The Hardest Thing In The World

i am somewhat at a loss as to know how exactly to review, or at least give my thoughts on, the film Hannibal Rising. i am not too far from sitting on the fence with this one, as for every positive aspect of the film there seems to be a negative. ho hum, let me give it a try.

an obligatory warning - this review may well contain spoilers, although as it is the young Hannibal we speak of obviously we know he survives at the end of it. there will however be references to the novels and the films, so proceed with caution.

first things first, and a big round of applause for Gaspard Ulliel in his performance of the young Hannibal. the role of Hannibal Lecter is, in the eyes of most, the exclusive property of Mr Anthony Hopkins. brave indeed is the soul that tries to challenge that perception. he gets the mannerisms and style of Hannibal spot on, and physically you are convinced that yes, this boy will grow up to be Hannibal. one odd note on the appearance, though - young Gaspard has rather dark eyes, whereas Mr Hopkins had those rather notable blue eyes. surely the budget could have accomodated a pair of contact lenses or two?

the rest of the cast do the job asked of them, and there's no one you can argue with as being a waste of space in it.




now, what makes commenting on this film one of the hardest things in the world is the whole point of the film itself. there are two perspectives on this one. Michele, who has never read the Thomas Harris novels, found Hannibal Rising interesting, "entertaining" if that is the right word for such a dark tale, and compulsive viewing. i, on the other side, have read the novels, and subsequently found the film somewhat lacking in point and reason in regards of its very existance.

don't get me wrong, i would not slam the film - i too found it to be most impressive. it's just that once you have read the novels, you are aware of all you need to be of the historical tale of Hannibal, in particular with regards to his sister Mischa, and basically know why Hannibal Lecter grew to be Hannibal The Cannibal. as a consequence, lovers of the books may well find that Hannibal Rising flirts dangerously close to being seen as a cash-in, a final go at getting more money out of the series. ultimately it isn't this - far from being a cheap and cheerful experience, it is clear that all involved with this film had a good deal of passion and interesting in the subject matter.

the main problem with Hannibal Rising is that it starts a cycle which does not end cinematically - this would be a brilliant film if Ridley Scott had done a more faithful adaptation of Hannibal. the whole thing would have made a great deal more sense, but with Ridley's altering of the ending of Hannibal, the psychological journey Lecter begins in Rising has no defined ending.

my reccomendation for fans or, if you will, admirers of the tales of Hannibal Lecter is to see this film, as it is worthwhile. just don't have wild expectations of it, and if you have read the novels, be prepared to be angry with the job Ridley Scott did with Hannibal a few years ago.

be excellent to each other, and try not to eat each other in doing so.

Hello Daniel

hello everyone, in particular New Zealand


well, i am most impressed with my nearly two week old cousin, Daniel Henry Farnworth. he somehow managed to send me an email all by himself (unless i suspect my sister is a cheat) and seemed distressed that thus far he has not featured on my blog.

as much fun as it is to fill this site with images of Batman, here he is then!!





looks like he will be a most handsome chap, and not as sheep-orientated as one would imagine someone from New Zealand should be!

and here he is with big sister Katie, with a grown up hand monitoring the situation, apparently!




i do apologise to the whole of New Zealand for not putting these pics up sooner. my reccomendation to Daniel would be, at the moment at least, that dressing up as a big bat more or less guarantees you get a regular mention on this site!!

otherwise, my dental problems continue - i have mental bursts of pain and express this pain through the medium of words we are trying to not let James here. oh well, 2pm on Wednesday 27 June, around about the time Tony Bliar (not a spelling error) leaves Downing Street, so too will my teeth leave my mouth. they also have outstayed their welcome, i guess, but at least they did not start anything in the Middle East which they could not finish, and nor did they ever invite Noel Gallagher over for "drinkies".

be excellent to each other, and if at all possible think happy thoughts about my teeth!!!!!!!!!!!

more Dark Knight images

hey everyone

once again, sorry for the lack of update. i have a few dental problems at present. three to be precise, and those three teeth will be removed next week.

i imagine it will be painful, but my dentist is ace - he knows a lot about Hannibal Lecter, for a start.

on that note, i will post a review of Hannibal Rising in the near future here, and will with some luck provide an update on my imminent dental work. at present, i am on some awesome painkillers for the dental problems, and still gathering my thoughts on Hannibal Rising.

