We’d both had a really busy and stressful week. So what better way to chill-out, than to go to the cinema! We saw the new Robin Hood film starring Russell Crowe. All-in-all, not a bad film, it felt very gritty and realistic (apart from the scenes of the landing craft on the beaches!!) – but …
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Category:Film
Film: Avatar 3D
We finally got around to see Avatar in 3D at the Odeon in Kettering. UNBELIEVABLE! Even if you’re not a sci-fi fan, or you never go to the cinema or you only see one film a year…check it out! ..and be careful you don’t trip over your jaw on the way out!!!! Steve PalmerI got …
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Stamford/Avatar (almost!)/Mazza’s
Stamford We took a drive over to Stamford for a few bits of shopping. Boy was it cold!!! We managed to get everything we were looking for, and Lee even picked-up a couple of ‘Frank Spencer’ style hats. Nice 🙂 Lee also bought us some silver ornamental cats. We were back by 2pm, with the …
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Actor, Ian Charmichael dies
Those of a certain age will remember Ian Carmichael, a British actor who specialised in playing ‘upper-class twits’. He died on Friday, aged 89. I’d recently watched him in the 1960 film: ‘School for Scoundrels’ – which was hilarious!!!! Related Articles Veteran actor Ian Carmichael dies aged 89 (telegraph.co.uk) Actor Ian Carmichael dies at 89 …
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Films seen on the flight home from Japan
10 Rounds Whilst chasing a major felon, an American cop accidentally gets the felon’s girlfriend killed in a road accident. When the felon escapes prison, he kidnaps the cop’s girlfriend. The rest of the film follows the felon’s attempt to challenge the cop to 10 rounds of puzzle-solving across the city. Can’t remember any of …
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Films seen on the flight to Japan
‘Gran Torino’ starring Clint Eastwood A retired Korean-war veteran leans to live with his neighbours – sort of! ‘In the Loop’ starring Peter Capaldi The big-screen version of the TV series. Political double-crossing from both sides of the pond. Fruity language throughout with a hilarious storyline highlighting the incompetence of politicians. ‘Knowing’ starring Nicolas Cage …
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Film: The Time Traveler’s Wife
We drove to the local Odeon to see the just-released film: The Time Traveler’s Wife from Audrey Niffenegger’s book of the same name. I hadn’t read it, but I do recall it being at the top of the best seller’s list back in 2004. I’m not normally attracted to romantic movies, but I was intrigued …
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Film: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Jo and Janet booked the tickets and we headed off to see the 3.00pm performance of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Great acting, superb special effects and a film that would make watching paint dry more interesting! Too long by about an hour (it weighed in at around two-and-a-quarter), a completely impenetrable story-line and …
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Short break: Portsmouth (Day 3)
I didn’t get up until 8am!! Looking out the window, the weather looks good at the moment although the forecast is cloudy. We plan to primarily use today to take photographs and try out our new camcorder. 9.00am. We got down to breakfast and found it a lot quieter than yesterday. The service was still …
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TV: ITV’s ‘Primeval’ is extinct!
This came as a surprise – Primeval, ITV’s Saturday prime-time fantasy series, (that did very well in the ratings), is NOT coming back for a new season. That’s the bad news – the good news is that it may be returning as a one-off film. Related articles Primeval axed after three series (news.bbc.co.uk) Is Primeval …
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Film: Angels and Demons
We picked up Jo (Janet was working) to see the 4.30 performance of ‘Angels and Demons’. There had been mixed reviews in the Press – some were saying it was better than the first film: ‘The Da Vinci Code’, whilst others were saying it was a lot better. When we arrived, the car-park was already …
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Cinema: Star Trek
I picked up Jo and Janet and we went to see the new Star Trek at the local Odeon. It wasn’t Ann’s type of film so she stayed at home, cooking. More information here on the film at the IMDB site. Well what can I say? A really superb re-interpretation (or reboot, to use the …
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Cinema: ‘Wolverine’ (2009)
I met with Jo today to catch the 6.15 performance of ‘X Men Origins: Wolverine‘ at the local Odeon. Starring Hugh Jackman, it’s a prequel to the previous X-Men films and tells of how the character – Logan – becomes Wolverine. The film started much sooner than we expected – around 6.25 – as there …
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Lucky Escape
Watch this, it’s hilarious!!! The moral of the story – never let someone else dominate the conversation! Lucky Escapehttps://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:hcx:content:atom.com:2f30fb31-a65f-45e6-8c8e-278964fcd24e Atom.com: Funny Videos | Love Sucks | Psycho Chicks & Total Dicks Warning: Contains some strong language Courtesy of atom.com home to a great selection of comedy films Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late …
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Film: Defiance
We went to see ‘Defiance’ starring Daniel Craig with Jo and Janet. He stars as one of three brothers escaping from Nazi-occupied Poland who join a group of Russian freedom-fighters. It was a good film – very gritty. Daniel Craig was about as far away from the glamorous image of James Bond as you could …
