film reviews, from 30,000 feet

With my recent travelling, there was a chance to see a few more movies. My previous experience is that comedy and action work best on planes, rather then anything deeply clever. Here's my capsule reviews:

Limitless: : I really enjoyed this story of a slacker writer Eddie who accidentally acquires a stash of smart-drug brain enhancing tablets and changes his life. I'm not even sure that this was released in the UK, but its just out on DVD this week and well worth a viewing, for its dead-pan narrative as Eddie reacts to increasingly wild situations. Cleverly shot and with some photo-gimmicks that actually work (I actually watched it twice). (4 stars)

Fast Five : Yet another car chase with Vin Diesel. You get what it says on the tin, although I was surprised the franchise was already at Five. Totally generic plot-line and predictable moves, with some hints of sentimentality in this one which took it away from a Saturday Morning Pictures format. Loud enough to keep awake on a long plane journey. Forgettable action flick. (2 stars)

Source Code : US military helicopter pilot is beamed into a Chicago train scene to figure out who bombed it. Improbable quantum effect on future premise. Quite like a 'flames and action' version of Groundhog Day which paid a few dues to the 'earthling' parts of Avatar. Played out predictably although there was a bit of a bolted on ending which I missed because of landing. (2 stars)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows V7 Part 2 3D : I watched this in the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood which, inside, has a very high-tech screen and sound system. It was also in Real 3D which worked very well. Strong last part to the Potter franchise, which has got darker as the series progresses. Alongside the action, there's some cheesily contrived "kissing scenes" and a montage that is used to summarise probably 100 pages of the narrative for people like me that can't remember the story. Genuinely entertaining, although I do prefer the humour and light and shade of the early films. (3.5 stars)

Hanna : Revenge thriller about teenager Hanna raised in isolation in Finland then leaving the snow to go finish some family business. Cate Blanchett is the villainess in this and alongside the sometimes cartoonish story I was very taken with the filming and soundtrack which elevated a probably lowish budget movie to something quite special. I'd class it as a modern and dark fairytale rather than an action movie. (3.5 stars)

The Adjustment Bureau : I like the variety of films that Matt Damon does and this one was about a Senator and ballet dancer (you know the old joke) who were not supposed to meet. Then the fates intervene to replot their lives so that they can both become super-duper at their professions. It becomes a chase and there's a few Bourne lines thrown in by way of acknowledgement. Its one of those where it might have been better without a Hollywood ending, so that we could have walked away appalled rather than glowing (2.5 stars)

The Lincoln Lawyer : Lawyer hired to sort out something but its all more of a conspiracy than expected. Nothing compelling in this so I decided to sleep instead (0 stars)

Battle for Los Angeles : C'mon. Aliens hit LA again with hand-held battle sequences. No light, shade or discernable structure. District 9 was so much better and more original. This film is not needed. I switched off (0 stars)

Paul : Gentle comedy where two sci-fi loving Brits touring the South Western USA give a lift to a worldly wise alien. Loved it. Simple bordering on slapstick humour. Many references to other movies and use of (eg) Spielberg lighting techniques. Moves at a good pace and genuinely funny. (3.5 stars)

Brighton Rock: Remake of the Graham Greene story, this version set in 1960 mods and rocker scooter-filled Brighton. Well acted story telling and compelling to watch the slightly squalid gang of crooks going about their business. There's still some Catholic sensibilities in this version, but played down and offset by the pragmatism of other characters. Enjoyable adaptation (3 stars).
Limitless Trailer

Hanna Trailer
Paul Trailer

Ronald Roybal - The Buffalo Hunters

Along the trails we stopped to listen to some beautiful flute playing by Ronald Roybal (HwAn-Pi-Khaw ... Red Tailed Hawk Song).

He's an American South Western descendant of Pueblo Tewa and Spanish Colonial and expresses both sides of his heritage in the music.

He played a wide range of Native American flutes in the concert each with a different personality and it was clear to see the complex ways that Ronald played the different instruments and the tones and expressions he could evoke.

Unlike orchestral flutes, which I think of as being played 'sideways', these are played straight down but each has its own tone, shape and style of playing.

