Watching - October 2024

Arnold (2023)

One remarkable career would be enough, but three is probably unique. But then Schwarzenegger - only four years younger than my father, I was surprised to learn - is a unique person. This short series was obviously going to portray him in a favourable light, but the facts are largely incontestable and astonishing: from multiple world body-building championships to multi-billion dollar movie franchises to two terms as the governor of California. It's hardly a typical career progression. This documentary was interesting and didn't drag at all. Worth a watch!

The Terminator (1985)

Watched with Z, as I thought he'd enjoy a classic. The special effects probably seemed a little cheap at the time - after all, it was quite low budget - but now some look almost comical, certainly to someone raised on Marvel-grade CGI. But the story holds up and even though Z guessed who John Connor's father was within about 30 seconds of him being mentioned (plot twists of old don't work on media-savvy 2020s teens!) he enjoyed the film. As did I, in the first time I've seen it for a long time.

Shooting Fish (1997)

I won't try and claim that Shooting Fish is a lost classic, but it is a bit of a hidden gem in my opinion. I first watched it on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Boston to London, so probably around 1998 or 1999 (but then again, I also remember a scene in it that doesn't appear in the DVD version I now own, so my memory may not be completely reliable - although Wikipedia mentions that the DVD is the shorter US version of the film, so perhaps I'm right). It's a sweet, funny film with a bit of romance and a great soundtrack. Oh, and it has a young Kate Beckinsale in it, looking cute and being smart, which just adds to the charm for me.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

"Arnie month" concludes with Sunday evening cinema with Z, and this sequel was the obvious choice. I was careful not to mention the first twist - that Arnie is the good guy - and, amazingly, Z didn't guess it in nanoseconds like he usually does. He thought the acting was a bit wooden (while acknowledging that, for a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101, this would be appropriate) but enjoyed the film. And so did I - a classic.

Inside Out 2 (2024)

One of the most appealing aspects of Inside Out was it's surprising depth - how it simplified but didn't trivialise real feelings and emotions. Although the sequel is just as enjoyable, with plenty of genuinely laugh-out-loud moments, it is perhaps a smidge shallower. Puberty doesn't just get suddenly turned on, transforming a cute kid into a moody teenager overnight (an amusing five minute sketch for Harry Enfield perhaps, but that was forty years ago ...) and the emotions don't resolve over a weekend either.

Reading - October 2024

Phew, Eh Readers? by Tom Hibbert, ed. Barney Hoskyns & Jasper Murison-Bowie (2024)

I remember Tom Hibbert's "Who The Hell ..." columns from Q magazine very well - always the first article in the magazine, always an amusing read. But I was surprised to find that the Q house style, which I would have credited to Mark Ellen, is attributed by Ellen himself to Hibbert. Perhaps that accounts for the superlatives thrown around by many of the contributors here, who all seem to have regarded the man with much fondness. Sad to say, though, the pieces collected here don't live up to the picture painted by his friends; they're somewhat superficial and not particularly funny. Ideal for a ten minute diversion in Smash Hits maybe, but there's no evidence of the "master satirist" here. The book's all right but by the end - the painful "Pendennis" columns - I was just counting the pages until I was finished.

How to Handle a Heartbreaker by Marie Harte (2014)

Ruining Mr. Perfect by Marie Harte (2014)

The next two instalments in Marie Harte's McCauley Brothers series are basically the same as the first - but that doesn't matter really. They are very readable, contain relatable and enjoyable characters, and plenty of hot sex scenes. Not that I care about those of course.

All Gone to Look for America by Peter Millar (2009)

The title's slight - deliberate? - misquote of Simon & Garfunkel's gorgeous "America" is one of a few odd factual errors that I noticed (who is "Karin" Carpenter?), each of which have me wondering just slightly about the accuracy of the rest of the book. Which is a shame, because it's an entertaining journey across the rail network of the US. Millar is not writing with the same level of effortless wit or wisdom as Bill Bryson, but kept me interested throughout.

All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye by Christopher Brookmyre (2006)

Undemanding fantasy fun. I've said before it would make a great film, but I think the biggest issue with it - for studios - is that the main protagonist is a middle-aged woman, which, sadly, even in this day and age, is not considered to be a marketable proposition. Certainly the plot is no more far-fetched than many thrillers.

In Rides Trouble by Julie Ann Walker (2012)

The second book in the Black Knights Inc series leans even more heavily into the thriller aspect, which has two unfortunate side-effects: firstly, it reduces the romance element to a very simple story arc; but secondly, because it does have the necessary romance, the story is stripped of any suspense, since obviously it's going to end happily. A decent read, but I was starting to lose patience by about two-thirds of the way through.

