Meewella | Fragments

The Life of P

Spring Cleaning (The Spiderwebs)

Spring cleaning in the Critic section I realised that although the Film Reviews archive was supposed to stretch back to 2003, it was missing several reviews that I had written that year. They require a little reformatting from the old site, so I have transferred a few over and you can expect the last few to appear in the next few days. Meanwhile I also hope to beef up last year’s short list as I rewatch several films that I didn’t write about at the time. This being exam term, however, you probably shouldn’t hold your breath.

I have also updated the DVD bargains with an exam term flavour, resulting in it being filled primarily with TV shows that can be watched over lunch without the excessive guilt that comes from watching an entire film.

My Spider-man 3 review has attracted a lot of interest and some criticism so I thought I’d clear a few things up. The text of the review may appear overly harsh, particularly given the overall rating 2/4, but I feel that if one is to spend such an inconceivably large sum of money on a film then they really do need to be able to justify it. To produce a film with the same actors and crew that is inferior to its significantly cheaper predecessor is just unforgivable. Now I was worried that I might be unfairly rose-tinting my memory of Spider-man 2 with hindsight, so I went back and rewatched it. I was not. It is an exceptionally well crafted superhero film, both in visuals and content. Spider-man 3 is, to put it mildly, not. On the other hand the reason it’s rating falls dead in the centre of the scale is that when the film was over I did not feel an irrational hatred towards the filmmakers or even a desire to have my money back (like, say, The Matrix Revolutions). All I felt was a strong desire not ever to see the film again — but I was still content to have seen it once. Unseeing it was not at issue while I had strongly desired such an improbable temporal anomaly following Freddy Got Fingered. And to put it into perspective, at least it’s no worse than the game.

Cat’s birthday yesterday meant an excuse to sample the new Wagamama, recently opened on Regent Street. Although I generally enjoy their food, I realised it is a prime example of a restricted menu that cannot really serve to please everyone, certainly not on a repeated basis unless one is to stick to a certain dish. For a similar experience I think the modern Japanese styling of the Miso is probably better, resulting in a similar vibe and price but catering for a wider range of tastes. Perhaps they could move one of the two in Croydon, given that one can walk between them in under five minutes…

7 Comments

  1. I love Miso. That place makes me verra happy. 😀

  2. Seriously, people felt the need to _defend_ that film from a mediocre rating?

  3. I should try out the Misco in Croydon. Checked out the menu, price and range looks very attractive.

  4. The Miso in Croydon is always really cold, and just feels like a fast food joint in America in terms of lack of soul and flimsy décor. Although to be fair, that style is popular in Japan too (Just wander around some of the underground malls in ÅŒsaka and KyÅ?to to see it!). I recently had my first Wagamama-ness in Croydon and I was also disappointed with the restrictive menu – eating this kind of food in Japan is completely different – you choose which noodles to go with which sauce to go with which meat/fish – every conceivable menu is available, whereas out here in the rest you get to choose from a set of dishes much more in the style of a western restaurant. And whilst it was a pleasure to get free green tea and quick service, neither was quite as good as the equivalent in Japan – even though the Japanese restaurants frequently have about a third of the staff! Hopefully this smaller family style of restaurant will start to open up in town as Japanese food gets more popular…

  5. I agree with the criticisms of Miso as somewhat “soulless”, but certainly no moreso than Wagamama, hence the general comparison. I am certainly in favour of more family-orientated establishments with their own unique atmosphere — something far more commonly found with Chinese restaurants and hopefully on the rise with Japanese cuisine’s growing popularity.

    No name, I would warn against trying to order food at Misco. I’ll just say that it’s unlikely to end well.

  6. Haha I put you through Freddy Got Fingered!!!!! :d

  7. Oooh I dunno – not only can you buy Apples at Misco, they’ll even give you free cookies! Result!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

*


"Civilization now depends on self-deception. Perhaps it always has."

(CC) BY-NC 2004-2023 Priyan Meewella

Up ↑