The King's Speech - released in January 2011. I can't wait to see Geoffrey Rush again!

Also, I hear there's a tiny film called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 awaiting release in a few weeks' time.

Haven't been to the cinema since January. Looking forward to HP; it's always been a must-see on the big screen first, then repeated viewing on DVD and nowadays Blu-Ray. I totally missed Iron Man 2, but they've sent the preordered Blu-Ray today, so should bring some necessary viewing during the weekend, methinks!

However, tonight will be spent doing the dishes and trying to install Fallout New Vegas. A couple of weeks ago I spent three hours installing Civ V--it just wouldn't start from the disc no matter how much I tried to lure it with snacks, so I eventually gave up and let it download the whole thing from the Steam servers instead. Bloody waste of time, even now that we've got such a lightning-fast connection (compared to our previous one, that is. Still not quite South Korean standards!)

Labels: film, gaming

Sorry for not having updated in a very long while. Reason? Lack of sleep (annoying new neighbour with a powerful stereo and ASBO friends, need I say more?), a very long shift at work (two weeks, basically) and the release of The Sims 3.

When I say I worked for two weeks straight, that is actually a lie, since I worked eight days, had one day off and then worked four. Still, very straining when you don't get any sleep at all due to your fucking neighbour. And one third of that day off was spent at the theatre having a bloody headache. Don't know what it is, but somehow I always manage to get a blinding headache while in the theatre, no matter what I do to prevent it. The play was miraculously fun, though. What am I saying? It was La Cage. You may kill me now. I've seen it...umpteen times. I've actually lost count. 17 times as a minimum (including Oslo). Once more and I've definitely seen PQ as many times as Dennis in that musical.

Pathetic.

Anyway, so The Sims 3 was released. It's as annoying as the previous instalments, to be honest. You just cannot put it away, yet it's a complete waste of your life. Love the new integrated neighbourhood, though; huge improvement. Also the fact you, in effect, decide what they do while at work or in school. Wonder how many expansion packs they'll release, seeing as this incorporates so many of the previous packs already?

Today saw the long-awaited release of Red Dwarf: Back to Earth DVD (well, 'long-awaited' if you're very impatient) and I devoured it all from about 10am to 1pm. Gave up on the easter egg and just launched the DVD in VLC instead because it allows you to look through the DVD title by title (something you should already know if you're a slightly neurotic geek like myself). Finally found it. As per usual, a bit of an anti-climax. Still, the DVD was packed like the rest. Of the DVDs, I mean. Ooh, err!

So that got me back in Chris Barrie mode/mood, which was just as well as I've had really boring dreams about Roger Allam for the past two nights (blame seeing him by the stage door last week--I'm such a wanker (not in the literal sense...well, not when it comes to this, at least :p )).

And I did the most typical thing yesterday. Now, if you don't follow me on Twitter (and you should--not that it's interesting, but that's where I post most of my random thoughts these days), you wouldn't know much about my new neighbour. To cut a long and irritating story short, he's a pothead who's prolly just moved out and wants to party all night. Fair enough, apart from the fact sound carries really well in this building. He's kept me awake most nights for a fortnight. Until you've experienced that yourself, you won't know what sleep deprivation does to you--how desperate it makes you. Let's just say I've fantasised about murdering him with my IKEA knives. No, I don't think I'd actually do that, but I wouldn't have ruled me out straight away if he were discovered in a pool of his own blood in the foreseeable future. ANYWAY. He knocked on our door yesterday. Keep in mind I want to kill him, right? He asks me if I have some oil he could borrow. I, for some reason, inquiry as to the nature of this oil--of the olive kind, perhaps? He nods. I go get the rest of my olive oil and hand it to him. WHY do I do this? Because, most probably, in The Sims 3, my character would have the trait 'Good'. And possibly 'Coward'.

That's it for today. Was supposed to be just an apology, but then I got all riled up from having watched 'Supersizers' from the 80s for no particular reason (other than their opulence and close proximity in time to myself) and felt I had to post something a little more fleshy. Apparently.

