By Roy Mathur, on 2013-02-01, at 17:18:00 to 17:41:07 GMT, for Roy's Rocket Radio, Listen
Mmm...
Not doing much, just applying for jobs like there's no tomorrow.
Moving to somewhere countryside near Canterbury because it's cheap.
Boat's sold without me having ever even been sailed because there was nowhere to put it once our house-buy went kablooey last year. At least I broke even and didn't really lose any money from the whole escapade.
But not to worry, my nautical adventures are not over! There's still a chance for me to become the Han Solo of the High Seas. Aghhh!
Vehicle for 80s action heroes, and a few later heroes, was on the box a couple of days ago.
Problems: the only real top-billing 80s action heroes in the movie are Sylvester Stallone and a very brief cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The rest of the numbers are made up of Dolph Lundgren (more of a B-movie guy) and Eric Roberts. Then a few 80s non-action guys like Mickey Rourke, and the wrestlers Randy Couture and "Stone-Cold" Steve Austin are thrown in too. Finally we have the, not-really-that-younger-generation, represented by Jason Statham and Jet Li. Come to think of it though, there were only two 80s proper action heroes: Sly and Arnie.
Despite all this, not terrible thanks to Statham and Stallone's bromance and insane amounts of shooting and explosions.
The original had Michael Caine as London gangster going up north to Newcastle to "sort out" some mobsters responsible for his brother's death. It is based on the book Jack's Return Home by Ted Lewis.
Stylish, gritty, funny, very violent, and quite unpleasant and simultaneously very cool.
The movie begins with Caine on a train. I used to take that very same train to go up to Newcastle Uni and I always remember feeling like Michael Caine, with that 60s tabla theme banging away in my head.
The remake is set within the US's Russian mob and, as ripped and intimidating as Sly Stallone looks in the role, it is an utterly abysmal action movie.
The original had Robert "Quint" Shaw and was a stylish, quirky, comedy thriller.
The Travolta as bad-guy version is harder edged and not really that witty, but at least faster paced. No remake necessary.
Why am I talking about this? Well, I'm guessing that if you are a male geek, you might have trouble finding movies to watch with your non-geek partner.
Suggestions: Lady Hawke, Merlin, Lord of thge Rings. Other fantasy genre films non-geeks might like (though I am far from an expert) are The Princess Bride (though I personally cannot abide this movie), Willow, and other films of that ilk. Dragonslayer?
My mum also likes to watch emotional-type Bollywood movies or any movie that generally that makes you want to kill yourself.
Latest trailer.
Release date for movie 17 May 2013.
Watched the first episode last night on Pick.
Ostensibly this is about a father with a highly gifted autistic son who can sense the connectedness of all things.
But here's the reality. We've seen this idea too often; Rain Man and Mercury Rising and, even before that, in Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently: Holistic Detective.
Also the dad is Keifer Sutherland, who plays the role frantically, nervously, and screaming into a cell phone. All I can say is Tim Kring must have a 24 fixation.
Derivativeness aside, it does look quite cool, but I wonder if the story's got legs.
Smirnoff and most other vodkas are 37.5% proof in the EU. To clean glasses you need approx 5% solution of alcohol and water to be safe and not melt your specs. Just mix 1 part of vodka to 7 parts of water.
Much cheaper than glasses cleaners and completely non-toxic.
(NB/ Don't do this! That was a bad tip. Ethanol is too caustic. Roy 2019-11-02).