I forgot to write this up the other day after watching it, but fortunately I remembered this morning.

When Mo Folchart (brendan Fraser) reads a story, the characters leap off the page.  Literally.  And that’s a problem.  Mo must somehow use his magic powers to send the interlopers back to their own world… and save ours.  If ever a task was easier read than done, this is it.  Mo and his daughter Maggie, aided by friends real and fictional, plunge into a thrilling quest that pits them against diabolical villains, fantastic beasts and dangers at every turn.

Sounds full of possibilities and a great premis for a fantasy adventure full of twists and turns.

Somehow it turns into quite the anticlimax.

The idea is great, and it’s another one of those films taken from a series of books, so I can only assume that the books are far more detailed than the film was.

Don’t get me wrong, the film was enjoyable, for what there was, but it all felt disappointing.  The esplainations were qite lacking in places, the characters needed far more fleshing out, and there seemed so many wasted opportunities.  For example, having seen a few clips of the film, I was expecting to see Brendan Fraser’s character use various books to draw cretured and events into the “real” world to aid their various escapes and help them vanquish the evil he’d previously drawn into the world when he first read a book called Inkheart.

As it turns out, one book was read to pull an event into the “real” world.

I think most people will find the film fairly disappointing, and fans of the book will find it even more so.

I sat and watched Twilight last night, for the second time this week, and I have to admit I was quite impressed.  I’m not quite sure what I expected as I’d not even heard of the books, let alone red them, but it’s safe to say I must be the only person in the Western World who didn’t really realise that it involved vampires.

It’s not that I have anything against vampires as such, but so many vampire tales do tend to be a bit heavy on the occult.  Fortunately in Twilight the fact that several of the characters were vampires was secondary to what is essentially a love story.

The acting was incredible, Robert Pattinson’s portrayal of Edward Cullen was positively hypnotic, he managed to be scary, endearing, and completely awkward in equal measure making him seem completely inhuman one minute and an excited kid the next.  It was breathtaking to watch.

I’d like to have seen slightly more screen presence from  Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan.  She played the part of awkward new girl very well, and the chemistry between her character and Edward Cullen was believable, but she seemed to be overshadowed in some of the scenes, particularly those with Robert Pattinson.

Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen was another member of the cast who was particularly mesmerizing on screen, despite having very few lines, but like Robert Pattinson, she just  has that very watch-able quality when they’re on the screen.

As a love story the film seemed to work very well, and all the cast seemed to work very well, although whilst Edward and Bella are the main story, I did feel the rest of the characters could have done with a little more fleshing out in places just to give them a bit more to do.

I really only had one other issue with the film, despite really enjoying the story and the acting, I still found myself clock-watching regularly.  All I can think of is that there weren’t really any noticeable sub-plots throughout the film, and an awful lot of “meaningful looks”, which worked, but it could perhaps have done with the a few more things going on at the same time, just to keep the pace up a bit.

Still, if you like a good, well written and exceptionally well acted romance film, then you’ll probably love this and be able to over look some of the minor short-comings.

Now I’m just looking forward to seeing what the next film in the series is like.  I’m even tempted to get the books, just so I can see what the films have cut out and then read ahead to see what happens.

There’s been a terrific amount of hype about this new show, “Britannia High”.  They spent weeks advertising it at every available opportunity, but apparently it’s not doing anywhere near as well as they had hoped.  The thing that says it all, at least to me, is the amount of money and time they have spent on advertising and hype, yet the main discussion on-line seems to be regarding the new hairstyle sported by Mitch Hewer, one of the lead cast members…

The show is set in a Performing Arts School (called Britannia High, shockingly), so there’s lots of singing and dancing, so it’s a bit like Fame of the Noughties… Which can’t be a bad thing, Fame was incredibly popular back when it came out.

I think this is where the problem lies…

It appears that they want it to be totally different to Fame and High School Musical, but it seems to fall somewhere between the two.  The writing is more High School Musical, but the overall feel and concept is more Fame… But of course, Fame did it first, did it bigger, and ultimately did it better, which seems to be the crux of the problem.

