The Long And Winding Road!!

This last Sunday the "Word Made Fresh" tour ventured to the North of Wales to Colwyn Bay. I travelled there from Swansea with my Mum and Dad. The performance went well, they were a really fun and appreciative crowd. Great feedback, we had a little bit of problems with sound at the beginnng of the show, but nothing to worry about. I've never heard my narration read by someone else before! Well done Andy!

But you see, what will stick most in my mind from this night is not the performance and the fantastic people, it is the journey to and from the venue. There isn't a motorway going from South Wales to North Wales. There is just one very very winding road. It took about 6 and a half hours to get there, we had a quick stop off for a nice lunch in a place we can't remember and certainly wouldn't be able to spell! Most of the journey reminded me of the last fifteen minutes of "The Italian Job" (the proper one with Michael Caine) when they are on the coach traveling around the side of the mountain. Almost the whole journey was like that! My Mum and Dad were brilliant, as ever, but I must get them a Sat Nav sometime! Because we got to Colwyn Bay and we seemed to travel around and around it about 10 times looking for the road the church was on!

Eventually at 5.45 I got a call from the organiser who guided us to the church which we had driven past about an hour before! I then had 45 mins before curtain up, which was a bit of a dash but everything worked out.

We left at around 9.30pm, it took us a little while to find the road out of Colwyn Bay (it was almost as if this place doesn't want you to go there and when you're there it doesn't want you to leave!) And then we arrived back at my Mum and Dad's house at 2.45 in the morning! It was such a long drive and ny Dad drove the whole trip there and back! Amazing! We had a naughty portion of chips each on the way back, but we deserved it. I haven't clung on for dear life for so long since we went on Space Mountain at Disney World six times in a row three years ago!

The next morning I woke up and headed back to Luton having had a fantastic time with my wonderful family. I had a great time with Mum and Dad at their CAMEO lunch at their church on the Wednesday, I enjoyed meeting my sister's latest addition to her family, a cute little dog called Max who bites everything and I loved my parents wonderful hospitality including Welsh cakes, infinite cups of tea and boiled eggs for breakfast. A great time and a great memory that will be imprinted on my mind forever!

Fantastic 4 Rise Of The Silver Surfer Review

Was this better than the original? Released just 2 years ago? Yes, I suppose. This is the closest I’ve seen to a comic book literally being brought to life. Not the Frank Miller graphic novels, deep and meaningful but bright, forgettable cartoons aimed squarely at the under 10’s. All the great Silver Surfer moments were used in the trailer, and he was the highlight of the film, his initial appearance being one of the most enjoyable, especially the surfing down the side of the building. All the actors did their best with the material they had, some of the FX were excellent, but some were really poor! Why doesn’t Mr Fantastic do much stretching? Because it looks terrible onscreen! Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Jessica Alba all fine. But this was all so paper thin, I didn’t care! Spiderman 3 was a disappointment, but Spiderman 2 is one of the best superhero films ever made. This so called fantastic film is so short, why not add half an hour of how this family wrestle with being superhero’s in their everyday existence instead of just aimlessly running towards the next action scene. As was witnessed by, in my opinion and the opinion of my good friend Tom who I snored through it with, 300, you can have all the battles you want but unless you care, you just ain’t there! But it’s a kids film Dave! I know but so where Toy Story and The Incredibles, and they are way more fulfilling than this disappointing glop of candy floss!

2 surfers out of 5

The Swansea Experience!

Performed, “The Word Made Fresh” in my family’s home town of Swansea on Sunday. Great to perform in front of my family and of course, my Dad on father’s day. Also coincided nicely with my sister’s 40th birthday celebrations. Arrived on Saturday when there was a bit of a party which was great. We had a good time and a bit of a sing-song! Also spent some time with a couple who I probably haven’t seen in about 20 years. That was great, so good to catch up. Then I had to be up bright and early (6.30!!) to travel with my Dad down to a Swansea radio station where I was being interviewed on the breakfast show by local celebrity Kevin Johns. Walked into the building and sat down in front of the mike and then was on air about two minutes later! Had a good chat plugging the performance and what I’ve been up to. Enjoyed it and I think it went really well. I’m told I will be emailed the chat sometime. If that happens I’m hoping Joel or Tom or both will help me get that on to this blog so you can all hear my very early morning ramblings I gave about acting, the Abbey National and people throwing rotten fruit at me for yourselves!

My brilliant nephews helped me when we got to the Parklands Church for the 6.30 performance. The venue looked great and the stage was set up. Lighting and sound was sorted and off we went.

