This afternoon, St Patrick’s Day, I went to the cinema to see the latest Marvel super hero offering – Captain Marvel. I noted the state of the tide and it was low, but there was also a new area of the mud bank that had been dredged and two barges were anchored in there properly afloat. I rated this film on IMDB and there’s a communication dealing with how the system works here.
I note that the poster for this film outside the cinema had an F-15 Strike Eagel based at RAF Lakenheath on it and this excited me, I thought I might get to see some decent military flying by the USAF but there wasn’t really any. Also, all the flying action took place in sandy places, even when returning from space because it would be impossible to associate any other kind of land type with aliens.
I really enjoyed this film. The first thirty seemed a little slow and I did think about having a nap but I didn’t want my head to lay on either person at my side so I forced myself to stay awake. I’m glad I did because I really enjoyed this film. Well worth watching.
The best thing about this movie was the positive and strong female role models within. Most of the soundtrack was by female artists and the whole thing effused oestrogen. This is how films should be. Strong positive female role models. Women should be doing these roles and they will kick your butt. Such a force for good in society.
Obviously there’s still all those issues about winning by hitting someone until they don’t get up. I’m not keen on those messages. I think we see enough of that from the G5 in the world. Oh, there was Jude Fucking Law, yeaugh.
Yesterday there was a bonus few hours in the day as work was shut because of a lack of water supply. It’d be nice to have another day off, but we shall see what happens. I expect to be working and anyway, I’ve got a trip out to a mathematics competition so that will still need to go ahead.
As I gained some time yesterday I decided to go to the cinema in the evening as I got done some things earlier in the day. I visited the Cineworld cinema at Rochester and went to see On The Basis Of Sex. I forgot to look at the state of the tide on the way in but I can tell you the river levels were low on the way out with only the centre channel showing a liquid covering.
As is custom I rated this film on IMDB and there’s a complete guide to the rating system within this communication. You should read that before having a major breakdown about a score I gave a film. I then tweeted the result.
I might make a joke a bit later about this film, I’m working on the wording of it but something along the lines of “I went to see On The Basis Of Sex last night and I can tell you it was NOT the kind of film I was expecting”. You have to trust me that with my reputation this would be funny or at least vaguely amusing.
I liked this film and really wanted to give it 8/10 on the Parish IMDB scale but I realised I probably wouldn’t watch it again and so therefore, no matter how good, it gets a 6. This film covers the early life and career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She is currently trying to save the USA from the religious right wing views of the other judges on the USA Supreme Court [SCOTUS]. It is, I fear, not going to work because they appointed a sex-fiend to the bench recently rather than Merrick Garland. It is a disgrace what the GOP are doing to politics and human rights in the USA at the moment and I can’t go on about it for too long or I’ll get depressed about it.
I enjoyed this film. It’s a court room drama, sort of though as there’s only courtroom stuff right at the end, I guess this more likely shows the struggle to try and make sure that everyone has equal rights. You know, everyone should have the same protection under law and everyone should be treated the same. I mean, you’d think this would be an easy choice, it’s a simple question to answer. But, it took a long time and the fight still isn’t finished. There’s plenty more work to do, not only in the USA but also this country and most definitely around the world. Just have a look at how many countries still have homosexuality against the law.
I enjoyed this film. I don’t have a huge amount to say about it though. It was a nice little review of how people have fought for the common cause of good. It was nice to see RBG at the end.
What I do want to say is that whenever it gets dark in our world the producers in Hollywood and other film makers around the world try to make a difference. They try to make political statements by pushing films with messages. This group of flamboyant people who live in a bubble of acceptance of each other attempt to release films to show the good side of humanity. It’s like saying “fuck you” to those in authority. It’s a way of getting a message out there to the world to say “you aren’t alone and we care”.
This film is a slap in the face to the current presidential administration in the USA. It aims to show how we can improve as a society and what damage is being done. It’s a reminder of what things were like five years ago when politics wasn’t binary, divisive and aggressive. Hollywood tries its best to get the message of hope out there, to slap the face of those in authority. It attempts to change the world for the better by highlighting the stories of those who suffer or those who have done good.
Recent Oscar winners show how these liberal elite try to change the world with their messages:
12 Years A Slave
Spotlight
Moonlight
Hollywood and films help because they start the discussion. They allow people to talk about subjects that might be uncomfortable while at the same time they normalise those things that many might find strange or wrong. These films give hope to the world, especially in these dark times.
The other night I drove from my half decent B&B to Boston town in the fens to go to the cinema. I was here about a year ago when I saw The Shape Of The Water. I’m not sure what I wrote about the area but having spent some more time driving around South Lincolnshire I can confirm that pretty much everywhere worries me. There’s not much traffic, it’s quiet and the roads are too straight. I drove six miles earlier and didn’t go around a single corner. The fact that Boston was really quiet at just before seven pm was really worrying and the roads were dead. I mean there was another car on the road but it was a good mile behind me and stayed there. This is country completely countryed up.
Straight Roads – Highlighted
To give a sense of scale the runway at Coningsby is 2.7km.
After parking in Boston, where all the car parks seem broken and leave me in a state of worry for my car, I went to the Savoy cinema after a small excursion to a kebab shop for dinner. I went to see Colette and I rated the film on the IMDB website. There’s a communication nearly five years old that explains the scoring process.
