Friday, November 17, 2006

Richard's trip to Christchurch

On Friday morning last week I flew down to Christchurch to visit my brothers and friends. I sat behind this guy. It was like staring at a toadstool for the entire flight.


Steve picked me up from the airport in his new car and he had no issues about gunning it all the way home. Twice my life flashed before my eyes... which reminded me that I had forgotten my keys for the weekend. We dropped my bag off, then I went into town to meet up with Doug Thomson, video and flim editor for Goggle Box. This is his editing suite and James Bond shrine....


On Friday night I hung out with my brothers and we watched DVDs and told stories of times gone passed.

I woke up at 6:30am on Saturday and had to force myself to sleep in until midday. I haven't done that in a long long time... because of that baby we had a while ago.

Saturday afternoon began with a trip to Rangiora (The Pride of North Canterbury) to pick up World Class 3D Modeller Simon Broekman. The pair of us (because there were two of us) then went to Neil Mayo's flat in Merivale where we would spend the remainder of Saturday and some of Sunday morning.

At 6pm the rest of the DVPP crew showed up and we watched many, many sad and wonderful films until we softly fell asleep in eachothers arms. I got home at 5am after dropping Simon off in Rangiora. Get your license Simon. Get a car and get your license.


I slept in until midday again on Sunday. I was starting to get the hang of it by then. I spent the afternoon with my cousin Katie. The DVPP guys had given me lots of TV shows to watch, including Lost Seasons 2 and 3, Prison Break Seasons 1 and 2, Curb Your Enthusiasm Seasons 1 and 5 and many others. So Katie and I watched some of Season 5 of Curb, which was fantastic.

I slept in again on Monday and then went into town to see Doug and Neil before heading off to the airport.

I couldn't check my flight at the airport because of Microsoft. Windows had crashed again. I think Microsoft should keep count of all the windows crashes in the same way that McDonald's counts the number of customers served.

Microsoft: 10 million crashes and counting.


It was a wonderful trip and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with you all. See you all again soon for Christmas, and some of you before that for Casino Royale!

-Rich


LORD WEEKLY MOVIE REVIEWS



Film: A History of Violence
Rating: 3/5 - Naomi
Reviewer Comment: It could have been heaps better.

Film: Memoirs of a Geisha
Rating: 4/5 - Naomi
Reviewer Comment: Set design and costumes are amazing. It’s a good story and definitely worth watching.



Film:
Little Miss Sunshine
Rating: 3/5 - Richard

Film: Jackass 2
Rating: 3/5 - Richard
Reviewer Comment: Crude, crass, disgustingly funny... not for the faint hearted. I nearly vomited twice.



Film: Mission Impossible III
Rating: 5/5 - Neil
Stars: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames
Reviewer Comment: This is a fantastic action movie which really never lets up, even on a second viewing. Easily enough action in it's first half to rival a Bond movie and has a great line up of actors. Smoothly directed and shot with awesome locations and surprises through out. I thoroughly enjoyed it - it is True Lies on steroids!
Trivia: Director J.J. Abrams is the creator of TV shows Lost and Alias. He also wrote a Superman script which was greenlit and then flagged in favour of Bryan Singer's Superman Returns.


Film: Flags of our Fathers
Rating: 3/5 - Neil
Stars: Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, Paul Walker
Reviewer Comment: Beautifully shot film and fantastic war scenes to watch. A pity it is let down by the plot which is never quite interesting, substantial enough or resolved (in my books) to get excited by. I recommend watching just for the best war scenes since Saving Private Ryan.
Trivia: The Japanese government would not allow filming depicting war on Iwo Jima, so many of the scenes on the beach were shot in Iceland which also has black sand beaches because of volcanic activity.



Film: Out of The Blue
Director: Robert Sarkies
Rating: 5/5 - Isaac
Reviewer Comment: This film will not make you laugh. It was not made for depth of storyline, but built off the shocking actions of one man as he rampages through the small town of Aramoana. The Cinematography is fantastic and the sound makes the movie. Having the contrast between the waves crashing in the distance to the fire and short sharp cracks of the rifle are unnerving and create a huge wave of tension. The suspense is done amazingly and it is definitely a film to see. (kicks whale riders ass)

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