Saturday, July 4, 2015

Movie Review ... Terminator: Genysis

 

 

Terminator Genysis posterIf a movie makes money then sequels usually follow.  ‘The Terminator’ series has been no stranger in raking in dollars.  The franchise has delivered in over four films a dazzling array of spectacular action.  It has also made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star and despite his advancing years, it isn’t surprising seeing him in ‘Terminator: Genysis’.  Not only is the star recycled but so is the script with originality seemingly vanishing in the time portal its characters use.

When his enemies send a deadly terminator to the past to kill his mother Sarah (Emilia Clarke), John Connor (Jason Clarke) devises a plan.  Sending his loyal lieutenant Kyle (Jai Courtney) to protect her, John hopes she will be safe. Upon arrival, Kyle is surprised to find a terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) helping Sarah.  As a myriad of villains cross their paths, they battle to prevent the future’s dreaded ‘Judgement Day’ with the fight for survival becoming increasingly intense.

Despite being slammed, ‘Terminator: Salvation’ had the sense to progress ‘Terminator’s’ mythology.  ‘Terminator: Genysis’ doesn’t, instead playing like the franchise’s greatest hits.  The most popular moments from the first two James Cameron directed films are all here.  When not slavishly copying them, ‘Genysis’ works much better.  Sadly there aren’t enough original sequences to truly make it stand out.

Some of the plot twists are genuinely surprising, even if they rely on viewer’s knowledge of previous instalments.  The actors provide adequate performances with Clarke admirably conveying Sarah’s determined toughness.  Alan Taylor directs with competency without exerting any flair.  Handling the action and sparkling CGI well, Taylor’s timidity in conjuring any series freshness is notable.  It’s fun seeing Schwarzenegger return however, having the most fun in an otherwise frustratingly lazy instalment.

Undemanding ‘Terminator’ fans may find superficial enjoyment with ‘Terminator: Genysis’. Those yearning for a James Cameron-style blockbuster will be disappointed.  Whilst Schwarzenegger’s character will always be back, hopefully new ideas will return to a franchise currently living off past glories.

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Movie Review Rating out of 10:  5

Movie Review by Patrick Moore

Agree with Patrick's Movie Review? Then please use the comment box.

Patrick Moore's Movie Review is an alternative look at movie releases in Australia.

 

Official HomePage click HERE

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Trivia Bits 04 July

 

Ashrita Furman in NYC, 2004

101,791 roses went into the making of the then world's largest flower bouquet (pictured) with the 23.4 metre arrangement was the work of Ashrita Furman in NYC, 2004 

Lake Taupo is in the north Island of New Zealand and with a surface area of 616 square kilometres (238 sq mi), it is the largest lake by surface area in New Zealand, and the second largest freshwater lake by surface area in geopolitical Oceania after Lake Murray (Papua New Guinea).

The Australian holiday resort of Apollo Bay is in south-western Victoria and also is host to the annual Apollo Bay Music Festival and the Great Ocean Sports Festival.

Called Neapolis when founded at about the end of the 7th century BC by settlers, the Byzantine fortress, now known as Kavala, is a modern port in Macedonia that houses the Archaeological Museum of Philippi.

An Archipelago sometimes called an island group or island chain and is a chain, cluster or collection of islands.

The Plan of Saint Gall is the only surviving architectural drawing from the 700-year period between the fall of Rome and the 13th century, and is a national treasure of Switzerland and depicts an entire Benedictine monastic compound including churches, houses, stables, kitchens, workshops, brewery, infirmary, and even a special house for bloodletting.

All the proceeds earned from James M. Barrie's 1911 book Peter Pan were bequeathed to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for the Sick Children in London.

Australia has the largest sand island on earth, Fraser Island, which is off the Queensland coast, 200km north of Brisbane.

The Kisdon Force is a series of waterfalls on the River Swale in North Yorkshire, England dropping drop 10 metres (33 ft) over two cascades and are surrounded by Kisdon Force Woods.

