I had the fortune to get tickets for the evening show of ‘The Dark Knight’ on IMAX yesterday even though it was the day of release here. I went along with 4 other friends, one of whom managed to get the tickets for the rest of us.

All of us were quite excited to watch the highly anticipated movie and I must say that it wasnt a let down.

I’m going to try and make this review as spoiler free as possible so as not to spoil the movie for the ones who havent watched it yet.

The movie was action packed from the very beginning and didnt waste anytime in doing unnecessary introductions. The immediate flurry of activity from the starting of the movie ensured that the audience were hooked on to it and didnt lose interest in the movie. All the action scenes in the movie were very well executed and contained minimal flaw, if any. The scenes involving the Tumbler and the newly introduced ‘Bat-Bike’ were extremely well shot and the use of the futuristic weapons and technology in both the vehicles kept everyone gaping in amazement at them.

The story of the movie started off fairly straightforward but slowly skewed off at a complicated tangent by introducing new elements and people which would’ve confused the average movie goer. It was still understandable but only by paying careful attention to what was going on and even if you missed out on one vital scene, you would be completely lost. I personally felt that the story was alright but my only worry was that they have left the ending in a such a situation that they would have to terribly complicate the plot of next movie to guarantee an acceptable conclusion for the series . Spiderman 3 was ruined in a similar way and I sincerely hope that the director and script-writers have some tricks up their sleeves so that the dont ruin the movie.

Acting performances in the movie were excellent. The late Heath Ledger did an excellent job in portraying the Joker as the psychopathic mad maniac he was and his talent will be sorely missed in the next movie. Christian Bale’s acting was very good as well, switching from the gentle Bruce Wayne to the vicious Batman smoothly. Morgan Freeman is a genius and I dont I really have to sing any more words of praise about his talent, he is a natural actor and can pull off any role with expertise. Credit has also to be given to Aaron Eckhart for his performance as Harvey Dent and Two Face, the latter being slightly scary due to the overdone visual effects.

Cinematography was highly impressive with the chase camera angles for the scenes with the Tumbler and Bat-Bike. The aerial angles were some of the best I’ve seen and I was thoroughly impressed by them. The audio was good, although I felt that the addition of the extra bass to Batman’s voice was a but annoying after sometime. Nevertheless, the extra bass reassured the audience that Batman was ‘the man’ and you would be stupid to mess with him.

Overall, one of better action movies I’ve seen in awhile and I would definitely recommend this to Batman fans. If you are not familiar with the Batman world, you might find the story confusing but it is still worth watching for the great action sequences. 8.5/10.

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On Tuesday Night, I had the chance to go and watch the filming of the Graham Norton Show live in London, thanks to a friend who managed to get 4 tickets.

The show started at about 1845 but we had to get there by 1800 so that we could seated in time. We had priority tickets which allowed us to jump a majority of the queue. The show kicked off on time with a warm up presenter who was quite funny and introduced us to the various elements of the filming of the show. After his brief talk, Graham Norton himself came onto the stage and went on about this slightly disgusting but funny story of his previous weekend. With that story done, the main show was about to start, the title music started playing and we saw Norton come to the stage again but with much more of a spin and style to his walk this time.

The filming of the show lasted for 2 hours but we didnt even feel the time pass by. The guests of the show were Oscar winning French actress Juliette Binoche and chef extraordinaire Gordon Ramsay. The entire show was hilarious had the whole audience laughing their hearts out. The fact that the show is based, not on just interviewing the guests but several different elements as well, makes it very humorous and doesnt get boring. At the beginning of the show, Juliette seemed a bit lost and Gordon seemed to enjoy discreetly making fun of the French which she didnt understand. But over the course of the show, she realised that it wasnt a straightforward interview show and joined in on the fun which made it even more enjoyable.

One of the first things that struck me when I walked into the studio, was the lighting system. There were about 100 different lights hanging from the ceiling, each affecting the overall lighting of the show a little. I was overwhelmed by these spectacular and spent a good amount of time simple examining them and the accessories they had. The cameras used were very impressive as well. They had around 5 cameras on the ground and one camera on the crane. Watching all the crew do their job made me realise that Graham Norton is only a small part of the show and that a huge amount of effort goes into making each episode.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience which we finished off with a great meal at Chinatown.

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We had planned for months to watch the movie in its day of release and successfully stuck to the plan by going to the evening show on Friday. I also got a chance to use my free ticket which I got at U2 3D to watch the movie.

