Trust Tommy

Last weekend, I went to Wexford to see some friends. It’s not somewhere I go very often but it’s a lovely place when the weather’s right (isn’t everywhere?) and I thoroughly enjoyed my short time there.

I was there to see Orla and Áine, and while we were all together we decided to see County Wexford Youth Theatre’s production of rock opera RENT.

How was it?

Simply put, phenomenal.

After seeing it in America back in November, one would think that the original cast would trump all. Like a friend put it, why go see a Rolling Stones cover band after seeing Jagger live?

Because sometimes Alan McHale (Mark in this production) can better Mick Jagger… or Anthony Rapp (original Mark on Broadway) as the case may be.

Everything about this production oozed perfection. The leads brought freshness to their roles without neglecting core aspects of their characters while the ensemble were a mighty engine roaring behind them and supporting the entire show from Tune Up #1 right through to Finale B.

The crew must also be commended for their part in the awesomeness too. The stage was magnificent — the metal structure-cum-christmas-tree-cum-church-steeple was an excellently put together piece of scenery that jumped out at everyone the moment they walked into the theatre.

The band also get major kudos. The drummer in Providence had a screwup caused by either overeagerness or simple sound problems which caused him to be louder than everything else, leading to the vocals in songs like Out Tonight and What You Own to not so much be drowned out as obliterated in a cataclysmic explosion. Guitarists and keyboardists in the Wexford production were fantastic too, as well as the little mentioned operator of the sleigh bells during Christmas Bells. :)

Finally, special brownie points go to whoever controlled the lights during the show. Truly spectacular things were done with those lights, including during Seasons of Love as you can see in the picture.

The show’s going to be in the Cork Opera House from 3-6 March, and I wholeheartedly recommend going to see it. Tickets available here from €21.

Thanks to the swine flu, I didn’t leave the house all week, starting Sunday evening. By Saturday though, cabin fever was threatening to raise my actual temperature back into the danger zone. I decided that the cinema would be an excellent escape, and loaded up the local cinema’s ‘Now Showing’ website to see what was on. I’d read a review of Fantastic Mr. Fox that morning which looked promising. (Demolitions expert? Since when?). That was on at 9, but since it was 6, I wasn’t sure if it would be booked out, so I looked at other films. Up was on at quarter to 9, so I decided to arrive at the cinema at 20 to 9, and see what the story was with being booked out. I tweeted the plan and got several responses recommending Up.

In the end, we arrived at about 25 to 9 and chose the earlier film, purely because it was earlier.

Up begins with this queer little short video. I loved For the birds but this one confused me. It details some clouds who make babies for all the animals, and then the storks deliver them. There’s this one cloud, though, who’s grey to their white, and gets all the crap babies – the alligators and porcupines. It’s odd, to say the least. Not helped by being totally factually incorrect too.. Babies don’t come from clouds, my mom told me one day.. they come from cabbage plants!

After that, the movie started. I won’t be all spoilertastic here, and go into specifics of everything, but I’ll give you the gist.

An old man who’s always longed for adventure finally goes on one, accompanied by a stereotypical kid played for laughs. They come across a talking dog (and *that*, ladies and gentlemen, is where all the SQUIRREL! jokes come from: talking dog + no attention span…) and a bird called Kevin.

That’s fleshed out over its 96 minute running time, of course, but that’s what’d go on the DVD’s back cover, anyway.

The kid is done well, with the boundless energy we all love/hate. The man is a stereotypical grump, but who becomes more lovable as the movie. We’ll never get along though; he has a cooler cane :( (see picture)

The best parts I found were the ones with the dog, Dug. He was the comic relief though, so there you go. He was so good, in fact, the best thing about the movie.

At this stage, after Ratatouille and now Up, I’m convinced that Pixar are the ones you go to for kid’s movies, which also appeal to dads too. With music, I often talk about the ratio of good songs per album. Adam Pascal’s Civilian is an example of a high ratio, while The Blizzards only have about 5 good songs over 2 albums, which is a low ratio. Pixar’s good to bad movie ratio is very high indeed, which, I believe, is the true mark of talent. Anyone, after all, can be lucky with a once-off hit.

Go check it out :)

Bolt, which, as well as being one of the best animated films I’ve ever seen, comes with probably the best movie soundtrack of any film, animated or otherwise, I’ve ever had the pleasure to indulge in.

