holabendez blog

This John Grisham novel is effectively about nothing. To boil it down simply, the book sets up an interesting, but not particularly original premise and continues for a few hundred pages and then ends quite unsatisfactorily. Almost felt like Grisham hit his page number target and thought “Okay, that’s it then, time to wrap it up, send it to the publisher and then cash in my ridiculously large check”.

I’ve heard that Shia LaBeouf is in talks to star in the movie adaptation. I can’t imagine what sort of film this would actually turn out to be.

Two stars.

The Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney has unparallelled views of one of the most beautiful harbours in the world. It was only natural that its restaurant, Altitude should take advantage of this.

I thought the food was good, but not great. I had the barramundi, while Louise had the lamb. She was a much bigger fan of her meal than I was. The view alone makes it worthwhile going however and I will definitely be back there soon. Next time I will try the degustation.

If you ever get the chance, go to the Shangri-La, it truly is paradise.

A great, intensely paced, fresh film. There was something about the way it uses the Cloverfield/Documentary style to give the movie a sense of realism that truly adds to the movie experience. That, and I kind of liked the fact the main alien character in the movie is named “Christopher Johnson”. Definitely my favourite South African science fiction movie. Shows that you don’t need a ridiculous amount of cash to make a good sci-fi action film. Four stars.

Ubisoft tried something a little different, taking a first person shooter and trying to make it open world. Unfortunately by not having anywhere near enough variety when it came to gameplay options, the game just ends up feeling unnecessarily long and drawn out. It lacks any real plot and while the visuals are fantastic as a package it really wasn’t enough to keep me engaged. By the end I was just burning through the main storyline to get to the end. No way I was going to go through all the side missions as well. A good game, but just waaay too long. Three stars.

After playing this game – I now want a PS3. It’s a shooter, nothing unique about it I suppose, but it’s done really well. It’s slick, the graphics are fantastic, and it’s hella fun. Plotwise there’s really not much to it, but it really doesn’t matter. Definitely the sort of game worth buying a PS3 for. Four stars.

On paper, this movie seems like it might have potential. Michael Mann and Johnny Depp, in a movie about John Dillinger. Unfortunately it does not. It is slow paced and frustratingly boring. I couldn’t wait until it was over. Two stars.

I was in two minds coming into the film. On the one hand the trailers make the movie look cheesy, but on the other Stephen Sommers has never let me down. The good news is, Stephen Sommers has not disappointed. Taking what was quite frankly kind of dubious quality source material he managed to turn it into a well paced great fun action movie.

I was never into G.I. Joe as a kid, so I had no specific expectations regarding what needed to be in the film. What really made the movie work was that it had a clear understanding of exactly what it was, and made no pretence about trying to be anything else. Conceptually, G.I. Joe cannot be taken seriously, however the movie is careful not to disintegrate into parody.

In many ways, it was the perfect Hollywood big budget action film. The plot was simple and snappy, moving seamlessly from set piece action scene to set piece action scene, incorporating character development via flashback sequences that take place literally while the characters are travelling between destinations.

I wouldn’t have believed it coming into it, but I think this might be my favourite movie of the year. Four stars.