(not) Miserable.

Busy week at work this week as we're moving a few miles up the road to a new station.  It's ACTUALLY got double glazing!!! WOOOOT.  It means a longer commute and about two weeks of chaos while everything gets moved/lost/put in the wrong place and sorted out again but ultimately it'll be worth it for the warmth! For the last eight months I've been a little block of ice working away in front of our draughty two way glass windows.  Ah... two way glass- I will miss you lulling all those vain passers by into your shallow reflective surface while we laugh at them from the other side.

I went to see Les Mis (the film) at the weekend.  There are actual FILMS on in the cinema.  I've been so relieved that the age of the crappy-masses film seems to have mostly passed and we're starting to see proper film makers return to the fold.  I saw the Hobbit a few weeks ago- and for the most part thought it was a good offering although I felt it was padded out too much.  Some of the scenes were too long and Martin Freeman lacked the warmth and happiness that we'd got used to from Ian Holme's Bilbo in the LOTR trilogy.  I also found the dwarves a bit inconsistent and not styled enough.

Les Mis was very good. Superb, emotive performances from most of the main characters with Hugh Jackman and Ann Hathaway being fantastic.  Russel Crowe does an average job but I never really like his acting style.  He fails to draw me in to any of his characters and I rarely care for them or feel sorry for them.  We, the viewers, should have felt some sympathy for Javere during his suicide song.  A scene of a tormented soul, his direction lost, his world and ideals turned upside down by the compassion of the man he's devoted his life to catching- and yet, Crowe showed no agony and remained mostly expressionless.  Russell Crowe's eyes are just steely and cold and it deadens most of his characters. I'm not a fan.
The other thing that ruined the film for me, not knowing the story, was the complete turnaround and two-facedness of Marius, the flighty, young socialist who was just a flakey, spineless drip! His friends die for the cause, and he sods off to get married to his splendily dressed fiance in his fuck-off Mansion! So much for Socialism and equality you Toff!
It's one of the few films I've seen at the cinema that people have applauded at the end and, despite being warned, at no point did I find myself reaching for the tissues.  I don't tend to cry at films. Moving documentaries perhaps- but not films.  The only film that even had me close to crying was Wall-E. I welled up when he gets rebuilt at the end and his little eyes remain as cold and empty as Russell Crowes; your heart is just willing them to show life and personality once again... Emotive stuff.  

In other news I have been taking on a DIRE Amazon Marketplace seller to get a refund/replacement for a faulty item.  I won.  I have now escalated to a formal complaint about the fact that this seller removed my negative feedback which makes a mockery of the whole system.  Freedom of speech and all that.  If I fail in my mission to get it reinstated, I will be taking to twitter instead.  Never let it be said I don't stick up for the little people.

I have also found a problem with my new Cowon.  I'm still investigating into fixes for an issue with my player reading ID3 tags from shite-tunes where most of my music is imported or bought legally- yet Apple, being up their own arses as they are, have kindly made sure you can only use their shite-pods for file transfer with comfort and ease.  I'll get round it.  Or buy a Sony instead which use a slightly different transfer format.  Again, I won't be bullied by some snotty corporation and brainwashed into buying substandard products.

I'm totally on a roll lately.  I feel strong.  Justice is being done all over the place.  Good things are happening.