Grafitti tour of London

Well today I decided to see how many pieces of work by Banksy I could find. Along the way I came across some other similar stuff, some of which I've posted here. Plenty of pics, enjoy!
(I can't be arsed putting them in order so apologies for the disjointed sequence)

Here's the first behind Waterloo station and its faded quite badly, hope they're not all like this.

This is more like it, on a road that runs under Waterloo station.

The first of the rat army found along the river behind St. Thomas hospital.

Another south bank rat army.

Around Waterloo station on a storage bin outside a newsagents.

On the south bank opposite the London Aquarium.

Under Waterloo bridge

Found at Waterloo bridge, I'm assuming the B indicates "Banksy"

Near Gabriel's Wharf

Near Blackfriars bridge, not sure its a Banksy though.

Along the South Bank

Along the river near the London Eye.

Couldn't find the one at Embankment station, did find this however.

This is perhaps too faint to see but its a series of gravestones with a war message next to Blackfriars Bridge.

Near Borough Market, stenciled but perhaps not a Banksy piece.

Somewhere in Aldgate. The bit in the bottom right is very similar to the B seen earlier.

More faded pieces near Blackfriars.

and another.

Definitely not a Banksy but amusing none the less. Near Brick Lane.

Banksy's ghost car, near Brick Lane.

I think the kid holding the rabbit is an Eine piece.

This is a Faile piece.

another Faile, most of these are in the Brick Lane area.

No idea who this belongs to.

Or this.

Headless business man on Brick Lane.

This used to say "call Banksy" but Eine has gotten to it. On Brick Lane.

Near the Brick Lane area.

This has the B symbol so assuming its Banksy again. This is on a street off Brick Lane that is covered in grafitti.

Like this one.

and this.

Even Peter Andre gets a look in.

Pretty decent Ghandi stencil, it had been used several times along this road.

Is that de Niro?

As well as the stencilled stuff there is also some more colourful pieces.

Filling up most of this bit of the wall.

This has to Banksy but I'll probably be wrong there.

Another Brick Lane piece.


Faile stencil.

Grafitti can be topical too! I like this piece.

More colourful stuff.

No idea what this is supposed to be.

Sclater street in Shoreditch is covered in this really cool stuff.




Nice comic book style to some of it.



I haven't a clue who did this.

More stencilling in shoreditch, this one in Japanese, it would appear.

I didn't get this either.

Close to Sclater street, even the road signs are open to elaboration.

More Faile comic book stuff.

This one looks like me aged 12.

Faile again?

I thought this was a Banksy piece but its MTV trying to get their ads to fit in with the area.


Bolt cutters on Commerical Road Shoreditch.

Bender! But not a Banksy!

More around Shoreditch

There were several of these around around Shoreditch and Brick Lane but this was the only one where other artists hadn't tried to paint a head on.

Around Liverpool Street station.

Quite a nice piece opposite the Foxton's in Shoreditch.

Behind Liverpool street but I suspect not a Banksy. Looks like the girl from Twin Peaks.

Faile again.

Woohoo! Classic Banksy behind Liverpool Street. It's quite faded though, but a nice find.

Nope, haven't a clue.

Someone decides to get political. I remember seeing something similar in Venice.

More around Liverpool Street station. I think this area had been chosen as part of some sort of grafitti bombing campaign as there were quite a lot of pieces dated 2006.

Now that's not very nice is it?

This is probably the same guy who did the + - piece earlier, this looks incomplete though.

If parking your bike in Hackney, do it properly or this might happen.

Faile.

I thought this was a Banksy but apparently its not. Still it is rather nice. Its close to Old Street Station.

Faile again.

The biggest Banksy piece I could find, close to Old Street station. I almost missed this one as it was hidden behind a fence. I took this pic reaching the camera over the top.

More Faile.

This is around the corner from Oscar, its celebrating some local gig that happened in 2004.

Not grafitti, just a campaign from a jealous ex. I certainly wouldn't want to cross her. This wasn't the only one of these I saw, they were in Hackney too. This one is in Hoxton Square.

Local pub finds the best way to advertise in a grafitti hit area.

Also near Oscar.

This is by El Chivo and differs from Banksy in that he uses 2 colours on his stencils. I really like this stuff. This is around Liverpool Street.

Hoxton Square, no idea who this is by though.

Another El Chivo piece in an alleyway in Shoreditch.

This is close by.

As is this, and this is a Banksy.

Not sure who did this one.

Or this, they're all in the same area though.

Can anyone tell me who this is?

Banksy is being very generous with his picnic areas, unfortunately if you followed the arrow you'd be lead to a dead end alleyway with an abandoned car in it.

Roses similar to the Foxton's piece.

A random enough quote to be Banksy but not sure it is.

This definitely isn't him, and I hope its not true!

Overly pretentious twats clearly thought up the name of this place.

Rubbish stenciling.

This is just along from the Comedy Cafe under a railway bridge.

In Shoreditch, the eyes and smile are a giveaway for Mr Scruff.

This is in the pub garden bit of the pub just along from the Comedy Cafe. I think this has been comissioned rather than done illegally. All of the walls here are covered with some really decent grafitti.


This is one piece in the garden.

And another, I'm pretty certain the HMV centrepiece is Banksy.

Another nice piece.

and this is Faile.
This is out in Hackney.

I saw a couple of these but I don't know who's responsible for them.

Hackney airs there views on The Turner Prize. Note the Mr Scruff houses below.

Another kid cuddling a rabbit, but no idea who its by.

This is in Hackney.

No idea what this is about but its in Hackney, is it someone famous?

A really nice piece in Hackney.

There were at one time loads of the parachuting rats in London but I think this was the only one I found today.

Hackney monkey.

I think there used to be a Banksy piece on this wall in Hackney but it got painted over and this guy got to it first, nice use of colour.

Definitely lock your bikes up properly in Hackney.

The third and final El Chivo piece I found today.

The piece on the left was a Banksy but has faded away to almost nothing. I like how someone has outlined it and put the RIP beside.

This is on the same wall.

On the edge of a housing estate in Hackney.

This one is close by at a newsagents down the road.

Found this one on the way up to Angel. Its opposite Shoreditch park.

Arguably Banksy's most famous piece in Hackney.

Round the back of the Greenpeace offices near Angel.

The same piece is replicated close by.

Not grafitti but made me laugh none the less.

This was in Angel and I found it whilst looking for one of Banksy's Guantanmo prisoners, which I couldn't find (I think it's been removed as its life sized)

This is near Pentonville Road and is by D-Base.

Random grafitti close by.

This is in Islington.

Another Faile.

Near Moorfields.

This is at Moorfields Eye Hospital. I guess most visitors would miss it haha!

This is outside Jamie Oliver's 15 restaurant.

This isn't grafitti but its the most colourful piece of the day.

This one and a few others are in Clerkenwell, its cool that the owners of the building have clearly repainted the building but left the rats in place.

This one is near the Barbican, not much left of this one.

Another of the Clerkenwell crew.

and another.

On the Barbican.

After these I failed to find the ones in Marylebone and Marble Arch, as had happened around the Houses of Parliament earlier in the day. I didn't find them all and might go out again, but I won't be spending all day doing it as I did today. 10 hours and 25 miles later I barely made it home and my legs are now completely shot. Hopefully they'll be OK tomorrow.

Was fun though, and I did get to see a lot of London.

This is just wrong

...yet I couldn't stop laughing when I was shown it earlier todayHeadroom advert

Banksy Map

This is my mission for this weekend, to visit as many locations in London that feature pieces of graffiti by Banksy. Well, its something to do isn't it?Banksy Map

Dirty Sanchez

I really wasn't sure whether or not I wanted to see this or not, whilst I can happily sit through Jackass, that has a charm that this does not. These guys really do push the envelope in terms of stupid stunts but there is no chemistry between the particpants or the group dynamic that the Jackass bunch have.

