Moore than I expected of Mr Brand

Review of the 2011 film, Arthur.

Arthur (2011)

30 years on from the original film, starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli, Russell Brand has thrown himself into this remake of Arthur. The almost fairy tale-like story line about an heir to a billion dollar fortune who is given a choice: marry and keep his money, which has kept him in his childlike New York palace, or follow his heart and lose it all.
His domineering fiancé, Susan, is instantaneously someone the whole audience loves to hate with her greedy ambition, scary father and a metal corset which gets her stuck in a captivating situation – involving a magnetic floating bed.
But the risk to his fortune comes in the form of girl-next-door, Naomi, who steals this selfish man’s heart.
Without wanting to purposely spoil the ending for you, I can confirm that like most fairy tales it has a happy ending. Which is even happier for any Russell Brand fans as we see him wandering the streets of Queens in his underwear.
But I don’t wish to dwell on the confortable storyline which made the original such a hit and one of those old films I would always watch on the TV with my brother. It is the choice of cast, which at first was slightly baffling, but in some strange way a girl from Pearl Harbor, a Calendar Girl, a seemingly unknown and an ex-heroin addict came together perfectly.
Playing a drunken playboy who lives lavishly and promiscuously hardly seems much of challenge for the ex alcohol, drug and sex addict.
But what may have turned into a predictable and unbearable performance was saved by the presence of Helen Mirren as Hobson, his Mary Popping-like nanny. The chemistry between the two worked perfectly as Hobson’s contrite and clipped insults merely bounced off of Arthur’s innocent ramblings.
Jennifer Garner's brilliant tongue in cheek performance as Susan was brilliant and matched perfectly with Brand’s quips and remarks.

Arthur (1981)

But for me one of the stars of the film whose talent shone through was Greta Gerwig who played Naomi. Her performance as the genuine albeit poor girl who to our great satisfaction Arthur falls for is reserved but has the punchy attitude combined with awkward sweetness similar to Zooey Deschanel in 500 Days of Summer.
With moments of intentional humour that have you laughing at possible sexism and borderline racist remarks. To the awkward moment when you realise the vicar hosting the wedding does in fact look like a cartoon character from a Disney film - Merlin from Sword in the Stone. The film offers continual chuckles and the director, Jason Winer, provides a modern take on the original with as much audience attachment for the loveable rogue Arthur, and maybe even another classic film in the making.

