Films of 2008

Films that I've seen and other notable outings in 2008.

Jumper
Definitely not a bio-pic about Bill Cosby, this was an original and interesting idea that never really realised its full potential. The first act was interesting, the second action packed, but the third was a disappointment.

21
Another interesting film based on a true story. I was expecting much more from the film than it actually delivered (I think I was confusing it with another similar film) but again the picture shines in the second act but fails to find a satisfying conclusion.

The Eye
A novel and compelling pseudo-horror flick, Jessica Alba is not the strongest performer but does well with a movie that only slightly over-uses the CGI effects. Unusually, I actually found this one to be quite engaging and despite the normal need to make you jump out of your seat at least 3 times, the effect is somewhat harrowing. The ending is strong, if predictable. A surprisingly enjoyable film.

Hancock
A surprisingly thoughtful and insightful summer blockbuster laden with masses of effects. Review here.

Indiana Jones
Just like the X-Files movie, this was a poorly timed release on a franchise that everyone has lost interest in. In this case a strange schizophrenic movie which was wonderfully entertaining at best and woefully ill concieved at worst. Review.

Iron Man
Finally, a well paced, enjoyable action film with a good plot, marginally interesting characters, drama and tension. All the premises the film is based on are complete nonsense, but that doesn't stop it just being great fun. Review.

Dark Knight
It was going to be tough to get this franchise back on track after some lacklustre offerings and dubious casting choices. Dark Knight had a lot to do and it did at least some of it well. It looks wonderful and has some memorable performances and fantastic moments but just does hang together as a coherent film. It does, however, have plenty of explosions. Review.

The Day The Earth Stood Still
Apart from the obvious fact that it didn't, this is like watching a show reel for some new special effects with a vague story trying to hold them together. I loved the first act, how well paced and mysterious it was, but wish I'd just left after that. Disappointing that none of the characters (other than Klaatu) was at all engaging and that the story was very mundane. Review.

Wanted
This really is a comic brought to the big screen, complete with all its omissions and flaws. Enjoyable enough, but not nearly enough to warrent the money that was spent realising it. Review.

Those I've not seen
The main film I didn't see for very deliberate reasons was Cloverfield. The teaser trailers were great, but I felt it was going to be another Blair Witch Project which leant a little to an innovative idea and a lot to shaking the camera around a lot. Another one for me to miss was Harry Potter, I've never been a great fan of the films and I feel they get worse as time goes on.

On a more positive note, There Will Be Blood looked interesting - especially since I got a lot out of Syriana. Burn After Reading was a movie I was all set to see, but somehow failed to, as was HellBoy II. The original Hellboy was a surprise to me, in that I enjoyed it so much. I was also going to see Prince Caspian, since I liked the first Wardrobe picture, although I hope they are more careful with their use of effects.

Be Kind, Rewind, looked like fun, and I hope to see that on-demand or on DVD soon and I will probably also see Mamma Mia. I resisted since I saw the stage show and wasn't sure about the casting in the film, but I've been informed it worked very well (I did enjoy both versions of Chicago, so who knows?). Quantum of Solace was a possible movie for the holiday period, but I tend to think of all Bond films as the same, so I'm quite happy to wait for a TV viewing.

Finally, the Time Travellers Wife was a film I heard little about. I loved the book (yes, I know it's a chick-book) and so wanted to see what they'd do with the film. Another one for the small screen, I think.

Look back at 2008

2008 was supposed to be about finishing off a commercial product I had already been working on for 18 months, finding a market and selling it. It was the first full year in our new house and it was a big landmark birthday for me.

January
The year started at a small party with some of our friends who live close by. Returning to work, I found one of my team had resigned – this was to set the scene for the remainder of the year. Other than that, and getting over Christmas, January was filled with thoughts of skiing. A great deal of time was spent researching and monitoring the various ski company websites which meant that we eventually booked just 2 weeks before the holiday and received a handsome saving, enhanced by a concession given to us the year before when we had a number of issues with the company.

February
The month started with the skiing in France, which was excellent, the snow was really good and we had a good crowd in our chalet. This year we had no problems with our travelling and no problems with noisy children (there were none in the chalet). The beginning of my work woes for the year commenced when I returned; firstly a witch hunt, trying to find someone to blame for the companies woes, which centred on me, but which eventually failed to point any fingers, and then the announcement of redundancies.

March
The redundancies were finalised an instigated. All but 2 of us left the company, either being pushed or jumping. There was a real end of an era feeling and a great deal of concern about the future, but with the company performing the way it wasn’t, it was inevitable. Herself was also in the process of changing jobs, so this was a very uncertain time of the year. The upside was that Herself went on a short-break with one of her friends to Prague – all a surprise arranged by the two husbands.

April
Things started to settle down again in April. It seemed I was being paid and that there were still bits and pieces of work to be done. A technical audit was first on the list. I also found I was the victim of a nasty credit card con where I was paying every month for membership to a club I knew nothing about. This got jumped on very quickly.

May
Herself’s birthday looms in May. Having decided to buy her a new camera, I spent many, many hours researching the best one to get and finally bought a Casio (somewhat to my surprise). Because I had some more time on my hands, I also started a blog.

June
My birthday is at the start of June and this year it was the landmark 40. Herself organised a lovely surprise and took me to a hotel where I was wined and dined and then stayed the night. The next day I got my presents, most notably my Wii, which has seen much use this year. I also transferred the blog to its current home on Blogspot. June was the month I started mainly working at home, only going into the office twice a week.