The idea of the show is good, but the application is all wrong.  The show is supposed to be aimed at a more mature audience than High School Musical, but the script and writing is fairly shallow and two dimensional.  There have also been complaints about the appalling acting, but personally, given the script, the fact that the cast have managed to make their characters as lifelike as they have shows how much talent they must have and how much effort they must have put in, it certainly can’t have been easy for them.

Then there’s the choreography.

I remember settling down to watch Fame, and you always ended up watching the song and dance numbers thinking “I wish I could move like that.” as they tended to have aspects of all different sorts of dancing in them.  Britannia High, on the other hand has fairly average dance routines that are straight from any bog-standard music video, so you’re tending to sit there thinking “I can do those moves already”, which does tend to take away much of the magic.

I also don’t know if it’s the choreography or some of the actors just aren’t great movers, but some of them manage to look so stiff during the dance numbers, which again is quite a let down for what could have been a really well done show.

The final negative point is the size.  Everything is so small.

Even after all these years, I still remember some of the big dance numbers from Fame, where dozens of kids would fill the canteen, or they’d be out in the streets and the whole area would grind to a halt as they took over every part of the set.

Britannia High is clearly never going to be able to do those big numbers.  The classes only seem to contain about 15 kids, the canteen number they did this week (episode two) couldn’t have had more than about 20 people in it and the set was so small they looked like they were on top of each other.  It just serves to make it all very small scale and anti-climactic, which is such a shame given how much work will have been put into it.

Other than the likeability of most of the cast, and the amount of effort they clearly have put in, the only other redeeming feature of the show is the music.  Most, if not all, of the songs have been written by Garry Barlow of Take That, who is obviously extremely talented.  They are very catchy pop songs, and seem to be the only reason people are continuing to watch the programme.  So far only two of the cast have done much in the way of lead vocals, but they have done them well, one girl in particular has a lovely sound to her voice, although with the songs being so “pop”ie her voice does seem a little wasted on them in places, I’d like to see them give her a nice strong ballad to sink her teeth into.

I have to admit, I rarely buy soundtracks, but I have already pre-ordered this one for when it comes out in a couple of weeks.  I may even buy the DVD, simply for the tracks that aren’t included on the CD, as there are many that don’t appear to be listed.  However, I don’t see there being enough people doing that to manage to keep Britannia High alive to see a second season.

I finally got my mitts on the new camcorder, and it looks pretty good. They do three versions, all identical except for the colour. They do Silver, Wine and Blue. QVC didn’t have the Blue so I went for the Wine as a change from the bog-standard Silver that everything seems to be at the moment.

Overall design and equipment Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The camera looks good, feels nice and substantial in the hand (yet very light with it), came with a padded carry case and a 2GB HDSD card, good enough for about 27 minutes of filming on the high quality setting, 40 minutes on the standard setting and 1 hour 17 minutes on the long play setting. IT also came with power cables, USB cable, a cable to connect to your television and a remote control, plus batteries. All in all, everything you need to get started straight away without any additional purchases.

Camera Case:

Camcorder and HDSD:

Battery Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

In use the battery life seems pretty good, I managed to fill the memory card and the battery indicator hadn’t moved. According to the instructions the battery should last around 3 hours of use. On the down side the battery did seem to discharge quite quickly when left turned off for a day or two, and seemed to take quite a while to charge back up. Another disadvantage is the fact the camcorder requires the power cable be connected when using the USB connection to a PC, and the battery does not charge while doing this. A small niggle, but a niggle none the less.

Comfort Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The camcorder is very small and very light, making it incredibly comfortable to use. You can see in the picture, right, just how small and compact it is, and how snugly it sits in the hand. The record/stop button is on the rear of the camera and easily controlled by the thumb, while the zoom controls are located on the top of the unit directly under the forefinger for easy control.

Zoom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The zoom is incredible, it has a 37 times optical zoom, a 2000 times digital zoom and a 45 times advanced zoom. Obviously the digital zoom is a total waste of time, as it is on all cameras. The Optical zoom is very impressive, it has a variable speed setting on the zoom switch, so the further you move it, the faster it adjusts. The Advanced zoom does some minor digital jiggery pokery to squeeze just a few extra magnifications out of the optics with on-the-fly digital compression. I can’t say I have the faintest idea how it does it, but it does seem to manage nicely, the image is that little bit bigger, and no signs of the distortion you would expect with the use of digital magnification.

