Squad Finds Suicide Dory

I can’t remember when last I did two movies at the cinema in one weekend, and the contrast between the two could not have been greater. One was full of sociopathic criminals and the other was full of friendly characters helping a fish find her parents.

Let’s do the easy one first.

Finding Dory

Let’s face it, it was always going to be hard to live up to the original Finding Nemo. It introduced us to lovable characters, had loads of heart and gave us lots of laughs, many of them due to Dory being Dory. Dory was ever the optimist, steadfastly determined and had a never say die attitude that I envy, despite her inability to remember anything (is this early onset dementia??). And she was damn funny. All this endeared her to me as I’m sure it did to many Nemo fans out there, so when Finding Dory came out I was very keen to see it.

Unfortunately, I think Finding Nemo outdoes this film on all fronts. It’s cute, but not as cute. It’s an adventure, but not as wild. And Dory is… not as Dory. She still suffers her disability, but now that she remembers she had a family that she wants to find she is not as effervescent, her kookiness doesn’t surface as much and she has some real self doubt. Now obviously she can’t be the happy, optimistic fishy she was when she is desperately trying to find her parents, but I missed the old Dory. To me, she lost a bit of her Dory-ness, which was a touch disappointing.

On the plus side, there are some great new characters – Hank the septopus, Becky the (slightly disturbing) dishevelled looking bird, and the limey sea lions were my favourite. There were the scenes that make you go “awwwwww” (especially the one near the end with the shell – just so touching!) plus little Dory is really cute. Cuter than little Nemo.

A cutesy 7/10 for Finding Dory.

Suicide Squad

Another movie I was really looking forward to. Because Jared Leto.  

I’ve heard critics have slated this movie, though some have had praise for the acting of Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Will Smith (Deadshot) and Jared Leto (the Joker). I have my own thoughts on this.

The movie itself was enjoyable, harmless fun. Standard popcorn fare for which you didn’t really need to do too much thinking (actually best not to do any analysing at all), and to a large degree quite formulaic. But let’s break it down.

Margot Robbie is the best thing about this movie - when she is Harley. In the flashbacks as Dr Quinzel she is inexplicably (and annoyingly) entranced by the Joker, despite being a professional criminal psychologist working in an asylum. I also found the dialogue between these two especially cringey, with her Freudian slips eye rollingly so in one of the earlier scenes. She doesn’t seem to do much in these scenes either, except stare starry-eyed and open-mouthed at Jared Leto’s Joker - something that Kristen Stewart could have done, as she proved throughout the entire Twilight saga. As Harley, however, Robbie totally owns the part, showcasing Harley’s deranged girliness, giggling at inappropriate times, gleefully smashing people (or ex-people) to death with her strangely durable baseball bat and being a total ditz at times. It’s almost as if she was born to be Harley.

Will Smith is another solid performer. He combines doting father with hardened criminal with as much ease as he is able to throw in the occasional comic one liner in this film. His character is one of the more well rounded in this movie, which does help.

I’m not sure I saw enough of the Joker to give a truly informed view, but I will say that I prefer Heath Ledger’s version. This new Joker is a bit too slick and polished, a bit too pimp, a bit too bling. I much preferred the grittier, messier Heath Ledger Joker. I’m not sure I like his slow “heh-heh-heh” laugh either. I’m actually not even sure what the point was of having the Joker in the movie at all. He disappears for large parts of the movie and most of the scenes he does appear in are in flashback sequences. He really did not make any impact at all on the storyline. I get that this is an introduction to the Joker for subsequent movies, but I’m not sure it started out that way. One of the trailers was just full of Joker scenes and I’ve heard that a lot of Jared Leto’s scenes were cut from the final version. The fact that they had to do reshoots also fuels the theory that the story was taken in a different direction than originally intended. This may also account for the weird flow (or not flow) of the movie too. It just felt a bit messy.

The problem was that it was trying to do too much at once. A lot of characters were introduced in this movie in advance of others to come. Enough of a back story for each of them was required to explain their motivations in this movie. The movie itself had to have its own plot, and links were established to other characters within the DC universe that already had their own movies. That is a lot to achieve with the number of people in this squad and the result wasn’t great. It just didn’t have the flow it should’ve had.

