My big 2017 film review

I didn't manage the target Cathy set for me of watching 52 new films in 2017. But I did see 41, which isn't bad. Back in February I noted the ones I'd seen so far. I was going to do this regularly throughout the year, but, um, well, anyway...

I've decided to keep this review to just films that I saw on cinema release in 2017. I've included short summaries giving my verdict on the film.

*January*  - snapshot summaries here
Passengers
A Monster Calls
Sing

*February*
The Lego Batman Movie - read my long review here

*March*
Beauty & the Beast
Probably the most unnecessary remake in cinematic history, which is saying something. Emma Watson spent most of her time having to react to empty air where the CGI characters would be and it really showed she's not that great an actor. The additions to the cartoon, both songs and narrative, weren't much cop either.

*April*
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
A sequel to my favourite film of recent years that I liked even better than the original. I got emotional at the end. Cracking soundtrack too. My film of the year, and probably of several years. I saw it twice in the cinema and then bought the Blu-ray when it came out. And the soundtrack. And a ton of merchandise. And the Lego sets. I collect Rocket Raccoons and Cathy collects Groots. That says a lot about us really. (It also has a very interesting religious angle, which I blogged about.)

*May*
Alien Covenant
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGHH! This film is so stupid it hurt me. I actually felt rage when I thought about it afterwards. Every STUPID thing the STUPID people did in STUPID Prometheus they went and did again! Walking out on the surface of a planet without a protective suit. Trusting the CLEARLY EVIL ROBOT so much you stick your face up close next to an alien pod-egg, even though you've just seen your crew-mate's decapitated head floating in a fountain. I mean, come on! How dull are you? Recycling every twist you can imagine from previous films and adding such an obvious one I was literally mouthing 'Please, no, don't do that' because it was so obvious.

Possibly contentious opinion: The best thing that happened to Star Wars is that is got taken away from George Lucas. Someone needs to do the same thing with Ridley Scott and Alien.

*June*
Wonder Woman
This film had flaws. I guessed who the baddy was going to be, because by now I have seen so many superhero films it's always going to be that guy who is just too helpful to the heroes. But Gal Gadot was a revelation. The scene where she went over the top of the trench into a hail of bullets and powered through inspired me. So, all in all, I thought this was great despite the flaws.

*July*
Despicable Me 3
Someone out there might still find minions amusing. Pretty sure even little kids are sick of this franchise now. It would make a good primer about how a movie can get totally lost through having too many sub-plots.

Cars 3
I would nominate Cars 2 as the worst Pixar sequel by miles. But this was great - the sequel Cars should have had. We took my Niece (6) and Nephew (4) to see it for Nephew's first trip to the cinema. Even they recognised it was a far superior film to Cars 2, even if I'm not sure they fully grasped the mature storyline of growing old and being replaced by the next generation coming through.

Spider-Man Homecoming
This was pretty good overall. It had a lot of humour and Spider-man is a dorky schoolkid again. Marisa Tomei is a brilliant comedic actor and was a refreshing change as Aunt May. Michael Keaton as a villain - what's not to love? I've seen 5 big screen Spider-man films now, and I think this one is probably the best. And it fits back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which works for me.

Dunkirk
This was very powerful, with a plot timing device I only got about halfway through. I'm very glad I saw it in the cinema because the aerial combat scenes needed to be on a big screen. I know this sounds daft but the sky is big and the sense of losing sight of a plane and not knowing where it will be coming from next was very well captured. The sense of desperation, of trying to escape, and repeated failures, ratcheted up the tension. It got to me and most of the rest of the audience, judging by how we all sat there slightly stunned afterwards.

*October*
Blade Runner 2049
My comment about Ridley Scott and Alien also applies to Blade Runner. Visually it was very arresting and evocative of the first film. There was too much gratuitous nudity and the plot really didn't bear much scrutiny. I would make a case that this film settles the argument and Deckard isn't a replicant. Which I know is controversial, but if you follow the logic through, he can't be.

