'Grave of the Fireflies' - Movie Review

9 out of 10

Extremely good, though it didn't quite have me in bits like it had Mal. I think it was a little bit too predictable and played too much at a single pace to be truly great. There's no cranking up or down of the misery-o-meter, it's just constant from the word go. I also disagree with a structural choice that I think diminishes the power of the ending slightly.

These are minor criticisms though. The film is extremely good and while I wasn't really blown away by any of the artistry it consistently succeeds in rendering the emotions of the poor children at the heart of the story. It's not for kids unless you want to do a lot of difficult explaining about the horrors of war. If you do want to explain some of those things and think your kids can cope with hearing about civilians being bombed and families being torn apart, then it's hard to think there will ever be a better film with which to do it.

Microsoft Xbox 360 update screwup

Microsoft have made a classically Microsoft error with the "Fall Update" for the Xbox 360 Dashboard. It offered the possibility of streaming video from PC to 360 without requiring Windows Media Center (sic), which sounded very lovely. Except they've made their usual critical error:

Stream WMV video from a Windows PC running Windows Media Player 11...

WMV only! It doesn't transcode the way every other media serving software does! I thought the days of caring what format a file was in were almost over.

What a bunch of muppets they are. Why do they insist on releasing cool features that are hobbled by their unwillingness to support anybody else's formats? I guess we should be grateful the Xbox plays MP3's...

'Inside Man' - Movie Review

8 out of 10

An intriguing and beautifully made film that never quite delivers on all of its promise. I kept expecting a big twist and never really got one. What twists there are are quite clearly signposted. However, it still manages to engage throughout, largely due to the strength of its amazing cast. Not quite the deep mystery I expected but very interesting and enjoyable nonetheless.

Change of format

I don't think it is going to be possible to keep up my current systems for movie and game reviewing now that Emily is here. To keep it manageable yet still retain the reviews I think I'm going to merge it all into one blog rather than 3 separate ones. Keeping the sidebar up to date is a pain in my current implementation and putting it all together will get rid of that. I'll just suffix post titles with "Movie Review" or "Game Review" in the main feed in future. I think the changes to the sidebar will also make it more likely that my Amnesty 'Irrepressible' script will work.

Free speech

As the proud father of a new baby daughter, it might seem odd that I want to take time out to blog about free speech. But as that proud father I'm worrying more about the world than I was before. That's why I think people with blogs should support Amnesty's Irrespressible campaign. I've added it to my sidebar for the time being (assuming the script works...).

Update: The script doesn't work. I'll work on it when I get the chance. In the meantime just follow the link above for more info.

Amazing science

Seeing my daughter being born certainly ranks as amazing science, but it's not something humans have worked out for themselves. Evolution worked it out, over many years. So it still amazes me when humans do come up with something incredible. The real-life invention of a device somewhat like a reverse Babelfish is one of those things.

Birth

Something amazing has happened. I have a daughter!

FIFA fun

Obviously FIFA 07 is not fun. An EA football game is unlikely to ever be fun again. However, it seems they do know how to have fun in their motion capture sessions. Some absolutely priceless footage of Rooney and Ronaldinho.

Tory sense?

I never thought I'd say something like this but these days the Tories seem to be making sense sometimes. I couldn't agree more with David Davis' concerns in the Telegraph.

Peugeot's folly

Peugeot have announced that they're closing their factory in the UK earlier than expected because the silly workers have been leaving to go to other jobs since they found out it would close next year. I'm not really sure what else they expected. It's like they're trying to pull the rug even quicker to see if they can still manage to trip some of their employees up on the way out.

This situation has prompted the group to review the timing of the end of activity at Ryton...

I hate unspeak. By "the end of activity" Peugeot mean "the closure of the factory and the loss of over 2000 jobs". Whether they have good reasons for what they're doing or not, I think it's disrespectful not to be honest and open about what's happening. I used to live near the factory and it's absolutely massive - they should use words that really capture the impact of their decision.

Of course, Peugeot's biggest problem is not an expensive workforce in Ryton. I'm sure the Slovakians are cheaper but if Peugeot insist on making rubbish, ugly cars then cheap labour won't help them. They seem to have made a habit of hitting their recent cars with the ugly stick as hard as possible. They all look like they're gurning:





Plus, they're crap.

Google eats YouTube

Google seem to be learning the Microsoft way of doing business. If somebody does something better than you, buy them. They're buying YouTube, one of the few sites on the internet that has done something that Google does but done it better.

I think it's important to ask why YouTube is more popular than Google. Yes, it generally works better than Google Video and has lots of funky features. However, I think the main reason it is more successful is that it better captures the spirit of the internet. The internet is based on the concept of total freedom of communication, with no laws and boundaries. YouTube's attitude to copyright material fits right in with that - they've shown no concern for it, until recently.

Now they find themselves negotiating with large media conglomerates in an attempt to not get the pants sued off them. Being part of Google will make them more able to fight their corner, as well bringing a more corporate-friendly name to the table.

However, I really hope that the spirit of the internet stays strong in YouTube, however it might change in the future.

England bad

I'm not going to get into a full post-mortem of England's performance against Macedonia this evening. I just have one question.

Can anybody tell me what Michael Carrick does?

I've seen him play a few times and every time I am bemused as to why the "experts" seem to rate him so highly. Everybody (except me) seems to rate him in a holding midfield role but to me he looks to be too much of a lightweight ponce. He might sometimes produce a pretty pass but he doesn't seem to contribute much across a whole game and never seems to get stuck in to the tackle.

Riddle me this: Michael Carrick - £18.6m. Scott Parker - £6.5m. Who would you have in your team?

Robin bad

Amazingly, my suggestion that the BBC's new Doctor Who series might be utter rubbish has proved to be my most controversial post so far. I got far more response to that than I ever get regarding my left-wing anti-corporate rhetoric.

So here I go sticking my neck out again. I've just watched the first episode of the new Robin Hood. I thought it was also a total disaster. A complete load of tripe. Some parts were quite excrutiating. I thought that maybe since the acting was all rubbish that perhaps the fight scenes would save it but no, they were rubbish too.

Particularly noteworthy are the sound and music. Adding enhanced sword-ringing sound effects to battles is a good idea but there should be some attempt to balance it with the rest of the sound mix. And whoever thought that the "arrow swoosh" sound effect for the place-name captions was a good idea should be shot with the arrow they sampled the sound from.

My recommendation: Avoid.

New blogger

Isn't technology amazing? Our baby isn't even born yet but it is already blogging on its website.