Anti-Shake Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I’ve never used a camcorder before, digital or analogue, but I have heard that the handshake can be a nightmare, especially when using the zoom. I’ve also been reliably informed that a lot of the “anti-shake” functions on these things can range from useless to actually managing to make the problem even worse. I can safely say Canon appear to have got it down to a fine art. With my Chronic Fatigue my hands do tend to shake when trying to hold anything for any length of time, but even on full zoom the camcorder seemed to manage to compensate for all but the worst spasms of shaking.

Still Photography Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

It has to be said this is the camcorders weakest skill, and more down to a slight design flaw than anything technical. You still have the incredible zoom to play with, but I found the only way to get reliable shots was to have the unit attached to a tripod and use the 2-second self-timer to reduce the shaking. The problem is the location of the photo button. For some reason despite having two modes, one for video and one for still shots, you don’t use the same capture button. The button for video is ideally located by the thumb, but the one for still shots is up top behind the zoom lever, and slightly countersunk. The end result being that the hand automatically twitches to the side as you try to press the shutter button causing pretty much every shot to be blurred beyond all repair. Technically this isn’t such a problem as the unit is a camcorder and it’s ability to take photos is secondary, but it does mean that anywhere I went I’d still be having to take my still camera with me, just in case.

Movie Quality Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The image quality is exceptionally good for the most part, especially at night. I did take some footage at night, but the files are just too big to upload to show you, although if anybody is particularly interested let me know and I’ll see what I can do to upload them somewhere. If you look closely at the photo right, you’ll see a small bulb just below and to the right of the lens. It’s a night light. A little LED light that you can turn on for low light conditions. It’s not terribly powerful (but then it is tiny) but is more than sufficient for those poorly lit restaurants and the likes when you just need that little bit more light to see peoples faces. The camera has pretty good night vision anyway, I took a small clip late one night and I could see far more detail in the camera screen than I could actually looking outside myself, so it should be more than fine for most conditions.

You can also see from the picture (left) just how easy it is to use and what a good, clear screen it has to work with.

Again, it’s my first ever camcorder, so I’m not sure if I’m being overly picky, or if it’s an issue that would affect any camcorder, but I did find I was having an issue with movement. I’ve uploaded two clips (below) both taken the same day at the same location. I was stood at the back door and filming the bird tray at the bottom of the garden. I was using optical zoom only (no digital zooming) and the built in microphone.

The first movie also has me zooming back out from the tray so you can see just how good the zoom is in practice. The second clip shows a Green Finch having a snack in quite close detail. You can see the background is clear, as is most of the bird, but when it’s head is darting in and out of the tray it goes quite stripy. Again I’m not sure if this would affect any camcorder, or whether I’m just being overly picky.

Movie Clip 1 (approx 24Mb)

Movie Clip 2 (approx 42Mb)

If it weren’t for the slight distortion on the movement I’d have scored a full 5 stars for the movie, as everything else is incredibly crisp and clear.

Supplied Software Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Another slight weak spot is the software. I didn’t use the photo software since I couldn’t get any suitable photos worth twiddling with, but the movie software was terrible. There’s a known issue with both the Wine and Blue camcorders, the software will not accept the camcorder serial number. An email to Canon soon sorted that out and all I had to do was replace the first 3 digits of the serial number with 808 (the issue does not affect the Silver model for some reason). After that it installed with out any further problem. It does seem to have a tendency to crash regularly, and has almost no editing functions, so other than converting the RAW files from the camera into MPEG2 files onto the computer it’s really not even worth installing (files can be moved by drag and drop if required).

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

All in all it’s an excellent piece of equipment, very good quality, well built, easy to use, very easy to set up and use (other than the software) and very well worth the price (it cost me £240 on QVC). I can live with all the minor niggles, except the slight distorting on moving objects in movies. I’m still experimenting and trying to decide if I can live with that one, or if I’ll have to send it back and wait to get something more expensive that might not have that issue. (Although knowing my luck I’ll then find out that every camcorder has that problem!)

So if anyone has any experience with camcorders and that particular issue, I’d be interested in hearing from you!

Edit

As requested, here’s a clip taken late in the evening (around 8:50pm) when it was getting reasonably dark outside, and the camera picked up a lot more than I could see with the naked eye.

060508movie-3 (approx 10Mb)

Edit

I finally got around to replacing this camcorder, I sent the original back as faulted due to the distortion on moving objects.  I’ve now got the same model but in a very fetching metallic blue.  The replacement doesn’t have this problem, so it obviously was a fault with the specific camcorder.  I’m now a very happy camcorder owner… Although I do have a sudden problem of nothing to actually film…

There’s two things I really dislike about getting American Imported DVD’s, the silly double clips they have on so many of their DVD cases, and those stupid security seal stickers they have over every edge, but underneath the cellophane.

Am I the only one who thinks that’s a bit of overkill?

But that’s kind of off the point… Stardust

This is the kind of family movie they should have been making for years!

I remember when I was little family movies were like this, they had it all, romance, action, adventure, humour, good writing, good acting, believable plots.

These days you’re lucky if you even get two out of all of those in most family films.

Stardust had just the right balance of everything, at least for me.

I can’t really say anything about the actual plot without giving away the story, but I will say it’s worth seeing even if you only want the joyful sight of Robert De Niro in a dress, or Michelle Pfeiffer as a degenerating old hag.

Good plot, good acting, excellent special effects, well worth watching!

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I had high hopes for this film, I enjoyed the first one, but it could have been so much better. I’d seen a few clips on the trailers for the second one, and it looked far more interesting.

After re-reading the review of the first one (can you believe it’s a year already?) I was left with similar feelings of disappointment with this one too.

As with the original, it’s not that there was anything particularly wrong with it, it just didn’t really seem to pull together, and it could have been so much better had they put a bit more effort in to making it.

With this being a sequel, it had a few things working in it’s favour, budget should have been less of an issue, since they already knew how well the original had done last year. Second, and in some ways more importantly, the lead, Zac Efron actually got to sing himself in this one, as opposed to the original where he had to mime all but a couple of lines. Apparently his voice wasn’t high enough for the age he was playing (a little confusing since I thought he was playing pretty much his own age )

But I digress… The advantage was, Zac’s voice seemed to blend much better with the rest of the cast than the person doing the singing in the original, plus he seemed to have a much stronger voice, giving him more presence on the power ballad numbers.

The other advantage was the songs. Most of them were far superior to those in the original film, better lyrics, more meaning, just better all around. That’s not to say they are world class songs, because they’re not, some did get a bit repetitive and you were wondering if they would ever end, but other than that, a big improvement.

I only watched the film last night, and already I’ve found myself singing a couple of the songs today, which is always a good thing for a musical.

Now for the down sides.

The choreography. I don’t know what it is about this and the original, but some of the choreography is truly horrible. The group numbers aren’t so bad, but some of the solo/duets, particularly the ones given to Zac Efron were just painful to watch. They make him look all leggy, and full of cheese, and having seen Hairspray a week or two ago, he can dance much better than that.

There was one particular routine, he is supposed to be highly emotional, angry, upset, etc. (trying not to give the plot away here) Anyway, cue angry musical number which he then sings, working of steam and figuring out who he is.

Now it may just be me, but given the situation and the music, I kind of expected the routine to be more aggressive, something like a martial arts based dance routine, beating up a punchbag, maybe even running at full tilt trying to get away from it all. But no…

It had to be the weirdest choreographed routine in the entire film, leggy dancing, air grabbing… In fact, pick a cheesy dance routine cliché and it was probably in there. It was just plain weird, and totally unconnected with the moment.

But then there seemed to be a few points like that.

And now we come to the biggest negative of the whole film… The plot.

The problem was there really wasn’t one. Or at least not enough to fill out a 100 minute film. Even with all the song and dance numbers, it was just dull. A bit like the first film it ends with them putting on a performance for a talent show. Didn’t we see pretty much the same thing in the original film?

