OK so now for the second part of my look at Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece, Kill Bill, and I will cover Volume 2 here, where the Bride continues her quest for revenge against her former lover, Bill, who left her for dead. So without any further ado let's give this one a look...
So the story begins with the flashback of the Bride (Uma Thurman) being paid a surprise visit by Bill (David Carradine) at her dress rehearsal for her wedding, where Bill appears to give her his blessing to marry her groom Tommy (Chris Nelson) but instead the Deadly viper squad then ambush the rehearsal and kill everyone. The story then moves forward to the present with the Bride seeking out the next member of the Deadly viper squad on her hit list, Bill's brother, Budd (Michael Madsen), whom she follows home from work as he lives out in the middle of the desert in a trailer. As the Bride attempts to charge in with her samurai sword, Budd shoots her with his shotgun which is loaded full of rock salt
and he then buries her alive in a coffin. The story then flashes back to when the Bride was first initiated in her training by Bill as she meets the cruel martial arts master, Pai Mei (Gordon Liu) where he at first ridicules her but slowly the Bride gains his respect as she trains hard and develops her martial arts skills. The story then moves forward to the present again where the Bride manages to loosen one of her boots and takes from it a straight razor and uses it to cut her bonds and she then uses her incredible
punching skills she learned from Pai Mei (Gordon Liu)
to break free of her coffin and crawl her way up out
of the earth back up to the surface to freedom.
After this
Budd calls up one of his ex-viper squad members Elle Driver (Daryl
Hannah) who wears an eyepatch on one eye, and asks if she would want to
trade the Bride's Hanzo sword for a million dollars. Elle comes along
to Budd's cabin the next day and secretly stashes a black mamba snake in
the suitcase of money, which bites Budd several times on the face and he eventually succumbs to his wounds and dies just after Elle reads out information she acquired about the black mamba snake and the devastating effects of its poison. Elle then calls Bill to tell him that Budd has died and that the Bride has been buried in a coffin and during the call gives the Bride's real name as Beatrix Kiddo. However just as Elle is about to leave the trailer, Beatrix flies into the room delivering a brutal kick to Elle and they engage in an intense fight, which Beatrix eventually wins by plucking out
Elle's only remaining eye (the other one was plucked out by Pai Mei
during her instruction and Elle reveals that she killed Pai Mei herself by poisoning his fish heads) but decides not to kill her and instead leaves the trailer with Elle screaming hysterically, flailing helplessly and now blind. After this Beatrix then travels to the Mexican countryside where she finally tracks down Bill but when she arrives and finds Bill she is given a surprise she did not expect as she sees her daughter, B.B, is alive and well. Beatrix spends the night with Bill and B.B. and after Beatrix puts her daughter to bed, she goes down and confronts Bill for the last time.....
If I had to pick a favourite part of Kill Bill I would have to say Volume 2 is it for me as here we get to see the Bride's character really start to emerge and we also get to see a bit more of her human side, which is good in itself especially after the bloodbath of the first film where the Bride is primarily a relentless killer on the hunt for revenge. Volume 2 is more character driven as well than Volume 1 and it also allows us to see more of Beatrix's backstory as well as that we also finally discover her real name as you might remember any instance of her name used in Volume 1 was bleeped out. The second film also draws a more vivid picture of Bill as well and while he is still very much a ruthless killer and as he himself even puts it "a murdering bastard" you can also see how he was hurt by Beatrix's sudden decision to run away from her job as an assassin and let him think she was dead all this time she had been away.
Getting onto the performances of the film Uma Thurman is great again as the Bride and she adds more elements to her character than before as we now see her more as a person in Volume 2 than in the first film, through her stages of training under Pai Mei's tutelage, her engagement with her fiance Tommy, and also her relationship with Bill. Uma has quite a few highlights in the film such as the scene where Beatrix first meets Pai Mei, who mocks her fighting skills, which he sees as inferior and also the montage scene of Beatrix training with Pai Mei and she keeps practising her punching skills against a hard block of wood, and there is an amusing moment where Beatrix wakes herself up by inadverntently punching the wall with her fist! Another highlight is of course Beatrix's fight scene with Elle, which remains one of the best scenes in the film and one of the best fight scenes aswell. And as the two of them fight, Beatrix finds Budd's Hanzo sword (who Budd had previously lied to Bill that he pawned it) and Elle asks what it is and Beatrix replies "Budd's Hanzo sword!" and Elle says "Budd said he pawned it" and Beatrix smiles and says "Guess that makes him a liar now doesn't it?". And as Elle taunts Beatrix by telling her that she poisoned Pai Mei and also that she will soon kill her and take her sword "Which in the immediate future will become my sword!" and Beatrix says "Bitch! You don't have a future!" just before they clash swords and Beatrix then plucks out Elle's eye. Then there is the funny moment where the Bride punches her way out of her coffin and manages to climb her way to freedom up through the Earth and it then cuts to a diner, where we see an employee look out the window and we see the dusty and dithering figure of Beatrix slowly walks towards the diner. And Beatrix covers in muck, dust and Earth enters the diner, sits down and calmly says "May I have a glass of water please?".
Then there is of course a great moment where Beatrix finally tracks down Bill's whereabouts and as she enters Bill's expansive house, she is stunned to see her daughter B.B. and she nearly falls to the floor in shock and it remains one of Uma's best moments in the film. This is then followed by the great confrontation scene where Beatrix and Bill talk with one another and Bill shoots her with a truth serum dart in the knee and as he does Beatrix groans loudly and says "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SHOOT ME WITH???!". And in the scene Beatrix tells Bill why she ran away from him, which cuts to the flashback scene of Beatrix in a hotel room, taking a home pregnancy test, which turns blue, but she is then confronted by a rival assassin who tries to kill her but then they engage in a stand-off as both point guns at one another. Beatrix then tries to reason with the assassin and tells her "I just found out, just a moment before you blew a hole in the door, that I'm pregnant!" and she get's the assassin to read the instruction of the pregnancy test to confirm it and Beatrix says to her "I'm the deadliest woman in the world, but right now I'm just scared shitless for me and my baby!" and the assassin let's her go saying "congratulations!" before running off. Then there is Beatrix and Bill's final scene together where Bill asks her if his reaction was so surprising and she says to him "Yes, it was. Could you do what you did? Of course you could. But I never thought you would or could do that to me!" and Bill says she thought wrong, which prompts Beatrix put her samurai sword on the table and she says "You and I have unfinished business....!".
Moving onto David Carradine who is great in his role as Bill and the film also helped revive his career somewhat as well. Carradine also has some great moments in the film, such as his first scene where he meets with Beatrix during the flashback of the wedding rehearsal and Beatrix hears him play the flute and they meet eyes and he says to her "Hello Kiddo" and she asks "How did you find me?" and he says "I'm the man". Then there is the scene where Bill meets with his brother Budd and he tells him how Beatrix killed the Crazy 88 and he says "There wasn't really 88 of them, they just called themselves the Crazy 88" and Budd asks why and Bill says "I dunno. I guess they thought it sounded cool!". Another good scene from Carradine is where Bill drives Beatrix to Pai Mei's temple so they can start her training, and he comes down the long steps, his face beaten looking as they had a fight. And Bill tells Beatrix of Pai Mei "Now remember, no backtalk, no sarcasm. At least not for the first year. You're gonna have to let him warm up for you. He hates Caucasians, despises Americans, and has nothing but contempt for women, so in your case that may take a little while!". And then there is the scene where Beatrix and Bill confront one another at the end and he gives his speech on how Superman unlike other superheroes disguises himself, in this case as Clark Kent and uses that anology for Beatrix pretending to be someone she is not by intending to marry her fiance Tommy. "And that's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race. Sorta like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs Tommy Plimpton". And lastly there is the final scene between Bill and Beatrix where Beatrix says "You and I have unfinished business!" and Bill says "Baby... you ain't kiddin!" before they have their last fight and Beatrix (PLOT SPOILER, OF SORTS!) finishes him off with her five point palm-exploding heart technique (taught to her by Pai Mei). And with Bill's dying breaths he makes peace with Beatrix and says to her "You're not a bad person, you're a terrific person, you're my favourite person. But every once in a while you can be a real cunt!".
In the supporting cast Michael Madsen is also really good as Budd, Bill's somewhat downtrodden brother, who after the deadly viper gang disbanded, now works as a bouncer in a strip bar. Madsen also has some good moments in the film such as the scene where he meets with Bill and he reflects on Beatrix's quest for revenge and he says "I don't dodge guilt and I don't Jew out on paying my comeuppance. That woman deserves her revenge and we deserve to die. But then so does she! So I guess we'll just see, won't we?". Then there is the scene where Budd surprises Beatrix as she barges into his trailer and he blasts her full of rock salt and then afterward buries her alive. And as Budd is about to bury her he says "Now you are going into the ground tonight and that's all there is to it" and he gives her a flashlight and says "But if you're gonna be a horse's ass, I'll spray this whole can right in your eyeballs!" as he holds a can of mace in front of her eyes "Then you're gonna be blind, burnin and buried alive. Now which is it gonna be sister?". And later on when Budd meets with Elle he says to her of Beatrix "You gotta hand it to the old girl. I never anybody Buffalo bill the way she Buffaloed Bill. Bill use to think she was so damn smart. I tried to tell him "Bill, she's just smart for a blonde!".
Daryl Hannah is also really good in her part as the manipulative and conniving Elle Driver, who later confronts Beatrix in Budd's trailer. Hannah has always been something of an underrated actress and this film confirms that as she provides a fun and corny performance which works really well in the film. Hannah also rightfully appears to relish in the dialogue she is given as Elle and her main highlights are of course her scenes with Bill and later her fight Beatrix. Hannah also get's some good lines such as where the black mamba snake has just bitten Bill and he says to him "I'm sorry, Budd. That was rude of me, wasn't it? Budd, I'd like to introduce my friend, the black mamba. Black mamba, this is Budd". And Elle proceeds to read some facts she gathered from the Internet on the Black mamba and she says "A bite to the face or the torso can bring death from paralysis within 20 minutes. The single amount of venom that can be delivered from a single bite can be gargantuan! You know I've always like that word "gargantuan", I so rarely have the opportunity to use it in a sentence!". And Elle then continues to say to Budd as he is dying from the snake bites from the Mamba, "Now in these last agonising minutes of life you have left, let me answer the question you asked earlier more thoroughly. Right now the biggest "R" I feel is regret. Regret that maybe the greatest warrior I have ever known, met her end at the hands of a bushwhackin, scrub, alky piece of shit like you! That woman deserved better!". Then lastly there is of course Hannah's fight scene as Elle takes on Beatrix and he taunts her by telling her that Pai Mei plucked out her eye because she called him "A miserable old fool!" and that she poisoned "That miserable old fool!". And Elle then finally says to Beatrix "That's right I killed your Master! And now I'm gonna kill you, too, with your own sword no less, which in the very immediate future will become my sword!". And we all know what happens next!
