Friday, July 30, 2010

The Road To Inception

I haven't been looking for to a film coming out in ages, every time some massive blockbuster or a well known remake of a TV show or some long awaited sequel is about to come out I always scratch my head and wonder what everyone is getting so excited about, it’s gonna be shit. They always end up to being shite, pretty much all of them. Okay, for instance, I saw the clip for that new Expendables movie there the other day, with all the 80s actions stars in it, Sly, Bruce, Arnie, Jet, Dolf, Mikey and for about 5 seonds, I thought to myself - 'Holy Shit, that is going to fucking deadl . . . . Hold on a minute, the trailer is fucking deadly but you can guarantee the film is absolute crud.




But for the first time in about 2 years I was genuinely excited about the release of a massive blockbuster, I saw the trailer and I was thinking the exact thing everyone else was thinking. 'This is gonna be fucking savage.' It was gonna be one of those movies that you knew was gonna be sweet. There was no two ways about it. The only thing that was getting at me was Christopher Nolan, the director and I know what you’re probably saying right now, 'What the fuck are you talking about; he is a savage director, Memento, the Batman movies.' Yeah, okay, I'll give you Memento is a fucking kick ass film, what a way to start your career and that Insomnia movie was of okay aswell but I hated the Batman movies. The first one, all that story about him getting trained and slowly becoming Batman, I thought that stuff was quality but all this shit with the Tom Wilkinson as this gangster of Gothem and Cillian Murphy sending the whole of Gothem on the worst acid trip of there lives. I thought all of that was bollix. And as for the second film which I was suspect about when it was coming out, that first scene with the bank robbery - amazing. That opening helicopter shot, the one that is heading towards the big black building, I thought to myself in that scene, 'This cunt can use a camera.' Not only in that scene but the whole film looked perfect and Heath Ledger, what a swansong, I never really rated him as a top class act until I saw him in that movie but, in my opinion, that was it. It was too long, Christian Bale's growly voice was wrecking my head and that whole bit with the boats at the end, a bit out of nowhere if you ask me and the word random is the only word that comes to mind. So I was hoping to Christ that Inception wasn't going to be the same.

What did give me a reassuring feeling in my waters was an interview with Christopher Nolan I read in Empire saying that he was going back to the psychological thriller of Memento and Insomnia, that he had had this idea for years and now that he had made a couple of billion for Warner Brothers with the Batman movies, he could finally make it. So that reinstated the buzz in me about Inception.

The film came out and was getting amazing reviews from some of my favourite critics and all my mates were going crazy about it, people talking about going back a second time, what? I haven't heard that one in a while from everyone, going back a second time. Facebook was off the metre, you know that home page area where people can tell you what they are doing at any given time, yeah, well, every second one was about how savage Inception was except for one person, one very important person and me and that one person agree with each other on nearly every film, we hated The Departed together, we hated Gangs of New York together and together, for the past 8 years, we have been writing a book entitled 'Why the Lord of the Rings film are shite!' which we are not even half way through - My Brother, Max. Immediately, as he uttered the words 'a bit random', my confidence was shot again. Leonardo Di Caprio has nothing on my bro, let me tell you, when it comes to incepting an idea into a person's head, Max Olohan has it in spades, it truly started to spread like a virus. I was back to square one again

Right, time to go an see this bad boy, and stop fucking around, myself and Tara book ourselves two tickets for the night show in Rathmines, get in there you little beauty, lets do this. We are there -

