Erik the Viking

And now for more Alphabetical Movie Project reviews .  .  .

Erik the Viking was the next E movie and it's one of John's. Now, while I can remember the movie generally I don't remember enough to write a proper synopsis, so please forgive what I'm about to do. Namely, give you the blurb from the back of the DVD case;

In this Pythonesque staire of Viking life, Erik the Viking is a considerate man in a violent time. Erik doesn't enjoy killing and raping like his fellow men, so when he returns from another campaighn of rape and pillage, he wants to change his life. Erik the Viking gathers warriors from his village and sets out on a dangerous journey to Valhalla, to end the Age of Ragnarok, and bring peace and sunlight to the kingdom. To get there he has to lead a pathetic group of seasick sailors through the Gates of the World. But all threatens to fail when the local blacksmith plots to sabotage the excursion to protect his lucrative weapons business.

Tim Robbins stars as the naive and yet sweet Erik the Viking, leading his men to Valhalla. Eartha Kitt and John Cleese star as well as Terry Jones as King Arnulf. Mickey Rooney has a cameo as Erik's grandfather.

I always get a little bit nervous about John's movies. He loves his horrors, thrillers, gruesome movies as well as 'older' movies. But I'm often a little to harsh and found this 1989 comedy about vikings rather amusing. Funny even. It was worth all it's chuckles and humorous piss taking of era.

I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would and it was fun to see something that didn't take itself too seriously. If you like comedies then you should give this a try. It's typical of the time, not a lot of music but filled with lots of jokes and stupidty. Give it a go. Why not?

Next up is Erin Brokovich, Escape to New York and Ever After.

The Amazing Race

If I could participate in any reality TV show without a doubt it's "The Amazing Race". Which is exactly why John organised 'The Amazing Race' for my 30th birthday party - what an awesome best friend, I'm so lucky!

While I've been unwell over the last few weeks I've been catching up on the last few seasons of "The Amazing Race". They have just finished airing season 20 in the US. 20! I remember watching the first episode of season 1 while in Sydney when our family was on our way to Bali in 2001. Over that time I'm pretty sure that I've watched every season, or almost every season, I'm probably going to go back and rewatch them to check.

Anyway, it occurs to me that Phil must have one of the most amazing jobs. I figure he goes ahead of he teams to the next venue, films all the task intros etc and waits for them to come flying up to the mat. After 20 seasons you got figure he's been to so many amzing places. So I looked them up and here's where Phils been (in order from most visited, to least visited):

Visited 20 times:
USA (all seasons start and finish in the USA)

Visited 10 times:
India (seasons 1, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 18, 20)

Visited 9 times:
China (seasons 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18)

Visited 7 times:
Germany (seasonss 3, 6, 9, 14, 16, 19, 20)

Visited 5 times:
Argentina (seasons 5, 7, 11, 16, 20)
Austria (seasons 3, 4, 14, 18, 20)
Italy (seasons 1, 4, 9, 12, 20)
Russia (seasons 5, 9, 13, 14, 17)
Japan (seasons 9, 12, 15, 18, 20)
France (seasons 1, 4, 6, 10, 16)
Thailand (seasons 1, 2, 9, 14, 19)

Visited 4 times:
Netherlands (seasons 4, 12, 15, 19)
Brazil (seasons 2, 9, 13, 18)
Malaysia (season 3, 4, 11, 16)
Australia (seasons 2, 4, 9, 18)

Visited 3 times:
New Zealand (seasons 2, 5, 13)
Chile (seasons 7, 11, 16)
Sweden (seasons 6, 15, 17)
Switzerland (seasons 3, 4, 18)
United Kingdom (seasons 3, 7, 17)
South Africa (seasons 1, 2, 7)
Tanzania (seasons 5, 11, 20)
Vietnam (seasons 3, 10, 15)

Visited 2 times:
Canada (seasons 5, 8)
Cambodia (seasons 13, 15)
Oman (seasons 9, 17)
Singapore (seasons 3, 16)
South Korea (seasons 4, 17)
Taiwan (seasons 12, 19)
Morocco (seasons 3, 10)
Botswana (seasons 1, 7)
United Arab Emirates (seasons 5, 15)
Panama (seasons 8, 19)
Norway (seasons 6, 17)
Spain (seasons 3, 10)

Visited 1 time:
Costa Rica (season 8)
Jamaica (season 7
Mexico (season 3)
Bolivia (season 13)
Ecuador (season 11)
Paraguay (season 20)
Peru (season 7)
Uruguay (season 5)
Belgium (season 19)
Croatia (season 12)
Czech Republic (season 15)
Denmark (season 19)
Estonia (season 15)
Finland (season 10)
Greece (season 9)
Hungary (season 6)
Iceland (season 6)
Ireland (season 12)
Lithuania (season 12)
Liechtenstein (season 18)
Poland (season 11)
Portugal (season 3)
Romania (season 14)
Turkey (season 7)
Ukraine (season 10)
Azerbaijian (season 20)
Bangladesh (season 17)
Indonesia (season 19)
Kazakhstan (season 13)
Kuwait (season 10)
Mongolia (season 10)
Philippines (season 5)
Sri Lanka (season 6)
Burkina Faso (season 12)
Egypt (season 5)
Ethiopia (season 6)
Ghana (season 17)
Kenya (season 5)
Madagascar (season 10)
Malawi (seasons 19)
Mauritius (season 10)
Mozambique (season 11)
Namibia (season 2)
Senegal (season 6)
Seychelles (season 16)
Tunisia (season 1)
Zambia (season 1)

Now, that's an impressive list! I'd love to visit that many places and have that many passport stamps.

