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Jul. 2nd, 2008 12:40 amMy former flatmate from unversity, Alex, came down from Glasgow to visit at the weekend. I therefore spent most of Saturday showing him round Cambridge which went quite well although I did get a bit caught out by the weather - it was cloudy when we left the flat but the sun came out shortly afterwards and I seem to have got a bit sunburned. I was unprepared for sunny weather in England when such traditionally rain-attracting events such as Wimbledon and Glastonbury are both going on.
Watched a few DVDs over the weekend, Dog Soldiers (been a few years since I've seen it and it's still a great movie with the notable exception of the dire "there is no Spoon" line), The I.T. Crowd (which is quite an amusing sitcom although not up to the standards of the writer's previous work on Father Ted or Black Books and also despite the premise a bit short on actual computer-related jokes - although on reflection perhaps the second bit might be a good thing) and Day Watch. Day Watch was quite entertaining but is probably one of the more confusing films I've seen recently. It might have helped if we'd rewatched Night Watch before that since the last time we saw that was when it originally came out at the cinema three years ago so my memory of it is a bit vague. With some effort I think I have managed to follow the basic plotline but I'm still a bit confused about some of the supporting characters (the DVD blurb writers also seem confused by it, since they seem to think Anton is a member of Day Watch which just isn't right). I'm also a bit unconvinced by the overly convenient Chalk of Fate plot device, and not just because it's a super-powerful magical object which has a fairly rubbish name, and I'm not sure how the third film in the trilogy is going to be able to follow on from the ending of this one. Also, some bits were excessively over-the-top particularly the fairly pointless scene where Zavulon's female minion decides to drive her Ferrari along the side of a skyscraper and through a window just to get to a meeting with him. On the plus side, the film's mythology is quite original and intriguing and I think I like the characters better in this than in Night Watch.
We also went to see Prince Caspian at the cinema, which I thought was actually a surprisingly good film. There are a few problems, principally Peter and Caspian both being quite irritating for most of the film but most of the Epic Fantasy elements are done well. The two big battles scenes are both well-executed and do mostly seem to make some sort of strategic sense (sometimes a rarity in Hollywood battles), at least until the climatic Aslan-ex-machina that finishes the final battle and they're also surprisingly violent for a Disney film.
Watched a few DVDs over the weekend, Dog Soldiers (been a few years since I've seen it and it's still a great movie with the notable exception of the dire "there is no Spoon" line), The I.T. Crowd (which is quite an amusing sitcom although not up to the standards of the writer's previous work on Father Ted or Black Books and also despite the premise a bit short on actual computer-related jokes - although on reflection perhaps the second bit might be a good thing) and Day Watch. Day Watch was quite entertaining but is probably one of the more confusing films I've seen recently. It might have helped if we'd rewatched Night Watch before that since the last time we saw that was when it originally came out at the cinema three years ago so my memory of it is a bit vague. With some effort I think I have managed to follow the basic plotline but I'm still a bit confused about some of the supporting characters (the DVD blurb writers also seem confused by it, since they seem to think Anton is a member of Day Watch which just isn't right). I'm also a bit unconvinced by the overly convenient Chalk of Fate plot device, and not just because it's a super-powerful magical object which has a fairly rubbish name, and I'm not sure how the third film in the trilogy is going to be able to follow on from the ending of this one. Also, some bits were excessively over-the-top particularly the fairly pointless scene where Zavulon's female minion decides to drive her Ferrari along the side of a skyscraper and through a window just to get to a meeting with him. On the plus side, the film's mythology is quite original and intriguing and I think I like the characters better in this than in Night Watch.
We also went to see Prince Caspian at the cinema, which I thought was actually a surprisingly good film. There are a few problems, principally Peter and Caspian both being quite irritating for most of the film but most of the Epic Fantasy elements are done well. The two big battles scenes are both well-executed and do mostly seem to make some sort of strategic sense (sometimes a rarity in Hollywood battles), at least until the climatic Aslan-ex-machina that finishes the final battle and they're also surprisingly violent for a Disney film.