They've basically built a series of stunts on a world tour into a pretty ropey story around having to display the seven deadly sins following a failed stunt involving a car crashing into a caravan that leads the protagonists to hell and a meeting with the devil. But you soon forget about that.

What we have is 90 minutes of pain, vomiting, crazy stunts, one of the guys (Pancho) being picked on and tons of other boyish stuff. Whilst I could stomach most of the scenes, one involving liposuction without the anaesthetic followed by a dare game where the loser has to drink the removed fat, was a bit too much and I was close to throwing up.

Had I done so there would have been no way I could have gotten out of it as I was the only person in the cinema watching the show, an indication of how popular this film is or isn't going to be.

Fortunately we have Jackass 2 in a couple of weeks which I know I can watch and enjoy without losing the contents of my stomach........I hope.

Clerks 2

Kevin Smith finishes his series of films set in his ViewAskew universe by cashing in and producing a sequel to the film that made him famous in the first place. Clerks 2 follows Dante Hicks and Randal Graves the two shop keepers from the first film. With the first shop burnt to the ground the two find themselves working in the local burger bar in the McJob lifestyles. Dante is due to leave for a married life in Florida but is torn with his feelings as he also has something for the restaurant manager. Randal on the other hand is continuing his slacker existence winding up customers and coming up with unique theories on movies.

Whether or not Kevin did the right thing in producing this film is open to debate but at least this time he realised that the thing that made the first film funny was the behaviour and rantings of Randal, and in this film its him who takes centre stage.

We have scenes that break the record for use of the phrase "ass to mouth", and a scene involving a donkey that is very funny. But amongst all the comedy there is a story too that isn't too schmaltzy, at least not as bad as Jersey Girl or Chasing Amy.

There's a nice pop at Lord of the Rings (3 films about walking) and plenty of cameos from the people from the other movies but overall the film is forgettable and not up to the same league of the first film, at least he's closed the story now in a nice way. It will just be interesting to see whether he stays true to his promise and goes on to make films outside territory he's familiar with.

Every episode of the Simpsons

Just don't tell anyone about it!

D.O.A.

Executive 1: "I want to see chicks in bikinis fighting"
Executive 2: "and when they're not fighting they should be playing volleyball, in their bikinis"
Executive 3: "They could do everything in their bikinis, climb mountains, parachute, escape from a timed detonator"
Executive 4: "I think Eric Roberts deserves to appear on the big screen rather than on the bottom shelf of the DVD discount store, but not in a bikini"

Executive 1: "That chick from My Name is Earl is hot"
Executive 2: "But not as hot as that pop starlet that used to be in neighbours"
Executive 3: "I'm partial to that flat faced Jap chick from Sin City, we can dub her voice if need be"
Executive 4: "Can Eric fight.......please!"

and so D.O.A. was created, all very silly but entertaining none the less.

Severance

I guess it says a lot for Simon Pegg and co when any film that comes along that features British actors, comedy and horror is described as being like "Sean of the Dead". I liked that film a great deal and so am instantly sceptical when I see films described in such a way, like this one.

Set in Hungary, the film tells the story of a team from work who get lost whilst doing business and team building for the arms company that employs them. They find themselves in the woods being attacked by victims of nerve gas, made coincidentally by the company they work for. It makes a change from the monsters that we usually get in these films, no zombies this time around!

Whilst I went to the film in a sceptical mind I was pleasantly surprised, the film does have a good balance of horror and comedy; a little gorier on the former and less of the latter however. Bar a couple of scenes I didn't laugh out loud as much as I recall doing with Sean of the Dead.

There was one scene however that I thought was really well done and brilliantly balanced comedy and horror together. One of the group, the little fat geeky chap, comes across a springboard at the side of a swimming pool that you can't see for the leaves covering the area. That's the scene set, now imaging having to watch him jump up and down on the board not knowing what lies under the leaves. I found myself laughing at the stupidity of the guy but was really worried about what would happen if he fell off the board. I'm not going to spoil it here! There is also another scene with a rocket launcher which introduces a nice dose of humour following a lengthy bout of the tension and horror.