Well, what did I think. I definitely enjoyed the movie. I think it portrayed many of the issues still facing our society today. Women’s place to make their own money, people to be gendered however they wish etc. I enjoyed all of it. I always like these historical films because once I’ve seen them I spend a little time learning more about the characters the film was based on and learn that the real story is much more real and interesting than the film version.
Much like the other historical drama I saw recently I was somewhat surprised at the level of lesbianism within this film but if I had bothered to know a little more before I went I would probably have understood what was going to happen. There wasn’t a use of the word “cunt” in this film unlike in The Favourite.
Overall I thought this film was well acted and the setting and story were good. A nice little film with a relatively nice ending.
Took a short trip to the Cineworld cinema at Rochester to see Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. What an awful title, it’s too long and clumsy but then, given how many times Sony have tried to fix the Spider-Man franchise this isn’t a surprise, they’ve tried to make it right this time.
The tide was about two thirds but I don’t know whether it was waxing or waning. I could look it up but I can’t be bothered. I will say that the sun was out and the view was lovely. Not too cold either coming in at about 10 Celsius.
So, I rated this film on the IMDB website, which is customary now. You can see a communication explaining the scoring system somewhere on this site, or you could click here. I then tweeted my result:
I really enjoyed this movie. I liked nearly all of it and I thought it was good. This result is probably a bit of a shock to regulars to this website. I haven’t rated a superhero film as good for a long time. I find them all incredibly poorly written and boring. Also they tend to be sexist and reinforce toxic behaviour. I know, I know, I read too much into all of it, but these films help normalise poor behaviour towards each other. They also rely on the idea that we, as humans, accept a higher power looking out for us, or a better social class trying to help us. That’s not the reality.
Anyway, I loved the style of this film. The animation was beautiful and original. It really aimed for a style of its own and won. I was mesmerised with the beauty of it all. Such a wonderful job.
It had a Spider-Pig.
The story was pretty good all over and I enjoyed it. There was some lovely many-worlds theories there and it all fitted together nicely. Yeah, I could find many flaws if I tried but I don’t want to. I want this film to be allowed to just be.
I don’t think this film will change my overall opinion of superhero movies because I am pretty convinced they suck. However, when films like those regularly make over five hundred million at the box office who am I to complain about the social problems of them.
I’ve been to see the film Alita: Battle Angel at Rochester Cineworld cinema. It was a clear day and one where I actually managed less than 2000 steps so that’s quite impressive. I’ll tell you what’s not impressive: this film. But first, before I moan about this film I need to cover the height of the river. It was high when I went into the cinema, high enough for me to assume the tide was high. The river was lower when I left so that fits with my assumption. I wonder if the amount of rain affects this part of the river which is mostly tidal.
I rated this film on the IMDB site and there is a guide to the rating system, see this communication.
I’d had some hope for this film given it was written by James Cameron but I did know it was directed by Robert Rodriguez, when I saw his name in the credits an awful lot of this made sense. Apparently this film is based on a Manga series and I guess it shows to a certain extent. I like Manga and I like Manga films. Akira is a film I have seen numerous times and there are Manga Blu-ray in my collection. I love what comics do to film. However, this film was shit.
Virtually every plot line of this film was cliche. I couldn’t really see anything new. I got bored about half way through and after that I just kept moving in my seat and wondering when the film would finish. It is not a good film.
I’ll tell you what irritated me most. And that’s apart from the superfast battle scenes [which I’ve moaned about constantly within these communications, just because computers mean we can doesn’t mean we should] and stupid games of rollerball, the terrible dead daughter plot line, the weird emotionally dead like father, the strange nurse, the stupid fucking love interest, the murderer father who isn’t, the references to characters I didn’t understand, Jennifer Connelly is still very attractive which didn’t annoy me but just wanted to hide that fact in text, the poor plot, shit cybernetics, high-tech but poor society, falling rubbish from the sky city, and the what is that jewel in her head???????
I’ll tell you what irritated me. The URM irritated me. The United Republic of Mars might have sounded cool in the test rooms but it’s a stupid acronym and should never be spoken of again. Each time a character said it, URM, it sounded just like a natural pause in their speech. Stupid.
What is it with people falling in love in these films, being betrayed and lied to and then they continue to do their best for these people. If you get betrayed or lied to move on. Tell that person to jog on. Get them out of your life they aren’t worth it. You’ll be happier in the end. These stupid films and their infatuations. She’s a teenage girl with her first crush and yet she’s prepared to die for the twat? Get real, dump the loser and get yourself a decent lad who’s not going to lie or cheat. I was happy when he died. It gave her the chance to get on with her plans.
Why does Alita have to “win” her way to the massive city? She’s an URM [?] battle warrior, she could just go and destroy it. Oh, how I hated this film. why does her heart pump liquid? She’s a cyborg, why would it do that? It seems quite inefficient to me. Why is her heart “heart” shaped? Why is it in her chest? Why is there a panel that opens easily to her heart when it’s her power source? Why isn’t it the most protected part of her body? I hated it.
Get online and watch Rollerball and The Running Man I can assure you those films will give you better ideas of the future than this pile of poo.
It’s taken a couple of days to calm down after a trip to the cinema to see Vice. This film is from the same director who gave us The Big Short which again made me angry for a long time. Also, I watched The Big Short quite close to seeing “Spotlight”, that’s not a combination to be taken lightly.