The movie was totally awesome, it is one of more ‘manly’ movies I’ve watched in a long time. There werent too many scenes with Iron Man in them but that also kept us anticipating his appearance more. The story is quite good but it could’ve been improved, I guess thats what sequels are for. The story wasnt smooth in its progression, as in, it had moments where everything seemed to happen quickly and times when it was slow. But that was only a small drawback in the movie.

The character of Iron Man/Tony Stark was very well portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., he seemed to fit into the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man perfectly. The humourous side of him combined with a serious business outlook and the charm of a playboy all went well together and the performance by Downey has to be applauded. Iron Man is shown as a ‘cool’ superhero who can pretty much achieve anything he wants.

The quantity of visual effects in the movie is probably less when compared to other modern movies but the quality is impeccable and well executed. The action scenes make you feel right inside the movie and have an excellent soundtrack to back them up.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and will probably watch it again given the chance. And also make sure you stay right upto the very end of all the credits for a scene with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Tony Stark. The movie gets 8.75/10.

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Last week has been quite hectic with essays to give in, last minute paper work to be done, etc, before leaving for the Easter break. We have one solid month of vacation which is pretty good although can also be a reason for boredom. I, however, will most probably manage to rid the boredom since I will travelling to different places around the United Kingdom over the next 2-3 weeks.

I had to write and submit a 2500 word essay for Politics which was okay. I got the results for my Economic Analysis test and Intro to Economics assignment results and I got 99 and 72 respectively. I had to attend several society annual general meetings since it was the end of term. I was elected to the position of Vice President for the Politics Society for next year.

After a bit of a hassle, I received my printer yesterday. It is a Canon Selpy CP 330 and is truly portable in the way that it has a battery and can be used to print directly from the camera wherever you are. Its quite compact and is pretty fast too. It is a Dye Sub printer and uses a thermal technology to print instead of inks which is what makes it portable. It can print upto 4*6 which I think is enough for quick prints. The print quality is excellent too, with vivid colors and sharpness.  And on a side note, I have to thank ebuyer.com for their excellent service since they collected the first faulty printer I received and sent me a new one the next day.

I watched a couple of movies, ‘The Fifth Element‘ and ‘A Scanner Darkly‘ and both have their own positive and negative points. ‘The Fifth Element‘ had a pretty crazy storyline but I still liked it a lot, it had a good blend of Sci fi and comedy which is something you dont see often. And with Bruce Willis added to that, there is now way it can go wrong. ‘A Scanner Darkly‘ had some really amazing visuals, great work by the animators. They had to edit each frame of the movie individually and it must have take a lot of effort and dedication to do it. I cant say I liked the story too much though, it was okay, but a bit too weird for my liking. ‘The Fifth Element‘ is a must watch for any Bruce Willis or Sci Fi fan while people who like movies with a new feel will enjoy ‘A Scanner Darkly‘.

University life has been good the past term and probably better than the first term since I’d met so many more people and was involved in several activities. I’m looking forward to the vacation, one, for the break (deserved or not) and two, for the vast photographic opportunities.

Have a Good Friday and Great Easter!

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Mind blowing.

We were running late for the movie since the bus was stuck in traffic, when we bought the tickets, we were already 10 minutes late. But when we went into the cinema hall, they said that they were having some ‘technical problems’ and would be ready in a few minutes. And while we were waiting, they gave us free drinks, which was quite nice of them. And soon, just before the movie started, there was a Star Wars titles style text going across the screen. At first, we didnt know what it was for but after looking at the couple a few rows in front of us, we realized that the girl was proposing to the guy. The guy was obviously surprised but also definitely impressed by the Star Wars style text and agreed. And it turned out that the so-called ‘technical problems’ was the problem of getting the proposal movie to the run.

The movie then started, or rather, the concert started. The 3D effects were great, I could feel the excitement in the air. The movie was composed using footage taken at the Vertigo concert in Sao Paulo. All of the footage was taken using the largest collection of 3-D camera technology ever assembled for a single project. The movie is 85 minutes long but more than 100 hours of raw footage was edited through to get the perfect final movie. But personally, I didnt feel like anything was edited out, the whole 85 minutes felt like a complete concert experience. The camera angles used were perfect and the composing of every single frame was done in such a way to ensure that you felt like you were there. At times, when Bono stared directly at me and offered his hand, I felt that I could reach out to him and grab his outstretched hand. The 3D titles and text flying through the screen during the last couple of songs were pretty spectacular.