And lastly also a quick mention must also go out to Gordon Liu who is great in his role as the cruel Pai Mei, the martial arts master who belittles Beatrix at every turn but he eventually gains her respect, which he shows his appreciation by flicking his long silver beard! Liu, who says all his lines in Madarin, also has some great moments particularly his first scene with Beatrix where he taunts and teases her and he says such things as "I despise the Goddamn Japs!" and also how "You're so called skills are quite pathetic!". And later as Beatrix struggles to punch the wooden wall block, Pai Mei taunts her again and says "Its the wood that should fear your hand, not the other way round! No wonder you can't do it, you acquiesce to defeat before you even begin!".
Finally getting onto Quentin Tarantino as the director he does a great job here again with Volume 2 and here he shows off his filmmaking skills yet again with some great camerawork and striking cinemaphotography from Robert Richardson. Tarantino also pays homage to the kung-fu films of the 1970s which he clearly illustrates in the flashback scene where Beatrix begins her training with Pai Mei and uses some amusing close-up shots when the camera zooms in on a character (in this case Pai Mei). Tarantino also provdes a fine soundtrack to the film aswell as he has selected an eclectic and effective mix of tracks such as Malcolm McLaren's "About her" when Beatrix lies on bed with her daughter B.B. It also features other well used tracks by Ennio Morricone for several scenes in the film such as the scene where Beatrix escapes her coffins.
As for Volume 2's flaws...... well it get's most things right so there isn't too much worth quibbling over, although I would have to say there are still one or two niggles, such as the fact the film does feel just little bit long and there are certain scenes which are drawn out, particularly when Beatrix and Bill finally confront one another and it features that silly speech where Bill basically compares Beatrix to Superman, as someone pretending to fit into the world as someone they are not. Its a pretty longwinded way for Bill to make his point to Beatrix and in the end it just feels like a pretty nerdy monologue written by Tarantino himself. I also thought that their final fight scene was a bit of a letdown as well as its over in about 10 seconds and ends up with Beatrix killing Bill (indeed!) with the five-point palm exploding heart technique, which in a way is a bit of anti-climax after all the very impressive fight scenes on offer in the two films leading up to this point. The film's final credits sequence is also a bit naff and is accompanied by Robert Rodriguez's typically Spanish music and features a pretty cheesy moment where we finally get to Uma Thurman in the cast list and we cut to a shot of Beatrix driving her car and it says "Uma Thurman as The Bride, aka Beatrix Kiddo, aka Black Mamba, aka Mom". Yes we get it Quentin, you don't have to spell all her nicknames out for us!
But that all aside Kill Bill Volume 2 is an excellent ending to the story and overall Kill Bill itself pretty much remains Quentin Tarantino's best film and one day he might top it, but it will take some doing no doubt.
And I will FINALLY leave you there and will be back sometime soon with a different post (of sorts, actually probably covering the next episode of The Apprentice).
Night!
Tuesday 25 November 2014
Sunday 23 November 2014
Kill Bill Volume 1: "I have vermin to kill!"
Right well this is a chance for me to redo and extended another of my posts, which was on Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 1 and Volume 2, which I did as one post. But this time I thought I would split it into two separate posts for Volume 1 and Volume 2, so that's what I'm going to do with Tarantino's masterwork. So without further ado let's get the samurai swords out and get ready for battle.... (well not literally!).
So beginning with a bit more about the plot of Vol 1, which starts with the blood spattered "bride" (Uma Thurman) who lies on the floor of a church in El Paso Texas, after her groom to be and her friends have been ruthlessly gunned down, by her former lover Bill (David Carradine) and his team of assassins, the Deadly Viper squad (Lucy Lui, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah). Just before Bill puts a bullet in his bride's head, she tells him that she is pregnant with his baby. The story then cuts to four years later where The Bride arrives at the house of one of the Viper squad, Vernita Green (Vivica Fox) where they both engage in fierce hand to hand combat, which is interrupted by the arrival of Vernita's young daughter, after which they both stop fighting and talk. The Viper gang has since been disbanded and now Vernita lives a more ordinary suburban life and Vernita persuades the Bride into having a knife fight at night. Vernita however then tries to kill the Bride with a gun hidden in a breakfast cereal packet, but the Bride manages to dodge the bullet and kills Vernita by throwing a knife into her chest, which the daughter witnesses and the Bride apologises for doing so in front of her and if she still feels raw about it later on, she will be waiting.
The story then shows in flashback that the Bride had indeed survived the bullet, as she lies in a coma for four years in a hospital and one night one of the Viper gang, Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) tries to kill her by using a lethal injection, but is called off by a phone call from Bill. One night the Bride suddenly awakens from her coma, just before a hospital worker, Buck (Michael Bowen) enters with a trucker and offers him to use the Bride for sex (for money of course) only then for the Bride to spring to life, killing the trucker and then Buck, after which she steals Buck's truck. The bride then travels to Okinawa to find the legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) and she asks that he make her a sword, which he eventually does after she drops Bill's name. After a month or so, Hanzo finishes the sword and the bride leaves with it, to start her bloody revenge against the Deadly Viper squad, starting with O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) who is by now the leader of the Tokyo yakuza and she follows them to a Japanese restaurant. What ensues is a very bloody (not to mention very spurty!) fight sequence as the bride takes on O-Ren's bodyguards, her crazed 17 year associate Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) and also the "crazy 88" who are O-Ren's hit squad, and ultimately O-Ren herself who she faces in the film's final confrontation....
Overall for me I think Kill Bill has to be Quentin Tarantino's best film, as it is such a brilliant combination of different styles of film, from action to thriller, to western, to eastern to anime and Volume 1 really pulls the viewer into that world straight away with its dazzling and violent imagery. And the film opens in such a dramatic way with the bride panting heavily as we see her bloody face as Bill stands over her he wipes her face before he puts a bullet in her head it sets the tone of the film perfectly as we know already its a revenge tale and its going to get very messy (and bloody!).
And performance wise there are plenty of good ones with Uma Thurman giving a terrific performance in the main role as the Bride and she must go through just about every emotion there is an actress during both films, but in Volume 1 she is also for the most part very stern, steely and focused in her quest for revenge despite one or two moments where she allows for the odd bit of levity. And Thurman has several highlights throughout both Volumes and one of the first scenes that comes to mind is the one where she wakes up from her coma, she looks down at her stomach at a wound where presumably her aborted child was taken from, and she screams and sobs uncontrollably. Its a great moment in Uma's performance and the most distressing moments in the film and for that brief moment the Bride has to deal with her grief all at once, before she is interrupted, by the scumbag hospital worker, who has used her inert body for sex. This also does of course lead into the moment where the Bride kills the trucker and then stabs Buck and jams his head in the door and slams it several times and she notices the tatoo of his name on his knuckles and she says "Your name is Bud, right? And you came here to fuck, RIGHT???!!!" before finishing him off. Uma also get's some good lines as the Bride such as the scene where climbs into Buck's truck and looks at her inert feet (one thing I have to say is Uma has ugly feet!) and she says to herself "Now wiggle your big toe" and then she narrates "As I sat in the back of Buck's truck, trying to will my limbs out of entrophy I could see the faces of cunts that did this to me and the dicks responsible!".
Another good scene for Uma is at the start where the Bride engages in an intense fist fight with Vernita and they have to stop the fight when Vernita's daughter arrives home from school. And after they talk in the kitchen and Vernita tries to kill the Bride, who kills her with a knife, the daughter walks back in, impassive, the Bride says to her "It was not my intention to do this in front of you, for that I'm sorry. But take it from me, your mother had it coming! If later when you're all grown up, if you still feel raw about it.... I'll be waiting". Also there is moment where the Bride narrates and says of O-Ren "Four years ago she played her part in the massacre of 9 people in El Paso, Texas. But she made one fatal mistake. She should have made it ten!". And then there is her great fight scene against the Crazy 88 where the Bride slices and dices O-Ren's men and as she deals with the last one, who is a small guy, terrified, in a fun moment she cuts down his blade and grabs him and bends him over and whips his ass with her blade yelling "THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR FUCKING AROUND WITH THE YAKUZAS!!! GO HOME TO YOUR MOTHER!!!". Then there is the scene where Uma as the Bride get's to show a little of her human side where she travels to Okinawa to meet Hanzo and Hanzo asks why she came and she said she is here to meet "Hatori Hanzo" which sends a shiver down Hanzo's spine. And the two of them talk in Japanese and the Bride says "I need Japanese steel!" and Hanzo says "Why do you need Japanese steel?" and the Bride coldly says "I have vermin to kill!" and Hanzo "You must have some big rats if you need Japanese steel" and Bride says "Huge!".
David Carradine is especially good as Bill, the man himself, who has a world weary charm but also shows that he's a killer and a vicious bastard through and through. You never of course see Carradine in Vol 1 as you only sees his hands and hear his voice and Carradine's voice really lends a weighty gravelly tone to the character, which works perfectly. Carradine's best scene comes where he talks with Elle on the phone, whilst she is at the hospital ready to kill off the Bride. And Carradine get's some good lines in the scene where Bill says to Elle "Y'all beat the hell out of that woman, but you didn't kill her. And I put a bullet in her head and her heart kept on beating. We've done alot of things to lady and if she ever wakes up, we'll do whole lot more. But one thing we won't do is sneak into her room in the night like a filthy rat and kill her in her sleep. And the reason we won't do that thing is because.... that thing will lower us!".
Lucy Liu is also great as the deadly and foxy O-Ren Ishii, and her best scene is where she stampedes down the table in her conference room and beheads one of her impertinent associates (complete with blood fountain spurting!) and calmly tells her people that if you have problem with her, tell her so, before she shouts "So if any of you sonsabitches has anything else to say NOW'S THE FUCKING TIME!!!". Later on Lucy has a good fight scene with Uma, as O-Ren and the Bride engage in battle, also before the Crazy 88 arrive we hear the sound of their motorcycles grow louder from the distance after the Bride has killed off a handful of O-Ren's bodyguards. And O-Ren smiles and says to the Bride looking down from her balcony "You didn't really think it would be that easy did you?" and the Bride smiles back saying "You know for a second there, I thought it would". And O-Ren says "Silly rabbit!" and they both say together "tricks are for kids!".