There were several other comparisons in plot to the original film, but I don’t want to mention them and spoil it for anyone.

Suffice it to say the film would have been far better with a different writing team! The acting was reasonable, songs improved, and if they’d just got a decent writing team and shot the choreographer they could have had something great, especially when you consider that the humble musical is still in strong demand, and unless you’re going to head to the theatre, there just aren’t any new ones around…

The film will appear to the younger audience, just like it’s predecessor, and will probably appeal to any musical fan who is happy to switch off their brain for an hour and a half and just enjoy the mindless cheesefest.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Normally I watch record it and watch it back at high speed, cutting out the judges mindless garbage (do they really think anyone cares what they think?) and usually scuttling though half the contestants whining too. All in all the show, plus results can normally be watched in this manor in about 15-30 minutes (depending on the theme that week).

This year it’s been taking me a lot longer. Finally they seem to have some lively contestants, just about all of them can sing pretty well, most of them seem to have some great personalities…

All in all, the show is finally worth watching… It sometimes even takes me a whole hour to watch the entire thing

It’s still a shame some of the good singers went out in earlier rounds, leaving some of the weaker singers to get into the final stage. Had some of the earlier evictee’s still been around it could have been a whole different top 16.

Since I was watching it last night (yes I know we’re a bit slow to get it over here in England) I thought I’d do a little fraggle review of the whole thing.

First off, it was 60′s night, and it just goes to show what a difference a good song can make. Everyone was on top form this week (well technically I guess that should be last week.)

First up…

Haley Scarnato Or “the final clone” as I like usually refer to her. There were half a dozen girls in the final however many, all with similar hair, similar faces, similar clothes… I always got them muddled up, so they became collectively known as “the clones”…

But I digress…

First no review would be complete without mentioning her outfit… It went perfectly with the song choice, and it’s amazing how they stick her in a pair of hot pants, and suddenly she looks about 3ft taller, and it’s all leg… Those things went on for miles.

The top was a little distracting, there were some rather intriguing things going on inside that, which did tend to distract from the song a little. Maybe it’s just me, but I kept thinking it was about to fly off at any second, and she’d not be able to continue…

Still, it didn’t, she did, and it was her best performance so far. Simon’s comment of “You naughty little minx” pretty much summed it up nicely.

Chris Richardson

There’s something very likeable about this guy. I saw somewhere online someone say that he looks so innocent and you want to do incredibly filthy things to him… I’m not sure I’d go that far, I haven’t quite reached that level of depravity…

Yet…

Maybe something to work on :asbestos:

But I do kind of understand their sentiment

Earlier on in the competition, I thought he’d probably be in for most of the competition, but I’m starting to have some doubts about that, he still sings well, but his voice doesn’t seem to be adapting to the different musical styles as well as some of the others. Plus he seems to be trying to be a bit too much like Justin Timberlake, now everyone’s told him how much he looks like him. Still maybe one to watch out for though, if he can expand his vocal abilities so the songs don’t all sound quite so sameish.

Stephanie Edwards

She has a nice voice, pretty face, but we don’t seem to have seen anything else. There’s some strong personalities in this year, and she doesn’t really seem to have managed to get her personality to show strongly enough, so she’s sort of faded behind many of the others.

Plus there’s not been anything particularly memorable about her performances so far, at least as far as I can see, although I think much of that could be the choice of songs she’s had up until now.

I only watched this performance last night, and I’m looking at it again now because I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was, which is always going to be a problem in this kind of competition.

If people don’t remember you, they’re not going to vote for you.

Blake Lewis
I wasn’t sure about Blake early on, yes he was talented, could sing and had the beat boxing thing, but I wasn’t sure how far he’d last.

Now he’s in the final stage, he really seems to be shining. I seem to remember hearing on one of the earlier shows that he’d studied music at some point, which may give him a technical advantage over some of the others for setting up the arrangements of the songs, adding beat boxing etc., to make the songs seem modern.

In turn that does make him run the risk that he might modernize a song that would have worked better staying true to the original version. But that remains to be seen.

This guy is certainly one to watch out for.

LaKisha Jones
This girl is one of the competition’s powerhouses, a great singer, who doesn’t appear to really know just how good she actually is.

