Blewp

Theater - Spamelot

2011-03-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

Spamelot - currently touring the UK, a fantastic musical 'lovingly ripped off' from Monty Python.

The show takes you to the time of King Arthur (Phil Jupitus) and his trusty steed, Patsy (Todd Carty) on his quest for the Holy Grail. But first finding his knights of the round table to help him on his adventure that leads him to some intertesting encounters with people suck like, The knights that say Nii, the Black Knight and argueably the worst of the lot; The French. I wont say anymore other than you can expect a new, slightly more male side to Rapunzel (but only slight) but do not worry, he does find his knight in shining armor in the end.

Now when the word 'musical' is mentioned; some of you automatically turn off or loose interest and in some cases i do not blame you BUT DO NOT FOR THIS! the songs are just as funny as the dialogue ands it does not feel as if they have over packed it with unnessacary singing.

The casts acting is superb, even mistakes were well played off. The atmosphere created by everyone involved was excelent and was enjoyed by all.

There is too many examples of how good of an experiance it is seeing this show, truely recommended to anyone of any age!

9/10
Official Website: http://www.spamalotontour.co.uk/home

Film - James Bond: Casino Royale

2011-03-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

(written 07/07/09)

“Casino Royale” stars the new James Bond, Daniel Craig as he takes on the Le Chiffre in the latest adaptation of Ian Flemings first ever Novel.

Two and a half years ago, in November 2007, “Casino Royale” hit the box office, after months of expensive advertising campaigns behind it. This was because the director, Martin Campbell, wanted to continue the Bond legacy with as much excitement and outstanding effects as its predecessors, to draw the public in to this ultimate film.

The film starts off in heart-stopping action, in the havoc lifestyle of Uganda, following the death of a terrorist’s informant. It continues from a chase through the dirty streets of a rundown slum to the exquisite islands of the Bahamas, where Bond learns of money troubled banker to the terrorist world, Le Chiffre. His problems stem from a loss in the stock market after the new, biggest in the world, aeroplane, commonly known as the “Sky Fleet” was not destroyed, but in fact was saved by the one and only, 007.

Bond follows his target to the overwhelming mountains of the Montenegrin countryside, where he literally bets his life in a game of poker worth over £150 million, money Bond can’t let get into the hands of the terrorists. Despite many desperate attempts to assassinate him during the game, Bond proves too much for the worried Le Chiffre.

After winning the game, he and his beautiful assistant, Vesper Lynd, are taken and locked in a dark foul room. At the hands of Le Chiffre, Bond is tortured long and painfully into the night, but never did it get even close to the money changing hands.

As time wears on, Bond is still in the same attitude. But mysteriously, a man dressed in black blasts open the door and shoots dead the infamous Le Chiffre, but leaves with no other action.

As the heat dies down, Bond is relaxed living with his partner, Vesper, a resignation to MI6 is sent and James is looking forward to finally having a normal life without someone trying to kill him. Unfortunately for him, Bond’s winnings are to be transferred to MI6. As Vesper does this, Bond smells a rat and catches Vesper red-handed handing over the money to Le Chiffre’s assistant. The deal is taking place as 007 is spotted through some old, weathered pillars of a Venetian square. A straining chase leads to a shootout in an abandoned building. Stray bullets knock down the floats, piece by piece. Vesper, in amongst the action takes the only cover she can find in battered worker’s lift, only to get locked in.

As the final villain falls, Bond rushes to find his betraying love drowning in the bottom of the shaft. Desperate attempts to resuscitate her fail as Bond is left helpless on a collapsed building in the middle of a Venetian summers evening.

Everything you expect of a Bond film is in “Casino Royale.” It has the violence, the gadgets and the “Bond girl.”

This film starts off surrounded by perilous action; this is particularly different form “Live and Let Die,” where not a single gun is spoken of for the first scene. This is some of the ways the films are different; others are the type of gadgets, in particular, his watch. “Live and Let Die,” features a shining Rolex that has been equipped with the most high-tech gadgets of the decade, a super electro-magnet capable of steering a bullet off course for from a long range, whereas, in “Casino Royale,” the watch brand is “Omega.” Unfortunately to the viewers, it has no obvious gadgets nor are any used. In my opinion, this is surprising and disappointing, I believe that Bond uses his unbelievable, exciting gizmos at every available opportunity, which does not.

As the first blond actor to play James Bond, there were mixed emotions of the new film at first, but as the film came in to the public eye, all criticisms were no more as the stunning film was praised by everyone.

The style of acting by Daniel Craig is different to Roger Moore. Roger Moore has a role that has more humour and fun in than Daniel Craig. Craig has a more serious part to play as a determined MI6 agent, who only cracks the occasional joke.

