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I fancy myself reasonable handy with a screwdriver. I’m not any kind of specialist, but I hang my own pictures and change my own tyres. That’s why I was somewhat surprised at how tricky the assembly of my new BBQ was. Issue one – it came with two different instruction manuals, only one of which was the correct one. Secondly, it wasn’t that the assembly was particularly difficult, but rather that it was time consuming and fiddly. I started at 4pm, and when it got to 7pm, that’s when I called it a day to finish tomorrow. BBQs – tougher than Ikea.
Back at the start of the season when I reviewed MasterChef, I mentioned that the contestants weren’t particularly memorable. And, unfortunately, the finale last night didn’t change my mind. I couldn’t get excited about either contestant, and although, technically, they cooked some fantastic dishes, the one thing I particularly wanted to taste was judge Gary’s Beef Bourguignon which was used for the taste test. I don’t know enough about the rest of the season to know if the best person won, but I also know that I don’t think Julie has what it takes to work in a commercial kitchen.
Having no idea where to have lunch in Launceston, I read the “Welcome to Launceston” brochure and settled on the place that was“offering the ultimate dining experience” – but it wasn’t. The Metz doesn’t seem to know where it fits. The space and atmosphere isn’t flashy enough for it to be a bar, and the food’s nowhere near good enough to be a restaurant. The pizza we ordered had lots of toppings but still managed to lack flavour, and the nachos were soggy with sour cream. The best thing was the “Best of the 80s” playing on MusicMax on the walls.
While Pinter’s play itself is still very relevant in today’s political environment (whether it be the Iranian election or Guantanamo Bay), it was unfortunate that this production simply wasn’t very good. Whether it was Director Julian Meyrick’s bland and overly literal approach to the dialogue, or Isaac Drandic’s ‘Stanley’ (which was played like a bad impression of Napoleon Dynamite); this take on the iconic script was a disappointment. Really, the only things holding it together was Marshall Napier’s eloquent reminiscences as ‘McCann’ and Gregory Fryer’s very brief performance as ‘Petey’ – I’m hoping to see more from him in the future.
A good racing simulator should have a have a suitable learning curve – Need for Speed: Undercover doesn’t. It’s not like Gran Turismo which can take months to get your head around. But rather, you steadily work through the entire game without once having to consciously improve technique or practice. In fact, the only reason you can’t beat the final race the first time you open the game is because it hasn’t been unlocked yet. Previous Need For Speed games (e.g. Carbon) have managed this issue, but it seems in their latest outing, they’ve designed a game for three year olds.
It seemed to me that the popularity of HolliAva is really its downfall. They sell themselves as a funky bar with a great selection of drinks, and a nice place to relax with friends. When I was there, it was busy and loud. And standing three deep at the bar, if you’d asked for anything more fancy than a couple of beers, you’d have been lynched. I had a good night, but that was more a function of who I was there with. This bar is circular logic – people going there makes it popular, and its popularity makes people go.
I was expecting a bit more from Broken Lizard’s follow up offering after ‘Super Troopers’. To me, ‘Club Dread’ was like a dog turning around in circles before it lay down. It just never seemed to find a position that it was comfortable with. At times, it had the laid back irreverence that makes ‘Super Troopers’ so funny, but at other times, too much effort was going into actually making the horror plot somewhat scary. There were some very funny performances, notably Bill Paxton’s Coconut Pete, and Steve Lemme’s Juan. Only really worth watching to complete the Broken Lizard set.
I tried to get into MasterChef. I really thought that it could be one piece of reality TV that I’d enjoy. I enjoy good food so I thought that a show that requires participants to have some talent in this field would be good. But there’s not much in the way of memorable contestants, and the judges fail to garner much credibility – which is odd, given that I’ve been a big fan of Preston’s writing for years, and I’d really like to try Calombaris’s stuff at ‘The Press Club’. I think I’ll stick with watching ‘Hells Kitchen’ for the moment.
There are some movies that explain very little about the details of the plot, and there are others, like ‘Wolverine’ that explain far too much. If you were to watch this movie and the first ‘X-Men’ film back to back, then the ratio of explanation/set-up to action might be just about right. I know that this is supposed to be an ‘Origins’ film, but there’s simply far too much time spent emoting over Logan’s back story. You can’t ignore the fact that it’s supposed to be an X-Men film, so I think this adaptation is let down in that respect.
In some situations, absurdity can be a great feature in a comic strip – just look at BizarroBlog. But when it comes to Dinosaur Comics, it’s hard to feel that Ryan North hasn’t pushed it a little too far. I do like the idea of creativity-through-limitations, but even that’s got its limits. I tried very hard to like Dinosaur Comics, and I have huge respect for the readership levels that Ryan’s achieved. But unfortunately, it’s never lasted more than a few days in my RSS feed. If you like non-linear character-based comics, I’d suggest something like Nedroid Picture Gallery.
