Now today’s been … entertaining!
Yeah, definitely entertaining!
Oh, yes!!
I mean, for starters, tinkering around in the Services preferences for Mac OS X 10.6.x, I’ve found that I can now do something I’ve been thinking would be a great idea.
Converting a text file into an mpeg4 audio file, and sending it to iTunes!
I’m a Mac, and Snow Leopard was MY idea!!
Apple’s also added the ability to send a file to a Bluetooth device, as well as opening a file in TextEdit, to the Services sub-menu: one of the sub-menus that crops up when you ctrl-click — or right-click — an item.
Given the ability of Quicktime X to upload a video to YouTube, and the amount of video conversion software on the Mini, you could be in for a treat …
Or a dippy animation, at any rate …
•••••
Tim, Adrian, Combom, would that scare people off?
Not that I worried, but I’d like an opinion, here …
•••••
Oh, and I think I was right about the monitor, by the way: remember me saying that the output from my display seemed a touch different, somehow?
I think — with the Snow Leopard installation — the Display preferences have been reset from the calibrated profile the Mini was using under Leopard, to the default one that Snow Leopard uses: I also suspect that the updated OpenCL graphics code that Snow Leopard utilises may have something to do with it …
•••••
At any rate, that’s not what I intended to write about …
Well, ok, maybe I did, just a touch … !!
But, at any rate, I know that Allison, I, my mother, my two sisters, Anna and Ruth, and some old friends of the family, Carol and Ben — who are mother and son, I should add — were in Basildon’s Empire Cinema multiplex, tonight, happily watching the Guy Ritchie directed film, Sherlock Holmes.
And came away impressed.
Well, maybe not impressed, as such.
But certainly entertained.
Sherlock Holmes sees Holmes — played by Robert Downey Jnr — and Dr Watson — very well played by Jude Law — racing against time to defeat the machinations of the evil Lord Blackwood, played — with a lot of menacing flair — by Mark Strong, of The Long Firm and Rock ’N’ Rolla fame.
Who, actually, was a touch overshadowed in this, I thought.
Strong did a great job, actually, but he was up against the impeccable Robert Downey Jnr — who really CAN’T spell the family name right — as a Holmes who compares very favourably to Jeremy Brett’s TV version back in the 1980s.
Very favourably, actually, I thought.
Granted, I think his performance wouldn’t’ve worked in the TV version’s true-to-the-book take on Conan Doyle’s detective, but with-in the context of a blockbuster movie, like this?
It worked very well indeed.
Actually, so did Jude Law’s take on Dr Watson.
Ok, now, granted, a lot of what we saw on screen tonight was a combination of writing, directing, effects and lighting.
But I’ve got to give credit to Jude Law, here, for a nice piece of work.
I don’t know if showing Dr Watson with the limp that the books logically imply he has — according to A Study In Scarlet, Watson was injured in the Battle of Maiwand — was the idea of the actor or writers, but well done to whoever for thinking of it!
And to Rachel McAdams and Kelly Reilly as — respectively — Irene Adler and Mary Morstan, the two love interests in the film.
Overall?
Overall, I’ve got to admit, I’m pleased to have seen Sherlock Holmes, tonight.
I’ll be the first to admit it’s not an intellectual, art-house movie, intent on explaining the place of navel fluff in an existential, post-modern world.
But, my lord, it’s FUN!
Adrian, I think Guy Ritchie’s thought outside the box …
•••••
Phew, don’t I go on?
Now I’ve also got to admit I’ve caught something else, tonight, as well.
The first episode of the two part, BBC Wales slant on John Wyndham’s classic, The Day Of The Triffids.
Hmm …
With extra Mmmmm …
You see, this is competently done.
And I’ll be taking my hat off to Dougray Scott as the troubled Doctor Bill Masen, Joely Richardson as radio presenter, Jo Playton and especially to Eddie Izzard, as the ambiguous — but clearly power hungry — Torrence.*
But I’m thinking here that this version of The Day Of The Triffids is good — Eddie Izzard, alone, is worth time I’m investing in this — I can’t help but get the impression that this feels like a two part pilot.
Something I’m positive the original novel can’t support.
Nor the actual paceº of what I’ve seen, so far.
It’s not bad.
Given the necessary tweaks to bring the story into the 21st century, it’s not bad at all.
But I can’t help but think that it’s re-telling a familiar story, when doing something original — or, like Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos, not seen on TV, before — would’ve been nice.
❈
* Villains, Bad Boys and Bottle Coves, you’ve got to take you hat off to them, sometimes, haven’t you?
º A lot faster than the BBC serial version of Day of the Triffids, back in the 1980s. That’s understandable, given the difference in format.
No comments:
Post a Comment