The film also seems to borrow somewhat from others – Boomerang’s fetish for pink unicorns? Deadpool anyone?? I was also expecting Zuul to appear from underneath the swirling pile of rubbish, or for the Ghostbusters to show up and suck Cara Delevingne into the ghost traps. Not to mention Harley Quinn being stuck in a Sia music video during her incarceration.

One more gripe about June Moone and Rick Flagg. Why was she even with this guy?! He made her turn into the enchantress when clearly it distressed her, turning her into a simpering, mewling wreck, and yet she didn’t leave him?! (Ok maybe she couldn’t because of Boss Amanda, but really. The Enchantress was clearly incredibly powerful and would have dealt fine with whatever came for her “host”. Girl needs to grow a pair and is obviously far better off as Enchantress.) Aside from the fact that he was basically forcing his (and the government’s) will on poor June, Rick Flagg was the most boring character in the whole movie. A one dimensional character with no personality.

And another thing. If you were going to put together an elite squad to take down the world’s biggest threats you’d totally include a bank robber without any super powers, right? Right? An unhinged girl, also with no super powers, armed with a baseball bat is arguably not much better though….

I was going to give this a 7/10, but the more I think about it, the further the scoring slides. 6.5 at best.

Inamo Soho

Rating: 3/10

So what makes this place unique is that you are meant to be able to order everything (including the bill) electronically from a user interface built into the table. "Great!" I think, because I have been in so many restaurants where you basically have to do a whole song and dance routine to get the waiter's attention, especially when you are in a hurry to get the bill, pay and get the hell out!

I had high hopes of an efficient ordering and bill delivery mechanism, and of delicious Asian food (probably my favourite food), but my hopes were systematically dashed.

My husband and I had the prepaid pre-theatre meal (soup, small plate and large plate for £13.99 booked through a third party). We were told that they would bring out our dishes when ready, not unlike Wagamama, I suppose, and if the food had come out within Wagamama time frames I would not have been too upset.

But lets go back a step or two.

Having being seated (this venue was a little small, so the tables were quite close together), the hostess explained to us how to order, etc. This was fine, and we managed the system easily, finding it quite intuitive, however I think the touch pad could have been more responsive as it did feel a bit clunky.

After ordering I noticed a bit of spilled soy sauce on the table that had not been cleaned up properly after the last patrons had left and called for service using their electronic interface. Our drinks arrived, but there was no move to clean up the mess. Obviously nobody had noticed that there was a service call needing attention on our table. The waiter who brought our drinks left again and I was curious to see how long it would take for someone to attend to our service call. Too long, as we got tired of waiting and "manually" flagged the waiter down to clean up the spill. (In all fairness it was probably less than 10 minutes before he noticed the service call and returned to ask if we needed something, after he had already cleaned it up, but it really seems that the service call button is redundant.)

Cue food. My food. Only. All three of my courses arrived before any one of my husband's did. He watched me eat for half an hour before his first course was served, and his soup arrived last. Overall I found the food ok. The soup and sushi were good, but it is hard to get miso soup wrong, and as long as the ingredients are fresh, the same goes for a simple cucumber and salmon hosomaki. My vegetable noodles were a bit bland though, and I had to throw in my leftover soy sauce to give it a bit more flavour. Added to that, the lime that was served on top of my noodles (presumably to squeeze over the noodles) seemed to have been sitting around for a while, evidenced by the dried, browning rim around the cut edge of the skin. But I shouldn't complain, because at least I had food. Poor hubby was still waiting for his as I was finishing off my noodles. We had to ask (manually) two people where his food was before it finally arrived. Unfortunately his chicken and sweetcorn soup was not as good as my homemade one (true story) and his Korean BBQ chicken was average at best. Totally underwhelmed by this place.

At least getting the bill was quick, but suffice to say that I was not impressed by this restaurant at all and will not be returning.