in the mean time, Warner seem to be rather relaxed in handing out promo pics and advance stuff for The Dark Knight. usually they have rather tight security on projects like this, but they seem to be happy to release images well over a year before the film is due for release.

first up, here is the "new" batsuit. it doesn't seem like a radical departure from the one in Batman Begins to be honest, perhaps just a bit better defined :



and here is the new vehicle for the film - us oldies would call it the "Bat Bike", but Warner have said it is called the "Bat Pod". it doesn't look like there's space for headphones on it, never mind a can of Bat Shark Repellant. anyway, here it is in action :




here is a pic of it on its own, and the text below comes with a ***POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING***





the best theory i have seen is that the Bat Pod is called that because it is some sort of "escape pod" from the Tumbler, the ace "Batmobile" from Batman Begins. it looks plausible - the position of the cannons would be as the Tumbler, and it would explan the lack of a seat for the Bat Bottom. not much of a spoiler, but ***END OF POSSIBLE SPOILERS***


otherwise, all seems well in this part of the world. i am off to bed with some antibiotics and some painkillers, thank you very much.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i believe i could sell organs to finance this

hey everyone

for many years now there have been rumours of a special, if you will "uber" edition DVD set of Blade Runner due for release. a problem has been someone who owns 20% or so of the rights to this fine film has refused permission for release, purely to be stubborn about an argument some twenty years ago around the budget of the film.

well, he is dead now, and it would seem to mark the 25th Anniversary of Blade Runner we have this




a five disc mega-set, complete in a VK test case!!

it seems that every version of the film will be in the case, including a brand new cut actually made by director Ridley Scott and the rare gem that is the workprint.

this looks like it is going to cost a great deal of money. but it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

is this now a site for The Dark Knight??

hey everyone

at the risk of turning this site into a tribute to the making of The Dark Knight, here are some more images of The Joker (well, sort of) in action, apparently being filmed in IMAX.

here's an image of The Joker's gang in action - apparently, that's The Joker blurred in the background :



I am assured that this next image is indeed The Joker - it looks plausible from what we have seen of him thus far. if it is The Joker, he looks rather upset, no?




finally, a shot of filming in the IMAX format. this appears to have been edited or deliberatley blurred, but you can still work out that it is The Joker, i guess!




enjoy, and be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

splendid!! testing testing!

well, what do you know - it seems that i can update my site from verk again!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!

Winter and More Chair Action

hey everyone


dear me, even with a high speed connection it is tricky to update Blogger these days!! all these fancy changes seem to have taken Blogger down to the slowest speed possible, hope it gets fixed soon!!

Winter is here, so James and Grandad (and Marmite, or Woof Woof as he is called by James) are busy keeping warm!





Just because James is at Grandma and Grandad on a couple of days each week does not mean an end to Big Cook Little Cook action. here he is sat in another chair, and, you will note, with pens at the ready in case he urgently needs to learn how to write and, erm, write something.




The chair in these pics was bought by James's Great-Great Grandfather, or his Grandfather's Grandad, if you will. It has certainly stood the test of time, and he seems rather happy with it!





otherwise, it was Michele's birthday on Saturday, so we had a nice day out and about - as well as her presents, i even bought her lunch AND something to drink, as well as some smart new boots!

if it is also winter wherever you are at, keep warm!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

James and the Chair Adventures

hey everyone


when James watches classics of television such as (erm) Big Cook Little Cook and Teletubbies, he has had this habit of wedging himself between our coffee table and his pushchair.

clever Mummy has clocked that what he is looking for is a seat of his own, as the couches are a bit too far away from the TV, and when he sits on the carpet he cannot see over the coffee table. and thus i went and got him a choice of two chairs for his televisual feasts :





he would seem to be rather impressed with both of them. the blue one was a clear early favourite, until he decided to see if it would work out OK as a rocking chair. well, it did rock in one direction, and fortunatley the carpet and the cushions behind him ensured no damage. i believe this pic may well be from mid-fall :



the lilac one was thus considered the safest by James, and thus this is the one he has stuck with for now!




meanwhile, joy of joys, two Big Cook Little Cook DVD's arrived today. and one of Balamory. roll on the weekend so we can sit and watch them!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bedtime James

hey everyone


just a few pictures of James, looking rather dapper in his pyjamas, messing about instead of heading off to bed :







night-night, pleasant dreams!!!!!!