Awkward Situations for Men by Danny Wallace (2010)

I like Danny Wallace's long-form adventures, but this collection of short columns reads like it's probably culled from a newspaper or magazine and is a bit disjointed. Some decent laugh-out-loud moments but overall a bit disappointing.

Watching - September 2024

True Lies (1994)

Something - I don't recall what - reminded me of this and I fancied re-watching it. Still very entertaining.

Deadpool 2 (2018)

I hadn't seen this, which meant that when Z and I watched Deadpool & Wolverine a couple of months ago, he had to explain half of it to me. So we caught up with it one Sunday afternoon. I enjoyed it, there's lots of funny jokes although it gets a bit too meta sometimes - for example, using Domino's luck superpower as an easy get-of-jail-free card (literally) and then saying, "that's such lazy writing" is amusing but still actually lazy.

Reading - September 2024

Swiss Watching by Diccon Bewes (2010)

An interesting and amusing look at a country I'd not really considered much before but which proves - unsurprisingly, really - to have a distinct culture and character of its own. I found the descriptions of the way that democracy is implemented the most interesting as it is probably unique, but there's lots to enjoy here. There's also a newer edition than the one I found at work that contains extra chapters and which I might need to borrow from the library.

Tempting Fate by Stacy Finz (2019)

I needed something enjoyable to read on a train journey and had actually forgotten to take a book - so this was an easy choice via the BorrowBox app while I was on the train. Still a bit contrived in plot terms but a good read.

Hell on Wheels by Julie Ann Walker (2012)

The late, great humourist Miles Kington created the imprint Mills & Bang: "a new publishing house, which will issue novels for men and women – romantic military fiction!" It was, of course, a joke (just read the plot summaries online - they're great). However, Julie Ann Walker - I presume independently - seems to have decided there's potential in this idea. This is an über-patriotic vision of the US, where all men are alpha+ males, all women are feisty and independent while loving high heels and skimpy underwear, and everyone loves their guns and their country. There's plenty of action, both in the romantic sense and the thriller sense, and the book reads well, but I can't help but wonder who this is intended to appeal to. Maybe it is both women and men, since this is the first in a series of, incredibly, twelve books. And yes, before you ask, I probably will read another!

A Wedding in Apple Grove by C.H. Admirand (2020)

I'm looking for something along the lines of Stacy Finz' Nugget novels, which I've enjoyed very much but have read twice each, hence this and my previous choice. In this case, it's much more gentle affair, set in a mythical small-town America that might exist somewhere. Overall, it reads like a pretty typical Silhouette/Harlequin/M&B category romance, but at about twice the length, it does drag a bit at times. Maybe some people like the "suspense" (there's no actual doubt about how it's going to end, of course); still despite this, I enjoyed being in this little world for a while. Again, I'll probably read the next book!

The Troublemaker Next Door by Marie Harte (2014)

Yet another series starter! This time it's enjoyable albeit pretty standard stuff - she's sworn off men and is afraid to commit, he's not looking for a relationship - but padded out with some pretty spicy sex scenes. There's a bust-up that comes out of nowhere and seems designed to bring on the necessary third act, and I wasn't entirely happy about how submissive the heroine was sometimes, which seemed more like a male fantasy than a woman's. But what do I know? I'll probably find some more in this series too. But now it's time to read something a little bit more substantial.

Watching - August 2024

Big (1988)

Finding this in the book exchange at work (it also has DVDs) prompted me to watch it again. Tom Hanks is so good at portraying childlike innocence (he was 32 at the time!) that he carries the whole film and you really can't imagine it with someone else. Sweet and nicely downplayed throughout - the ending could have been a huge set piece but instead is small and more affecting for it. Obviously a sequel would completely spoil things but I do kind of want to know what happened after though!

Taskmaster (season 2, 2016)

K suggested we watch this together and although I'd never been that bothered before, I enjoyed it and it was a nice opportunity to watch something together. Very funny in place, silly in others - which is obviously the point. I find Greg Davies a bit pointless though - it's like someone thought they needed a "famous face", despite Alex Horne having completely developed the idea himself and taken it very successfully to the Edinburgh Fringe. Anyway, we're now watching season 3 (of 17!) with the whole family.

The Velvet Underground (2021)

I spent a lot of time listening to The Velvet Underground in my teens, so about twenty years after the albums were released. It seems like a fairly small length of time now in music terms but then it made them seem like they belonged to a different time. And they did - a completely different sensibility that produced occasional flashes of brilliance and large amounts of self-indulgent nonsense. Obviously no-one disputes the influence of The Velvet Underground, but they only lasted five years and despite the fact that their music holds many memories for me, I think you could comfortably reduce their worthwhile output to about half a dozen tracks. This probably accounts for the fact that this documentary is pretty light on actual material and dashes through all but the first album in about fifteen minutes. It was nice to hear it all again, and to hear the band members talk (everyone was very polite but clearly Lou Reed was a prick), but this wasn't that interesting and it was a bit of a grind.