But for the first time in about 2 years I was genuinely excited about the release of a massive blockbuster, I saw the trailer and I was thinking the exact thing everyone else was thinking. 'This is gonna be fucking savage.' It was gonna be one of those movies that you knew was gonna be sweet. There was no two ways about it. The only thing that was getting at me was Christopher Nolan, the director and I know what you’re probably saying right now, 'What the fuck are you talking about; he is a savage director, Memento, the Batman movies.' Yeah, okay, I'll give you Memento is a fucking kick ass film, what a way to start your career and that Insomnia movie was of okay aswell but I hated the Batman movies. The first one, all that story about him getting trained and slowly becoming Batman, I thought that stuff was quality but all this shit with the Tom Wilkinson as this gangster of Gothem and Cillian Murphy sending the whole of Gothem on the worst acid trip of there lives. I thought all of that was bollix. And as for the second film which I was suspect about when it was coming out, that first scene with the bank robbery - amazing. That opening helicopter shot, the one that is heading towards the big black building, I thought to myself in that scene, 'This cunt can use a camera.' Not only in that scene but the whole film looked perfect and Heath Ledger, what a swansong, I never really rated him as a top class act until I saw him in that movie but, in my opinion, that was it. It was too long, Christian Bale's growly voice was wrecking my head and that whole bit with the boats at the end, a bit out of nowhere if you ask me and the word random is the only word that comes to mind. So I was hoping to Christ that Inception wasn't going to be the same.

What did give me a reassuring feeling in my waters was an interview with Christopher Nolan I read in Empire saying that he was going back to the psychological thriller of Memento and Insomnia, that he had had this idea for years and now that he had made a couple of billion for Warner Brothers with the Batman movies, he could finally make it. So that reinstated the buzz in me about Inception.

The film came out and was getting amazing reviews from some of my favourite critics and all my mates were going crazy about it, people talking about going back a second time, what? I haven't heard that one in a while from everyone, going back a second time. Facebook was off the metre, you know that home page area where people can tell you what they are doing at any given time, yeah, well, every second one was about how savage Inception was except for one person, one very important person and me and that one person agree with each other on nearly every film, we hated The Departed together, we hated Gangs of New York together and together, for the past 8 years, we have been writing a book entitled 'Why the Lord of the Rings film are shite!' which we are not even half way through - My Brother, Max. Immediately, as he uttered the words 'a bit random', my confidence was shot again. Leonardo Di Caprio has nothing on my bro, let me tell you, when it comes to incepting an idea into a person's head, Max Olohan has it in spades, it truly started to spread like a virus. I was back to square one again

Right, time to go an see this bad boy, and stop fucking around, myself and Tara book ourselves two tickets for the night show in Rathmines, get in there you little beauty, lets do this. We are there -

Friday, July 23, 2010

Pay Me!

Once again, I have a reason in my life to put this piece up on the blog, how there is anyone out there that doesn't understand what this guy is talking about is beyond me, listen to him, the sooner people realise that this is how it is the better, listen to what he is saying. How can you be expected to do something for someone for nothing when that person is profiting from it and that person doesn't have the respect to even offer anything. Some people take the piss out there, really they do.




-

Thursday, July 22, 2010

MacBeth Like You Have Never Seen It

There are a load of people I know that could not give a fuck about Shakespeare and I understand where they are coming from. In this day and age, why the fuck would you put yourself through 2 or 3 hours of dialogue that you cant understand. It makes you feel stupid, it makes you feel like you don't understand your own language. I was like that going through school. I was dragged kicking and screaming to productions my whole life and hated every minute of it. I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about until I was about fifteen.

All of a sudden, that Baz Lurman Romeo & Juliet came out and people started paying a bit attention to it. It was being done a way that our generstion could relate to. It was like the lines were being said in a way that we could understand, well, for me any way. Not that it was modern, that wasn't it. It was being done in a different style. I remember seeing a production of Henry the Fourth Part 1 in the Peacock Theatre about ten years ago and feeling the same way. The actors and the directors were doing something different with it. All of a sudden, I was into this shit. I couldn't get enough of this stuff.

I have uploaded a production of the Royal Shakespeare Company's MacBeth, shot in the Roundhouse in Camden in London back in 2001, I remember seeing it for the first time with my oul'fella, he was researching the role of the porter which is particularly amazing in this production. I cant believe it is on you tube. As soon as I saw it I just had to put it up. Check this out for a master class on how to do Shakespeare. You will love it





























The Rules of Attraction

Check this, I just saw this and I remember myself and my mate from school, Joe Burke, went to see this film and we thought it was sweetest, this bit especially, check this, it's from the film based on the novel by Brett Easton Ellis, Rules of Attraction. The character who is on the trip has only a small part in the movie but Brett Easton Ellis wrote another novel based him called Glamorama. It was supposed to be made a couple of years ago with the same actor, Kip Pardue but, I don't know, if anyone knows what happened i'd love to know. If you haven't read either novel, you should defo check them out

Play with this

I remember going to this when I was about 13, it blew the shit out of me. I don't know if the film does this piece justice in anyway, but when you see those 3 urns on stage and the three heads coming out of them and when the light comes up on the first one and the three actors begin to deliver the lines at the the pace that they are told to give them as it is written in the script by Beckett, it absolutely knocks you out.

I asked actress, Bernadette MacKenna, a couple of years later, what it was like, she simply said she felt like having a nervous breakdown before every performance

About a decade later, I remember asking my mates dad, Stephen Brennan, an actor who had played it at one stage, what it was like, he said 'Play, the second most terrifying thing I've ever done stage.' The second, I thought to myself, what was the the most 'What was the first?' I asked in a rediculous amount of interest 'Piece of Monologue by the same cunt' he replied

I never saw 'Piece of Monologue' on stage, I saw the film of it, it's good but very slow, not nearly as entertaining as Play - Check this out

Monday, July 19, 2010

Don't worry lads, you might think i'm neglecting my blog but i am bubbling up to an amazing blog over the next couple of days, it is going to be a whopper and i'm not talking about that shit you get from burger king, i'm talking about a serious fucking angry blog about life, art and the univerice, it's comin, it's comin, it's comin, ah, it's comin

Friday, July 2, 2010

Virtual Slackification


Okay, it's time to knuckle back down to this blog of mine. I have been slacking so badly over the last month since I started working with the Gaiety School but now that the class of 2009/10 have graduated with flying colours with a very impressive show in the project, it puts me right back where I was in May, on the scratcher with nothing to do but talk some horse shit to whoever decides to read this thing. The month of July is gonna be jam pact with . . . . . what do you call these things . . . . blogs? Okay, blogs it is. July will be jammed to the rafters with blogs.

I have a fountain of things on my mind at the moment, things I need to get off my chest, things I want to discuss in great detail, things that are both annoying me & making me smile at the same time . . . . I think that is what you call a paradox, but I'm not sure. I did ordinary English in the leaving so, please, don't hold it against me if I am completely wrong with that word.

Speaking of which, I just went into Celtic bookies in Harold's Cross there to put on my daily World Cup bets, which I might add is the most dank, horrible bookies in all of the world, pretty much a carbon copy of the bookies Ewan MacGregor goes into take a shit in Trainspotting. Anyway, I stroll in and I check the odds for the coming Holland v Brazil game and who do I see viciously throwing his betting slip at the monitor but my old Leaving Cert English teacher, Mr. McClure and he has not aged a day, in fact he looked a couple of years younger. He turned to me and gave me a very confused look of recognition, I nod in salute back and he turns back to his virtual dogs. Virtual dogs, beautiful . . . . . . Whose idea was that?

What a fucking scam? Who thought that they could get away with that in the first place or, hold on a second, who thought that it would even catch on. That grown men would sit around and bet hard cash on a fucking computer game, cheer on their chosen fictional horse that comes from a fictional stable and of course, who can forget, his fictional trainer. Every time I see it, I laugh my balls off. I can just see a load of guys in some virtual dogs/ horses head office some where like Ballymount, everyone with a joy pad and they are tapping those buttons like the clappers, each employee representing a different horse, just like Atlanta Olympics on the Mega Drive when you were a kid.

Virtual Racing, if the word degenerate doesn't spring to mind, I just don't know what will. Are you for real, lads, I'm just shocked it caught on, brilliant. I applaud you whoever came up with the concept. I applaud you