July
The main event in July was the launch of the iPhone 3G. I was to be found queuing outside a mobile phone shop in Didcot and did eventually come away with one on launch day (recorded in great detail). The other main event was a fraught computer rebuild, necessitated by a faulty graphics card and a messed-up RAID array, again, recorded in detail.

August
Our month for visitation, with us travelling to visit long-lost friends ooop North, and other friends coming to see us an introducing me to Guitar Hero.

September
Our diving holiday was this month, after the obligatory purchase of lots of kit. I also failed to finish Mario Galaxy (even though I thought I had), and had to shell out lots of money on my Car for reasons which still elude me.

October
I finally finished Mario Galaxy this month and also finally used my Christmas present of a flight simulator experience.

November
November started with the Dive show at the NEC, which was busy but not particularly informative, and ended with Herself’s Mother moving house. In between, I was served my redundancy notice – not unexpected, but a blow nonetheless.

December
The end of quite a year. I officially finish work at the end of this month and still don’t have a new job lined up. Christmas was spent at our house with the whole of our two families visiting for Christmas and Boxing days, which was quite something. Lots more research produced a suitable printer for Herself for Christmas.

Quiet

It's been very quiet on here of late.

This is for a number of reasons. I've been busy with a couple of things; the first being Christmas and all the various paraphernalia that surrounds it - especially having to cater for lots of people, but more of that another time. The second is a project I've been working on for myself, which is proving rather tricky, but also compelling. It's basically been eating time where I would otherwise be lazing around, playing on the Wii and posting here.

Also, however, there is my general apathy at the moment. This is not helped by having an interview for a rather promising position just before Christmas, and then the whole company toddling off on holiday without deciding if I should work for them. A bit frustrating since I will officially be unemployed tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm working on a few posts which I hope to cram in before the end of the year (day), just to fill up some space and to make 11th December seem as far away as it really feels to me.

So I hope you all have a smashing Christmas and have something suitable lined up for New Year's eve ... I know I have.

Movie: The Day the Earth Stood Still

It's a remake (of sorts). The trailers look great, the visuals look good but it's going to be compared to one of the great SciFi films of the 50s.

I remember being blown away by the original film when I first saw it, many years ago. Unlike a lot of SciFi, it had lots of real life in it, but mingled with the real flying saucer, aliens stuff. The ship was great and Gort was fantastic. So when I heard about this remake, at first I thought it was a _really_ bad idea. When I started to see clips and trailers, I thought I might have been wrong.

This film has much going for it. It looks wonderful, with some very nice SFX and some wonderful use of the big cinema screen (which does make it worth watching at the movies). The story is shrouded in mystery and we slowly find out where it's taking us, the initial meeting has the same tinge of tragedy that it did in the original film and the benevolent / malevolent pendulum is used to some good effect.

There are however problems with the film, the two main ones being the characters and the plot - both kinda important. The story is just too simple, there is no depth, there is no twist, there is just nothing. You see some lovely effects, they parade some "cutting edge" technology, rather clumsily, in front of you, the players move around from scene to scene, but it's all so shallow as to be meaningless. In the first act, I felt it was very well paced, it seemed to be very slowly unfolding the story, but then it keeps on at a snail's pace only accelerating right at the end of the film, and by then it's just too late.

The characters not only lack a third dimension, but also a second dimension too. Reeves is a plank. It works for a while, but then he's supposed to be understanding humanity and you get lots of lingering closeups - but he's still just a plank. The other characters are even less memorable. The inclusion of the de-facto annoying kid is actually welcome as it's a character the whole audience can dislike together, otherwise you can't feel anything towards any of the characters at all.

The only thing that saves it from being a total disaster is Gort - who is just very cool, and very well updated from the original, I feel. That and the ship, which is very mysterious and eerie.

I liked what they were trying to do with this film, but it was just executed so poorly that it's another remake to quietly forget about, whilst continuing to reminisce about the far superior original offering.

4/10

Era ended

Today was (hopefully) my last day in the office.

I say hopefully because my boss has been hedging his bets a bit and has refused to take the office keys off me - but I've finished the tasks stipulated on my termination letter.

I've spent the last few days not only pulling all of the last 2 years work into one place, but also having a go at cleaning out some of the junk in the office. Given that the company is (probably) winding up - pretty much everything is junk, especially all the products we spent the last 2 years struggling to put together.

In a way it is quite sad, and I do feel some pangs of regret, but in many ways I am glad it's at an end. The last year has been difficult and I've had to deal with taking the blame for all kinds of things, a witch hunt against me, some rather unprofessional antics by both my bosses and team and also the continued and persistent playground politics of the directors.

I still feel that we did a good job, against all the odds, and produced something which, under different circumstances with a different company, could have been a nice little product selling into a niche market. We were never going to be huge, but I think we could all have made a good living and had fun doing it - however it was not to be.

Ironically, healthcare is probably one of the few sectors which will weather this downturn quite well. But that's all behind me now.

Being so close to Christmas, the job market is very sluggish at the moment. With the added uncertainties of financial meltdown it's proving very difficult to find a job which doesn't just disappear overnight - I've had a number of really good looking prospects which suddenly cease to exist - so I suspect it will be the new year before anything concrete comes along.

I've got a number of ideas for projects and products but it is difficult to get the motivation to really drive them forward - I also don't have the money to finance them myself - but perhaps I will tinker around with a few ideas and see where we go. I don't need to desperately find a job imediately, but some form of income is going to be essential in the not too distant future. It's interesting to consider this may be a crossroads in my life, or it may just be a little blip which is soon forgotten - only time will tell which.