Crimbo presents

It's almost that type of year again, Christmas.

For the record I'm a firm believer in Christmas is 25th December. People with decorations up in October? Sorry I just don't get it, surely by having them up for so long you actually detract from the 'special-ness' (not a word) of them through over exposure. Companies with really early Christmas adverts... same to you, and people counting down 'sleeps'etc from about 150. Yes that is why I stopped following you on twitter/hid your facebook posts.

Oh and the to anyone who posts 364 sleeps til Crimbo on boxing day. Words can not describe how swiftly you shall vanish from my timeline(s). That includes retweets.

But this blog isn't to rant about premature festivities (my staff Crimbo party was in November this year, and was good!), I may do that separately, in fact I'm pretty certain I will. This is about myself, me, moi. I have no idea what I want for crimbo, and times a wasting.

The good wife asked me a good while ago what I wanted her to buy for me, I didn't know, which isn't uncommon but generally I think of something (to give to Santa in case Gracie is reading this, fat bastard gets all the credit) sooner or later. But this year I'm struggling.

I'm 30 year old so if I get not much, especially after being a pain in the arse about it, I'm not going to cry. But I'm a blank. It's me and I like gadgets so something electrical is an awesome idea. Do I wanted a tablet, the Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7 are both pretty awesome little machines (wouldn't want to carry a 10" one round) and let's face it my 3 year old netbook is feeling it's age. But would I use it? I think so, especially as I do love my kindle and either could replace/upgrade that on everything except battery life. Possibility.

I did ponder the idea of splitting a Wii U between us (and my birthday) but jesus they're so expensive, even the games are £50 (in Game who you should know my opinion of by now). Cut the price Nintendo, one of the selling points of the original wii was the accessibility and affordability, at least of the basic pack. They still bummed you hard for a remote. So probably not a great idea.

Batman blu-ray set, check.

Ummm apart from that, I could ask for a 360 game, there's a new cheap PS3 out, but I don't really want another console. Something retro? An N64 would rock, but I haven't played the SNES as much as I thought I would, so it could be a dust gatherer. The wife has a 3DS but I can't see me getting the use.

So any ideas anyone, I have gadgety friends, who may or may not read this tripe. What's good?

Running again!

So, how do you spend your lunch hours? Quick pint? Food? Sounds good to me, but lately I've begun using the hour, and the free gym work provides, to get a bit of exercise in!

For the last few weeks, I've been banging in a quick 5km, which let's face it is more than I was doing anyway, not hard to do more than 0! Oh and when I say quick, I'm fully aware than just under 26 minutes isn't quick, I don't mean it like that, was a bit disappointed with yesterdays 5.85km in 30 minutes though.

This year I have 3 events planned:

• Swansea 10k
• Cardiff Half Marathon (21.2km)
• Aberdare 'Demon' Run (8km, but apparently over some nasty terrain)

So as you can imagine running my 5km repeatedly is woefully inadequate, but it's a start, bit of weight may come off so I won't look quite so much like a blimp in a Batman hoodie!

Maybe Val should join me!

Sorry, have to reuse it, love that pic!

Batman (Part 4)

So the Dark Knight Rises has been seen and verified as awesome! No matter where the Batman film franchise goes from here, it's safe to say there are 3 more cracking films to go with the 80s/90s ones. Tom Hardy was as good a Bane as he was a Shinzon (cracking) and bar a few suspensions in belief and one cheesy bit, the film was really good, but you know that as by now you would have seen it too. You haven't? What's wrong with you, get down the cinema. Don't make me come over there...

Anyway, as I said this final post in a stupidly over long series of posts is to do with the aspect of the Batman stuff I've probably spent the most time with, games!

I can only comment on the ones I've owned/played obviously so here we go, I'll start on... SNES!

Batman Returns: It's 1993 and 16 bits rule the gaming world! Movie tie ins were frequent and shitty, but this film was great, could the game be? They took Final Fight (a classic) gave it a Batman skin and a driving stage and voila, awesome game! Good work guys!

It controlled well, looked and sounded good and was fun to play. Can't ask for much more than that! Quite fancy getting it again for my SNES now...

