Model Citizen - home_cinema

Wanted (or not)

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:10:00 +0200

It's only every once in a while that a film comes along that's this special. I will be giving away spoilers here, so be warned before you read on.

I guess the first thing to note is that although James McAvoy is the star, he's relegated on the front cover to the corner and Angelina Jolie gets the main attention.

The story is as follows:

There is a group of weavers, why weavers and not plumbers or Kwik Fit Fitters is never explained, but they are weavers.

They have a secret organisation of assassins. Again, why this is is never really touched upon. Perhaps they were getting problems in the textile trade by some unscrupulous company, perhaps a dangerous Mark One retail branch or something?

Anyway, the assassins are getting killed by a super assassin starting with McAvoy's Dad, or not as it turns out. So they get McAvoy to train to be an assassin to kill him, as apparently none of them are up to it.

McAvoy, has a go with a gun, and for a beginner does'nt do too bad as he shoots wings of flies.

Stay with this nonsense, it gets worse.

So, McAvoy, is fully trained in about 10 mins and Morgan Freeman, who runs the weaving joint takes him to the inner sanctum, where the magic loom is. I swear not even Enid Blyton would have seen that one coming. Apparently the loom misses threads every now and then and it's a binary code for who they kill. Well, it's enough information for the rest of the group and away they've been killing off loads of people that the loom told them to kill.

McAvoy wrestles with his conscience for 2 mins and then offs the first bloke.

Lets now cut to the chase, The Big bad Guy is McAvoy Father (yawn) and not really bad and Freeman is the real bad guy. Terence Stamp turns up and tells McAvoy what to do and McAvoy armed with 2 guns and 1000 suicide bombing rats (I swear I'm not making this up!) storm the weaving castle.

It all ends with McAvoy being cornered, if you can be cornered in a round room, by all the remaining assassins. Freeman tells them to kill him, but first McAvoy gives a little speech and hey presto Jolie manages to shoot all the assassins, including herself, in the head as they all stand in a circle.

Neat trick huh????!!!!

The film finishes with Freeman getting shot by McAvoy from somewhere over the other side of the world and I wonder how much I can flog this for on Amazon.

10,000 BC

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:12:41 +0200

I must be missing something. This is the 3rd movie in a row now I've watched that's been absolutely slated by the critics and yet when I've watched it I'm thinking ???! What was wrong with it?
I was'nt going t buy it, but seeing as HMV had it for £6.99 I thought I'd give it a try.
First thing I was surprised at was it's 'real' and not a CGI movie like Beowulf. Dont know why but I thought this was an animated film.
Apart from that I thought the film was a really good adventure. The actual plot is almost a direct copy of Apocalypto, but without the gore level, and also with a smattering of dinosaurs thrown in. It was a nice change too from seeing Raptors and T-Rex's to seeing Mammoths, Sabre Tooth Tigers and the big bird things (not Sesame Street).

The kids enjoyed it too, which (rant start) is probably where all these negative reviews spring from. Perhaps middle aged single men who think Gore Fest Horror is the best thing you can watch should'nt be writing reviews for movies that are more 'young people' orientated. I think if the film is aimed at a family perhaps it should be reviewed by one. (rant over)
Anyway, as said, the kids liked it too. It's not filled with explosions and car chases, but is more about the determination of a hunter to return his kidnapped tribes people and love back home (told you it was like Apocalypto, even down to the Aztec's at the end).
Blu Ray quality was very good. pleanty of snowscapes and deserts to show off the quality. I did'nt notice much in the sound though.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:38:36 +0200

This is another of those movies I've watched recently that has so many bad reviews, but when I've actually watched it, can't really see what all the fuss is about.
I think the biggest problem seems to be Brendan Fraser, there's just too many critics out there who hate the guy. It seems any of Brendans latest movies have him as the first stumbling block (Journey to the Center of the Earth/Inkheart), but myself, he does what he does, an action light hero for kids/family viewing.

OK, so to the film.
The first thing you notice that does take some getting used to is that Rachel Weisz has been replaced by Maria Bello. It took me about half the movie to get used to her, but that's not her fault, more I think that Weisz had made such an impact with the character in the first 2 movies. Also, there son Alex is now grown (Luke Ford) and is a mix of his Dad's adventurous spirit and his Uncle Jonathon's ignorance. But again, I'm not sure it's his fault I took so long to get used to him or more to the point that you kind of expect all heroes these days to be perfect and making mistakes just should'nt happen.
There's no Arnold Vosslo this outing as other than him being finished off in Mummy 2, thuis film takes place in China, with the Mummy being played superbly by Jet Li, a Warlord who conquered all he saw until he was tricked conquering the last goal-immortality by a witch played by Michelle Yeoh.
Of course after the Warlord is imprisoned for millenia along with his now Terracotta Army, he's accidentally released and the fun starts.

I think for me and my family, we enjoyed it so much as we'd been watching old Ray Harryhausen movies, and after those this just seemed the modern day equivalent. Simple classical stories interspersed with great monsters (abominable snowmen, 3 headed dragons etc) and one sided bad guys that you just know will not make it to the final credits.
What more do you want from a family movie?

Picture and sound are excellent though not stretching the format much. It's nice to see al the fiery detail in Jet Li's body as it cracks and moves exposing the fiery substance beneath, but the scenery did'nt really 'pop'as it did in The Forbidden Kingdom, the previous Blu Ray I watched.

Rated 4 out of 5

Losy In Austen

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:19:44 +0100

I completeley came across this by chance, it was one of those "Amazon Recommends" titles. It has excellent reviews but was a mini series noone I've come across actually saw.

It's a strange mix of Pride & Prejudice meets Life On Mars. Set over 4 episodes, it sees Amanda Price, a big Jane Austen fan, discovering one lousy evening, after her boyfriend has ruined her evening in, even trying to propose with a ring pull from his beer can, that the fictional character Elizabeth Bennet is in her bathroom.
After a short while we discover that there is a door in the bathroom that corresponds to a door in Elizabeths house that is a portal between these two unlikely worlds. Of course, Elizabeth and Amanda swap places.
Even though Amanda knows the world of P&P inside out, knows the villians from the goodies, her attempts to 'help' things along keep making matters worse.

I've leant the DVD out to a few people, and the result was exactly what I found in my house. I planned to let the girls watch it over 2 evenings (it's 3 hrs), but it seems tht once you start it just can't be stopped. It's that likeable, fun and enthralling you really have to just keep watching to see how it all pans out.

Top rated entertainment at a very cheap price.

Blu-Ray Bargain Forum

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:17:50 +0100

For those that love the new Blu-Ray format but think the discs are a bit pricey, why not join the Blu-Ray bargain hunting site:

http://www.cheapbluraymovies.co.uk/

There's daily news on where to look for those bargain Blu's as well as a friendly forum for asking questions and discussing discs.

Speed Racer: The Ultimate Blu-Ray

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:50:25 +0100

If ever there was a movie to show off Blu Ray, this is it.

The film is apparently based on an old Japanese TV show that made it to the west. I dont remember it at all. It's about a family called Racer and the son is called Speed, hence Speed Racer. It's also a film about very fast race cars, but dont think of Silverstone, think more of your old toy TCR race cars with loops, twists and perhaps the occasional concealed weapon.

It's a pretty basic story from The Wachowski brothers involving race fixing and the small Racer family against "The Man".
The cast are excellent: Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox, Christina Ricci, John Goodman all looking like they're enjoying themselves playing larger than life characters. There's even a chimp in clothes and Ninjas. What more do you want from a popcorn flick!

The races though! Absolutely stunning. The colours! The neon! Just incredible and beautiful scenes. It really is a stunning showcase film for how good Blu Ray is.

I have seen a bit of controversey with the American version not having decent audio, but I bought British and it's all good.

Flywheel

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:41:44 +0100

I bought this film after seeing the superb Facing The Giants. This is there first film (the latest Fireproof is out in the cinema's now). I knew it was supposed to be a lot rougher than the latter films, which it is, but you learn pretty quickly that Kendrick (Writer/Director/Star) never imagined that it would get this far. They basically got $20'000 and decided to make a movie as part of a local outreach programme. It then got taken up by TV stations and suddenly went global! There's no real actors, just members of the local church. Does this make it poor? Well, give it a go, sure it's not a hollywood film, but it deserves a watch.
The film is basically about a second hand car slaesman who's pretty unscupulous. His work life is rubbish, his marriage is going downhill fast and his relationship with his son is joining it. He's the worst kind of person in some ways, who knows he's doing the wrong thing but seems unable to lift a finger to put things right.
One day watching a message on local TV from the church he sometimes attends he gets challenged to 'get right with God'.
When he does he joins those who have Fantastic Adventures In Truting Him.

