Clashing Kings

I am a massive geek. If you didn’t know that you probably won’t be reading my blog anyway. However my geekiness has scaled to new heights this week with the sheer excitement that I’m instilled with over the casting decisions of Game of Thrones season two, which, as I may have mentioned once or twice, is the best show on TV.

For those of you who haven’t cheated (like me) and started reading the George R. R. Martin books that are already in print, I won’t spoil anything by revealing plot details. What I will say is this:

• Stannis looks great
• I’m really excited about Davos, as I thought Liam Cunningham was ace in the hugely underrated “Outcasts”
• Melissandre and Ygritte both look the part, which is especially cool for me as Ygritte is one of my favourite characters
• Craster and Gilly look almost exactly as I imagined them
• Brienne is way too pretty (I hope they ugly her up)
• Balon and Asha (or whatever they’ve renamed her to) aren’t quite what I pictured, but let’s see

Oh and Margaery Tyrell’s eyes are oddly small in her head. It makes her look like a crafty ferret.

I can’t believe there’s still about six months until this is going to hit our screens. At least I have the books...nearly finished a Feast of Crows now...

Your number’s up

It says something about “What’s Your Number” that I saw it two weeks ago and am only just posting the review.

Riding on the post-Bridesmaids wave of female led comedy, this rom-com sees Ana Faris realise that after having slept with 20 guys she now falls into a magazine’s bracket of women who will never get married. Through a fairly contrived set of circumstances she teams up with Chris Evans (not being Captain America this time) to try and track down her all of her exes in the hopes that one will now be right for her.

It’s a shame that this was filmed before Bridesmaids and released after it, as they both have the same joke in the opening scene. And the comparisons to Bridesmaids (which I have reviewed before) don’t stop there. As with Bridesmaids there are some funny moments (though not as many) and the film falls apart in the last thirty minutes. Maybe it’s because that’s when it goes down the rom-com cliché, but as with Bridesmaids the ending left me cold.

Chris Evans is largely there for women to look at, but I won’t complain as Ana Faris (who is quirkily attractive) runs around in her underwear for a lot of the film. Evans doesn’t do much, and the numerous comedy cameos as Faris’ exes don’t last long enough. The real star is of course Faris, who once again proves her comedy chops, and shows herself to be an extremely good physical comedienne – which is no mean feat.

I found the cop out ending a bit too convenient, and it almost washed over the moral that people should love you for who you are. All in all it’s not terrible, it’s not great but it’s better than expected.

Geeking Out

So yesterday the first full trailer for The Avengers came out. 


I was waiting with baited breath (as I'm sure all were all geeks everywhere).


Whilst I'm sure that it could have been more, just seeing Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Nick Fury, Hawkeye and Black Widow sharing the screen was enough for me. There wasn't too much hinted at a villain apart from Loki, however The Skrulls seem to be the popular theory.


There were some great lines from Robert Downey's Tony Stark, my favourite of which being "Dr. Banner, your work is unparalleled, and I'm a huge fan of how you lose control and turninto an enormous, green rage monster." Awesome.


Bring on May 2012.

Ringer Ringer Roses

I'm undecided about the new Sarah Michelle Gellar vehicle "Ringer". I've only watched the first episode though so am willing to give it a chance...if I can get past the awful Green-screening in some of the shots...


And it IS awful.


Plus it's weird to see Buffy not being Buffy. But that's my problem...not the show's.

Red Riding Hood 2

Further to my notes on “Red Riding Hood” yesterday, I’d also like to highlight the crushing disappointment of seeing Gary Oldman (my pick for this year’s BAFTA for Best Actor) stooping to such lows after the highs of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” - in my mind one of the best films of the year. Hey, I guess everyone’s got to pay the mortgage.

Also, I find Amanda Seyfried kinda weird to look at. She has fish eyes.

Just Saying.

Hoodwinked

Further to my ongoing complaint about the ‘Twilightification’ of everything we hold dear in society; I have now seen this permeate into fairy tales.

“Red Riding Hood” is the ‘gothic reimagining’ of the classic children’s story, with Gary Oldman playing a devout preacher, Amanda Seyfried playing the crimson covered heroine, and lots of c-list television stars popping up for bit parts.

It’s so Twilight that there’s even a love triangle, with one of the boys Red is in love with being “wrong for her”. Cue lots of brooding and sorrowful glances. Oh and the Wolf is now a Werewolf, because…well they’re kinda popular with Team Jacob, right?

Unsurprisingly it’s not very good, however if I was a pre-pubescent girl who was missing her Twilight fix, it would probably be like methadone for me.
  

From good to bad

Yesterday I was trumpeting “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and saying how much I enjoyed it. Now to the other end of the spectrum.

After putting it off for ages, I finally watched “The Last Airbender”, which has been sitting in my planner for months. Wow, it’s bad.

I generally like M Night Shyamalan (before “The Happening” anyway, that was poor), and “Signs” is, in my opinion, shamefully underrated. This however, is poorly executed, boring and nonsensical. It feels like there was another hours worth of film which has been trimmed down to montages and voiceovers. The result is a number of characters you don’t care about so there’s no emotional resonance when they’re in peril.

The only high note (which is only funny in Britain) comes when one character utters the line “You need to be a bender”. Juvenile, I know.

Epically bad.