I went to the cinema at Rochester on the west bank of the river Medway. In this area the Medway is still tidal and so possibly brackish although I would need to look that up. I’m slightly fascinated by the idea of where along the river does the salinity change to make it more sea water? It has to be between Sheerness and Allington lock but where? Also, I imagine it depends on what the tide is doing and how much rain we’ve had. There must be a mathematical model somewhere.
The tide was pretty high when I went to the cinema. I remember looking to make sure I could report it on these pages. Although it was dark I could see a shimmering reflection of lights across the valley in the lapping water close to the wharf.
I went to see Vice and as is customary I gave the film a score on the IMDB site. I use the iPhone app to score these films and then the application then tweets the result. It’s interesting how the language around computing had changed over the years. I would still call these things programs along with calling folders directories. I do come from the generation that understands most about computers and such. Younger generations, on the whole, don’t have to worry about the mechanics of these things as they tend to work straight out of the box. Who in the future will know the delights of messing around with config files? The nerds and geeks.
To understand the rating system used you should read this particular communication as it explains how a 1-10 system doesn’t work. Here’s the tweet:
Angry. that is what this film does to me. It makes me angry and raging inside at a political system that doesn’t care about people. It shows how people claim to be doing the right thing even though the evidence is clearly not there to prove that is what happens. I’m still angry and I watched this film about three days ago. It highlights the motivations of people in power and how much they are happy to screw over the little people.
This film is great. The acting is brilliant and the make-up is amazing. I really enjoyed it and the few moments of humour within. What I don’t like is the republicanism [USA type] that it shows. These right wing religious zealots have controlled the government for so many years trying to transform their own society into one that they think is the best. This is largely about making themselves richer and maintaining power to keep themselves rich. They don’t give a shit about the poor or the fact the people exist.
Things to be angry about and keep moaning about:
George W Bush STEALING the election in 2000.
Antonin Scalia being a religious zealot who did his best to remove rights from all people.
The complete fucking lack of evidence for the justification of the Iraq way.
How the UK bent over backwards to follow the USA into the Iraq war.
How military intervention in Gulf War I wasn’t enough and caused the next 50 years of stability.
The complete power vacuum in Iraq.
The EMAILS for fucks sake. [Republican emails from 2000s]
The religiosity of the leaders which means they already think they are supreme [Blair – catholic, George W – religious, Cheney – right wing religious]
Why the right-wing appeals to the poorest when that is who they mess up.
The Iraq war WAS illegal and no evidence existed for it. What a sham. I’m angry. I’m coming around to the idea of a revolution to remove the existing power hierarchies. I’m not completely stupid to understand that another thirty years or so after we smash the institutions we’d have to do it again but maybe that is how you make society as fair as possible.
I watched Raiders Of The Lost Ark yesterday. It’s still a great film if you ignore the glaring inconsistencies and “Indy” problem. I think it’s one of those things you should just enjoy rather than tear it apart. Having said that I have an issue with it, something that had never struck me before but bothers me now.
Indiana Jones is a university lecturer who has young women swooning over him in lectures. This is made clear by the number of women in the lecture theatre when he is lecturing, this is 1936 and women weren’t commonly at university then, and the young lady with “Love You” written on her eyelids.
Later in the movie Indiana travels to Nepal to meet with his ex-girlfriend Marion. After an initial greeting she hits him [wrong thing to do]. This is the exchange just after that:
MARION: You son-of-a-bitch! You know what you did to me, to my life? This is your handiwork.
INDY: I never meant to hurt you.
MARION: I was a child!
INDY: You knew what you were doing.
MARION: I was in love.
INDY: I guess that depends on your definition.
MARION: It was wrong. You knew it.
Quite clearly in this situation we have a college lecturer taking advantage of his position of influence over a younger female student. She has every right to be angry at him. He’s even quite dismissive of her feelings in this situation.
You can see that in the early 1980s when this was released this was an accepted form of abuse. We now recognise the problems with this behaviour and treat it accordingly. Let’s be clear, I am not asking for the film to be withdrawn, I’m not saying you shouldn’t watch it but I am saying that times have changed and we need to understand how society is generally self improving over time [or at least the last seventy years].
Given the way things are going in this country and the USA I am worried that society will regress in acceptance and understanding of moral codes over the next twenty years. I mean I’m optimistic about it, but I do worry.
Yesterday I took a saunter over to Rochester so visit the cinema. I’d been looking at what’s on during the week and there wasn’t a huge amount that impressed me. But, I decided to go and see an historical drama. I don’t really like any form of period dramas. The idea that someone has scripted what *might* have happened and been said really bothers me. It moves those imaginations into the common collective about what really happened. It seems that these sorts of things are really popular with The Crown on Netflix and other things always being watched on classic television. I don’t mind fiction period drama as much, although I’m still not keen, because you can say what you want, it’s your story.
I noted that the tide was pretty low as I arrived at the cinema. Lots of the mud bank on the west of the river was showing and the boats seemed below average protuberance. As is usual I rated the film on IMDB, there’s a system so perhaps you should read this communication which explains that.
While watching I normally fixate on three or four things and try to remember them to write here. This isn’t perfect and I often forget what I was going to say. I guess I could take a note book into the theatre but I’m quite convinced that would be rude and somewhat professional, I don’t want to raise these reviews of movies to a level where object criticism could be placed at me. These reviews are mine they don’t represent any form of global ratings. If you know me then they probably make sense, if you don’t then your experiences of a movie could be vastly different to mine.