The Lego Ninjago Movie
Two Lego movies in a year. If you want to see the Law of Diminishing Returns in action, here it is. This was some way off The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie. It was still much funnier than Sing or Despicable Me 3 though.

Thor: Ragnarok
My third Marvel Comics Universe film of the year and a real departure for Thor films, which tend to be a bit slow and depressing. This was gaudy and colourful, so much so it felt a little bit like a rip off of Guardians of the Galaxy. I laughed a lot, particularly at the new character, Korg, who introduced Thor to the weird world he ended up on. Cate Blanchett was suitably villainous as Hela, but was under-used. Anthony Hopkins phoned in his part as Odin for the third time in three films. But overall I enjoyed it a lot and it's easily the best of the Thor films.

*November*
Loving Vincent
This was an oddball one - an animated retelling of the tragic death of Vincent Van Gogh, with the twist that each cel of the animation was painted in the style of Van Gogh's art. I was intrigued by the concept, which worked some of the time, and learned quite a bit from the story. Some of the voices didn't work for me, especially Chris O'Dowd's indomitable Irish accent that felt very out of place. If you are a fan of animation, quirky films, or art, then this might interest you.

*December*
Justice League
Yay, Gal Gadot is back. This was my first real encounter with Batfleck. He didn't really do it for me. As a 'getting the team together' movie, it works better than most. Superman is still a superhero I don't care about. It was supposed to be a big secret he was in this film, but then I saw the toy sets in the supermarkets and noticed the S logo was included in the poster. Here's a tip, film-makers, if you want to hide Superman's presence in your movie, don't put his logo on the poster! In my opinion, DC is a long way off Marvel in terms of films that I want to see. Suicide Squad was the worst film I saw in 2016. The other Superman and Batman films up to this one have looked just awful. This didn't really win me over but I might give Justice League 2 a look when it rolls around.

The Last Jedi
I saw this twice before the year end. I thought it was great and have posted a long review about it already.

In summary
I watched a lot of superhero films this year, which is a bit embarrassing, but, hey, I go to the cinema to be entertained. Some quick 'awards':

Best film: Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

Best animation: Cars 3

Worst film: Alien Covenant, although Beauty & the Beast ran it a close second.

Most unexpected character appearance: Sauron in The Lego Batman Movie

Biggest twist: What happened to Snoke (trying not to reveal a spoiler there)

Best visual moment: the speeders carving up plumes of red dust across a white salt field in the battle of Crait, closely followed by Wonder Woman deflecting machine gun fire as she walks through no man's land

A dozen Christmas Cards from the ACCA '17

There seems to be some competition among people who send us Christmas cards as to who gets their card featured on the blog. One or two people have asked me about it. So, in the spirit of competition, I've picked 12 out of the 90 we received to showcase in this year's ACCA supplementary post.

First up, as regular ACCA readers will know, I audit the number of religious and secular themed cards that we get. Most of the religious ones this year were a bit dull, but I really liked this one produced by Oxfam. I'm a little concerned about the blonde Aryan baby Jesus, but overall it's a really nice card.

I like robins in real life and as a Christmas card theme. This card also had glitter, which is a card feature I started counting this year for the first time.

It's not quite a robin, but I thought this was a charming Christmas cockatoo, on the card from my Australian cousin, Trefor.

The other birds to feature heavily on Christmas cards are, of course, penguins. We have had a lot of penguin cards over the years and they did well as a theme this year. Cathy really liked the funky penguins on this card, and I have to agree with her.

But how about penguins commandeering a bus to go Christmas shopping? Sounds like an awesome concept, doesn't it? I really liked it.

Several schools produce Christmas cards as a fundraising scheme, featuring artwork from kids. My friend Sarah's daughter drew this tree, which was also the only card to wish us Happy Christmas in Welsh. Christmas trees were one of the most popular themes.

Snowmen are also a well-performing theme, as you would perhaps expect. I liked this card from my sort-of-cousin, Sue, as she keeps chickens and so the card was very apt.

