• Work Blog

    This was going to be a blog about my experiences working as an Assistant Editor at Nature Protocols.

    • Indiana Jones Checklist

      Thursday, 29 May 2008 - 15:50 GMT

      Present

      Memorable theme-tune
      Snakes
      Scorpions
      Impaling implements
      Army ants (hungry)
      Miscellaneous cute wildlife
      Savages with masks
      Nuclear explosion
      Knife fight
      Sword fight
      Fist fight
      Gun fight
      Love interest
      Soviet army-types (with accents)
      Magical bullets that cannot hit Indy
      Car chase
      Hat
      Bow tie
      Exotic maps
      Pictograms
      Escape from rising water
      Mystical artefacts
      Someone that dies because he is greedy
      Flying saucer
      Aliens

      Things that should have been there, but weren’t:
      spiders
      someone actually getting impaled
      cleaned up bones after army-ant attack

      I am sure there are hordes of things that I have missed…

      Last updated: Thursday, 29 May 2008 - 15:50 GMT

      • Comments

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 07:56 GMT
          Scott Keir said:

          Any cake? How about a terrible Scottish accent?

          IMDB’s keywords are much as you have done. The dearly departed NTK used to summarise films using them only.

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 08:06 GMT
          Henry Gee said:

          Ah, but Bronwen, was the film any good? Was it greater than the sum of the parts you’ve so assiduously enumerated? More to the point, should Mrs Gee and I go and see it at the Cromer Enormoplex instead of Sex and the City? I can just imagine a Sex and the City checklist. It might start like this

          1. Shoes
          2. More shoes
          3. People staring at shoes through shop windows
          4. People shedding heels in the street
          5. Sex, the explicit nature of which is leavened by humor
          6. Yellow cabs
          7. People having a group hug over coffee
          8. Did I mention the shoes?
          9. er …
          10. ... that’s it.
        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 09:02 GMT
          Raf Aerts said:

          No 6-foot leather whip?

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 09:21 GMT
          Henry Gee said:

          No 6-foot leather whip?

          In Sex and the City? Now that I’ve got to see.

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 09:28 GMT
          Brian Clegg said:

          Yes, the whip was in Indiana Jones, and certainly should be in the checklist – I can’t possibly comment on SitC.

          Old Harrison does pretty well for 65 – for me, it worked better than the review I read suggested it would, except for the ending, which is a bit ‘so what?’ Even the classic young man to do the bits the old male star can’t do any more was better than I thought, though sadly there wasn’t a young woman to do the bits the old female star-ish can’t do any more.

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 10:02 GMT
          Bronwen Dekker said:

          Apologies for the delayed response!

          Scott and Raf: Completely forgot about the whip… and quicksand… though, in my defence, it wasn’t very “viscious” quicksand and it didn’t really “go anywhere” (e.g. a place that contained spiders).

          Henry: I actually really enjoyed it, but am sure that I laughed at a lot of “inappropriate places”. It did feel that the makers of the film had a list that they were checking off and, of course, such a plot is going to be completely ludicrous.
          Am not a fan of SitC, so the film is not on my radar… However: missing from your list is some sort of angst about the size of anatomical bits-and-pieces. Or is my whole viewpoint incorrectly biased by the few episodes that I have watched?

          Brian: The film was rather “chaste”. I remember the others being a lot more gory as well.

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 10:05 GMT
          Brian Clegg said:

          You’re right, they were more gory – but that’s not something I miss.

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 10:07 GMT
          Bob O'Hara said:

          The film was rather “chaste”.

          That’s what every action film needs – a good chaste scene.

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 13:19 GMT
          Maxine Clarke said:

          Great post, Bronwen.
          I went on a family outing. I liked the first half but got very bored in the second when the semblance of plot and characterisation went completely out of the window (first half, plot: action ratio about 50:50; second half, about 5:95).
          So my suggestion, see the first half, go out to the bar for about an hour and return in time for the last 5 mins (Bronwen, you didn’t end with the w word!).

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 15:56 GMT
          Bronwen Dekker said:

          Maxine: This is so sad – when I first saw your comment, I ran through all the words that I could think of that start with “w” and could not think of a single thing that was appropriate to add to the list. On my walk back from AMT (at St Pancras) this afternoon, I remembered that there was a wedding. Oh dear…

          My dad, who is visiting at the moment, would also have added “brownie” to the list.

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 16:27 GMT
          Maxine Clarke said:

          Sorry, Bronwen! I was trying not to do a plot spoiler, but you have very cleverly not said whose (or whether it went ahead).

          And your dad has stumped me….does he mean those girls who go good deeds?

          also:

          motorbike
          nuclear explosion

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 17:59 GMT
          Deepak Singh said:

          I read so many bad reviews from Euan and the likes I walked in expecting the worst movie of all time. Relative to that it was alright, especially the first 30 minutes (and the ants). Now the whole alien bit … hmmmm

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 18:02 GMT
          Maxine Clarke said:

          I have just noticed that you wrote AMT! Where at St Pancras? I get so fed up standing in the Caffe Nero queue (though the coffee is quite nice, I don’t think it is quite as good as AMT though that could be rose-tinted memories).

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 18:22 GMT
          Henry Gee said:

          I think it’s a bit sad if a movie demands its own checklist – as if it’s become a sterile ticking-the-boxes exercise – or, worse, a self-parody.

        • Date:
          Friday, 30 May 2008 - 22:22 GMT
          Bronwen Dekker said:

          Maxine: Yes! If you are facing the main entrance, AMT is on the upper level, on the left side towards the end of the platforms. A bit of a trek really, but especially worth it if you want a Froffee. :) The route that I take, takes me past two rather nice statues and of course the roof is pretty impressive – so perhaps worth at least one excursion.
          Brownie refers to the camera… (am I spelling it right?)

          Henry: Oh dear! Sterile and/or self-parody… I am not sure that I would have gone quite so far, but it is a tricksy thing once one starts using words like “checklist” and “chaste”. I would like to underline that I actually did enjoy myself despite all this. Perhaps the cliches are comforting…

          Deepak: I could not believe the alien bit… but then if you accept the fridge bit…

        • Date:
          Saturday, 31 May 2008 - 11:47 GMT
          Scott Keir said:

          Shoes
          (has sweary words in it)

        • Date:
          Saturday, 07 Jun 2008 - 20:31 GMT
          Graham Steel said:

          I’m just back from it. I pretty much concur with Deepak…

          Sources also tell me that the follow up to this Indiana Jones film is going to be called:-

          Indiana Gee and The Beelzebun Demon Bunny of DOOM


Search blogs

web feed Want a blog?

Submit this post to

Advertisement