Ronald used much finger work, clever breathing and tonality to sweep from sonorous bass tones to sharp little trills during the playing. It was very easy to be carried away to imagining the desert during the performance.

We saw him in Santa Fe, which is nowadays his home and where he performs regularly. The album we brought back is called 'The Buffalo Hunters' and combines the flutes with other instruments and vocals on what amounts to a spiritual journey across the plains, from the eagle dancing with the wind, through sunrise, to a water place, a white shell mountain and to a final farewell.

The tracks have been given 'time to breathe' as well so it is easy to become lost in the wonder and journey of the music.

bridge camera on road trip

I decided to experiment with taking a single so-called ‘Bridge’ camera for my recent trip, instead of the usual DSLR and lenses. It was partly a space compromise, to keep the backpack reasonably light.

So what worked and what didn’t?

First, the camera I used...It was a Fuji Finepix HS20 EXR, which is a modern 2011 device, which would compete with the (e.g.) Nikon P500 and the Canon HS30. 

I expect the camera buffs will talk about sensor size, chromatic aberration and megapixels, but I simply preferred that the Fuji has a (non exchangeable) manual twist zoom instead of the generally slow electric zooms on the Nikon and Canon models. At a non technical detail level they are all very similar, with (in my opinion) a slightly more robust apparent build quality on the Fuji.

And as a comparison, I’d usually take a Nikon DSLR, probably a D300 and maybe a couple of extra lenses, which would be 2-3 times the bulk of the Fuji.

So what happened?

Firstly, the camera does take pleasant pictures. The colour looks good and there’s enough pixels to mean some cropping is viable. I know, with a good SLR the cropping might not be needed, but its still a matter of balance.

The Fuji also had an automatic mode with a sort of dynamic range enhancer called EXR, which was supposed to stop sky highlight blowout and to improve detail in shadows. I didn’t find this setting to my liking, it seemed to slightly over-expose, so instead I used the ‘P’ mode and set the exposure down by 2/3 of a stop. This kept detail in the sky and although darkening the whole picture it ultimately gave more data to work with.

The camera also has a viewfinder, which was one of the other things I wanted; some of the bridge cameras have removed this, but it is still useful for framing, although the electronic viewfinder on the Fuji had a slow refresh and would go blank at the moment the shutter was pressed.

This leads me to the main drawback of this type of camera. I’d sort of forgotten about ‘shutter lag’ because of using DSLRs and other mechanical shuttered digital cameras. I once had a very smart looking Nikon compact that had a discernible ‘and one and two’ between pushing the button and the picture. This camera has a similar drawback.

What about the defining moment?

Digital photography misses the point if the defining moment of a shot can’t be captured. Cartier Bresson showed this in his work and there’s plenty of other famous examples. 

To illustrate a basic challenge. Driving along the Camino Real it would be fun to take a photo of one of those bell markers that showed the route of the old Mission road. They are about every mile or two and can be seen from a long way away. I’d slow the car to make it easy for my co-pilot to ‘grab’ a shot, but it was surprisingly difficult with this camera. Firstly, it would power down and take 3 seconds to awake. Secondly, it would confuse itself about whether to display the image on the back screen or in the viewfinder. It would then take too long to work out the focus. And blank at the moment of picture. The end results were some ‘near misses’ taking these pictures. And this from a camera which includes 'dog' and 'cat' modes...

In general use

For general use in cityscapes, landscapes and general coverage the camera works fine. The built-in flash is also subtle for fill in and the ISO range is quite forgiving and can be set to an auto maximum, which will drop to the lowest sensible setting most of the time.


It could take regular AA batteries which meant not having to worry about running out of power anywhere.

In bright sunlight the back screen wouldn’t show anything clearly and the viewfinder images would be dark if I used the -2/3 setting which I needed to get the best exposure.

So did it work?

Mostly, yes. It handled the main travel pictures well. I learned to handle its peculiarities to get good pictures most of the time. The usual ‘halfway down’ button pressing worked to help the shutter lag, by effectively pre-loading the focus and exposure - although I suspect a lot of people wouldn’t know to do this type of thing.

