Clash of the Titans on DVD (Blu-ray)

The LOVEFiLM's are coming thick and fast at the moment and the latest film was Clash of the Titans.

Set in the Greek city of Argos (not the shop) where a war is about to explode between man and the gods – even the gods themselves had been fighting!

Some of the special effects were amazing as was the music and sound effects. Sam Worthington (of Avatar fame) played Perseus who, as the mortal son of Zeus took down Medusa and then defeated Hades (god of the underworld) almost single handedly (and with an Australian twang) therefore saving mankind.

Then after deciding not to take up his father's offer of moving to Olympus - the god world - was rewarded by kind Zeus (aka Liam Neeson) with age deifying Io (Gemma Arterton) who'd been watching over him for all of his life. Bless.

This was an entertaining watch so I'm giving it 4 Medusa snakes out of 5!

The Other Guys on DVD (Blu-ray)

The Other Guys ….. hmm what to say about this film?!?  Well it was funny…. but random!

It is about two mismatched New York cops (Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg) who are fed up with just doing the paperwork for the city’s two hotshot hero cops and want to be more than just ‘the other guys’.

Will Ferrell is his usually quirky self and Mark Wahlberg is actually really funny too!  I not really seen him in a comedy role before (he’s usually some sort of action man).  Will Ferrell’s character is nerdy and risk averse while Mark Wahlberg’s is just angry and they have some really random conversations!  Such as one about a tiger swimming out to sea to kill a tuna – but then the tuna evolves and works out how to breathe with kelp and so gathers his tuna family and ends up hunting the tiger – you get the gist!!?!

There are quite a few other famous faces in The Other Guys – Michael Keaton, Eva Mendes, Samuel L Jackson, Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) and ‘Not up in here’ Rob Riggle (Hangover fans will get that!).

If you are not too fussed about the storyline (I spent a lot of the film staring at the TV with a perplexed look on my face, mouth open and thinking ‘what IS going on?!’) but are looking for some laughs from Will Ferrell style silly humour then The Other Guys ticks all these boxes.

I’m going to give this a 3.5 free hot dogs (no drinks!) out of 5

Eat Pray Love on DVD

Eat Pray Love was our latest offering from LOVEFiLM.  It’s about an unhappily married woman (Julia Roberts), who decides to go off around the world to ‘find’ herself.  In short she ends up eating in Italy, praying in India and loving in Bali – which doesn’t sound like too bad a trip!

Julia Roberts gives a good performance (she usually does) and it was a fairly easy watch – lots of nice Italy, India and Bali shots which provoke the need to book a holiday.  Eat Pray Love has the potential to be a real thinker, but it was bit slow.  I was left with the impression that Liz (Julia Roberts) was unhappy (particularly with the men in her life) and went off around the world where she finally found some inner peace and balance only for it to be a bit thrown off when she meets a new man in Bali.  Eventually though she realises that sometimes she needs to let go and embrace new things – a lesson for us all!

I haven’t read the book – Eat Pray Love – but think that maybe I should as I think this will probably delve deeper into the emotional side and add more passion to the story.  I believe it is based on the real memoirs of the author.

All in all though I’ll give it 1 for Julia Roberts, 1 for all the nice looking pizza in Italy and 1 for the Ketut in Bali (he was funny) so a total of 3 out of 5

         

Swimming With Sharks

One of my more dangerous holiday activities was, and I still can’t believe I actually did this, swimming with sharks in Hawaii - and they weren’t just little sharks you know! 

I have actually just looked up the type of shark that we were merrily bobbing around in the water with and Wikipedia says: “Inquisitive and persistent, the Galapagos shark is regarded as dangerous to humans and diving unprotected is not advisable in areas where they are abundant. They are known to approach close to swimmers, showing interest in swim fins or hands, and are drawn in large numbers by fishing activities.”  I’m pleased I didn’t know this before I went in!

Anyway we booked the trip with North Shore Shark Adventures and as you only saved a few dollars by just going on the boat and not getting in the water it made much more economical sense to just get in the water! 

After a very rushed snorkel at Hanauma Bay Nature Park in the South of the island we sped (not breaking any speeding laws though!) across the island to, the historic surf town of, Haleiwa on the North shore where our boat was departing from.  After only just making it to the boat (they were literally about to leave without us) we all climbed aboard feeling a bit rushed and flustered – which was probably a good thing as it didn’t give us too much time to think about what we were doing!

