Cloud Atlas Review

Have you ever watched a film and thought to yourself What the hell was that all about? If that feeling annoyed you then don't watch Cloud Atlas because, I assure you, there's a very large possibility that you will be saying that a LOT.   This is a film I've wanted to see ever since seeing the trailer. However, many years (and thousands of viewings) have taught me that trailers are not to be trusted. They lie. They even make bouquets of roses out of piles of poop.   Nonetheless, I vowed that if I could see Cloud Atlas I would take the opportunity. Well, at the moment Amazon have one of their 3 for £17 deals going and this was in it. So £5.66 a disc. Ok, for that I'm willing to give it a try.   Given I've got some chest pain at the moment (feeling much better by the way) I haven't been able to cross stitch, so yesterday was spent watching film. I started with The Great Escape (my all-time favourite war film), which I followed with The Diary of Anne Frank (the black & white Millie Perkins version).After that much war I decided that something ultra-modern was required so I popped Cloud Atlas into my blu-ray player.   In the first five minutes I was thinking I'd made a mistake. However, never one to give up on a film easily I put aside my first judgemental feelings.   I am so glad I did. This is not the first time that my patience (born from experience and a love of film) has paid off. There have been many, many times when a film has turned out to be better than it's first few minutes and this is a great example.
6 interwoven stories. Most actors playing 6 different roles. An amazing ensemble cast that are at the top of their game, giving some brilliant performances and one of the most challenging storylines I've yet to witness. Not only does the film jump around in time from the distant past to the very distant future, but it also shifts tonally and in theme.   One minute you can be watching a comedy, then a Sci-Fi, then a touching romance. At all times, though, the film is utterly mesmerising.   I found myself desperately wanting to know what happened to Sixsmith and Frobisher; what the hell was up the mountain that Halle Berry's Meronym desperately wanted to see. But, most touching of all: the fate of Somni 451.   Performances are sublime and the film is impeccably directed; with stunning visuals and acting. However, it's not perfect. There are moments when you feel they move away from one story too quickly or linger too long on another. Also, the devolved language of the distant future, while very good at creating atmosphere, is almost impossible to understand. I had to turn the subtitles on to know what they were talking about - but, I did find that for the final hour I actually understood what they were saying (my internal translator must have kicked in! :-) )   If you want to watch something a bit different. Something challenging but ultimate worth the effort, then I highly recommend giving this brave, unique film a chance! Just don't try to stitch through it! You'll never know what's going on!   The blu-ray sound and picture are reference quality. If you ever want to show a friend what blu-ray can look like then this is the film to show them (this and something old like Gone With the Wind or Ben-Hur) I didn't watch all the extras as it was a bit late, but the two short featurettes I watched were both interesting and informative. I did like the fact that you could watch them on a Play All function or individually.

Non-Stop Blu-ray

Liam Neeson stars as Bill Marks, a troubled Air Marshall, on a routine flight from New York to London. Except, he's soon going to realise there's nothing routine about this journey; because someone is threatening to kill a passenger every 20 minutes unless their demands are met.
Trapped in a plane and faced with an impossible situation is probably everyone's worst nightmare. The events of 9/11 are probably in the minds of everyone who steps onto a plane nowadays and we all pray we'll get where we need to be safely.
Non-Stop really does live up to it's name. Yes, there are moments of quiet drama and character building; but there are also some nail-biting action sequences. But, at it's heart, I feel Non-Stop is actually more of a murder mystery. Agatha Christie would have been proud. Why? Because there are lots of twists to the story, shady characters, a good motive and - even more importantly - a very good chance you won't guess who did it. We're pretty good at getting these things right (long time Christie fans here), but we didn't guess correctly.
The blu-ray is pretty standard. A few interviews and featurettes. The sound is excellent - as I would expect from an action/thriller. The picture is excellent but not incredible - but, then again, it's not really the sort of film that requires a pristine image. There's a certain graininess to it that really fits the style and look of the film.
If you like intelligent, well thought out, well acted films then this is worth a go. Also of note: Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary from Downton Abbey) also stars alongside Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore.
My Rating: 9/10

The Flowers of War (Blu-ray)

We bought this film in an HMV sale in February 2012 and it's sat in our 'to be watched' pile ever since. That happens sometimes, a film just doesn't grab us enough to make the time - despite looking good enough to buy at the time.

Well, anyway, we finally decided to watch it yesterday. Well, I did. My partner still wasn't that fussed - despite it being his blu-ray.

By the end of the 2.16hr run we were both emotional wrecks! We'd both spent chunks of the film in tears and felt drained. Exactly the kind of movie-watching experience we both enjoy.
I love it when we watch something and then think Why didn't we watch that earlier!?

The back of the box is actually a little misleading - making the film sound like a war film. Yes it's set during a war (the battle for Nanking in 1937) but there is so much more to this film.

Christian Bale (one of my favourite actors) plays a self-centred drunk who is just trying to get enough money together to escape the city. He works as a mortician and agrees to take one final job before fleeing. The job is in a convent school, but when he gets there he finds a bunch of young girls, their guardian (a young boy) and no money!

