bookmark_borderThe post with no title*

I was working at home yesterday as our car decided it was bored with it’s old brakepads and would quite like new ones please, and no it wouldn’t stop making that horrid grinding noise (which meant new rear discs as well, ouch).

I also had another physio session, more ultrasound and another lung-busting, leg shredding session on the “stepper”. After that, 30 squats with my heels raised whilst holding a medicine ball out in front of me was… interesting. I’m taking the approach that in the long term it will only make me stronger, right?

That aside I took advantage of working from home to run some lengthy backups of my home PC, and I also managed to update 3 WordPress blogs to version 2.6.1. As long as you haven’t hacked any of the core WP files the process is rather simple and only requires a few steps. All in, excluding upload time, it takes less than 5 minutes.

Last night we went to see The Dark Knight at the IMAX in Glasgow. It was quite something, some of the scenes are stomach-tiltingly awesome and the sound was loud enough to rumble your seat! As for the film itself, I thought it was excellent, a little drawn out but carried well. Needless to say Heath Ledger was the star, and I do wish they’d cast Maggie Gyllenhal in the first movie as well (way better than Katie Holmes).

And, finally, I updated my iPhone with the latest version of the software and, as before, it was a smooth and simple process. Admittedly they do seem to replace the ENTIRE operating system, meaning a 270-odd MB download, but I did read a few reports of people still having issues. It is certainly in the minority though, and to paraphrase a comment I read on this very issue “what the hell do you guys DO with your iPhones that you are continually having problems?”.

Or, to paraphrase a colleague of mine “sucks to be you!”.

* Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted that this was originally posted with no title, and also that when I did add a title I used the word “tittle” instead. Which, apparently, one reader believes are “happy boobs”.

bookmark_borderThe Brothers Grimm

Movie info from IMDB
Movie reviews from Metacritic

Terry Gilliam has a certain way with imagery, you either love it or can’t quite figure it out. For the most part I love it and this story, of the two young Grimm brothers and the supposed origin of their famous fairytales, is a perfect foil for Gilliam’s eye for the strange dark places that haunt your mind.

Heath Ledger and Matt Damon play the eponymous brothers, with Ledger turning in an excellent performance as the bookish reader of tales, alas Damon forgot to lose his Hollywood tan and looks ever so slightly out of place. In fact this lack of attention to detail is the downfall of the movie.

Set in French occupied Germany, the accents range through most of Europe and feature, amongst others, a small boy in a German village who speaks with a Yorkshire accent. I’m all for suspension of disbelief but I expect a movie to help me along that path, not jar me back to reality every three minutes with yet another odd moment to lose continuity.

The script is fine, the story amicable enough (it IS a fairytale after all) but the direction lacks sparkle and magic. Add to that some inconsistent performances (Ledger and Jonathan Pryce aside) and the movie left me some what bemused. Terry Gilliam and the Brothers Grimm seemed like a perfect match, alas neither side has come out very well.

Ohh and I’d better mention THAT scene between Monica Bellucci and Heath Ledger… ohh to have that woman breathing my ear….