The Prestige. Is a cool, weird, dark, twisty confection of a movie. It’s by the guy who did Memento, so that gives you an idea of the likely tone. It’s about Wolverine and Batman fighting…well, really it’s about two stage magicians in the last years of the 19th Century battling to be the best. It gets pretty nasty pretty fast, but it’s all very interesting and saturated with period detail.
Plus Scarlet Johansen is hot.
There’s not much else to say without giving it away, so I’ll just say I approved greatly. Movies I can’t predict are frequently movies I’ll enjoy and I think this is as close as we’ll ever get to a movie of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
Eragon. I went in expecting it to be a derivative story, poorly acted and with disappointing special effects. I quite enjoyed it. The lead had some bad angles but he wore leather pants so I was entertained. The dragon effects were pretty good, I especially liked the super-cute baby dragon which looked like a blue ferret with wings.
I am seriously considering cosplaying Arya, the hot elf chick who Eragon has some weird psychic connection to. I don’t have red hair, but otherwise I think I could do it.
The Sam Taylor-Wood exhibition at the City Gallery. Lee suggested we go and see this, which is so unlike him that I nearly died. Lee doesn't much go in for art, and although I know he doesn't mind photography it's still a shock to be walking to breakfast and hear him say "shall we go to the art gallery?" Of course, I wanted to and we went.
You’ll have seen the posters of Hayden Christiansen and Laurence Fishburne crying around, and if that doesn’t get you interested let me tell you to go and see it instead. Did that work?
The main part of the exhibition is random works of Sam’s including men falling or leaping and a couple of video installations which I really liked. (Man tapdancing on his own prone body with a dove on his head. Brilliant.) But the most accessible, most crowd-drawing and most affecting room is the one of Hollywood actors crying. I’m not sure how she gets these shots of them, I mean sure, they’re actors and can theoretically cry on demand but I have to believe that at least some of those shots are real.
The Daniel Craig one is so emotive, you can see his eyes are red and he’s really upset, and you start to feel for him. The Woody Harrelson one is very good too, his eyes are downcast and his jaw set like a petulant little boy, but you can see that he is really quite sad. After looking through the whole room several times I felt quite upset myself, and I think if I’d stayed I would have started crying in sympathy. We bought a poster of the Laurence Fishburne image, although it’s a little disappointing because it’s cropped at the sides. The full effect of the picture is quite magical.
I actually think it’s a pity they are using the Hayden Christiansen image, because it’s one of the weaker ones from the selection, but I suspect they are trading on his recognisable post-Star Wars face to draw the crowds. Link to some info via the City Gallery.
Sweet Mother's Kitchen. The American/Mexican/Creole cafe on Courtenay Place. Awesome milkshakes. Seriously, among the best I've had.
I was a bit disappointed as I ordered waffles, and the waffle machine was broken so they made me pancakes without asking if that's what I wanted done, but the pancakes were good so I wasn't that disappointed. Tasty ricotta with them and lots of maple syrup.
Lee had a breakfast burrito was which actually really good even if I do baulk at eating mexican food for breakfast. We'll probably go back.
Point of Fashion: stripey arm warmers
Current Obsession: scrapbooking. I am nearly done on my Wedding album!