Among many historic landmarks at the Andrew's Descent in Kiev, there is a medieval Gothic style castle that locals call the "Castle of Richard the Lion Heart" due to the legend the 12th century King of England had visited the building.

Thoughts on Living Part 1

 

contemplating 009

Birds of a feather flock together and then crap on your car.

A penny saved is a government oversight.

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat have gotten to be really good friends.

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

He who hesitates is probably right.

Did you ever notice: The Roman Numerals for forty (40) are XL.'

If you think there is good in everybody, you haven't met everybody.

If you can smile when things go wrong, you have someone in mind to blame.

Anonymous  Source Email

Quotables 04 July

 

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Friday, July 3, 2015

Trivia Bits 03 July

 

Diner's Club

Issued in 1950, the first credit card was Diner's Club (pictured) when Frank X. McNamara started the company with 200 card holders.

After the first major raid on Liverpool in August 1940, the Liverpool Blitz was a sustained bombing campaign on the city of Liverpool, United Kingdom, by the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War.

False eyelashes were invented by film director D.W. Griffith while he was making the 1916 epic, Intolerance as he wanted actress Seena Owen to have lashes that brushed her cheeks.

John Davies, the U.S. District Court judge who presided over the trial of a group of LAPD officers in the 1992 Rodney King incident, won gold for Australia in the 200m breaststroke at the Helsinki 1952 Olympics.

The Holberg Prize is an international prize awarded annually by the Government of Norway to outstanding scholars for work in the arts, humanities, social sciences, law and theology, and was established by the Government of Norway in honour of Ludvig Holberg in 2003 and complements its sister prize in mathematics, the Abel Prize.

Playing ten year old John Connor in the 1991 action movie Terminator 2: Judgement Day was American actor and musician Edward Furlong.

The comic opera in four acts The Marriage of Figaro was composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786.

The three letters of the Greek alphabet that end in on are epsilon, omicron and upsilon.

Yorick is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet who is the dead court jester whose skull is exhumed by the gravedigger in Act 5, Scene 1, of the play and evokes from Prince Hamlet the monologue Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.

With his screen credits usually read as Gowns by Adrian, prolific designer Adrian created costumes for over 200 films during his career at MGM including The Wizard of Oz and working with female stars of the day like Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Jeanette MacDonald, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford.

Quotables 03 July

 

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Thursday, July 2, 2015

Trivia Bits 02 July

 

The Oval

The Oval (pictured) is an international cricket ground at Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth, South London which has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since it was built in 1845 and was the first ground in England to host international Test cricket, in September 1880.

New Zealand-born country music singer Keith Urban released his first self titled studio album in 1991 which was released only in Australia and later released worldwide in 2005 by EMI Music.

The first female leader of Germany was German politician and a former research scientist, Angela Merkel, was elected as Chancellor of Germany in 2005.

Playing Queen Victoria in the 1997 British drama film Mrs Brown was British actress Judi Dench and co-starring Billy Connolly, Geoffrey Palmer, Antony Sher and Gerard Butler.

Painted in 1642 by Dutch painter and etcher Rembrandt, Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, also known as The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, but commonly referred to as The Night Watch now is displayed in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Isaac Nathan composed the first opera to be written, performed and produced in Australia when on 3 May 1847 his Don John of Austria, was performed at the Victoria Theatre, Sydney

Starring Robert Montgomery, Walter Huston, Robert Young, Madge Evans, and Jimmy Durante, a 1933 MGM film set in the Adriatic during World War I, Hell Below, set the pattern for many WW II submarine dramas, and featured the deliberate sinking of USS Moody, slated for destruction by the London Naval Treaty.

Originally built in the town of Sacramenia in Segovia, Spain in the 12th century, The St. Bernard de Clairvaux Church in North Miami Beach, Florida is a medieval Spanish monastery that was purchased by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, disassembled, and then kept in 11,000 crates in a warehouse in Brooklyn for 26 years.

