Aka Monday 29th October to Sunday 4th
November 2018
It’s been a bit of a weird week, that seems to have gone by
in a flash and where I’ve spent most of it in a kinda fugue state or blue funk,
where I’ve spent my time either doing nothing, thinking about how I should be
doing something, but not doing anything or worrying about a lack of money/not
finding a job, rather than doing anything proactive e.g. applying for a job.
I did watch a lot of films this week (partly because it was
Halloween week and you've got to watch scary movies during
Halloween!):
‘Sicario 2’ – not quite as good as the first Sicario, probably because in the first film we didn’t know these characters and our point of view into them was through Emily Blunt, who was an outsider and not as morally ‘dark’ as them, but in the sequel we know what they are willing to do, but it is a great sequel. 8/10.
‘Den Of Thieves’ – I thought this would be an okay action flick,
but it’s much better than I thought it would be all about how Gerard Butler’s
team of cops had to be as bad as the criminals they were after, but it’s a bit
more subtle than that. Gerard Butler does play a maverick cop, but the film
swings between play this as a good thing and playing it as a bad thing, that
his character isn’t to be put on a pedestal. It’s a bit like a combination of ‘Triple 9’ and ‘The Usual Suspects’. 7/10.
‘Constantine: City Of Demons’ – a great animated Constantine
tale, based a little of Mike Carey’s ‘Constantine: All His Engines’, with a
dash of the new mainstream DC superhero universe John Constantine. In ‘City Of
Demons’ Constantine is faced with an almost impossible villain to beat, but he
does manage it in the grand Constantine tradition of being a bastard and
screwing over his friend (even through it helps his friend). 8/10.
...which I double-billed with ‘Constantine’ – if you can ignore the changes that have been
made to the comic book John Constantine (e.g. being American and the holy
shotgun) this is a damn fine film, that captures the spirit of Constantine,
that yes, he is a self-serving bastard, will screw people over to get what he
wants, but he is also a romantic that is willing to sacrifice himself. And it’s
got a great cast: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor
Vince, Djimon Hounsou and Peter Stormare. 8/10.
‘Halloween’ – you’ve got to watch ‘Halloween’ on Halloween
night, it’s a great slasher film, has plenty of scares and a great soundtrack (once
heard never forgotten!). 8/10.
‘The Searchers’ – a classic John Wayne cowboy film, with Wayne at his most Wayne-ness, which everyone should see.
It is a compelling story, shot really well, has a great supporting cast, plenty
of great vistas of Monument Valley and maybe one of the best endings to a film
ever! 8/10.
‘Big Jake’ – is almost like a grindhouse
version of a typical John Wayne Western, it’s a simple story, Wayne’s grandson
is kidnapped, so Wayne rescues him, there is plenty of action with lots of shooting
and a character who is happy with using a machete to hack his victims to death,
including a dog and child! 7/10.
‘The Sons Of Katie Elder’ – is a
more reflective John Wayne Western, concerning family duty and loyalties, although
it does also deal with revenge, so there are plenty of punching and gun-play.
7/10.
‘The Fog’ – a nice and lean ghost
story by John Carpenter and Debra Hill, about ghost sailors taking revenge on a
town, whose founders, 100 years ago, murdered the sailors. 7/10.
‘Prince Of Darkness’ – a great
horror film from John Carpenter, that combines quantum physics and Christianity
to make a film full of dread, fear and scares. 9/10.
‘Wind Chill’ – a nice ghost story, about a haunted stretch
of a back road where Emily Blunt and Ashton Holmes get stuck and over the course
of the film discover why this bit of road is haunted. It’s a nice story but
feels more like an episode of ‘Tales of the Unexpected’, rather than a feature
film. 6/10.
‘Hardcore Henry’ – a full-on action flick, with the unique
twist that it is all told from the P.O.V. of the protagonist, which reminded me
a little of ‘Crank’ in that it just goes all out with its premise and is chock
full of violence and titillation! 6/10.
‘Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid’ – a great buddy Western
that makes you wish that you had a friend like Butch/Sundance and went about
robbing banks and trains in the Old West! Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Katharine Ross have a real chemistry between them and this film is a real joy to watch.
Even with that ending, where you are hoping that that isn’t it, but I can’t say
more without giving it all away. 8/10.
‘Severance’ – a great horror comedy, it’s almost like an update
of those old Abbott & Costello monster films, where the monsters are monsters
and do kill people, but there are jokes and they are funny. 8/10.
I also brought, but didn’t read (which I put down to being
in this weird frame of mind this week), some comics:
…and I brought Empire’s Alien Special and the latest issue of Empire
magazine, mainly for the interview with Tom Cruise and Chris McQuarrie (although
I haven’t read them yet!)…
…and I brought Walkers new Christmas themed crisps, which,
in order of best to worst testing flavour, Turkey & Stuffing (a pretty close approximation of turkey and stuffing), Brussels Sprout
(has a savoury, almost healthy, taste and the crisps have a green hue, which doesn’t fully come through in the picture
and whose packet has the warning/disclaimer that “Images of sprouts for
illustrative purposes only. Product contains no Brussels Sprout; contains
flavouring only”!) and Pigs In Blankets (which taste like posh smokey bacon flavour crisps)…
…and I did the G2 crossword, which got off to a good start
as I only needed to cheat on a fifth of the clues (four out of 25) for Monday’s
crossword and I learnt that ‘Yerevan’ is the ‘capital of Armenia’ and that
‘Wood Anemone’ is an ‘early spring-flowering plant’...
…Tuesday’s crossword went much better as I only needed to
cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 24), it’s like I’m on crossword
fire!, the answers just flow, and I learnt that ‘Sorrento’ is a ‘resort on the
Bay of Naples’…
…the hot streak continues with Wednesday’s crossword as I
only needed to cheat on three of the 22 clues, bit miffed that I didn’t get
‘philanthropic’ or ‘coterie’, but I did learn that a ‘pole to support sails,
rigging, etc’ is a ‘spar’…
…and there’s a downturn with Thursday’s crossword, it was a
bit of a struggle and the answers didn’t come easily, and I needed to cheat on
nearly a quarter of the clues (six out of 26), but at least it was educational
as I learnt that ‘viva’ means ‘oral exam’, a ‘groat’ was an ‘old four-pence
coin’, that ‘Angola’ is a ‘south-west African country, capital Luanda’ and that
an ‘Autocracy’ is a ‘government by one person with absolute power’…
…I spent a little
longer working on Friday’s crossword and it did go a tad better and I only
needed to cheat on a fifth of the clues (five out of 24) and I learnt that an
‘artist’s workroom’ can be called an ‘atelier’, the ‘human forearm bone’ is
called the ‘radius’ and that ‘WH Auden’s middle name’ was ‘Hugh’, but miffed I
didn’t get ‘sickle’ from ‘tool for cutting grain’, my mind got stuck on
scythe!...
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