Sonny Chiba's cameo appearance is also very entertaining as Hattori Hanzo, once a great swordswith, who vowed never to make another sword again, and now spends his time as a Sushi chef, arguing with his suborindate employee. And his scenes with Uma are fun to watch, especially when she first arrives in Okinawa and he demands he assistant to get the Bride some sake, who says he's busy, and Hanzo sighs saying "Lazy bastard! Get your ass out here!". And later when Hanzo shows the Bride his collection of swords and she takes one of them out of its sheath and he says to her "Funny you like Saumrai swords... I like baseball!" and he throws a baseball at her, which the Bride slices in half with precision. And the Bride then reminds him that her vermin is a former student of his and "given the student you have a rather large obligation!" leading Hanzo to quietly go over to the window and writing Bill's name in the frosted window before telling her "You can sleep here. It will take me a month to make the sword. I suggest you spend that time practicing".
And lastly Daryl Hannah also is very good in her brief role as the evil and sly Elle Driver, who wears and eyepatch on one eye and her character appears more in Volume 2. And after seeing Daryl give some pretty so-so performances in films from the 1980s such as Roxanne, and Wall Street, what she does do really well in this film is ham it up, and shows that she is in her own way a capable actress. Hannah only really has one scene in the film which is a memorable one where Elle attempts to kill off the Bride while she is in her coma in hospital but Bill phones her and calls it off. And after Elle says to the inert Bride "I bet you thought that was pretty fuckin funny didn't you?! Word of advice, shithead. Don't you ever wake up!".
As for Quentin Tarantino direction wise I don't think he has made a better film as his mix of skilfull camera work, and brilliant use of Japanese anime, and superb photography from Robert Richardson all add up to a visual treat for the viewer. And without a doubt, his choice of soundtrack is as ever terrific, especially in volume 1 where it opens up with Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang", the cheesy but highly effective use of the theme from "Quincy". I also can't forget to mention the infuriatingly catchy 5, 6, 7, 8's "Woo-hoo" which is annoying but at the same time it is also strangely quite enjoyable. In general Tarantino has a like for 1970s funk music, and plenty of it permeates throughout the whole film, abd he uses it very well, especially tracks like "Ray Fan Ray" by Isaac Hayes in the anime scene with O-Ren killing one of her targets as an assassin. Also he can't resist throwing in the theme from the "Green Hornet" during the scene where the Bride drives the streets of Tokyo as she follows O-Ren and her entourage. And lastly there is of course the track "Battle without honor or humanity" by the Japanese musician, Tomoyasu Hotei, which became very popular as a result of the film and is used well in the slo-mo scene of O-Ren and her bodyguards walking into the restaurant where the Bride will later do battle with O-Ren and her men.
Getting onto the flaws of Volume 1.... well its a great film so overall nothing too glaring but what I would say is from a character point of view, what the bride has to endure is pretty horrendous, and Tarantino seems almost delight in putting his characters through the unbearable and the downright harrowing. This is perfectly highlighted in the scene where the Bride is being used for sex whilst she lies in a coma in hospital, which is quite horrific in itself and it again it kind of highlights a rather mysognistic tone to the film, which could be levelled at some of Tarantino's other work. I also felt in a way that the Bride's character was less likeable in the first film and more difficult to relate to as she is largely more as a remorseless killer than anything else, who is consumed with revenge and its only in the scene where the Bride meets with Hanzo in Okinawa we get to see some of her charm start to emerge. Volume 2 would however go on to address this but in a way it does serve to potentially alienate some viewers. Another concern could also come from the level of violence in the film as it is pretty OTT in terms of the blood spurting as in the big bloody fight scene with the Crazy 88, its almost like the actors were fitted with sprinkler attachments so the blood could fly anywhere at all! Despite that though Tarantino does somewhat succeed in making it all entertaining and overall it isn't too disturbing to watch but the Crazy 88 bloody battle is certainly not a scene for those with a weak stomach. And Tarantino also skilfully cuts between colour and black and white once it starts to get really bloody (and then back again) and he amusingly uses the catchy song "Nobody but me" by the Human Beinz, which undercuts the harshness of the violence onscreen, which again highlights Tarantino's maxim that he sees violence as a form of entertainment.
But that put aside Kill Bill Volume 1 is a great film and remains one of Tarantino's career highlights.
And I will be back soon with the new post for Volume 2.
See you soon!
So beginning with a bit more about the plot of Vol 1, which starts with the blood spattered "bride" (Uma Thurman) who lies on the floor of a church in El Paso Texas, after her groom to be and her friends have been ruthlessly gunned down, by her former lover Bill (David Carradine) and his team of assassins, the Deadly Viper squad (Lucy Lui, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah). Just before Bill puts a bullet in his bride's head, she tells him that she is pregnant with his baby. The story then cuts to four years later where The Bride arrives at the house of one of the Viper squad, Vernita Green (Vivica Fox) where they both engage in fierce hand to hand combat, which is interrupted by the arrival of Vernita's young daughter, after which they both stop fighting and talk. The Viper gang has since been disbanded and now Vernita lives a more ordinary suburban life and Vernita persuades the Bride into having a knife fight at night. Vernita however then tries to kill the Bride with a gun hidden in a breakfast cereal packet, but the Bride manages to dodge the bullet and kills Vernita by throwing a knife into her chest, which the daughter witnesses and the Bride apologises for doing so in front of her and if she still feels raw about it later on, she will be waiting.
The story then shows in flashback that the Bride had indeed survived the bullet, as she lies in a coma for four years in a hospital and one night one of the Viper gang, Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) tries to kill her by using a lethal injection, but is called off by a phone call from Bill. One night the Bride suddenly awakens from her coma, just before a hospital worker, Buck (Michael Bowen) enters with a trucker and offers him to use the Bride for sex (for money of course) only then for the Bride to spring to life, killing the trucker and then Buck, after which she steals Buck's truck. The bride then travels to Okinawa to find the legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) and she asks that he make her a sword, which he eventually does after she drops Bill's name. After a month or so, Hanzo finishes the sword and the bride leaves with it, to start her bloody revenge against the Deadly Viper squad, starting with O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) who is by now the leader of the Tokyo yakuza and she follows them to a Japanese restaurant. What ensues is a very bloody (not to mention very spurty!) fight sequence as the bride takes on O-Ren's bodyguards, her crazed 17 year associate Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) and also the "crazy 88" who are O-Ren's hit squad, and ultimately O-Ren herself who she faces in the film's final confrontation....
Overall for me I think Kill Bill has to be Quentin Tarantino's best film, as it is such a brilliant combination of different styles of film, from action to thriller, to western, to eastern to anime and Volume 1 really pulls the viewer into that world straight away with its dazzling and violent imagery. And the film opens in such a dramatic way with the bride panting heavily as we see her bloody face as Bill stands over her he wipes her face before he puts a bullet in her head it sets the tone of the film perfectly as we know already its a revenge tale and its going to get very messy (and bloody!).
And performance wise there are plenty of good ones with Uma Thurman giving a terrific performance in the main role as the Bride and she must go through just about every emotion there is an actress during both films, but in Volume 1 she is also for the most part very stern, steely and focused in her quest for revenge despite one or two moments where she allows for the odd bit of levity. And Thurman has several highlights throughout both Volumes and one of the first scenes that comes to mind is the one where she wakes up from her coma, she looks down at her stomach at a wound where presumably her aborted child was taken from, and she screams and sobs uncontrollably. Its a great moment in Uma's performance and the most distressing moments in the film and for that brief moment the Bride has to deal with her grief all at once, before she is interrupted, by the scumbag hospital worker, who has used her inert body for sex. This also does of course lead into the moment where the Bride kills the trucker and then stabs Buck and jams his head in the door and slams it several times and she notices the tatoo of his name on his knuckles and she says "Your name is Bud, right? And you came here to fuck, RIGHT???!!!" before finishing him off. Uma also get's some good lines as the Bride such as the scene where climbs into Buck's truck and looks at her inert feet (one thing I have to say is Uma has ugly feet!) and she says to herself "Now wiggle your big toe" and then she narrates "As I sat in the back of Buck's truck, trying to will my limbs out of entrophy I could see the faces of cunts that did this to me and the dicks responsible!".
Another good scene for Uma is at the start where the Bride engages in an intense fist fight with Vernita and they have to stop the fight when Vernita's daughter arrives home from school. And after they talk in the kitchen and Vernita tries to kill the Bride, who kills her with a knife, the daughter walks back in, impassive, the Bride says to her "It was not my intention to do this in front of you, for that I'm sorry. But take it from me, your mother had it coming! If later when you're all grown up, if you still feel raw about it.... I'll be waiting". Also there is moment where the Bride narrates and says of O-Ren "Four years ago she played her part in the massacre of 9 people in El Paso, Texas. But she made one fatal mistake. She should have made it ten!". And then there is her great fight scene against the Crazy 88 where the Bride slices and dices O-Ren's men and as she deals with the last one, who is a small guy, terrified, in a fun moment she cuts down his blade and grabs him and bends him over and whips his ass with her blade yelling "THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR FUCKING AROUND WITH THE YAKUZAS!!! GO HOME TO YOUR MOTHER!!!". Then there is the scene where Uma as the Bride get's to show a little of her human side where she travels to Okinawa to meet Hanzo and Hanzo asks why she came and she said she is here to meet "Hatori Hanzo" which sends a shiver down Hanzo's spine. And the two of them talk in Japanese and the Bride says "I need Japanese steel!" and Hanzo says "Why do you need Japanese steel?" and the Bride coldly says "I have vermin to kill!" and Hanzo "You must have some big rats if you need Japanese steel" and Bride says "Huge!".
David Carradine is especially good as Bill, the man himself, who has a world weary charm but also shows that he's a killer and a vicious bastard through and through. You never of course see Carradine in Vol 1 as you only sees his hands and hear his voice and Carradine's voice really lends a weighty gravelly tone to the character, which works perfectly. Carradine's best scene comes where he talks with Elle on the phone, whilst she is at the hospital ready to kill off the Bride. And Carradine get's some good lines in the scene where Bill says to Elle "Y'all beat the hell out of that woman, but you didn't kill her. And I put a bullet in her head and her heart kept on beating. We've done alot of things to lady and if she ever wakes up, we'll do whole lot more. But one thing we won't do is sneak into her room in the night like a filthy rat and kill her in her sleep. And the reason we won't do that thing is because.... that thing will lower us!".
