I t has - once again - been a bit since my last entry. Since getting back from Iowa it's all been a bit fast-lane, except with no nice convertible cars involved. Last weekend (1st-4th Oct) I was attending Cinema Days and the line-up was pretty good. Sometimes the range of movies on offer can be a bit disappointing but this time there was a diverse bunch. Let's rattle through 'em...
Cirque Du Freak - probably best described as Twilight for the less pretty. It's got an anarchic edge, but the result is pretty average... '9' - Shane Acker's CGI adventure. Visually stunning and very Tim Burtonesque, but the story's all over the place... Jennifer's Body - saw this with Jilly in Iowa... it's been sold on Megan Fox and she's the least interesting thing in it, even when swimming naked...Cold Souls - Paul Giammatti in a kind of more cerebral take on Being John Malkovich. Giammatti's stored soul gets lost and then traded to the Russians (yeah - formulaic, much???)... Harry Brown - Michael Caine as a pensioner who takes the alw into his own hands when yobs on his estate kill his friend (not remotely as truly dreadful as it could ahve been, but a bit simplistic) The Informant - People seems to have been raving over this story of a bizarre but real tale of corporate deception. It's okay but way over long... The Merry Gentleman - nicely observed and not morbid tale tale with Clive Owen about recovering from grief... Nativity! - a comedy about a school putting on a Christmas play. Could ahve been god-awful, but you'd have to have a heart of stone to not note its heart is in the right place and Martin Freeman does raise a few good laughs... The Descent Part 2 - or 'I know Where You Pot-Holed Last Summer', averagely well-done horror and also Me &Orson Welles - a nice comedy based on real events and much better than a Zac Efron movie deserves to be.
The event itself was okay - decent guests but not as much time for socialising as previous events. Everyone was acutely tired and financially challenged so there wasn't any significant late-night drinkies etc.
On the way back from the event, near Birmingham New Street, my wallet vanished and I've since had to cancel and reorder all my credit and bank cards. After doing so I did get a message that someone had found the wallet in Birmingham and would send it back but it hasn't turned up yet (supposedly on its way by post, so hopeful!). Still unsure how it could have got lost/stolen to begin with, but will be glad to get the pix and business cards back, at least. Also, I seem to be one of several CD regulars who came down with the flu straight after the weekend. Not 100% sure if it was the dreaded swine flu or not, but left me feeling hugely tired, achey, blocked up and generally run-down for about three days and I'm still not quite right now. Just dosed myself up with Lemsip, Lucozade, Jaffa Cakes and quality-ish bed time.
I've also noticed that, somewhat miraculously, when I got back from Iowa was 5lbs lighter than when I set off! (...down to less than 14 stone, yay!) I seemed to put the lbs on again at Cinema Days, but once again they seem to have dropped off in the week since. I'd be very happy to lose another 1/2 stone in the month or so to come, so we'll see if that happens (highly unlikely and I've given up trying to work out exactly how my body responds to everything!) If only I had the inclination and time to work out more... but I still can't be too vigorous and jerky. So to speak.
Hoped to cover some George Clooney stuff this coming week as got invites to events, but unlikely to be able to fit in the time to get to and from London at short notice. Ah, well. In the meantime, here's the rogue's gallery of film types. Honestly, I have waaaay more hair than it looks like here...
I'm Brian Blessed!!
Hope your feeling better btw, I feel a bit rubbish now.
Sometimes I wake up screaming, dreaming of Scottish laughter and fearing my goolies are about to be sliced off.
Think you may have mixed up 'The Merry gentleman' and 'The Boys are Back' I was hungover but not bad enough to get that mixed up!!! Still there were a lot of dead wives featured in the CD films this time so I guess any confusion can be forgiven.
And johnnym - be afraid, be very afraid....;)
Yup, you're right. My bad cutting and pasting! The Merry Gentleman was the Michael Keaton directed/starring story which could have used about 30mins cutting and pasting too.
Diggin your pose in the pic buddy, You Rock!