One of the themes that again was sadly lacking was 'dogs in Santa hats'. However, like last year, we had a card with behatted sheep to make up for it. Also featuring a pun!

'Christmas food' is an odd category and I've thought about dropping it. However, last year we had the really great puddings card and this year a cheery, cheeky walnut.

Keeping on the theme of nuts, Cathy gave me a card covered in squirrels and with a pun(!) on it. I love puns.

These days, it's not the festive season without the release of a Star Wars film. I liked this Star Wars theme Christmas jumper mash up card.

But I have saved the best until last. The moment I opened this card, I knew it was going to be my favourite card of the year. Surprisingly, it also got counted in the religious side of the audit. It's one of the very few cards to actually mention Jesus, and it was sent to us by Cathy's cousin Adam and his wife, Bonny. (I'm not sure if naming them is giving credit or blame, to be honest.)

So, here you go... click on it to see it in all it's glory.

Christmas Carols Audit 2017 - what are the most popular carols?

From a previous year's
Christmas card audit

Given how popular the Christmas Card Audits are, I've decided to analyse the Christmas services (and other caroling opportunities) I've been to this year. My Dad has also chipped in with service sheets from two services he attended.

I'm going to include set lists for the services. Feel free to scroll to the bottom of the post to find out what the most popular one was. Asterisked songs are ones I don't think I have ever sung before, or heard sung before.

Overall stats
Services audited: 6
Denominational breakdown: 4 Anglican (C of E), 1 Methodist, 1 other

Service: Evening Carol Service, Methodist Church
Total songs: 14 (10 sung by congregation and 4 performed by choirs)
Congregation songs
O Come, O Come Immanuel
O Little Town of Bethlehem
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
In the Bleak Midwinter
Away in a Manger
Silent Night
As, With Gladness, Men of Old*
Cradled in a Manger, Meanly*
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
O Come All Ye Faithful (all 5 verses!)
Choir-performed songs
Carol of the Bells
Mary, Did You Know?
Jesus, Rest Your Head
O Holy Night

Service: football club Carol Service hosted by a C of E church (service sheet from Dad)
Congregation songs
O Come All Ye Faithful
Once in Royal David's City
Joy to the World
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night
We Three Kings
Silent Night
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Plus musical interludes/performances
Another Christmas/ Candlelight Carol / Little Drummer Boy / Peace on Earth/ Carol of the Bells / Jazz Gloria/ Nowell for the Merrie Citie/  Twelve Days After Christmas / O Holy Night

Service: Christingle service, C of E church
Total songs: 6
Congregation songs
O Come All Ye Faithful
Little Donkey
Silent Night
Away in a Manger
Shine Jesus Shine
Performed song
Mary, Did you know?

Service: Midnight communion service, C of E church
Total songs: 4 
Once In Royal David's City
Good Christians All Rejoice
O Little Town of Bethlehem
O Come All Ye Faithful

Service: Midnight Mass, (different) C of E church (service sheet from Dad)
Total songs: 4 
O Come All Ye Faithful
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence*
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Service: Christmas Day service, charismatic 'new' church
Total songs: 5  
Congregation songs
O Come All Ye Faithful
Light of the World, You Stepped Down Into Darkness
Once in Royal David's City
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Performed song
(Video) Light of the World - Lauren Daigle

Conclusion
The most popular sung carol, featuring in the set lists of all six services was O Come All Ye Faithful. In order, the most popular ones were:
1) O Come All Ye Faithful (6 setlists)
2) Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (4)
=3) Once in Royal David's City and Silent Night (3)
=5) Away in a Manger, O Little Town of Bethlehem and While Shepherds Watched (2)

In terms of performed songs, I don't know what the musical interludes were like in the football club carol service that Dad attended, and whether the songs were performed in their entirety. So I'm going to base my conclusions on the services I was at. This means 'Mary, Did You Know' was the most popular performed song.

Of note, that two services included non-carols, which I've listed for completeness. There were three weird ones dredged out of the back of old hymnals, although I think 'As, With Gladness, Men of Old' isn't as obscure as the other two.

