Yes that’s right – not blogged anything for ages but I have returned!
Lets see, where to start – oh, the new addition to the household.
Small, four legs and a pain in the arse – behold, Achilles…
He’s very cute but Christ De Burgh he’s a handful and a bundle of energy. Anyone with an Airedale Terrier who wants to give me tips please feel free…
Margaret Thatcher – a controversial figure. A hero to some, a villian to others. But none would argue that she was an incredibly influential Prime Minister, whether that influence was positive or negative is very much down to individual political opinion.
The Iron Lady charts Thatcher’s rise from daughter of a shop keeper to Prime Minister of the UK. The film uses a flashback mechanism that some have criticised, for me it worked very well. Let me get this out of the way now – this is not a political documentary. The flashbacks are often brief and the film jumps ahead frequently which some may find jolting. Thatcher’s dementia serves as the catalyst for these flashbacks. I found myself quite moved watching the old, frial Thatcher flashback to times when she was by all accounts incredibly powerful. The film has been criticised for using the illness of dementia to tell her story, however I felt it was handled very well and serves as a look at the struggle people, no matter who you are, have with such an awful illness.
At the heart of the film is Meryl Streep. She puts in easily the performance of her career. She is simply outstanding. At points I forgot I was watching an American actress and instead felt I was almost watching Thatcher herself. She’s THAT good. She’s backed up by an equally impressive support however she steals the show with ease.
A favourite scene of mine is actually the opening which see’s Thatcher out buying milk on her own, dressed as any other old lady in a shop manned by an asian gentleman blasting out bollywood style music – the look on her face when she realises a pint of milk is 49p is priceless.
Does it paint her in a good light? Yes. Will it change your opinion of her? No. Is it worth your money to see it? Absolutely.
4 tits out of 5
Mission:Impossible was good, Mission:Impossible II was poor, Mission:Impossible III was better, Mission:Impossible – Ghost Protocol is excellent.
Wasn’t expecting too much from this when I went to see it however I walked out of the cinema at the end pleasantly suprised. You know it’s going to be good when the first 15 minutes are almost zero dialogue and pure action with Tom Cruise escaping from a Russian prison. This time around we have a few additional characters, non of them get a significant back story, but this isn’t Shakespear, it’s an action movie where character development is largely unneccesary.
Interestingly, Cruise doesn’t hog the scenes or the script on this occasion and some of the other characters do get a look in. This means it’s more akin to what Mission:Impossible should be about – a team dynamic, funky gadgets and high octane action sequences. Speaking of the action sequences, these are excellent throughout. Yes, the one that stands out does have Cruise dangling from the worlds tallest building but there are plenty of others to keep you going.
All in all a very enjoyable film. I’ve read other reviews that comment on the plot being overly complicated or having too many twists, but c’mon it’s not THAT complicated.
4.5 out of 5 tits.
May 31st, 2007. The day I signed up to Facebook. Of course back then, it was rather primitive and it was quite a fun tool. A way to record what was going on in your life via the use of updates and images. Facebook was quite a positive experience.
Fast forward to the close of 2011 and tomorrow i’m going to deactivate my Facebook account. I’m not going to delete it because frankly some of the content are now memories which i’d like to be able to revisit at some point in the future. Aside from that i’m informed it’s nigh on impossible to actually delete an account.
So why have I chosen to free myself from Facebook? Well that’s just it – I am FREEING myself from it. It’s like a jailer, an addicition or just a drain on my time. So often I find myself clicking around it aimlessly despite the fact I have other much more important things to do, I’ve been late SO many times because i’ve been busying pissin’ about on Facebook instead of getting ready. That’s not the fault of Facebook per se but it’s good reason to release myself from it’s grip.
Then we come on to the content of what I see on a daily basis. Apparently i’ve got 184 friends. I don’t. I have maybe 15-20 people i’d consider friends and the other 160+ either people i’ve never met or people I don’t actually know, but rather acknowledge when I see them out. To be perfectly honest, I have people on my Facebook who I don’t even like or who irritate me, but of course if I delete them that’s like pissing in their eye and will cause uproar.
To top it all off, the utter shite people post is downright depressing. People moaning about how hard life is, how bad their day at work has been, on a number of occasions i’ve seen rather pathetic attention seeking ‘I want to end it all’ posts. It makes a mockery of those people in society who are less fortunate than most of us. Many people really don’t appreciate just how lucky they are.
So to those of you reading this thinking of giving Facebook a break – do it. Free yourself.
PS. follow me on the less evil Twitter – @ladymoomcr
Freeeeeeedom !
For all those who have read my blog over the last year – thank you.
Merry Christmas to you all – hope you all have a lovely one and spare a thought for those less fortunate.
Much Love
So they won the X Factor. Probably deservedly on the night, but over the whole series, arguably not. Anyway, as is now customary any effort to release an original song is out the window and we are subjected to a cover version of what is a superb song. Why Damien Rice allowed this is anyone’s guess – does he have to give his explicit permission for a cover version to be released? You’d assume so.
Anyway, onto the song. It starts devoid of any music and is purely a vocal intro – this is great for the first line or two, but it continues with minimal music right up to a full minute and 50 seconds. I have to tell you, everytime I listen to it my finger is inches away from the skip button when it finally kicks into gear.
If you’ve heard the Damien Rice version you’ll be familiar with the emotion put into the lyrics when he sings them – don’t expect this with the Little Mix version, zero connection with the song it’s just banged out and that’s your lot. They have at least avoided the dreaded key change that seems to be inserted into every X Factor song, regardless of whether it needs one or not.
To be fair to them, it’s so distant from the original it does stand on its own as a decent version but it’s actually quite a weak winners single. It’ll naturally storm to No1 but alas that proves nothing – the test is in the next single.
As a sidenote, Marcus Collins’ performance of Cannonball on the night was significantly better.
2 Tits out of 5