We're gonna need a bigger boat!

It wasn’t a big boat, just a small fishing boat type thing (not as big as the boat in Jaws and they ‘needed a bigger boat’) – with a cage hanging off the back.  We motored quite a long way out to sea.  The captain radioed around the other boats to see who had sharks and then another boat came our way and ‘dropped off’ the sharks at our boat.  The sharks follow the fishing boats as they know that’s where the food is and so the boats slowly park up next to each other and then our captain starts chucking some fish off the back to lure the sharks in while the other boat speeds away. 



Is it really a good idea to get them all excited about food when 'dinner' is in the cage?! P.s don't let go of those ropes!



So we get all snorkelled up and (luckily) I was in the second group on the cage.  The cage is attached to the back of the boat while you get in, then they let it go (you’re still attached by ropes).  We climbed in the cage and were sent drifting off into the open water.   Then the sharks came, circling the cage!  The cage had perspex panels on 2 sides so it was a bit like being in one of those glass tunnels they have at aquariums - the rest of the cage was open.  One of the hardest things was trying to stay in one spot as the water was really choppy so we got flung around the cage a bit.  I’d managed to steady myself by holding on to the bars and resting my feet on 2 bars lower down.   The sharks kept circling the cage; they didn’t really poke their noses in or anything but just circled.  There were some fairly big ones – Galapagos sharks can grow to up to 12ft.  We were in the water for what seemed like and age but it was amazing to see them swimming around us and be so close to them.  I think I was probably more scared of getting water in my snorkel and choking (because it was so choppy) than I was of being eaten by a shark!

Wakiki wave and pretend you're enjoying yourself!

Once we were safely back aboard the boat and everyone had been in the cage we sat back, put our feet up on the side and soaked up the Hawaiian sun as we powered back to the harbour – before all getting suckered into buying a t-shirt because we were so excited we’d just been swimming with sharks!

Chloe on DVD

Last night’s LOVEFiLM film was Chloe, with Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried.  Billed as a thriller this film did have a fair bit of suspense in but I think it had the potential to go a bit a further and it didn’t quite make it.  Julianne Moore plays a doctor who suspects her husband (Liam Neeson) is cheating and so hires an escort (Amanda Seyfried) to try and catch him out.  It becomes clear that the escort is actually becoming obsessed with the doctor and hasn’t actually – don’t read on if you don’t want to know what happens – done any of the things she claimed, with the husband!
This film is good at holding the suspense all the way through but had the potential to have a few more Single White Female/Fatal Attraction encounters or ‘close calls’.  Instead it ended on almost the first confrontation, fairly abruptly. 

Couple of things to note:
* Comedy award goes to - the scene where Amanda Seyfried’s bike slips on a conveniently place piece of ice!
* Julianne Moore’s character is a gynecologist and her office is pretty much made of glass – maybe she is a gynecologist for exhibitionists only?!

I like Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore though so it did make a nice Sunday evening watch.

I’m giving it a 3 stalker.com points out of 5

The Perfect Palm Tree

One of the tasks I set myself on my travels is to further my quest to find the perfect palm tree picture! Everytime I go somewhere (that has palm tree’s that is) I get what I think is the perfect shot but then I get home and look trough some of the others and I can’t decide which is my favourite!?!  I used to think that a full curved palm tree in front of white sands and a clear turquoise sea was my ideal picture – mostly because that’s where I want to be - but looking at some of the other palm tree shots I’ve managed to take now I’m not so sure.  I’m starting to like the ones with different scenes behind the palm trees, such as yachts or buildings.  Anyway here are ten of my favourites and I’m sure this will be a quest that carries on for as long as I carry on in search of palm tree lined destinations……

Coco Cay, Bahamas

Wakiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii

Ibiza

Luxor, Las Vegas

Madeira

Malibu Beach, Barbados

Miami Beach

Philipsburg, St Maarten

Tenerife

Villamoura, Portugal

Cyprus Update

So we have finally decided on a villa for Cyprus – we have chosen a very nice one in Chlorakas, Paphos.  After trawling through what seemed like thousands of villas I started to become ruthless and instantly dismissing or adding villas to the shortlist based on their outdoor furniture…my reasoning being that as we will be spending most of our time outside (fingers crossed) I want to make sure I have a nice comfy sunbed and not some rubbish plastic number!

