Cars 2

It really, really pains me to say this but I think Pixar have made their first stumble and it couldn't have been with a more unfortunate franchise.
Cars 2 is not a worthy follow up to the original and I really have to wonder what the people at Pixar were thinking.
We pick up after Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) has won yet another Piston Cup and has returned to Radiator Springs to relax and reconnect with his friends. Mater (Larry The Cable Guy) is particularly keen to get up to no good and have some fun.
McQueen wants some of that and also to hang out with Sally at the diner. It's there that he's coaxed into participating in a world racing championship.
While all this is going on secret agent Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) has uncovered some weapons he suspects will be used to attack the races in the WDC and meets up with agent Holly Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) at the championship launch to gather further evidence from an American spy Rod Torqueline. Yada yada yada the evidence ends up attached to Mater.
There's also a sub-plot about a clean alternative fuel which doesn't really help the overall story, depending on who they are trying to appeal to.
The main beef I have with Cars 2 is that it is far too serious. It's about spies and plots to blow up race cars and there's far too much of Mater taking centre stage. If you look at Cars it's a simple, whimsical story that's fun and entertaining and accessible to all ages.
Cars 2 is none of those things. It's a complex story and I don't see how kids will follow it, though they will enjoy the animation which is top notch.
It wasn't a terrible movie, it certainly had some fun moments and as mentioned it was very well drawn and scored. But it's not a great movie either, nowhere near the standard I come to expect from Pixar and I really hope they do a Cars 3 to right this wrong.
A 6.5 out of 10, by far the lowest a Pixar movie (which tends to get 8s minimum) has scored.

Learn to live

'The hardest thing in this world is to live in it'.
It's a line from the musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer - it sounds so very true, doesn't it. But we all know that it shouldn't be the case.
The world is amazing place and we shouldn't let our trials crush us, and lead to the perception that life is tough. We all have troubles, we all get sick, we all get injured in some way, we all go through periods of happiness and sadness.
Yes I am being very philosophical - it probably isn't my nature which tends to be more negative I guess (to my detriment).
The challenge for me is to acknowledge that I have troubles and to do my best to deal with them. My troubles are mine and it is up to me to live the best way I can. I let them dominate my thinking and that is wrong.
Like any habit, the more you do it the easier it becomes. Cruelly, bad habits get easier very fast and good habits always tend to be harder to form. Probably because they require more effort and willpower.
I know that I am costing myself plenty of enjoyment at times by letting the negative thinking get inside the head when it does it tends to go for a pretty long run.
I am trying, but I guess not quite hard enough at this stage.

Super 8

I will admit to being very negative towards Super 8 based on the trailer but gave it a go anyway.
Happily, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought it would - though it did have a bit of a cheesy ending.
The film is set in 1979, a time when kids had to find constructive things to occupy themselves, and centres on a group of teenagers who are making a film (on a Super 8mm camera, hence the name) when a train spectacularly crashes around them.
From there all manner of strange things start to happen and when the US Airforce turns up to clean up the mess people start to wonder. Particularly Joey (Joel Courtney) and his film-making friends.
As Joey's dad Jackson (Kyle Chandler), the deputy sheriff, investigates the kids make the most of the situation to make their movie and work out what is going on.
It's definitely in the sci-fi genre as something begins picking off residents and soldiers. In a style not seen often in similar films in recent years, you don't get a good look at what is attacking the town until very late in the piece. I think that's a great thing. I remember Alien 3 having very little suspense because you saw the alien pretty early on so had nothing to creep you out like in the first couple.

Anyway. if Super 8 is similar to another film I'd have to say it is The Goonies. It just has that feel. A bunch of kids on a quest to save the town run into an extraordinary situation. There's no Truffle Shuffle, but that's the basic feel.
As said I enjoyed Super 8 quite a bit, though I felt they needed an extra couple of scenes to tie things up a bit bitter. It ended abruptly and quite cheesily.