A great little movie that will inspire and encourage. Quality is like a cheap TV Movie but if you can see past that you'll find a real gem here.

iPod Dock

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:55:00 +0200

Well, 1 month after ordering I finally have my Marantz IS201 Docking station.

It took so long as Marantz do NOT sell over the internet. You have to go in store and order. It's one of their safety measures for the customer having a place to go to for support. Maybe a bit strange in this day and age, but if they are that concerned over the customers satisfaction I'm not complaining.

Why wait so long for this £100 model instead of a cheaoer Belkin version? The Marantz supports on screen menu navigation. That's right. At the push of a button you can have a screen menu on your monitor/Plasma that navigates through albums/playlists etc. If you dont want to do that, just hit the button and navigate with the iPod menu on the iPod, all by remote of course. The sound is of course superb. Also, those clever Marantz boys have made the connection area seperate so you can hide all the cables a distance off from the dock.

My only quibble, and it is a small one, is the remote seemed a bit tricky to pick up signal wise from where I wanted it positioned. But seeing as I was adding the remote codes to my Phillips Pronto Pro, which handles it effortlessly this is pretty small stuff.

Looks great, sounds great and with operation through your TV from the comfort of your armchair, superb.

My first iPod

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:48:20 +0200

Just bought mu first iPod. The girls in the house all have the new style shuffle, but I have'nt had one :(

Even Nathan my boy has my wife's old stick type shuffle. He's mad keen on Primeval, so he has it as an Anomaly detector!

Anyway, it arrived yesterday. It's a beautiful piece of kit. Even the packaging is a work of art. So well thought out. I plugged it into my PC and had an issue straight away, I'm running XP 64 pro and iTunes has an issue with that OS, so I was'nt too surprised when the connection kept dropping. I did a search on GOOGLE and found that when I did a quick rebuild all the problems went away.

So it sinced up very quickly, I downloaded some YouTube videos (with the help of an FLV converter) and added my iTunes library, of about 6000 songs and it's not even scratched the 80GB!

The sound is phenomenal, the videos look stunning, the whole interface is more like a mini PC than an MP3.

The plan now is to hook it up to a Marantz IS201 docking station. This can take the audio and video signal to your amp for navigation on your screen via remote. i've got it on order, so just waiting.

Finally got my Blu Ray

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:00:28 +0200

I've been pulling so much overtime at work, and still am, that I thought I'd splash out and take the plunge and buy a Blu Ray player.

Everyone who's been looking at the HD war will know by now that HD-DVD has lost it's battle against Blu-Ray, which is why you can pick the players and discs up so cheaply now.

Blu Ray on the other hand remains a tad expensive.

The player I bought, due to overwhelming feedback and advice was the Sony Playstation 3:

By farawaypictures at 2008-04-09

Because I'd bought my Marantz amp last month I was able to have this and my DVD connected via HDMI to my screen, because of course you can't watch an HD signal without an HD lead.

The PS3 is a superb piece of kit. It's reasurringly heavy. I added some higher rubber feet on mine to give better airflow, as it does warm up pretty quickly. I bought it with the Turismo prologue game. It's a stunning game, really showing off HD gaming. The controller connects via USB, that is until the pad has been charged, then you can put the lead away and play wirelessley. Talking of wireless, it also connects to your broadband to update it's firmware, log onto the net or go shopping at the PS3 store where you can download demo's etc.

Because I bought this primarily as a Blu Ray player I had to buy the seperate remote too:

By farawaypictures, shot with H 25 at 2008-04-09

It's a bluetooth device, so no IR and thus my Phillips Pronto can't learn the codes, so i'm stuck with an extra remote. Not a particularly big deal for such great HD entertainment.

As mentioned the discs are a bit pricey, for now, but allready some places are doing 3 for 2 deals. So I bought a few, amongst those Ratatouille and Surfs Up. Watched these and was thrilled at the detail of the image. I believe the Marantz has a lot to say in this quality, as it's really improved the image of my Denon DVD player too.

What I would say though is that you have to pick your discs for this player. Unless it's a new film with big effects and CGI I expect my DVD will give just as good an image, but for digital animation like those mentioned it's unbeatable on Blu Ray.

Next stop, a new iPod I think.