Dr Frankenstein’s first name in English novelist Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus was Victor.

American television sitcom Modern Family debuted on September 23, 2009 and is presented in mockumentary style, the fictional characters frequently talk directly into the camera with the story revolving around three families living in the Los Angeles area who are interrelated through Jay Prichett and his children, Claire and Mitchell.

Quotables 02 July

 

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Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Trivia Bits 01 July

 

 Sir Edward William Elgar

The English composer best remembered for the first of his 1901 Pomp and Circumstance Marches and the 1900 oratorio The Dream of Gerontius was Sir Edward William Elgar (pictured) who was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924.

A pedestrian bridge built in 1816, The Ha’penny Bridge crosses the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland and was made of cast iron cast at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, England.

Approximately 10 km long, The River Muru is found in Norway and originates at the glacier Austre Memurubrean and runs through Memurudalen then finally empties into the lake Gjende.

Italian composer, whose operas are among the important operas played as standards including Madama Butterfly and Tosca, Giacomo Puccini died in November 1924.

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group.

Badakhshan, Faryab and Maidan Wardak are provinces of Afghanistan.

Queen Maud Land is a circa 2.7 million-square-kilometre (1 million sq mi) region of Antarctica claimed as a dependent territory by Norway and was the first part of Antarctica to be sighted, on 27 January 1820 by Fabian von Bellingshausen, a Baltic German officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, cartographer and explore.

Something or someone that has both male and female characteristics is described as being androgynous and may be found in fashion, gender identity, sexual identity, or sexual lifestyle.

The nucleus of the 13,000 manuscripts that are just part of the Biblioteca Marciana of Venice, is made up from the personal library of Petrarch and the collection of Cardinal Bessarion, a Roman Catholic Cardinal Bishop and the titular Latin Patriarch of Constantinople.

The Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the Six Day War in June 1967 was Levi Eshkol.

A $5 Loan

 

aud5 

A woman came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find her 5 year old son waiting for her at the door.

SON: 'Mummy, may I ask you a question?'

MUM: 'Yeah sure, what it is?' replied the woman.

SON: 'Mummy, how much do you make an hour?'

MUM: 'That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?' the woman said angrily.

SON: 'I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?'

MUM: 'If you must know, I make $20 an hour.'

SON: 'Oh,' the little boy replied, with his head down.

SON: "Mummy, may I please borrow $5?"

The mother was furious, 'If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I don't work hard everyday for such childish frivolities. '

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door..

The woman sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the woman had calmed down, and started to think:

Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $5 and he really didn't ask for money very often. The woman went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.

'Are you asleep, son?' She asked.

'No Mummy, I'm awake,' replied the boy.

'I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier' said the woman. 'It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the $5 you asked for.'

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. 'Oh, thank you Mummy!' he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills.

The woman saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again.

The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his mother.

'Why do you want more money if you already have some?' the mother grumbled.

'Because I didn't have enough, but now I do,' the little boy replied.

'Mummy, I have $20 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow.

I would like to have dinner with you.'

The mother was crushed. She put her arms around her little son, and she begged for his Forgiveness.

It's just a short reminder to all

Because we work so hard in life, we should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts. Remember to share that $20 worth of your time with someone you love.

If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of hours. But the family friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

Anonymous Source Email

Quotables 01 July

 

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Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Trivia Bits 30 June

 

 malachite

The mineral malachite (pictured), a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, is green in colour with Archaeological evidence indicates that the mineral has been mined and smelted at Timna Valley in Israel for over 3,000 years.

Costing $AUD16 million to construct, The Tower of Terror II is a steel shuttle roller coaster located at the Dreamworld amusement park on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia which when opened on 23 January 1997, was the first roller coaster in the world to reach 160.9 kilometres per hour (100.0 mph).

In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a hunter from the territory of Thespiae in Boeotia who was renowned for his beauty whose unrequited love with Echo, a mountain nymph, was the cause of his death.