For the first thirty minutes or so of this film I didn’t even think about what to write here. That probably means the film was pretty good. If it was terrible I would have been pondering my context of this communication for a long time. I wasn’t really sure where this film was meant to be set or when Queen Anne reigned over us. A quick Wikipedia reading left me to understand that the action takes place at Kensington Palace and she was queen at the start of the 18th century. I am slightly worried that this communication will descend into a rant about society, hierarchy and the feudal system but I will do my best. You can read previous film reviews to see what I mean.
My short summary about this movie would be thus:
More lesbianism than I was expecting.
There should be other things to say about this film and so I shall put them here. I had three main points to say once I left the environs of the cinema. Firstly, not knowing anything about the movie on the way in I was slightly surprised at the level of lesbianism contained within.
Next, there were quite a few establishing shots where a fish eye lens was used, which in itself is fine but then they moved the camera and it felt like watching a VR film somehow and if the shot had gone on much longer I think I would have felt slightly sick.
The next thing that surprised me, but I guess shouldn’t have, was the fair usage of the word “cunt”. I am not bothered by usage of this word and it is interesting knowing the general reaction of the populace now compared to what was probably common usage three hundred years ago.
This film was probably more “arty” than it needed to be. There were plenty of lingering, holding shots that could be different and I guess the director wanted to make a statement. I’m not sure what the intention was but a statement was made. At times the soundtrack consisted of quiet repetitive sounds that slowly increased and stayed in the scene minutes more than would normally be expected. This was slightly irritating and a purely artistic choice, possibly one that I would not have made. It made it feel quite “my first art film”.
A quick read of Wikipedia about Queen Anne and you can see how much of this film is fiction. How much of it is speculation rather than being a well sourced historical film. I would rather have an as-close-as-possible film than this, but I guess it made a good story. Queen Anne is a fascinating subject and more complex than could be shown on film. I will state that Olivia Coleman was stunning and her facial acting in one scene was outstanding, you can read the emotions and thoughts of this queen perfectly, it was all so subtle.
This is the second film with Rachel Weisz in period costume that I have seen in the last year. I don’t think that’s enough for a trend but given I didn’t know she was in the film I think I’m excused.
A lot of the filming was done at Hatfield House, which I have never been to see, but my mate’s mum used to work there so I’m claiming a personal connection to that. It turns out that Abigail Masham is buried in a village near where I grew up, High Laver, and so I think I will visit the grave and see the church as it turns out that John Locke is buried there too.
The other day I went to see the Michael Bay film Bumblebee at Rochester Cinema. On the way to the cinema the tide was low, but was lower on the way out, possibly at a minimum, all the mud banks were showing. Out in the river there’s a crane on a barge! A proper crane with wheels and stuff, just sitting on a large barge. I do love the big stuff we make. So, I started looking for a satellite picture of the mud flats at the edge of the river and ended up getting excited about the historical photographs available in Google Earth. I probably owe them something for using these clips.
1940 Pre Motorway
If you move slightly further east from this picture you can see the Shorts Brothers Flying Boats resting on the river Medway, that must’ve been such an amazing sight. Sunderlands taking off from the Medway before Shorts was relocated to Northern Ireland.
1940 Shorts Flying Boats
Next up are the 60s decade of sex and drugs and rock and roll. No motorway though.
1960 No Motorway Yet
The original Medway motorway bridge opened in 1963 and on closer inspection I think the construction work in the photograph is the building of the supports.
1990 M2 Bridge
By 1990 you can see the bridge and then the area that will be reclaimed for the entertainment complex.
2003 New Bridges
In this photograph the cinema and nightclub are there, along with the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link bridge for the high speed train network and another road bridge. I think the original is also being “beefed up”.
2006 Bridges Complete
The bridges are complete and it looks like there is a trail bike track the other side of the railway.
2015 Medway Gate Houses
This last picture has the new housing estate in the Medway Gate. I’m not sure what their sunlight is like as they live in the bottom of a pit.
Back to the process of writing this film review. I rated the film on IMDB, as usual, and there’s a communication buried in this site to explain the rating process. I tweeted this result, because it makes this site look prettier than me just writing the result.
Well, this film was the usual mess of a Michael Bay film. It starts somewhere and leads us in the knowledge of how Bumblebee and the others got to Earth along with some stuff about saving the world. It really wasn’t an interesting film and I got bored with the middle hour. Worth a watch if you want to complete your set of Transformers movies. But much like the very first movie the transformers were too “busy and quick”.
Would robots fight each other the same way that humans do? Would they try to hit each other about the head until they pass out? Would they have a voice module in the same place as a human? Would they have independently developed bullets and missiles that look like our Earth weapons?
I’ve got to stop doing this. I think to myself that I’ll go to the cinema and there’s not a lot on that I want to see so I go see the superhero film. Even though I know superhero films annoy me. Even though I know I don’t like them. Even though while I can appreciate the canon, I don’t care. Film versions annoy me. There was even a guy in the cinema wearing a jacket with patches all over it, each one was a superhero patch. Gosh I hate these films.
That score isn’t really a surprise is it? This film is about privilege, it’s about the firstborn child born to a queen out of wedlock who then claims the throne to be his own. If this was a true patriarchal society then the half-breed usurper wouldn’t have any grounds for complaint. This, once again, is a film to reinforce the idea of our position in society is one we are born to. I don’t want to rant again like one of my recent movies and so I shall pour a glass of red wine instead. Read my rantings here.
There were two female characters? Out of thousands.