A 7 out of 10.

Trust

There comes a time when you have to believe some things to be true and some things to be false.
I wonder, when it comes to myself, why I can't seem to trust what I know to be true because I feel a few odd things?
I can feel quite good in general yet have some little thing going on somewhere else and that dominates. Whether it is a twinge in a muscle (I get back issues now and then) or an odd feeling in sensitive areas, I just jump off the cliff before considering that the cause is likely to be minor, transient, and not worth getting worked up about.
But, no, to me it can be this huge, life threatening danger and it overtakes me, distracting me from whatever I'm doing, or supposed to be doing.
I think I've said it before, it's almost like looking for something to be wrong.
How much panic or anxiety contributes to what I feel is hard to measure - so I will say to myself this....all the tests you've had recently have been excellent.
That is something I need to trust in.

Spooked

One of the things that bugs me about myself these days is how easily spooked I am.
I'm not talking about scary things like walking down a dark alley in Redfern in the middle of the night with a wad of cash on me....though I probably would feel pretty uneasy doing that.
What I'm referring to is how I have this tendency of jumping to bad conclusions.
Particularly when it comes to health issues. Medically, it would be referred to as 'health anxiety'.
That problem to the side, the troubling this is that when I am 'spooked' I can shut down a bit and not want to do things - just in case.
Committing to doing CBT to try and overcome it is not as easy as it sounds either. I don't know why, though.
The solution could well and truly be in my worksheets and CBT book yet it doesn't get the workout that I should be giving it.
OK, so I admit I have a problem here.

Progress

I'm happy to say there has been progress in the challenge of getting to the gym.
Unfortunately I didn't get there today but have been three times in the past 10 days. The plan is to be there tomorrow just for a bit of a lighter session as my shoulder blades feel like they have a steel bar shoved through them.
More stretching is required to ease that issue.
I have to say that in general I feel a little better having been more active in the past couple of weeks. I still get troubled by little things that my mind can turn into larger things but that is a work in progress as well.
So the plan is a cardio session for Friday with a bit of weights then a similar session on Monday before hopefully getting back into the routine this time next week.
Also looking forward to another trip to Brisbane in a couple of weeks time. Haven't been there properly since I was a teenager and the two times I have been there since then I saw the airport and the racecourse and Moreton Island.
So it will be cool to have a look around and hopefully meet some new people and catch up with some new friends up there.

It's a start

I am rather proud of myself for making it to the gym twice in the past week.
That probably doesn't sound like much to some people but my history has been go once then don't go again for months and months.
My arms do feel like they could fall off! A lot of stiffness there from using muscles I'm sure I didn't know I had (and still don't have just yet to be honest). A big plus has been finding a buddy to go along with and that's encouraging, plus I have someone who knows what they are doing a lot more than me.
The big challenge coming up for me isn't so much to keep going - it is the fact that I will inevitably lose a bit of weight from actually working out properly a couple of times a week. And while that is something I very much want (a few kgs, not 10), losing weight is a bit of a tricky subject for me because it has been embedded in my mind that weight loss is bad.
Long story.
Feeling fitter and better about myself is a big positive so hopefully I can keep the crazy thoughts about dropping a kilo or two in perspective.
But anyway, I'm off to a good start.

X-Men: First Class

'Origin' movies are interesting because they presume the audience knows a bit about the characters.
X-Men: First Class is no exception and while it isn't as action-packed as the other films in the series it is a quality introduction to the X-Men.
A large part of what makes this one watchable is an excellent cast and, particularly with the two leads, you could see them growing up into the characters of the original trilogy.

James McAvoy, one of my favourites, is Charles Xavier who is a rather cocky character and an expert on genetic mutation. We also see how he ended up in a wheelchair.
Michael Fassbender, who I admit I wasn't familiar with, was excellent as Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto).