Whilst I'm not a fan of wide-boy Danny Dyer, he's really good in this. I did spend quite a bit of time trying to convince myself that the American girl was the one from Scary Movie, but it wasn't.

Definitely worth seeing and you should make the effort if it is still being shown in your area.

Crank

When I first heard of this film I thought what a great idea for a film pitch - Its the Keanu Reeve classic "Speed" but without the bus, a deadly poison instead of the bomb, and Jason Statham instead of Keanu.....and that's exactly what the film is.

With the amusing Greek name Chev Chelios, Statham plays a hitman who wakes up to find he's been poisoned in his sleep. The poison will slow down his heart until it stops and the only way he can stay alive and get his revenge is to keep his heart rate up.

So cue fights, drug taking, sex in public, more fights, crazy stunts and some more fighting and you have the film pretty much summed up in a single sentence, which makes you wonder how short the pitch lasted for it to be agreed. There is a nice bit where he overdoses on a possible remedy only to find he then has to find a way to slow his heart rate down.

If you leave the brain at home you'll enjoy this film, and it should do well with the FHM crowd. To be honest, the director does try to employ some amusing, if over the top visual tricks, the best being subtitles telling you what a chinese guy is saying but shown from the point of the view of the speaker, not the recipient. It was also interesting to see Google Earth used as an indication of Chev's travels around L.A.

I did enjoy the film and did laugh a lot and it is actually one of the better films of the many I've seen this year.

Nacho Libre

Jack Black's back in a very sweet but entertaining film from the director of Napoleon Dynamite. In fact there are parallels between the two films. Both feature anti-heroes, people who are more geek than heartthrob. In this film we have a pairing of an overweight monk and a skinny street urchin. This modern day Laurel and Hardy pair up to become a Mexican wrestling tag team in pursuit of money to feed kids at the local monastery who look forward to having a salad for lunch.

It sounds like a pretty absurd tale and it is, but the director has done a good job making it an enjoyable experience. As someone who grew up watching wrestling and accepting it for its theatrics, its good to see it on the big screen. The fights are ridiculous but not too dissimilar to the lucha libre form that comes from Mexico. There are also scenes that aren't important to the story, odd cuts of the skinny guy eating corn for example. There is also a very strange scene where he is chased by an overweight woman with a penchant for crawling through secret tunnels in her house. It makes no sense at all.

I also discovered something with the cinema I went to. The film was stopped half way through due to a fire alarm being set off and after the evac and subsequent restart we were all given a ticket for a free screening. For those with more criminal intents you could use this to your advantage and never have to pay for a cinema ticket again, until the cinema realises that is.

Cassette Generator

Cassette Generator

Just try it, it is fun!

Fridge Letters

Irritating but addictive little appJust Letters - A browser based multi-user Flash game

Snakes on a Mother Fuckin' Plane

The most hyped film of the year is finally out and I finally got to see it this weekend. I don't really need to tell you what the film is about as it has perhaps the best title for a film for a long time. Apparently some stupid exec said it was going to be called Pacific Flight 121. Hurrah to Samuel L Jackson for refusing to act until the title was changed.

So we have a plane full of passengers being attached by various snakes for the best part of an hour along with some great B-movie cliches: the young couple who sneak off to make out and become victims #1 and #2, the obnoxious character who gets the best death scene, corny dialogue, a character who goes back to rescue the baby and dies saving them etc etc.

But everyone in the film knows this is all tongue in cheek and whilst not playing it intentionally for laughs they're not exactly going to be in the running for this year's Oscars either. Jackson holds the film together and is super cool as always and I will admit that it was better than I thought it would be even though I've been caught up in the hype.

Definitely one of the better films this year and infinitely better than the last two I've seen.

A Scanner Darkly

This had a lot of potential but what happened?