Lucy Liu is also great as the deadly and foxy O-Ren Ishii, and her best scene is where she stampedes down the table in her conference room and beheads one of her impertinent associates (complete with blood fountain spurting!) and calmly tells her people that if you have problem with her, tell her so, before she shouts "So if any of you sonsabitches has anything else to say NOW'S THE FUCKING TIME!!!". Later on Lucy has a good fight scene with Uma, as O-Ren and the Bride engage in battle, also before the Crazy 88 arrive we hear the sound of their motorcycles grow louder from the distance after the Bride has killed off a handful of O-Ren's bodyguards. And O-Ren smiles and says to the Bride looking down from her balcony "You didn't really think it would be that easy did you?" and the Bride smiles back saying "You know for a second there, I thought it would". And O-Ren says "Silly rabbit!" and they both say together "tricks are for kids!".
Sonny Chiba's cameo appearance is also very entertaining as Hattori Hanzo, once a great swordswith, who vowed never to make another sword again, and now spends his time as a Sushi chef, arguing with his suborindate employee. And his scenes with Uma are fun to watch, especially when she first arrives in Okinawa and he demands he assistant to get the Bride some sake, who says he's busy, and Hanzo sighs saying "Lazy bastard! Get your ass out here!". And later when Hanzo shows the Bride his collection of swords and she takes one of them out of its sheath and he says to her "Funny you like Saumrai swords... I like baseball!" and he throws a baseball at her, which the Bride slices in half with precision. And the Bride then reminds him that her vermin is a former student of his and "given the student you have a rather large obligation!" leading Hanzo to quietly go over to the window and writing Bill's name in the frosted window before telling her "You can sleep here. It will take me a month to make the sword. I suggest you spend that time practicing".
And lastly Daryl Hannah also is very good in her brief role as the evil and sly Elle Driver, who wears and eyepatch on one eye and her character appears more in Volume 2. And after seeing Daryl give some pretty so-so performances in films from the 1980s such as Roxanne, and Wall Street, what she does do really well in this film is ham it up, and shows that she is in her own way a capable actress. Hannah only really has one scene in the film which is a memorable one where Elle attempts to kill off the Bride while she is in her coma in hospital but Bill phones her and calls it off. And after Elle says to the inert Bride "I bet you thought that was pretty fuckin funny didn't you?! Word of advice, shithead. Don't you ever wake up!".
As for Quentin Tarantino direction wise I don't think he has made a better film as his mix of skilfull camera work, and brilliant use of Japanese anime, and superb photography from Robert Richardson all add up to a visual treat for the viewer. And without a doubt, his choice of soundtrack is as ever terrific, especially in volume 1 where it opens up with Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang", the cheesy but highly effective use of the theme from "Quincy". I also can't forget to mention the infuriatingly catchy 5, 6, 7, 8's "Woo-hoo" which is annoying but at the same time it is also strangely quite enjoyable. In general Tarantino has a like for 1970s funk music, and plenty of it permeates throughout the whole film, abd he uses it very well, especially tracks like "Ray Fan Ray" by Isaac Hayes in the anime scene with O-Ren killing one of her targets as an assassin. Also he can't resist throwing in the theme from the "Green Hornet" during the scene where the Bride drives the streets of Tokyo as she follows O-Ren and her entourage. And lastly there is of course the track "Battle without honor or humanity" by the Japanese musician, Tomoyasu Hotei, which became very popular as a result of the film and is used well in the slo-mo scene of O-Ren and her bodyguards walking into the restaurant where the Bride will later do battle with O-Ren and her men.
Getting onto the flaws of Volume 1.... well its a great film so overall nothing too glaring but what I would say is from a character point of view, what the bride has to endure is pretty horrendous, and Tarantino seems almost delight in putting his characters through the unbearable and the downright harrowing. This is perfectly highlighted in the scene where the Bride is being used for sex whilst she lies in a coma in hospital, which is quite horrific in itself and it again it kind of highlights a rather mysognistic tone to the film, which could be levelled at some of Tarantino's other work. I also felt in a way that the Bride's character was less likeable in the first film and more difficult to relate to as she is largely more as a remorseless killer than anything else, who is consumed with revenge and its only in the scene where the Bride meets with Hanzo in Okinawa we get to see some of her charm start to emerge. Volume 2 would however go on to address this but in a way it does serve to potentially alienate some viewers. Another concern could also come from the level of violence in the film as it is pretty OTT in terms of the blood spurting as in the big bloody fight scene with the Crazy 88, its almost like the actors were fitted with sprinkler attachments so the blood could fly anywhere at all! Despite that though Tarantino does somewhat succeed in making it all entertaining and overall it isn't too disturbing to watch but the Crazy 88 bloody battle is certainly not a scene for those with a weak stomach. And Tarantino also skilfully cuts between colour and black and white once it starts to get really bloody (and then back again) and he amusingly uses the catchy song "Nobody but me" by the Human Beinz, which undercuts the harshness of the violence onscreen, which again highlights Tarantino's maxim that he sees violence as a form of entertainment.
But that put aside Kill Bill Volume 1 is a great film and remains one of Tarantino's career highlights.
And I will be back soon with the new post for Volume 2.
See you soon!
Thursday 20 November 2014
The Apprentice 2014: Selling soft to the Big Apple
Right time for another update on the latest series of The Apprentice as I will cover episode 7 of the current series, which saw both teams come up with a brand of soft drink to sell to the US. So let's give this a closer look and see how they got on.....
So the task saw Lord Sugar split the two teams to work between London and New York so they would work in sub teams and communicate via phone. Team Summit, lead by Bianca, came up with the idea of a fizzy drink, which they called "Big Dawg" (named by James) but the sub-team in London, Sanjay and Roisin who came up the flavours for the drink found it at first to be a bit overwhelming in its taste, but the market research and tastings of the drink in America went down well. They also did a pretty good attention grabbing logo for the drink as well as a decent digital billboard, but the video for the ad was not well received as the advertisement experts said it had no music track on it and overall it was a bit bland (I also thought it was a very bad idea to promote an American drink by putting Solomon in it, who is an Indian-Brit as it seems very out of place and he also happened to be wearing his office gear!). Team Tenacity on the other, lead by Mark (who almost vetoed Lauren's bid to manage the project) came up with the idea of a health drink, which they titled "Aqua Fusion", which tasted overtly of pineapple and received a pretty lukewarm reception during the market research in New York. Daniel and Katy, who worked as the subteam in London, came up with a pretty dull logo for the drink, which was mainly yellow and the words for the drink didn't stand out on the bottle. Meanwhile Mark in New York with Felipe and Lauren, made the video for the ad, which starred Lauren and was directed by Felpie (who got carried away!). As for the pitches to the industry experts, Bianca's pitch went very well but Mark's was letdown by a very dull one-note presentation by Lauren and Felipe (both of whom are lawyers!).
Back in the boardroom Lord Sugar had to sit over both campaigns and decide which one was better, as he was very unimpressed with both videos, particularly Summit's which had no story or structure whatsoever aswell as no music track. However in the end Lord Sugar decided despite having the weaker video ad, Summit were the winners as their soft drink was more marketable to the American public as it had a better presentation. As a result the winning team were treated to a classy meal up in London's Tower 42 (which is the second largest skyscraper in London by the way, and you might guess what the largest is!). And the title of the drink "Big Dawg" got some credit from the industry experts, which James who came up with the name, took some rather smug satisfaction in, as he reminded everyone in the boardroom and Lord Sugar wearily said to him "You just can't help yourself, can you?!". Maybe one day Lord Sugar will finally shut up that arrogant twat that is James as he is one individual you would never tire of slapping!
Once the losing team Tenacity went back into the boardroom, most of the blame appeared to be shifted onto Lauren by Mark, who claimed that Lauren didn't do anything, but Daniel also came under fire for coming up with a very bland logo for the drink so he brought them both back into the boardroom. Lord Sugar was not impressed with Mark's management of the task as he felt he made a fatal error in placing his team mates in the wrong roles, especially as he brought Felipe and Lauren to the pitch who had no strong presentation skills (perhaps it was more Mark didn't want Daniel tagging along with him to New York!). Lord Sugar was also unimpressed with Daniel, who was brought into the boardroom for the second consecutive week as he felt he had really see Daniel do much that well, but he did recognise that Daniel contributed more to the task. Whereas Lauren came under fire from both Mark and Daniel (despite their squabbling amongst one another!) who ganged up on her as they both felt she contributed very little to the task apart from appear in the video and be present at the pitch, where she didn't so well. And in the end Lord Sugar made his decision and he felt that Lauren was not suited to be his business partner so her fired her (with regret) and let the two guys off the hook.
Well I have to say I didn't agree with Lord Sugar's decision this week as I felt in a way Lauren had more to offer than Daniel, who is just morely a loud mouthed confrontational arse and I personally felt he deserved to be fired, primarly because he was primarly responsible for the logo and labelling of the drink which was very poor to say the least. Lauren was also pretty much scapegoated by both Mark and Daniel in the boardroom and Mark also rather aggressively beat Lauren to taking on the project manager post and did it in a way that he would hopefully be able to get the win and save his own neck! This week though Mark and Daniel decided during the task to put their differences aside and try and work together and not against each other, although the fact they were thousands of miles and countries apart might have helped with that one! But once Mark brought Daniel back into the boardroom that facade soon fell away and they were at each others throats again and at first Mark brought Daniel back in "regretfully" but after they started aruging Mark said "I should have brought you in automatically! Because you talk rubbish, Daniel, and if I had a pound for every time you talked rubbish, I would have the £250,000 by now and could go home!". Lord Sugar also threw in his tuppence over how bad the drink was by also slating the yellow colour of the dink as he said "Its look very much like something big dawg has done up against the wall!". And he also had a go at Felipe (who went back to the house by then of course) for directing a "rubbish!" video and having a "Felini moment!" while being so overly fussy during his direction of the video.