They are shortly joined by a gaggle of prostitutes trying to find somewhere to hide.

The performances by all the women in the film are perfect. Given that these actresses are all speaking a foreign language they do an amazing job with such emotionally charged material.

That's about all I can say about the story without ruining some of the most wonderfully executed story twists I've had the pleasure to watch.

This is a highly emotional film, with some sequences incredibly difficult to watch - but any film that displays the level of courage, selflessness and strength of character deserves to be watched.

Easily the best film I've seen so far this year.

It should be noted that there are strong scenes of violence, sexual violence and war.

Also, a lot of the film is subtitled, so if you hate subtitles then this is not the film for you.

I strongly urge anyone who reads this review to give the film a chance.

Do I sense a theme?...

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught! 

The lyrics above are from the brilliant song 'You've Got to be Carefully Taught' from South Pacific and is sung by Lieutenant Cable as he laments his inability to love a native girl. It's a tragic song and really hits home when it's performed in the musical.

I've quoted it here because I watched it a week ago and since then the theme seems to following me.

Yesterday I watched The Debt and Amistad. Both films contains strong elements of prejudice and bigotry. Both also happen to be brilliant.

The Debt is the story of former Mossad agent Rachel Singer who, at one time, tracked down a Nazi war criminal and brought him to justice. She and her team overcame many problems in the course of their mission. The film also has a mystery at it's core.

Helen Mirren plays the older Rachel and Jessica Chastain the younger. The film also stars Sam Worthington (Avatar).

Brilliantly acted, thoughtfully and skilfully directed and utterly mesmerising.

There are some scenes of violence and there are some descriptive dialogue sequences that are a lot more upsetting than any visuals could be.

If you're interested in the subject of Nazi hunters then this is probably a good film for you.

Amistad is Stephen Spielberg's classic film about the case of 44 Africans stolen from their home and put on trial for killing their captors during an attempted escape. Starring Matthew MacConnaughay, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounso, Stellan Skarsgaard and many other recognisable characters actors.

Whenever the subject of slavery is central to a film's plot you just know there are going to be scenes so upsetting they're difficult to watch and Amistad is no different. Much like some horror films, there were moments where I found myself almost hiding behind a cushion - tears streaming down my face (only real men cry by the way!).

Barely got 20 minutes of cross stitch done - couldn't concentrate with such gripping films on. Hopefully will get some stitching done today.

The World's End - Blu-ray Review

I don't get to go to the cinema very often and, if I'm honest, I begrudge the cost of the entry. Thankfully over the years I've become a pretty good judge of what I like - so I'm able to blind-buy every film I watch.

So, although my reviews may be a little late it's still new to me.

When I'm doing my cross stitch I like to watch TV. My preference is to watch things I've seen before, because I spend most of the time looking down at my stitching. Yesterday I did 12 hours of stitching and watched 12 episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series and 1 episode from Season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

After that amount of stitching I just wanted to watch something. I'd bought The World's End a couple of weeks ago in CeX (CeX is a trade-in store to anyone from outside the UK).

I'm not a huge fan of British humour (so lynch me!) but there is something about the combination of Edgar Wright (Director/Screenwriter), Simon Pegg and Nick Frost that just hits a sweet spot in my funny bone.
Sean of the Dead is one of my all-time favourite films and I thought Paul was brilliant; but the mixed reviews for The World's End really gave me pause. So I waited for the price to drop.

And so, with the wait over, I sat down to watch this last night. After a worrying first few minutes, during which I was thinking I'm going to hate this! the film (and it's actors) seemed to find the rhythm and style.

Five mates go on a monumental pub crawl - a crawl they failed to complete in their teens. The plan for four of them is to reminisce but the fifth (Simon Peg) has deeper motives.
The five guys are every type of misfit you've ever met in your life - and as such are identifiable and easy to sympathise with. But, this is definitely Simon Pegg's film. His fearless portrayal of Gary King is faultless and mesmerising; one moment having you laughing and the next crying.
As the pub crawl progresses the guys start to realise there is something seriously wrong in their old hometown - and it's there that the film sideswipes you with a curve ball. A brilliant, utterly ridiculous, curveball that just elevates the film into excellence.

I'm not going to ruin that surprise - just in the hope that you don't know.

I loved this film. I shouldn't have to be honest. Upon reflection it's really NOT my style of humour, but I found myself laughing many times.

The extras on the blu-ray are pretty good too. I watched the Outtakes (which go on a bit) and the Making Of (which was very interesting). Apparently there is 90 minutes of extras exclusive to the blu-ray.
The picture and audio were stunning throughout.

Oh, by the way, don't expect my reviews to be full of technical jargon about depth, bitrates or other such stuff. It's boring to read and most people have now idea what it's all about so I can't be bothered to write about it! Also, there are loads of sites out there dedicated to delivering professional, in depth, reviews. My reviews are just my thoughts and for a bit of fun.

Film & Music Review of the Day

Buy on Amazon.co.uk

Before watching August: Osage County ask yourself a question, and, if at all possible, be honest with yourself....

"Do I like films with an excess of talking?"

If you like films full of action or easily accessible humour then this film is definitely NOT for you. A:OC is a densely written, challenging film with some career-defining performances.