On telling my mum excitably that we were ‘going to Cyprus’ she replied with ‘oh so am I, when are you going?!’ to which I replied ‘September’, again her reply was ‘oh so am I!’  So it turns out that mum is there at the same time and in exactly the same place as us!  The following evening my friend was on the phone telling his dad we were ‘off to Paphos’ when his dad mentioned that he should go to a particular cathedral and then ‘we can meet for lunch afterwards’……..yes that’s right…. his parents are also going to be in the same place at the same time as us!!  Hmm have we chosen the wrong destination?!?  

So looks like we’ll be having a few family bbq’s round at ours!!

The Social Network on DVD

So we finally got around to watching The Social Network last week and I really enjoyed it.  I thought Jesse Eisenberg was really good, obviously I don’t know Mark Zuckerberg personally so don’t know what he is actually like, but I really liked the way his character was portrayed.  The opening scene sets you up for the speed of the conversations in the film and while there is quite a lot of technical jargon (that you just accept you’re not going to understand) he also has quite a ‘straight to the point’ way of dealing with things – like when he’s up in front of the ad board (for crashing the university’s network) and he says he’s deserves some recognition rather than charges for breaching security (recognition for highlighting the security issues that is - genius).

One of his other quality and to the point lines is:

Gage: Do you think I deserve your full attention?

Mark Zuckerberg: I had to swear an oath before we began this deposition, and I don't want to perjure myself, so I have a legal obligation to say no.

I felt sorry for Eduardo (as he seemed to get screwed over by Sean Parker) and also for Mark Zuckerberg (as he seemed to get led by Sean Parker and in the process lost his best friend) and  Sean Parker just came across as the bad guy.  However, after finding out that the film is based on the book (in which the real Eduardo Saverin was the only one to have inputted) I’m not sure how accurately the characters we played.  Either way they all became billionaires so I don’t really sorry for any of them!

My key learning from this film: I want to invent/create something that makes me a billionaire

My favourite quote from this film: (Mark Zuckerberg) “You know, you really don't need a forensics team to get to the bottom of this. If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook. “

I’m giving The Social Network a 5 'likes' out 5!

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London Weekend

My mum came to visit this weekend so (even though she is originally from London) we thought we’d spend the day exploring some of the fun and cultural stuff that so often we don’t make the effort to see even though it’s right on the doorstep!

First stop was the British Museum.  We were planning to go to the Afghanistan treasures exhibition but as we only decided to go the day before we hadn’t booked and there were no tickets left – Tip #1: book tickets to special exhibitions!  So instead we had our own little treasure hunt!  The director of the museum, Neil MacGregor, has written a book (following his BBC Radio 4 series) called ‘The History of the World in 100 Objects’ (which mum got for Christmas) so we set off in search for some of the items we wanted to see.  Handily the museum guide had a key to tell you which rooms the 100 objects were in.  There were a few items that we no longer there (the Hawaiian Feathered Helmet that I wanted to see and a piece of calligraphy that mum wanted to see) but it was a more interesting way of seeing a little bit of lots of different exhibits as it can be a bit culture overload otherwise!

British Museum

British Museum

After all of the history intake we moved on for some food and drink intake and headed to the Soho Hotel for afternoon tea (very fancy).  In our best ‘ladies that lunch’ guise we had a great table at the end of the Refuel bar which was an ideal vantage point for people watching!  I love trying to work out how people know each other and what they are meeting for – I like to think it’s some sort of sociology urge rather than just being nosey!   In between the people watching we enjoyed fingers sandwiches, scones and an array of cakes….Mmmm.  

Tip #2: Although everything is mini it is more filling than you think it’s going to be so ask for a ‘doggy bag’ and they’ll box it up for you to take home.

Celeb (ish) spot of the day:  the winner of the apprentice!

Afternoon Tea!

Full of scones and chocolate éclairs we made our way to Shaftsbury Avenue to see Thriller Live Great show – Michael Jackson did have some classics!  The young boy who played the early Michael was brilliant and clearly the rest of the audience thought so too.  It was a bit slow in the middle but towards the end they started belting out all the classics – Billie Jean, Bad, Man in the Mirror etc and just as we were starting to think they weren’t even going to do Thriller – they boshed it out at the end!  There was a lot of whopping, clapping and dancing along from the stalls but as we were in the balcony my slight fear of heights kicked in and I didn’t think it would be wise to stand up and started jumping around (the image of us all tumbling over the edge must have been crossing the minds of the rest of the balcony too!).   Would definitely recommend this show!