So I personally think Lord Sugar made the wrong choice and Daniel should have went this week instead and Mark wouldn't be too far behind him either, although to be fair he is still a very capable candidate (but he is also a rather annoying fanny!) but he made some fundamental errors in the project as he put people in his team into the wrong tasks without first looking at their skillsets. Lauren also wasn't given the choice of becoming a project manager, which she put herself up for and she was quickly dismissed by Mark, who claimed he knew all about advertising (but not from a creative point of view!) and yet it in a way Felipe also seemed to call it for the group to go with Mark as well, so in a way its funny how this quiet lawyer fella actually in his own way has quite a bit of a clout in the decision making aswell! And on The Apprentice: You're Fired, the audience also concluded that Lauren shouldn't have been fired as well as the panel members (including Lord Sugar's scary no-nonsense adviser, Claude Litner). But in the end it comes down to the rather brash old grey haired fella in the boardroom wearing the fancy suit as its his money and his investment on the line.
And that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.
See you's later!
So the task saw Lord Sugar split the two teams to work between London and New York so they would work in sub teams and communicate via phone. Team Summit, lead by Bianca, came up with the idea of a fizzy drink, which they called "Big Dawg" (named by James) but the sub-team in London, Sanjay and Roisin who came up the flavours for the drink found it at first to be a bit overwhelming in its taste, but the market research and tastings of the drink in America went down well. They also did a pretty good attention grabbing logo for the drink as well as a decent digital billboard, but the video for the ad was not well received as the advertisement experts said it had no music track on it and overall it was a bit bland (I also thought it was a very bad idea to promote an American drink by putting Solomon in it, who is an Indian-Brit as it seems very out of place and he also happened to be wearing his office gear!). Team Tenacity on the other, lead by Mark (who almost vetoed Lauren's bid to manage the project) came up with the idea of a health drink, which they titled "Aqua Fusion", which tasted overtly of pineapple and received a pretty lukewarm reception during the market research in New York. Daniel and Katy, who worked as the subteam in London, came up with a pretty dull logo for the drink, which was mainly yellow and the words for the drink didn't stand out on the bottle. Meanwhile Mark in New York with Felipe and Lauren, made the video for the ad, which starred Lauren and was directed by Felpie (who got carried away!). As for the pitches to the industry experts, Bianca's pitch went very well but Mark's was letdown by a very dull one-note presentation by Lauren and Felipe (both of whom are lawyers!).
Back in the boardroom Lord Sugar had to sit over both campaigns and decide which one was better, as he was very unimpressed with both videos, particularly Summit's which had no story or structure whatsoever aswell as no music track. However in the end Lord Sugar decided despite having the weaker video ad, Summit were the winners as their soft drink was more marketable to the American public as it had a better presentation. As a result the winning team were treated to a classy meal up in London's Tower 42 (which is the second largest skyscraper in London by the way, and you might guess what the largest is!). And the title of the drink "Big Dawg" got some credit from the industry experts, which James who came up with the name, took some rather smug satisfaction in, as he reminded everyone in the boardroom and Lord Sugar wearily said to him "You just can't help yourself, can you?!". Maybe one day Lord Sugar will finally shut up that arrogant twat that is James as he is one individual you would never tire of slapping!
Once the losing team Tenacity went back into the boardroom, most of the blame appeared to be shifted onto Lauren by Mark, who claimed that Lauren didn't do anything, but Daniel also came under fire for coming up with a very bland logo for the drink so he brought them both back into the boardroom. Lord Sugar was not impressed with Mark's management of the task as he felt he made a fatal error in placing his team mates in the wrong roles, especially as he brought Felipe and Lauren to the pitch who had no strong presentation skills (perhaps it was more Mark didn't want Daniel tagging along with him to New York!). Lord Sugar was also unimpressed with Daniel, who was brought into the boardroom for the second consecutive week as he felt he had really see Daniel do much that well, but he did recognise that Daniel contributed more to the task. Whereas Lauren came under fire from both Mark and Daniel (despite their squabbling amongst one another!) who ganged up on her as they both felt she contributed very little to the task apart from appear in the video and be present at the pitch, where she didn't so well. And in the end Lord Sugar made his decision and he felt that Lauren was not suited to be his business partner so her fired her (with regret) and let the two guys off the hook.
Well I have to say I didn't agree with Lord Sugar's decision this week as I felt in a way Lauren had more to offer than Daniel, who is just morely a loud mouthed confrontational arse and I personally felt he deserved to be fired, primarly because he was primarly responsible for the logo and labelling of the drink which was very poor to say the least. Lauren was also pretty much scapegoated by both Mark and Daniel in the boardroom and Mark also rather aggressively beat Lauren to taking on the project manager post and did it in a way that he would hopefully be able to get the win and save his own neck! This week though Mark and Daniel decided during the task to put their differences aside and try and work together and not against each other, although the fact they were thousands of miles and countries apart might have helped with that one! But once Mark brought Daniel back into the boardroom that facade soon fell away and they were at each others throats again and at first Mark brought Daniel back in "regretfully" but after they started aruging Mark said "I should have brought you in automatically! Because you talk rubbish, Daniel, and if I had a pound for every time you talked rubbish, I would have the £250,000 by now and could go home!". Lord Sugar also threw in his tuppence over how bad the drink was by also slating the yellow colour of the dink as he said "Its look very much like something big dawg has done up against the wall!". And he also had a go at Felipe (who went back to the house by then of course) for directing a "rubbish!" video and having a "Felini moment!" while being so overly fussy during his direction of the video.
So I personally think Lord Sugar made the wrong choice and Daniel should have went this week instead and Mark wouldn't be too far behind him either, although to be fair he is still a very capable candidate (but he is also a rather annoying fanny!) but he made some fundamental errors in the project as he put people in his team into the wrong tasks without first looking at their skillsets. Lauren also wasn't given the choice of becoming a project manager, which she put herself up for and she was quickly dismissed by Mark, who claimed he knew all about advertising (but not from a creative point of view!) and yet it in a way Felipe also seemed to call it for the group to go with Mark as well, so in a way its funny how this quiet lawyer fella actually in his own way has quite a bit of a clout in the decision making aswell! And on The Apprentice: You're Fired, the audience also concluded that Lauren shouldn't have been fired as well as the panel members (including Lord Sugar's scary no-nonsense adviser, Claude Litner). But in the end it comes down to the rather brash old grey haired fella in the boardroom wearing the fancy suit as its his money and his investment on the line.
And that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.
See you's later!
Sunday 16 November 2014
The Apprentice 2014: board games and the boardroom
Sooo I finally got round to watching episode 6 of the tenth series of The Apprentice and thought I would do a post on it just now. So let's head to the boardroom and give it a look....
Right so the task this week for both teams Summit and Tenacity was to come up with a new board game and market it to the public and retailers. Team Teancity, lead by Pamela, came up with the idea of a dating board game called "The Relationship Guru" despite the fact that their market research feedback was that dating board games was a bad idea but Pamela decided to ignore this and went ahead with the idea regardless. Team Summit, lead by James, after some debate came up with the idea for a geography board game, which was generally considered to be a good idea even if it was a little insulting to the player's intelligence and a bit stereotypical. James also had some tension among the ranks in his team as he fell out with Bianca and at one point they argued about how James felt she kept trying to run things and interrupt him (when we all know its quite the opposite!). Bianca also made the poor decision while trying to sell units of the boardgame by giving exclusivity in the borough of Westminster to a small retailer for a mere six units, which further caused friction between her and James and also made selling the remaining units more difficult. Tenacity's game however was not well received as it was deemed to be quite sexist, offensive and stereotypical and the game questions written by Daniel were considered to be quite inappropriate and were not well received by the retailers. Despite this though they still managed to sell fairly well to the retailers largely due to Mark's sales skills.
In the boardroom both teams were given the results of their sales and it was team Summit who came out on top with a good win as they sold double the amount that Tenacity did with just over £2,080 as opposed to £1101. During the boardroom debate with Tenacity Pamela brought back in Daniel, whom she had never gotten on with throughout the process and she also blamed him for writing the inappropriate questions for the game, and she also brought in Lauren who Pamela felt had not contributed much in the task. But after much arguing and debate Lord Sugar made his decision to fire Pamela for choosing to ignore the market research as well as coming up with such a poor board game and the failure of the task laid firmly on her shoulders, which I have to agree with as she wasn't much use in the task or in the process and all she mainly did throughout was alot of moaning and complaining. Lord Sugar however was also not happy with Daniel and his argumentative attitude and said to him "this is your very last chance!" before letting him off the hook as he did realise that he did have some fire and spark in him. So Daniel will need to watch his behaviour from now on or else he will be out the door, although one thing I did notice that was amusing about him was how he kept making a silly gesture, which appeared to be the sign of the cross just as he went into the boardroom and also just before Lord sugar made his decision on who is to go! (No doubt Darian O'Brien on "You're Fired" will take the mickey out of that!).
Lord Sugar however also had reservations about Mark and questioned Pamela as to why she didn't bring him back into the boardroom, especially given his reluctance to take on managing the project and he had yet himself to even lead a task. And this is a fair point as I don't care much for Mark as I think he like James and Daniel, is an arrogant dick, and even though he is quite a smart and capable guy, he is also quite manipulative and has an over inflated opinion of his own abilities. And there was one moment in the episode where Mark successfully sold some units of the board game to a retailer and afterward to the camera he basically said "I couldn't be happer with how we did this afternoon. I feel like Lauren and Katie are both my apprentices and I tought them something on how to sell today!". God! I mean just shut up you arrogant twat! Personally I can't actually wait to see Mark get his comeuppance at some point and I think he already is treading on thin ice with Lord Sugar, who can see through him and his game, as clearly Mark is about playing the candidates off one another and seeing how will survive. And if he carries that on he won't last much longer in the process and he better watch his step as he may feel the wrath of the Sugarnator! ;-)
As for James well he did do a bit better this week although I'm not still very keen on him either and despite taking on board what Lord Sugar said to him last week to an extent, he lead his team like as Bianca said "more like a dictatorship". James also didn't really seem to grasp the idea of the board game either that they were selling as Roisin (who came up with the idea) had to keep correcting him on it as they were heading toward a pitch! James also clearly doesn't like being spoken back to, particularly by a strong minded person such as Bianca, who rightly at one point during their argument said "I am talking! When I am finished you can talk!". And if he is to become Lord Sugar's business partner (which hopefully he won't!) he will also need to learn when to shut up as he was still talking over Lord Sugar in the boardroom this week, which prompted Lord Sugar to say "shame the game wasn't charades!". So James is still in it for now and we will need to see how his progresses although he too might be on thin ice if he doesn't watch out.
Right so that's it for this post and I will be back with another some time soon and next week's episode of The Apprentice will be in New York as the teams will fly over to the Big Apple to advertise a new sports drink to America, so no doubt that might be fun.
Bye the now!
