A beautiful end to the year

First of all, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a happy new year. For my part, I got a £20 Steam code and bought a ton of new games with it, of which more next week. More importantly, around Christmas I saw two absolutely wonderful movies, and that's what I want to talk about here.

Beautiful Games

The past month or so I've been playing a lot of new video games, because it's amazing what you can find for free if you know where to look. I'll go into some detail down below, but before that I want to say: it's amazing how beautiful you can make games in a short amount of time.

Why I kinda hate superhero movies. And trilogies in general...

Okay, so I don't know what started off the whole trilogy thing. Maybe it was the Godfather, or the Dollars trilogy. Answers vary, some even dating as far back as Boris Karloff's stint as Frankenstein in Frankenstein(1931), Bride of Frankenstein(1935), and Son of Frankenstein(1939). I couldn't say for sure, of course - I haven't seen enough films to say for certain, and even if I had my opinion is a drop in the film-review ocean - but what I do know is this:

I utterly hate them.

Two Toms on top form, in two very different movies

Having adjusted to uni life, it's been nice to relax and unwind this past week. Since yesterday, I've seen two films, and it's remarkable how good cinema has become now the summer blockbuster season is over. The two films I watched bridged the gap between vacuous action movie and Autumn Oscar-bait, and it's interesting to see the contrast, but also the stand-out performances which really make both films. So here we go: my review of Thor: The Dark World and Captain Phillips.

News, I guess...

Okay, so I haven't posted anything up here in, like, FOREVER. But there's a very good reason for that right now.

I'm waiting for Robocop to come out in cinemas before I do another movie review.

Trying to Get Lost in the City of Love, Part 3: street pianos and the quest for a cider...

Montmartre, for those of you who don't know, is a place of steps. And if it's not a place of steps, it's a place of hills. This I truly learned as I made my way up the steps to the Sacre-Coeur, the vast cathedral which stood at the top of the hill and overlooked the rest of Paris, sprawling out far below and far away.

Trying to Get Lost in the City of Love, Part 2: Making Music

Rewind now; not far, just to the night before.

The scene: a restaurant not far from Notre Dame, Paris, owned by a friendly, if overenthusiastic Portuguese man. There is a row of tables set up outside, brought together to seat eight people, but for now all the seats are empty. Piano music emanates from inside - Simon sits at the little upright in the cramped quarters of the lower floor bar, while Molly sings "I got Rhythm" accompanied (partially) by me. We'd met Molly and her friends earlier that day, at breakfast in the hostel. It was their first day there, and our last full one, and it being the fourth of July it seemed like a good reason to get together for a drink. She was there with Waller and Chiara, all the way from Rome where they'd been studying.

Trying to Get Lost in the City of Love, Part 1: Climbing a Cemetery

The scene: a vast graveyard to the east of Central Paris, mid-morning. Grey clouds hang tentatively overhead, threatening a relieving drizzle which, unfortunately, never comes.

The protagonist: me, puffing and panting as I crest one of far too many sets of stone steps. I turn and look upon the grim panorama, much of the eerie view obscured by trees, before turning the other way and facing the tombs and gravestones which rise up above me, glowering down from the ridge which raises them above the level of the path. There is no direct route ahead. Sighing, I turn to the left and plod on, following the path as it curves around and joins the tombs on the ridge.

Somewhere, I hear the cawing of a crow. I round the next bend and see it, perched on the dirt path which crosses my neat cobbled one; as I step forward it gives a crow of alarm and flies off, and I am alone. Alas, for just a moment; a flutter of wings, and another crow is just getting settled on a farther distant headstone, its head turned to fix one eye on a point far below, away from the direction in which I am heading.

My goal: one grave in particular, a grave I am certain is up here somewhere! For this is not just a cemetery; this is the Cimitière du Père LaChaise (or the Cemetery of Father Chair, if you want to be a smart alec) where famed poet and writer Oscar Wilde is buried.