As time passes, actors must be replaced, I think the actors have been chosen well because all of these keep the same old style within the character but all provide unique personalities, making the characters both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

The villains have changes over the course of the series. As a general rule, the older films star black people, the more recent show them as equal team members. This is because of the prejudiced views of the 1960s. Since then it is common to find villains of all races.

As a whole I think the film is very good; an exciting and enjoyable experience. In my opinion, Daniel Craig works very well as James Bond. As with most actors, he does have his pros and cons, but to the public he is very well suited to the role of 007, and the modern twist of the new affects gives it the edge against other, older Bond films. The lighting and music are well used, especially when the theme is both hot and mysterious.

I would recommend this film to any fan of the series and anyone who is looking for a good, enthralling film.

Gaming - Battlefield Bad Company 2

2011-02-27T07:15:00.000-08:00

Battlefield Bad Company 2, is the nation’s new explosive shooting game. It contains awesome campaign missions and epic multiplayer game play.

Campaign
The Campaign is based on a made up war between the Russians and the Americans, the environment is destructible so you can blow up the cover of the enemies. The story line is thrilling and on the last mission you find yourself falling down to earth from an aeroplane shooting at the enemy.

Multiplayer
In the multiplayer game you can connect with players around the world and battle each other in a variety of different maps. You can unlock upgraded weapons and gadgets to slaughter your foes swifter. The online game offers four different classes to choose from including: assault class, engineer class, medic class and recon class. The graphics aren’t bad but the game play is great, you’ll be stuck to your chair playing hours off addictive fun.

Rating
9/10

Thank you to RBGman for this review.

Films - Batman: The Dark Knight

2011-02-27T07:06:00.000-08:00

Batman - The Dark Knight: Review

The recent arrival of the Joker (Heath Ledger) to Gotham’s underworld puts a hold on Batman’s (Christian Bale) Plan to hand over the streets of the prosperous city to the new District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Nolan’s sequel to the Block-Buster, Batman Begins, brings a rein of terror as the Joker plays the city out of countless lives, for the shear fun of it.

Nolan returns with the traditionally modern vigilantly: Batman. He has kept the iconic image of the masked dark hero, but introduced an array of latest technology as we see a futuristic ‘Bat mobile’, the invention of the ‘Bat Bike’ and a classic return to the ‘Bat-erang’. This is in no doubt an excellent combination, it suits all audiences, from the Bat fans or to first-time viewers, everyone is thrilled with Christian Bales flamboyant, ritzy interpretation in the original DC comics in a neoteric era.

A similar story for the Joker, long-term archenemy to the Batman, Ledger’s incredible performance has left the public stunned in an aw-inspiring take on the goofy trickster. The now narcissistic psychopath, as with Bale, the Jokers roots are not forgotten in a twisted appearance to the clown faced villain, especially noticed in the menacing pencil trick.

The Joker first hit the screen in the 1960’s with Caesar Romeo behind the mask. His character really lived up to the foolish prankster attitude of the comic-book super villain, preferring an acid squirting flower to a gun. Next rolled up Jack Nicholson, appearing in the 1980’s, a sinister turn on once a humorous character. Then finally, the jaw-dropping performance of the late Heath Ledger filled the cinemas world wide in 2008, a huge step up in brilliance. Heath’s interpretation is pure ground-breaking entertainment.

Ledger brings a whole different idea to the Joker, as a deluded, multi-layered character who clearly has a troubled past, displayed by his attitude if not by his face. The agitating glare of The Joker comes from the bleached skin, crinkled black eyes and the menacing gash ironically making him smile. The face from hell, and his green tangled hair, along with the custom made purple suit present the Joker we know, albeit an aura of chilling fear amongst the complex character. The disturbance of the psychopath does not only run skin deep but through to the bone, his speech and uncanny lisp but more so his actions depict a character truly deranged to the heart. It is a wonder that Heath Ledger alone was nominated for 42 international awards, incredibly 37 of which, he rightfully won.

A beautifully crafted film is supported by the incredible array of music and artwork. It just adds to the untimely classic Warner Bros. have created. A Key to the success of the film is the intoxicating performance of all actors, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Gary Oldman to name a few, Only falling short in Bales Batman voice, a gravelly mess difficult to understand… but due to the lack of words leaving Batman’s mouth, we can accept this as a small room for improvement.

For all the fans of the action, horror, black humour and thrillers, The Dark Knight will not be disappointed. Ground breaking real life explosions, the eerie malevolent joker, the essence of the whole film and also the clever puns; ‘Let her go,’ ‘a poor choice of words’ replies the joker as he lets Rachael fall to her death. It puts a guilty smile on the viewer’s face, one hard to wipe away.