I first saw the trailer to this a few months back and was blown away by the visual comic book style it had. Video games had gone through a cell-shading phase so it was nice to see the movie industry give it a go. The animation is roto-scaped that is the film is still shot with live actors then they draw over the top with the cartoon images. The effects are so strong that you spend the first quarter of an hour getting used to the look and not taking any of the plot in, which if you know how complicated Phillip K. Dicks story can get, is a big mistake. Fortunately this film doesn't come across as being that bad.

This one tells the story of an undercover cop played by Keanu "Whoooa" Reeves, so undercover that even his workmates don't know his true identity. They all work in these magic suits that change your appearance every second (a nice effect though). In a strange twist Keanu is given an assignment to film a suspect drug dealer who is in fact himself after a friend (played by Bobby Downey Jr) grasses him up.

This story seems to play second fiddle to the effect of drugs on the main characters in the tale, and the rather abrupt ending cuts to some words from the author about those friends who have been victims of drug addictions.

The film ends up being a bit of a muddle because the plot flits between the two stories and doesn't really conclude either properly. Still it was nice to see Winona Ryder back on the big screen even if it was in a cartoon style.

Maybe I'm being too critical here but the most enjoyable bit of the movie experience was seeing the first trailer to "Hot Fuzz", the new film from the Shaun of the Dead crew. It was hilarious, and I didn't laugh anywhere near as hard when the proper movie started.

Lady In The Water

The fourth film my M. Night. Shamalamadingdong and he appears to be on a bit of a slide. Sixth Sense was great, Unbreakable OK, The Village barely passable and the trend continues with a film where the plot is as empty as a large empty swimming pool.

Which is where this film is set, in a motel complex around a swimming pool home to a sea-nymph sent on a mission to change a man's life and who can't return because she's being stalked by a grassy wolf. Like prophecies of old all the residents in the motel all serve a purpose and come together to help the sea nymph return, with the assistance of 3 super monkeys and an eagle.

It sounds daft and to be honest it is. Night has tried to create a modern day fairy tale and failed. I can see why Disney wanted nothing to do with it. The premise was a good one but the delivery failed. M. Night strokes his ego so much that he even plays a writer destined to write a great piece of work that will change the future....alas this film isn't it.

Not even the cast could hold this film up. Paul Giamatti is wasted in this film and Bryce Dallas Howard sails through this role. She does look a little bit creepy though.

The Most Incredible Knife

I want one of these, but I'm not sure I have a pocket big enough to keep it in!

The Most Incredible Knife

Silent Library

A clip of a bizarre TV show, which means it can only be from Japan. Just try not to laugh whilst watching it.
here

Scala & The Kolacny Brothers

I've spent most of the day working on the computer and listening to Scala & the Kolacny Brothers. Who are they you might ask? They're 2 brothers; one playing the piano and the other conducting Scala, a 60-strong teenage girl choir.

Don't worry, it's not the usual choir sound. This lot cover rock and pop hits, and they're really really good. So good that I found all their stuff on iTunes and bought the lot. Here's a quick picklist of the kind of artists they're covering.

Garbage, Nirvana, Kylie Minogue, Travis, Depeche Mode, Puddle of Mudd (yep, they keep the swearing in!), Muse, Wheatus, Radiohead. They've also done an album in German including Rammstein and Kraftwerk covers and another one in French. They have another album coming out in a couple of weeks which features Kaiser Chiefs amongst others.

It might sound a little gimmicky but they do it really well and has kept me entertained today.

Their website is here

plug over....

I'm kinda back

Well almost.

After buying a new router it turns out that the problem lies with the phone line inside my flat. The master socket in the phone point works but the others don't. Looks like some lightning may have got the wires or they just burnt themselves out.

So I'm up and running with a wireless network although as the phone socket isn't near a plug socket I've replaced one set of cables with another. But I'm up and running, I just need to get an engineer to fix the line, which I'll worry about another time.

I have some catching up to do in terms of blog posts however. I have spent most of today completing my America report which you can find here I hope you enjoy it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get my trips to Edinburgh and Cardiff posted.