Reading Festival Timeline

1961 First remnants of the festival can be seen at the National Jazz Festival held at Richmond Athletic Ground in Surrey. The set consisted of a small Marquee with jazz musicians.
1963 Rock makes its first appearance with the presence of Muddy Waters and the Rolling Stones.
1964 It became the National Jazz and Blues Festival and the growing popularity of band the Rolling Stones sees them up their performance fee to £1000 from the £30 of the previous year.
1965 A weekend ticket costs 20 shillings, a pound in old money
By 1970 headliners of the National Jazz and Blues Festival have been the like of the Yardbirds, the Who, Manfred Mann, Cream, Pink Floyd, Cat Stevens and Black Sabbath. The sites of the festival have changed several times being held at Windsor Racecourse, Kempton Park and Plumpton
1971 Reading becomes the permanant home for the festival
1973 A weekend ticket now costs £4.40 with day tickets costing no more than £2
1978 Although mainly known for its focus on classic rock this year it dabbled in the rising scene of Punk Rock. The Jam, Sham 69 and Penetration all played but this saw a clash between the two sets of fans.
1979 The Ramones headlined, as well as The Police and Inner Circle, but the festival shifted back to its rock origins and from then on became well known for its focus on heavy metal and rock music.
1980 This decade doesn't start too well as five bands pull out of the original line up but Slade, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Whitesnake manage to turn up
1983 Billed as the last Reading, the headliners are The Stranglers, Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy.
1984/5 Conservative Council bans the festival by reclaiming the land to develop and build on it. An attempt to move the event to Northamptonshire fails in 1984.
1986 Farmer Desmond Drayton grants the use of his land which is situated next to the old site of the festival. Reading is back!
1987 The Mission, Status Quo and Alice Cooper headline on the festivals 25th Anniversary. It all goes a bit goth with appearance from Field of the Nephilim, All about Eve and The Mission
1988 They came under new promotion and for a couple of years went disastrously down the road to commercial bands.
1992 Saw the last UK concertof Nirvana, one of their most famous performances. Kurt Cobain was wheeled on stage in a wheel chair parodying the media's scrutiny about him having a mental illness. Brit Pop bands such as Suede start to make a high profile appearance.
1994 Headline acts are Cypress Hill, Primal Scream and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
1999 The first Leeds festival was opened after the Reading site could no longer cope with the high demand. Through out the nineties Brit pop and Indie dominated along side Rock. With notably memorable performances from the last remnants of the Stone Roses in 1996 and various rap artists also playing such as Public Enemy and Ice Cube.
2000 Oasis, Pulp and Stereophonics heldlined leading Brit Rock from the nineties to the noughties
2003 Due to large riots at the previous year's Leeds the site was changed and security tightened.
2005 By the mid noughties the stages started getting more and more elaborate. The Bloc Party laser show of 2008 is one of the most notable of the new techonological advances in band's performances
2006 Tickets sold out in a record time of under 2 hours and as Glastonbury Festival didn't take place that year it led the way as the top Rock festival.
2007 Red Hot Chilli Peppers headlined along with Smashing Pumpkins. Razorlight also headline on Reading Friday and Leeds Saturday receieving heavy criticism.
2008 A return to metal and heavy rock was seen as Rage Against the Machine and Metallica headline with other performances from Queens of the Stone Age, Avenged Sevenfold and Tenacious D. The Saturday in Reading and Sunday in Leeds saw it tone down to the indie rock which had been headlining in recent years such as the Killers and Bloc Party.
2009 Headline acts of Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead were greatly praised. The Radio 1/NME stage saw the likes of the Gossip and the Lostprophets.
2010 This year welcomed the reunion of punk rock band Blink 182 who headlined at both Reading and Leeds. But Guns and Roses disappointed but starting their set an hour late then over ran to the point where their sound was cut off.
2011 Zane Lowe announced the line up for this year's Reading and Leeds Festivals on the 21st March. Headliners are Muse, My Chemical Romance and the Strokes. One day on and tickets still havent totally sold out, unlike previous years when they sold out in a matter of hours.

Fit.

Found this advert for Tom Ford in a magazine and I think I stared at it for about 10 minutes. I love it. Sensual, fun and just genius.

My Skinny Love

 This girl is 14. This song is beautiful.

Wow

At the moment I seem to be obsessing over technology and the effect it has on our lives. But when its the only way I keep in contact with some of the most important people in my life its pretty important.

The thing right now which has regularly made me want to throw my laptop and blackberry out my window is arguments.
Technological causes:
Even after centuries of love letters, poems, epic novels and emotive passages the spoken word is still better than what is written or typed. Behind a keypad you have no real connection with that other person, you could tell someone you hate them and they could believe it. But only you see the tears rolling down your face. Or you could tell someone you're totally fine but they can't see how you really just want them to rescue you.


In the past week I have had countless arguments caused by bbm and one comment either being typed wrong or because it isn't spoken it is read with the wrong emphasis. The word I genuinely hate in bbm/facebook/messenger conversations is "wow".
I am guilty of using this but it is awful. After any statement or question it could potentially mean absolute dread and that you have just lost everything OR it could actually mean that's amazing.
E.G.

"I love you."
"Wow."

This "wow" could be of sarcasm, admiration, love or just plain shock. Who the hell knows.
The worst wows can sometimes be brought on by the question asker. For example asking a question just to be reassured of an answer you may already know can be lost with a "wow". And you are suddenly accused of mistrust.

"We're still mates right?"
"Wow."

Ensues an argument where you're friend suddenly thinks they have done something wrong and you're left just desperately trying to assure them that they're amazing.


Also typing stuff gives you more of a barrier to reality and you're more likely to say harsh stuff. Things you know will rock the other person to the core. I have had things said to me, and I know I have used it. For that I am truly sorry because it is totally ghastly. I know that everytime I have done this I have regretted it the second after it has come out of my mouth. Or thumbs as the case may be.