The intuitive film is one to see. It’s jaw dropping action, in depth story line and fantastic character portrayal leave no reason not to watch the return of the famous DC vigilantly superhero. A gripping cinematic experience and a superb homage to the late Heath Ledger, a five star film, fully deserving its 102 international awards.

10/10.

Air Rifle - SMK SYNTARG

2011-02-27T07:04:00.000-08:00

SMK SYNTARG

At first, an odd looking gun due to its 'skeletonised' stock, the SMK SYNTARG is an excellent adittion to the new 208 series from SMK. It is 1 of 3 newly released synthetic guns bringing new modern looking guns to the shops. The plastic is very hard wearing and looks professional, much easier to keep clean than the traditional wood!

The SMK SYNTARG is a mid sized (102cm), break barrel, spring air rifle, coming in .177 and .22 calibre. The barrel length is only 42cm but do not worry, the accuracy is not compromised (maybe due to the smaller .177 pellet) but after little zero-ing on the sights, the gun had near perfect accuracy and after half a tin of pellets, i had no problem hitting 8/9/10s on my 17cm target at a 15m range and only on the standard non-telescopic fibre optic sights! More than enough for a beginner as this is what it has been said to suit, i do however feel that it could be used for whoever, not just a beginner, it suits all and is excellent accuracy for target shooting (.177) and capable of shooting vermin aswell! (.22 recommended). Also, the newer feature appearing on many guns recently is the fibre optic sights, which are briliant at illuminating the sights in little light. Not as powerful as CO2 guns, but for £100.00 who can complain!? it is excellent value for money and has the latest looks and features that will keep you hooked on this fantastic Air Rifle for a long time!

SMK SYNTARG - Fibre Optic Sights

List of features:

102cm length
42cm barrel length
Fibre optic sights
.177 or .22 calibre
Synthetic skeletonised Stock
Automatic safety
Scope rail (11mm)
Weighted barrel for ease when breaking/cocking
2kg weight
Pistol grip
Factory set trigger

An outstanding gun for an incredibly price! - 10/10.

Gaming - Call of Duty: Black Ops

2011-02-27T07:00:00.001-08:00

Treyarch released their latest edition to the Call of Duty family on the 9th November 2010. Making record sales in its first 24hours, it consumes the majority of a variety of consoles since then and is on going with the first expansion hitting Xbox and Games for Windows early february, playstation a month later.
The first aspect of Black Ops that i noticed was the World at War feel to the controls, due to Treyarchs role in the development in contrast to Activision which i prefer. WAW and BO tend to have 'square' controls, as though you cannot move in every direction but moreso in the lesser, 8 directions.

The guns, however, i feel are an improvement. Infact, the whole profile and COD credits idea has worked very well as it allows peopel to focus and improve the guns they want. I think this is where Modern Warfere 2 could have been developed further. Other fantastic features are the zombie mode and wager matches. both adding unique style of gameplay whether it is a co-operative round survival against the hald dead or with your friends (on the same console if you want) running around the map with a single bullet, these extra features have made Blacks Ops a fun game to play. Unfortuantly, without these features COD: BO would have been more of a buzz kill than well yeh, a buzz kill. (sorry.). The reason for this is the bad gameplay of standard online matches and the dreadul maps. hopefully the map packs will improve this slightly.

Despite the dissappointing online, the campaign is actually very good, i would reckon the best in the series so far! A play through time of about 10 hours, this game is probably worth getting for that alone! but, as i said, the extra features do make it interesting and fun to play - 8/10.

Film - Jarhead

2011-02-27T06:58:00.001-08:00

Jarhead - A 2005 Gulf War film, following the life of the average soldier and the boredom that entails. The complete opposite can be said about the film as, although little actual gun fire which many guys out there would enjoy, it is still a very action packed film focusing on the smaller details of the service such like; missing home, training and what i said ealier, boredom.

A worth while watch, comedic in places and action in others, it would suit anyone looking at these genres, especially over the certified age of 15. The main point to question, though its not bad, is the ending of the film.*spoiler* I assume that the result of Jake Gyllenhaal finding out that his suspicion that his girlfriend was cheating on him was true, he commited suicide. A dull ending to a nonetheless brilliant film.

A well made and inticing watch - 8/10.

WELCOME

2011-02-27T06:57:00.001-08:00

Welcome to Blewp where we will be reviewing all sorts of things that interest me; a fairly common teen. I use that term loosley. You can expect reviews about music, television, films and more! Check regularly for the latest reviews, if you want your review posted feel free to email me it and your name at phlaaa-blog@hotmail.co.uk and i will post it, fully credited ofcourse.