Fave song in the charts: 'In the Heat of the Night' (Star Pilots). The PSN Store launched their own 'Vidzone' the other day and that brought back memories...isn't Michael Jackson's 'Remember the Time' as well as Annie Lennox's 'Walking on Broken Glass' just effing brilliant? No? Well, what on Io (Red Dwarf and RIMMER (SO wrong if you've watched a lot of Queer as Folk) are back, dammit!) are you visiting this blog for? We clearly have little in common. Sex, perhaps, but nothing else.

Labels: chris barrie, film, gaming, music, musicals, personal, philip quast, red dwarf, roger allam, theatre, TV

I just watched Blithe Spirit, wondering why that 'eccentric medium' looked so familiar. Margaret Rutherford. Miss Marple and a lot of great character in a string of Ealing comedies. Duh.

I've also watched Brubaker and Godzilla today. Had a backlog of films I had to watch, you see. Yesterday it was The Blues Brothers (yawn; third time still not very funny or interesting) and Ice Age 2.

Also went to the Comedy Store yesterday; the crowd wasn't very enthusiastic, it seemed, so we were giving the performers a difficult time, but they handled it well and the second part, as always, was very enjoyable indeed. Richard Vranch's Swedish was so horribly Russian we were quite annoyed, but Lee Simpson, Andy Smart and Greg Proops made up for it. Neil Mullarkey was incredibly funny as the slightly miffed (read: blood-thirstily vengeful) gardener in their gothic horror musical "The Smallest Fish on Earth", and Stephen Frost was very good at guessing his job as "the guy who cleans the inside of the Tardis using the rigging of ships inside bottles every Monday, at Ladbrokes in Egypt, wearing only pants". All in all a great night out. Even though we spent the first two and a half hours of waiting for the show to start, bitching about how annoying the queueing system at the Comedy Store is. It basically prevents us from bothering going to see other shows there. I actually have other things to do than standing in line.

Things change as soon as Greg's in town, though. ;-)

Well, I've been itching to play Crysis all weekend, but have been preoccupied with reading The Book Thief. Two-thirds through it I think I'll give it a miss today.

Break a leg for the New Boys in Town* tonight. Will be seeing them next week, fingers crossed!

*) Roger Allam and Philip Quast taking over in La Cage aux Folles.

Labels: comedy, film, greg proops, hank azaria, literature, musicals, philip quast, roger allam, theatre

Just updated my film collection. 1270 films by now. A few more awaiting 'approval'.

Labels: film, lists, personal

Just finished watching Lost in Austen again; fine series. Had a glass of something I'd like to call "Whispering Orgasm" as it sort of lacked a couple of the ingredients for a Screaming Orgasm (the drink), which made the programme even better. Could also recommend watching Red Dwarf Back to Earth slightly sloshed; you're sure to laugh then, even if you only chuckled the first time around. Or perhaps that's just me.

I'm clearly suffering from a Red Dwarf withdrawal syndrome now, so will shut up and instead go play some game or other. Finished Mass Effect yesterday (I actually sat through the whole list of credits, simply because it happens so infrequently that I finish a game - strangely enough the last two games I finished were made by the same company (BioWare) and made in the same vein as this one. I think I may be a closet sci-fi enthusiast).

By the by...I'm a fervent believer in everything Jean Michel Jarresque, but Blade Runner would not have been the same without the music of Vangelis. Hats off! Please leave your trousers on, though. Urgh.

Labels: comedy, film, gaming, red dwarf, TV

I am rewatching Blade Runner and comparing with Red Dwarf: Back to Earth. I can't make up my mind whether BTE is a parody of, an homage to or a blatant rip-off of BR.

And then I realise I don't care! Any which way it's well done (especially on their budget) and it doesn't have Harrison Ford in it, which is always a plus in my book. Yes, anything without that guy in it automatically gains half a star in its rating, unless it's Safe, which is just fucking awful no matter what.

Think I need to go to bed, though. Apparently there's a new dawn tomorrow. Who'd've thunk?

PS! Seems today's Massive Speed (which had just about as many 'wow, that's kewl' moments as the other Massive... programmes) could have been the first episode after all, which would explain why I didn't notice it in RadioTimes last week. Duh!

Labels: chris barrie, comedy, film, red dwarf, TV

...what I actually planned to do with my money if I ever won a big prize in the lottery. Invest it all in a high-risk venture, get even richer (naturally I was already under the influence of the Luck virus, so anything "high risk" wouldn't be to me), then fund another series of Red Dwarf (yeah, I don't care about the film; no point in destroying the concept with silly Hollywood cameos, although I do understand that this seems to be the ultimate dream for the ones involved), get none of my invested money back, but hopefully get a lot of laughs out of it. Well worth the one-pound ticket!

...then spread the word that everyone else putting in a pound that day had just brought back Red Dwarf (back...for the fourth time?) whether they wanted to or not. Hah!

By the by, re: yesterday's episode: Could the newsagent's scene be more camp? I actually had to hide my face at that point. Brilliantly funny and very embarrassing at the same time. Just the way I like my comedy.

Labels: chris barrie, comedy, film, personal, red dwarf, time wasting, TV

Robert Llewellyn really gets around the circuit, doesn't he? Gotta love him. This is a wonderful idea; interviewing celebs while carpooling and then posting it online.

In other news; I found my copy of Simon the Sorcerer from 1993/1995; never played (by me) but voiced by Chris Barrie, so now I obviously have to play it!

Looking forward to seeing The Boat That Rocked, especially after this week's frequent interviews etc. on morning telly, but no plans as of yet. Also Monsters vs. Aliens (or is it the other way around?) looks like fun.

Labels: chris barrie, comedy, film, gaming, TV

Wow, that new Yellowstone series looks good, doesn't it? It's more like art than a nature programme. Must be excellent viewing in HD (we only have Freeview, which looks good in itself). Highly recommended!

I'm being anal retentive again, and am linking one box set to another via cast members. It's actually just an excuse to be able to see all those comedy shows I've been longing to watch (again) for a long time but haven't quite got round to. So after the last two weeks' insane hyper-devouring of Red Dwarf, I started watching The Brittas Empire during the weekend (link: Chris Barrie), then I'll start watching

Green Wing (link: Pippa Haywood),
and then Black Books (link: Tamsin Greig),
How Do You Want Me (link: Dylan Moran),
Big Train (link: Mark Heap),
Spaced (link: Simon Pegg)
and Hippies (link: Peter Serafinowicz).

From there I want to venture into the world of film by linking Julian Rhind-Tutt to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, where we can actually link back to Red Dwarf again via Chris Barrie. Hooray. I need a lie-down.

Labels: chris barrie, comedy, film, peter firth, peter serafinowicz, red dwarf, tamsin greig, TV

I bet you do. Every day, if you live in the city. Let me give you an example: Queueing. Do you not get in front of someone while going down the stairs to the train? While you're waiting for people to file out of the carriage, I bet someone waiting at the other side of the door gets there ahead of you, even though you were the one who got there first, right? And albeit a couple of people were there before you, you get the first seat which becomes available, don't you? Cheat!

Well, the Oscars were handed out last night, and for the fourth or fifth time running I didn't get to see it live. Hopefully I will get the chance to see the show at a later date. I wasn't surprised to hear Slumdog Millionaire getting all those awards, even though I didn't really think it deserved all of them. Then again, it was probably the best of the nominated films. Who am I to start suggesting alternative nominees, right?

I would also like to point out that although I was a huge fan of the first series, Damages now has me focused more on the looks of the two main characters. WTF happened to Rose Byrne who plays Ellen? She looked normal the last time I saw her, and now she is barely visible! Skeletal people really freak me out. And then Glenn Close suddenly looks as if someone is constantly pulling her ponytail. This whole thing makes me see plastic surgery in the other actors as well, even though they probably haven't had any, and worst of all, it takes the focus off of William Hurt, which is just not on!

At least they look much better in the wonderful Lark Rise to Candleford. And speaking of which; after a week of intensive Press Gang viewing and a longing for a complete DVD box set of Absolutely Fabulous (when, oh when), I am in Julia Sawalha overdrive mode. I think she's everywhere! Or maybe that's called "hallucinating". But hey, the other night I dreamt that Ellen Page lived in our ceiling and communicated in a very intricate sign language she herself had constructed. And the night before I was being hunted by CIA agents because I was trying to bring down some corrupt government officials with the help of a civil servant living behind a tree in Canada. While I was there, I stocked up on crisps and Cheez Doodles, because I couldn't get them where I lived in NYC. Clearly my imagination is never sleeping, argh!

Labels: dreams, film, julia sawalha, personal, time wasting, TV, william hurt

No big surprises there, really. Didn't agree with all of them, but none of them were totally outrageous. What was outrageous, however, was the terrible editing during the Fellowship award, and I really hope that the Beeb or the BAFTAs will be providing the great public with the whole acceptance speech.

I also learned that Claude Berri died sometime last year. There's always at least one "oh, is he dead?" and one "oh, I forgot he had died last year" and also at least one "I thought he died years ago" during the In Memoriam sequence.

Oh yes, and Mick Jagger turned out to be very funny! And it's good to know Robert Downey, jr. is in town at the moment.

Another thing that was proven once and for all, was the rather vast gap between trained stage actors and those who happened to find themselves in front of a camera in Hollywood at some point after someone shouted 'action!'; Jason Isaacs had clearly learnt the script and managed to actually look at people, not just the teleprompter, and also delivered it with feeling. Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen (yes, soon appearing in Waiting for Godot, which some of us knew very well before they mentioned it tonight) were of course equally well-versed at appearing in front of a large audience. Most of the others seemed nervous and wooden, really. Yes, I am probably picky. Or even an elitist when it comes to acting. Oh, no.

No Marton Csokas this year, though. Guess he's not "dating" anyone who was nominated...

Labels: film, jason isaacs, marton csokas, Monty Python, theatre

The newest thing to make our lives more complicated because of the minority of people who do things illegally, is real-time card fraud checks. Lovely. So, due to people who like to blow themselves up because they have been brainwashed by cowardly religious fanatics, flying is a mess. Due to crackers finding ways around copy protection measures even days before a computer game is released, people with legal copies will most probably get spyware SecuROM etc. installed on their computers without their knowledge. And now, due to people who can't be arsed to get a job and earn money the lawful way, we may not be able to use our money freely because there is a risk of card fraud.

I know, I know..."you'd regret it if these measures weren't in place and you became a victim". The point is I am sick and tired of these low-lives making things more difficult for the rest of us. I'm mad at them (and EA/Electronic Arts).

In other news, I watched Slumdog Millionaire with my posse the other day, and it was a nice film. Perhaps a little bit too long, but well deserving of its accolades so far in the award season.

Labels: current affairs, film, gaming, online shopping, personal

...this time from the TV drama department. Actually, they're not necessarily that old, but they bring back good memories and are still considered solid drama series. One day when I have the space and funds for it, I would like to increase my collection so that it contains series such as Upstairs Downstairs, The Forsyte Saga, The Onedin Line, Family at War, To Serve Them All My Days, The Secret Army and Tenko (the latter two have been shown on UKTV History, which now shows The House of Eliott, as previously mentioned, so there is hope for other quality shows as well).

However, I'm still working on my complete collection of the Aussie A Country Practice (a huge project in itself), and some time down the line I will get the complete series of the Canadian Road to Avonlea and all of the original Degrassi series. I think I need a bigger place.

Now, what brought all of this on? Well, it's an interesting story. OK, so maybe it isn't, but I'm going to tell you anyway. And blame Amazon and IMDb along the way.

I was watching The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, a film following the freed slave Jane through her long life, starting with the Civil War, ending up in the early 1960s and the start of the Civil Rights movement. I then naturally remembered the excellent Roots, and thought of the brilliant (albeit soapy) North and South. From here my mind wandered to another old favourite of mine, How the West Was Won (I always have to look up the title, as we just called it The Macahans), and from there I started thinking about all these great drama series from before the glossy nineties, back when they had the time to make a long intro and an equally long extro, granting all involved in the filmmaking an equal share of screen time. Isn't that a fascinating story? :p (I'm going to block comments so that question remains rhetorical, haha!)

At the same time I bought Press Gang more than a year ago and still hasn't finished more than half of the first series, so I have a feeling there's no rush to get other titles just yet, ahem!

