Movie Goggles - Bobby

Here at Life Goggles, we like trying new things. So in that spirit I’ve tried my hand at movie reviewing. It’s a tad long but it’s only my first attempt so I’m not going to be too harsh on myself. Unlike the comments left at break.com (link below). TG bought me that jumper.

As usual you can leave constructive and discerning comments at the bottom, of the page.

Today it’s Bobby, the new film by Emilo Estevez.

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A Rocky Balboa Treat

As promised, here’s a treat for Rocky fans - Sylvester Stallone in conversation with himself!!

Rocky Balboa

How did we get to this? Oh yes, I remember the five other films now. They reckon you can watch just the first Rocky and then this one, but that doesn’t do it justice. You need to remember that he was heavyweight champion of the world - twice so Rocky II and III are needed and then how he lost all his money (Rocky V) so I suppose you could miss out IV but it’s a cracker so I wouldn’t.

In fact this film has a bit in common with the fourth instalment as they’re both blatantly feel-good movies. Although Rocky Balboa doesn’t start off like that. Rocky is busy running his restaurant named after his dead wife, Adrian, and while not happy, isn’t unhappy retelling boxing stories over and over. What I like is that he’s still a nice guy, he lets a boxer he once beat eat for free in the restaurant, will still stand up for a girl’s honour and treat’s his brother-in-law Paulie with respect despite his negativism and bitterness. Rocky is a good guy.

The only problem is his son really - they’ve gone separate ways and Rocky Jr is even embarrassed by his father. I really liked the scenes between Rocky and his son, while they’re trying to talk in the lobby of Jr’s work, Rocky is clearly embarrassed by people recognising him, and then later on outside Adrian’s, Rocky has the speech of his life, only just eclipsing his speech to the boxing commission which get them to change their mind. It’s a cracker and puts the actual boxing in the shadow.

The story was basically secondary to me, I just enjoyed Rocky being Rocky. When he meets Marie and her son Steps he just wants to help them out. There’s no agenda there, he just wants to be nice to them (despite her calling him a “creepo” 30 years ago). Although I wasn’t complaining once the training montage started. It’s probably the best lead-in in the entire series: “Let’s start building some hurting bombs.”

The story is basically Rocky making his comeback against the current heavyweight champion. But it’s more than that. He’s trying to get over his wife’s death and he uses the fire inside him to drive him forward. The boxing itself is more realistic than previously but still a bit of nonsense. Watching Rocky’s journey through the rounds towards the conclusion is great and the ending a piece of understated brilliance. I loved it, I really did. The acting’s great, the music as good as always and you leave the cinema feeling good - what can be better than that?

Later this week I’ll have a Rocky treat for you (I say ‘treat’, it’s more like a funny video), but for now enjoy the trailer:

Rocky Balboa - The Early Years: Part V

I wanted to hate this movie, I remember it being awful, but honestly it’s not that bad. It’s got some good themes in it, it’s just that some of them are executed poorly. The story continues in the dressing room after Rocky has beaten Ivan Drago. He’s not doing well and after returning to America and being challenged to a fight with Union Cane by his Don King-alike promoter George Washington Duke, Rocky is told he has brain damage and can’t fight anymore.

As usual though, he wants to and when it turns out his accountant has lost his millions he moves back into his old neighbourhood and is depressed. Then Tommy ‘Machine’ Gunn (not sure the ‘Machine’ is necessary) turns up looking for Rocky to train him and, to cut the film down to a sentence, he does but then he defects to George Washington Duke, wins the heavyweight title, turns up at a bar to taunt Rocky and they end up having a street brawl, the end.

It’s actually an okay film, there are some good themes in there - the fact that Rocky neglects his own son and tries to live his life through Tommy, that Adrian and his son (bizarrely about eight years older than the previously film and named after a seasoning) are struggling to cope with their new lives, and that Tommy is seduced by the uncaring glitz of George Washington Duke. It’s just the ending really that annoys me. Not just the fight which is a major misjudgement, but Tommy’s sudden change in character from a likeable guy to a Rocky-hating spoilt brat is not believable, and the stuff with Sage at school doesn’t interest me. I’d like to have seen more of Adrian really and the scene where they’re going through their old stuff - the hat and the glasses - is a highlight.

So, not as bad as I thought and at least the one-armed push-ups make a (brief) comeback.

Now it’s time to see the sixth film which opens on Friday in the UK.

The Venice Project now called Joost

The excellent streaming TV Internet service, The Venice Project has been officially launched under the name Joost.

The BBC reports:

It is designed to enable broadcasters to get their programmes in front of a global internet audience. It will allow viewers to access all kinds of television over the internet.

The chief executive, Frederik de Wahl, showing off the service in Joost’s London offices, claimed that it provided a different experience from other internet television ventures.

“We are trying to replicate the complete television experience,” he explained as he flicked through channels using the Joost interface on a widescreen television.

“It’s full-screen, broadcast quality, you’ve got instant channel flipping, and interactivity - a viewer can come to us and get all their TV needs.”

The service is still undergoing trials, but thousands of people have taken up an invitation to download the software and try it out.

Win an invitation to test Joost/Venice Project from Life Goggles!

Rocky Balboa - The Early Years: Part IV

After half an hour of Rocky IV, I thought I was watching Rocky III again. Well instead of Rocky losing the fight, it’s Apollo, and instead of Micky dying, it’s errr Apollo again. Basically there’s a big new Russian on the block - Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) and he’s huge and strong (with a very short robe too). He kills Apollo in the ring and Rocky feels guilty as he didn’t throw the towel in because he promised he wouldn’t. So off he goes to Russia for the rematch.

There’s a formula here that’s being followed, the makers love a montage and we get a treat earlier on with clips from the earlier films to the sound of Robert Tepper’s No Easy Way Out. The music is great throughout and gets you going. The whole idea is brilliant as released in 1985 at the height of the Cold War we see a brave American tackle the emotionless and technological advanced Russians. Except it actually doesn’t say that. By the end I ended up feeling for Drago as he’s a victim of the system and isn’t as unfeeling as we thought.

There are a lot of good points - Adrian gets more to do, the settings are great and the overall story is a lot of fun. However you need to switch your brain off really, compared to the first film Rocky hardly says anything and if I hadn’t seen the earlier ones I wouldn’t care about the character at all. As for the robot, don’t get me started.

Right, time to buy the soundtrack and go onto the fifth film. I’ve noticed these reviews getting shorter, I’ve got a feeling the next review won’t be an epic…

Who cares about the DVD format war?

Not me! When people (by people I mean the media) aren’t talking about the iPhone, they’re talking about the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DVD. Never heard of either of them? Then you’re not alone, recent surveys have shown that most people have never heard of either of them.

They’re the next DVD format that will deliver high definition (HD) movies to you new HD TV. However they will involve you buying a new DVD player, either a Blu-Ray one (currently very expensive) or a HD-DVD one (cheaper), or one that plays both (unreleased and unpriced). Manufactuers and film studios are battling out to see who will become the dominant force, as in the old VHS and Betamax battle.

However am I the only one who knows about it all, but doesn’t care? I won’t be buying either format, and instead will just continue with DVDs for a few years and download films on demand. Many legal download services are available, and whilst the bugs and kinks are sorted out I’ll just rent or buy them. Here at Life Goggles, we’re beta users of The Venice Project (win an invite here), a legal piece of software that allows you to watch TV shows on different “channels” streamed (not downloaded) over the internet. From what we can tell so far, it’s going to be great, especially as it has The World’s Strongest Man on there.

DVD format war? I couldn’t care less, could you?

Update: It might be over already - warning, it’s for, er, “adult” reasons….

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