Right so the task this week for both teams Summit and Tenacity was to come up with a new board game and market it to the public and retailers. Team Teancity, lead by Pamela, came up with the idea of a dating board game called "The Relationship Guru" despite the fact that their market research feedback was that dating board games was a bad idea but Pamela decided to ignore this and went ahead with the idea regardless. Team Summit, lead by James, after some debate came up with the idea for a geography board game, which was generally considered to be a good idea even if it was a little insulting to the player's intelligence and a bit stereotypical. James also had some tension among the ranks in his team as he fell out with Bianca and at one point they argued about how James felt she kept trying to run things and interrupt him (when we all know its quite the opposite!). Bianca also made the poor decision while trying to sell units of the boardgame by giving exclusivity in the borough of Westminster to a small retailer for a mere six units, which further caused friction between her and James and also made selling the remaining units more difficult. Tenacity's game however was not well received as it was deemed to be quite sexist, offensive and stereotypical and the game questions written by Daniel were considered to be quite inappropriate and were not well received by the retailers. Despite this though they still managed to sell fairly well to the retailers largely due to Mark's sales skills.
In the boardroom both teams were given the results of their sales and it was team Summit who came out on top with a good win as they sold double the amount that Tenacity did with just over £2,080 as opposed to £1101. During the boardroom debate with Tenacity Pamela brought back in Daniel, whom she had never gotten on with throughout the process and she also blamed him for writing the inappropriate questions for the game, and she also brought in Lauren who Pamela felt had not contributed much in the task. But after much arguing and debate Lord Sugar made his decision to fire Pamela for choosing to ignore the market research as well as coming up with such a poor board game and the failure of the task laid firmly on her shoulders, which I have to agree with as she wasn't much use in the task or in the process and all she mainly did throughout was alot of moaning and complaining. Lord Sugar however was also not happy with Daniel and his argumentative attitude and said to him "this is your very last chance!" before letting him off the hook as he did realise that he did have some fire and spark in him. So Daniel will need to watch his behaviour from now on or else he will be out the door, although one thing I did notice that was amusing about him was how he kept making a silly gesture, which appeared to be the sign of the cross just as he went into the boardroom and also just before Lord sugar made his decision on who is to go! (No doubt Darian O'Brien on "You're Fired" will take the mickey out of that!).
Lord Sugar however also had reservations about Mark and questioned Pamela as to why she didn't bring him back into the boardroom, especially given his reluctance to take on managing the project and he had yet himself to even lead a task. And this is a fair point as I don't care much for Mark as I think he like James and Daniel, is an arrogant dick, and even though he is quite a smart and capable guy, he is also quite manipulative and has an over inflated opinion of his own abilities. And there was one moment in the episode where Mark successfully sold some units of the board game to a retailer and afterward to the camera he basically said "I couldn't be happer with how we did this afternoon. I feel like Lauren and Katie are both my apprentices and I tought them something on how to sell today!". God! I mean just shut up you arrogant twat! Personally I can't actually wait to see Mark get his comeuppance at some point and I think he already is treading on thin ice with Lord Sugar, who can see through him and his game, as clearly Mark is about playing the candidates off one another and seeing how will survive. And if he carries that on he won't last much longer in the process and he better watch his step as he may feel the wrath of the Sugarnator! ;-)
As for James well he did do a bit better this week although I'm not still very keen on him either and despite taking on board what Lord Sugar said to him last week to an extent, he lead his team like as Bianca said "more like a dictatorship". James also didn't really seem to grasp the idea of the board game either that they were selling as Roisin (who came up with the idea) had to keep correcting him on it as they were heading toward a pitch! James also clearly doesn't like being spoken back to, particularly by a strong minded person such as Bianca, who rightly at one point during their argument said "I am talking! When I am finished you can talk!". And if he is to become Lord Sugar's business partner (which hopefully he won't!) he will also need to learn when to shut up as he was still talking over Lord Sugar in the boardroom this week, which prompted Lord Sugar to say "shame the game wasn't charades!". So James is still in it for now and we will need to see how his progresses although he too might be on thin ice if he doesn't watch out.
Right so that's it for this post and I will be back with another some time soon and next week's episode of The Apprentice will be in New York as the teams will fly over to the Big Apple to advertise a new sports drink to America, so no doubt that might be fun.
Bye the now!
Monday 10 November 2014
Foo Fighters Sonic Highways review
Well just for a change I thought I would do a review of an album (a musical one obviously) and this will cover the Foo Fighters latest album, Sonic Highways. So let's give this one a looksee...
I won't go too indepth here but will start by saying it is something of a new take for the band, as they recorded each song in a different city, so with eight songs they visited eight cities: Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Seattle, Washington D.C. and New Orleans. Dave Grohl wrote the songs based on his feelings on each city, which reflects the different tones in the songs on the album itself. The band also made an HBO documentary TV series about the recording of the album as well.
So how does it all stack up???? Hmmmm well its a bit of a curate's egg and it certainly isn't one of the band's stronger albums but at the same time it still has something going for it. I think the concept to record in different cities was interesting one but overall I feel it hasn't been entirely successful for Dave and the band. But the album does get off to a strong start with its first track "Something for nothing" with Dave singing in an almost John Lennon-eqsue style and some rather morose guitar chords echoing in the background. But then it then moves into the remainder of the song's rocking melody and it finishing with some screeching from Dave as he yells out the chorus over and over. Next up is the best song on the album, "The feast and the famine" which is a slightly angular track (recorded in Chicago) with an unusual guitar riff and odd time signature from Taylor on the drums. The song soon then launches into its catchy chorus and it also has an excellent bridge section before going back to its chorus and followed by a rocking outro to close it out. After this is "Congregation" (recorded in Nashville) which is a nice mellow MOR track and it has a jaunty leisurely pace to it as well as a pleasing central riff and it easily one of the stronger tracks on here.
After this however the album starts to take a slight dip in quality as "What did I do?/God as my witness" (recorded in Austin) which is essentially two tracks in one song, but overall it is a pretty average track, which echoes the sounds of Boston (the 70s rock band) more than anything else and the opening riff of "What did I do?" is blatant rip off Lynard Skynard's "Sweet home Alabama". "Outside" (Los Angeles) on the other hand is a pretty good track even if it lacks a killer riff to hook you in. "In the clear" (New Orleans) is also quite a good track and relatively catchy and it has a pretty good chorus although its not a standout in itself. Next is "Subterranean" (Seattle) which is another pretty mellow track but its pretty uninspiring to listen to and it sees Dave's lyrics and vocals dithering in a kind of dreamy bubble throughout. And then we have the album's finale "I am a river" (New York) which is the album's longest track at over 7 minute and its another mellowed track, which sees the album finish on a rather bland note as it really isn't one of the band's better songs.
So to sum up Sonic Highways for me is not a bad Foos albums, but it is overall a bit disappointing and the idea was intruiging in itself for the band to record a song about each visited city but its a theme that isn't entirely successful. In the end the album is a bit of a mixed bag and it shows the Foos they are clearly trying to expand their sound but it doesn't quite live up to expectations. It does still have its moments and some good tracks but they are not enough to put the album among the band's finest works and for me the Foos really need to record an album that get's back to the roots of their rock sound but with Sonic Highways they haven't done that. So if I'm being very fair I will give it a 7/10 but it could easily sit between 6/10 or 6.5/10. In all its not bad, but it could have been way better.
And with that I shall bye for now and will be back soon.
I won't go too indepth here but will start by saying it is something of a new take for the band, as they recorded each song in a different city, so with eight songs they visited eight cities: Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Seattle, Washington D.C. and New Orleans. Dave Grohl wrote the songs based on his feelings on each city, which reflects the different tones in the songs on the album itself. The band also made an HBO documentary TV series about the recording of the album as well.
So how does it all stack up???? Hmmmm well its a bit of a curate's egg and it certainly isn't one of the band's stronger albums but at the same time it still has something going for it. I think the concept to record in different cities was interesting one but overall I feel it hasn't been entirely successful for Dave and the band. But the album does get off to a strong start with its first track "Something for nothing" with Dave singing in an almost John Lennon-eqsue style and some rather morose guitar chords echoing in the background. But then it then moves into the remainder of the song's rocking melody and it finishing with some screeching from Dave as he yells out the chorus over and over. Next up is the best song on the album, "The feast and the famine" which is a slightly angular track (recorded in Chicago) with an unusual guitar riff and odd time signature from Taylor on the drums. The song soon then launches into its catchy chorus and it also has an excellent bridge section before going back to its chorus and followed by a rocking outro to close it out. After this is "Congregation" (recorded in Nashville) which is a nice mellow MOR track and it has a jaunty leisurely pace to it as well as a pleasing central riff and it easily one of the stronger tracks on here.
After this however the album starts to take a slight dip in quality as "What did I do?/God as my witness" (recorded in Austin) which is essentially two tracks in one song, but overall it is a pretty average track, which echoes the sounds of Boston (the 70s rock band) more than anything else and the opening riff of "What did I do?" is blatant rip off Lynard Skynard's "Sweet home Alabama". "Outside" (Los Angeles) on the other hand is a pretty good track even if it lacks a killer riff to hook you in. "In the clear" (New Orleans) is also quite a good track and relatively catchy and it has a pretty good chorus although its not a standout in itself. Next is "Subterranean" (Seattle) which is another pretty mellow track but its pretty uninspiring to listen to and it sees Dave's lyrics and vocals dithering in a kind of dreamy bubble throughout. And then we have the album's finale "I am a river" (New York) which is the album's longest track at over 7 minute and its another mellowed track, which sees the album finish on a rather bland note as it really isn't one of the band's better songs.
So to sum up Sonic Highways for me is not a bad Foos albums, but it is overall a bit disappointing and the idea was intruiging in itself for the band to record a song about each visited city but its a theme that isn't entirely successful. In the end the album is a bit of a mixed bag and it shows the Foos they are clearly trying to expand their sound but it doesn't quite live up to expectations. It does still have its moments and some good tracks but they are not enough to put the album among the band's finest works and for me the Foos really need to record an album that get's back to the roots of their rock sound but with Sonic Highways they haven't done that. So if I'm being very fair I will give it a 7/10 but it could easily sit between 6/10 or 6.5/10. In all its not bad, but it could have been way better.
And with that I shall bye for now and will be back soon.
Interstellar (the movie) "Murphy's law"
Right OK thought I would do a quick review of a new film that has come out just last week, Interstellar, the latest Christopher Nolan movie, which sees the acclaimed director take step into the realms of science fiction. So how does it stack up??? Well let's give it a look.... (oh and PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!! But don't worry I won't divulge the whole plot!).
