drcuriosity

So, I'm currently house-sitting for my parents who're away in Fiji. My mother's got a school reunion to go to, so they're taking a week back in the country she was born, and having a bit of fun and relaxation. The cat is loud and needy at semi-random intervals, but at least he seems to be eating relatively well. He's certainly getting rather old and skinnier than he was, though. I brought one of my duvets down, and he's spend a lot of time curled up on it in front of the heater (when not yelling at me, wondering where his Dad is).

I was to be sharing these duties with my sister, but last I heard she'd headed up to the North Island to be supportive of her fiance's sudden family bereavement - so I may be here until next Tuesday. In order to keep myself busy I've been listening to some music, watching (as best I can) some DVDs, and slowly churning my way through Deus Ex 2 (which ties into a game with three different endings remarkably well). So, you get some brief movie reviews, too:

The Two Towers and The Return of the King: Finally got around to seeing them. Much as I'd expected they'd be. Some good stuff. I didn't really notice a lot of time spent putting on armour. Only real let-down for me was a particular sound effect: It seems there is only one "person screaming while falling off something" effect in their sound library, and it's used three times. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't originally from Return of the Jedi as a "falling into the Sarlaac pit" effect. There were definitely a fairly liberal number of Shortland Street actors peppered through the cast, but given New Zealand that's hardly surprising.

Alexander: While authenticity mavens would probably have a field day, I thought it wasn't too bad. Even if a couple of the Macedonians sounded a bit closer to Caledonian. Angelina Jolie strikes me as a good casting choice for Olympias. Good scar makeup, and generally fairly decent battle scenes. I'd have liked to have seen Granicus or the Siege at Tyre, but they probably would have been a bitch to film. All in all, not too bad, and a decent reminder of 7th Form Classical Studies (and by an extension of Nikki Broome, a teacher and friend well-remembered).

Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation: Surprisingly not bad, given a 26-day shoot and a three million dollar budget on a sci-fi/action film (c.f. Tron, which cost a million back in the '80s). Not the same mainstream appeal, but it has geek cred enough. Interesting cast, including Richard "The Sentinel" Burgi (aka Susan's ex-husband Karl on Desperate Housewives) and Kelly Carlson (Kimber Henry on Nip/Tuck). One of the battle rifles has "The Bug Stops Here" scrawled across the stock. I wonder if someone on the crew had played Bloodnet (where the Renfield character has that on a T-shirt). Wouldn't be at all surprised if the writer and/or director had read Shadowrun's Bug City sourcebook, either.

Now to find something else to watch, as it's nearly 4am and I still can't sleep. And the cat is sitting in front of the monitors, so I couldn't read this even if I could focus :-) Okay, time to feed the ginger monster, then find something else to watch...