Alfreido's Blog

While I am looking forward to seeing The Dark Knight as much as the next person (the next person being my brother, who loves Batman Begins to death)… I’m disappointed that most of the attention seems to be around Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker. Yes, I know the fella tragically passed away some time ago, and this movie is the final movie he completed. But that should not stop the movie from being scrutinized with a fine tooth comb, especially considering all the hype that is generated.

Once again, I am worried about these perfect scores being thrown about. IGN gave it 5 stars for example. I’m not so certain if it’s because they got themselves an early review, 2 weeks before the movie hits the public cinemas, and hence they had to repay the honour by giving it a good score, or because of the genuine fact that the film is the next coming of Christ. That’s why I read reviews. To get both the good and the bad and make an informed decision based on the beliefs of others. To do this, you put certain trust in the reviewer that he will point out the mistakes and downfalls of a certain movie, or game, or show.

Reviewers should not be afraid to bag out Heath Ledger’s acting if it is warranted. I do believe Heath would’ve found it perfectly acceptable for people to give their opinion of his performance, since it would’ve been the only way he could improve. Just because he died, doesn’t mean he should be given a gold star out by default. My words might sound cruel, but just think, if he had still been alive, would the movie be riding on as much hype as it currently has been? Would people have applauded his acting as much? I am only pre-empting all these thoughts and giving myself a clear concious before going in. I don’t want to build up this beatiful thought of this movie and have it all come crashing down when I see it.

With all that being said, I still can’t wait to see it!

Apparently, these days, you can never enjoy a movie that was based on a best-selling book, according those “wise” people who call themselves movie reviewers. You have people like Roger Ebert (pictured right), who probably don’t do anything else but watch movies judging by his figure, saying that YOU, the innocent movie goer who might be scarred for life for watching BAD MOVIEZZ, shouldn’t watch certain movies because they don’t follow the books close enough.

Please, do the world a huge favour and shut those excrementitious orifaces that you people call your mouths.

What has sparked this anger, I hear you ask? Probably the can of Bundaberg Rum sitting right next to me. Oh… and the fact that I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix on the weekend. I must say, although I wasn’t as thoroughly impressed with it as I was with Goblet of Fire, I still enjoyed it immensly. Being the inquisitve person I am though, I logged onto Rotten Tomatoes to see what everyone else said about it. Sure enough, plenty of people were whinging about the movie. It doesn’t follow the book. They cut side-stories. J K Rowling is my hero. It’s the kind of dribble that makes you just shudder at the thought that these people represent our best interests with movies. I have read the book, ableit quickly, but the point is, whilst the movie deviates from the book in some cases, none of the magic (excuse the pun) is lost. Hell, I prefer the streamlined approach of the movie, as some of the details of the book weren’t needed. And by the way… J K Rowling liked the movie. The author of the book liked the movie. That’s saying something.

So, my closing comment is… If you haven’t seen the new Harry Potter movie, go and see it.

Image: A psychically confused Harry Potter from Order of the Phoenix.

Went and saw World Trade Center on Friday night, and while it was a good movie, I don’t think it was as good as all the hype and controversy surrounding it made it look like. Of course, this would’ve been huge over in America, because up until United 93, the only movies made about September 11 was those damn awful conspiracy movies (I’ve seen a couple, they’re like Michael Moore documentaries, bend the truth in order to make it look like a conspiracy). I also expected this movie to have more of a voice, considering it was directed by Oliver Stone, who made the king of conspiracy movies, JFK. Alas, it was only a simple story of human courage, with no political motivation whatsoever. I guess Stone was just playing it safe…

I bought myself a Sony CD/MP3 deck on Saturday, and my father and I spent all Sunday trying to wire the bloody thing up. We took all morning removing the dash from my Hyundai Excel LS only to find that we only needed to remove 4 screws on the middle dash to be able to take the old radio out. So yeah, we did a lot more work than we had to. But it’s worth it, I can now play CDs in my car, instead of casettes