Tip #3: If like the woman behind us, you are going to complain loudly throughout the performance that you can’t see because everyone is leaning forward then I would recommend you splash out for a ticket in the stalls rather than the cheap seats in the balcony or just deal with the fact you haven’t paid that much for your ticket and therefore you might not get the best of views!

Thriller

Paranormal Activity 2 on DVD

So last night was spent hiding behind the cushions on the sofa watching Paranormal Activity 2!  It was the LOVEFiLM my flatmate had been waiting for and she’d even promised to watch it all with her eyes open!  This is sort of the prequel (we realised this half way through – maybe should have read the cover synopsis first so I didn’t spend half the film thinking ‘have I seen this before, I’m sure I’ve already seen a film with this storyline?!’)…….anyway…it’s the sort of prequel to the first Paranormal Activity and follows the same format as the first.  It is set in the home of Katie’s (from Paranormal Activity) sister and her family and after a break in (well that’s what they think anyway!) they install CCTV throughout the house.  Luckily for us they are also a family that like to document everyday life on their camcorder – so we see the events unfold through the footage.

Again like the first film it’s a starts off quite slow with not a lot going on - and if you’ve seen the first film you spend a lot of time scanning empty rooms (Where’s Wally style) looking out for something/someone moving or waiting for something strange to happen.  It doesn’t.  Well not until later on in the film anyway when, even though you’ve been waiting for it for the last hour, odd things ‘suddenly’ start to happen.  The film ends in an equally freaky way as the first film (although there was definitely more surprise to the first films ending!). 

While I pretend to fairly brave there were a few moments when (and when you know its coming) I did start to feel a bit nervous and started to get the sweaty palms!!

So all in all a good scary film – we even had to watch a bit of Taken as light relief afterwards in an attempt to ward off any freaky dreams!  I like a good horror and sometimes I think these suspense style horrors are scarier than the slasher flicks – they have that element of reality and ‘it could actually happen’ to them which plays on the imagination!!

If you liked the first Paranormal Activity you’ll most likely like this one too and after watching them both there appears to be the potential for a third film………hmm!

I’m giving this a frightening 4 out of 5

Wall Street on DVD

First movie review!  I'm going to keep these fairly short and simple as I don't want to spoil the films.  So my friends and I watched the original Wall Street the other night (before the sequel arrives from LOVEFiLM).  I always love a good 80's film they had so many random gadgets and cutting edge technology - the sushi maker, computers with black screens and green text, Michael Douglas even popped out a portable TV with a 2 inch screen! 

Amongst all the gadgets and 80's fashion (big seemed to be the style then - big shoulders, big hair, big glasses, big phones) it was a good watch, easy to follow, not too much of a thinker but kept us entertained.  It had a good cast - Charlie Sheen was even calling himself a 'winner' back then! - and it's set us up ready for Wall Street Money Never Sleeps, which I'm hoping will be an equally good one (but with much more advanced technology).

At the end of trading Wall Street closes on a middle of the road 3 1/8 out of 5 (that's a good!)

3 word review from my friend - greedy, greedy, greedy!

My First Post!!

Ooh my first post, exciting!!  Where to start....well...on the travel front I am in the process of booking a villa holiday to Cyprus for September with some friends so I'm sure I'll have more news on that once its all booked after the weekend!  There are so many nice, very nice and not so nice villas to choose from it does take a bit of 'death by villa' searching to narrow it down to ones we can a) afford b) are available and c) we like!  But we are almost there so fingers crossed it will get booked at the weekend.  Owners Direct is a great website for villa searches the only flaw being (a little suggestion for the folks at Owners Direct) that it needs a shortlist function - so I don't have to remember all the reference numbers!

My other travel plans for the year currently include a long weekend in Marrakesh, a week in the Algarve, a weekend in Manchester and a long weekend in Spain - something to look forward to to!

Here's a nice picture of Cyprus (courtesy of google images) to get us all in the holiday mood and make the page look nice!!