The Annual Christmas Card Audit is coming. We'll be taking the cards down in the next couple of days. I haven't decided yet whether carol services are going to become an annual auditing subject. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

2016-17 football season review

As we are now into the 2017-18 European competition qualifiers I felt I should probably get round to publishing my season review for the 2016-17 season. Seduced by the success of the Wales team at Euro 2016 I bought a "season ticket" for the 2018 World Cup qualifying  campaign that hasn't exactly reached the heights of expectation but means I have started watching international football again after a break of several years.

As per previous seasons, here are the overall stats:
Season: 2016-17
Total games: 14
Most goals in a game: 4
Fewest goals in a game: 0
Total goals seen: 26
Number of football grounds visited: 6 (3 of which I’d never visited before)

This year I saw 8 games at Cardiff City Stadium - 4 Cardiff City, 3 Wales and the UEFA Women's Champions League Final.

The games:

Cardiff City 0 v 2 Queen's Park Rangers

The mopey mascot just about sums it up for Cardiff at this point, as they were desperately poor. I was in the away end with Steve, my QPR-superfan friend. Two second half goals did for City

Weston-Super-Mare 0 v 0 Poole Town
Steve is also a Poole Town fan and persuaded me to go with him to Weston on a Tuesday evening to see the Mighty Dolphins take on the Seagull Army. (I didn't take much persuading.)

In case there was any doubt about the Seagull Army, they have a banner.

Second half we were right behind the Weston goal and I saw the keeper pull off probably the best ever save I've seen live, from point blank range. He was a nice guy too, having a chat to the fans about the various grounds in the league and who we thought were the best teams.

Cardiff 0 v 1 Reading
This game was notable for two reasons. Firstly, both sides were shambolically bad. Secondly, Reading were in a high viz yellow kit which meant the away end looked like it was packed with safety stewards.

Wales 4 v 0 Moldova
The first home game for Wales after the Euros and a trouncing for the weakest team in the group. Gareth Bale won a penalty at the death to make it more flattering than Wales really deserved. When Moldova decided to actually play they made life a bit more difficult for Wales, but they were trailing by then anyway. This game was my third of the season at Cardiff City Stadium and I was in the third different stand.

Cardiff 0 v 2 Derby
Derby's manager, Nigel Pearson, was relieved of his duties the day before this game, while City boss Paul Trollope was grimly hanging on. Grim was the operative word. I said to my friend Sara, who I was standing with at the back of the Canton Stand that they would get relegated.

Wales 1 v 1 Georgia
This was a massive let down. Wales took the lead, then lost momentum and let Georgia back in to throw away two much needed points.

Wales 1 v 1 Serbia
For the second match in a row Wales let a lead slip and this time against some of their main rivals in the group.

Poole Town 0 v 2 Ebbsfleet United
This was a long road trip with Steve, but I got to see Poole at home for the first time. I particularly liked the idea of the fundraising cheese that was on sale, although I didn't buy any.

The Poole mascot is Danny Dolphin. Amusingly he joined in the team handshakes at the start of the game.

Cardiff v Ipswich 3-1
Another Cardiff game, and another viewing angle. This time I was in the family stand with a friend who wanted to take his daughter to a football match but had never been to one himself. She loved it. He conceded at the end that it was much more enjoyable than he thought it would be.

She particularly liked it when Cardiff scored (naturally) but also when Cardiff missed and the whole crowd went 'OOOOHH' at the same time. It made me remember how much I enjoyed being part of the crowd when I was a kid at football matches. You're this tiny part of this huge organic thing and as much a part of it as anyone else.

Cardiff were much improved, having ditched Paul Trollope shortly after the Derby game and appointing veteran manager Neil Warnock. He's a bit of a marmite manager, with most people detesting him, but the turnaround at Cardiff in terms of team shape, tactics and spirit was very evident.