Batman Forever: OK, the film wasn't as good, but use essentially an updated of the game and it'll be ok, surely! Well not quite, this game was more based graphically and by the way it controls on Mortal Kombat and could be a dark, cryptic pain in the arse at times. Still looked ok, but didn't play anywhere near as well.

You'd not quite know where you could walk, enemies would seemingly take a week to put down. Not good at all, a waste after the last game. There was a Batman & Robin game, but I can only imagine the shit that was, I never had a ps1 so never played it.

I had a bit of a gap then, I did play the PS2 Batman Begins briefly and it didn't seem great although not a total write off, nut I never got going on it. Then the games and film went their own ways and we were presented with:

Batman: Arkham Asylum: Mark Hamill is an awesome Joker voice isn't he? And this is an awesome game! Giving Batman an almost open world set up to roam and complete missions in, good, giving him loads of gadgets, doing well, big selection of enemies (Ivy, Joker, Scarecrow, Croc, Bane, Riddler etc) outstanding, the Scarecrow levels being possibly the best thing I've ever played, bonza! I could carry on, for days!

Graphics were good, sound was good, voice acting was superb, the hidden puzzles hard but achievable, that's what I'm talking about! There's something quite satisfying about silently clearing a room of armed 'goons' so they never knew what hit them. 

If you wanted to pick holes, the difficulty wasn't always steady, Croc was a piece of piss for example, and the combat could be got by on through a bit of button mashing, as opposed to learning the various tricks that are available, but some would say in that way the game is what you make it.

Not played this? For shame, get on with it, and get the 3d version. Bound to be cheap by now.

Then there was:

Batman: Arkham City: I know, lets take Arkham Asylum, work of art as it is and ramp it up so it's bigger, more headline bad guys, more puzzles, more gadgets etc... ummmm ok then!

Arkham City is essentially the same as Asylum only bigger and better. The plot is superbly written, there's so much to do (maybe too much with the riddler trophies). I'm sure I've gone on about it before so I won't overly extend this blog.

Some of the same moans exist, the fighting is similar in particular. You get variable characters, this time you get to play as Bruce Wayne (yes I know), Batman, Catwoman and (in an expansion) Robin in the main story. This then becomes the exception that proves the rule that Robin spoils everything.

Going forward? There are cliffhangers in Arkham City so a 3rd game is inevitable, I for one welcome it as it'll be awesome. Just hope it's not next gen though, I'm not keen on shelling out for new hardware. 

Anyway, lets leave it there, no more Batman I promise!

Batman! (Part 3)

Part 1: http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/batman-part-1.html

Part 2: http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/batman-part-2.html

Time for the modern films!

It's Batman eve, for me, I'm not seeing The Dark Knight Rises until Sunday, but there have been people in midnight showings, early ones tomorrow, Saturday etc and if any one of you gives me even the slightest hint of a spoiler I promise I'll go postal. (This has since happened)

So anyway back to the point I started making about 2 days ago...

Batman Begins: Reboot! Turn it off and back on again time! Batman Begun some time ago I hear you (me) cry, well the name refers to the plot more than anything which essentially is a origin story for the Bat. It was touched on in Batman how he got pissed off to the point where he donned a rubber suit, spent gazillions on gadgets and kicked ass, but this film is far more detailed, including his training, trying to give us more of an idea of Waynes past. Fair enough. Then he kicks some behind and it all goes well... ish.

Dark themed Batman is definitely back, and thank science for that. Sadly it appears new Batman, Christian Bale:

Had some kind of throat infection before filming his suited up scenes, giving him a kind of gravelly, almost John Connor-y sound to his voice...(The woeful Terminator Salvation was much later, I'm being nasty and that was still better than Batman and Robin).

As part of my Dark Knight Rises prep, I of course revisited this and it stands up as a good film easily, and fixed the... issues caused by BnR. To be a worthwhile franchise it needed a reboot and the style on display here is plentiful., Nolans direction is good and while not my favourite (we've been through this) Bale is a good Batman, if a smarmy and not always comfortable Bruce Wayne.

Liam Neeson is a good, if miss-pronounced Ra's Al Ghul and he'll be back in the finalé. The other choice of enemy is both random and genius, Scarecrow is one of my favourites and works well here (works even better in one of the games, but that's for later on). Victor Zsasz (mis-spelt Zsaz, honestly the continuity checker was the weakest person on the film) is on screen but only plays a brief part of the film, maybe he needed to... 'sit down' (5 bonus points if you get that).