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Anniversary Weekend in Manchester – Saturday
We woke to a cold, wet day. We tried the hotel’s café for breakfast and it was pretty good. Banana and Honey smoothie, Danish pastries and pro-biotic yogurts rubbed shoulders with more traditional sausage and bacon baguettes and haddock and poached egg, toast and preserves. We had a bit of each! We then headed into …
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Film: Quantum of Solace
With expectations for this film off the scale, it’s almost certain that it wouldn’t exceed, or even meet everyone’s! If seat availability at our local Odeon is anything to go by (we couldn’t get tickets until the 11am performance on Saturday, and it came out on Thursday), then I think it’s certainly a popular choice …
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Film: “The Illusionist”
We’d recorded this film and it had sat on the Sky+ box for over a week. I don’t think we were expecting it to be as good as it was. We certainly don’t remember coming out at the cinema in 2006. Starring Edward Norton as Eisenheim and Jessica Biel as Sophie, it tells the story …
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New James Bond Theme
Alicia Keys and Jack White have recorded the theme tune for the next James Bond film, ‘Quantum of Solace’. I normally like the Bond themes…but not this one…no-way…ever…ever. I actually think it’s the worst song I’ve ever heard!! I’ve listened to it twice now. The first time was yesterday, where I thought: “hmmm, maybe it’ll …
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Nick and Celina for the Weekend
Nick and Celina joined us around 12 and after lunch outside (it was momentarily quite warm!), we took a trip to Kirby Hall. We got back about 5pm and chilled-out reading the papers over a nice cuppa! We then watched ‘Atonement‘ (2007) starring Keira Knightley that we’d recorded on Sky the week before. Wow! Talk …
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Film: The Dark Knight
We went to the Odeon to see the 12.15 performance of The Dark Knight. For me, it was an ‘OK’ film, but at two-and-a-half hours, it felt too long and structurally it felt a bit disjointed. Heath Ledger though certainly ‘stole-the-show’ with his performance… Mad or what?? Another downer was because we had booked the …
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Mum returns home
My back was still aching, so Ann took Mum back today at around 10am. Having looked at the traffic cams, it looks like it’ll be a good journey. However, Ann rang after getting onto the M11 where she promptly came to a halt. Looking at TrafficMaster showed a tail-back right up until Bishops Stortford going …
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Nicki visit/The Old Bakehouse/Mama Mia
Nicki arrived around 8am and after sampling her excellent Victoria Sponge, she and Ann went off for a pedicure. We chilled out reading the papers and then headed of for The Old Bakehouse in Rothwell (via the bra shop!) for lunch. We then caught the 3.00 performance of Mama Mia at the Odeon. It was …
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Film: Kung Fu Panda
We went to the local Odeon today with Jo and Janet to see ‘Kung Fu Panda’ – the 6.50pm performance. The cinema was packed! The voice-over for the Panda was by Jack Black and it was ‘spot-on’. We got home around 9pm. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first …
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Holiday Day 3 – Toronto
Looks like it rained overnight, so perhaps it’ll be cooler today. Apparently, according to the news, we slept through a tremendous thunder-storm last night! I finally finished, ‘Changeling’, all 266 pages of it – quite a feat for me! Mike Oldfield, what a troubled soul! So, another relaxed breakfast (although there was no porridge until …
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Indiana Jones and the Indian Restaurant
We met up with Jo and Janet to see the latest Indiana Jones film today at the local Odeon. Verdict: A little slow to get going, but it soon warmed-up. The result? A thoroughly enjoyable film. Afterwards, we went off to our fave Indian restaurant – Mazzas – feels like we haven’t been there for …
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Film – Sweeney Todd
We picked up Jo and Janet and headed for the 6pm performance of ‘Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ I wasn’t sure what to expect especially as it was a MUSICAL. I was pleasantly surprised as JD has quite a good singing voice and the other main characters had too. It was pretty …
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The Golden Compass
Jo, Janet, Val, David, Ann and I went to see The Golden Compass at the local Odeon. It’s the Fantasy blockbuster for Christmas and stars Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and many other big names. The plot? “In a parallel universe, young Lyra Belacqua journeys to the far North to save her best friend and other …
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Nick and Celina here/Cats in for grooming
Nick and Celina joined us for the weekend. They arrived just after 2 and are staying with us until mid-morning tomorrow. We took a trip to the Alexandra Arms – a real ale pub in the town centre. We took the cats to Brigstock for their regular ‘comb-out’. Apparently they were difficult to handle (so …
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Ralph and Karen here…
We met up with Ralph and Karen at Bicester and after a little shopping (little?), they’re staying with us until lunchtime Sunday. Lots to catch up with! Ann prepared a Mexican meal – superb! Afterwards we just chilled out over wine and chocolates. Ralph and I stayed up to watch one of hid DVDs called …
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