Reviews

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Matt Little — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:59:00 GMT

I got out to watch the new Indy film at the cinema over the weekend. What was it like?

It was so predictable - you just knew what was going to happen next. You had seen it all before [when is he going to learn that when you have got the treasure and emerge from whatever cave/hole in which you found it, the bad guys will be waiting for you?] The characters were paper thin and the plot was almost non-existant. The fridge - the less said about that the better.

Was it any good? It was brilliant.

It was like being 10 again - just let yourself go and enjoy it - it is a real Indy film, not some modern remake of what has always been a bit corny and far-fetched.

The decision not to use too much CGI and instead concentraste on set-based effects really paid off - it looked like a film made 10-15 years ago and that just added to the warm feel that it gave you.

I can't remember when I last had so much fun watching such a rubbish film. I want to see it again :-)

BTW - spot the references to previous films throughout - recognise the hanger? See what was in the box? Why is the boy named Mutt? Where have you seen Marion before? Sankara Stones. And about 100 other things.

Holidays

Matt Little — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:52:00 GMT

Claire, Rebecca, Claire's parents and I have just spent a wonderful week on holiday in Elie in Fife.

Surprisingly for this summer, the weather actually was fairly good and it remained dry most of the time. Rebecca got to spend a lot of time on the beach and Claire's Dad was very good at teaching Rebecca how to build her first sandcastles.

The cottage was fantastic - very child-friendly. It was cosy and warm and had everything you could need - including WiFi. Well, everything except an ironing board, but apparently there should have been one there and they don't know where it has gone!!

Spending time on the beach was great and really relaxing. I want to go back!

Claire and I also spent a night at the Peat Inn to celebrate her birthday. The rooms are fantastic and the 6 course taster menu was delicious (if a little over-complicated in places). The cheese board should get special mention - it was impressive in its variety and was well explained to us.

The tasting menu was:

Beetroot Cured Salmon with Dill and Cucumber Dressing
Seared Scallops, Crushed Fresh Peas and Pancetta
Warm Salad of Wood Pigeon, Black Olives, Tomato Confit and Wild Herbs
Slow Braised Daube of Beef, Onion Purée, Confit Potatoes and Bacon [Claire didn't stop telling me how good this was for about 24 hours. Even though I had the same dish!]
Selection of Farmhouse Cheese
Choice of Dessert from the Á La Carte Selection

As the menu is a selection of smaller portions from the a la carte menu, you can choose to swap dishes as you wish and we chose to have Anstruther Lobster with Salad of Jersey Royal Potatoes and Avocado instead of the scallops.

The continental breakfast served in the room was fresh and tasty. The croissants were fresh, light and buttery. All washed down with a nice glass of champagne - a great way to start the day ;-)

Heroes - Undecided

Matt Little — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 11:57:00 GMT

I watched the first two episodes of the hugely-hyped series Heroes last night.

In summary - not bad, but I was left feeling that I really wanted something more to happen.

I'm glad that BBC 2 decided to screen the first two episodes together as they both really laid out the groundwork for later episodes and (I hope) the amount of re-iteration at the beginning of the second episode, which was really annoying, won't become a common occurrence. You do not need to spend the first 10 minutes of a 40 minute show replaying scenes from the first episode with a token minute of new footage in a small attempt to justify its inclusion.

I suspect that, for the series to have received that much hype, it must progress faster in later episodes and the need for repetition will dwindle. If not, I'll just tune in for the last 30 minutes thereby nicely missing the repeat of the last episode!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Matt Little — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:34:00 GMT

Dark, devious and pretty damned good.

Great film, really enjoyed it. The tone of the film has changed from a generally light-hearted romp around wizard-world into a dark, slightly disturbing story. Combine this with the fact that the three main protagonists (Harry, Hermione and Ron) have actually gained some acting skills, and add in some fantastic performances from characters such as Snape and you are on to a winner.

Go see it - it's worth it.

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown - A Review

Matt Little — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 09:56:00 GMT

In my opinion, Dan Brown writes weak books that are gripping in the same way that celebrity magazines (e.g. Hello, OK, etc) are - nothing to them, but fascinating for a while in a ghoulish kind of way. The problem with his books (and I include the Da Vinci Code in this) is that, unlike a magazine, you feel that you can't put it down once you have invested so much time reading it. Note to self: Stop reading his books.

I am not actually going to offer any analysis of the plot, as it was totally unbelievable - culminating in the worlds best cryptographer (code-breaker) being unable to see a message encoded using a Caesar Cipher (as used by Caesar) which she, coincidentally enough, mentioned and explained earlier in the book. When she covered it very early in the book, you knew that it was going to appear in the climax somewhere. If that encoding method has been around for 2000 years, how could she not see it (even though her love interest could)? Note to self: Stop reading his books.

As an aside, does anybody else know an author that loves 2-page chapters? 95% of the chapters must be less than 8 pages long. Each chapter features a context switch to another stream of the story so you end up swapping mini-stories every 5 pages. Very, very, very annoying. I could live with it a few times, but it is like that for the whole 500 pages. Note to self: Stop reading his books.

And the end was totally obvious, and (I may have mentioned this already) pathetically weak.

Stop reading his books.

La Garrigue Edinburgh - Food & Restaurant Review

Matt Little — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 18:28:00 GMT

Claire and I managed to go for a rare meal out last Saturday and we chose La Garrigue in Edinburgh.

The location was central, and we started with a quick drink at The World's End pub on the Royal mile before the 2 minute walk to the restaurant.

The restaurant itself was cosy and inviting, and the staff were attentive. We were offered an A la Carte and Table D'hote menu. We decided on the A la Carte menu. I started with the "La soupe de poissons comme pour George" [Fish soup] which was rich and full-bodied (although a little gritty at the bottom - a sign that the shellfish needs to be washed more carefully?) and followed this with Le fillet de boeuf grillé, jardinière de légumes [beef fillet] which was fantastic - both tasty and tender.

Claire had a wood pigeon salad to start, followed by "Le cassoulet aux trois viandes". Cassoulet is a classic French dish - and this one was special. A delightful mixture of pork, lamb, duck, Toulouse sausage and beans. Seriously tasty.

We both finished with the cheese selection which included a blue cheese, a goat's cheese and (I believe) a Ewe's milk cheese, and one more (although I forget what that was). We both had to have the cheese given the recommendation that came with the main course menu: "Cheese lovers, you want us to serve our products at the right temperature; please assist us to do so by ordering your cheese with your main meal" A great idea, although we did have to ask for the desert menu (which was not supplied with the starter/main menu) so that we could decide if we wanted the cheese! Desert menu available here.

We had a wonderful bottle of Toulouse red wine with this, which went very well with the meal.

Overall, the meal was very good, with some fantastic quality produce. The cost was about £100 for two of us including the wine. Although I was happy to add a tip to the bill, I don't like being presented with a bill already including a 10% tip for a table of two - what happened to choice?

I would definitely consider going again (once I have saved up again)!

Our cosy table can be seen below (image copyright La Garrigue)

Anybody In there?

Matt Little — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 13:12:00 GMT

Not been posting for a while. I have been on holiday for the last couple of weeks in sunny Perthshire.

Claire and I had a brilliant time at Portnellan Lodges followed by a couple of nights at Ardeonaig Hotel. The lodges were great - a brilliant way to relax and a great base from which to do some sight-seeing. One of the bizarre memories was the bird feeder on our balcony that was always full of small birds eating the peanuts left for them. A really nice sight when you opened the curtains each morning.

Ardeonaig was great - it is run by a South African couple and the hotel is sooooo relaxing and the restaurant was great. The first night that we were there was a little disappointing - the restaurant was packed and I think that the new waiting staff were struggling to cope with the 11 (!) starters and 14 (!!!) main courses. The quality of things like sauces suffered a little also.

The next night was great though - I had some beautifully tender wood pigeon followed by fillet steak. What a steak - it was a roll about 15 cm long and about 7-8 cm in diameter. And it was wonderfully tender and tasty. It just shows what meat from a local farm that has been hung properly can be like. Blows that supermarket stuff away.

I will try and get some photos up soon, although most of my time is taken up with a project due for completion at the end of December - more news to follow.