Movie Review ... Edge Of Tomorrow
Science fiction and Tom Cruise go hand in hand. Starring in several futuristic films including 'Minority Report' and 'Oblivion', the actor is no stranger in battling alien menaces. 'Edge of Tomorrow' finds him in familiar territory. Once again defending Earth from other-worldly beasties, he seems at home equipped with an armada of weaponry. Whilst derivative of similar films, 'Edge of Tomorrow' remains fresh as Cruise walks a well-travelled path.
In a world where an alien race has defeated its military, Earth's fate appears sealed. Tasked with making a final assault against them is William Cage (Tom Cruise). An inexperienced military officer, he soon finds himself caught in a time loop where he is constantly killed and forced to re-start his mission. Each time he's revived he learns ways to better defeat his enemies. Cage is assisted by Special Forces agent Rita (Emily Blunt) and together they aim to crush the alien's strangle-hold over Earth's weary citizens.
Directed with intensity by Doug Liman, 'Edge of Tomorrow' is a very solid production. Grasping the opportunities the concept presents, Liman crafts an engaging tale. The twisty-turny plot could have quickly become confusing. Thankfully it isn't due to its focus on Rita and Cage's dogged determination to destroy their enemies. Although using any technological weapon at their disposal, their realisation that their wits will win the day maintains interest. Cruise and Blunt create genuine chemistry and are effective in their roles.
'Edge of Tomorrow' thrives on its amazingly realised action sequences. Dragging viewers into the heat of battle, these scenes reveal Liman's flair in adding new wrinkles to high-octane escapades. The aliens look suitably vicious against the expectedly muscular hero. With its blending of a 'Groundhog Day'/Full Metal Jacket'-motif the screenplay encompasses the best of their worlds. Although sections seem somewhat familiar, it's a ride well worth taking.
A fun, exciting and constantly moving block-buster 'Edge of Tomorrow' cements Tom Cruise's science fiction credentials. He's had his critics but professionally he seems to know what works with his latest providing a fine slice of high-tech escapism.
Labels: Emily Blunt, movie review, Oblivion, Patrick Moore, Tom Cruise
A David Soul Moment
Labels: Celebrities, David Soul
Trivia Bits 07 June
The 2012 novel Pandemonium is the second novel in the Delirium Trilogy, a dystopian young adult novel written by Lauren Oliver.
The northeast of Sumatra has a coastline on the Strait of Malacca being named after the Malacca sultanate that ruled over the archipelago between 1400 and 1511.
The Bab al-Faraj, also known as The Gate of Deliverance, is the only surviving city wall gate in Damascus that was added after the Muslim conquest in 1154 AD.
The scientific study Seismology focuses on earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth.
Queen Noor of Jordan was born in the United States being born Lisa Najeeb Halaby on 23 August 1951 in Washington, D.C. She married King Hussein wed on 15 June 1978 in Amman, becoming his fourth wife and Queen of Jordan.
An oboe is a soprano-ranged, double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family made from a wooden tube roughly 65 cm (25-1/2 inches)long, with metal keys, a conical bore and flared bell.
Wine from Verduzzo, the grape behind the modern Italian wine Ramandolo, was first recorded being served at a 1409 banquet honoring Pope Gregory XII.
In relation to the animal organization, PETA stands for People (for the) Ethical Treatment (of) Animals and is an American animal rights organization founded March 1980.
The Shakespearean play that features the line incanted by the Three Witches double, double toil and trouble is Macbeth which is believed to have been written between 1603 and 1607.
The Mount Mulligan mine disaster occurred on 19 September 1921 in Mount Mulligan, Far North Queensland, Australia. Seventy-five workers were killed by the disaster which is the third worst coal mining accident in Australia in terms of human lives lost.
Labels: Instruments, Jordan, Queensland, Sumatra, Trivia Bits, William Shakespeare, Wine
Quotables 07 June
Labels: Buddha, Quotables
A David Niven Moment
Labels: Celebrities, David Niven
The Canary Islands are in the Atlantic Ocean and are a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara.
Kohlrabi is a cultivar of the common vegetable Cabbage.
Marilyn Monroe's first husband was James Dougherty whom she married on June 19, 1942 at the home of a Chester Howell in Los Angeles. She filed for divorce in Las Vegas, Nevada, while he was in Shanghai, China during World War II; it was finalized on September 13, 1946.
The martial art, originating in Thailand, known as the art of eight limbs is Muay Thai which uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques.
In human anatomy, the scapula is more commonly known as the shoulderblade.
A 1956 French musical Irma la Douce, music by Marguerite Monnot and lyrics and book by Alexandre Breffor, was made into a 1963 movie starring Shirley MacLaine.
DBC Pierre won the 2003 Man Brooker Prize for Fiction for the novel Vernon God Little which has also been adapted as two different stage plays.
The parliament of Iceland is known as The Althing being the oldest assembly in Europe, first convened in 930.