Chariots of Fire (1981)

Inspired by the Olympics recently, I rewatched one of my favourite films and then spent a very enjoyable few hours reading up the history behind it. Harold Abrahams never actually did the Great Court Run at Trinity College, but I found a video of Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram attempting it, as well as actual footage of Abrahams and Eric Liddell at the 1924 Olympics. I learned that Aubrey Montague was actually known as Evelyn and went to Oxford (not Cambridge), and that as a result he and Abrahams were rivals until later in life when they became friends (and also his letters in the film are almost verbatim from real ones he sent); and that Abrahams and Arthur Porritt, the New Zealander who came third in that 100m final ("Tom Watson" in the film) had dinner together every year on its anniversary for the next fifty years. I found a really interesting early draft of the script, which makes fascinating reading as an insight into how the film developed. And I concluded that the chances are that Eric Liddell would probably have beaten Abrahams in the 100m, although we can't know for sure as they only raced against each other twice, the second time being the 200m at the same Olympics, where Liddell won bronze, while Abrahams was sixth.

Hit Man (2023)

The setup seems far-fetched - university professor moonlights as fake hit man for the cops - but, incredibly, it's based on a true story, with surprisingly little of the inevitable dressing that Hollywood seems unable to resist adding. Glen Powell - who co-wrote, which I was quite impressed by - gets to showcase his versatility and act out a bit of a male fantasy, and it's an entertaining couple of hours without being particularly demanding. Although that said, it's not that many films that quote Nietzsche, Kant and Jung all in the same film.

A Family Affair (2024)

The dated and uncomfortable sight of a famous middle-aged actor playing the romantic lead to a woman twenty or more years his junior, without it ever being remarked upon in the film (i.e. so not technically an age-gap romance), is thankfully much less prevalent these days. I was inclined to regard this film as a step forward in that respect, as it has Nicole Kidman (57) embarking on an affair with Zac Efron (36), but as C said, why is that any better? Well, the age difference isn't ignored in the plot, and Efron isn't some unknown ingénue. In fact, you could argue that these two elements are crucial to the whole story. Efron is very amusing as a spoilt, none-too-bright but perhaps not entirely un-self-aware action movie star who embarks on an affair with his PA's mother. It's all surprisingly wholesome, actually, because I think (usual caveats about my ability to read subtext apply) it's mostly about finding your true love, regardless of what other people think. Funny in places, sweet in others, without being a huge amount of either, this was a pleasant watch.

That Pedal Show: Gibson ES-345 rewire (23 August 2024)

That Pedal Show is my favourite YouTube channel. They release a new video almost every Friday and I watch most of them, although I don't normally note it in this blog. I'm making an exception for this because it's effectively a two hour documentary. Yes, the subject matter is somewhat niche but this is one of the things that YouTube is good at - something that wouldn't be worth making for broadcast TV but that can find a worldwide audience on the internet. Anyway, this is excellently filmed, presented, edited and produced and - assuming you're interested in guitars in the first place - a surprisingly absorbing watch, despite not much happening.

Reading - August 2024

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (2013)

When I first picked this novel (in the book exchange at work) I thought the title meant that this was about people who are both crazy and rich. For some characters this is true - the ridiculous excesses of the over-privileged are never far from the storyline - but mostly it means that they are just incredibly wealthy. Regardless of the satirical elements though, the appeal for many surely will be in simply marvelling at the amazing wonders of the super-rich. Unfortunately, this tired quickly for me and Kwan's insistence on naming every possible designer and detailing every element of interior decor became heavily distracting, and the whole thing started to drag a bit. The story kept me going, as I wanted to see how it ended, but although the resolution was as expected - happy! - it was a bit sudden and unsatisfying at the end. I suspect there's more in the sequel, although I'm not going to bother too much about finding out.

The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith (2004)

Ostensibly this is a murder mystery, but I think that McCall Smith is just using that as a basic structure on which to hang a quiet study of a certain type of character and society. The cast is clearly being introduced for a series of novels and so there's a lot of scene-setting and not really much detection. The final conclusion is muted, even by McCall Smith's standards, and although there was kind of a twist, it didn't really meet the basic requirements of the genre. I might try and find the next book though.

Chariots of Fire (second draft) by Colin Welland (1980)

It's hard to be objective about the differences between this early draft and the final result, as it's one of my favourite films and I wouldn't change much about it. However, one thing that has occasionally struck me is that there isn't much anti-semitism in the film itself, and if you're not looking for it (or, arguably, if you're not Jewish) you might completely miss it. Most mentions come from Harold Abrahams himself, talking about how he experiences it. But in real life I'm pretty certain it was a lot more prevalent; anti-semitism was an accepted, establishment position (still is, in some areas of British life, and I'm not talking about the far right). This draft includes a lot more explicit prejudice, and that shows more clearly what Abrahams was reacting to. So maybe keeping that in might have made sense. On the other hand, there's a whole set of scenes in which the US coach tells his team that they need to avoid the temptations of the Paris night-life and "nocturnal emissions" because it will sap their strength, which feels like it comes from a completely different film, like a 1920s-set Porky's or something, and was rightly cut!

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (2023)

There are probably useful ideas and insights aplenty in this book but the writing is not interesting enough to warrant wading through to find them, and the perpetuation of various flavours of bullshit is something I find borderline offensive. I almost gave up early on when Rubin delivered his own spin on the hoary old "there are some things science will never understand" ridiculousness, but when he started advising people to trust their gut instincts rather than experts when it comes to career and life decisions, because apparently it always works out for the best - well, I'd had enough. It's nice that Rubin's life has been successful, but as is too often in these cases, it's mostly down to luck, not superior instincts. And don't get me started on the tired old "artists are tortured souls, which is why they take drugs" garbage. (Note that these are not actual quotes, I'm just summarising the impression I got)

Watching - July 2024

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023)

The credits say "based on books written by Michael J. Fox" and there's nothing here that I wasn't familiar with from my previous reading, particularly the excellent Lucky Man. But reading about it is one thing; seeing it is another. Fox has spent over thirty years with his diagnosis but it's still a bit of a shock, for me at least, as someone unfamiliar with Parkinson's, to see the extent of how he's changed - and yet how he is the same. What's also really interesting is looking back at some of his roles from the early 90s onwards and being able to see the signs once you know what to look for. I could have done without the dramatic reconstructions (although whoever they used for Fox really caught the way he moves) and the way it edited in lots of shots from his films, but nevertheless it was interesting, engaging and affecting.

Our Welsh Chapel Dream (2024)

By turns amusing and slightly bewildering: the scale of the work that everyone's favourite lachrymose potter Keith Brymer Jones and his partner Marj have given themselves - to restore the enormous Welsh chapel they bought in 2022 - is incredible, let alone that they're basically doing it themselves on a fairly shoe-string budget. But they are amazingly good natured about it (at least on camera) and it's good to see them attempting it. Despite being only four episodes long, there's a little bit of a feeling of the material being stretched a bit thin. But I would watch another season as they are good company and I'd love to know how it turns out!

Pillow Talk (1959)

I watched Down With Love a while ago and while I'm no film buff, it was clear even to me that its inspiration was this Doris Day and Rock Hudson classic. And since it popped up on iPlayer, I thought I'd remind myself how the original was. As one of the landmark "battle of the sexes" romcoms, it has earned its place in history, but by modern standards it's a bit tame - entertaining enough to pass the time but now superseded. And surely only a few years away from having a warning at the start telling us that scenes in the film "reflect attitudes of the time" - for example, the ending, in which (spoiler alert) Hudson breaks into Day's apartment, yanks her out of bed and basically kidnaps her, only for her to melt as soon as he mentions the word "marriage", is a bit unappetising.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021)

Fourth time of watching, this time with K, as I insisted she would like it (she did).

Staged (series 1-3, 2020-2022)

I finally got round to watching this after having been told, separately, by two of my kids how good it was. And it is. The willingness of David Tennant, Michael Sheen and, in particular, director Simon Evans to make themselves look stupid in the name of comedy is great. It might be a somewhat tired cliché to have the men behaving like overgrown children while their womenfolk are responsible adults, but nevertheless it works here and provides plenty of comedy. And it's short - a much needed attribute of TV series I think. The first series was the best, while the second and third became decreasingly focussed and increasingly meta, but still enjoyable to watch.

Meeting People Is Easy (1998)

I must have bought this over twenty years ago but I've never watched it until now, and much as I love Radiohead's music, I don't think I've been missing anything. I can see what they were trying to do, and the point is made - the dehumanising, absurd nature of promoting and touring rock music - but it's not particularly enjoyable or enlightening. Maybe I would have enjoyed it or engaged with it more at the time; maybe now I just don't want to be challenged (I mean, look at the crap I normally watch). Incidentally you can now watch it for free at the Radiohead Public Library (which I have just discovered and is superb).

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

A boys' evening out with Z started with excellent fish & chips in a local park and then a nice helping of ludicrously over-the-top, very gory violence. Ryan Reynolds is of course very funny and I was laughing throughout (including at the line "What the MacGuffin is that?", which literally no-one else in the cinema reacted to), but as a whole, the film was a bit silly. I enjoyed our evening out very much though.