The Soap Opera Diaries

My wife is currently on maternity leave with our first child - little man Baby Cruz. She wrote this small entry as a guest post.

Ok here I go...I hope this is ok. 

So the sad part about maternity leave is that it allowed me to get up to date with The Bold and The Beautiful. This has become a somewhat happy event though, as it means I get Cruz cuddles while he has his afternoon nap for 30 minutes while I hold him in my arms. 

So what has been happening in the world of the Forresters? Well, Ridge is still trying to win Brooke back. Back in March when I started watching it again, they were about to get married in Sydney. Then Ridge (played by a different actor to the original Ridge....how ridiculous!) was caught by Brooke kissing his dad's wife and the wedding was off!! When they returned to LA, Brooke became engaged to another man - Bill Spencer. Not quite sure who he is, I may have missed a few episodes in the last 15 years. Anyway, so Ridge has spent the last 3 months worth of episodes trying to win Brooke back. I'm thinking he'll still be doing the same when Cruz starts school. 

As a side story to this, the Spectra Designs Fashion House stole designs from Forrester Creations and released their new line of dresses. If this sounds familiar to you (it did to me) it is because this happened before - 15 years ago and probably a few more times during the 15 years of episodes that I have missed. 

As entertaining as watching this show has been for the last 3 months (not really entertaining), the best thing about it is that it is conveniently broadcast during Cruz's 4.30pm daily nap. Would I recommend you leaving work early to catch the latest developments? Probably not!

Review: Baby Driver (2017)

Strap yourself in for a fun ride. I was initially not all that excited to see Edgar Wright's latest directorial effort. I like/love his films, but there was something about this film that didn't really get me initially - I think it was the actual title. As stupid as that sounds, I thought the title "Baby Driver" sounded a bit lame. But, as time went on and I saw a trailer and then the reviews started flooding in, well, I changed my tune.

I asked a mate that loves car films to see this with me. He likes to watch films without knowing anything about them. I told him it was called Baby Driver - that's it. He wouldn't have looked it up. What I was secretly wondering was whether he would indeed like this film - hell, I wondered if I would too. You see, he hated Hot Fuzz after I recommended it to him. I love Hot Fuzz by the way.

What did we think? Not only is it a fun ride, he thought it was awesome. I think he reacted to it better than what I did, and I loved it.

The car scenes are very well executed. They're exciting and tense, and there's some playfulness to them. Baby, the Driver, listens to his iPod almost incessantly. He has specific tracks to drive to. To set the mood, to give him perfect timing behind the wheel. From the first scenes, you know you're going to enjoy the movie.

The other aspect that got me is the emotional story behind Baby. Without going into it, as an audience member it was important to feel that connection to him and his story, and Wright really nailed it. His chemistry with Lily James is on fire. She is just an absolute delight.

The humour is great, but not too over the top. After all, this is a reasonably serious situation for Baby with deadly consequences in this world of crime he's reluctantly involved in. Another aspect I really liked, is that the story doesn't go the way you think it will.

This is definitely a must-see film. The music is groovy and really tops off the driving scenes. I can tell you now, the drive home from the cinema was an inspired one.

4/5

Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

The 6th film in 15 years and the 3rd actor to play the iconic role. I admit, I wasn't really excited to see this film. With a baby in my life now, this was probably going to be one film I decided to miss at the cinema. Well, I am glad I took the opportunity to go with some mates - because it was a blast.

Tom Holland made his debut as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. He was often cited as stealing the show in that film. I don't think so, but he was a great addition to the already bumper cast. It intrigued me to see where they could go with the character, but, I wasn't exactly hanging out for it. I suppose I was still wanting to see Andrew Garfield get a chance to have a great third film in his turn as the character. I loved Amazing Spider-Man, somewhat liked Amazing Spider-Man 2, but really wanted to see where that universe would go. Oh well...

Back to this film. Holland nails it. I have absolutely no clue about how Spider-Man is portrayed in the comics or the animated shows, but he really does provide a fresh take on the characters of Peter Parker and Spider-Man. This is the aspect that got me the most - it didn't feel like a retread.

Peter Parker in this film is a real teenager. Although Holland is 20-21, he perfectly encapsulates what it is to be a teenage boy. He and his geeky sidekick build lego star wars, check out chicks out of their league and get teased by seniors.

Michael Keaton as the villain Vulture - excellent work from the 89/92 Batman. Keaton is great as a good guy and as a bad guy in films. Here he is really showing how masterfully he can play unhinged, not to the point of batshit insane, but just enough to make him unpredictably deadly.

Much to my surprise, the story is fairly grounded and the presence of Tony Stark/Iron-Man is limited. I was concerned that the film may focus too much on this character and take away from Peter - but, this is definitely a Spider-Man film. Stark plays a great mentoring role, and that's pretty much it.

There's plenty of humour in this. I was laughing out loud quite regularly, and very invested in the journey of the Parker/Spider-Man. The action is exciting but not over the top. This is an excellent film overall. It stands up there with the first two Tobey films - maybe even higher.

4.5/5