To the person who this is truly aimed at. I am sorry. Everything is so hard at the moment and neither of us really know how to act. Just know it will always be you.

xx
(this was rushed as I need to get to uni but I needed to get it down and out there. will edit later.)

Have you ‘Checked In’?

Sitting in a seaside restaurant on Sunday afternoon I concluded that we are in a technological world gone mad!

As we waited at the bar to be taken to our table, my mum let out an excited gasp, pointed to her iPhone 4 and proudly informed me that we were not the only people “checked in” to the restaurant. Oh no, we were in fact joined by other iPhone Checker Inners.

As a humble user of the Blackberry I can barely cope in a world of BBM, phone crashing apps and the mandatory daily battery pull, therefore I am illiterate in the many wonderful things the iPhone can offer.  To other Smartphone users, like the HTC or Nokia N8, the iPhone will always be the oracle of them all with apps for your money, cooking, music and of course Angry Birds.

But sweeping the social networking sites now is the ability to “Check In”. I learned what this was from my over-techy-eager mother who, now in her mid 40’s with one child at university and another barely in the house, has two new babies in her life; her two-seater convertible and her iPhone.

You may now “Check In” to a public place like your school, university or this case a restaurant in Bournemouth but on a worldwide scale so you may see who else has also “checked in”.

“There’s a Samuel Zachary here too, quick look for a guy holding an iPhone, I reckon he’s quite young. What about him? Or him. Maybe that one...” I watched in a stunned silence as my mother eyed up every male in Aruba for an iPhone in hand. When I could bear no more and couldn’t bring myself to let this hunt continue I announced to my mother that this new app although ingenious is just plain CREEPY!

I understand social networking sites such as facebook and twitter where you may tag yourself and your location but when people you don’t know have the ability to see if you’re in the EXACT same place as you, that’s just strange.

As a news and status junkie I was always first in the que to jump on the updates bandwagon, I’m on Myspace, facebook, twitter and have a blog so am used to the idea of external contact from people you don’t know. But with this new “Check In” system are we crossing the line from the technology world into the real world?

I think this is definitely the case, the screen has been lifted and we are seemingly transported back 40 years when you are staring into the face of a complete stranger to make a new ‘friend’. It is definitely too far also considering my mum, marvelled by any new developments, would have gladly gone up to any guy holding an iPhone and asked “Are you Samuel Zachary?”

Pokes

You have been poked.
Poking is not a usual occurance on facebook anymore. Merely a novelty at its creation, now just an unecessary button barely used. So when I saw this I was intrigued.
Turns out it wasn't that exciting. Like the work secret santa present, on opening the link I was greeted with disappointment and a slight uneasiness. The poker was in fact a complete stranger. A man from the 'Bournemouth area' who it was seem had wanted me to become aware of his existence. Mr Poke, was not attractive, was no where near my age of similar to me in any way.
Facebook kindly asked if I wanted to poke back but I declined as I deleted the poke from facebook existence, as if it had never happened.
It is deleted and forgetten from the facebook memory but now I realise I have clearly been affected by this random poker more than I thought.
As I study at university I have recently become aware of the problems I face when it comes to social networking. Facebook is like an addiction, a year ago I would have popped on once a day, maybe in the evening after college. But somehow it has morphed into now become a constant presence.
I recently became obsessed with how many facebook friends I had and in the first few weeks of university I went on a bit of a friend splurge, adding every person I held a drunken conversation with whenever out.
Once I had 'achieved' 200 more friends in 4 weeks I knew I had taken it too far and deleted many of the lecherous and unsavoury characters who I had willingly allowed to be my friends.
Having the Twitter app  on my blackberry and led to me becoming a complete TweetFreak. "walking to uni" "stuck in a lecture" "man its cold"... many of the useless comments I make on a regular basis. Up to 60 followers but WHO CARES?
Stop taking over my life social networking. I'm fed up of you. Although look at me blogging now.
I'm a social junkie.