An Official Glimpse of The Joker

hey everyone

the first official picture of Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight has finally turned up. you may recall the retrospectively obvious fake one that was posted here a few weeks ago.

there are two ways of seeing the picture. firstly, you can click on the link in the title, register and assist in removing the blocked image of The Joker pixel by pixel. the second option, and i would reccomend you do this in particular if you are a bit rushed, is simply have a look at it here :




reaction to the picture? a considered hmn, i guess. on the one side, i guess they are not going for the theatrics of the earlier incarnations of The Joker, and thus Christopher Nolan will be carrying on with the darker, more "grown up tone". on the other side, however, is that the idea of The Joker looking like a somewhat misguided tribute to Robert Smith out of The Cure is not exactly going to thrill too many people.

the fact that the link takes you to an alternate tribute to Harvey Dent (do a google interweb network search for "i believe in Harvey Dent") suggests that here we go again with two villains in the film. not wise - the 80's/90's Batman films fell apart by overloading the plots with as many bad guys (and, spectacularly badly, girls) as the writers could think of.

anyway, there is still over a year to go before any of us see the finished product that would appear to be called The Dark Knight. if any more pics turn up i will put them here, hopefully they will start to get more interesting real soon!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!

The Dark Knight

some film news!!

as Warner Bros have set up a website called The Dark Knight and have this logo on it



i guess it is safe to say that the follow up to the most excellent Batman Begins will not be called Batman Intimidation. ho hum, a bit of a pity, but there you go. the logo does look ace, mind!

by the way, if there was any lingering doubt, the previously shown Heath Ledger pic as The Joker was indeed a fake. told you so!

family portrait

hey everyone

sorry, this should be called an attempt at a family portrait whilst James is full of energy and refuses to sit still.



no bad thing, really - who would want a posed picture when you can have a look at James in fun mode?




be excellent to each other!!!

Go Go Gee Gee!!

James loves Grandad. James loves horses. Grandad loves James and he loves horses. what better way to spend a sunday afternoon than watching a touch of horseracing??

i do recall fondly watching some Sky news with a horse race on, and James all of a sudden shouting "go go gee gee go go gee gee" at the television not so long ago!

i am sure James will soon be old enough and big enough to go to the real gee gee's with Grandad. if he has as much luck (sorry, skill) as Grandad does on the horses in regards of picking out winners, well, so much the better!!!

tortoise! tortoise! TORTOISE!

hey everyone

no pics for a while, and all of a sudden a whole load turn up!!! they are all pics of James, of course!!

James is very proud of his extensive vocabulary, and we are very impressed that he has mastered a seemingly complicated word like "tortoise" with relative ease. it helps, presumably, that Grandma and Grandad have tortoises walking around in their garden! James loves them to bits -




whilst James has mastered the word, he has not neccessarily mastered the concept of "tortoise", and what "tortoise" does. when he gets to the grandparents, he excitedly looks for them with some lettuce in hand. when he finds one, he puts the lettuce on the tortoise, and starts doing a very excited dance whilst shouting "tortoise tortoise tortoise eat eat eat tortoise" :





the tortoise, alas, have thus far been most un-co-operative, and refuse to devour one half of a hefty lettuce within seconds of James presenting it to them. oh well, never mind son, keep trying!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!

more James pictures!!

hello again

more pictures of James from today! here he is sitting in his car seat, looking rather chuffed with himself!!!!



and here he is having some orange juice cordial type stuff, something that became quite a favourite of his at the party today!



as with the sweets, i suppose we should try and control or limit the amount of juices and things like that James has. however, as the picture below clearly illustrates, most of it tends to end up on his chin and shirt rather than in his tummy!




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Clever James

here's James showing you how to use your good looks and natural charm to casually steal some popcorn of your mesmerised cousin :



be excellent to each other, and try to respect your cousin's popcorn stash!!

James and the Cousins

Hi Everyone

Today was James's Uncle Dylan's 9th birthday (don't ask, a very short long story), so we were all together for a big party and to hand over to Dylan just as many Spider-Man 3 toys as those clever Chinese types can make. Or wherever they come from. Anyway, James got to spend some time with his dear cousins, the twins Jade and Skyla :







As you can see, they are eating all sorts of things that probably are not very good for them, but what is life without the occassional treat, especially at a party?