Shrewsbury 0 v 2 Bolton
I finally got to a Shrewsbury game for the season. Bolton were a horrible team of whinging cloggers. The game wasn't much better. There was supposed to be a minute's silence at the start but it turned into a minute's applause. The mascots joined in. I'm not sure how I feel about mascots at minute silences. It seems a bit frivolous.

Bristol Rovers 2 v 0 Shrewsbury
A game ruined by a referee who sent off a Shrewsbury forward for nothing and gave the home team a duff penalty. The rumour afterwards was that the ref went into the changing room after the game and apologised. Rovers have half a ground and we were sat under a tarpaulin roof.

Shrewsbury 1 v 0 Southend
Three points that meant Shrewsbury were almost guaranteed to stay up, which was a minor miracle given they were bottom in October when Paul Hurst took over as manager. The players did a lap of honour after the game as it was the last home game of the season - although technically they hadn't won anything, so it should probably have been called a lap of survival.

Ton Pentre 1 v 1 Port Talbot Town
Another new ground for me, this time in the Welsh League. The view around this ground, of blue grey mountains and hills is spectacular. The ground is basic, but fun. Tea served in proper mugs, and boy did we need it despite it being May. The pitch was the bounciest pitch I've ever seen. At one point a ball bounced into the stands and I swear it bounced higher off the pitch than it did off the concrete. I don't think player needed to wear studs.

I went at the invitation of my friend Ben who was playing for Port Talbot. Here's a picture of him in action.

Olympique Lyonnais 0 v 0 Paris Saint-Germain (aet) - Lyon won 7-6 on penalties
My eighth match of the season at Cardiff City Stadium. My full review of the game is here. It was the first ever women's football game I'd been to. There was a lot less diving and rolling around than in the men's final a couple of nights later.

It also contained the most amazing conclusion to a penalty shoot out, with one goalie missing and the other scoring to win the trophy. Not a bad way to end the season.

2017 film reviews - January & February

This year I am going to try and review films througout the year rather than having a stupidly long list at the end of the year like I did in 2016. So, to start this off here's the list of films I saw for the first time in January and February 2017. The key is as follows: C = cinema, D = DVD, N = Netflix

The Secret of Kells (D) - made by the team who made Song of the Sea (which was my film of the year in 2015). Brendan, an apprentice manuscript artist working in the scriptorium in Kells monastery looks after a manuscript gospel begun by St Aiden on Iona, as Kells comes under attack from Vikings. He is helped in his mission to protect the book by a faerie called Aisling who lives in the forest outside the monastery. The animation is excellent, although not reaching the heights of Song of the Sea, and the story is well told.

Passengers (C) - big budget sci-fi starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, who are both 'passengers' who have paid a huge amount of money to travel to another planet. A few decades into their 190 year journey they wake up. It's hard not to write about this without spoiling it, but it raises interesting questions about being faced with your own inevitable mortality despite having the rest of your natural life to live and what would you do if circumstances trapped you in total isolation from the rest of humanity. The film had a few flaws, but both lead actors were very good and I enjoyed it.

A Monster Calls (C) - Cathy and I had both read the book by Patrick Ness that this is based on, so we knew what to expect. The story focuses on Conor, whose mother is dying from cancer. One night the yew tree in the neighbouring churchyard comes alive as a monster and offers Conor three tales, told in animated sequences, before demanding Conor tell him "the truth". It's not an easy subject to cover in a film but it tries to address the difficult mixed feelings people have in those horrible situations. We both thought it was very well done, but Cathy felt they had missed one of the key aspects of the book. I was a bit thrown to realise halfway through that I recognised Conor's dying mum, Lizzie, as Jyn Erso in Star Wars: Rogue One. Other actors involved include Sigourney Weaver, who gives an understated masterclass in acting as Conor's grandmother.