Good start to a new series, trilogy if you will. If only the first films had been a trilogy hey!

The Dark Knight: First up, a great viral marketing campaign, the use of the Joker was outstanding and sadly cut short for reasons I don't need to go into.

Who wouldn't want to see a film advertised by that??

Heath Ledger was outstanding as Joker, and while the Oscar was pushed by circumstance, you'd struggle to justify a reason why he didn't deserve it. Two face is also used, but quite clumsily. The Dent character is well developed, but the CG a bit stupid (how does he talk exactly), but lets face against, against Tommy Lee Jones' effort, it's outstanding. Scarecrow is also back very briefly.

The film itself is once again well written and directed and the ending was wonderfully set up for a further film. It makes the claim that they were dubious about making a third hard to believe.

I have to be upgrading to blu rays of these, my Batman Begins doesn't even work...

Going on then...

The Dark Knight Rises: I'm not as oblivious to detail as I'd like, thanks to people who will be unfollowed, blocked and preferably kicked in person etc on twitter as soon as I've seen the film and I log in next. But tomorrow (well today now) I will see the film and conclude the trilogy, it's going to be awesome.

There is a part 4, nothing on TDKR, only dick give spoilers, it'll cover games!

Batman! (Part 2)

And so I go on, and on, and on....


Following me covering the 60's, 80's and first 90's film in part 1 (which can be found http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/batman-part-1.html <--- there) let's move on and cover the rest of the 90s!


Batman Forever: No Michael Keaton? This isn't a good start is it? As I said previously Keaton is my favourite, so you should have worked out I see this as a negative. So who took over...

Val Kilmer... looking good Val!!


The villains were a very mixed bag, in the shit corner we had two-face, Tommy Lee Jones, giving one of the most over the top and uncomfortable performances of his career. In previous instalments Harvey Dent had been played by Billy Dee Williams, but they paid him off to cast a bigger name (Calrissian is a pretty big name), I think they should have left him do it.


In the awesome corner Jim Carrey as the Riddler, giving one of the most over the top and somehow just right performances of his career. To a point it's maybe a little true he was just essentially playing himself dressed as the Riddler, but it worked in the generally over the top setting Joel Schumacher had chosen to take the franchise.

The plot is further 'out there'than the previous too films, which plays into Carrey well, but doesn't sit well with Tommy at all. Val Kilmer is... ok, and obviously not as... porky... as above and then film introduces Robin (Dick Grayson version)! Rule of thumb with many things, Robin spoils them and he doesn't go well here, but he goes a damn site better than in the next film.


Overall, it's a step down from the first 2 'modern' films, but it's still fun to watch, I'd have rather they stuck to the dark Batman films, kept Keaton and Burton, but key ho. It could get worse.


And it did...


Batman and Robin: What the mother fuck is this shit?


Who thought this was a good idea? Who was at the script writers/casting meeting and OK'd the ideas:

• Arnie plays Mr Freeze and delivers 80% of his dialogue via the medium of cheesy pun.

• George Clooney is Batman??!?!?!?

• Robin worked so well, let's make him even more moody and annoying, and wait, let's introduce Batgirl as well... that'll alloy Alicia Silverstone to give possibly the worst performance by anyone... in anything... ever. But not the normal Batgirl/Oracle, well change the name and back story a bit so it fits better.

• Bane? We'll just turn him into a almost mute moron who just follows an overacting Uma Thurman, who's making Tommy Lee Jones effort look like an oscar winner, round like a puppy. Let's be thankful The Dark Knight Rises hasn't taken that approach to one of the best recently created DC villains.

• A Bat Credit Card?? Yeah I love product placement, it really enhances my viewing experience... 

It's like people only do these things because they can get paid. And that's just really sad. 

• A Robin signal?????

Look at them, what the fuck is that supposed to be, and what's Robin wearing? Why do the men have nipples but not the woman? Who designed this shite?

I made myself sit through this as part of watching Batman to prepare for Batman. My tweets during were more like a cry for help.