I’m going to get a bit spiritual now, but there’s no other way of putting this. You see about an hour before the end of the party for my sister on the Saturday night I started to get a really painful stabbing pain in my back. No, this wasn’t a nephew prodding me with a sharp instrument, it just started to happen. Well, it became so intense that I could barely sleep that night. I got up and did the radio thing and then became quietly concerned that my back could really hinder what I was hoping was going to be a very special performance. It got to the point that I was having trouble breathing because my back would hurt that much when I took a deeper breath. I didn’t want to take any painkillers because the bottle said they would make me drowsy and I wanted my head to be totally clear for the evening. Anyway by the afternoon Mum sprayed some stuff on my back which didn’t seem to help too much, but I’m assured it was “Deep Freeze” and not insect repellent! Then I layed down on my front for a couple of hours because I thought this might help. A few people had offered to pray for me earlier on and of course I was grateful, but there didn’t seem to be any immediate difference. We got to the venue and I was still really inhibited (the show must go on!!) and I was starting to work out how I would amend some of my blocking (movements) in the show to compensate for the pain I was in. So 10 mins before curtain up (or lights on which was more the case) the leaders of the event said a prayer for me, as I shared with them about the concerns I had for my back and again I was grateful that they prayed for me. And now, and can I just say I would never write these words unless I knew them to be true, from the moment my name was announced and I approached the stage for the show to begin, I didn’t have a single pain in my back whatsoever! I was feeling great! No blocking was needed to be changed, in fact I seemed even more energetic. And my back has been superb ever since! Wow! Take from that what you will. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the night and it was a great pleasure to publicly thank my parents for all the love and support they have given me in all these wacky endeavours I have undertaken in my 36 years of being alive! A great night, and a night I don’t think I will ever forget for all sorts of reasons.

Ocean's 13 review

I enjoyed this film. Not immensely, I feel Ocean's 11 certainly had the edge over this (the remake not the rat pack original.) But this was a lot better than the mess that was Ocean's 12. Things are certainly back on track here, I just felt the heist at then end of 11 was a little more satisfying in the pay off (false vault!)

I am a big fan of Steven Soderbergh, the director of this picture, and if you have seen Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Out Of Sight or Ocean's 11 you would have to agree that he can work wonders with colour, a camera and cross-cutting narratives. I loved the totals being won at the diferent tables being shown across the screen, a really nice touch, as so was some of the split-screen work.

There were many laugh out loud moments in Ocean's 13, I think I probably laughed more here than with the first two films combined. The revenge angle was good and it was great to see Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin together again for the first time since the under-valued Sea Of Love. And Al didn't shout! Not once!

These sort of pictures are just a lot of popcorn fun, there was a nice turn from Andy Garcia and you really find yourself wanting to spend two hours in the company of these characters. You also really want them to succeed. There were a number of good pay offs (literally!) and I think the Ocean book is now well and truly closed. But they went out in style and George, Brad and Matt make for a very enjoyable teaming this time round. Also good was Carl Reiner (Rob's dad!) and it was great to see David Paymer back on the big screen after what seems like an age. He is a wonderful character actor, and here played the very put upon diamond award representative. Loved him in Mr Saturday Night for which he was Oscar nominated.

So a good movie, but I think Ocean's 11 is stil my favourite.

3 and a half Ocean's out of 5

POTC At World's End Review

What a frustrating and at times incredibly boring experience!

I loved the first Pirates movie, The Curse Of The Black Pearl. Such a fun, fantastic breath of fresh air! It came out of nowhere. A film based on an admittedly good theme park ride!? But it was so entertaining, so well written, funny, exciting and a marvellous blend of the fantasy and the historical. So it makes a lot of money and we are promised 2 sequels! Fantastic!

But then they make the mistake of filming them back to back a la Matrix 2 and 3 and Back To The Future 2 and 3. Now I know there is the excuse of getting the full cast together for a prolonged period of time. But we end up with one really overlong movie split in two! Dead Man's Chest had its moments, the wheel fight, Jack's intro, Davey Jones seemless CGI etc but was disappointing compared with the first. The sense of fun seemed to be gone. But somehow I forgave the makers for the 2nd film because of the promise of this third installment.

What were they thinking? If you had told me they had drafted in new writers for these two films I would have believed you! And been a bit more understanding. But they didn't, the brilliant writers of the original are responsible for this hugely disappointing third installment. It is sooooo long! Probably having the running time of a Lord Of The Rings movie, but feels twice as long as each of them! And there was an intermission! Whose idea was this? I've never been to a movie where there has been an intermission! And I've been going to the cinema since 1973! I'll tell you whose idea it was, the concession makers! Oh yes! Intermission comes up, 200 people get up out of their seats and buy more ice creams, drinks and popcorn! They're all back in their seats and the movie re-commences! Concession sales doubled in every performance!

I have to say, the film started well, I really enjoyed the Singapore sequences, and they had me pretty much till just past the point when the are all safely out of Davey Jones's locker (Up is down etc) and then so much talking! So much plot! So much boredom! Get on with it! This is supposed to be a thrill ride, remember what it's based on. If the ride was like this movie, they would have to be giving people mouth to mouth two thirds of the way through the ride! Enough tea and chat, let's have some fighting!

And then it comes, pretty much from the point of Keith Richards' cameo onwards, we are back in winning territory. Great sea battle, nice moments. And some humour at last, and fighting! Someone should have trimmed at least half an hour from the very flabby mid-section (and I should know I sill have a very flabby mid-section!)

So my lowest mark yet. 2 and a half out of 5. Johnny you're a genuis but the writers dropped the ball and spent over an hour moaping around the floor looking for it!