Ella Enchanted & Enchanted

After a little refreshing of my memory I see that it's been almost a year since my last 'Alphabetical Movie Project' movie review. And it's probably been about that long since John and I actually watched a movie in project too. We finished the F's and then the project stalled. We needed a wee break I guess and we haven't started up again. Perhaps we will over the winter. In the meantime here are the rest of the reviews for the movies that we did watch.

Ella Enchanted is the Cinderella story with a little humourous spin. As a baby Ella was cursed by her fairy godmother with the gift of obedience. As a teenager she has had enough of the 'gift' and no longer wants to do what she's told, especially when her new step sisters discover that she has to do exactly what she's told. She goes in search of her fairy godmother to break the curse. To guide her she takes her other fairy godmothers boyfriend (who's been accidently cursed into a talking book). She bumps into the handsome prince that she's been picketing against and who her step sister is trying to marry, but she is less than impressed with his presence. Along the way she meets a dwarf that wants to be a lawyer, visits a giant village and gets rescued from ogres by the prince. She falls in love with him and before she can accept his marriage proposal his uncle discovers her obediance curse so he tells her she has to kill him at midnight. Will she be able to overcome her gift? Will she get the curse lifted in time?

Eric Idle narrates this fairytale, set in a magical realm with modern day music and fun. Anne Hathaway stars as the cursed Ella, alongside Hugh Dancy as the handsome prince. Joanna Lumley makes an appearance as the evil stepmother and Minnie Driver plays the fairy godmother (the good one, not the one that curses her).

I'm a big fan of Anne Hathaway, I'm not entirely sure why, but it might be because when I imagine the movie of my life I picture Anne Hathaway playing either myself or at least one of my friends. Weird? Sure. Anyway, I like Anne Hathaway and her acting work. She is particularly fun and joyous in this lighthearted movie and who knew she could sing! And not only sing, it was 'Someone to Love' by Queen, not the easiest song in the world to sing.

I enjoy the magic and fun of the movie. The singing dwarfs, the giants, the curse and of course that the prince falls in love with her. Yes it's a children's movie, but it's fun and I'm all for fun, lighthearted movies.

You won't miss anything by not watching it, but if you enjoy a musical, magical, children's movie, then this is the movie for you.

The next movie in the list was in the same vain and even the same name as the one above. Enchanted is also a fairytale and aimed generally at children or tweenagers.

Princess Giselle is your typical fairytale, cartoon princess. The movie starts out in cartoon form with the Princess very quickly falling in love with Prince Charming as he rides by. On her way to the wedding she is pushed into a very, very deep well by the evil Queen and falls through to modern day, real life Manhattan. Giselle is very lost and confused, but is rescued by Robert and his young daughter Morgan. Giselle tries to find her way home, while Prince Charming falls through the well followed by several other cartoon characters. Eventually Robert realises that he's falling in love with Giselle despite being in a relationship with Nancy. He must decide if the beautiful and quirky Giselle is for him, or if he should send her back to her cartoon world.

Amy Adams stars as the beautiful but naive Giselle and Patrick Dempsey stars as the worldly Robert. James Marsden is Prince Charming and Indina Menzel is Nancy. Amy Adams has the childlike, innocent look about her that plays very well as the naive cartoon come to life. While Patrick Dempsey is gorgeous and a great actor, I can't help but always see him as Dr McDreamy from Greys Anatomy. Meanwhile Indina Menzel is fabulous as Nancy. She's just fabulous in general, beautiful and an amazing singer (not that she sang in this movie, but I've seen her sing and she's great.) She made her start as a broadway actress and has moved into TV and movies. Susan Sarandon also cameo's as the real world evil Queen and of course she's great, when is she not?!

This movie could be any fairytale retold, but what makes it stand out is that it starts as a cartoon and the characters come to life in the real world. Without giving away the ending, one real life character falls the other way and ends up staying in the cartoon world. Rather quirky for a Hollywood movie with some big stars. But, it is of course a children's movie and has the obligatory enchanting animals and birds, singing princesses, a child that can see the 'real' beauty and awe of the fairytale, a prince that loves her and another man that doesn't love her but fallens in love with her in the end. Is that typical? Apparently so in fairytale land.

Once again, this isn't a must see by any means. And honestly you won't enjoy it if you don't like children's movies or a sickly sweet Amy Adams. But if you have a child or need something that is completely predicatable, mindless and sweet then give this a go.

Next up for review is Erik the Viking, Erin Brokovich, Escape from New York and Ever After. Then it's the F's. And there's a lot more of them than you'd think.

Welcome Noah!

See how I joked about doing Joy's maternity photos 3 weeks before her due date "just in case"?! Well it was a good thing as little Noah Samuel Wadham made his appearance into the world 2 and a half weeks early, arriving yesterday 20 June in the wee hours of the morning. Congratulations Joy and Sam!

Maternity Photos with Joy

My friend Joy is expecting her first baby and asked me to do her maternity photos. This past Sunday with only 3 weeks until her due date we decided it was the perfect time to get together for the photo shoot. If we left it any longer we may miss the chance (much like I did with Ele who went into labour 3 weeks early).

I make a point of promising privacy with my photos, especially when children and such personal nature is involved. I don't publish any photos on Facebook or other social media sites, but I do ask permission to publish a few shots here on my blog.

I really enjoy doing maternity photos and newborn photos not much later (usually around the one week old mark). It's a real rush and you can feel the love that has created the little life about to come into the world. And don't get me started on the squeeshy-ness of newborns!

With several friends pregnant I'm looking forward to doing more and more maternity and newborn shoots. Let me know if you're keen on some free photos cause I need the practice!

Anyway, without further ado, here are a few sneaky shots from my shoot with Joy and co-starring Sam her husband, Frankie their dog and of course little baby Wadham.