Leicester Square Statues

Celebrating a century of cinema a set of new statues were unveiled today in Leicester Square. The bronze representations of movie stars and characters are placed around the Square.

Most of them are around the main grass area in the centre, although Batman and Wonder Woman take a few more moments to find

Approaching from the south west corner the first character I came across was Bugs Bunny, straight out of his rabbit hole surrounded by carrots!

Next up is Gene Kelly hanging from a lamp-post as Don Lockwood from 'Singing in the Rain' - happily although it was raining heavily when they were unveiling them this morning the sun was out by lunchtime!

Not far up from him Mary Poppins and her umbrella were coming in to land. Given the earlier weather there were plenty of people with their own brollies trying to recreate the moment...

Taking a break on benches in the central area were Mr Bean and Paddington bear - quite a crowd of people here waiting to take selfies!

Also in this area Charlie Chaplin watching the world go by.

Just to the north of the Square bursting through a wall, Wonder Woman. I'm guessing the purple cloth spoiling the view was left from the shroud that was removed at the unveiling?!

On the roof of the Odeon on the east side of the Square, keeping an eye on proceedings, is Batman. Quite a steep view to look up, but the view from the far side of the square is interrupted by trees.

The last pair I saw, as I walked back along the south side of the Square were Laurel and Hardy - again the immediate view was a little interrupted by a tree. I suppose the trees are better now that they are leafless then they will be come Summer!

You can visit the statues in Leicester Square until 30th June.

What we've been watching (November)

We watch quite a lot of movies; at the moment LOVEFiLM send us two discs every week... although I'm always considering the best way to get our movies.

So this is what we watched in October - come back to see what November has brought us.

Allegiant

The latest in the "Divergent" series, this film was done no favours by the ridiculous gaps in between releases which meant that I barely remembered the events of the previous film "Insurgent". Milking the cash cow to make trilogies (and more) doesn't always have the Harry Potter recipe for success. This film world is getting tired and predictable... not at all helped by the grim dystopian world which is easily indistinguishable from "Hunger Games". 

Backtrack

Mysterious happenings with a pycho-analyst which were so uninspiring that we switched off.

Gridlocked

A movie star is given community service doing a ride along but gets caught up in the events of a training facility being attacked by mercenaries. Dominic Purcell, Danny Glover and Saul Rubinek are the most famous names in the cast, but all the cast give good performances in what turns out to be a very watchable action movie.

Golden Years - Grand Theft OAP

To top up their failing pensions a bunch of pensioners go bank-robbing. A very typically English movie from the "Calendar Girls" type stable. Watchable enough, but nothing special.

Bone Tomahawk

I'm not a Western fan, but generally good reviews and an interesting cast got this film onto our rental list. Billed as a horror-western the plot wanders along at a reasonable pace, but the selling point is undeniably the amusing dialogue.

Concussion

Slow to start, and Will's Smith irritating Nigerian accent got this switched off  very fast.

Precious Cargo

A bunch of 'good' robbers go up against a bunch of 'bad' robbers to perform a daring heist. Fast paced enough action film which is reasonably well written and well acted.

What we've been watching (October)

We watch quite a lot of movies; at the moment LOVEFiLM send us two discs every week... although I'm always considering the best way to get our movies.

So this is what we watched in October - come back to see what November has brought us.

The Forest

A woman visits Japan's 'suicide forest' to find her missing twin sister.

Batman V Superman - Dawn of Justice

Full disclosure, I'm a Marvel fan not a DC fan. We'd waited ages for LOVEFiLM to finally send us this film, in the meantime we'd seen worse and worse reviews. I was ready to forgive reviewers who just don't like superhero movies, but this was a terrible film. The over-exposed stories of Batman and Superman really didn't need another joint exposure who their origin stories (or parts of them).

The Jungle Book

Love the animated film, this started a bit darker (and altogether more tedious); ended up switching off.

400 Days

Astronauts on a simulated mission to examine the effects of deep space travel to test the psychological impacts. Of course, as you'd expect, it all goes wrong and when they exit the craft it turns out everything might not be as it had seemed. I found the end extremely confusing, to the point where Husband rewound and explained to me.

The Nice Guys

A couple of private investigators in the 1970s are investigating a missing girl and a mysterious death. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling give absolute stand-out performances and the story is well written with some some amusing moments. Best film of the month.

Hail, Caesar!

Back in 1950s Hollywood a studio 'fixer' keeps the studios stars in line. Many strands are drawn together, I didn't think terribly succesfully.