Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls

A lot of people hate this film. They think that it has spoiled their favourite series of childhood action movies. I think if I was 8 this would have been my favourite Indiana Jones film.

The Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls is fantastical nonsense but then none of the Indiana Jones films have been strongly grounded in reality. It's good fun and I hope they make more.

Iron Man - Film Review

Due to ongoing exile in a place with little personal internet access I have not been able to update this blog much recently. I'm working in a pretty boring place so I'm not doing much. I have been to the cinema a few times.

Iron Man is one of the best superhero films I have seen. It's not to everyones taste but I thought it was rather good. I did read a few Iron Man comics when I was a kid and I always found the character interesting. The 'Demon in a bottle' storyline in the comicbook was one of the first to show a superhero with a real-life human problem like alcohol abuse.

Part of the appeal of Iron Man is the humanity of the character. Iron Man is just an ordinary bloke in a suit of armour. He doesn't come from Krypton, he isn't a mutant and he has never been bitten by anything radioactive. He isn't as miserable as Batman. Tony Stark has the sort of lifestyle most blokes would enjoy - he's rich, he sleeps with beautiful women and he has an interesting life.

Robert Downey Jr is well cast as Tony Stark. He looks like the original comic book character and he has a suitable bad-boy past. He is charasmatic and pulls off the super-rich playboy persona with ease.

The Iron Man origin story has been updated in a sensible manner. The original strip had Tony Stark as a weapons manufacturer in the Korean War and this has been easily transposed to the modern middle east. The film isn't as jingoistic as I feared it would be and it does highlight the evils of the arms-race.

Rumors are going about that there will be an Avengers movie at some point in the future combining Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America and Thor. If it's as well made as Iron Man it might be worth seeing.

Radiohead live at Glasgow Green

I'm not a massive Radiohead fan. I never have been. I thought Creep was ok and I only started listening to The Bends a couple of years after it came out. I own most of their albums but I have never thought that they are the best or the most original band in the world.

I was keen to see them because my mates all told me they were good live. 40 quid for a ticket is a bit steep but probably standard for a band as big as Radiohead. It was pissing down in Glasgow today and as I sat in the pub before the gig I asked myself if I could really be fucked standing in a cold, wet park to listen to miserable music. Was it worth it?

I bought a cheap raincoat in some shitty clothes shop on Argyll street and girded my loins. I ran into a few old friends which made the drizzle worth it.

Support band Bat for Lashes weren't great which was not a surprise. I didn't like their CD.

Radiohead sounded great and played a good set. Quality songs from all the albums except Pablo Honey. I was surprised at the number of neds at the show. I was not surprised at the number of student with 'difficult' facial hair.

A cold wet day. Wish it was indoors. My Bloody Valentine next week will be much better.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - live at the Glasgow Academy

Nick Cave is someone I always try to see when he's in town. This was the 3rd Nick Cave concert that I've seen. I may even have wrote about the last Glasgow show that I was at somewhere on this site.

It was a slimmed down version of the Bad Seeds that graced the stage of the Carling Academy tonight. The choir that was present on the Abattoir Blues tour was no longer needed. Instead we had the core 7 man band and they were more than enough.

We had seats in the balcony. I had never been up there before and I enjoyed the experience. The view was good and the sound seemed a bit better. The crowd was varied - old goths, yuppies and indie kids.

The set had a fair bit of the new album as well as some old classics like Tupelo and Deanna. We got Into my Arms and Stagger Lee in the encore as well as a cover of Wanted Man by Johnny Cash. The cries for the Mercy Seat were ignored. They didn't play much from the last album which was a shame but it is a testament to the quality of the Nick Cave songbook that he can put on a great show without playing all the hits.

I bought a Mercy Seat tea-towel for my yuppie flat. It makes me happy. I'll be trying to get tickets again the next time Nick Cave is in town.

I bought a random CD that My Bloody Valentine fans might like today

I bought a random CD in Avalanche Records today. It's by a band called Japancakes and it is a cover of all of Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. It's ok but not as good as the original. It's a brave attempt and worth hearing but I'm still looking forward to seeing MBV in July.

Check out www.japancakesmusic.com for more

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - film review

My mate wanted to see this. It's by the same people who made Knocked up and the 40 year old virgin but it's not really as good. It does have a few laughs in it but not as many as their other films.

It's about a guy who gets dumped and how he gets over it. It has Russel Brand in it. It's basically a chick-flick. Don't rush out to see it.

Pathology - film review

I saw this film a couple of weeks back. I have a thing for cheezy medical horror films, being a doctor and that.

This film is about a trainee pathologist who becomes involved with a group of doctors who kill people for kicks. He joins in and it becomes a bit more crazy after that. All the doctors look like supermodels and take crack while still going to work. And they shag each other next to corpses. It's not really like that at my work.

This film is a rip off of Anatomy which is a much better German film. It was kinda funny but probably not for everyone.

In Bruges - film review

I saw something about this film on the BBC2 Culture Show a couple of months back and I made a mental note to catch it. I'm glad that I did. It's the best film that I've seen in ages.

In Bruges is a black comedy that makes you think. Colin Farrell plays a hitman who has made a mistake. He has been sent to Belgium with another hitman to hide out until the fuss dies down. He does not want to be in Belgium. His character is very similar to that of Dougal in the sitcom Father Ted. He has a fascination with dwarves.

Indeed, dwarf abuse is a recurrent theme in this film.

I was pissing myself with laughter for most of this film but it did raise some serious moral questions and it did make me think. What would you do if you had done something unforgivable? Is redemption possible?

This film is funny and serious. You should see it. It also has quality swearing.

Red tape makes me want to scream

I hate paperwork. I hate pen-pushers. I hate jobsworths. I hate filling in forms.

Thankyou and goodnight

Black Sheep - DVD

This is a low-budget horror film from New Zealand about mutant killer sheep. I enjoyed it. You might too.