Austrian born Ida Freund was the first female university chemistry lecturer in the United Kingdom when she was promoted to staff lecturer in chemistry Newnham College, Cambridge in 1893.
Credited with creating the ostrich guitar tuning is American musician, singer and songwriter Lou Reed.
Labels: Atlantic Ocean, Iceland, Los Angeles, Marilyn Monroe, Morocco, Shirley MacLaine, Thailand, Trivia Bits, Vegetables
Labels: Joseph Campbell, Quotables
A David Manners Moment
Scottish actor and producer Sean Connery played the iconic role of James Bond seven times between 1962 and 1983.
The 1964 book Storm Boy was written by noted Australian author Colin Thiele and was made into a movie in1977 starring Greg Rowe, Peter Cummins and David Gulpilil. Storm Boy won the AFI Award for best film in 1977.
The English translation of the Gaelic inscription on Spike Milligan's gravestone is I told you I was ill.
Yang Kyoungjong, born 1920, was a Korean soldier who was drafted into the Japanese, Soviet and German armies, and captured by US soldiers in Normandy on D-Day. Yang later emigrated from Russia to the United States, where he lived until he died in Illinois in 1992.
Chris DeWolfe is best known as one of the creators of the website Myspace, a social networking service with a strong music emphasis that was launched in August 2003.
Cross-country skiing and rifle shooting combine to form the Winter Olympic sport of the Biathlon.
The metal Copper is added to Gold to produce Rose Gold.
13th Avenue, a commercially successful Orthodox Jewish shopping district in Brooklyn, New York, has 18 banks in the space of 10 blocks.
Coal seam gas is a natural gas consisting mainly of methane.
The sermon regarded as the "first set-piece confrontation of the English Reformation" was preached by Robert Barnes on Christmas Eve 1525 at St Edward King and Martyr on St Edward's Passage, Cambridge which became known as the "Cradle of the Reformation".
There are four one digit prime numbers - 2, 3, 5, 7.
Labels: James Bond, New York, Sean Connery, Spike Milligan, Trivia Bits
A David Bowie Moment
Labels: Celebrities, David Bowie
Labels: Quotables, Steve Jobs
A Brazilian shanty town in or near a city is known as a favela which first appeared in the late 19th century and were built by soldiers who had nowhere to live.
Best friends Sally and Dowee feature in the 2009 French-Australian animated children's TV series Sally Bollywood: Super Detective, who solve cases in a multicultural suburb of a big, western city, "Cosmopolis".
Built on the western banks of the River Nile, Ondurman is the largest city in the African country of Sudan and is the Sudanese national centre of commerce.
South Australian born actor Josh Helman played Jeb Oliver opposite Tom Cruise in the 2012 movie Jack Reacher after starting his acting career in the Australian TV series Home and Away.
Palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life especially fossils. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier's work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century.
Shake Hands with the Devil (2007) and Shooting Dogs (2005) are films based on the Rwandan genocide.
Ambergis a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales and is used to produce perfume.
The Queensland fruit fly – Bactrocera tryoni – is native to Australia.
On 6 February 1897, Joseph Dérigoin and his men of the French Foreign Legion stormed the Malagasy fortification using a ladder during the French occupation of Madagascar and subsequently took 3,000 prisoners.
Lyttelton Harbour is located on the South Island of New Zealand providing access to a busy commercial port at Lyttelton which includes a petroleum storage facility and a modern container and cargo terminal.
Labels: Australia, France, Madagascar, Rwanda, Tom Cruise, Trivia Bits
A Dave Brubeck Moment
Labels: Celebrities, Dave Brubeck
The pentagram has five points and was used as an important religious symbol by the Babylonians and by the Pythagoreans in ancient Greece.
The herb, oregano, is sometimes known as wild majoram.
Fighting in the famous Rumble in the Jungle match in 1974 were boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman on October 30, 1974, in the Mai 20 Stadium, now the Tata Raphael Stadium, in Kinshasa, Zaire - now Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ali won by knocking out Foreman in the eighth round.
German Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered plans drawn up for Germany to invade two US cities: Boston and New York on March 1899.
Retired American Oscar award winning actor and novelist Gene Hackman has been mostly known as a serious actor but he did perform I Could Have Danced All Night with other cast members in the 1996 adaptation of La CageAux Folles.
After studying at New York's famous Julliard School of Performing Arts, Christopher Reeve appeared in several movies and is best known for his roles as the caped superhero Superman.
The Nativity of St. John the Baptist Church in Piatra Neamț, Romania, built in 1497–98, was a court church of Stephen III of Moldavia.
Tbilisi is the capital of the European country of Georgia.
The reptile gharial is a Crocodile that is native to the Indian subcontinent and also called gavial and fish-eating crocodile. As the species has undergone both chronic long term and a rapid short-term declines it is listed as a Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The role of the Feral Kid in the 1981 movie Mad Max: The Road Warrior was played by Emil Minty, an Australian former child actor.
