Cinema: January 2007 Archives

After a night of beer I was feeling quite groggy this morning when Tino picked me up. He got me to Warner Brothers for around 930 am, so I was able to regain my energy by gulping down a couple of coffees in Starbucks (I seem to be spending a lot of time in Starbucks... ). The studio tour was absolutely incredible. While I took the "short" two and half hour tour, there is also a longer one which lasts about 5 hours or so. After today I am seriously considering forking over the extra cash to take it. Why? Because it is amazing. I can't think of suitable adjectives to describe it. I keep on coming up with silly words like "awesome" or "cool", which really don't do justice to the experience. While I did get to see plenty during the tour the lot is huge, so going back for a longer tour would be really worth it. If I was a Gilmore Girls fan I'd have been in 7th heaven, as we got to see them filming (albeit from a safe, off camera, distance). The bat mobile driven by Christian Bale was probably one of the morning's highlights, so I tried to take as many photos as possible. I only wish I had a better camera, as some of the photos came out looking pretty awful and I wasn't able to get the right kind of views.. (note to self - buy a better camera) What really amazed me was how passionate the staff of WB are. They seem to really love their jobs. Needless to say I did succumb to temptation in the gift shop and am now the proud owner of several branded tshirts, keyrings etc., I've added a few of today's photos to my Flickr stream

Yesterday I started my day with coffee and croissants in Starbucks, courtesy of Jason from Alertsite who had sent me a Starbucks' card before I left Ireland. I wandered around the forecourt of the Chinese Theatre before succumbing and signing myself up for a tour of the stars' homes. Yes it is incredibly tacky, but I feel zero guilt :) Did I see anyone famous? No. The only thing you get to see is the outside of houses of various shapes and sizes ... I've taken a few photos, though I am beginning to regret not having invested in a better camera, as the lens on my Sony isn't the best. After seeing how the other half live I wandered around Hollywood Boulevard some more. The walk of fame goes on for well over a mile on both sides of the street. If you're not careful you end up walking into people as you spend your time staring at the ground! It's obvious that they're pouring money into some parts, but other areas look really rundown and dodgy. I'm planning on going to Warner Brothers today, so my driver is picking me up from the hotel at nine. (It's currently 730am) I'd like to have a wander around Beverly Hills if I can get back up there. I've always been fascinated by overpriced shops :)

I'm staying literally two minutes walk from Hollywood Boulevard. Yesterday afternoon I was picked up at the airport by a very swish Town Car and dropped off at the hotel. I had slept a bit on the plane, but the seats weren't particularly comfortable, so I wasn't feeling exactly refreshed. In order to get my internal clock on track (there's an 8 hour difference) I thought I'd go for a wander down Hollywood Boulevard and kill some time. Unfortunately my camera was still charging, so I didn't take any photos last night. First impressions? Very mixed. The cars are all very big. Hollywood Boulevard is jammed with tourists, but tshirts etc., seem really cheap. Food doesn't seem to be terribly expensive Beer seems to be cheaper than Ireland, though it's incredibly weak I've managed to get a proper night's sleep, so I'll be doing some proper exploring etc., today (with a charged camera!!) I think I'll do all the really touristy things like tours of the stars' homes or something equally mad :)

Just got an email from CD Wow promoting the nominated films for the 2007 Academy Awards. I hadn't had a chance to look at the list previously, so I popped over to the official site, where I quickly discovered that I hadn't seen most of the films :(

Last year I mentioned Twink. That was in September of last year. It's now January and I'm still getting hits on that post. I checked my stats... Since September 1st 2006 I've had about 2000 visits from people looking for Twink (or something to do with her). In the same period I've had about 3000 visits from people looking for XtraVision (extra vision / Xtra Vision / xtra-vision). The vast majority of the other search queries cover topics like Ubuntu, Apache 2 and amazon UK, to name but a few. Harry Potter wasn't that busy a search topic during that period, but I'd expect that to change over the next couple of months as both a new book and a film are due to be released later this year. Why do I mention any of this? I suppose it's morbid fascination more than anything else. I'm not particularly interested in Twink. I posted about Xtra Vision a couple of times, yet I still get comments on those posts. The topics that actually interest me don't get that anything like the volumes of traffic that the "off topic" ones generate. So maybe I'll start a celebrity blog :) I've no idea what I'd write on a celebrity blog... The social life of Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Alba or any of the other "A list" celebrities don't exactly enthrall me. I may enjoy watching the films, but I've never been overly excited by their private lives...

Earlier this evening the new look James Bond bookshop / dvd shop site was unveiled. Thanks to Alan who did a lovely job, as usual. If only he'd agree to redoing this pile of muck :)

I don't like posting to complain about customer service until I have exhausted all other avenues. In the case of ScreenClick however I've already tried all the "official" methods. Emails to their "support" seem to vanish into the ether (if you're running an online business why don't they have a ticketing system??) and I can't get a human on their phone line. So, why am I annoyed with them? It's very simple. As anybody who reads this blog on a regular basis knows I like films, so I watch a lot of DVDs. When my mother signed up with ScreenClick she got an invite that she could give to a friend which offered a 30 day free trial. I used the coupon and signed up. While I may not have been delighted with the service I wasn't unhappy with it. In any case I decided against continuing my membership, so I cancelled it. However, when I checked my bank account earlier this week I saw that they'd debited my Laser card €14.99 for the service. A service I had cancelled and a service I was not receiving anymore. I am not impressed. I cannot do a "chargeback" as it was from a Laser. I have to get a refund. The only people who can give me the refund is Screenclick. Screenclick is not answering the phone or my email. Why does this feel like a catch 22? EDIT: Finally got a reply from them this morning, so hopefully it will all get sorted out ... EDIT: All sorted now

I'd forgotten how good the Taxi films were (the original French ones not the American junk pretending to be a film) My sister gave me the first two films on DVD a couple of years ago, but I lent them to someone and only got them back last week (note to self - don't lend that person DVDs if I want to see them again) Anyhow Taxi 3 was the only one of the trilogy that I didn't have a proper copy of, so I had to rectify that situation - so I popped over to Amazon.fr and grabbed a copy! E-commerce has its uses :) Funnily enough I bought Wasabi from Amazon UK instead of Amazon France.

Both Amazon and Play.com are offering Casino Royale pre-orders. I'm tempted to book mine, but I'll probably find it cheaper somewhere else if I do :)