Labels: film, TV

Until Doomsday. Or "the 2012 Olympics", as non-Londoners call it. There's a countdown pillar thing outside Stratford station telling us how long we'll have to wait until we're swarmed by tourists and sport enthusiasts. Somehow I hope I don't live there then (I thought Norway Cup each year was bad enough when I lived in Oslo, and that's just twenty thousand kids or something).

Yesterday was the "you go, girl!" episode of Lark Rise to Candleford. I counted four utterings of that phrase by the occupant of any of the sofas in our sitting room.

Yesterday also introduced a re-run of the brilliant The House of Eliott, which I have seen twice before and which DVD boxsets I have been drooling over for a bit now. I was so chuffed I had to watch the first episode the minute I came home. I remember buying the soundtrack the first time I saw the series, hehe!

I also watched Call Northside 777 yesterday; an investigative drama based on a true story and featuring James Stewart. It was very well made and I would recommend it. There was a funny scene in the middle where a lie detector was introduced. The film was made in 1948, so lie detectors were still fairly new. The guy who explained to Jimmy Stewart how it worked, didn't seem like an actor, and I instinctively thought "it's probably the creator of the lie detector himself". A quick search on IMDb proved me right. Well, he was possibly the only one who could explain the machine at that time, LOL! He wouldn't have needed going so much into detail, though...

Anyway, the Golden Globes took place yesterday and I am fairly happy with the results, even though I didn't win any! No big surprise, really, as I wasn't nominated, but I could have got a lifetime achievement award or something! I mean, what's the difference between me and the person who actually got that award? (So as to keep this spoiler-free, I suggest you go check the results for yourself.)

Labels: film, personal, sport, TV

Now, Before Winter Comes wasn't too bad, but I guess I won't be watching it again anytime soon. John Hurt and David Niven were good, of course, but there were boring bits among the romantic subplot, and mixed with the typical musical interludes of 60s films, it became long-winded. The Baby's Room, on the other hand, was pretty good. Spanish psychological thriller at its best.

Yesterday saw the last episode of BBC's five-parter The Diary of Anne Frank. I've read the book three times and seen a few different productions on telly/film, but the ending always gets to me. Such a tremendous waste.

Labels: film, tamsin greig, TV

Sometimes I wish I had a time machine so that I could go back to the 30s and 40s to experience cinema back then (yes, I would probably do other, more sensible things with a time machine, too). I was just watching The Big Sleep and thinking "ok, I bet this was a great night out back in 1945, but in 2009 it's a bit too long for my taste". Of course, Philip Marlowe is a super-cool detective (I refuse to use the word "dick"), and he seems to be a gun magnet, but the film could have been cut to one hour thirty minutes without losing any vital information. Still, it's nice to see a film without outrageous fighting scenes; apparently in the 40s people actually got hurt after a few punches, but nowadays people can take 150 blows to the head without flinching. Somehow I have a feeling filmmakers in the 40s were slightly more realistic...

OK, onto the next film! It's supposed to be a mediocre one, so not particularly looking forward to it (Before Winter Comes), but it does have David Niven in it.

Labels: david niven, film

Only joking, there's no snow here.

I have been watching a few films lately, though, just thought I'd keep you up to date. Or rather, to keep myself up to date. After all, how else am I going to know if I've kept my promise to watch one unseen film per day of 2009? Let's see...there was In the Valley of Elah the other day, which was better than I had anticipated. By the way, that Charlize Theron looks great even with hardly any makeup (and before you start arguing, she did wear lots of makeup in Monster ;-) ). Good for her!

OK, then I had a Guillermo del Toro day on Wednesday, as I watched Pan's Labyrinth (not a children's story, like I had expected) and then The Orphanage (which I thought was going to be a thriller, but turned out to be a very sad story). Yesterday I watched D.A.R.Y.L., which I thought I hadn't seen before, but apparently I had. Oh, well. Then today I watched 21 Grams, which spent too much time being chronologically confusing to be captivating enough. I'm sure the story was a good one, and normally I like films which jump forwards and backwards in time, but I didn't like the editing in this one. They simply waited too long to make any sense of it all, by which time I had started staring at my chipped nails instead. 3-Iron wasn't too bad. Slow and very quiet (there is hardly any dialogue), but you've come to expect that from Far Eastern films by now. I liked the ending, but unfortunately what seemed to last two hours only lasted 1 hour 22 minutes, which means it is not exactly action-packed.

