Things I Did Yesterday 23/08/08

Strike a light Guv, yesterday I:

- Played catch-up on a number of admin things, just so I was able to feel like something positive had been achieved from the day. Sat back with a satisfied feeling, then ran out the door to catch a couple of movies. Didn't clean the kitchen. Oops.

- Saw Wall-E, which I thought was very good, but falls short of being great. Its problem lies in the fact that for the first 30 minutes or so you feel like you're watching something quite special. The almost wordless storytelling, the vision of this toxic future earth, it is, no word of a lie, amazing. I appreciate that the movie needed to progress beyond this, but everything that happens once they go into space just feels like a standard kids film. Which is all fine and entertaining, but it just doesn't live up to the promise of the first part. Still recommended, but doesn't quite topple The Incredibles as my favourite Pixar flick.

- Saw Hellboy 2, which was lots of fun. Not perfect by any means, but better than the first one. As I was watching it, the film's willingness to be a bit playful while still handling serious material really brought to mind the biggest problem with The Dark Knight: it's so bloody joyless. Hellboy's other great strength is that it's made by one the great visionary directors working today. Del Toro's commercial films always suffer a little in comparison to his more personal works, but even Blade 2 looked gorgeous.

- Met up with folks for Billy's stag night. I stuck to the red wine and had a pleasant drunk buzz going, and the company was good, so a fun night in the end, despite some dodgy pub choices. :-)

- Dreamt I was at a job interview, waiting to be seen by the panel. For some reason I was behind a curtain, which opened to reveal glaring, multi-coloured lights. Three women were seated in front of what I now realised was a stage, and with horror I looked down to find myself dressed in chaps and a thong. Slightly lost, I began to gyrate around the pole that sat in the centre of the stage. Not sure what it means.