Writings
Incredible Hulk
Another Hulk movie, with another ‘serious’ actor drawn to Marvel’s giant green Jekyll and Hyde – this time Ed Norton. He’s the best thing about the film, although it’s also briskly directed in the first half of the film – a tense chase through the favelas followed by Hulk smashing from the shadows of a the Brazillian bottle factory.
It struggles in the same way as the Ang Lee Hulk film, the Hulk just doesn’t seem to work that well on screen. The most interesting bits of the film are the Bruce Banner sections, once the giant green Hulk appears the film gets much less exciting. It’s not rubbish, but it’s not that good either.
Passenger Preference Pane →
Now I’m using Passenger to host my local development Rails apps, this will be mighty useful!
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Some dodgy CGI (monkeys and gophers), some flabby plotting and some odd moments (those gophers again) and an atrocious Russian accent from Cate Blanchett (one minute, Rosa Klebb, the next, Queen Elizabeth) aren’t enough to derail the freight train of joy that is Harrison Ford as Indy.
The bits that work best are those where the banter of Jones and Mutt echo that of Marion, Shortround or Jones Sr as they pick around ruins. Harrison Ford can still throw a punch and Spielberg can still do a romp, let’s hope they don’t push their luck with any spinoffs or further adventures.
An Old Favourite Returns →
Gawd Bless Webmonkey. If it wasn’t for you I’d never have hacked away at PHP in those dark late-nineties summers. Plus the wiki-tutorial format isn’t too shabby an idea…
iPhone in Singapore →
Get. In. And the Philippines, this is excellent news given my current Manilla predicament!
New Fleming Bond Book Covers →
Just gorgeous, the Fleming Bonds are (in places) very much of their time, and yet still a belting read. They seem to get a rerelease every couple of years, but I think this is the most gorgeous the outsides will have looked.
Christmas please!
Iron Man
And so the summer begins with a superhero movie. However, this is a much better film than last summer’s bloated Spiderman 3.
It’s well-made and exhilarating origin story that’s mostly enjoyable thanks to a terrific turn by Downey Jr. and able support from, in another atypical casting move, Gwyneth Paltrow. That the film rises above cheese is thanks to the charisma of the leads.
Funny Games
A movie that’s not for everyone. It toys with audience, addressing them, playing with the implied standard thriller narrative and even implicating them in the brutality that occurs to the family when two sociopathic tennis-clad men trap them in their home.
An uncomfortable watch, even through most of the actual violence is off-screen you want to stop watching. With this, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, it’s been a brilliant but uncomfortable few months at the cinema.
How to make money →
At the risk of turning my link feed into a 37 Signals love in, this presentation is only half an hour and is a great manifesto for a profitable small business. They are often accused of arrogance, but I think that doing what they do and making decent money at it simply makes them happy!
Rails on Git →
I always feel ever so slightly behind the curve with the latest Rails developments, due to the speed, it’s nearly a full time occupation keeping up with the changes! Thank goodness for Chu Yeow. And now Rails is moving to Git (GitHub specifically), time to brush off that Peepcode.