Too Many Ideas - Archive for 2011

Happy Christmas!

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

While Sherlock Holmes: A game of Shadows won’t be my favourite film of the year (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is still the lead contender for that) it’s one of my favourite action films of the year. One critic I saw pretty much said it was more of the same as Sherlock Holmes from 2010 as […]

The Cold Soap Window Sill Steam Phenomenon

In the winter a slightly odd phenomenon sometimes happens when I do the rather mundane task of doing the washing up. When its cold outside and I fill the bowl with hot water steam produces tiny water drops all over the bar of soap on my window sill. I’ve normally only seen this at night […]

The Thing

Just back from seeing the prequel come remake of The Thing.  Not a bad film with some pretty landscape shots.  Unfortunately far too keen to show off the alien, the alien human hybrids and the space ship.  Also suffered from too many clichés.   Most of the “shocks” were very effectively spoilt by an overly obvious […]

Heston Blumenthal is the joke still on us?

Back in the days before he rose to the heights of TV chef with his own show Heston Blumenthal had a column in the Guardian that featured his somewhat impractical for the home recipes.  I remember one required boiling lobster shells for 24 hours to make the sauce.  Which all led to conspiracy theories that […]

Johnny English Reborn Review

Johnny English Reborn is mildly amusing throughout occasionally managing to actually be funny.  More polished than the first Johnny English film and with far less reliance, thankfully, on toilet humour. The supporting cast do a good job of being the straight guy to Rowan Atkinson’s English.  Only the characters played by Tim McInnerny, Daniel Kaluuya’s […]

Killer Elite

There isn’t anything specifically wrong with Killer Elite somehow it just manages to be ordinary.  Its the film equivalent of Magnolia Paint – a bit safe, a bit ordinary and not at all threatening. Hence the lack of a spoiler warning as there isn’t anything really worth mentioning that you’ll not get from the poster. […]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Film Review

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Short Review: Brilliant Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Longer Review: Bloody Brilliant Ok I give in but really the first two reviews say everything I have to say. Just back from the new, film adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Gary Oldman (Smiley) doesn’t chew the scenery instead he achieves a zen […]

Colombiana

I’m not sure what film some of the people who had reviewed Colombiana had been to see but it’s not the same one I went to.  Colombiana is not a classic film but its been given some really harsh reviews that often seem to amount to it not being Leon. Colombiana is the latest Luc […]

Red Phone Box Stories Away

I set out to write a Red Phone Box story back in June but couldn’t find its middle.  So I let it stew for awhile.  Yesterday I found the middle and got the first draft together.  It was 50% too long but I’ve edited down worse miscreant short stories to length (pretty much every Dirk […]