Invented by CBS Director Tony Verna the first Instant Replay was used during Army Navy Football Game at Municipal Stadium Philadelphia on December 7, 1963.

The Abel Prize is given by the King of Norway to people who are mathematicians and is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–29), was established in 2001 by the Government of Norway and complements its sister prize in the humanities, the Holberg Prize.

The 1956 movie Mukh O Mukhosh (The face and the mask), directed by Abdul Jabbar Khan, is the first full-length Bengali language feature film to be produced in the East Pakistan, which later became Bangladesh.

The history of Judaism in Japan started in 1861 approximately fifty Jewish families settled in Yokohama and in 1895 established the first synagogue in Japan.

The Republic of Costa Rica is in Central America bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east and was sparsely inhabited by indigenous people before it came under Spanish rule in the 16th century.

An acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000 pounds of coffee cherries which amounts to approximately 2000 pounds of beans after hulling or milling.

The name teonanácatl, referring to a sacred mushroom of the Aztecs, translates to the flesh of God and contain the psychedelic compounds psilocybin and psilocin..

Quotables 30 June

 

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Monday, June 29, 2015

Trivia Bits 29 June

 

Yes Please cover 

The 2014 memoir Yes Please (cover pictured) was written by American actress, comedian, director, producer and writer Amy Poehler.

Lake Enriquillo (Spanish: Lago Enriquillo) is a lake in the Dominican Republic located in the south-western region of the country and is one of only a few saltwater lakes in the world inhabited by crocodiles.

In an earnest bid to avoid layoffs, Nippon Steel Corporation, the Japanese steelmaking giant, once ventured into mushroom cultivation that used the surplus heat created by steel furnaces to temperature control a fecund fungi complex.

A krait is a genus of venomous snakes found in South and Southeast Asia with 13 species and five subspecies recognized.

Italian violin maker Antonius Stradivarius of Cremona made his finest instruments after 1700 with his last surviving instrument dated 1737, the year of his death.

The only tennis player to have won an Australian singles title on both grass and hard court is Swedish player Mats Wilander.

South Australia’s first major gold deposit was discovered in 1852 in the Mount Lofty Ranges bear the township of Echunga.

The V-1 flying bomb, known to the Allies as the buzz bomb, or doodlebug, and in Germany as Kirschkern (cherrystone)—was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile with the first V-1 launched at London on 13 June 1944, one week after the successful Allied landing in Europe.

The Sargasso Sea, a region in the gyre in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and plays a major role in the migration of the European eel and the American eel.

An exostosis is the formation of new bone on the surface of a bone, because of excess calcium forming and are most commonly found in places like the ribs, where small bone growths form, but sometimes larger growths can grow on places like the ankles, knees, shoulders, elbows and hips.

Quotables 29 June

 

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Sunday, June 28, 2015

Movie Review ... Love & Mercy

 

Love_&_Mercy_posterRecent film biographies have come in a standard formula.  Charting the rise, fall and rise again of a subject, fans know what to expect.  If a biography explores a musician, producers also have keen eyes on album sales.  ‘Love and Mercy’ takes a different approach.  Not a biography of the Beach Boys but of lead singer Brian Wilson as a differing time-line shows Wilson’s younger and older persona mostly works.  Crafting an image of a talented but conflicted soul, Wilson’s personal darkness became hidden behind his group’s sunny hits.

Achieving huge success with The Beach Boys, singer/songwriter Brian Wilson (Paul Dano) enjoys life.  Penning hits such as ‘Surfin USA’, ‘Good Vibrations’ and ‘God Only Knows’, his skills are much in demand.  His songs hid a darker side with an illness soon to derail him.  Flash forward a few decades, and an older Wilson (John Cusack) wonders what happened.  Under the spell of his therapist Dr. Landy (Paul Giamatti), his relationship with his girlfriend Melinda (Elizabeth Banks) is tested.  Soon past and present merge to reveal a battle Wilson has fought for decades.