One of the women imprisoned the father into a daily ritual of being at the dock at sunrise just in case she came back. What utter psychological abuse.
This is another film about how beating up people and asserting your physical strength over every other aspect of your personality will win. What a load of bullshit. It was annoying and stupid.
Last night I went to the cinema in Rochester [not in Rochester] to see the latest action film release – Die Hard 30th Anniversary edition. This was an utter delight but there are conventions I need to follow here and although I broke them for the review of Skyscraper I shall not be doing that now.
It was dark driving along the promenade road but I could see the state of the tide reflecting lights from the houses and boats on the other side of the valley. The water was not covering the mud flats at the edges of the river and so that tide was definitely not in.
I also rated this film on IMDB and there’s a communication that deals with the rating system, you should probably read it and the follow up.
What is there to say about this film? It’s iconic and brilliant. It has so many moments that are captured in the collective psyche that there were many times the entire audience [the cinema was full] giggled or laughed or just huffed a sound of appreciation at the film. It’s worth watching and seeing over and over.
Before you read this review of a terrible film please be aware this is published Fooyah.net communication number 1400!
This afternoon after a break of quite a while I went to the cinema. The last film I saw was First Man and that was pretty shit. When I was browsing which film to see this weekend there weren’t really any that moved me but out of all the choices I chose the one with massive cities roaming the Earth. Normally about this time I also mention the state of the tide. It’s one of those things that has developed over the last few years, I mention Rochester or wherever else I went and then I also comment on the tide. I think it was low, but when I was driving along the road I did see a lovely lighting of the river:
River Medway And The Sun
This picture perfectly sums up what the view looked like. The sun was glowing through the clouds and created a great light, but you’ll have to trust me as you can see that I took the photo with perfect timing to block the sun with the CCTV warning sign. What a terrible photograph!
I also rate all the movies I see on the IMDB website. There are warnings and you should read this communication which deals with how that rating system works.
I’m not sure that 6/10 is right. This film left me feeling oddly empty. It didn’t do anything for me. Let’s get a few things out of the way first this movie is based on a stupid, but fun premise. The story was full of clichés. The love story was boring. The terminator was a bit of a surprise and didn’t really fit in any of the plot. In fact it could have been removed and the story would have worked perfectly well. This movie even had a “I’m you father” moment. What shit!
Overall this film was quite boring and dull. It did nothing to excite me or make me feel there was danger or any imposing sense of doom. Terrible. Normally when I see a film I get snippets of sentences and words I am going to write in this communication. Not a lot came to me during this film. The only thing that did bother me was the suspension on these cities. It seemed impressive to be smooth enough to keep the buildings standing through all manner of surfaces and turns.
Perhaps this film should be interpreted through the lens of Brexit and political leadership. A massive city [London, for it is she] is heading to destroy the known world and ruin everything the world has because the “leader” is determined that his mission must succeed. The “leader” is willing to ensure that his plan works at all costs. He is willing to destroy the peaceful land-dwellers using a weapon of ultimate power. The city can’t be turned and must be kept on course no matter how deranged the plan.
This film also illustrates the problem with “class” and being born to the right family. It’s not really dealt with towards the end of the film but it is very clear early on that people born below should stay there and have nothing to do with the leadership of the city. We have that in our own society. This is built into our collective psyche from a young age. We are bred to accept our position and that those who come from certain families are there to serve the country and look out for us.
Think about how many fairy stories and pantomimes have someone born to rule who gets lost and resumes command once their birth story is discovered. Think how many princesses end up poor and in the shit until their true identity is discovered. Think how many poor people are only allowed to get to power if they are beautiful and marry a prince. Think about all those Disney cartoons designed to keep women and the lower classes away from dreaming about doing good and ruling.
Then, you have the royal family. From an early age we look in awe at these people. These poor fucks, whose own human rights are abused, are born into such a one-way life that they don’t dare escape. The role of these people is to rule over us. We fawn over their lives and loves and we have books about their children and photographs in all the newspapers. Their weddings and childbirth are treated like national celebrations because we have even more people to rule over us. It is in our nation’s psyche to be subservient to those in authority. Look at the power projecting from all the TV shows about the royals. Those gold trappings, the army, the flypasts, the glitz, the carriages, the clothes the fucking bullshit. It’s all designed to enforce their position and authority over us plebeians.
The houses of parliament are designed to keep reminding us that they have the power. That they deserve the power. That we are subservient to them. Nothing has made this clearer to me over my existence than the petty bullshit infighting in parliament over this Brexit bullshit. A broken system of representatives who are failing to do the best for the country as a whole. They’ll be ok in the end. I’ll be ok in the end as I have a decent profession. But it will fuck our country over. I mean we already have millions in poverty and families relying on foodbanks. This country is a disgrace and the time for revolution is nigh.
I honestly have come to the conclusion that we need riots and mass civil disobedience to force a change in the way this country is governed. We need to remove the barriers to social progression. We need all people to be represented equally and we need those in charge to do what is right for the country as a whole and not just play bullshit games with the future of the country because it serves their own egotistical ambitions.
But this won’t happen. Not here. We aren’t citizens. We are SUBJECTS. We have been trained to obey and follow the rules. We all believe that those in power are there because it is their right. That they will do the best for us. Look at the last two years. What a shit-show.
