Dublin weather

My favourite weather app, YR.NO, tells me that there will be no rain tonight, almost none tomorrow, and then none for the next 3 days.

Let's wait and see!

It's only May of course, but I can't help remembering the 3 great days last year when I went to work in my shirtsleeves. No jacket, no coat, no umbrella. Happy days indeed!

Dublin Castle

I love Dublin Castle. I mentioned it previously in conjunction with the annual display of sand sculptures.

I was there last Friday for the Scratch Competition 2014 finals.

I was surprised to find myself in a new (to me) and lovely part of the castle. Included below is a picture I took on my phone. The place is full of surprises!

Domhnall Gleeson in Star Wars

I was delighted to hear that Domhnall Gleeson has landed a role in the new Star Wars movie.

He's a great actor, and seems like a nice guy. And he grew up here in Malahide, a 15 minute walk from where I live.

I saw him on "The Late Late Show" a few days before his casting was announced. He was on with Michael Fassbender and Lenny Abrahamson talking about "Frank". I don't know how he was able to keep from bursting out with the news!

I just hope J.J. is able to do a better job than he has with the Star Trek reboot.

Here is a shot from a reading apparently with lots of the key players (Domhnall included) present:

Shaky Camera

I mentioned shaky camera work in my last posting, so I need to mention the worst ever example, IMHO.

I loved "The Bourne Identity", directed by Doug Liman. He held the camera as steady as a rock while Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) was fighting, as so gave us some fantastic fight scenes.

Then along came Paul Greengrass with Supremacy and Ultimatum.

Those movies are great, don't get me wrong, but the fight scenes are rubbish. I hope nobody spent much time choreographing them, training for them, or rehearsing them because you can't see anything. Complete waste of time.

My favourite fight scene is in the American embassy. Here's a (very small, unfortunately) still from just before this kicks off:

The Raid 2 Berandal

Went to see "The Raid 2" last week.

My overwhelming thoughts were:

1) It's long! 2 hours 30 minutes. The showing started at 9 PM and by the time it was over, I had already missed my last train.

2) It's no date movie! It must be the most violent movie I have ever seen,

3) There is little connection with "The Raid".  It picks up after the first movie, sure. And Iko Uwais is still playing the character of Rama. But apart from that...

4) It's excellent. The fight scenes are amazing. The action sequences are great. The acting is first rate. It looks great.

5) It's complicated. There are still a few subtleties I don't get. And the FAQ on IMDB is blank so far.

6) It's very much an ensemble piece. I was shocked from time to time at how long it had been since Iko has been on screen.

7) There a "nods" to lots of other movies and genres. Good fun. My favourite I think was what I took to be a nog to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon just before the big prison fight.

8) I didn't like the fact that the camera seemed to be shaking much more during the fight sequences. I think Gareth Evans and the team were trying to achieve something here. Sometimes it worked, sometimes now.

9) I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

Here is a nice shot of Gareth and Iko: