Bliss.

Absolute silence.

Everyone is out to work or at college/school.
Even my Mum has said she won’t be round today.

All I can hear is the hum of my computer….. and it’s calling!!!

I do have to gut the kitchen at some point today but for now……
I’m enjoying the quiet and I’m going to read/edit a 4 chapter fic I’ve just written and then post it.

I think I’ve learnt a lot with this one.
I need to work on story development and fleshing out details.
I think I get from place to place too quickly and I think that stems from having no idea where the story is going to start with!
I’ll just have to see what kind of response it gets when I post it.

Anyway, I’m in the middles of 4 days off. I’ve been loving my shifts just lately.
I actually got to the cinema twice over the weekend.

We finally went to see ‘Pete’s Dragon’

I’ve been wanting to see it for a while as one of my celebrity obsessions is in it.
Karl Urban.

The highlight was seeing him sneezed on by a fluffy green dragon!
I enjoyed the film a lot more than I thought I would and it will definately be getting added to my Karl collection when it arrives on Bluray.

The second film was ‘Ben Hur’
I have to be honest from the start. It doesn’t hold a candle to William Wylers astounding Epic from 1959 starring Charlton Heston and I didn’t expect it to.
Hollywood seems to have lost the ability to make epics quite like that anymore without succumbing to masses of CGI and foregoing a script and story.

With that said I found myself really enjoying it.
It felt a little rushed because apart from a few minor scenarios from the 1959 version, they kept to the same story, tweaking it here and there. This meant cramming a 3.5 hour story into 2 hours!
The acting was OK but could have done with a better script in places.
I felt that Morgan Freeman was actually the disappointment. Unusually wooden and he felt out of place.
The sea battle was amazing. Love the addition of the poor sucker strapped to the front of a ship as it rams another one.

The scene I was waiting for was the chariot race! It did not disappoint.
The 1959 films chariot race is something to behold. No CGI, just man and beast and practical stunts.
Horses died making that film and it actually helped to get laws changed to protect animals being used for film and TV.
That said, that scene is cinematic history and will never be achieved again.

The new Ben Hur also has an amazing chariot race.
Beautiful horses, actors and stunt men actually racing around an arena. It was exhilarating. The only noticeable differences were with the use of CGI for crash scenes and horses escaping into the crowds in the arena.
They could do much more with the devastation of a crash than they could in 1959.

I’m a bit of a sucker for Roman/Gladiatorial dramas. Could be something to do with the costumes and muscles but when one of your favourite actors is fleshing them out it’s irresistable!!
Toby Kebbell played Messala. Mmm Mmm Mmmmm.

While I won’t rush to the cinema to see it again (I would actually kill to see the 1959 one in the cinema!!) I will be adding it to my collection when it arrives on Bluray.

So, fiction, kitchen, and?…….
We’ll have to see what I’m in the mood for later!!