The sound was great, with a near-perfect surround sound system. I could see that a lot of effort had been put into the editing to ensure that the location of the sound and the location on the screen were co-ordinated. The audio was very realistic and several times during the movie, I forgot that I was in a theatre and felt that I was in a U2 concert. And at one specific shot when the entire audience was shown jumping in rhythm with the music, I felt the impulse to start jumping too. I caught myself singing the lyrics out loud quite a few times during the movie but didnt bother to stop and kept singing. My favorite songs were ‘Where the streets have no name’ and ‘With or without’, I did like the other songs too, but I have to say that I’m more of a fan of some of the older songs by U2.

I would say that it was as good as a concert, the positive part being that I got a better look at the band than I would’ve at a real concert and I didnt feel tired at the end of it, and the negative part being the fact that I wasnt at a real concert and didnt have the physical experience of a concert. I would not mind watching more concerts or movies shot in a similar way. It is as close as you can get to U2 without going a real concert, and is definitely worth the watch, for both die hard U2 fans like me, and even the casual listener to U2 songs. And even if you dont like U2, you could watch the movie for the 3D experience and might start liking them after this. It gets 8.75/10.

And on a side note, we got one free ticket each for any movie we wanted to watch in the future and also got the keep the 3D glasses.

Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam, you guys are legends. U2 forever!

You can read more reviews and information about the movie here, here and here.

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This week has been quite productive. My Economic Analysis test went on great and it was one of the several positive points of the week. I took photos of a few matches for the University newsletter for next week’s issue, and in last week’s issue, they had the photo I took of ‘The Twang’ and also gave me full credit for it. I did a presentation about France in my Politics class and I thought that it was pretty good, seeing that nobody else has bothered to make a Powerpoint except for me.

I finished reading ‘Bravo Two Zero‘ by Andy McNab, its a book about a SAS mission into Iraq to disable some Scud launchers, and how they caught before they could do anything, and the torture and pain they went through before finally getting back, minus 3 dead comrades. It’s a fast paced book, and hard to believe that its a true story. Reading it is quite an experience, and gives you the feeling of what it is like to be in a battlefield. It makes you realize what soldiers go through for our safety. A definite must read by fans of action books.

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I watched ‘Scarface’ last night. I’d say the movie was good but I personally didnt like Tony Montana too much, he is bad-ass, agreed, but probably a bit too bad-ass for my liking. It probably was also a letdown because I expected better of Montana, to be a better human being than he actually is. I took down the poster of Scarface in my room, I dont think Montana deserved the spot. The wall looks a bit empty now, but I have another poster in mind.

I’ve added the LibraryThing widget on the left side, it displays random books covers from the library of books that I’ve read. And thats it for now, I hope that the coming week will be good too.

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These are my 6 7 favorite dialogues from English movies in no specific order. I may have missed out some better ones but these are the ones that come to my mind right now. Some of the quotes have been linked to videos depicting the quotes in the respective movies.

Jon Heder - Napoleon Dynamite
“You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills… Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.”

Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett Brown - Back to the Future
“If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour… you’re gonna see some serious shit.”

Gerard Butler as King Leonidas - 300
“Madness…? THIS… IS… SPARTA!”

Kevin Kline as William Hundert - The Emperor’s Club
“Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance. What will your contribution be? How will history remember you?”

Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Terminator
“I’ll be back”

Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne - The Shawshank Redemption
“Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty - Catch me if you can
“Carl Hanratty: Well, would you like to hear me tell a joke?
Earl Amdursky: Yeah. Yeah, we’d love to hear a joke from you.
Carl Hanratty: Knock knock.
Earl Amdursky: Who’s there?
Carl Hanratty: Go fuck yourselves.”

Adam Sandler as Michael Newman - Click
“Donna Newman: Will you still love me in the morning?
Michael Newman: Forever and ever, babe”

Added by readers -

Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
“Will Turner: We’re going to steal a ship? That ship?
Jack Sparrow: Commandeer. We’re going to commandeer that ship. Nautical term.”
(Thanks to Ravish Shah for the above dialogue)

If you feel that I may have missed out on some good ones, please feel free to post them in the comments.

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We went to the cinema today to watch Sweeney Todd, a relatively new movie since it released only 2 days ago in the UK. The film is a part musical and part movie, which is an interesting combination.