Where have I been?

The last two weekends have been spent away visiting Edinburgh and Cardiff. I am planning on writing up posts on both of those. However most of my absence from here has been due to my broadband breaking. My ISP has upgraded me to 8Megs without checking if my line can cope with the load, which it can't and as a result I have no access to the net.

It's supposed to be sorted later this week, but I doubt it will be.

Normal service will hopefully be returning soon..

Got Milk?

Looks like some people have been having a little play on Amazon. Check out this product and read the comments...

Amazon.com: Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, 128 fl oz: Gourmet Food

Warrior King

After Ong Bak, Tony Jaa has moved onto much better things with his latest film Tom Yum Goong, or The Warrior King as it is known here in the U.K.

In his first UK film the story involved Tony recovering a stolen Buddha. In this film its two elephants that are stolen by a restaurant who want to serve the pachyoderms on their menu, well it's different from a woman being kidnapped I guess. To restore his family's honour he has to kick everyone's arse to get his elephants back.

As with District 13 the story really doesn't matter, it's the action sequences that you'd be going to see, and man are they something else! One of the sequences is the longest single-take fight sequence that runs for about 5 minutes as he makes his way up several floors of the restaurant laying waste to just about everyone in his way (even better when you realise it took about 10 attempts to get right). Another sequence has him battling guys on inline skates, skateboards, bmxs, motor bikes and a quad bike, and another has him clinically displaying how to break just about every bone in the body as he takes on about 30 guys.

But the best sequence by far is where he is fighting three guys in a church on fire, especially the sequence with the Capoeira fighter where the guy looks and moves just like Eddy Gordo in Tekken, the sequence with the wrestler is also impressive. Absolutely brilliant choreography throughout.

Some of the dialogue is hilariously bad and Tony Jaa can't act for toffee, but you forgive that because the fight sequences are so good. The film will leave you breathless, the first to do that for a long long time.

Oh, and the Jackie Chan cameo in this film is actually using a look-a-like.

Superman Returns

I thought I'd already put a review up for this, but clearly not; Proof perhaps that I'm finally starting to lose my marbles.

I wasn't going to see this film as it looked a bit gay, but then I saw the trailer where Superman is shot in the eye and thought I'd give it a chance. The last time I was blown away by an effect in a movie was in T2 years ago.

The film has Superman and Clarke Kent both returning back to Metropolis after a 5 year absence (why no-one noticed the coincidence, I don't know). Lex Luthor (played very well by Kevin Spacey) finds Superman's icey abode and a recording of the late Marlon Brando that reveals Superman's weakness (the sort of thing you would leave lying around of course).

He then devises a plot to build a new continent out of Kryptonite where he can take over the world without red pant man interfering. Of course Superman finds a way around this and saves the day, just as all Superheroes do.

The film is actually alright. Brandon Routh does at times look like Christopher Reeve (without the wheelchair) so I guess he's done OK. Kate Bosworth doesn't really pull off Lois Lane that well, perhaps because I spent the movie trying to decide whether she was nicer as a blonde or a brunette. Its Spacey that steals the camera though, which is hardly a surprise.

I also chose to see this at the IMAX in Waterloo and it as well as having a super large screen, some of the scenes were shown in 3D, which was pretty cool.

Another case of Big Brother?

It could be nothing more than a security measure but its an interesting article. I have a $20 bill left over from my holiday that I'm contemplating zapping, just out of curiousity.

RFID Tags in New US Notes Explode When You Try to Microwave Them

What'll happen to Peter Crouch now?

Looks like there's still plenty of opportunity outside the England football team should he not be picked next time around.

Blue Man Group

I had seen Blue Man Group before in 2002 at Las Vegas. They now have a show in London and I had been umming and ahhing about going again for weeks. With a night off of support on Thursday I thought I'd be spontaneous and go along.