P.S. At least the disappointment of this restaurant was counteracted somewhat by a huge piece of red velvet cake at the Hummingbird bakery, which has never disappointed me, and a cracking time at the Apollo Theatre watching Nell Gwynn, starring Gemma Arterton. Only a pity that we caught the last night of the run, as I would have recommended it to be seen. Maybe it will make a comeback some time.

Italy Part 1: Roma!

So, this took place a little while ago, but as I’m only getting round to uploading the photos now, I’m only getting round to writing about it now, too. Being so long ago, December2012 to be exact, I have had to resort to googling a few things as I didn’t bother writing anything down and my memory ain’t what it used to be!

So here goes, a trip down memory lane…

Day 1: 28 December 2012

After a 6am flight from Stansted, we (myself, my husband, his mom and stepfather) arrive at Ciampino airport not really knowing how to get to our hotel/B&B, which was not in tourist central. The taxi fares seemed very expensive, with people quoting us €75. So I called the B&B owner who told us not to pay more than €45. I relayed this to the taxi company and they relented. Win!

The B&B, Alba Romana was lovely, and so was the owner, Roberto, and his daughter, Tiziana. Full review here.

Having refreshed ourselves, we were off to the Vatican for our first stop! Here are a few highlights:

Laocoon & sons: Two versions of the myth (Wikipedia): Laocoön was a Trojan priest of Poseidon who was killed with both his sons after attempting to expose the ruse of the Trojan Horse by striking it with a spear. Alternatively he was killed for having had sex with his wife in the temple of Poseidon, or simply making a sacrifice in the temple with his wife present.

The Emperor Nero’s bath tub, rescued from the Golden Palace.

One of the frescoes in the Raphael Rooms.

The Sistine Chapel ceiling. The famous panel of “The creation of Adam” can be seen on the left hand side.

No, you’re not supposed to take photos of the ceiling, and no, I wasn’t the only one doing it. To be quite honest I don’t even think they cared that much. They were too busy trying to usher people through the chapel so that nobody died in the mad crush inside. (Come to think of it surely that many people (barely) breathing in a small space like that does more harm to the paint than the (more than) occasional sneaky photo?)

In any event, we ended the evening at a lovely restaurant near our B&B, called Momo Republic, where the Christmas lighting was still up. J

Day 2: 29 December 2012

Today was the day of the Colosseum and surrounds. One of the most iconic and recognisable structures in Europe, you are simply in awe when you first lay your eyes upon this relic of ancient history. It is big, beautiful and imposing, and it has a gruesome history as an arena of death.

The Colosseum: first view.

Inside the Colosseum. Three levels are visible. The seating area, the arena floor and the underground structure, where prisoners and animals were kept before being transported into the performance area. This photo also shows the “Life Gate”, through which combatants entered the arena. The “Death Gate” is situated on the other side of the arena, through which the losers leave.

The Colosseum allegedly held 50,000 spectators, with seating carefully assigned according the class, gender, profession and marital status. The arena was where the fighting took place – sometimes it was man versus man, sometimes man versus beast. There is even a theory that water based battles were fought, where the substructures were flooded to enable ships to be floated in the arena. The word `arena’ itself means `sand’ in Latin – derived because sand used to be thrown onto the ground to soak up blood from the combatants.

On that cheery note, let’s move on to the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. I think this is where I paid the least attention on our trip as I had no recollection of what each of these ancient buildings were (for the most part) and had to resort to piecing together information from photos and googling. (Or it might be that we didn’t have a guide during our amble around the area so I might not have known in the first place!)

It is humbling to be standing in the midst of such ancient buildings that had to have been magnificent to behold. These buildings included the residences of emperors and their wives, public buildings and a number of temples to the gods.

Basilica Nova

Temple of Antoninus & Faustina

 Day 3: 30 December 2012

This was the day we nearly lost John (my husband’s stepfather). By that I mean the driver of the bus we took to Tivoli started driving off with him still on it, while the rest of us were already off it. We did get John back before the bus got too far, although I’m not sure that he wouldn’t have enjoyed a snooze in the back of the bus!

So what were we doing in Tivoli?