The story of the movie is fairly simple, Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) is a barber who gets falsely sent to prison by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), who falls in love with Barker’s wife. Barker returns to London after 15 years, and adopts a new name, Sweeney Todd. He meets an old friend, Mrs.Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who owns a derelict pie shop, and agrees to help him get revenge on the judge. Todd then proves his skills as a barber in a street shaving competition with Pirelli (Sacha Baron Cohen) and establishes himself as a credible barber in town. The rest of the story is about how he gets his revenge on the judge, murdering several people along the way. I’ve only mentioned the main plot of the movie but there are a couple of more sub-plots in the movie, which add to the numerous twists in the plot. These plots include one about a sailor boy falling in love with the Judge’s daughter, who is infact, Todd’s daughter and another one, which, if I reveal will probably spoil the movie for you.

Since it is part musical, there were several scenes where the characters start singing the dialogue lines. The background music during these singing scenes, was perfectly co-ordinated with the sights and sounds of the scene. I did not enjoy these scenes too much, but some of my friends felt otherwise.

The look of the movie was just spectacular. It appears as if almost the whole movie was converted to HDR (High dynamic range) which definitely enhanced the atmosphere of the locations. The post processing of the entire movie was very well done and was successful in giving the look of old London, and along with the well made sets, it looked great.

Generally, many people usually don’t pay much attention to the make up in movies, but the make-up work in this movie specifically caught my eye as it was done in a manner where it did not look freaky but still seemed unnatural . The blood, however, in my opinion did not look too real, and I felt that it looked a bit too red.

Cinematography was absolutely prefect in every situation, always maintaining an innovative angle yet retaining the detail in the scene.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie, and was quite impressed by the cinematography. It is a good movie, recommended for fans of blood, musicals and Johnny Depp.

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I went to the local Odeon yesterday with a couple of friends and watched my first movie in a theatre in England, ‘The Darjeeling Limited‘. As the title suggests, a majority of the movie takes place in India, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to watch it. It stars Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody, the writer guy from King Kong and Jason Schwartzman, whose face looked very familiar. We went to the theatre expecting a hilarious comedy but it turned to be a drama comedy, with more emphasis on the drama side and having subtle jokes here and there. Personally, I liked the movie since I got to see India but I doubt my friends felt the same.

The story is about three brothers who go to India to have a ’spiritual experience’ but they have a totally different experience, in a plot filled with weird and amusing twists and somewhat achieve what they wanted to. I loved the soundtrack of the movie, it had songs of varying genres but all of them were blended together perfectly.

But should you watch the movie? I dont know many people who would like the movie but if you like subtle humour mixed with drama and a sense of seriousness, and most importantly, if you like India, you’ll enjoy this movie. But this movie will definitely not appeal to the average everyday moviegoer.

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I watched two excellent movies over the last week. The first one was ‘The Shawshank Redemption‘ which has to be one of the best movies I’ve ever watched. There was never a moment of lull in the movie and had a great storyline. Every single minute of the movie was worth watching and it’s been quite awhile since I’ve watched such an epic movie.

The second one was the Oscar winning movie ‘Crash‘ which was also a mind-blowing movie. The plot twists and turns wildly but does not confuse the viewer. The photography of the movie is near perfect and emotions depicted were very natural and I must appreciate all the actors of the movie. It definitely deserved the Oscar.

With the help of a friend, I managed to make a reflector for my flash, which was basically a sheet of aluminium foil on cardboard. It worked quite well, but I’m yet to test it completely.

I went gliding today, and the first thing I noticed on the airfield that it was very very cold. And the constant wind only made matters worse. The sky was quite gloomy too, and it looked like the conditions couldn’t get any worse. However, this did not deter us and we went ahead with gliding. Today was quite a large leap for me from last week, and I was given complete control of the glider right after take-off and I even landed twice, with a little assistance. It was a great feeling, having complete control over the glider and the freedom to go wherever I wanted to. As a bonus, we got to see an Apache doing some routine checks. We finished our session a little early today, due to the unfavourable weather and had an equally good time playing on classic arcade pinball.

Today is also the birthday of our flatmate, Sam, and I wish him a Happy Birthday!

Update - I have done some updates to the site, the most noticeable being the new widgets on the right side. The first allows you to be updated with the latest photograph of my 365 Day Project and the second displays famous quotes. The other changes are internal bug fixes, etc. Feedback invited.

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