Ashes to Ashes

Posted by Hex on Feb 8th, 2008
2008
Feb 8

Saw the first episode of the BBCs follow up to Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, last night.

This one is set in 1981, so I do actually remember a lot of stuff from that time. The Audi Quattro certainly brings back memories as does the creepy Pierrot clown. A cousin of mine decked out her entire bedroom with them back in the 80s. She had the dolls on her shelves, they were on her pillows, her duvet, the rug…. eugh. Creepy things!

I can’t say I like DI Alex Drake anywhere near as much as I liked Sam, but we’ll see if she gets less annoying as it goes on. None of that really matters though, because it could all just be a blank screen without Gene Hunt. He makes me grin like an idiot. “You. In leather… holding that. Gives me the ‘orn.”

Survive Style 5+ (beautifully mental Japanese film)

Posted by Hex on Jan 28th, 2008
2008
Jan 28

A few years ago I heard about a film called Survive Style 5+ and it sounded pretty cool so I wrote down the name on a notepad. As time went by I moved it to my WishList. It stayed there for a couple of years, but no-one bought it for me. As my folks were in Florida and I was sick of getting no post, I ordered it from Play.com. I watched it about a week ago…

WOW! It is now in my top 5 films list! I love it! It’s completely mental, really laugh out loud funny the whole way through. The fight scenes look brilliant. The colours are magical. It even manages to have a real lump-in-throat moment near the end. It bombards you with mentalness and then suddenly BAM! Hits you full on with something so wonderful it makes you want to cry. It’s likened to Pulp Fiction quite a bit due to the 5 seemingly unrelated stories intertwining, and Pulp Fiction is also one of my favourite films… but I think Survive Style 5+ tops it. The soundtrack is fantastic and upbeat, I’m going to try and get hold of as much of it as I can.

The storylines go like this:

  • A man (with an awesome house) kills and buries his wife, only for her to return. Rinse and repeat for the films duration. By far the best and main story. Tadanobu Asano was probably the main reason I heard about this film and wrote it down.
  • A middle-management father takes his family to the “Viva Friends!” hypnotist show. He’s hypnotised to believe he is a bird before a hitman shows up and kills the hypnotist leaving him as a bird.
  • Three young burglers out to have fun, suppressing their secret love for each other. (MUCH funnier than it sounds, Jai West’s facial expression is brilliant).
  • An English hitman (Vinnie Jones in probably his best cast role ever) who wants to know everyone/things function in life.
  • An advertising executive with a bizarre sense of humour is inspired by all around her. (This actually seems like the story that doesn’t need to be told. As if this part isn’t really of the glue that holds the rest together. However, when you take into account the fact that the whole film is like one giant advert and the directors are more used to directing commercials… you realise it is probably one of the more important storylines. And the 2 schoolgirls in the diner are hilarious, not to mention the small role by Sonny Chiba).
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    Assassin’s Creed

    Posted by Hex on Dec 16th, 2007
    2007
    Dec 16

    Finally got round to playing this last night (haven’t played a real game in years, it’s been all about Guitar Hero, Peggle Deluxe, etc. for me recently), can’t say I find it that great. The climbing and diving into bales of hay is cool and the killing is cool, but the walking about everywhere bores me silly. I’d only been playing for about half an hour when I got the 360 achievement for staying alive in battle for over 10 minutes… mainly because I was so bored of walking/riding I just killed… Yahtzee was spot on, it should be called Faffing-About Creed. And yeah, that FUCKING hill is well annoying.

    It’s really lovely to look at (although Kristen Bells’ cross-eyed face in Heroes is bad enough without seeing it in all the lab bits too) so now I think I’ll stick doing just that, watching my mate play through it and telling him when I spot flags and stuff.

    I did have fun though, when I ‘parked’ my horse next to another horse while I climbed up to a View Point, came back and some mad woman was twirling about around my horse!

    Yahtzee Reviews GH:III… and it’s all true

    Posted by Hex on Dec 12th, 2007
    2007
    Dec 12

    GH:WIII

    Posted by Hex on Nov 27th, 2007
    2007
    Nov 27

    Right, having played GH:III (Wii version) for several more hours now, I thought I’d re-write the previous entry:
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