Son's birthday went off well on Thursday as far as we know. He was out to dinner with his Dad and his Sister but he did pop round to see his Mum before hand. I suspect he was after presents, but it was nice to see him on the day. He's with us for the weekend though and so the celebrations continue. He's planned a bit of a lads day with his mates which he's very much looking forward to, involving beer, rugby, pizza and clubbing.
Daughter is back to firing on all four cylinders which is good news (mostly). She's going to try a night shift over the weekend so with that and Son's shenanigans Mrs G and I aren't expecting a great deal of sleep.
Got the lawn all trimmed and looking good again. As much as I would like to think that'll be the last mowing of the year, in reality there's plenty more growth in it yet. Autumn has barely started after all.
I've started the latest Terry Pratchett, entitled "I Shall Wear Midnight". It's a Tiffany Aching story with the Nac-Mac-Feegles set on the Chalk of Discworld.
If you have no idea what I'm blathering on about, go and get yourself a copy of "The Colour of Magic" and then possibly "The Wee Free Men". You'll soon get the hang of it and more than likely have a fair few chuckles on the way. It's like Tolkien with laughs. And less unpronounceable places. Wonderful stuff.
I'm just going to throw a quick movie review in here. As promised in an earlier post, it's for "Perrier's Bounty" (I've still got "The Eiger Sanction" and "From Paris with Love" to get through yet, and I'm going to add to that list "In The Name of the Father" with Daniel Day-Lewis. So little to do and so much time! - No, strike that. Other way round - as Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka would say)
While it might sound like it's got something to do with French spa water and coconut based chocolate bars this is actually more of a bumbling gangster movie set in contemporary Ireland. Cillian Murphy, who I'm sure you'll recognise from "28 Days Later" or from his work on "Inception", "Batman Begins" or "The Dark Knight" plays the lead, with excellent "Good guys" support from Jim Broadbent (Bridget Jones' Dad) and Jodie Whittaker ("Venus"). The "Bad guys" are headed up by Brendan Gleeson ("In Bruges")
Perrier is Brendan Gleeson's character, who it transpires is owed some money by the down-on-his-luck Cillian Murphy. What starts off as a loan repayment, quickly becomes a bounty on the head of Cillian when things go badly at the payment collection stage. I can't say much more about it Without spoiling the plot for you, other than to say that Jim Broadbent very nearly steals the show with his portrayal of Cillian's Dad.
It's a really fun piece, with a great plot and a simple storyline that kept me glued, just to find out how it was going to work out. My only concern throughout was for the health and well being of Brendan Gleeson. Perhaps he was just under the weather on this shoot, or maybe the makep or the haircut didn't suit him, but compared to his appearance in "In Bruges (8.5/10 By the way)" he doesn't look like a well man. That didn't detract from a great performance though.
Overall 7/10. Fun stuff. Finally, here's the trailer:
.....and finally finally, Friday night saw the final final of Big Brother on Channel 4. I know I've said this before, but it does get an unfair amount of bashing from the "I'd never watch that drivel" set. It is the absolute definition of car-crash television; as much as you don't want to look, your morbid fascination means that you just can't take your eyes off it. No matter what anyone says about it, it's changed the face of British television and has been both magical and evil simultaneously. It has been THE social experiment of the naughties, but we've learned enough and it's had it's day. I can't leave it without mentioning three things though....
Firstly "The Tree of Temptation". This character was a fairly recent addition to Big Brother during the previous celebrity series. Voiced by the producer 'Daniel Nettleton' ( http://twitter.com/nettletainment ) his wit and banter with the housemates had injected a whole new life into the show and I for one will miss that. Good to know that he still has plenty of work though. You can catch him producing on the next series of "I'm a celebrity, get me out if here".
Secondly, "the final hour" of the final Big Brother. This was one of those rare TV history moments, and what a fantastic job they did of it. In particular the long and lingering shot of Davina McPhwoar (I really should stop calling her that) leaving the limo in full mourning regalia and miserably mooching to the stage while the New Orleans funeral band played the BB theme just as if it was James Bond's "Live and Let Die". I loved it. It was a credit to everyone involved. You can see it here:
And finally finally finally, Davina McCall. I first saw her at the recording of a show for ITV at The London Weekend Television studios on the south bank in about 1998 (or thereabouts) with Darren Day which I think was called "Don't try this at home". To be fair, while she was nice to look at, she fluffed her lines a lot. But that was then.... Now, she's beautiful and articulate :-) and a little bit French. What else could you want? It was a shame her chat show didn't work out, but I have no doubt that we haven't seen the last of her by a long way and I can only hope she's not way from our screens for too long. Here's to Big Mutha ( http://twitter.com/ThisIsDavina ). X
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