I thought she sang the song brilliantly, when she first came out, if you closed your eyes, it could have been Shirley Bassey stood their singing.

I was a little confused by her outfit and hair though, she looked great, but it didn’t really go with the song, the hairstyle looked very 80′s when combined with the dress… And why the green dress? A slinky black sparkly number would have been more appropriate I’d have thought.

But maybe that’s just down to personal choice.

Phil Stacey
He seemed slightly more on track this week. He sounded great during the earlier rounds, but seemed to lose some of the magic once they hit the live shows. This song seemed much more his style, although I do take the judges point that you kind of expected a rougher, more gravely voice for the song, which he doesn’t really have…

But it still worked well. He stands a good chance of going a fair way if he can keep it going.

The shirt has to go though, the pattern on the front of it looked like he’d spilt food or water down it until you got a good look and realised it was the pattern in the material.

Jordin Sparks
Wow! What more can you say? She had to be the performance of the night with that song. She’s another, really likable contestant, you can’t help but sit there willing her along. The couple of times I’ve not liked her performance it’s been more to do with the song than her voice. She’s bound to make the final. Not sure about her dress though, I thought it made her look a bit frumpy… But again, that’s probably more personal tastes than anything really wrong with it.

Sanjaya Malakar
Oh dear, where to begin.

Ok, first the good, it has to be his best performance so far, finally we get to see that he actually does deserve to have made it to the live shows. The past few weeks he’s been so limp and lacklustre I couldn’t work out how he even got past Hollywood week.

I can’t make up my mind what it is that puts me off him, I think it’s a mix of things, the hair, the odd grin when he sings that makes me wonder if he’s on Prozac…

There’s something about him reminds me of Taylor Hicks from last year… They both kind of creep me out, and I really don’t get what it is everyone likes about them.

I’d say he’s likely to go any week, but then I thought that about Taylor Hicks last year too, and look how that went…

Gina Glocksen
I like this girl, she’s got a voice, and an edgy attitude about her, although I wish she’d ditch the tongue stud though so she’d stop lisping on some of the songs.

I thought it was a shame she got so slated by the judges, it sounded good to me. I’ve only heard the Michelle Branch version of that song, but it didn’t sound all that different to me.

With her rocky voice, she does seem to be struggling to pick the right songs to show off her abilities. Something with a rock feel to it, but enough range to show off her vocal abilities can’t be that easy to come by.

I hope she does well, but she’s going to need a bit more practice at adapting to the different styles if she wants to keep going I reckon.

Chris Sligh
A good voice, great personality and funny… A pretty good mix for this kind of show.

Another good song choice, showing off the unusual sound to his voice, the rocky edge to it… And he almost took Simon Cowell’s head off with the mic stand…

Can’t see a down side to that myself

May need to try hard at that next time though…

Melinda Doolittle
Like LaKisha, another one with an incredible voice who doesn’t seem to realise just how good she is. The slight difference, Melinda seems to get lost in the song when she performs, while LaKisha seems to need a more upbeat number to go into performance mode.

But I’m getting sidetracked again…

Hated the song, I remember it from Oliver, and I never liked it then either, but then it really didn’t matter, this girl could sing the phonebook to you and you’d be happy.

I’m not sure she even knows what a bum note is.

I’d say Melinda is probably the strongest singer in the competition, but then she not only has the voice, but being a former backing singer, she’s got to have the advantage over a lot of the others, as she’s got a fair bit of experience under her belt.

Overall

The best overall week so far, like I said, it just goes to show what a good song can do for your performance.

I reckon the girls have the edge this year, Melinda, LaKisha and Jordin have the powerful voices, and have been consistent throughout. Haley and Chris Richardson have the performance, but they may be overshadowed vocally by some of the other contestants, Gina and Chris Sligh both have a rocky sort of edge, which may count against them, after all just look at Chirs Daugherty last year… Blake and Phil are both good, but something makes me think they might be hit or miss, depending how things progress over the coming weeks.

They’ve set up a mock trial, a rape case, with the defendant, witnesses and accuser played by actors and actresses. All the court staff and experts are real though, and I’m assuming the evidence is real, just collected from other actual cases.