They all had a great time running around - sorry, i attempted to take pictures of them running around, but they really do move too fast, even for these fancy new cameras!!

Everyone seemed to have a good time, even those who rushed off to watch some sort of important game with a funny shaped ball!! Dylan seems very impressed with his array of "Spidey" things, and James has run himself into sleeping long and hard tonight. i also got my (ahem) dear Mother-In-Law a set of Mills & Boon books and DVD for Mother's Day, and she got me a rather snazzy walking stick as a belated birthday present. a successful day all around, then!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Jack Coleman Bridge

Ladies and Gentlemen


Once in a lifetime, perhaps more often if you travel, you get to witness an architectural curiosity that leaves you speechless, astounded, in awe even. Unless of course you never travel anywhere other than Edenvale and are just left bemused.

Here is the sign for The Jack Coleman Bridge :




And this is The Jack Coleman Bridge itself :




Just who is Jack Coleman? I mean, I am very interested about a chap who is famous enough or well established within their community to have a bridge named after them, but that the bridge in itself is impressive to the extent that you can barely get two cars next to each other on it, and the length of it is barely more than a car!

I would imagine that Mr Coleman is a property developer, or owned the land around which the bridge is located. What river or stream does it cross? I have no idea at all, and Michele is busy playing with some bubbles with James, so I am not going to bother asking.

Mentioning Michele, here she is looking very excited indeed. When this picture was taken, she was a mere two corners away from crossing The Jack Coleman Bridge for the third time today. It should have only been twice, but we went back around to get more class pictures of it for you all :






If you have any idea at all who or what Jack Coleman is or was, or are Jack Coleman, please feel free to leave a message or comment here enlightening the masses!


Be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!

James and the Stars

hey everyone

at last, some new pictures of James!!! i keep getting requests for them, so i figured i had better take some. and what better opportunity than of him being rather proud of his award from school today!!

as James helped a new baby boy settle in on his first day at school today, and as a reward for his vast and impressive vocabulary (trust me, he speaks a lot!), he was awarded three gold stars on his head! as you can see, he was rather proud of this!





Mummy is also very proud of young James too! here she is trying to hold him still for a picture to be taken - no easy task, especially as Big Cook Little Cook, currently the thing above all things that is the centre of James's universe, was on the TV!!





and here is one last pic of him with his stars, kindly posing for the camera but looking very tired indeed - well, it was not long after this that he wanted his night night bottle and to be carried up to bed!!





otherwise, not exactly a great deal to report on here. a busy weekend for us, in particular as Mother's Day looms on Sunday. hmn, i wonder what exactly James has got his Mummy for this special day..........?

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!

Stalked by Trigger

hey everyone

well, rather bewilderingly, i can give you pictures of Michele and myself at this Cokefest concert thing!

i was back in at verk today, and in my inbox was an email from Trigger, one of the lads in the office. simply entitled "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST FRIDAY", it included a series of pics from the concert :



i was somewhat taken aback to see them, and thus asked if he had got them off a interweb net site thingie somewhere.



the answer was no, he had taken these pictures himself with his cellphone camera thing. i must say, it is a rather high quality cellphone camera thingie, then, as the originals of these pics are most impressive - they have been reduced in size and quality a bit here to make it easier to upload them.





now, if we put aside my surprise/delight at getting these pics, and the compliments to the cellphone camera thingie, i did ask Trigger exactly, if he saw us, why the hell he did not say hello to us, and come and have a drink or something! according to Trigger, we "looked like we were on a mission". this is somewhat at odds with the reality, as of the 12 hours, we spent a good 7 or 8 at the beer tents and the food places just, as it were, "chilling". it transpired, of course, that he did not say hello mostly due to him being in the company of some ladies. as he gets to see me all day at work, who could blame him for admiring some talent of the female persuasion when the chance occured?

Trigger appears to have enjoyed the day too, and gave us a rather smart badge from the day. alas, he did not take any pictures of the ladies who disrobed during the Evanescence performance, but it is not like i would post them here anyway.

on the note of Evanescence, it would appear they have split? i saw some story of the guitarist and drummer leaving, but not at all sure if this was before or after they played here. it says something of my knowledge of the band that i would be unable to tell either way.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!