So the story is set in the not too distant future where the Earth is no longer able to sustain humanity as crops are being ravaged by blight and dust storms. And the main character of the story, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) who was a former NASA test pilot, is now a farmer who lives with his son Tom, daughter Murphy or "Murphy" and his father in law, Donald (John Lithgow). Murph believes that their house is haunted by a ghost which tries to communicate with them by moving books off the shelf in her room. Cooper then decides to try and decipher the communication attempts and reveals them to be in binary code, which turns out to be co-ordinates, which Cooper follows along with Murphy to a secret NASA base. There Cooper meets with Professor Brand (Michael Caine) who reveals that they have discovered a wormhole in the solar system that orbits Saturn and that the best chance for humanity's future is to traverse the wormhole to find and colonise new worlds. Cooper is then recruited to pilot one of the spaceships, the Endurance to follow a mission where a series of manned capsules are sent through the wormhole to survey the planets for sustainability. Cooper's decision however leaves his daughter, Murph distraught and heartbroken and they part on bad terms. Cooper then joins with Brand's daughter, Amelia (Anne Hathaway), a physicist Romilly (David Gyasi), a georapher Doyle (Wes Bentley) and multiple purpose robots named TARS and CASE on the mission. And from here it is up to Cooper and his crewmates to find a way to travel through the wormhole and find a planet that can sustain and save the future of humanity.
As far as branching out into sci-fi goes, Nolan's Interstellar is something of a disappointment in that he really does go for being just a bit too epic and by that he makes the film inordinately long at just under three hours. The film is also riddled with some obscure scientific concepts and at times the plot itself is a bit hard to follow. Nolan also brings his dark and grim tone to the proceedings aswell which at times can threaten to alienate the viewer but at the same time he also invests just enough in his films as well that you know ultimately he loves to drop the viewer into a scary place and then pull it back just at the last minute. But that in a way is part of the charm of Nolan's films as he usually shows his character trying to overcome adversity and thankfully he does allow for a resolution in one way or another.
Performance wise things are pretty good with McConaughey giving a fine central performance as the cocky but good hearted Cooper, who pilots the Endurance on its mission through the wormhole to try and find new worlds for the sake of huamnity's future. McConaughey has some good moments and his character provides some moments of humour, such as when Cooper quips with TARS, the diverse robot (which is more like a large walking flatscreen TV!) and in one scene he repairs TARS and he resets the robot's personality settings and he says to the robot "I'm gonna set your humour settings at 75%" and TARS jokes "T minus self destruct 10, 9, 8..." and Cooper laughs and says "OK how about 60%" and TARS says "knock knock!" and Cooper continues "You wanna go for 50%???!". McConaughey is also equally capable however in the dramatic scenes such as the scene where Cooper watches the videotapes of his family and he breaks down in tears, overcome with emotion at seeing his family.
The other performances are also pretty good including Michael Caine as Professor Brand who originally discovered the wormhole and presents his theories on how to try and save the future for mankind. Ann Hathaway (looking very nice with her short hair, which suits her!) also is good in her role as Amelia, Brand's daughter, and they made a good decision not to have Cooper and Amelia become romantically linked with one another and have it more largely a business-like relationship, although they do develop a connection later, just not a romantic one. Matt Damon is also good in his role as one of the spacebound scientists, Mann who Cooper and the others later discover, only to find that he is not all what he seems to be. And lastly Casey Affleck puts in a decent turn as the older version of Cooper's son, Tom, as does Jessica Chastain as Cooper's grown up daughter, Murphy, who plays a key part in trying to save the future.
Direction wise Nolan does well enough with the action in the film and he handles the space scenes confidently as well as the film's more melodramatic moments and he makes good use of the film locations, particularly in Iceland, where some of the other world sequences are shot, and he makes good use of the film's visual effects for spaceships and the station. The film also features a pretty decent film score by Hans Zimmer, although it is not recognisibly one of his best and he does at certain points rip off 2001: A Space Odyssey by using organ music.
As for the flaws of the film well as I said the film's main problem is its length as at 2 hours and 50 minutes its just too long and the film feels flabby with a rather slow build up to the space journey and the journey itself has some very slow moments. The film's plot is also hard to follow at times and they use alot of scientific jargon, which can throw the viewer as well and ultimately the film ends on a rather silly note in regards to the future of mankind and like all these types of film it may take a few viewings to get the gist of it all. I also felt that the film introduced a silly melodramatic note with (PLOT SPOILER!!!!) the almost obligatory nod toward Matt Damon's character going a bit nuts and trying to kill Cooper at one point in the film and its like they just had to put something like that somewhere in there! It also has to be said that the film overall tries too hard to be ambitious in its scope and scale and by doing that and stretching the screen time it more likely will end up boring audiences rather than thrilling them.
So to sum is Interstellar a great film??? Nope it isn't and it certainly isn't one of Nolan's best either by a long shock, however it is still a fairly interesting and thought provoking one despite its flaws and its unecessary length, and it is worth a watch (if only once) if you are in anyway curious about seeing it.
And with that I shall leave you there and will be back soon with more reviews.
Bye for now!
So the story is set in the not too distant future where the Earth is no longer able to sustain humanity as crops are being ravaged by blight and dust storms. And the main character of the story, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) who was a former NASA test pilot, is now a farmer who lives with his son Tom, daughter Murphy or "Murphy" and his father in law, Donald (John Lithgow). Murph believes that their house is haunted by a ghost which tries to communicate with them by moving books off the shelf in her room. Cooper then decides to try and decipher the communication attempts and reveals them to be in binary code, which turns out to be co-ordinates, which Cooper follows along with Murphy to a secret NASA base. There Cooper meets with Professor Brand (Michael Caine) who reveals that they have discovered a wormhole in the solar system that orbits Saturn and that the best chance for humanity's future is to traverse the wormhole to find and colonise new worlds. Cooper is then recruited to pilot one of the spaceships, the Endurance to follow a mission where a series of manned capsules are sent through the wormhole to survey the planets for sustainability. Cooper's decision however leaves his daughter, Murph distraught and heartbroken and they part on bad terms. Cooper then joins with Brand's daughter, Amelia (Anne Hathaway), a physicist Romilly (David Gyasi), a georapher Doyle (Wes Bentley) and multiple purpose robots named TARS and CASE on the mission. And from here it is up to Cooper and his crewmates to find a way to travel through the wormhole and find a planet that can sustain and save the future of humanity.
As far as branching out into sci-fi goes, Nolan's Interstellar is something of a disappointment in that he really does go for being just a bit too epic and by that he makes the film inordinately long at just under three hours. The film is also riddled with some obscure scientific concepts and at times the plot itself is a bit hard to follow. Nolan also brings his dark and grim tone to the proceedings aswell which at times can threaten to alienate the viewer but at the same time he also invests just enough in his films as well that you know ultimately he loves to drop the viewer into a scary place and then pull it back just at the last minute. But that in a way is part of the charm of Nolan's films as he usually shows his character trying to overcome adversity and thankfully he does allow for a resolution in one way or another.
Performance wise things are pretty good with McConaughey giving a fine central performance as the cocky but good hearted Cooper, who pilots the Endurance on its mission through the wormhole to try and find new worlds for the sake of huamnity's future. McConaughey has some good moments and his character provides some moments of humour, such as when Cooper quips with TARS, the diverse robot (which is more like a large walking flatscreen TV!) and in one scene he repairs TARS and he resets the robot's personality settings and he says to the robot "I'm gonna set your humour settings at 75%" and TARS jokes "T minus self destruct 10, 9, 8..." and Cooper laughs and says "OK how about 60%" and TARS says "knock knock!" and Cooper continues "You wanna go for 50%???!". McConaughey is also equally capable however in the dramatic scenes such as the scene where Cooper watches the videotapes of his family and he breaks down in tears, overcome with emotion at seeing his family.
The other performances are also pretty good including Michael Caine as Professor Brand who originally discovered the wormhole and presents his theories on how to try and save the future for mankind. Ann Hathaway (looking very nice with her short hair, which suits her!) also is good in her role as Amelia, Brand's daughter, and they made a good decision not to have Cooper and Amelia become romantically linked with one another and have it more largely a business-like relationship, although they do develop a connection later, just not a romantic one. Matt Damon is also good in his role as one of the spacebound scientists, Mann who Cooper and the others later discover, only to find that he is not all what he seems to be. And lastly Casey Affleck puts in a decent turn as the older version of Cooper's son, Tom, as does Jessica Chastain as Cooper's grown up daughter, Murphy, who plays a key part in trying to save the future.
Direction wise Nolan does well enough with the action in the film and he handles the space scenes confidently as well as the film's more melodramatic moments and he makes good use of the film locations, particularly in Iceland, where some of the other world sequences are shot, and he makes good use of the film's visual effects for spaceships and the station. The film also features a pretty decent film score by Hans Zimmer, although it is not recognisibly one of his best and he does at certain points rip off 2001: A Space Odyssey by using organ music.
As for the flaws of the film well as I said the film's main problem is its length as at 2 hours and 50 minutes its just too long and the film feels flabby with a rather slow build up to the space journey and the journey itself has some very slow moments. The film's plot is also hard to follow at times and they use alot of scientific jargon, which can throw the viewer as well and ultimately the film ends on a rather silly note in regards to the future of mankind and like all these types of film it may take a few viewings to get the gist of it all. I also felt that the film introduced a silly melodramatic note with (PLOT SPOILER!!!!) the almost obligatory nod toward Matt Damon's character going a bit nuts and trying to kill Cooper at one point in the film and its like they just had to put something like that somewhere in there! It also has to be said that the film overall tries too hard to be ambitious in its scope and scale and by doing that and stretching the screen time it more likely will end up boring audiences rather than thrilling them.
So to sum is Interstellar a great film??? Nope it isn't and it certainly isn't one of Nolan's best either by a long shock, however it is still a fairly interesting and thought provoking one despite its flaws and its unecessary length, and it is worth a watch (if only once) if you are in anyway curious about seeing it.
And with that I shall leave you there and will be back soon with more reviews.
Bye for now!
Wednesday 5 November 2014
The Apprentice 2014: driving them round the bend...
Right well now we are into November and its not long before Christmas and New Year are around the corner so its time get another post on this blog and this one will cover the latest episode of the new series of The Apprentice (episode 5) where Lord Alan Sugar seeks out his new business partner out of 20 candidates. So let's suit up and head for the boardroom.....
