Nocturnal activities
Oct. 25th, 2003 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophileHad a decent night out/in with my mate James last night (my sister's ex, but also my friend, so any awkwardness can go hang). He's packed his new girl off to her parents so we had a lad's dvd and beers night.
Got to bed about half two I think. Feel like death warmed up this morning.
Much beer was consumed, I discovered this morning when I counted the cans in the kitchen. Good knows where I found room for it, along with the peshwani naan, lamb biriani and popcorn. So stuffed and regretting it this morning.
Now sat in work. Bah I say. Made more sense to come in and try and work here than head home just yet. should be able to concentrate more, in theory.
Anyway, was a good night. Managed to watch three films in a row, so productive. ;) Go, which I've seen a few times before, but utterly adore. (The Londoner in i reminds me so much of the time Andy and I were in Vegas). Also Swordfish, which I'd started watching ages ago and not finished, and also Reign of Fire. I'll cut my comments to avoid spoilers.
Also found time to visit the comic shop. Overdraft? Hang it, you only live once. Comments on the comics once I've read 'em.
Anyway, DVD comments follow.
Swordfish? Had its moments and as a no-brainer action film, which is what we wanted, it fulfilled its purpose. To be honest though, there wasn't that much new in it. Apart, perhaps, from John Travolta's utterly ruthless villain. Managed to push the envelope a bit further than the norm and any sympathy for him was lost. Nice to see a charasmatic villain who -wasn't- sympathetic. Normally I end up cheering for the bad guys.
Halle Berry and Vinnie Jones were both horrifically wasted. Halle Berry particuarly, as all she was there for was to introduce the characters, show her boobs in the most incredibly pointless and unsubtle way I've ever had the misfortune to see, and then die off after vanishing off screen for half the film. Disappointing for her and Vinnie, but still, Hugh Jackman is charismatic enough to pull the rest of the film off. Average all in all.
Reign of Fire I actually enjoyed a lot more, although for sheer spectacle it was lacking a lot of what I expected. The edge of tension and the idea that dragons had bred fast enough to bring about a near apocalypse was well handled, pumping up the fear factor well. Some really nice touches were put into the build-up, but the failure was that I never really believed that dragons were so dangerous or common enough to have almost wiped out mankind. You only really saw two in the whole movie, whereas there was supposed to be millions populating the country. Presumably the budget was too tight to allow for huge special effect type scenes showing dragons wiping out the nation's capital, instead relying on news reports and headlines to tell that part of the story. Not bad, but would have been better with a bit more spectacle.
However, that comment aside, the rest of the film I thooughly enjoyed. You did get a sense that dragons were dangerous, as hey wiped out enough people during the course of the movie to actually crack up the tension. It -was- pretty disappointing, but alas standard, that the Brits were portrayed as simpy sitting around waiting to die before the Yanks came along to save the day. Thankfully redeemed by the fact the Americans got wiped out after about 20 minutes, thus totally failing to save anyone at all. And the plucky Brit outlasted the Yank, which is certainly a turn around to the norm.
Not bad by any means. One to watch again methinks.
Got to bed about half two I think. Feel like death warmed up this morning.
Much beer was consumed, I discovered this morning when I counted the cans in the kitchen. Good knows where I found room for it, along with the peshwani naan, lamb biriani and popcorn. So stuffed and regretting it this morning.
Now sat in work. Bah I say. Made more sense to come in and try and work here than head home just yet. should be able to concentrate more, in theory.
Anyway, was a good night. Managed to watch three films in a row, so productive. ;) Go, which I've seen a few times before, but utterly adore. (The Londoner in i reminds me so much of the time Andy and I were in Vegas). Also Swordfish, which I'd started watching ages ago and not finished, and also Reign of Fire. I'll cut my comments to avoid spoilers.
Also found time to visit the comic shop. Overdraft? Hang it, you only live once. Comments on the comics once I've read 'em.
Anyway, DVD comments follow.
Swordfish? Had its moments and as a no-brainer action film, which is what we wanted, it fulfilled its purpose. To be honest though, there wasn't that much new in it. Apart, perhaps, from John Travolta's utterly ruthless villain. Managed to push the envelope a bit further than the norm and any sympathy for him was lost. Nice to see a charasmatic villain who -wasn't- sympathetic. Normally I end up cheering for the bad guys.
Halle Berry and Vinnie Jones were both horrifically wasted. Halle Berry particuarly, as all she was there for was to introduce the characters, show her boobs in the most incredibly pointless and unsubtle way I've ever had the misfortune to see, and then die off after vanishing off screen for half the film. Disappointing for her and Vinnie, but still, Hugh Jackman is charismatic enough to pull the rest of the film off. Average all in all.
Reign of Fire I actually enjoyed a lot more, although for sheer spectacle it was lacking a lot of what I expected. The edge of tension and the idea that dragons had bred fast enough to bring about a near apocalypse was well handled, pumping up the fear factor well. Some really nice touches were put into the build-up, but the failure was that I never really believed that dragons were so dangerous or common enough to have almost wiped out mankind. You only really saw two in the whole movie, whereas there was supposed to be millions populating the country. Presumably the budget was too tight to allow for huge special effect type scenes showing dragons wiping out the nation's capital, instead relying on news reports and headlines to tell that part of the story. Not bad, but would have been better with a bit more spectacle.
However, that comment aside, the rest of the film I thooughly enjoyed. You did get a sense that dragons were dangerous, as hey wiped out enough people during the course of the movie to actually crack up the tension. It -was- pretty disappointing, but alas standard, that the Brits were portrayed as simpy sitting around waiting to die before the Yanks came along to save the day. Thankfully redeemed by the fact the Americans got wiped out after about 20 minutes, thus totally failing to save anyone at all. And the plucky Brit outlasted the Yank, which is certainly a turn around to the norm.
Not bad by any means. One to watch again methinks.