Love, Betrayal, and the unnerving sight of Nathan Fillion in a fat suit...

This blog is fast becoming entirely movie-related - not entirely a bad thing, mind, it's good to have some direction and an audience in mind - but then apart from movies I haven't really done anything. Except I was in Stratford on Tuesday, wandering around the big park behind the RSC theatre and eating Turkish Delight and Earl Grey ice cream (these are real things and they are AWESOME!).

And I was there to see a movie. So, you know, movies still are the only interesting thing I really do. Ho hey.

The Great Gatsby: Glitzy and glamorous, but it's no Oscar bait...

Last night I was in a packed cinema, staring up from one of the lower seats at a party which would rival anything a modern celebrity could put together. Glitter cannons in the shape of champagne bottles throwing sparkling confetti over everyone, people throwing themselves fully-clothed into the pool, everyone dancing the Charleston to remixed jazz - it's the classic scene where Nick Carraway first meets Gatsby, and it's one of the best things I've seen on the silver screen to date. Forget fight scenes, forget daring rooftop chases and steamy kisses; the highlight of Luhrmann's Gatsby is the fabulous backdrop of lavish, roaring twenties parties.

First-person shooters reborn

I have a problem with first-person shooters. The market is saturated with them: Call of Duty, Battlefront, Halo; they're all variations on the same run-jump-shoot game which is fast becoming incredibly dull and predictable. They're worse than rail shooters in some respects: at least with House of the Dead 3 I still have that arcade-style feel which is fun and addictive. Even if I'm not controlling my character, it's still more fun than I have playing Nazi zombies.

So why am I talking about shooting games if I hate them so? If I so want to be rid of them, why mention them at all? Why not let them drift back into obscurity in their own time, and concentrate on other things? Well the answer to those questions is very simple:

I've found a couple of fps games I really, really like.

Sequels: The Final Frontier...

Okay, so got a lot to talk about. A little over two hours' worth of things to talk about, actually. See, this morning I went to see Star Trek Into Darkness, and I expected something pretty spectacular. I mean, come on: Benedict Cumberbatch as the manipulative, highly-intelligent villain; the new Enterprise crew reprising their roles and getting along a whole lot better than the first movie (well, a little better); vast, exotic worlds, far more elaborate and beautiful than the 2009 movie; bigger fight scenes, more action, a faster pace. Four years might be a long time to wait in the movie world for a sequel, but Abrams and crew have certainly delivered. There's one thing I can say about Into Darkness: it's a step up.

Movies movies!

Okay, so I have two movies to discuss here, let's get down to business.

You might remember in my post a few months ago that I said I was sick to death of superhero movies. Well I've got news for you: I watched Iron Man 2 not long ago. I thought it was about time, given the proximity of the final film in the trilogy, and it looked pretty interesting. And here's the thing:

I didn't think it was all that great.

Never Sleeping again...

If you get the chance, play Alan Wake. Beat the game on easy or normal mode, then think "well that was pretty good. I wonder what I should play next..."

You should play Alan Wake next. Alan Wake on Nightmare difficulty. 

Blinking Lights

     Okay, so this post is going to be a load of reviews. First off, hooray! I got a new laptop, and it is brilliant. I'll talk about that in a bit. Second, I got Red Lights on Blu-ray, and I feel morally obliged to review it because I watched it in the cinema and didn't then. But before I get onto either of those things, I want to talk about Wreck-it Ralph.

New Year, New Movies

So it's the start of another year, and one I've been looking forward to very much. Every year is a new start (because no other day can be, apparently) and right now I want to start watching some new films.

I wrote on my other blog last year about my problems with sequels, but 2013 looks to be pretty good. I liked the Hobbit (apart from a few problems with the whole 3D thing - looks like it's 2D for me this year!) and The Desolation of Smaug ought to be the best of the three; from what I remember of the book, Mirkwood will be one of the most terrifying and action-packed parts of the whole thing.