I read recently that one of the main reasons the first world war ended was that there are a massive popular uprising in the German empire and that the Kaiser resigned because of that. The next day the war ended. It wasn’t anything to do with us winning or being better than the Germans. It was because their people decided to revolt. Do you know what our ruling classes did? They forced our society to become more observant of the ruling classes and forced large parades on the people to force the masses to forget about revolution. It happened in Russia, in France many times and Germany. We were next but it was all suppressed. The ruling classes held us down and created more generations of subjects. Women only got the vote because they fought for it. Our collective experiences as SUBJECTS forces us to accept these pathetic imperialist ways.
Look at our national obsession for stately homes. I go around them and my anger increases all the time. These massive houses built on the profits of the poor and downtrodden. All that money used for a few while the many have to accept their fate to living a life of shit and misery while the ruling classes continue to benefit.
While I’m on this I’ll have a side swipe at religion. Mostly because it reinforces this whole idea that there is a plan for us. That there is destiny and no matter how shit life is down here once you die and, as long as you’ve followed their rules, you get to live forever in heaven where the big boss will rule over you. Religions are great. It’s how you keep the power. It’s how you enforce the populace to be subservient to you.
In summary. We are screwed because we so readily accept the idea of class and being born to elevation.
God, I’m such a lefty on some matters that it surprises me so much. I thought we were meant to become more selfish and cunty [sorry, I spelt conservative wrong there] as we got older. All I see more and more is the delusion our people are under and the pain and suffering of those oppressed by the rulers of this land.
And O you mortal engines whose rude throats/Th’immortal Jove’s dread clamors counterfeit
Days ago I went to the cinema at Rochester to see the film First Man. It has taken me this long to process what I thought about it along with being away and in an area of limited data coverage. Before I explain what I thought about the film there are some formalities to cover.
I have no idea on the state of the tide that evening. I didn’t particularly look at that tidal area of river as it was dark and raining. I could look it up but that’s not the point. I also rated this film on IMDB and you should see this particular communication which explains the rating system, I’ll give you a hint though, I broke the system for this film.
I’ve a slight feeling that this is going to be a little controversial. But then again, it’s my view and I’m not a professional critic so I don’t make or break movies.
I’m not sure I liked this film.
I wanted to like this film. I wanted to love this film and be amazed at it and learn a bit about Neil Armstrong. I’m not sure I did and that pains me. I think it took me two days before I rated this film on IMDB as I wasn’t sure what score to give the film.
So, we know I am a nerd and I know a fair bit about the moon landings and space travel. I didn’t mind that I didn’t learn anything new about those aspects of the film. I also knew that Mr Armstrong was quite private and quiet but also a professional and extremely clever man. I’m not sure this film captured that.
Here’s what I did like. The emotional aspect of Armstrong attempting to deal with the death of his daughter. This film heavily places that at the centre of the story telling and I am fine with that but it’s almost fiction as the man himself never really opened up about it. I loved the final touch of his offering to the moon and would love that to be true.
What I didn’t like was all the shaking camera work. This film was like watching a tense emotional marriage drama with episodes of shaking camera and stress. I guess that’s what the astronauts’ lives are like but I just don’t like blurry screens.
I didn’t like the way the film side-stepped the knowledge and understanding and skill that is needed to be an astronaut. I like the technical stuff. I know that’s just me and so I get why this film has rave reviews.
So, in the end this film has a 5/10 from me. I didn’t hate it. I just didn’t like it enough.
Well, today I took a trip to the Cineworld cinema in Harlow. Not the one in the Harvey Centre but the one on the edge of town. I can’t remember the last time I went to Harlow town centre but I’m pretty sure I thought it was shit. Harlow, you see, is a new town. It’s a classic example of 1960s urban planning with a concrete town centre to boot. It may have improved I guess but don’t know because I didn’t go there.
The cinema I patronised was close to the river Stort but that isn’t tidal. In fact there are no tidal reaches close by so I can’t give you a decent idea of where the tide was at. I can tell you it is pretty much a full moon out this evening. Also, a new one for me in the 40 odd years that I’ve lived and moved around this part of Essex I actually saw deer in the first field coming out of the village.
I should probably get on with the film and the review type stuff. I rated this film on IMDB and there’s a communication here detailing the scoring process. You can even search in the little box on the right to see more reviews and things or use the drop down menu directly below my header picture. I tweeted my IMDB score:
So, as you can see, 4/10 is a pretty pants score. There’s been a few others recently that scored that and there’s even a film where I went completely away from this trusted format. Why did this film get a 4? Mostly because it was shit.
I did like the idea that they were trying to train Johnny English into understanding that the world has moved on and that women can have jobs of power although they could have gone into this much more. The idea that women should be treated the same as men, although it probably doesn’t work so well in this movie franchise compared with Bond because Johnny English is generally a fool whereas Bond is full of misogynistic toxic behaviour that deserves to be corrected and then consigned to the rubbish heap of shit things.
No, this film was pretty shit. Other people in the cinema laughed plenty and I chuckled a couple of times but it wasn’t far enough on the dinosaur discovering a new world idea and it wasn’t enough Mr Bean.
Last night I went to Rochester cinema [not in Rochester] to see King Of Thieves. It was dark so I don’t have any information about the state of the tide for this communication but I can tell you it was raining. I can also inform you that the JD was very pleasant while waiting to go into the theatre. I did see a really cool device developed by Guinness that took a poured glass of Guinness from a can and then made bubbles appear so it looked like a draught pint. This device is apparently called a Guinness Surger and I will let you Google that for yourself.