Would I do it again?

Probably not. I have no regrets about the pictures I’ve taken - most of which have come out fine, but I do feel that the camera presented more of an obstacle than I’d expected. I don’t think I’m ‘blaming the tools’ here or particularly picking on the Fuji; I know I’ve had similar experiences with an equivalent Nikon in the past. 

The camera’s strengths are a lens that runs from 24mm to 720mm with image stabilisation and pretty good colour on plenty of pixels. The best way to use it is to prepare for the shot (I know, I know). 

That’s OK in theory, but not always possible. I know that when we used a pocketable Lumix for a few around town shots there was a sigh of relief that its fixed ‘28mm’ lens gave us shots at the exact moment we wanted them.

been checkin' out the news 'til my eyeballs fail to see

We're back in the UK and trying to make sense of the news.

Riots in London, Birmingham, Manchester and elsewhere, with what seems to be a mainly mercenary agenda.

The television is full of it like that old Zappa lyric.

Sure, there's been some comments in the interviews with sympathisers that say its because of government measures or policing, but all the footage I've seen seems to indicate its mainly about looting and destruction.

 Of course, its a tiny but orchestrated minority creating the disorder with a disproportionate and heartless impact on others and on the global impression of the UK.

Not forgetting the new financial crunch.

Fortunately, the majority of people are showing community spirit whilst detesting the situation or else I think I'd need to escape back to holiday.

American Riviera

We've added Santa Barbara to our list of 'must return to' places.

Actually, most of the places we've been visiting are 'should return' in any case.

So its time to start making the new lists for the next visit.

As we travelled back towards Los Angeles, we passed Malibu where the the Beckhams and the Ramsays are staying and even spotted a couple of people setting up a video camera outside the Beckhams' place (which they have rented from Steve Spielberg).

I can understand Malibu as a location for surf and access to L.A. but somehow preferred the guaranteed sunshine and variety of amenities in Santa Barbara.

early morning, pacific time

Early Sunday morning and I'm pretty much alone on the beach. An occasional jogger passes in the opposite direction but the main company is the wide variety of seabirds.

Pelicans glide over the surface of the waves and small groups of some kind of dipper bird run back and forth along the shoreline.

I idly wonder if they have learned to predict when the big waves appear (is it every seven or ten or something?) Then I notice the gulls scrambling and flying back from the water's edge.

With all their time by the sea they are as clueless as me about when a big wave will appear on this incoming tide.

I also know that in a couple of hours this scene will be broken as more people awaken and the 300 day year sun appears to melt the mist from this scene.

Meantime I will get my feet wet in the Pacific.

at one with now

A pleasant day wandering the sunny but surprisingly quiet beaches, dipping into the Pacific and generally chilling.

It's easy to understand why Brother One Feather has made this a home with the Temple of One Love as his place for living in the Now.

Love and Peace.

El Camino Real

We arrived at the Fiesta this morning just as the main parade started and saw all manner of costume as we watched horse riders move through the town to the great delight of the large crowds.

Then, into the Santa Ynez Valley to wine country, to a small and deceptively sleepy ex-cowboy looking town called Los Olivos. The town's timber fronted properties have been used in a wide range of movies.

Stretched limos and open topped Hummers give the game away that this is now a well-heeled centre for the local wine industry and there are dozens of wine-tasting locations in and around the town.

Naturally we imbibed, as well as picking up some strawberries (the other famous Santa Barbara crop). Then onwards to Denmark, or at least an American version of it in Solvang, a small town founded in the early 1900s as a base for a Danish-style and somewhat free-format folk school.

Nowadays theres an obvious Danish influence with flags everywhere, busts of Hans Christian Anderson and a statue of the little mermaid.

The architecture is also quite Scandinavian, although the Belgian coffee shop, the Heidelberg Inn and the town clock playing "Frère Jacques" add a more general 'European' flavour to the proceedings.

When in Santa Barbara we'd also visited the Mission and we soon found ourselves back on one of the famous Mission roads, the El Camino Real, with its distinctive bell markers along the route as we headed back to the coast in time for a fine sunset.

