I’ve watched a few things recently which I haven’t got round to writing about yet, so here they are in one whole document. Also, I had to hold down the fort for several days, so here are some of the enthralling activities I’ve engaged in.
Don’t Look Now
This was on the recordings, so I gave it a watch. Goshdarn it’s weird. I didn’t have much context for it beside Edgar Wright riffing on it briefly in Spaced, but it was just bizarre. I like Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie in the admittedly limited amount of films I’ve seen them in, but this joint doesn’t work. The editing is questionable as heck (you can move from one moment of tragedy to one of complete and disparate calm). And yeah, I can run with ‘ooh, it’s a dreamy atmosphere’ shtick pretty far, but it doesn’t work here, probably because it’s just a bit silly and shite. Worth a watch for the sake of adding to my film knowledge, but not much else.
Death Wish
Ah, a good old-fashioned revenge tale with questionable depictions of masculinity. More my thing. Again, a good one to expand my film knowledge. I haven’t seen Charles Bronson in much else besides this, and he’s certainly an enigmatic screen presence. I also got a strong Falling Down vibe here with the whole man vs society, ‘Literally Me’ thing. That feeling wasn’t particularly helped by the fact that, unlike the production behind the Michael Douglas film, the director here (Michael Winner; that should have been a red flag right there) genuinely thought that a guy going around and injuring or murdering citizens because his family was attacked is fully justifiable. Hmm, that’s a whole lot of messed up psychology right there. But yeah, a good film to tick off the list.
Tears of the Kingdom (Spoiler warning?)
Yep, it’s been out for a while now, but I had to scout out each and every one of those 1000 Korok dudes before I took down the dorf of ganon. Or Ganondorf, as he’s more commonly known. Dorfius. Ganongammon (get it? Because Ganon in Ocarina of Time looked like half a pig? No? Too obscure a reference? Yeah, probs). But yeah, as much I’ve enjoyed this game, I’ve got to acknowledge that I’m a massive Zelda noob despite the number of games I’ve played. Partly because I’m too darn lazy to dodge, so I frequently got KO’d. Zonai devices are a game changer, on that front. Don’t want to fight the big beasts properly like you should do? Just build an ol’ tank or a laser machine, then find somewhere safe to cower in fear and weakness. Admittedly I didn’t do that too much. But I had to it with the lynel challenge. Those dudes were scary.
But back to the koroks for the moment. These guys are great. Particularly the ones that you have to take back to their korok pals. Taking the short route by yeeting them down a massive hill is a load of fun, and definitely brings back Super Mario 64 vibes when you chuck the penguin down to into the darkness of the underworld. Nice. But since defeating the dorf of ganons, I’ve also 100%ed the map, got all the armour and most of the monster medals. You know, dumb nerdy achievements like that.
Rewatched Stand By Me
A classic film with some classic pals. And some fine Domino’s too. Did you know they do chocolate dough balls now? Well, they do. Would recommend. Would also highly recommend Stand By Me too.
La Traviata with pals (Another spoiler warning?)
I’d never been to an opera before, so this was a kind of a big deal. It was a pretty impressive experience, even if my neck didn’t appreciate the strain of looking up the subtitles for most of time. But maybe I didn’t need to, because the performance was in English anyway, just sometimes a bit difficult to hear. Maybe not helped by a pal behind me frequently kicking my chair, bringing back minor PTSD memories of that little, shall we say, tyke (more colourful words come to mind) kicking my chair at the Hans Zimmer concert. Also, I was hoping the opera would be in Italian so I could quote Red from The Shawshank Redemption. But I’ll quote him anyway. ‘Cause I’m a nerd.
‘I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t wanna know’.
You’re welcome.
The ending did drag a bit though. To the point where my internal monologue was screeching: DIE ALREADY WOMAN. JUST DIE. DIE. LET ME RETURN TO MY WARM BED AT AN EARLY HOUR AND BE THE SOCIALLY CHALLENGED HERMIT THAT I AM.
End of caps lock for irritating dramatic effect. And, uh..end of post.