I rated this film on IMDB and you should sneak over to this communication to see how the system works.
Well, that seems quite a low rating for a crime caper! I just didn’t really like it. This movie starts off with likable characters trying to get one over on The Man. Although that is what they have always done, being professional thieves. But, you see, this means they are scum bags unwilling to work for the things they want. Stealing isn’t a thing to be celebrated, even though we love those movies. I would also rail against those who make money by taking advantage of people. I’ve a simple mantra in life, let’s be nice to one another.
In this film you have what looks like a bumbling group of old guys with a lovely camaraderie who slowly develop and show their greed and mistrust of each other because they have always lied. They start playing off against each other. They just aren’t nice people. You see, thieving:
IT’S NOT A NOBLE OCCUPATION.
It’s for assholes and scumbags driven by a sense of inequality. Whilst they are right to have that sense of inequality they should be trying to change things through the proper channels, not breaking the law. Arrrgh, I’m stuck now because the law works in favour of those with money and those who take advantage of everyone, especially while the Tories are in power.
Do you know what? Go and watch the Jonathon Pie thing on iPlayer. That’s good.
Yesterday I went to the Cineworld cinema at Rochester to see the film Mile 22. I didn’t know what to expect but as it was rated 18 I thought it might be better than some of the other films currently showing. As I journeyed the sun was shining and it was a lovely day, only ruined by my need to tidy the garden and pull some weeds. The tidal state of the river Medway was quite high.
River Valley
You can’t see a great deal of the river in this photograph but it is there and was lovely and still giving nice reflections of the valley sides opposite.
As is usual I rated this film on IMDB when I left the cinema. I also then share stuff via Twitter because once it’s embedded in this page the tweet looks pretty good! You should see something written about my rating system and it just so happens I have an explanation in this communication.
Why the low score? Well, this film was shit. That’s why. I didn’t actually walk out although I did think about it. I was less than enthused about ten minutes in. After that the film just kept getting worse.
I don’t like shaky hand-held camera work. It’s lazy because it means there’s more space in the choreography of fighting than there should be. Hand held cameras give the idea that you are part of the fight and therefore you can’t see all the fight. You have no fucking clue what is going on. I gave up trying to track what was happening at times and let the scene play out and I would back-fill the fight from who was left standing at the end.
Some of the vocals were so poorly recorded or had such terrible accents that I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Had I been watching at home I would have put the subtitles on. Which wouldn’t have made a huge difference to my understanding of the film because the plot was fucking terrible.
The Mark Wahlberg character was a piece of shit. We had some back story about him being really gifted and using “pain” to stop his mental thoughts but he was just an abusive person. I hoped he died. As a group of my friends would say “he’s a right proper Cynthia”. He was the leader of a super-secret cell of USA government hard bastards who went in and did the job and got out. Except we saw them resign their posts before using this super-power and therefore weren’t members of the CIA while they were blowing shit up.
One of the female characters was so cool under fire that it was highlighted by the film but then she couldn’t hold her emotions together when she was talking to her ex-husband. What a load of toss. Bullshit.
I don’t even want to go into all the problems with the plot and how it doesn’t really fit together or make sense. This film was terrible. I hated it.
As part of an entertainment weekend I booked a seat to see A Simple Favour. A film about something. I didn’t know really, it was a film on at the right time for me to get to the cinema. There are things to be done you see. Also, hopefully it would stop me overdoing it at the SITD gig. There was a method to my planning. The last thing I needed was a big hangover.
It was raining as I drove to the cinema and so I did not notice the status of any solar-lunar effects on the Earth. I can tell you the tide was just below high when I drove away as the skies had cleared to sunshine.
I rated this film on IMDB and there’s a communication which covers the rating system called IMDB Ratings. Then my customary behaviour is to share my score via Twitter.
So, what did I think of this film? It was alright I think. It wasn’t super stunning or scary. It was a little full of too-perfect people, although I guess they had their flaws exposed as the movie went on. I guess my problem is I’m not sure who was the baddie. I am pretty sure both the main female characters were not heroes.
I think I saw a movie similar to this a couple of years back. A woman gets all scheming and fakes her own death. Etc.
Maybe we are meant to find both women horrific in their own ways.
I think I have one comment about the rest of the school mums and dads. This film had school mums and also a single dad who was probably a gay character. Perhaps the film-makers could have realised that there are life situations where the dad might be staying at home in a heterosexual relationship. I don’t think there was a need to make him gay. Unless, of course, there are quotas. On second thoughts, well done movie for showing a gay dad in a positive light and messing with the heads of all those crazy christians in the USA. Anything to get in their heads.
This film was a good waste of two hours. It’s worth a watch but maybe don’t pay for it.
This glorious afternoon I opted to stay in a darkened room and watch a film. The room was screen 7 at Rochester Cineworld cinema. You see, when you have a subscription you need to make sure you go enough to make that worth while. I could have stayed at home and learnt the songs for the next Disaster Area gig but I chose not to.
I failed to notice the state of the tide on the way to the cinema and it is quite unlike me to do that. Ever since I started mentioning it I have been a little obsessed although it is a quick and easy way to connect with nature, the sun and the moon. The tide was low when I left the film.
I rated this film on IMDB using the system explained within the words of the communication called IMDB Ratings.
This film was quite terrible. I only stayed until the end to see what would happen. I’m a big fan of the original movie Predator. It had Arnie and an alien and a misfit group of hard-core homo erotic troopers who all died one by one until Arnie had beat up the alien enough it decided to nuke itself out of existence.