OK so this week's episode saw both teams Summit and Tenacity been given the task by Lord Sugar of setting up and selling their own coach tours in London. So far in the process Tenacity were leading the wins as they had won 3 out of the 4 tasks. For team Summit, Sanjay was the project leader who came up with the idea of a pilgrimage to Canterbury. Meanwhile Daniel lead team Tenacity and their tour was set around a tour of Oxfordshire. The teams both had mixed success in different areas, for starters Daniel's aggressive decision to become project manager quickly saw him veto Mark's candidacy for project manager and Daniel insisted that he was the best salesperson out of all of them, however during the task he did not sell a single ticket! Despite this and the fact that they had only sold 20 tickets for a 25 capacity tour bus, Tenacity's tour went very well with Lauren in the team giving a professional tour guide and she did her research for the tourists and they also priced their tickets fairly well at just under £100. However the team did struggle somewhat with the catering as the sandwiches they provided where very subpar and anyone could have done a better job at putting together one and Felipe bored people senseless with his flatlining tone of voice when giving his guide to the tourists. Daniel also struggled to keep the respect of his teammates while working on the task, especially Pamela and Mark.
As for team Summit well they had their share of troubles the main one being that on the tour they were completely disorganised and James who it has to be said is the clown of the series (or prize dick more like!) kept going for a hard sell with the tourists in getting sales and getting their bums literally on the seats! James also provided the series with one its most cringe inducing scenes so far where he took it upon himself to sing a nursery rhyme to the tourists on the bus "The wheels on the bus go round and round!" and I'm positive most of them would love to have shoved that microphone down his throat! During the tour James and particularly Jemma both embarrassed themselves with their complete lack of knowledge of the tour as Jemma couldn't even give a correct answer on the tour of Hever castle and they later also got lost in Canterbury leaving the tourists less time to look around. Sanjay also did little to contribute to a convivial atmosphere on the tour as the info he provided to the passengers on the bus was putting them to sleep! And another issue was to do with the pricing of the tickets at just £60, which was in the end too low to make a substantial profit.
In the boardroom however it was revealed that team Tenacity trumped Summit once again as they had made a larger profit of £1037 as opposed to Summit's £813. But despite the team winning, things were not smooth for Tenacity as Daniel had not been given much encouragement from the rest of his teammates and Mark later accused Daniel of lying. Daniel was also not too impressed with their treat, which was abseiling down the UK's tallest sculpture and during the descent he said "How is this a fucking treat?!". True enough, but let's face it some of these so called treats are pretty stupid in the show! As for Summit well Sanjay brought Gemma and Bianca back into the boardroom, as he felt Bianca made a poor decision to let the customers negotiate the prices during a pitch in order to sell them and Jemma made very little contribution to the task as she hadn't done much throughout the process. But despite Sanjay's poor decision to not set a higher price for the tickets, which ultimately cost them the task, it was Gemma who was let go as Lord Sugar felt she had little to contribute to the process and didn't see her as his business partner.
So this sees them down 11 candidates now, and its funny to think that the show started with 20! So over the space of the first four weeks eight candidates were given the boot with all three team members on the losing team last week fired, which marked a first for the show. But I think this is of course all engineered by the makers of the show to give it an even more no-nonsense approach than in the past by firing so many candidates so early on. And when it comes to Lord Sugar well he has never suffered fools gladly and this allows him to get rid of any "deadwood" as he himself says in the show. And this series so far has seen a couple of firsts, such as one of the candidates, Robert, being fired for turning down Lord Sugar's suggestion to lead a task for which he appeared to be well suited without even bringing him back into the boardroom and also firing all three candidates last week in the boardroom, Steven, Sarah and Ella Jade for not being worthy of the opportunity to be Lord Sugar's business partner.
But there is no doubt that the show is pretty contrived and we know that they have to keep in certain characters, such as James, who has certain potential but is ultimately just on the show as he makes for amusing TV as is prepared to act like a twat for the cameras (or perhaps no acting is required there!). James actually revealed to have previously had a criminal record and it depends how far he get's in the process before that is unearthed! But so far James is lucky to still be in the show as he really has proven to be a loud mouthed loose canon and this week Lord Sugar only kept him in because he sold well on the task and he give him one final warning to "clean up your act and stop being a bloody clown!". But no doubt he will be kept in for a few more weeks or even until the interview stages where he will doubtless get fired (maybe!).
The series does have some good potential candidates such as the Aussie, Mark, who I think is a bit overly confident in his own abilities and a bit of a knob as well but still he has shown promise so far in the tasks. Lauren is also another very capable candidate, although it was later revealed that she had a relationship with James during filming of the show! And there is also Solomon who so far has proven to be quite a shrewd guy and being a technology entrepeneur this no doubt will appeal to Lord Sugar, depending on how well his business plan stacks up of course.
As for Jemma well it was the right decision that she had to go as in the end she wasn't much use in the process and her lack of contribution in any of the tasks was ultimately what got her fired, had she done more in the past maybe she would have stayed in, but such as it was she was the weakest candidate (but quite a nice looking one though ;-)).
So that's it for my look at the Apprentice for now and I will be back with another one maybe next week as the series starts to unfold and becomes more intruiging although if Lord Sugar continues his ruthless firing streak there might not be anyone left come the end of week six!
So until my next post see you later.
OK so this week's episode saw both teams Summit and Tenacity been given the task by Lord Sugar of setting up and selling their own coach tours in London. So far in the process Tenacity were leading the wins as they had won 3 out of the 4 tasks. For team Summit, Sanjay was the project leader who came up with the idea of a pilgrimage to Canterbury. Meanwhile Daniel lead team Tenacity and their tour was set around a tour of Oxfordshire. The teams both had mixed success in different areas, for starters Daniel's aggressive decision to become project manager quickly saw him veto Mark's candidacy for project manager and Daniel insisted that he was the best salesperson out of all of them, however during the task he did not sell a single ticket! Despite this and the fact that they had only sold 20 tickets for a 25 capacity tour bus, Tenacity's tour went very well with Lauren in the team giving a professional tour guide and she did her research for the tourists and they also priced their tickets fairly well at just under £100. However the team did struggle somewhat with the catering as the sandwiches they provided where very subpar and anyone could have done a better job at putting together one and Felipe bored people senseless with his flatlining tone of voice when giving his guide to the tourists. Daniel also struggled to keep the respect of his teammates while working on the task, especially Pamela and Mark.
As for team Summit well they had their share of troubles the main one being that on the tour they were completely disorganised and James who it has to be said is the clown of the series (or prize dick more like!) kept going for a hard sell with the tourists in getting sales and getting their bums literally on the seats! James also provided the series with one its most cringe inducing scenes so far where he took it upon himself to sing a nursery rhyme to the tourists on the bus "The wheels on the bus go round and round!" and I'm positive most of them would love to have shoved that microphone down his throat! During the tour James and particularly Jemma both embarrassed themselves with their complete lack of knowledge of the tour as Jemma couldn't even give a correct answer on the tour of Hever castle and they later also got lost in Canterbury leaving the tourists less time to look around. Sanjay also did little to contribute to a convivial atmosphere on the tour as the info he provided to the passengers on the bus was putting them to sleep! And another issue was to do with the pricing of the tickets at just £60, which was in the end too low to make a substantial profit.
In the boardroom however it was revealed that team Tenacity trumped Summit once again as they had made a larger profit of £1037 as opposed to Summit's £813. But despite the team winning, things were not smooth for Tenacity as Daniel had not been given much encouragement from the rest of his teammates and Mark later accused Daniel of lying. Daniel was also not too impressed with their treat, which was abseiling down the UK's tallest sculpture and during the descent he said "How is this a fucking treat?!". True enough, but let's face it some of these so called treats are pretty stupid in the show! As for Summit well Sanjay brought Gemma and Bianca back into the boardroom, as he felt Bianca made a poor decision to let the customers negotiate the prices during a pitch in order to sell them and Jemma made very little contribution to the task as she hadn't done much throughout the process. But despite Sanjay's poor decision to not set a higher price for the tickets, which ultimately cost them the task, it was Gemma who was let go as Lord Sugar felt she had little to contribute to the process and didn't see her as his business partner.
So this sees them down 11 candidates now, and its funny to think that the show started with 20! So over the space of the first four weeks eight candidates were given the boot with all three team members on the losing team last week fired, which marked a first for the show. But I think this is of course all engineered by the makers of the show to give it an even more no-nonsense approach than in the past by firing so many candidates so early on. And when it comes to Lord Sugar well he has never suffered fools gladly and this allows him to get rid of any "deadwood" as he himself says in the show. And this series so far has seen a couple of firsts, such as one of the candidates, Robert, being fired for turning down Lord Sugar's suggestion to lead a task for which he appeared to be well suited without even bringing him back into the boardroom and also firing all three candidates last week in the boardroom, Steven, Sarah and Ella Jade for not being worthy of the opportunity to be Lord Sugar's business partner.
But there is no doubt that the show is pretty contrived and we know that they have to keep in certain characters, such as James, who has certain potential but is ultimately just on the show as he makes for amusing TV as is prepared to act like a twat for the cameras (or perhaps no acting is required there!). James actually revealed to have previously had a criminal record and it depends how far he get's in the process before that is unearthed! But so far James is lucky to still be in the show as he really has proven to be a loud mouthed loose canon and this week Lord Sugar only kept him in because he sold well on the task and he give him one final warning to "clean up your act and stop being a bloody clown!". But no doubt he will be kept in for a few more weeks or even until the interview stages where he will doubtless get fired (maybe!).
The series does have some good potential candidates such as the Aussie, Mark, who I think is a bit overly confident in his own abilities and a bit of a knob as well but still he has shown promise so far in the tasks. Lauren is also another very capable candidate, although it was later revealed that she had a relationship with James during filming of the show! And there is also Solomon who so far has proven to be quite a shrewd guy and being a technology entrepeneur this no doubt will appeal to Lord Sugar, depending on how well his business plan stacks up of course.
As for Jemma well it was the right decision that she had to go as in the end she wasn't much use in the process and her lack of contribution in any of the tasks was ultimately what got her fired, had she done more in the past maybe she would have stayed in, but such as it was she was the weakest candidate (but quite a nice looking one though ;-)).
So that's it for my look at the Apprentice for now and I will be back with another one maybe next week as the series starts to unfold and becomes more intruiging although if Lord Sugar continues his ruthless firing streak there might not be anyone left come the end of week six!
So until my next post see you later.
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