Ramblings of a Brit abroad

Opening day here in the US was yesterday. We got our tickets online for a 5.30 showing expecting it to be pretty full…… it wasn’t. Choose where you want to sit. There was plenty of choice.

Considering this film was 18 years removed from the last outing, the excellent Last Crusade, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, especially from Harrison Ford, who is, lets face it, no longer of action hero age. This latest Indiana Jones film revolves around crashed aliens, a mythical lost city in the Amazon basin, a completely deranged Prof. Oxley ( well done to John Hurt for a great performance ) plus the usual baddies who this time are communist bent on world domination through mind control. Of course, Denholm Elliot and Sean Connery are both absent but the film does pay them a brief homage. Enter Jim Broadbent as Charles Stanforth, Dean of Students and Karen Allen reprising her role as Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the lost Ark. Also add to the cast Shia LaBeouf as Mutt Williams, Cate Blanchett as head commie Irina Spalko, and surprisingly, Ray Winstone as McHale, a former colleague of Indiana Jones gone bad.

I wont spoil the rest of the story line but you can probably figure most of it out as you go along with the film. It is pretty much the tried and tested formula from Lucas /Spielberg and although it works, I left the theatre feeling a little short changed. I felt they could have done a little more with it and the end was, I’m afraid, a bit predictable.

I’m sure it wont spoil it for you to learn that Mutt Williams turns out to be the offspring of Indy and Ms.Ravenwood, so rest assured that there is a younger actor to take up the reigns if Mr. Lucas and Mr.Spielberg ever run short of cash… not that it is very likely.

Having said that, if you liked the other 3, then you’ll probably want to see this.

Score 7 out of 10

Well, that’s it then. Another season is pretty much over and the Gunners Silverware cupboard is once again looking pretty sparse. Not so long ago they were flying high with a good lead and looking like the team to beat.

Looking back there was one defining moment where it all came unraveled. Saturday 23rd February 2008 at around 3.03 pm. That was the moment a bone shattering tackle on Eduardo by Taylor of Birmingham freaked out the team to such an extent that including that game, Arsenal picked up just 8 points from the next 21 available. With Man U and Chelski only a few points back, you just cannot give up that kind numbers. As a young team, it was a shock to all around and you could see on the Arsenal players faces that they were shaken. Confidence is everything when you are chasing a title and they just seemed to lose it.

There are a few other factors which I think may have contributed to this seasons poor run in. The lack of a fit Van Persie has been obvious all season. Sure, Bendtner and Walcott will come good but they are not quite in RVP’s class as yet. Rosicky’s constant on-off fitness has also been a blow. Thank heavens for Fabregas and Flamini who held the midfield together as a near constant.

Speaking of Flamini, what is he thinking. Off to AC Milan as a free agent. I think I saw him called “FlaMoney” on one blog. At best, he will be a bit part player at Milan. He’ll drop down the pecking order for starts both at Milan and more than likely, France. He will regret leaving…. they all do…. one day.

So, to the future. Our young guns will go for it again next year. A year stronger and a year wiser. We need to strengthen. In the keeping department we should be OK. We need to bring in a world class central defender. Toure and Gallas are OK but Senderos has been found wanting on more than one occasion. Flamini will be missed but I am sure that one of several youngsters could fill the gap. Denilson looks a good prospect but maybe he needs to toughen up a bit.

No doubt Carlos Vela will be called back from his loan at Osasuna. He looks a great player and one for the future.

Maybe we also need one more proven goalscorer. I know the name of David Villa has been thrown into the ring but I think he’ll probably go to Madrid. Lets hope Eduardo recovers well and is available early in the new season.

One last thought. This season has gone very quickly, but I have still missed Challenge Lawro. Come on BBC, flash some of that outrageous license fee and get it up and running again “Bigger and Better” as promised.

Well, the first of the big summer blockbusters finally arrived last Friday so we made an opening day visit to Cobb Theaters in Lakeland, Florida. A full house. If there had been standing room, they could have sold that as well. The nice thing about our new Multiplex is that it is all stadium type seating so even if you have a basketball player in a hat in front of you, you still don’t have to miss any of the film. Anyway I digress.

Iron Man is the tale of Tony Stark ( Robert Downey Jr. ), an MIT graduate by the age of 15 and now the worlds foremost weapons developer and manufacturer. Whilst demonstrating his latest weapon in the desert in the Middle East, he is kidnapped and forced to build another weapon for terrorists. Needless to say, that is not what he does and the first Iron Man is created. Now, I don’t want to give anything away, but these are some nice twists in the plot, a little romantic interest with Miss Pepper Potts ( Gwyneth Paltrow ) and great performance by Jeff Bridges as Obidiah Stone, Stark’s No 2 at Stark industries. There is a nice little cameo for Director Jon Favreau, but the star of the film is the special effects. Downey is very believable in the role of Stark and no doubt Audi came up with some major cash as there are vehicles all over the place in the film.

If action / adventure is your bag, then I urge you to go and see this. Although I think it will look pretty good on the small screen when it eventually comes to DVD, the big screen with the Dolby sound system turned up loud definitely added something. I don’t think it will give anything away to say that Iron Man 2 will soon be in production. Oh yes, if you do go and see it, wait out the credits for the final scene. I couldn’t figure out why nobody was moving when the very long credits rolled, but one of the ushers tipped us off that it wasn’t quite finished. He was right !!!

Spend some cash and see this. Rating 8.5 out of 10