Visiting two beautiful sites. The first being Villa d’Este – a villa built by the Cardinal d’Este in the 16^th century. The palace is nice enough, with artwork adorning almost every available space, but the real masterpiece is the garden, complete with fountains, statues and little grottoes. Apparently this is a UNESCO world heritage site, which I did not know until today writing this piece. The entire estate is well kept and has undergone a number of restorations through the years.

View of the fish ponds and surrounds from the Organ terrace

The Hundred Fountains

The Organ Fountain

The second villa was Villa Adriana (or Hadrian’s Villa). Like our earlier stop, this is also a UNESCO heritage site. However, unlike Villa d’Este, all that was left here were ruins. One can only imagine the splendour of the buildings that once stood here, and we are only given mere glimpses of what it would have been like in Hadrian’s day. Much of the complex remains unexcavated, but what has been uncovered already is a testament to the architectural genius of the time.

Marble floor visible under the dirt

The Maritime Theatre

I only wish we had more time to spend as we were hurrying around the complex with the late afternoon sun sinking lower and lower over the horizon. We still had to catch a bus back to Rome and had to walk briskly to catch it. Or so we thought.

It turned out that buses don’t really run on time at all in Italy and we ended up waiting over an hour in the cold, only to cram onto an already full bus for the drive back to Rome. It seems that Italian bus services don’t really agree with us.

Day 4: 31 December 2012

Our last day in Rome, and our last day with the parentals before they flew home and we continued our journey north towards Florence.

We started our day with a visit to the Pantheon. The current version of this building was apparently built by the Emperor Hadrian (it had various incarnations beforehand, twice being destroyed by fire).  A domed building with an oculus (or skylight, to bring it into line with contemporary lingo) and impressive Corinthian columns fronting the building, it was truly a beautiful building. Unfortunately my photos do not do this landmark any justice. L A little trivia – the artist Raphael is buried here!

The Corinthian columns of the Pantheon

The Oculus

Onto the Trevi Fountain, or Fontana di Trevi. It is described by Trevifountain.net as “the most beautiful (fountain) in the world”, of course without any prejudice colouring its claim! It certainly is a reasonable claim, though. The sea god Oceanus stands almost 6 metres high in the central niche, with winged horses and Tritons emerging from the stone landscape beneath him, all sculpted in white stone. There is a legend that if a visitor throws a coin into the fountain, they are destined to return to Rome. Now I’m not sure if I did throw a coin into that fountain (probably not, as I can think of much better things to do with my Euros – another gelato maybe), but judging by the number of tourists crawling around that fountain I’m sure many people have.

The Trevi Fountain

A short walk away from the Trevi Fountain are the Spanish steps. Of all the sights in Rome I found this one the most underwhelming. It is a set of steps. Nothing special. Even the view from the top was obscured by a monstrous, conical “Christmas tree”. I remember horse drawn carriage rides were offered around here, but they cost a ridiculous amount, I think about 200 Euros.

View from the bottom

View from the top

This was our last planned sight for the day. The rest of the day was taken up by a rip off lunch in the middle of tourist central, a nice walk in the sunshine of the Roman winter and a quick stop back at the Vatican for a final look, where preparations were underway for a New Year’s eve service.

Thus ended our year MMXII, and it is also probably an appropriate end to Part 1 of our Italian trip. J

I'm back! (kinda)

After almost two years of not producing anything I have decided that I should try and continue this not-very-well-put-together blog. 

So I'm back. 

A lot has happened since I stopped writing. Robin and I bought a house, we renovated said house, I became a parent to mammals (not just plants). Still not sure that's a good idea, because remember Jimmy and Brian? Well, they're dead. 

Since Jimmy and Brian, two more orchids joined the family - Wendyl and Joann. 

They're still alive. 

For now. 

Luckily, so are my furry children, Thor and Loki, although things could have been so different.... (More on that perhaps another time.)

Hopefully I will have the time and commitment to continue this, because I actually do like it.

Anyway, here are some pics of my fur babies to make you smile.

Thor with his miniature Loki toy (he was busy biting off its paw).

Loki with his mini-me.