Ex Machina (D) - science fiction thoughtful thriller from British screenwriter and director Alex Garland. Domhnall Gleeson plays a programmer called Caleb who works for a search engine company and wins a staff lottery to spend a week with Nathan, the reclusive billionaire company founder, at his isolated luxury home. Nathan wants Caleb to run a Turing test on a possibly sentient artificial intelligence he has created. The AI looks feminine, is called Ava and is played brilliantly by Alice Vikander. Caleb starts to believe Ava is genuinely conscious and therefore alive and then has to decide if he will help free her from the secure area where Nathan has contained her. But Ava might have 'her' own plans. This is a thought-provoking film looking at some of the issues involved in creating articifial intelligence and I thought it was well worth a watch.

What's Your Number? (N) - rom-com with Anna Faris as a 30-something woman with a disastrous love life who gets hung up on the number of men she has slept with. Not wanting to bump the number higher she decides to revisit all her ex's in the hope that one of them has developed into marriageable material. She enlists her lothario neighbour, played by Chris Evans (AKA Captain America) to help her track them down and in the process rather predictably they end up liking each other. I did laugh quite a few times, particularly at the scenes involving Faris' real-life husband Chris Pratt who pops up here as one of her ex's. Chris Evans is also funny and very watchable. There's a bit of nudity and frank sex talk, but nothing over the top. Andy Samberg has a very brief cameo, which also made me laugh a lot.

The Cobbler (N) - Adam Sandler plays a New York cobbler who's inherited the family firm, including a load of old junk in the basement. Hidden down there is an ancient shoe repair machine with magical properties that means when he puts on the shoes he has repaired he takes on the likeness of the owners of the shoes. This sounds on paper like an awful premise, but it strangely worked, helped by a strong supporting turn from Steve Buscemi and a bit of a twist. Well worth watching for something a bit different.

Good Will Hunting (N) - I know, I know, it's 20 years old and people can't really believe I'd never seen it, but hey, I'm finally caught up. Surely everyone knows the story and the story behind the story - that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote a script and ended up winning an Oscar. Everyone talks about Robin Williams in this, and he is great, but I feel for Stellan Skarsgard who never gets mentioned but is absolutely pivotal. It's weird watching this now, and remembering how fresh-faced Affleck and Damon once were, before fame and Bourne and Batman. They tend to sleepwalk through movies now so it was kind of nice to see them act. Also I think I appreciated the film more, having been to Bawstun and hearing the accents in real life and riding the train through the city.

Sing (C) - Animated film about a city full of animals where a koala puts on an X-Factor style competition to try and save his crumbling theatre. The 'we need to save the theatre' trope was a cliche when the Muppets re-used it for their comeback movie several years ago. So that wasn't promising. The characters are a mixed bag. None get explored in real depth. There's a happy-ish ending and one or two clever jokes, but nothing exceptional.

The Lego Batman Movie (C) - I've already written a (spoilery) blog about how this didn't really work. It will appeal to a lot of kids who like Batman and who like people being silly and will therefore like Batman being silly. They have a lot of fun with the Batman mythos, but as a film it isn't great. There are cameos from villains from other franchises as well.

Birdman (N) - There was some hype about this when it came out and it won an Oscar for Best Picture. Michael Keaton is great as an actor who was famous 20 years previously for portraying a masked vigilante superhero before such films were such big business, and is now trying to resurrect his career in a Broadway play. I do wonder exactly how much of his real life feelings of regret for walking out on Batman back in the mid-90s informed this movie. It's hard not to think Birdman is a bit close to the bone. The film is a bit slow. Some of the other characters are a bit annoying. I didn't really like the ending. But overall I thought it was worth a watch and the cinematography as characters are followed through the twisting backstage corridors of the theatre is fantastic.

Ratchett & Clank (N) - I'm not sure this actually got a cinema release. Certainly it didn't really register. Catching up on Netflix, it's a by the numbers kids science fiction animation based on the vintage PlayStation game(s). Ratchett is a mechanic who wants to join the Galaxy Rangers. Clank is his robot buddy (and is rather adorable). Together they thwart evil, including a villainous robot voiced by none other than Sylvester Stallone. It's enjoyable knockabout stuff which made me laugh along the way, but isn't really a must-see.