For those that haven't seen them its hard to describe what they do without belittling their act but it is definitely worth seeing just because it is so different. Not much of it had changed since the last time I'd seen them but it didn't matter, as it was all good. There aren't many shows that insist on the front rows wearing ponchos. A taster of how mad this show gets.

They're best described as a percussionist trio who incorporate audio visual tricks into their acts. You've never seen anyone catch marshmallows as well as one of the troop, who doesn't even have time to swallow them before the next one is thrown his way. They make music from plumbing and also have routines with TVs for heads. See I said it wouldn't sound that impressive.

The finale sequence, which I'm not going to spoil here, completely blew me away, exactly as it did the last time I saw it. The music had changed this time however from KLF's "Last Train to Transcentral" to Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" but it didn't matter. Everyone left the venue with the same look of euphoria on their faces as I remember last time.

Its definitely worth seeing, if you are looking for things to do in London. I'm seriously considering going again.

Another stick man animation

This one is really clever involving a fight in the Flash application deviantART

StreetWars

I think this looks like a lot of fun. As a fan of Flashmobs its good to see stuff like this going on. Alas I think I live too far out of the battlezone to take park, but I'm checking just in case.

StreetWars: A 3 week long, 24/7, watergun assassination tournament

Inspired Lyrics

Not safe for work and unlikely to be played on the radio anytime soon.YouTube - Fuck the shit

Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest

Another of the big Summer blockbusters and part two in the Disney-Ride-Now-A-Movie trilogy (excluding Haunted Mansion).

Depp, Bloom and Knightly (sounds like a solicitor's firm) are back for more hi-jinx on the high sea. In this lengthy episode all three dupe each other to obtain a key to the legendary Davy Jones Locker, alas not a place to keep his clothes dry whilst he goes swimming but a little chest buried on an island in the middle of the ocean.

Depp camps it up as he did in the first film, Knightly plays the boyish heroine quite well and Orlando Bloom sucks for the majority of the film. In fact he only seems watchable when he has a sword in his hand making the most of his traning from Lord of the Rings. If they want a better performance out him in the third movie they should give him pointy ears and a bow.

The set pieces are ridiculous yet entertaining. Whever dreamt up the fruit kebab pole vault sequence must have been on something at the time. A fight on a rolling wheel is also funny but absurd.

The ending does end on a slight cliffhanger, but we're not talking about the end of Lost or anything as bad as that. It does also nicely introduce a character from the first film to lead us into the third, a nice touch that brings the trilogy together.

Another 2 minutes?

Well today was the 1 year anniversary of the London bombings and being the puppets to the Government and Media that we all are we had to give up two minutes of our time to think about those that died.

Firstly I don't like to be told what to do like this. Secondly the people who died, as unfortunate as it was, were not known to me nor to anyone I know. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and being blown up does not make them heroes or worthy of my time. Why should I think about people I don't know?

I have no problem putting aside a couple of minutes when the cause warrants it e.g. those that died for their country during two World Wars but these little media exercises dilute the genuine moments of reflection such as those.

This started to annoy me last year when someone decided that Ken Bigley was entitled to as much time as the World War commemoration. This man ignored Foreign Office advice in pursuit of quick monetary gain and ended up dead, and because of that he deserves a moment of my time? Not a chance. The same is true of the London bombings.

Why celebrate the one day that the terrorists got one over us? We never did this in the 80s when the IRA was launching its terror campaign on the mainland; we just moved on and returned to our lives to show that their actions did not affect us.

The Evening Standard ran a headline today "Commuters defy bombers". How sensationalist is that? I doubt anyone woke up and thought "I'm going to work today to show the bombers that I'm not scared". I think you'll find that most commuters went to work because they had to.

So how did I spend my two minutes today? On the toilet. In Spain they recently gave five minutes to victims of a train crash caused by a driver exceeding the limit. If we start spending that much time here I'm going to have to take a paper into the toilet with me.

Banlieue 13 (District 13)

Time to get back into the routine of seeing movies now that I'm back from the US.
This French flick is set in the future and tells of an area of Paris segregated from the rest of the city by a huge wall. Within that wall crime is rife and a man framed by a corrupt police force is partnered up with an elite cop to find and defuse a bomb that will mean an end to them all.

The plot is tosh to be honest but the action sequences more than make up for it. Mixing martial arts with parkour, or freerunning as its more commonly known the director has managed to put together a film with plenty of pace that can leave you breathless, and that's just from watching it.

If you like your action and can handle subtitles then you'll enjoy this.

I'm back!

Just a quick post because I know I've not put anything up here in a while.
America was a great trip and when I find the time I'm currently going through the pictures for my report.
Expect to have something up here in a couple of weeks.

America, here I come.

I'm now just 24 hours away from making my way over to New York for 4 weeks of travelling and theme parks.

The first half of the trip is with the club and we'll be taking in the following parks.
Astroland Coney Island
Six Flags New England
Lake Compounce
Six Flags Great Adventure
Dorney Park
Knoebels
Hersheypark
Lakemont
Idlewild
Kennywood
Geauga Lake
Cedar Point
Wyandot Lake
Paramount's King's Island
Holiday World
Beech Bend
Dollywood
Six Flags Over Georgia

There are supposed to be at least 3 surprise parks of which I know 2, but I'm not going to post them here in case other participants are reading. That means you Chris!

I then have 2 days in Atlanta where I'm hoping to relax in the company of a good friend, you know who you are! I've been told that Stone Mountain is a good place to unwind.

After that I then meet another friend (HEY KEITH!!) and we're driving up to his home town of New York. Not directly though, along the way we'll hopefully be stopping at.
Paramount Carowinds.
Myrtle Beach
Busch Gardens Williamsburg or Europe, whatever its called this week.
Paramount's King's Dominion
Six Flags America

The last few days will be spent sightseeing around New York.

It's going to be some holiday. Around 16 states and about 170 roller coasters in all.


Woooohooooo!!!!

Special FX-Men 3

Of all the comic book movie adaptations, the X-Men movies have been my favourite (oh except for the original Darkman movie, which rocked!). This chapter tells the story of a company that market a cure to the mutant gene by tapping into a mutant boy called "leech", who should have had green skin if they were staying true to the comic.

With the mutant community divided on whether to take the cure or not (including some of the X-men team) Magneto takes the opportunity to begin an uprising against the "homo-sapiens". Seeing this as a threat the military then decide to fight back. Who will prevail this time?

Along with the main thread you have some side stories too. Jean Grey is back after apparently dying in the 2nd movie, but she's come back as someone, or something else. You can tell this by her moody pout. There is the fire and ice rivalry between Iceman and Pyro. Some jealousy from Rogue towards Shadowcat (who I like in this) and the obligatory "is Wolverine part of the team or not" thread.

There are some surprises in the film, noticeably the writing out of some of the major players; not that I'll mention them here, go and see the film if you want to know. There are plenty of new mutants in this film, they've really crammed them in, its just a shame that some of them are fodder in the final scenes. My favourite character from the comics was Psylocke and she's in this but blink and you'll miss her. Nightcrawler who was introduced in the last movie isn't even in this one at all. Mystique isn't in this too much but we do get Beast to restore the blue character balance. Angel who features prominently in the trailer and posters isn't in this too much either. What you end up with is lots of material spread thinly.

With so many characters, the film does become a bit cluttered but what it lacks in character back stories it makes up in effects. They've gone ridiculously over the top in this film. The final sequence with Magneto moving the Golden Gate Bridge is stunning, but wasn't it the Brooklyn Bridge in the comics? Some of the Jean Grey/Phoenix morphs are cleverly done too.

Is this the last of the X-Men movies? I'm not sure. Whilst the film is being marketed as such there is plenty of material to tap into to keep the franchise going and some new characters introduced this time round to develop in the next should there be one. Be sure to watch the film to the end of the trailers though, there's an extra scene which may shed some light as to whether we see another film or not.

80s Videos

Someone has compiled a list of links to 80s videos.

Click Here