As anyone still here would have noticed, 2021 has been a pretty poor year for this 'ere blog. Although in the last year we've had ( slightly ) more freedom as things became ( slightly ) safer, and I've managed to get out and do more things, I've done less and less blogging. ( Irony, don't talk to me about irony. ) Anyway, I'm going to write about a few things I should have mentioned earlier, starting with movies...
Thursday, 30 December 2021
Things I didn't blog about in 2021 - Part One: Recent Movies
As anyone still here would have noticed, 2021 has been a pretty poor year for this 'ere blog. Although in the last year we've had ( slightly ) more freedom as things became ( slightly ) safer, and I've managed to get out and do more things, I've done less and less blogging. ( Irony, don't talk to me about irony. ) Anyway, I'm going to write about a few things I should have mentioned earlier, starting with movies...
Saturday, 25 December 2021
Merry Christmas from The Glass Walking-Stick
It's late in the day I know but here's wishing all you lovely people out in the Blogosphere a happy and healthy Christmas.
Peace. ( Simon / cerebus660 )
Monday, 22 November 2021
When you wake up and realise it's Monday again...
Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Back to the cinema with Bond... and Shang-Chi
At long last, Bond is back! And his mission this time is to save cinema. ( Of course, this mission had previously been assigned to Tenet but, yeah, that didn't actually work. ) Will it work this time or will cinema just Die Another Day? ( Sorry. ) Going by the UK box office takings for No Time To Die ( an estimated £21 million over the first weekend ) there's a good chance this mission will be a success.
And, of course, it's Daniel Craig's final mission as Bond, bowing out with his 5th movie, the 25th in the series. As long as you don't count the 1967 Casino Royale or Never Say Never Again. And who does?
"Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 in No Time To Live And Let Die Another Day" ( to give the movie its full title ) is happily a wonderful send-off to the Craig years. There's quite a bit of tidying up of storylines going on and some nice Easter eggs for the fans ( including the prominent use of an old Bond theme that really drops hints about the story's direction ) but it's not too obtrusive and feels appropriate. The expected action scenes and exotic locales are as exciting and gorgeous as ever although it's probably best not to think about the movie's carbon footprint. Ana De Armas and Lashana Lynch make impressive Bond debuts but both could have done with more screen time. We are however spared the tired Bond trope of the secondary female character being killed off to give our hero something to be angry about ( see previously Gemma Arterton, Berenice Marlohe, Monica Bellucci etc etc ) which is A Good Thing. The rest of the Bond "family" appear for this swansong: the single-letter likes of Q and M, and characters with full names like Moneypenny, Tanner, Leiter and Blofeld. ( Actually the single-letter names sound more believable. )
Rami Malek's villain is the weakest link here, his nefarious plan being short on explanation and long on stereotypical super-villainy. Luckily that's more than made up for by the sheer emotional high stakes of the story. Daniel Craig and Lea Seydoux totally convince here as Madeleine's past catches up with her and Bond, leading to a nail-bitingly tense climax to this story and the Craig era. It's a refreshingly brave ending that is a satisfying final curtain for the best Bond since Connery, if not the best Bond ever.
NTTD was actually my second time back at the cinema since the pandemic began. My first, tentative steps back into that big dark room carpeted with popcorn were with Marvel's latest superhero slugfest.
Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is an attempt to redress the balance of the predominantly-Caucasian MCU, where most of the actors seem to be called Chris. It's a hybrid of superhero and martial arts movies with an overwhelmingly Asian cast. And it's great fun.
Simu Liu is our hero, the son of an immortal Chinese warlord who's been hiding out in America under an assumed identity but ( wouldn't you know it? ) is dragged back into his father's diabolical world when assassins attack him and his best friend Katy ( Awkwafina ). Cue some ever-escalating and exciting martial arts battles, some not-too-cheesy ( by MCU standards ) humour, a fair old helping of fantasy with often gorgeous visuals and a lot of long-overdue Asian representation. Simu Liu and Awkwafina are charismatic leads you want to spend time with and there's the added bonus of HK / martial arts legends Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh who are both amazing and virtually steal the show from the young 'uns. Although not the Shang-Chi whose adventures I grew up reading ( courtesy of Steve Engelhart, Jim Starlin, Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy ), this take on the character has a more everyman approach and I'm hoping we'll soon see more of Shang, his ambiguous sister Xialing ( the striking, in more ways than one, Meng'er Zhang ) and the irrepressible Katy.
It was a great movie to see for my return to cinemas, a crowd-pleasing, popcorn-munching delight. ( I actually had a cup of tea and a hotdog, but that's typical of me. ) I went to my local picture palace, the Cineworld in Gloucester Quays, on a Saturday morning, gambling that the place would be fairly quiet. Luckily it was and I wore a mask in and out of the cinema so felt fairly safe. It was quite a big step to overcome my pandemic-spawned anxiety about crowds and people in general but I'm glad I did it and it gave me confidence to go back for Bond. Although today's news is dominated by UK Covid figures spiralling upwards yet again ( FFS! ), I'm hoping I'll get back to the flicks soon as the upcoming films from Edgar Wright and Denis Villeneuve will need my attention...
Saturday, 16 October 2021
Farewell to our Hero
Sunday, 8 August 2021
60 years of The Fantastic Four
Today is the 60th anniversary of the first issue of The Fantastic Four going on sale - the Big Bang of the Marvel Universe. It's hard to overstate the importance of this comic in the history of the artform, the industry and Marvel Comics themselves. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's unheralded story of four misfits gifted / cursed with superpowers kicked off a revolution in comics, the shockwaves of which still reverberate to this day.
Monday, 2 August 2021
The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Book Artists
Yesterday we ventured into Gloucester ( or "went up town" as we say round here ) for the first time in ages to check out the Wonderful World of the Ladybird Book Artists exhibition at the Museum of Gloucester. This indeed wonderful exhibition was curated by Ladybird Books enthusiast and expert Helen Day who did a fantastic job of pulling together hundreds of old books, items of memorabilia and, most importantly, original artwork. It was just so lovely to see the beautiful pieces of artwork from books that had brightened up so many children's early years. Sarah was moved to tears ( happy ones! ) to see so many of her childhood reading memories on display.
So many memories, so many books!
And from the more realistic, historical books there were these moody pieces from John Kenney -
( My apologies if some of these images are a bit askew. I was trying to take these photos through glass and was struggling not to have reflections of myself in the shots :-) You wouldn't want to see that. )
It was a fantastic collection of artwork and memorabilia ( not pictured are sketches, letters from the editors, original printing "flats", invoices for work produced etc. ) and we were very lucky for it to be virtually on our doorstep. I'll just leave you with this very surreal piece, also by the versatile John Kenney: