking (conveniently sequential tracks), whereas Clouds, Ship and All I Need strike me as flat bland fillers. I’m hoping Clouds will grow on me though in the same way a previous L42 song - It’s Over did.
Overall, I’d say this is a very organic, mature acid jazz album with shades of mellow retrofunk. Arrrrrrrrgh!!! I have no idea what I’m talking about.
Actually, I’ll quote the great music guru that is Louis Walsh… “I liked it!”. I don’t think it’s going to be a classic L42 album by any means and it’s a shame I don’t instantly love it, but at least I’m looking forward to the live gigs again now.
Last night was probably one of the final stormchases of the year for me, I can’t see there being many more worthwhile chases in 2006 (unless there’s one tonight). Anyway, last nights dragged me out of bed at 3am, so I’ve been absolutely knackered today!
Again, only one real ‘direct hit’, the others I snapped aren’t really worth posting:
…but this would’ve been a cracker if I’d zoomed out a bit and had some luck on my side. Doh! Very disappointing.
So near, yet so far eh!
It seems like an eon since I wrote part one of this post. I’ve had part two sitting amongst my draft posts for ages, so it’s about time it was unleashed… and it’ll make a nice break from all the recent Google stuff! Plus I’m fed up of looking at it sitting there!!
So without further ado, as promised (a long time ago), five more slightly geekier anti-spam tips…
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