‘Love and Mercy’ is an engrossing study in the darker side of creativity.  Presented as a gifted song-writer, ‘Love and Mercy’ shows Wilson constantly plagued by voices he can’t stop.  Whether they be his manipulative doctor, his fellow band-mates or family, how Wilson was able to generate such a catalogue of successful songs is remarkable.  Conveying how his early personal troubles plagued him later in life, the narrative is an interesting juxtaposition of fame and its consequences.

Whilst engaging overall ‘Love and Mercy’ works better when examining Wilson’s latter life.  Cusack, Giamatti and Banks give excellent performances as characters struggling with Wilson’s soul.  From Giamatti’s seething menace to Banks’ steely determination, it is easy investing in their roles.  Dano does well in the earlier sequences although Bill Pohlad’s leaden direction fails to fully connect them with Wilson’s latter life.  It may have been more compelling just exploring one narrative than two even if the cast in both time-lines provide strong performances.

Discarding the ‘jukebox musical’ formula others lazily copy, ‘Love and Mercy’ does something different.  It doesn’t always work but when it does it continually grips.  Beach Boys fans may be shocked by some of the revelations but it shows another angle beyond the bright days of the band’s persona.

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Movie Review Rating out of 10:  6

Movie Review by Patrick Moore

Agree with Patrick's Movie Review? Then please use the comment box.

Patrick Moore's Movie Review is an alternative look at movie releases in Australia.

Official HomePage click HERE

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Trivia Bits 28 June

 

 Beef Wellington

Beef Wellington (pictured) is a preparation of filet steak coated with pâté, often pâté de foie gras, and duxelles, which is then wrapped in puff pastry and baked.

The official title of the 1981 Stars on 45 Medley, which names a total of 11 different songs, makes it the longest-titled song ever to make the Billboard charts in the United States with the full title being Medley: Intro Venus / Sugar Sugar / No Reply / I'll Be Back / Drive My Car / Do You Want to Know a Secret / We Can Work It Out / I Should Have Known Better / Nowhere Man / You're Going to Lose That Girl / Stars on 45.

The spice cinnamon is obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods.

With music by James Horner and lyrics by Will Jennings, My Heart Will Go On was the romantic theme song for the 1997 James Cameron movie The Titanic and was recorded by Céline Dion which was originally released in 1997 on the Titanic soundtrack album and Dion's album Let's Talk About Love, the romantic song went to number 1 all over the world, including the United States, Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom and Australia.

A sea fan is a form of sessile colonial cnidarian, similar to a sea pen or a soft coral, found in tropical and subtropical seawater.

The metatarsus or metatarsal bones are a group of five long bones in the foot, located between the tarsal bones of the hind- and mid-foot and the phalanges of the toes.

The Wild Duck, original Norwegian title: Vildanden, is an 1884 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen who is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare.

The Bronx is the northern most of New York City’s five boroughs and is the only borough that is located primarily on the mainland.

In the US, on December 31, 1970, the last cigarette ad, a commercial for Virginia Slims, was aired on the Tonight Show as cigarette advertising was banned from radio and TV effective January 1, 1971.

US President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2009 for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.

Friendship Is …..

 

friend 

 

Friendship is a Golden Chain,

The links are friends so dear,

And like a rare and precious jewel

It's treasured more each year...

 

It's clasped together firmly

With a love that's deep and true,

And it's rich with happy memories

And fond recollections, too...

 

Time can't destroy its beauty

For, as long as memory lives,

Years can't erase the pleasure

That the joy of friendship gives...

 

For friendship is a priceless gift

That can't be bought or sold,

But to have an understanding friend

Is worth far more than gold...

 

And the Golden Chain of Friendship

Is a strong and blessed tie

Binding kindred hearts together

As the years go passing by.

 

Author Unknown

Quotables 28 June

 

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