Photo owned by moonhouse (cc)

Bolt is a dog who believes himself to be a superhero. In reality, he’s the star of a hit TV show, but thinks it’s real life. Voiced by John Travolta, he’s cute, lovable and appeals to both adults and their soon-to-be-adults alike. Miley Cyrus (of Hannah Montana infamy) lends her Tennessee drawl to his owner, Penny. You can’t tell who she is until her duet with Travolta at the end, but that’s totally within reaching-for-the-remote-to-turn-the-TV-off time.

The film concerns itself with Bolt’s struggle to find his owner, Penny, who was kidnapped as part of the TV show, which Bolt thinks is real. He begins the long and arduous journey across the USA to find his beloved, aided by a cat named Mittens (that’s fine..) and a hamster named Rhino (wait, what?) who even has his own iPhone app (that link will open the iTunes App Store, mind you).

Quite funny, and if the film doesn’t tickle your fancy, do check out the soundtrack.

I’m telling you, though. Anything Pixar touches turns to gold, starting way back with Toy Story, continuing with Monster’s Inc and Finding Nemo, culminating in Ratatouille in 2007, WALL-E and Bolt last year.

++

At the risk of encroaching on Charles’ territory, I’d like to review a film I watched last night. I watched About A Boy, a 2002 film based on a book by Nick Hornby (I intend to track down the book) starring Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult as a 38 year old carefree bachelor and an introverted, bullied 12 year old, respectively.

Plot

Will Freeman, the bachelor, is living in a swanky London apartment, spending his days lounging round the place reading, smoking and watching old Countdown episodes. He doesn’t have to work because he lives off the royalties of the song his father composed, Christmas Carol Santa’s Super Sleigh.

Marcus Brewer lives at home with his depressed mother and struggles through life coping with the rocky home relationship as well as getting bullied at school. Early on in the film, she attempts suicide so Marcus starts hanging out with a friend, Suzie.

Meanwhile, Will, always on the prowl for lady friends, has joined SPAT -Single Parents Alone Together- to hook up single moms – which he describes are great because of the passionate sex, ego massages and a guilt free parting!. To do this, he must have a reason to go to these SPAT meetings, so he invents an imaginary son. Enter, Ned the 2 year old. While there, Will is attracted to Suzie, a single mother as well, and that’s how Will and Marcus get to know each other.

The rest of the film continues these lines, with Marcus and Will becoming friends and the repercussions because of it.

My opinion

Hugh Grant steals the show.

The other actors are fine, good in fact, but Hugh Grant is by far the best. That could be because he’s given the best lines but there are other things, like how he delivers his lines or how he holds himself. His facial expressions, even.

The film is very witty, so it’s a pity Grant gets the best lines, because then any scene without him feels bland and boring and let’s-get-this-over-with.

Despite that, it’s a very good film, I’d totally recommend it. Go watch!

Currently attempting to procure a copy of the soundtrack, so I’ll review that once I’ve had a chance to listen :)

Random urge to review this iPhone app. Perhaps this will become a regular occurrence, perhaps not. Who knows, at least my last entry on apps was well received. We’ll see, son.

Card Shark Solitaire (free) iTunes Link (will open in iTunes)

All iPhone apps, none more so than games, are, or at least should be, designed to be playable for 30 seconds, then put away. That 30 seconds when you’re waiting for a bus, or a dentist’s appointment, or the groom to show up at a wedding, iPhone games should and most certainly can fill.

That means, of course, that your app shouldn’t take forever to load it up. Snappy, that’s a good word for it. Your iPhone game should load up snappily. That goes for most all iPhone apps, actually!

Anyway, Solitaire is a good app because you pop it open, move some more cards around, and you can easily quit the game if your bus arrives, your dentist calls you, or the groom finally shows up.

The thing that most impresses me about Card Shark Solitaire is the fluidity of the user interface. The clean way you drag and drop cards around the place, and the little pop as they join the aces at the top.

It’s actually a Lite version. Getting the Pro version opens up more games like Hearts and Poker, and is 79c. iTunes Link

Klondike-1 refers to style of play -you can also have mirrored, or use two decks, and so on- and 01:43 is my time. My best for completing an entire game is 3 minutes 20.

Can you beat me? :)

Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with Philip Stroffolino (the developer) or anyone in Card Shark. I wrote this review because I was seriously impressed with this app. But, if they read this and wanted to give me a gift voucher for the deluxe app, I wouldn’t say ‘no’ :P. And now no-one believes me when I say I wrote this purely out of impressed-ness. Ah well