The film killed the Batman franchise in this form, it took the best part of a decade and a reboot to save it. But luckily that reboot was pretty damn good, but I wanna go bed now so I'll do them tomorrow. 

Batman! (Part 1)

Of all the superheroes created by graphic artists/geeks/propaganda campaigns over the years, I can honestly say Batman is my favourite and by some distance.

So, with The Dark Knight Rises due out on Friday and my IMAX tickets booked for Sunday (baby permitting) I thought I'd share my thoughts on stuff he's been in, today... films!

He had been represented on screen many times over the years with a varying degree of success. I'm ignoring the 1940s serials, as I've not seen them, and I'm ignoring animated stuff as there's bastard loads of them and I can't be arsed.

Anyway to the 60's!

Batman: The 60s TV series is a thing of legend, its was good fun and spawned a 1966 feature length version, which wasn't great quality, but is fun to watch and contains some very funny scenes, particularly the 'Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!' line

Genius!!

Adam West was... special as Batman and will always have that kind of funny/campy interpretation to himself, it fitted the tone of the series and the time perfectly. The series itself is still very watchable and will remain so, the film struggled quite a bit and is relatively poor, feeling like an episode stretched out for twice the length.

The film just had a blu-ray release, £8 on amazon. It is tempting... Very tempting...

Batman (1989): Enough of fun Batman, this was the birth of 'dark' Batman, and good it was too! Michael Keaton was and will always be my favourite Batman, he plays off the bit of a rich cock Bruce Wayne and the moody Batman superbly and Jack as the Joker isn't bad either!

The plot is good, the casting and acting bang on. Tim Burton does a fine job directing, as to be fair he usually does. The film came out when I was a massive 7 and it was one of the films I grew up watching, that may make me slightly biased towards it (and it's sequel, but patience), but everything here felt right

Some would moan that Batman kills in this film, where in the comics he doesn't. Well he used too, so maybe that's hankering back to old comics. Yeah that'll do. And the fact the joker has a name? Shouldn't really happen, but hey, minor points.

So... have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

Batman Returns: 3 years later and Keaton was back for the sequel, and in my opinion the best of all the Batman films. I'm not entirely sure where Batman was returning from, but he did indeed return!

Penguin and Catwoman provide the enemies, but hats off to a stand out performance from Christopher Walken as Max Shreck, the man's awesome.

Look at him, he even looks deranged!

The plot is darker than the first film and was considered more mature at the time, but it's still good comic book action. Having 2 (well 3 with Max) super villains working together made it a bit more frantic. It had some memorable scenes, my favourite being the, 'It could be worse, my nose could be gushing blood' line!

Go on Danny, take a bite!

Once again under Burton's direction everything about the film works and feel right, the dark tone suits Keaton perfectly. All of the positives of the first film carry over, and while neither De Vito or Pfeiffer play it as well as Jack, combined they work just as well.

This is my favourite and while Friday's release has the potential to take over, it's a tall order. Who knows!

The 4 Blu-Ray boxset of the first 4 films is justified by these 2 alone, they are superb films and the standard all superhero films that followed has to live up too.

Anyway that's all I can be arsed with for today, part 2 tomorrow (or Thursday) and there will be swearing as I venture into Kilmer/Clooney territory...

Avengers

I like my superhero films, and while my first loyalty will always be to DC (mainly due to Batman being my fav superhero by a distance), I've got time for Marvel even though some of the films have hit n miss.

There has been years of build up to The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble if you will as us Brits are too thick to distinguish between it and the horrific 1998 The Avengers or indeed the 60's TV series) in the form of the previously mentioned films, Thor, Captain America, 2 Iron Men and one of the Hulks (I think the first one didn't count) and that mean allot of money spent on it so far, and indeed allot of money taken! This thing had to be good.

They got Joss Whedon to write/direct, always a good sign (even if it has seemingly delayed/killed Dr Horrible 2) got the cast back from the set of earlier films (except Ed Norton, replaced with Mark Ruffalo who was much better anyway) all was set. I paid my rough-value-of-a-kidney for my 3D tickets and myself and the wife ventured onwards.

2 and a bit hours later... result, awesome film!