This film had a misfit bunch of soldiers who were all bad men and heading to prison [I think, I’m not sure why they were all in the same bus]. There was a chap with Tourettes so that rude things could be said and blamed on Tourette’s syndrome when really he just said the toxic-masculine bullshit that the script writers really wanted to say. I’m pretty sure he had some stuff to say about “eating pussy”. It’s a shame because the actor playing the Tourette’s chap is really good and could probably pull that character off in a serious film.
There was a kid with ASD or high functioning autism. He seemed to cope pretty well when all the guns started going off. There was a brilliant throwaway line that autism is the next evolutionary level to let the movie goers know that this kids was the future.
There was a female scientist, a kind of Tia Carrere clone, who apparently:
“wrote the book on evolutionary biology”
I always thought that was Charles Darwin. When we first meet this actress she looks EXACTLY like a make-up advert with her head turned 1/4 on and hair flawlessly flowing down her shoulders. It was pissing ridiculous.
I looks as though the script writers just had gaps in the script with the words “insert science sounding shit here”. On that train of thought apparently a helicopter can “track another helicopter’s frequency”. Jesus.
It was disclosed that the Predator had been before in 1987 and another year. Predator 2 was in 1990. I’m not sure what year they said because they then claimed that it was coming to earth with an increasing frequency which is a pretty spectacular claim to make given just three datum points. Also, the predator was being chased to Earth and crash landed so I’m not sure that “intention” could be claimed.
This movie was enough for conspiracy dicks. It had secret aliens, a massive under dam base where thousands of people work on alien artifacts and secret government organisations run by a young man who seems to have extrapolated way too much from the limited data available. Also, this movie had
GUNS
Now, I know the original was full of guns and macho bullshit but it was an Arnie film. What the fuck did you expect? In this film it shows the American obsession that violence can cure anything. The gun can kill all things and rectify the problems facing the country. Got an alien dog running at you which doesn’t go down with a couple of bullets? Just shoot more bullets at it. This movie does not celebrate genius or alternative thinking. It celebrates a culture fantasising completely over small arms, and sometimes bigger weapons.
Arnie used his ingenuity to harm the Predator enough. This movie uses guns.
So, the primary female character explains at one point that the Predator left her alone when she was completely naked in the decontamination room. Does this come back to be used? Does this have any explanation later in the film. No! Because, fuck you. Don’t expect us to tie together all the plot points or even let this film make sense.
Save you money. Find Predator with Arnie on a streaming site and watch that. It’s awesome.
Earlier today I went to the Cineworld cinema in Rochester to see the film Ant-Man and the Wasp. I’m not really into superhero movies, they bore me and are too outrageous. I was curious to see what I would think of this one. There are some administrative duties I must attend to first though. The tide was pretty full when I got to the cinema, maybe just before high tide. On the way out the river was definitely flowing towards the see and the tide had turned. I rated this movie on the IMDB website and there’s a guide to those ratings within this communication which was written over four years ago!
Well, as you can see I rated this film well. I would watch it again. It had just the right amount of character and humour to make everyone likeable, even the Ghost. I don’t have any real problems with any of it. I recognise there must be many plot holes and don’t get me started on being able to shrink smaller than the molecules of which you are made but I liked it all.
The were even TARDIGRADES ffs. Those little beasts are mean motherfuckers! I really did enjoy this film. Well worth a watch.
My main criticism would be that the Ghost character could have been more developed. I would like to see a film with just her in it. The Ghost was played by Hannah John-Kamen who also stars as Dutch in Killjoys. As a superhero, whether good or bad, the Ghost had a wonderful costume and interesting back story.
If you do see this film, make sure you stay around to see that little bit after the first set of credits. It tied in very nicely with another film. Very interesting.
Went to the cinema at Rochester last night to see The Festival. I arrived a little before time because I wanted to complete some more steps towards my daily total. Earlier in the day I had needed to buy some work shoes and I visited that Mecca of shopping: Bluewater. Before buying the shoes and doing a classic man-shop: walk to the shop, try a single pair of shoes, buy them, walk back to the car; I walked around the shopping centre thrice.
Medway Views
You can see that the view is just lovely and the light was nice last night. Plenty of sunshine to round out a cooler day that we’ve had all summer. The tide was also quite low with the mudflats showing to the edge of the river. I rated this film on IMDB and there’s a communication explaining the rating system.
This film was OK. There were some wonderfully grossed out moments that made me chuckle out loud. The basic plot is that an incredibly selfish chap gets dumped by his girlfriend and goes to a music festival as part of his recovery I guess. Over the course of the festival he learns just what a selfish prick he is and tries to make amends for that.
The set-up of him slowly learning all the things he did while he was high on MDMA was quite funny. This film is your usual “teen” gross humour and situational comedy taking the worst of human behaviour and placing all that in a single person or weekend. It’s relate-able to everyone I think because we’ve all grown up. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been to a festival, many of the set pieces in this film can be found in our collective pasts. I guess that makes it quite clever.
I’ve been to five festivals over the past six or so years and I would say that I have had a wonderful time at all of them. Even the muddy one. I mean, yes, I broke down in tears after my car got stuck in the mud and I was worried about it, and the walkways were ten centimetres deep with mud, but overall I had a good time.
This film encapsulates a sense of growing up and mini-experiences that we’ve all had. Well done.
