Anthony McG

Fat & Mogey huggle together and sleep one afternoon:

I haven’t talked about this on the blog yet but I won tickets to ‘The Dark Knight‘ premiere on Tuesday night. Myself, Darren and Darragh had all been dieing to get tickets and, unfortunately, Darren didn’t get his own set so he’s taking my spare one. I know another mate of mine who would probably bite my hand off to go but Darren put me on to movies.ie in the first place so the ticket is his.

As prep for Tuesday I bought ‘Batman Begins‘ on DVD last week. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t got it in my collection already but it came in a 2 DVD pack with ‘Batman - Gotham Knight’. I only saw Begins the once when it was in the cinema so it was nice to refresh my memory. I was paying so much attention that I even spotted Risteard Cooper from Apres Match playing Captain Simonson. ‘Gotham Knight’ on the other hand is a collection of 7 animated stories which go some way to bridge the gap between ‘Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight’. They’re all really impressive but the stand out one for me was ‘Deadshot’. I found it on Youtube but I’m not too sure how long it’ll last. You can enjoy it below in two parts:

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Took this along the side of the Moy on the way home after last Saturday night in Ballina. It was Paddy’s first river swim so completing it was quite a big deal. Fair play to the lads though, they all did really well. A shot of the triumphant trio is attached below the fold:
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Last night, courtesy of the good people at Movies.ie (sign up now, there’s free stuff and they’re sound), I saw Wall-E. Anybody who’s a regular reader here (all two of you) know that I was really keen to see this. I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve loved every movie that Pixar have produced and have them all on DVD. You may think that that has coloured my review of Wall-E but, as excited as I was to get tickets, I tried to be as objective as possible.

The film opens on an earth strewn with rubbish. Wall-E has been tasked with cleaning it up (along with hundreds of other such models) but alas he is the only one left of his kind. There is precious little “dialogue” in the first twenty minutes as Wall-E explores the rubbish piles and picks out souvenirs which he collects for his home. Shortly afterwards EVE arrives on Earth and Wall-E falls head over heels in love. I’m astounded by how Pixar can infuse their characters with such identifiable traits. The guys there really understand their craft and it’s a joy to see animated characters convey emotion as convincingly as this. As the plot thickens during the film, the pace rarely lets up as you’re introduced to human characters aboard the space ship Axiom. The human characters don’t have the same depth as the robots but I think that’s deliberate considering where the focus needs to be. What we do see of them though is highly entertaining, especially the scene involving them being knocked out of their hover chairs en masse.

I’m at pains not to reveal too much of the plot but I guarantee that you will be laughing and smiling throughout the duration. This is a modern animation classic and I will be seeing it more than once over the course of its cinematic run.

In an hour I’m headed north-west to Ballina for the weekend. A few of the lads are doing a triathalon and I’ve decided to go along to throw empty beer cans/offer dispariging words. Should be a change from the norm anyway, the location not the tomfoolery. Darren and Lottie are off to Oxegen as are a shed load of other folk. I’m kinda sad that I won’t be there this year but after the muck of last year, I kinda need a break. I’ve been thinking about doing either a festival in Europe or Glastonbury next year. Festivals on the continent are a hell of a lot cheaper but there is the whole issue of travel expenses. An ambition that won’t be realised this year is going to the Edinburgh Festival, mainly due to lack of funds. Enjoy your weekends, I’m off to pack for Ballina.