Chilling at the cottage

It has been a pretty busy week home alone. Anytime I sit down I’m covered in animals. Gah. Love me! Love me now human! Since I have complete uncompromising control over the remote, I watched a lot of sports this week. The FIFA World Cup has been quite exciting, especially now that it has reached the final rounds. The semi matches were good, I only caught the U.S/France game. The final should be really good on Sunday, both teams are feisty and have a lot of skill: Japan v. U.S. for the title! I haven’t decided who I’m backing, I’m sure Japan could use some good news.

I’ve watched a few movies too.

The first was Hanna. I’m a little surprised it is rating at 71% on RT. Only because it wasn’t a major film, and high rating non-blockbuster action films seem rare to me. It was good, but I felt it could have been better. The characters were really interesting. The story could have been fleshed out more. Yes, there were a few flashbacks but I wanted more substance to build the lead character on. It was well acted, and Hanna was great in the role. At times they made her look well beyond her years, which was a little creepy. They left the possibility open for Hanna 2 as well. ⭐⭐⭐½

Next was Green Street Hooligans… I thought it was really good much better than the sub 50% rating would suggest. It is about football (soccer) hooligans in Britain and their love of the game and pride to protect the honour of their teams; or just a bunch of drunken prats using that as an excuse to fight. Regardless, a straight laced American played by (Frodo actor Elijah Wood) enters into this world and it slowly becomes his home. When I first heard about this film I thought it was a documentary – which it wasn’t. It was very entertaining. I’d be curious to see how it was received in the U.K. as the portrayal of these fight firms shows them as senseless thugs looking for the next fight or vengeance for a previous one. Regardless, I liked it. I thought it was gritty and real and ultimately the message was to stop the violence. ⭐⭐⭐½

Lastly was 5 Days of War based on the Russia invasion of the break away nation of Georgia. This one was very hit and miss for me. I liked the historical angle. It showed numerous scenes from the Georgian President’s POV and his struggles and frustrations as he had being overrun by the Russian superpower. No outside nation wanted to get involved… and the invading forces looted, raped, killed, burned and destroyed, in most cases, with little resistance. The film wrapped the war around the story of journalists trying to get the story of the atrocities out to the world. At times the story was a little flaky. Also odd was the see/sawing actions of invaders. One minute they are killing senselessly next they are giving the same people a pass. I didn’t get that. At the end of the film they had numerous interviews with real victims of the war… BUT THEY DIDN’T SUBTITLE THEM… So these people are giving, what I assume were heart wrenching accounts and I have no idea what they are saying. The movie was in English. *shrug* *fail* Overall the film was decent, at times it felt uneven though. The editing wasn’t very good. Ho-hum. ⭐⭐⭐

When the stupid heat subsided yesterday I finally got some yard work done. Most of the week was stupid hot (>35C). So I hid inside in the AC, but yesterday was typical hot so I got outside. I continued bringing dirt to the backyard gardens. Some of neighbour’s kids helped so the job went much faster. smirk It is pretty clear we seriously over ordered dirt, it took many weekends of work wheelbarrowing to the back. I did get it done though! Finally the driveway is back… now to mulch. *cough* Hockey tonight so I’m done with yardwork for a few days, as we will be going up to bdot’s sister’s cottage north of Barrie, time to be determined… Bdot gets back sometime after dinner tomorrow! Yes, I’ve missed her a great deal.