We're shown how Erik came to be such an angry and vengeful character and why he adopted his 'us and them' mentality about mutants. Xavier had a much more prim and proper upbringing and it was interesting to see that it was he who befriended Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) before she turned to Magneto's side.

We're introduced to a number of new mutants (and a couple we already know, including a juicy cameo) on both the good and bad side of the equation.
Kevin Bacon seems to relish playing Sebastian Shaw, the man responsible for Erik's anger while Mad Men's January Jones does what she does best as Emma Frost.

I thought Nicholas Hoult was exceptional as Hank McCoy (Beast), who we saw in X-Men 3 played by Kelsey Grammar. Hoult of course is the kid from the fantastic film About A Boy.

It seems likely that there will be more X-Men films to follow from this cast so where they head will be of plenty of interest.

I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would when I first heard about it, the cast does help it along when there is a lot of plot and less action than you'd expect from an X-Men film. An 8 out of 10.

Gamblor

It's been in the news lately about the Government attempting to cap the amount people can lose on poker machines and I'm starting to see why.
A couple of years ago, while at the wake from my aunt's funeral my dad gave me $50 to spend and after looking at the horses I decided to throw it in the pokies.
As almost always happens when you do something like that which you don't normally do, I won about $100. They call it beginner's luck.
After that I started throwing $20 in now and then. Eventually this rose to starting at $50.
Yada yada yada, you get the drift.
Now I need to get out of the habit of doing it. I know that you can't beat the machines, you might get lucky and have a win now and then but in the end you will lose.
That is why there are so many of them around.
I love having a bet on the horses and that is a lot more a game of skill than the pokies. While surprises to happen in racing there are elements you can take into consideration to rule horses in or out and make educated gambles.
There is an episode of The Simpsons where Marge gets hooked on the pokies and Homer describes to the kids that she has been consumed by a monster called Gamblor. We all laugh but it is so true that this can take you over.
I don't know what it is about them, the flashing lights, the cool features that promise the chance to win large-ish amounts, the jackpots that are attached to the machines. Again, I don't know.
Whatever the reason people get addicted I need to stop using them - it's not even fun any more, it used to be just throw in 20 and hope you come out with 30 - before it gets to being a big issue.
So here I go - I know it will take a bit of willpower but I vow to stop playing them from this moment.
I like to think I can keep a promise to other people - now I need to prove I can keep a promise to myself. Money is far too important these days to be throwing it away on pure chance.

The Hangover Part 2

What do they say in Scream 2 - sequels are never as good as the original. That is certainly the case with The Hangover Part 2 but that doesn't mean it isn't funny.
We pick up the action two years after the mayhem in Las Vegas where Doug (Justin Bartha) was misplaced following his bachelor party.
This time it is Stu (Ed Harris) that is getting married, properly, and all are well aware of avoiding another night like they had in Vegas. So much so that Stu invites Doug and Phil (Bradley Cooper) to what looks like a Macca's type restuarant for his 'bachelor brunch'.
He even covers his juice with a napkin so nobody can spike it.
Doug and Phil are invited to the wedding but Alan (Zach Galafinakis) is not, until Doug's wife urges him to secure an invite for her brother.
Reluctantly Stu agrees and everyone jets off to Thailand for the wedding.
After some awkward speeches the guys retire to the beach for one beer before hitting the sack and they take Stu's soon to be brother in law Teddy (Mason Lee) with them.
Then they wake up in a strange hotel room, Doug is safely back at their resort but Teddy is missing and the only trace of him is his finger.
Further mayhem ensues and this time it is a lot more R-rated than the original.
As I said this sequel is quite funny but when you have a film as original as its predecessor it was always going to be hard to top. Unfortunately they didn't try to top it, they just basically copied it.
In some ways it's not a completely bad thing - you know what to expect right down to the inevitable bunch of photos taken explaining what happened on that wild night.

If you enjoyed the first movie then you'll have a laugh. Nothing new here, a 7 out of 10.