Labels: film

OK, so I had to watch tonight's introduction of this year's housemates in the Celebrity Big Brother house. So there's LaToya Jackson, Verne Troyer, Coolio and Ulrika Jonsson mixed with a couple of ex-popstars and a "glamour model" (don't know why they have started calling girls who like being photographed topless "glamour models", because let's face it; there's no glamour in that), a Scottish politician and Terry Christian from the controversial/annoying The Word. Well, well, well.

I started my only kind of New Year resolution yesterday (although I had planned starting it a little bit earlier, so technically it isn't a resolution for the new year); I have to watch one of my many, many unseen films for each day of 2009. Since there may be days where I actually have better things to do, and other days where I have nothing better to do, I have not made it a rule to watch one film every day, because then the project would have been doomed from the start. Yesterday I watched Mamma Mia! (Colin Firth! Stellan Skarsgård! In...spandex?!), which I had received the day before, so it was obviously a film I was going to see ASAP anyway, but it was unseen until then and as such a real option. Today I watched The 39 Steps (1935, Hitchcock), which was kind of mediocre, but then Hitchcock's films have mostly lost their charm over the years anyway, with a few exceptions (like the excellent Rope). I had to watch 36 Hours again after that. Great film, and it has James Garner in it, which is always a plus.

Labels: colin firth, film, james garner, TV

Liz Smith and Michael Sheen receive an MBE and an OBE, respectively. Brilliant!

Labels: film, theatre, TV

In case you didn't know.

It's been a year since I realised Greg Proops was the best thing since sliced bread, computers and Erasure mixed into one. Well, maybe I could do without the bread. And what a year it's been! My poor DVD recorder has been on constant daily timer in order for me to quickly accumulate most episodes of both version of Whose Line is it Anyway?, and in usual Ingaroo-fashion it didn't take me too long to see him live even though the odds were against me from the very start, his living and working in LA and all that crap.

Other things have happened this year, too, but since I can't remember much of it, I'd rather save that for 2008's This and That list, due sometime within the next few weeks on this very site, and instead concentrate on things I can remember, such as this past weekend.

I spent much of my time revisiting Bullworth Academy (it's a game) and watching films. I got some excellent films for Christmas, thanks to Aug and his good taste, and managed to see a few European flicks not touched by Hollywood: Auf der anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven), La double vie de Véronique (The Double Life of Veronique) and the fabulous Vier Minuten (Four Minutes). I then quickly went on a mad shopping spree on Amazon and am expecting some nice additions to my film collection over the next few months (yes, some of them are not yet released).

Speaking of which; I decided I needed to do something about my film collection yesterday, and set about putting them in alphabetical order. I haven't done that since I moved here! It became quite clear to me that this was the only decent way to deal with the problem, after I nearly panicked on Christmas Eve when I couldn't find Love Actually anywhere. It took me about five hours to do it properly, but at least I got to listen to some music (The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, mostly) while doing so, and the end result was fantastic! Maybe it won't take me 15 minutes to find a certain DVD from now on!

I also finally bought the whole of Monty Python's Flying Circus on DVD! Yay me! This is quite extraordinary, but the thing is I've never actually owned all the episodes. For a through-and-through fanatic like me this is blasphemous, almost. I had the first series on VHS in different editions (two with Swedish subtitles, one with Dutch subtitles and one in the original version which cost me about three times as much as the others), but could never really afford buying the whole set when it was first released on DVD, and then after a while I sort of...forgot. But since I have so much of their other stuff (including just about anything remotely connected to any of the members, off telly and radio and so on), I felt it was about time I could finally access my favourite exploding Burmese penguin sketch(es) at any time (and in good viewing quality ;-) ). So what did I do when I gleefully got the boxset in the post? Why, put it on my shelf with all the other stuff I've been excited about buying and then never bothered to actually watch, of course!

Which reminds me I have promised myself to read a book today. Ta-ta!

Labels: comedy, film, gaming, greg proops, lists, Monty Python, music, online shopping, TV