Fiesta

It turns out that we'd arrived in Santa Barbara just as their annual Mexican fiesta was about to start.

The first sign for us was a young girl getting on a bus with a box containing around 18 brightly coloured confetti eggs. Then we heard that a few roads would be closed and finally as we arrived in the centre we could see the Mercado de la Guerra in full swing, with a rock band on stage and various Mariachi and Norteño groups grooving in the side streets.

Sizzling and popping from the adjacent stands were all manner of foods and colourful clothes, and this was still a day before the main events really got under way.

sittin in the hills

Yes, we realised it was time to check out from L.A. but not until we'd done one more thing. We'd already spent time on Hollywood Boulevard, seen the sign, wandered along Sunset Strip. Been up to the big houses in Beverley Hills. Seen a movie in Graumann's Chinese Theatre. Been backstage at the Kodak. Visited the fancy schmancy restaurants frequented by the stars, seen Famous People Driving Around In Fancy Cars. But there was one more big attraction of the area that we hadn't yet done.

I know you'll guess...

Yes - Sittin' in the Hills - with Naomi.

And for that story there's

'More to come...'

Hollywood - Marina del Rey - Beverley Hills

We're still in Hollywood but have also been out to Marina del Rey to meet a friend.

The road systems around Los Angeles are more demanding that most of the other places we've visited and we saw some quite spectacular manoeuvres by other drivers changing lanes. I was driving at my most defensive.

Michelle Shocked sings 'I've driven five hundred miles today and never even left L.A" - I know the feeling.

Then an evening to catch up on years of news with Michael who now lives in a ritzy apartment in the Marina district. His place has all mod cons with valet parking, onsite gyms and pools and was quite a lot like living permanently in a luxury resort. We spent several hours chattering about our various adventures before taking our leave for the return to the centre.

Whilst we were away the construction workers seemed to have made central L.A. a total exclusion zone with various strategic roads and ramps closed to traffic creating something of a puzzle to get back. We made it in and only seemed to lose about 10 minutes, but it was more with luck than judgement. It was also another late finish, maybe 2am compared to yesterday's 1am.

Today was spent around more of the central areas, although we also hopped briefly over to Beverley Hills and in the evening visited the excellent and vibrant Spago restaurant where we also met the head chef Wolfgang Puck, who visited our table. The food, ambiance and service of this restaurant were all first rate.

Hooray for Hollywood

We can see the Hollywood sign from the apartment. I didn't realise this yesterday night when we arrived, but noticed it as soon as it was daylight today.

The same with the stars on the pavement which go right past our building. There's Judy Garland and James Dean within a few paces. However, the main Hollywood Boulevard still has a wide variety of shops, ranging from tattoo parlours, places to by hubble bubbles and strange herbs all the way through to quite upmarket stores.

The tourist centre today is a few blocks west from here, by the Kodak Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theater. We took a look around both. The Kodak is where the Oscar ceremony is held each year now although the off-duty outside resembles a shopping mall. For the Oscars around a quarter of a mile of the mains road is laid with red carpet for the fil stars to walk along. The rest of the year its a high pressure tourist location which somehow reminds me of an unfolded and very sunny Leicester Square in London.

Adjacent to the Kodak is the 80 year old Grauman's theatre, which looks very Chinese because Grauman was a fan of the Chinese. Inside, it s a very opulent and well detailed building, which can somehow teach the designers of the Kodak about adding some spirit and soul to a building.

In fairness, the inside of the Kodak theatre has been done well, but there are large areas which look as if the paint has been applied rather thinly.

But we are standing quite literally in the footsteps of the great and good outside Grauman's. All of Hollywood royalty is present with their feet and hands marked out in concrete slabs. I've seen one of the ceremonies in the past (Nick Cage) and he had Jim Carrey, Jay Leno and others show up for the session. I'm told they limit the ceremonies to 2-3 a year which stretch back to Marilyn Monroe (much handling of these impressions) via John Wayne (whose impression includes a fist) and up to the Harry Potter trio who share one large square together.

Now its time to head to a marina to catch up with another friend.