The jury is then made up of various celebrities; although I have a feeling that’s more to do with them being used to cameras and the media rather than a forum to build/rebuild their careers.

It’s making for some quite interesting watching. For one thing with having studied law at college, it’s interesting to see the Barristers in action, but then it’s also interesting seeing how the actions of the barristers and witnesses impacts on the jury’s perception of events and who is/isn’t telling the truth.

Jury deliberations have never been public, so it’s probably interesting for the legal professionals seeing how Jury’s work and think.

It’s also interesting; because when I was at college I actually had a similar idea. I made a case, built up all the evidence, statements, experts etc., and the idea was we’d then try the case in class.

Shame I left it too late, so by the time the case was ready it was exam time, so there wasn’t any time to follow it up and see how it worked. Nice to see the same idea having been put into practice.

Tonight they’re showing the jury members discussing how they’re coping with the trial, then tomorrow night is the deliberations followed by their verdict.

Based on the evidence so far, I’d say both defendants are as guilty as sin. So I’m eager to see what the jury comes up with, and hoping that they’ll tell us whether they actually were or weren’t guilty. Would be nice to see if the whole jury setup works or not.

I have to say though, as much as I was looking forward to it, I ended up being pretty disappointed. It’s not that it was awful, because it actually wasn’t, it just wasn’t all that good either…

As it happens this is on TV later this afternoon, so given it only came out on DVD about 3 weeks ago, is a fair sign that they weren’t expecting great things from it over here.

On the whole the acting was pretty good, there was nobody particularly annoying, although the drama teacher was way over the top and would probably have become very irritating had she received more screen time than she did.

The plot was reasonable, or at least I’ve seen far worse. My biggest problem with the whole thing was the musical numbers.

Maybe I’m old fashioned, or maybe it’s just because I’m old enough to remember how musicals are supposed to be done, but when i watch a musical I expect big-band, rousing numbers that make you want to jump up and join in, or they’re the emotional power-ballad style that has you crumpled up in a sobbing mass.

I didn’t find a single song like that here, these were cheesy pop-songs at best, and not exactly startling or memorable ones at that either.

It didn’t help that the two lead singers ( Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens)had rather wimpy “sweet” little voices, nothing spectacular and nothing that really stood out.

The funny thing was that the lead boy (Zac Efron) only actually sang around 5 lines during the entire film because they felt his voice was the wrong pitch, so most of the singing was dubbed by someone else. Yet the few lines I managed to find sung by Zac actually sounded slightly rougher and more edgy than the person they’d got to dub them.

Given the songs and the dance routines, no voice was going to save them from being pure cheese, but it might have helped blend the voices better so you didn’t spend every song thinking “One-hit teen pop number”.

Over all, it was pleasant watchable rubbish, but not something I’m going to be watching all that often, and not something that is ever going to stand up against the old-school musicals like Greese, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the likes.

Fortunately he’s back to his clean-cut, short hair for this third instalment, which suited the character much better in my opinion.

Still, the first two had kind of put me off the whole thing, and I wasn’t planning on buying this third one, but it was a slow week for DVD releases, and I was both bored and desperate, so “What the heck…” and I bought it.

Strangely I’m glad I did.

It has to be said, like the first two, it’s primarily an action film, so there’s no expectation for a great deal of plot or witty dialogue.

That still didn’t stop it being by far the best of the three!

For one thing, it had gone back to the Mission Impossible roots and there was a team of them, not just a lone agent. Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt still takes the lead, and most of the screen time, but his backup team work together flawlessly.

The film had quite a “James Bond” feel to it, full of action, gadgets and special effects, but with a few witty one-liners and a less “serious” feel than the first two MI films had. That’s not to say it was funny or silly, you just got the feeling the people involved weren’t treating it all so seriously as the ones involved with the first two films did, which came across nicely in the film itself.

All in all, thoroughly entertaining couple of hours by the time I saw the film and scuttled through some of the DVD extras. Worth a watch for the action junky, and anyone that remembers “the good old days” where the whole family would camp around the TV on a Bank Holiday and watch a good film in the afternoon!