Category: Life: TV and Movies

Well, as expected and as you probably already know, Cameron Stout from the Orkneys (that’s oop in Scoutland) has managed to win £70,000 from the 2003 Channel 4 Big Brother UK TV show (Big Brother 4). Despite initially coming over as a bit boring in the early weeks (a 32 year old, virtually teetotal virgin Christian fisherman who took the Bible into the house to read – not someone you would think could provide good entertainment for 64 days), he’s really been enjoyable to watch and I wish him ever success in the future (PS: if you’re reading this Cameron, all donations are gratefully received).

I haven’t been “addicted” to the show, but I’ve tried to watch it every other night or so (even though my GESF keeps winding me up by saying I sound like the delectable Steph – I’m not from r-ddy Berminghumm).

Now the question is: Will Cameron and Steph Coldicutt (nee Smith) “get it together” (if Davina has anything to do with it they will)? How about Scott Turner and Nush (personally, I think this is unlikely) and will “Songs Of Praise” still be interested in Cameron even after the “Lisa’s Windpipe” comment?

Who knows? You decide 😉 (and I cannot do even a reasonable impression of Marcus Bentley – the narrator of BB 🙁 ).

To think, when Big Brother 2002 came to an end (with Kate Lawler winning), I was just meeting my GESF for the very first time….

Last night I watched the new “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” movie (not yet on general release here in the UK, but it premiered on Monday) and the night before I watched “Charlies Angels II: Full Throttle“. So, which did I prefer and why?

Well, I’ve watched the original Charlies Angels movie and Bill Murray – a 53year old white guy – played John Bosley (usually just referred to as “Bosley” in the opposite way it’s always “Charlie” and never Mr.Townsend): however Bill Murray didn’t want to work with Lucy Liu (playing Alex Munday) again so he was replaced by Bernie Mac, a 45 year old black guy playing “Jimmy Bosley”. Close enough in the names for you to think they were family members, but… erm.. Secondly, apart from the “Can’t touch this” dance sequence around 15minutes in there was nothing memorable about the whole movie (well, the singer “Pink” was in the biking scene – but if you’ve seen her music video you’d have expected that: oh, and the fact that in the credits I discovered that “The Thin Man” was played by Crispin Glover – aka “George McFly” from the original Back To The Future). Oh, I also recognised Luke Wilson from “Blue Streak”).

A few other things kinda niggled me about the movie: sometimes it was the small things – like Alex carrying a 36-42″ TV (and holding it for some time) but with the screen away from her (have you tried carrying a large TV like that?), the plot being a bit silly (rescuing two rings that containing all the details of every person in the “witness protection programme”: erm, what happens where a new witness needs protecting?), and the fact that John Cleese was in it (playing Lucy Liu’s father) as more of a “long running throwaway joke” where he’s made to think the Alex is some sort of call girl/working girl. Oh – and those extremely good binoculars on the beach scene where they can see a scar on a surfers knee over 60ft away…

So after I’ve decimated Charlies Angles II, what about Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines?

Ok, I was just watching the Lisa eviction/Jon re-entering episode of Big Brother and then watched the start of Graham Norton where he took the mikey about Lisa being voted out of the BB house (she’s the most unpopular housemate ever). So there I am around 10 minutes after I saw Jon, fresh back in the house, go to the toilet, Steph talking about how they’ll have 2 evictions next week and that he probably got in via a public vote and Jon saying he can’t say anything yadda yadda yadda.

I then turn on to “E4” (the “subscription” version of Channel 4) which is showing “Big Brother Live” and see Jon going to the toilet, Steph talking about how they’ll have 2 evictions next week and that he probably got in via a public vote and Jon saying he can’t say anything… Hang on! Either there’s a glitch in The Matrix (aka “Deja Vu”) or else “Big Brother Live” is anything BUT live.

Is there anyone else even semi-following Big Brother UK that have noticed other similar instances why the so-called “Live” version isn’t live?

Another minor moan is the fact that they keep on cutting the sound on the “Live” version: I’ve heard this is either to to technical sound problems or with housemates swearing etc: but has anyone else noticed that they never cut the sound on the Live broadcasts on Channel 4 (i.e. the evictions and Saturday Night Challenges)? Hmmm….

Quick reviews of films I’ve seen recently:

Matrix Reloaded

Same characters. Different Story. Good special effects. Scenes too long in place and mostly “throwaway” plot. Worthing paying to see twice (if only to catch the bits you blinked at: one of the most important bits is only on the screen for a few seconds in a dark room!). Number of times watched so far: 7

Dumb and Dumberer

Same characters (different actors though, but they look strikingly similar). Different Story. Bad Plot. Some poor acting. Good “doesn’t he look like Jim Carey” factor. Not worth paying to see. Number of times watched so far: 1 (and not again)

Italian Job

Same title. Some same characters. Same make of car. Different plot, different location (the “Italian Job” itself takes place for just 5/10 minutes at the start then it’s a case of re-creating the Italian Job in Philadelphia whilst borrowing bits from the original Italian Job movie). Doesn’t seem to have much of the “human factor” (the original one had a lot more “respect”, feeling etc for me). Lots of violence/guns/number of deaths. Worth catching on DVD/Video/TV, but not really worth paying to see. Number of times watched: 1 (but it’s “todays film” so I haven’t really had a chance to re-watch it anyway)

Bruce Almighty

Not a sequel, prequel or remake. Good plot. Good acting. Thought provocative in places. “Proper special effects” (i.e.: you hardly notice they are SFX until you think about them). Quite funny. Worth paying to see. Number of times watched: 2.5 – soon to be 3.5

In-depth movie reviews, this post wasn’t. But it’s 11.50pm at night, my hands are hurting a bit (I’m trying to reduce my time at a keyboard because I think I’m overdoing things a bit recently), the cat wants me in bed (don’t ask!) and I’m getting cramp in my legs…

First of all, congratulations go to Turkey for winning the 2003 Eurovision contest with Sertab Erener’s “Everyway that I can” (even though it reminded me a lot of Shakira’s “Whenever, Whereever”).

However, I’ve found out that Europe must hate us, because our entry of Jemini’s “Cry Baby” left Eurovision with a great big fat zero – zilch – none – “nil points”. That’s right: for the first time in the 46 years, the UK failed to gather a single point. I’m actually shocked as I didn’t think our song was that bad!