X-Men First Class (2010)

I got the lurgy early November and my dad rented this for me to watch which was fun because I'd been meaning to see it, especially as I now work in a comic shop!
I enjoy the X-Men films, in fact I enjoy a lot of the Marvel films despite having no interest in any Marvel comics (apart from Frank Miller's Electra and Daredevil). I enjoyed this one too.
Fassbender's pretty damn good isn't he? If he hadn't have been in the film it would have been a lot of shite, the only highlight being Hugh Jackman's two word cameo. I liked Magneto and his past and his relationship with Bluey. The rest was pretty shite though, 'specially Kevin Bacon and his lame gang!
I don't know about James MacAvoy being miscast, I think he would have made a very good young Prof X if only the script hadn't been so awful! Why did the writers choose to write him as a cocky arsehole? It wasn't his fault. If they'd written him serene and wise and not a sexpest I'm sure he would have been very convincing.

The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

I saw it in 3D. I think I would have hated it in 2D as well. To me the thing about Herge is that his drawings are very beautiful, the characters are great and the backgrounds are great, it's good art.
The thing I hated most about the film was not the fact that hardly any of the voices seemed to fit the characters, Toby Jones was good but underused and Jamie Bell was fine, it wasn't that the whole thing looked like it had been animated around the idea that there would be a theme park ride based on it within the year, no, the thing I hated was how beautiful drawings had been transofrmed into utterly grotesque characters.
I could not get around how vile Captain Haddock was to look at, all the character designs, even Snowy, made me uneasy. Fleshy and horrible with tiny eyes, ugh. I hated it.

George Harrison Living in the Material World

I saw the George Harrison documentary at the cinema, of course I did, I love George Harrison, it's about thirty percent of who I am!
Anyway, this was in October, I have been extremely busy since then, a fun new day job, a big BBC drama art comish (ongoing) and a nice chap to see in my free time.
Let's see what I remember of this (and the other things I'm about to write about!)... It was four hours long.
I liked the photos and the music and George's letters to his parents during Beatlemania read by his son, also the bits where George's close male friends were talking fondly about him- even Macca.
I intensely disliked both his ex-wife and his widow and the attitude in which they spoke about him, Patti Boyd was shallow and self-obsessed, as you would expect of a model but Olivia Harrison was utterly utterly awful. I have never heard her speak and so always asumed she was nice. When you think about it though, in the ten years since George died she has released a lot of box sets, albums, books and films and has been cashing in ever so slightly the way George could never really be bothered with- as we learn through listening to his pals interviewed, he just didn't give a crap about the ol' material world.
Anyway, I was shocked at how blunt and open she was when it came to talking about George's death. She's Mexican and maybe over in America and the likes it's cathartic to talk about your husband's agonising slow death and terrifying stabbing, but in amongst the teary friends talking about how they miss him still every day it was just really really horrible to hear- and really I found it all too personal. Like, this was stuff we the public don't need to know and really, you shouldn't be telling us, it is very private and personal. It was the attitude in which she told it, like it was all about her, she was the same selfish shallow cow he married first time around just from the other side of the planet.
No wonder he had these close relationships with men- men who were so sad to be without him, no wonder you got the idea from the film that he was gay, all the women in his life were so fucking awful!!
I felt saddened to know he hadn't known any nice women and it made me feel such sympathy for Paul McCartney having lost lovely Linda and married that bitch having obviously only known nice birds and thinking that's what women are, anyway, this new one seems nice, I hope he'll be ok.

The Kitchen (National Theatre)

I feel like I haven't been to the theatre in so friggin' long!! I didn't even go tonight, this was another NT Live affair. After The Cherry Orchard I wasn't sure if the National know how to film their productions, but because this was an ensemble there weren't loads of irritating close-ups of "the star".
Because the Kitchen is so beautifully choreographed whoever was filming was obviously keen to show it. It looked really good, I wish I'd seen it live- uh, I mean, live without the ten minute delay, actually in the theatre. I bet it's even more spectacular!
Tom Brooke is a great firecracker, weird boney face and beautiful eyes, Jonathan Pryce-like in his manic desperation, I think after seeing him in the Caretaker I thought; "bet Jonathan played it exactly like that." He'll be big in the theatre now I reckon, it's an ensemble piece but he was the one you watched.

Jane Eyre (2011)

I had doubts about yet another Jane Eyre, especially as I love love LOVE the 2006 BBC version. But the trailer, though it looked practically the same as the BBC one, or maybe because it looked the same, made me want to watch it.

I wondered would it be exactly the same, would they deliver all the lines and shoot it the same. They didn't. It is so worth seeing! It's great!

The only bit that I found very similar was the school bit with Jane's pal dying, but I suppose you can't do that much different.

I loved how they mixed it up a bit, put all the boring St John bits at the beginning, that's the bastard about the series, episode three is SO boring because it's just St John talking. Ugh! So that was great, breaking those chapters up with Jane's childhood and then ploughing into the sexy story!

The sexual tension was so well done! Bloody loved it! Got me all riled up. Jane seemed hardly to say anything through the whole film which really worked and she looked like a munter (I thought much more than Ruth Wilson's duckface) and Rochester was an angry shouty bastard but he was serious and it made me realise how camp Toby Stephens is! They cut a load of it though (not much of Mrs Rochester freaking Jane out and Grace Pool wasn't even in it), there was far too much Judi Dench and I can't stand her, it was a serious story but they some how managed to give Judi Dench loads of jokes- It's like they wrote more lines for her.

The ice queen was far too cute played by lovely Imogen Poots and the little French girl was too sweet as well, she is AWESOME in the 2006 version, she grates on you as much as she does on Rochester, love it! Anyway, thumbs up, well done to everyone doing Yorkshire accents too.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

I wish I'd had a comfier seat because this film was long! It was good though, it looked good and it was a good one for keeping your brain going. It took a couple of hours before anything exciting happened though and it was a bit of a sausage-fest. No women apart from Tom Hardy's squeeze but then Tom Hardy was the Bond character in this spy film, Mark Strong was a bit at the beginning as well and I like him.

Anyway, was the book as gay as the film? The bit I enjoyed the most (apart from Tom Hardy being beautiful) was Mark Strong's heartbroken face and those big brown eyes crying at the end, AW! Sausage-fest.

The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)

I was really looking forward to it, so was Anna, the trailer looked great, classic Inbetweeners. Anna saw it first and said she'd never been so disappointed in all her life.
I then was prepared to see great disappointment and because I was prepared you know, I still managed to enjoy it.

But Anna was right, it could have been about anybody, it wasn't about the Inbetweeners. Somehow we're supposed to think Jay and Simon have a bond when they haven't for all three series, their falling out was the basis of the film, but were they ever really that close?! They all get girlfriends?! What? The only one who would get a girlfriend is Neil, because he would shag anybody. They are all loathsome and all of those girls must have had serious mental issues, especially the tortured soul who likes Simon and ESPECIALLY the little blonde who is supposed to be intelligent but decides to go out with Will. Maybe Jay could have got a girl, when he's sweet he is sweet, but you have to have pretty low standards and that chick who went for him was gorgeous!

Anna thinks overall it would have been greatly improved by all the parents also being on holiday with them (but staying somewhere nice). The parents are great and the bit that they were in was fantastic. Not enough! I think I would have liked that too.

BUT, saying that, I did really really like lots of bits of it. The dancing was hilarious.