I had a discussion with my friend about this video. He thinks that it’s a fan made piece, probably by a university graduate. From reading a few blogs and looking at the video's website, I thought it could be the start of some viral marketing campaign. However I’m starting to lean towards the fan made video now. The guys in the jumpsuits look like skinny teenagers rather then experienced actors. They are also wearing trainers which for some reason I really noticed.

Anyway more to the point, it is obviously based on the game Half Life 2 with the gigantic citadel looming the back ground. Having completing the Half Life 2 I know that this video is based right at the end of the game when you (Gordon Freeman) are about to destroy the portal at the top of the tower.

So I guess it’s a trailer for a Half Life fan made film.



The more astute of you will notice they have nicked some music from Lost. Made me realise just how good the Lost soundtrack is.

They also have a website to go along with the video.

www.whatsinthebox.nl/

So I guess the question is what is in the box?

A present maybe?
A fish?
A cake?
A ham?
A rabbit?

Who cares?

So, I was kindly invited to the cast and crew screening of The Boat That Rocked, Richard 'Four Weddings/ Notting Hill/ Love Actually' Curtis' latest film yesterday. I'd already seen a bit of footage at some work-related thing a while back, so I knew I liked the cast and the subject matter. Have a look at the trailer here.

The cast is great - Nick Frost, Bill Nighy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rhys Darby, Chris O'Dowd, Rhys Ifans, Emma Thompson, Katherine Parkinson, Kenneth Branagh, January Jones are amongt the sprawling ensemble. The subject matter is pirate radio in the 60s - back when if you wanted to listen to pop music or rock n roll (and 25 million, more than half of Britain's population, did), you certainly couldn't tune in to Radio 1 or XFM. Instead you sought out pirate radio stations, broadcast from ships out in the North Sea - like the one in Curtis' movie - Radio Rock.

Music is clearly the main character in this indulgent, rather too long love letter to the era in which Curtis grew up and the soundtrack is cool. Lots of stuff I knew, plenty I didn't. Probably older and wiser types might disagree and berate some of the 'obvious' choices but frankly, I think you need some well known tracks to appeal to the younger audience members who won't know loads of obscure stuff.

Anyway - my bugbear is that the movie is simply stuffed too full of characters with not enough to do, inconsequential scenes with little or no dramatic payoff, and not enough in the way of humour. I enjoyed parts of it - mainly when Nick Frost or Rhys Darby or Bill Nighy were saying basically anything, but overall left feeling that I expected more. And I'm a sucker for feel-good movies so I'd say I'm fairly easily pleased. Oh well. The scenes with Kenneth Branagh and Jack Davenport playing officious government types were so ludicrously hammy that I actually cringed. Having Davenport's character named 'Twat' simply so anything said to him could be ended with "twat" was tragic - a pale, pale echo of the genuine humour behind Captain Darling's moniker in Blackadder

I did enjoy the ending which had the trademark rousing, triumphant tone that Curtis' films tend to feature. But so much of what went before was so 'meh' that if I were scoring, this would be a 2.5/ 5.

HAHA, I know you all secretly love the jumper. You only mock because you love!

Here is a picture and a link for its purchase:



The more observant of you will realise that it's BRIGHT RED!

I blame The Lost Initiative cameras for doing a poor job of representing my jumper. Nobody likes orange, however everyone likes red...FACT!

I get bored easily, it’s a personality flaw I realise this. But sometimes I just get bored of the same old films, the same old directors, the same old plots and the same old sequels. I need a change, I need something strange, something weird and normally it comes from Japan. Well, Japan or from the mind of Michel Gondry. Luckily enough he has a new film coming out but he has teamed up with another French guy that I’m sure that I should know and the fellow that made The Host – that scary monster horror flick. So I have managed to combine two of my favourite things – Tokyo and Michel Gondry - which I’m pretty chuffed about. Well, I say "I have" but it’s really the person that came up with the idea for this film. Which is split up in to three separate stories all based in and around Tokyo. I can’t wait to watch it as it promises to be incredibly strange and perfectly surreal – I’m rather excited.




Also on the Japanese tip, I have found a pair of rather expensive jeans made by Howies (Kaizen Jeans). Apparently you don’t have to wash them…



I’m not sure who that works but apparently the less you wash them the better they become, thus combining two more of my favourite things – not washing and things getting better over time. Here is a good fact for you, if you put them in the freezer it will stop them smelling, but you probably want to keep them away from the food. Also, I wonder what happens if you get them covered in shit? I bet you have to wash them then!