Labels: Congo, Greece, Romania, Superman, Trivia Bits
A Danny Kaye Moment
Labels: Celebrities, Danny Kaye
In Roman mythology, Aurora is the Goddess of Dawn who renews herself every morning and flies across the sky, announcing the arrival of the sun.
Mexican American professional golfer Lee Trevino has the nickname Spermex or The Merry Mex.
The massive Chinchaga fire of 1950 in northern Canada produced a smoke cloud that was blamed on supernatural forces, aliens, and nuclear Armageddon.
Bagot, beetal and bilberry are breeds of goats.
The crab Ocypode cursor is a species of ghost crab that can be found along the coasts of the eastern Atlantic Ocean and eastern Mediterranean Sea, but not in between.
Frogstomp was the 1996 debut album of band Silverchair, an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992.
Captain John Yossarian is the protagonist in the American satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright Joseph Heller's novels Catch-22 (1961) and Closing Time (1994)
An infant meerkat is known as a pup.
Quinyambie is a pastoral lease operating as a cattle station in north east South Australia with the unusual name being an Aboriginal word for excreta.
Popular Australian TV series Neighbours occurs in Ramsay Street in the fictional Australian suburb of Erinsbourough.
Labels: Australia, Canada, Catch 22, Mythology, South Australia, Trivia Bits
Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent Trailers
With all attention on the current release of Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie, I was looking at both trailers and noted how many of Disney's original scenes are part of the new movie.
Compare and see.
Original trailer for Walt Disney's 1959 classic animated feature Sleeping Beauty
Disney's Maleficent - 2014
Tribute well paid to the originators!
Labels: Angelina Jolie, Movie Trivia, Trailer, Walt Disney
Behind the Scenes – Sleeping Beauty
With Maleficent just released and doing well at the Box Office, this rare footage shows Disney animator's hard at work drawing Princess Aurora with the help of their live-action reference, actress Helene Stanley. It was a dream job for everyone involved. Maleficent is in cinemas worldwide and stars Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, and Brenton Thwaites.
Labels: Angelina Jolie, Movie Trivia, Vintage, Walt Disney
A Danielle Darrieux Moment
Published in 1942, the semi-autobiographical novel The Pea Pickers was written by Eve Langely, an Australian-New Zealand novelist and poet.
Robin Williams had the title character lead in the 1993 movie Mrs Doubtfire which was directed by Chris Columbus and won the Academy Award for Best Makeup.
Bung the Court Jester is a character from the comic strip The Wizard of Id created by American cartoonists Brant Parker and Johnny Hart in 1964.
The shamisen is a three stringed instrument that originates from Japan.
The Rebellion Beer Company, a microbrewery in Marlow Bottom, South East England, uses the chalky water of the local Chiltern Hills as it has high levels of minerals and salts.
The Cuban Missile Crisis happened in 1962 and was the subject of the 2000 movie Thirteen Days starring Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood and Shawn Driscoll.
The River Kwai, also known as the Khwae Yai River, is in the Asian country of Thailand.
Amongst the Merry Men, the group of outlaws who follow Robin Hood in English literature and folklore, is Alan-a-Dale, a roving minstrel, who appears in the later ballad "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale", in which Robin helps him rescue his sweetheart, who is being forced into marriage with another man.
Gwynneth Paltrow covered Bette Davis Eyes for the 2000 movie Duets which also starred Huey Lewis who sings lead and plays harmonica for his band, Huey Lewis and the News.
A part of Antarctica nearly double the area of the United Kingdom was named Queen Elizabeth Land to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee year in 2012.
First seen on camera in 2013, the Kawahiva tribe live near the Rio Pardo of Mato Grosso, Brazil.
The highest peak in the Caucasus Mountains in Russia, near the border of Georgia, is Mount Elbrus.
The official language of Laos is called Lao.
The Comoros Islands form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the south-east coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and north-west of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean
Known for employing a literary style known as naturalism was the French author Emile Zola (1840-2012)
The picture in the Labour Isn't Working poster was used by both the UK Conservatives and the US Republicans in their respective 1979 and 2012 election campaigns.
TV series Mad Men use the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City.
Frederick Morrell Zeder became chief engineer of Studebaker Automobile Company in Detroit at the age of 28 in 1914.
A matinee is a showing of a film or a performance in the afternoon.
The earliest known variant of "The dog ate my homework" as an excuse dates to the 1905 issue of The Cambrian, a magazine for Welsh Americans when a dog was blamed for the partial destruction of a sermon for a minister in country Wales.
8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter is a 2002 American sitcom television series, originally starring John Ritter and Katey Sagal.
Labels: Africa, Antartica, Bette Davis, Brazil, Cuba, Gwyneth Paltrow, Japan, Kevin Costner, Laos, Madagascar, Mozambique, Queen Elizabeth II, Robin Hood, Robin Williams, Russia, Thailand, Trivia Bits, Wales