I’ve never seen Mary Poppins.

I’d probably be more inclined to watch it if this was a representative trailer for the film:

For an atheist, I’m surprisingly religious.

Actually not that surprising really. I was brought up as a catholic (as I have no doubt mentioned elsewhere) and educated by Jesuits (well, not solely by Jesuits - in fact only by about three but it was a Jesuit institution. With the emphasis on institution.) My maternal grandfather would have been a priest if it wasn’t for the fact that he wanted a family but even so, he did a lot of work for the church and the Vatican and all sorts of other people.

Me - I’m the black sheep of the family. Well, I would be except my fathers family were not religious at all so I can say I took after them.
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When was the last time you ever got stung by a bee?

I know it happened when I was a child (the predictableconsequence of trying to flick one with a length of plastic meccano) but I don’t remember ever being stung as an adult. Up until yesterday, that is. I’m pretty certain I got stung on the neck as I was riding home.

My fucking god it was painful!
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I spent some of the weekend working on the script for this horror short that I thought might work for the 2 Days Later competition. I think I’m glad I’m not now - or maybe because I’m not, I haven’t limited myself. When I was chatting about the competition with some friends, I made some stipulations about what I wanted to do. Or rather, what I didn’t want to do - namely nothing with vampires, zombies, serial killers or slashers. As my friend described it, I wanted to do something more Tales of the Unexpected than Hammer Horror.
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It’s a little strange writing the review for this because before I watched the film the other night, I’d more or less turned into James Moran’s blog stalker having more or less read his blog all the way through. James is the writer of Severance and is something he’s been working on for the entire duration of his blog, since way back when it was referred to by him as “Primeval”.

So any praise I might lay down on Severance may be interpreted as not wanting to upset someone who is more “real” to me than, say, John Logan who write the diabolically bad screenplay for Star Trek: Nemesis and whose blog - if he has one - I haven’t read therefore don’t know any of the thinking that’s gone into it. (As it happens, I do but only from what he’s said in interviews and frankly, I don’t want to think about it because it was unmitigated shite.) Then again, I’ve never held back from telling people what I think. It’s got me into more trouble than I care to remember but that’s never stopped me before either.
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Despite doing almost as little as I did last week, everything felt better. I think it’s because of the 12 miler I did last Monday - that just sorted my head out properly. Most of the week was hampered by a huge blister on my foot that had rubbed up the week before but that I hadn’t done anything about. I treated it properly on Tuesday and it seems fine now.

Running went okay: 5 miles (steady pace) on Wednesday and 6 miles (easy pace) on Friday. I had planned to do a five mile race yesterday but owing to other (family orientated) priorities, there was no way it was going to happen. I’m not worrying though as rather than take a rest day today, I’ll do a hard 5 miler to make up.
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I must be one of the last people to see this beautiful film. It’s an adaptation of the diaries of Ernesto “Che” Guevara as he embarks on a motorcycle trip with his friend Albert Granado as they travel across Latin America from Argentina to Peru. Along the way, they see many things and meet many people and it was witnessing these socio-economic inequalities that set Guevara on the path to becoming the famous Marxist revolutionary that we know from the history books.

There’s not a lot I can say about this film. It’s beautful to watch, extremely well acted (especially by Gael Garcia Bernal as Guevara) and very well directed by Walter Salles. The scenery is stunning, worthy of a National Geographic special but what is especially beautiful is the portrayal of the people that the pair meet along the way and the change in their perceptions of the world. It’s hard not to be moved by the film.

Made is essentially the follow up to Swingers. This time it’s both written and directed by Jon Favreau as well as starring him and his erstwhile partner in crime, Vince Vaughn. It’s not a direct sequel so none of the characters are the same but it has the same dry wit and smart dialogue.

Favreau plays Bobby, a struggling boxer who wants a better life for his stripper girlfriend (played by Famke Janssen who co-starred with Favreau in the excellent “Love & Sex” which I definitely recommend) and her 4 year old daughter. Vaughn plays his childhood buddy Ricky, a - how would you describe it - loser with aspirations that far outweigh his capabilities. These aspirations involve becoming a “made” man i.e. working for the mob. Except that he’s already worked for the mob and pissed them off or at least royally pissed off Peter Falk who happens to be Max, the mob boss.
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There has been a change around here. Hands up anyone who noticed!

If you’re looking at the blog layout and design, that’s the wrong place. Yes, it still sucks monkey arse but fuck it, so what. The answer you’re looking for is in terms of content. For years and years and years I’ve been talking about doing films more and for years and years and years I’ve been putting it off. Why all of a sudden I’m approaching the proverbial bull and seizing it by it’s big, hairy, metaphorical bollocks I don’t know (well, I do, but I can’t be arsed to go into it here) but carpe coleones I intend to.
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Another in the “I’m not sure what I think about this” series.

Ben Affleck’s directorial debut is a film called “Gone Baby Gone” and is based on a Dennis Lehane novel of the same name. The film has just been premiered at the Deauville Film Festival is due to be released in the US next month and is slated for a November (according to IMDB)/December (according the BBC) release in the UK.

Except that now it’s been put on indefinite hold for a UK release by the distributor, Buena Vista. The reason? Because the story is about a missing 4 year old girl and has similarities to the Madeleine McCann case.
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