Freedom of speech should be limited...

[venta]

...to those who have something to say.

(According to The League Against Tedium)

Hmm. I've observed that for various reasons (mostly involving lack of time, and not currently having my laptop back from Evesham (bastards)), I've stopped reviewing gigs and things on here. So those of you who enjoy vicarious concert-going have missed out recently on Edwyn Collins, Loudon Wainwright III, the Pixies, PJ Harvey, and other goodness. I would be apologetic, but to be honest you should get off your backsides and go to gigs yourself.

I can now report that, in my opinion, Shrek 2 is worth seeing. It seems to be trying harder than Shrek, and is the worse for it, but still comes out as an entertaining couple of hours. And does anyone else who's seen it think that some sections of it make more than a passing reference to The Princess Bride ?

[This paragraph added in later, because I forgot first time round.]
The one thing that really disappointed me was the soundtrack. Why did they have to use poor covers instead of good originals ? I'm quite happy with the songs that were, in context, sung by the characters and so on. But Changes and Ever Fallen In Love With Someone (You Shouldn't Have Fallen In Love With) were just really, really bad. I'm prejudiced, because they're both songs I'm very fond of. But (particularly in the Buzzcocks' case) I couldn't help thinking that the original would have worked so much better as part of the soundtrack.

However, more importantly, I can also report that I saw wimble beaten by a piece of gingerbread. Frances has just come back from the Lake District, so our house has Grasmere gingerbread. If you've never encountered the stuff before: it's lovely, but it's hardcore. Three parts ginger, one part citrus peel, three parts gravel.

It defeated Wimble in fair combat, and he left the house a vanquished man.

Comments

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Err... I think that's a compliment. You have a greater need to report on my eating gingerbread than you do to report on all those gigs. :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure the term "eating" is applicable. Enduring ?
Submitting to ?

[wimble.livejournal.com]

3 falls or a knockout! I demand a rematch!

(I'll bring my secret weapon: more hot water! Less foam!)

[narenek.livejournal.com]

I offer to stand as a second, and attempt to finish off anything which survives your onslaught.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Somebody covered Changes? Noooo. I wanted to see the film until you said that. Thank you for warnng me.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure it's enough to make the film worth avoiding, but yes. One scene is set to really quite a bad cover of Changes (by Bowie, in case there's two songs called that to cause confusion).

[wimble.livejournal.com]

According to IMDB, that version is actually written and performed by Bowie, himself. Which does correspond with me thinking I heard his voice on two lines in the middle, but not with the fact that mostly it was a female vocalist.

A comment on IMDB suggests that the Ugly Sister might have been voiced by Jonathon Ross (despite the credits syaing Larry King). Which would explain why I recognised the voice (which I wouldn't do for LK), but I'd like confirmation. And "Joan Rivers" might have been voiced by Kate Thornton (which makes sense, but they should have fixed the credits!)

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

They did fix the credits - there's an additional credit slide at the very end of the whole thing for the localised UK voices. Right at the very very end, last thing on the reel.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Ah. Having been suckered by secretrebel's complaint about people who don't stay to the end, we stayed to the end of the credits of "Prisoner of Azkaban". Only to find there was nothing at the end, except the end. So we didn't stick around for all of the credits.

Which did result in the very bizarre feeling of walking back from the cinema to the car at only 9.30. Rather than the other way around.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

You'd have missed fun stuff during the credits though - the feet do some vaguely amusing things on the map in PoA (running away from a room marked 'stink bomb store', changing from human to dog prints, etc) and the little illustrations in the Shrek 2 credits were quite nice (medieval woodcuts depicting matte painters, film editors and so on, heading credits for each section)

[dr-bob.livejournal.com]

cuthbertcossand I just went to see it, and stayed to the end. Unfortunately, our local cinema raised the lights and turned off the projector during the copyright slide. So we didn't get to see the very very end. Though we tried (despite having not read this first. And I thought it sounded like Jonathan Ross! Couldn't tell Kate Thornton from a box of chocolates, 'though.

[venta.livejournal.com]

According to IMDB, that version is actually written and performed by Bowie, himself.

Really ?
Really ?
I'm surprised.

Well, I don't care, I still didn't like it.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

We could go back and check ;-)

That it was/wasn't Bowie. I'll believe you on not liking it ;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I believe I offered to escort Andy to see it at some point, so may get a chance at a second listen.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Bloody 'ell.

Having looked at IMDB:

"People Ain't No Good"
Performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Which just shows me, because I was thinking how the version in the film wasn't a patch on the NC&tBS version. Which, er, er... er.

I'm pretty certain it wasn't the same version I have, so think it must have been re-recorded for the film.

I'm confused :(

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Couldn't comment. Haven't got the NC&tBS version for comparison.

Could though. Hint ;-)

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

I still prefer the Lloyd Cole version.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Cretin that I am, I only know the Nick Cave version :)

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Less of a cretin than I am - I don't think I'd heard Mr Cave's version (and I can confirm he's credited in the film rather than just on imdb) until the film. Mr Cole's version on Music in a Foreign Language is very nice though.
Oh, Amazon lists Changes as being Butterfly Boucher featuring DB.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Where 'featuring' = 'sampling his voice and putting it over a background that came out of a Casio keyboard'