Film Review : Star Wars Episode III : Revenge of the Sith

Like countless millions my age, I grew up with Star Wars. We collected the toys and comics, covered our bedroom walls with the posters, and watched the original trilogy countless times. We loved Star Wars. And we all, to a greater or lesser extent, were disappointed by the prequels. They had some good moments, but didn't have that magic that made their predecessors (successors?) so special. The witty banter of the original trilogy had been replaced by jokes that skewed way too young, and it was hard to warm to the austere Jedi in the same way that we had taken Han, Luke and Leia to our hearts all those years ago.

And so, like many Star Wars junkies, I began to lose faith.

But on Friday night, my faith was emphatically restored.

Revenge of the Sith was almost everything I had hoped it would be.

It wasn't perfect by any means - the dialogue was still clunky and the acting a bit wooden, but not nearly to the same extent as in Episode I or II. I don't think I cringed even once.

The action scenes were in the main excellent, and the FX shots were more natural and less obtrusive than in the previous films.

But most important of all, the film moved me. Although the heartache the characters were going through was of course entirely predictable, tears still welled in my eyes on at least two occasions. The bottom line is that I really cared what was happening to these people and to this galaxy far, far away.

I give it an emphatic 5 stars. Go see it. Now.

Film Review : The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

As a fan of the previous incarnations of Hitchhiker's, it's difficult to give an impartial review of this film. I spent a lot of the time thinking "that's not in the book" or "they've chopped that joke in half", so it's hard to say whether it was a good film or not.

Let's hear the case for and against.....

Pros : the effects were in the main great, especially the staccato pull-back from Earth to the Vogon destructor fleet, and the journey through Magrathea. Martin Freeman was fine as Arthur Dent, and the girl who played Trillian was quite cute. There were some laugh out loud moments (eg the puppet crew), and generally it was a fun ride.

Cons : Mos Def as Ford Prefect was a bit of a non-entity. In the TV series Ford was great fun, but he was a bit dull in the film. I'm in two minds about Zaphod (ahem) - he was certainly entertaining, but was just a little but too OTT. The Guide itself wasn't an improvement on the TV version, and I didn't think Stephen Fry was right for the voice. And don't get me started on Marvin! The plot was OK, but was so far removed from the source material that it just threw me a bit. Most of this was forgiveable, but the conclusion was not. *SPOLIER* Having Earth rebuilt and put back to exactly as it was before the Vogon's appeared was illogical, and trivialised Arthur's plight.

Despite these niggles I did enjoy the film, and I would recommend it. I give it ***1/2

Hole in One!!

I'm a pretty mediocre golfer, so you can imagine my surprise when I got a hole in one on Saturday! I was playing at the Brooklands par 3 course in Worthing, and to my astonsihment saw my tee shot on the 131yd fourth hole bounce a couple of times and roll into the hole! I was playing with a friend Richard and his daughter Becky, and they were as amazed as me. If only I had it on video!

Here I am plucking the ball out of the cup. Although you can't tell, I had a pretty big smile on my face!