weekend off watching - shameless - the men who stare at goats - sex and drugs and rock and roll - crazy heart

Stayed in all weekend with bottles of wine, the FPO's sausages and mash (no, that is not a euphemism), and a load of things to watch on the goggle box (including the footie - Spurs v Manchester United 0-0). Great stuff, it's always good to be off work, especially now there is a new computer to prat about on as well. How on earth do people get bored when they are off, it sure beats me, there are never enough hours in the day for my liking. Anyhows........


The new series started this week and it has been on every night. Bloody hell, it has certainly overstretched itself and lots of it was just rubbish. I didn't like all the imaginary sequences (Dr Who etc) and l definitely do not like the new characters (and Franks new woman and her mother are just plain annoying) . Obviously it is a comedy (and supposedly a biting satire on the state of merry old England), but l only ended up watching the whole weeks worth out of a curiosity to see it through to the bitter end. Also, the new black family would never be living on that estate (he is a teacher) and would not be drinking in the jockey all the time. Count me out for the rest of the series.

This however, was really good. The film (2009) is based on the book by Jon Ronson (2004) and has just the right amount of comedy touches, some of them when least expected. Although l knew of the army experiments, you were still unsure whether George Clooney's character (Lyn Cassady) was deceiving himself, or just plain crackers. The beginning of the film wasn't taped, so although only a short bit was missed at the start, l think l will watch this again to see it all. Much better than l imagined.

Andy Serkis plays Ian Dury in this biop (2010), and plays him superbly. It concentrates on Dury's relationships with his son Baxter (Bill Milner) and Chaz Jankel (Tom Hughes), plus of course the ladies in his life and his handicap (he caught polio when he was swimming as a child). The film shows that Dury could be difficult at times (especially after drink had been taken), but didn't go overboard with this. Also, although Andy Serkis is a really excellent character actor, my Gollum was better than his. We will have to have a Hobbit showdown.

I had high hopes for this film (2009) as l like Jeff Bridges a lot and it had got some great reviews. He won an Oscar for it and his acting was of his usual high standard, but l thought the ending was a bit of a let down and there were some unbelievable scenes in the film which just annoyed me (being handed cheques before a show/losing the kid and not calling the cops from the bar etc).

Colin Farrell was also pretty good as his protégée Tommy Sweet, and Bridges's portrayal of Otis 'Bad' Blake was really believable, but l was expecting more. Still, l always have 'The Big Lebowski' (1998) to watch if l want to see Bridges in an excellent movie.

toodle pip