Even if you're not a fan of Streep or Roberts there is much here to praise. Both are amazing in their roles and truly deserved the award nominations they received.

So, what's it about? That's a tough one.
On the surface it's about a dysfunctional family coming together over the death of a family member. Old issues resurface and new problems arise. It's a family nightmare compacted into two hours.

But, dig a little deeper and this is primarily a story about cruelty and karma. The old adage "what goes around, comes around" really rings true with this story.

Many of the characters will probably be recognisable. I know Streep's character reminded me of my own mother at times and I could definitely see myself in Julia Roberts' character.

Is it any good? Another tough question.
On the one hand it's a simple YES. The performances are faultless and the writing is clever, witty, disturbing and mesmerising.
BUT, on the other hand, it's uncomfortable to watch sometimes and I'm not sure how much re-watch value there is. None of the characters are particularly likeable; so I'm not sure how much time I would like to spend in their company.

In a nutshell, I think I'd be re-watching to see the performances and NOT for the story.

Watch if you likes films like There Will Be Blood, or The Hurt Locker
Avoid if you like films such as Transformers, Underworld, The Fast and the Furious

The blu-ray has a brilliant picture - almost too good as it shows every wrinkle! The film doesn't really need an impressive soundscape; but the DTS HD Master tracks does a great job. All dialogue is clear and there are no dips or peaks.

 Buy on Amazon.co.uk

If, like me, you're a fan of musical theatre the film Rocky doesn't seem like the first choice to adapt into a musical. When I first heard it was going to happen I thought it was the most awful decision since Carrie: The Musical.

But, as with Carrie, Rocky Broadway (as they decided to all it) is a pleasant surprise.

The story centres on a struggling heavyweight boxer just waiting for his moment. That career defining moment. But, there are some things more important. Such as falling in love.

So, if you've seen the film with Sylvester Stallone you will already know the story. That story is reinvented for the stage and embellished to great effect by the songs. Surprised? I was.

Rocky Balboa singing does not immediately sound like it will work. I'm glad to say my misgivings were unfounded.

I rarely get to see a musical on stage, so, for me, the cast recording is my only experience of the show. Some recordings can completely fail to capture the show's atmosphere (Mamma Mia - MUCH better live), while others make you feel like you're in the theatre. I'm pleased to say that Rocky Broadway falls into the latter category.

This Broadway Cast recording stars Andy Karl as Rocky and Margo Seibert as Adrian. For me, it is the relationship and chemistry between these characters that make or break this show; and I'm very pleased to report that both of them are amazing.

Andy Karl brings a sensitivity to Rocky that was there in the film, but is now laid bare and exposed. Song does that anyway and never more so than in this show. The same can be said of Margo Seibert.

The show is written by long-time Broadway collaborators Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens - writers of such brilliant shows as Ragtime and Seussical The Musical.

What they've managed to do with this show is create an easily accessible score that still has enough complexity to appeal to more die-hard theatre fans. There are definitely songs in this show that you will be humming after a couple of listens.

There are moments in the score that reminded me of songs from Disney's Hercules (on Patriotic) and also Ghost the Musical  (on In the Ring)- neither of which is a bad thing in my opinion.

Thankfully, the decision to still concentrate on the love story between Rocky and Adrian works.

Adrian's ode to hopes and fears about Rocky, Raining, is a stand-out track but there are many, many songs to admire here, such as: My Nose Ain't Broken, Happiness and Adrian. Also of special note is Training Montage 2 because it incorporates the brilliant Eye of the Tiger to great effect.

While maybe not as rewarding as other shows I've recently listened to such as The Bridges of Madison County or Violet, Rocky Broadway is nonetheless a worthy addition to the Broadway catalogue and to my musicals collection.

Highly recommended! 8 out of 10.

....And so it begins....

Ok. Here goes.

Totally new to blogging. Thought I'd give it a go. Why? Because, sometimes I think I might actually have something to say that people will find interesting.

I called my blog 'The Eclectic Bloke's Blog' because I've got a lot of interests and there was no way I could define my blog with one word and still make it sound interesting. Besides, I've always loved the word eclectic.

So, what do you need (or want) to know about me?

I'm male and in my forties - or my mid-life crisis some would say; and I have a lot of interests.

What you won't see on my blog is the any of the following (so if these interest you leave now!): football or pretty much any other sport (except some tennis). Details of pubs, clubs or restaurants (I might be lying about that last one occasionally).

What you WILL find is my thoughts on:
Books - I read a lot and all the time so I may post my thoughts and feelings on what I'm reading.
Films/TV - I collect DVD and Blu-ray so I may post reviews on what I watch.
Places I've Been - I like to post about new places I go. Not in boring detail though!
Cross Stitch - Counted CS is one of my main hobbies; and, according to some, something of a rarity among men. Although, if facebook is anything to go by, that is changing. I will probably be posting pictures of my current progress and photos of my finished projects.
Writing - I'm a budding writer (aren't we all at one point or another) so I may post short stories or poems. All will be copyrighted so hands off!

So, now you know what my blog is all about. Hopefully you'll find something you like! Happy reading!