The whole was greater than the sum of it's parts by some distance, the dynamic between the characters (particularly Cap and Tony Stark) was excellent, it has plenty of action, more humour than the last 3 Police Academy films combined. Joss rarely lets down with a script... ahem and he hasn't here. The acting was excellent, it contains Samuel L. That's always an endorsement (I've had it with these motherfuckin' Avengers on this motherfuckin' helicarrier), Downey Jr if anything was even more smarmy and arrogant here than in his own films, Ruffalo should have the part regularly from here on in, Hemsworth was good, better than he was in Home and Away anyway, Jeremy Renner was excellent as Hawkeye and Evans was... the same. Combine that with Hiddlestone being an excellent antagonist and you're on to a winner.

I rarely think films need 3D but to be fair while there were cheap stuff-blowing-up-at-the-screen shots, most of it was just for effect and actually helped the action sequenced. Supporting the claim it wasn't shot in 3D, but was changed in production. Although that still makes me question where the cheap shots came from, it must've been in the back of Joss' mind at least.

The ending implied sequel and I've no doubt there will be. There's already an Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 confirmed (wow they didn't get killed in the film then, of course they didn't, it's Disney) and I hope there will be. I'm even looking forward to Iron Man 3 a bit, Thor 2 not so much.

No plot spoilers in here, it's not even out over in North America yet (lol) but it's a really good film I'm immensely looking forward to owning the Blu-Ray of (crimbo maybe?).

I'd still rather a justice League film, yes their name is awful, but they have Batman!

Go watch!

Holy can't breathe Batman!

I've done some classy things in my time, but ending up in a welfare point in Swansea being attended too by paramedics, while dressed as Batman on Saturday night, that's gotta rank up there!

Among my many medical problems I'm asthmatic, but it's not that bad any more. Therefore last Saturday when struggling for pocket space (as there weren't any) in my fancy dress costume (wallet, phone, keys etc were located in a running belt round my waist) my inhaler was due to be passed to a pocketed up friend to carry. Downside was I forgot all about that while leaving, and so it remained in my mates house while I sped down the A465.

I realised this quite quickly, but thought, "Oh well, I won't need it anyway". Ha! Wrong motherfucker!

Anyway, it was a cracking night, we were looking classy as a group, someone even dressed up as Kato (just with the wrong hat), even though he was claiming to be the Green Hornet, his hat was white and his mask black...

Look how classy we looked!

Just need to teach Robin an appropriate superhero pose!

Anyway, it got too 12:45 or so and we hit Reflex as we usually do, but by this point I'd been struggling slightly with my chest for maybe 20 minutes, and was getting increasingly aware of it. Few minutes later I went for the door to get some fresh air, was hanging round there, where one mate spotted me and came to see what the issue was (Kato), I explained the situation and was soon joined by another (Mr Incredible), before I know it the 3 of us are marching up Wind Street in search of assistance.

Thanks to the sober Kato, and my insistence nobody calls 999, we located the said van and come 1:10 I was sat on a nebuliser (it''s been a while) regaining the ability to breathe! My blood o2 dropped to below 92% and I've soreness still now from struggling to breathe for so long, plus the cold weather etc. Bradley Edwards and Kevin Marsh, I owe grand style.

From there I hit McDonalds then got the bus home, eventful evening on the whole.

The weirdest part, most people seemed to think it was quite normal for:

• Batman
• Robin
• Superman
• Captain America (although there was no shield)
• Bananaman
• The Joker
• Kato
• Mr Incredible 

To be wandering round. Odd place Swansea :)

That represented the mid-section of my birthday weekend. Previously on the Friday I'd had a particularly excellent meal in Crickhowell. 20oz rump steak was awesome, large and awesome and last night, until snow coverage scared us home we were in Britain's Got Talent auditions (not preforming) and let's be fair, it was very average, but the, surprisingly chav-heavy, crowd cheered when the production staff wanted them too etc

Anyway, I better change the bio bit to say 30!

The whole world's a stage...

I'm going to be on TV!

Yesterday, around lunch time, my phone rang... 'Blocked' it said. I thought... no... can it be? The last time that appeared on my phone it was a producer from Pointless telling me (and of course Boucheron, teams of 2) that we'd passed the audition to appear on the show.

