Things that pissed me off today #1

1. Those homeless people that write things on paths with chalk. Seriously, this is so annoying, they take up the entire path with their semi-literate ramblings, while stupid (mostly American) tourists crowd around. Then of course if you read any of it you feel obliged to give them some of your change, grrrr! At least the people who draw stuff on the path with chalk have some sort of talent.

2. Skangers who put their hands down the front of their trousers and adjust their junk… or whatever it is they’re doing down there. I don’t understand the mentality of these people who walk around in public with their hands down their trousers very obviously holding on to their unit… Guys, it’s not going anywhere leave it alone!!

3. The lids on those massive Cokes you get at the cinema. They come off too easy, as I learned earlier spilling Coke all over myself

Review: Inglourious Basterds

When Quentin Tarantino makes a film he doesn’t subscribe to the usual formula pertaining to that particular genre, rather he turns the genre on it’s head and gives it his own angle. For example, Reservoir Dogs was a heist film that had no heist in it! This time Tarantino has made a World War II film, but not just any World War II film…. it’s a Tarantino World War II film.

Inglourious Basterds gives us Tarantino’s alternative ending to World War II. Yes an alternative ending like on DVDs!

The Inglourious Basterds are an American Jewish outfit that has been sent in to Nazi Occupied France to carry out an Apache style guerilla war on the Nazis. When an ideal opportunity emerges to take out all of Germany’s top brass the Basterds are drafted for the task. But the Basterds are not the only ones with a plan to do so.

This isn’t exactly what I would have expected from a Tarantino World War II film, for one thing I would have expected it to be alot more violent and fast paced. Instead the violence is minimal and the film felt a little drawn out and slow at times. But these are not necessarily negative comments. The film is actually quite suspensful. The opening scene is a very tense conversation between a French dairy farmer suspected of hiding a Jewish family and Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), “The Jew Hunter”. I think the dialogue in this film is much deeper and more intense than we’re used to from Tarantino.

Overall I found the film enjoyable, funny, but not always “laugh out loud funny”, tense and artistic. I found the dialogue engaging and a departure from Tarantino’s usual. I would definitely recommend it.

Review: The Proposal

It’s been a while since I enjoyed Sandra Bullock in a film, after all it’s hard to forgive her for Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, so I was really hoping this would be a return to form for her. Luckily she didn’t disappoint and I was happy to see her in her element.

It was Ryan Reynolds, however, who stole the film for me with his perfect comic timing and subtly hilarious facial expressions. Reynolds has come along way since his earlier Van Wilder days and I think he’s really starting to mature a little more in his choice of roles.

The two look good together and I thought they had the right amount of chemistry.

The actual plot, however, is chock full of rom com cliches and desperately lacks originality. There are a number of laugh out loud scenes though, and you do get to see Bullock and Reynolds naked, so overall I think it evens out!

Overall I enjoyed the film and I’d recommend it; just don’t expect it to redefine a genre or anything like that. Go to see it for a cheap laugh, for a girlie night out, or just to see Reynolds’ abs and you won’t be disappointed.

Review: Bruno

So… I went to see Bruno on Thursday…

Bruno is the second film from Sacha Baron Cohen, the first one being Borat which was released in 2006. Borat was brilliant (in my opinion anyway) so it is only inevitable that comparisons between Bruno and Borat will ensue… Borat was better.

I had expected to be subjected to the same cringe-worthy side splitting humour of Borat, but Bruno just failed to deliver any laugh out loud response. Ok… I may have actually laughed out loud, but it felt a little laboured!

In my opinion the humour of Bruno is based on a shock response, but in my case I just wasn’t shocked by any of what Bruno’s character did and therefore I didn’t laugh all that much.

Bruno’s character is an extreme stereotype in order to provoke an extreme response from the general public, which I think he does effectively. I do not think that Bruno perpetuates the gay stereotype nor do I think that it promotes homophobia. I think it does a very good job of highlighting the fact that homophobia still exists in many parts of the “developed world” and I felt that it captured the spirit of the anti-Prop 8 movement in California earlier this year.

Personally I don’t understand why some elements of the gay community have been offended by Bruno, but I suppose this kind of thing is unavoidable… there will always be a few who are not happy.

Anyway… I can’t decide whether or not recommend this film. It’s certainly watchable but don’t expect Borat 2.

BODIES!

I found myself trying very hard to remember as much of my Leaving Cert Biology as possible today as I went to Bodies… The Exhibition in Dublin’s Ambassador.

The exhibition consists of whole and partial real human bodies which have been remarkably preserved and dissected to show in amazing detail the intricacies of the human body. Everything, which includes, the heart, lungs, brain and the entire human circulatory system are on display.

The circulatory system was particularly impressive which was created by injecting a plastic compound into the blood system and then dissolving the rest of the body in acid. Also worth mentioning are the smoker’s lungs and fetal development displays which I was particularly impressed with.

I found the whole exhibition very educational and awe inspiring, at times I even found myself drawing parallels with the work of Damien Hirst!

Unfortunately no photography was allowed, which was a pity as some of the displays were truly breath taking. However the exhibition is still open and will be in Dublin until the 26th July so why not pop down. It’s well worth it.

Image of the day: 21 May 2009

Image of the day via Gizmodo

Hello world…. Again!

Starting over. www.noellinnane.com is no more noellinnane.wordpress.com is the future!

Old Photos

I’ve spent the last few days collecting old family photos and scanning them all to make a photo DVD for my mother for Mother’s Day. There are some pure gems in there!

My Older Brother and I

My Mother!

I’ve put a lot of these photos together into a slide show and burnt them to a DVD for Mother’s Day, here’s a not so high quality version of it…

By the way, that’s not the music I put on it, YouTube wouldn’t let me use that…

Review: Watchmen

I only recently got caught up in all the hype about Watchmen. My first exposure to Watchmen was a trailer for it on Apple’s website, it looked amazing so I decided I would read the graphic novel, which lived up to all it’s expectations and I finished it over the course of three nights.

The film remained very loyal to the graphic novel, which might be one of it’s main faults, in fact there are a number of references that I wouldn’t expect anyone to get unless they had read the graphic novel. So this is probably one of those films were you have to have read the book to truly appreciate it, I might go so far to say that you need to be a fanatic.

Jack Synder is the director, who you might remember from 300 which is a visually stunning film. Elements of Watchmen are unmistakably “Jack Synder” and resemble 300 a great deal.

Disappointingly the writters have introduced a theme which is a very hot topic today but bears no relevance to the original story what so ever, the environment. I didnt appreciate this at all!

Having said all of that I did enjoy the film, but was definitely let down by all of the hype around it. I found it alot easier to suspend believe and be enveloped in the it’s world with the graphic novel than I did with the film.

Links: 2 March 2009

Who watches the Watchbabies?

Italian Man wants to become a nun.

MGMT’s Kids performed only with iPhones!