I eagerly answered the phone, hoping.. but expecting for some fecker to try and sell my mobile insurance or something. But no, it was good news that come the end of February our presence is requested to appear on the latest series of Pointless. Where of course we will smash it...

Now I've been on TV before, I was on fifteen-to-one as a bright eye'd and slightly gormless 18 year old, and was promptly dumped out in the first round. But I went to that with zero expectations, knowing that sonme of the people on that show could hand me my arse in a quiz, and as it was a quiz, my arse was promptly handed to me.

I (possibly) was in a crowd scene in Doctor Who once (The Vote Saxon episode) and I was on the Sport Wales in the background playing dodgeball once. Great stuff.

But this time, if the subjects fall OK etc, I think there's a possibility of us doing well. Who knows! Either way you'll be able to see our humiliation, or indeed rise to power in May type time on BBC1. I won't be able to tell anyone how we've done before it goes on air, or BBC snipers will find me and slay me deadshot style.

Only downside I can see is the rather strict wardrobe requirements, 5 outfits of particular styles and colours, now I'm a simple man (not that kind of simple) and honestly I don't own 5 outfits that meet this criteria, I barely own 5 outfits, so some shopping is required.

I am picking up my fancy dress costume for Saturday nights festivities (look out Swansea a minibus of superheroes is on route...) would a Batman outfit be good for use on the show? No? Well at least I asked!

3 days left til 30...

Nearly 30...

It's my birthday soon! (Cards are welcome, cash direct to my paypal account encouraged...)

This birthday will leave me ending with a zero, so it's a slightly bigger deal than the previous few birthdays and means I'll hit 30. As a result of the numerical magnitude, death of my youth, onset of middle age, etc, it has been decided to expand on my traditional few pints round town to visit the fair city of Abertawe, is there a theme? Of course it is... 80s cartoon characters (as I, and indeed they, were born in the 80s, see.. you follow??).

This leaves me with a dilemma, who do I go as, I've got ideas but they all feel a little obvious. Count Duckula, He Man, nothing is inspiring me at all. It has to be a male, the last twice I've ventured out on the wonderful lad of Wind Street I've been in a dress n tights... not this time! Even though it has to be said, I do have the legs to pull it off.

As well as my brick wall on ideas, I also have friends who are very good at this kind of thing, and who do put the effort in. This then pushes everyone else on to try, or else look stupid! A good effort will be made by my good self, I just don't know what yet.

What even counts? Does stuff such as Batman (yes I'm aware of the tights situation), which was a cartoon pre-80s but with some produced pre-80s too count? Ghostbusters? Bill n Ted? Cartoons, but ripped off from films? Who knows hey! The Simpsons was actually first produced in 1989, technically...

So any ideas are most welcome, I've currently got a massive 15 days til it's time so I better get my arse in gear. 

Gears of War 3

I quite enjoyed the England v Wales football match the other night, chalk another one under battling defeat for the records. Good for reputation, bad for ranking. But for me the highlight of the broadcast was the half time Gears of War 3 trailer, it may not have been overly representative of gameplay but it looked damn good.

I got onto xbox quite late on, when I bought my 360 Gears 1 was quite an old game, well thought of but old, and Gears 2 had been out for a bit. I quickly acquired the second game 2nd hand completed it and then went back to the first one, which I never really got going on. But I've played enough to make me quite eager to get my hands on the third (and apparently final) chapter.

Similarly to the other games to catch my interest that are forthcoming, the story seems particularly good here, and has been knocked up by an experienced writer on the series. I like a good story and have also found myself quite interested  by Modern Warfare 3 and Arkham City for the same reasons, and 'cos Batman is cool innit. (Well I say cool, you know what I actually mean)

Also though, Gears 2 had a cracking online section. It's not too often I play online multiplayer, as I find it annoying and generally I suck. But Horde mode was a thing of beauty, and I clocked hours on it (as well as deathmatch etc) and I fully intend to try it out again, along with the reverse mode where you play as locust attacking cogs for a change.

If anyone does fancy a game I'm on live as: eternalcymru don't be shy.

So come September 20th, not far away now I'll either be waiting for my pre-order to be delivered or in Tesco at midnight (who knows, I live life so close to the edge anything could happen)