Tuesday 31 March 2015

Flavours of the Month: March 2015...

There's been a bit of a Werner Herzog vibe to this month as I finally caught up with a few recordings I'd made several weeks ago during Film4's season of films by the filmmaker - such as Aguirre Wrath of God, Stroszek, Nosferatu The Vampyre, and Fitzcarraldo ... but there's also been a dose of Hollywood satire, a pinch of Thomas Pynchon, and a journey through some bleak post-apocalyptic tunnels, among other such things...

Click "READ MORE" below for the looks, sounds, vibes & flavours of my March 2015...

Monday 30 March 2015

Season Finale Edition: The Walking Dead 5x16 memes...

Find more Walking Dead memes here.

Well that's all for this season, folks! 4 new memes to round off what's been a fantastic season.

Click each image for FULL SIZE.

Click to Enlarge: Just to be doubly sure you get the brain...

Click "READ MORE" below for the rest of this week's memes **EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD**...

Thursday 26 March 2015

Double Bill Mini Musings: Groundhog War and Deliciously Dark Satire...

Edge Of Tomorrow:
What's it about?
Doug Liman's sci-fi action fest about a military P.R. man who unwittingly finds himself thrown into the midst of an all-out offensive against an invading alien force - and promptly dies - only to suddenly resurrect the day beforehand. He remembers what happened, but nobody else does - day after day after day he's thrown into battle to die, but when he encounters another warrior who knows what is happening to him, there might be a way to end the war once and for all.
Who would I recognise in it?
Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Tony Way, Noah Taylor, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Overlooked at the box office, it's a shame that Edge of Tomorrow (previously known as "All You Need Is Kill" after the source material) didn't do better - although the patchy advertising campaign didn't help (which turned a tagline into an accidental new title "Live. Die. Repeat."). Balancing sci-fi spectacle with an irreverent sense of humour, EoT plays the 'groundhog day' setup for all its value - both light and dark. The script is smart, funny, and briskly paced - making for an altogether entertaining thrill ride with an eye for invention. It absolutely deserved a better reception at the box office, but hopefully it will find a home as a cult classic in due course on the home video market. Great.

Click "READ MORE" below for Bobcat Goldthwait's savaging of America's rotten reality TV fixation...

Monday 23 March 2015

Crazy Rick Edition: The Walking Dead 5x15 memes...

Find more Walking Dead memes here.

Another bumper crop: 6 new memes for this, the penultimate episode of the season.

Click each image for FULL SIZE.

Click to Enlarge: "Carl and Enid hiding in a tree..."

Click "READ MORE" below for the rest of this week's memes **EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD**...

Friday 20 March 2015

"Celebrityville" and "Sleb: Tigress of Celebrityville" now on Smashwords!

Good news - Celebrityville and Sleb: Tigress of Celebrityville are now both available through Smashwords! Follow this link - http://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/19591 - to check them out for yourself. What's more, you can download "Celebrityville" to your preferred device for FREE!



They're both available via Smashwords' Premium Catalog, which means you can get your copy from Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, Oyster, Kobo, OverDrive, Flipkart, Baker & Taylor (Blio, Axis360), Page Foundry (e.g. Inktera.com, Versent.com, Android eBook Store).

Additionally, via Kobo, you can access this book at WH Smith (UK), FNAC (France, Portugal), Livraria Cultura (Brazil), Angus & Robertson (Australia), Bookworld (Australia), Indigo (Canada), Collins (Australia), Feltrinelli (Italy), Paper Plus (New Zealand), Play (UK), Rakuten (Japan), as well as Buy.com (now Rakuten, US).

N.B. If you don't see them on one of these services yet then please give it time as it can take a little while before they'll find their way into their respective systems.

Monday 16 March 2015

Cookies and Consequences Edition: The Walking Dead 5x14 memes...

Find more Walking Dead memes here.

A bumper crop of memes this week - 7 in total - for what turned out to be quite a stunning episode.

Click each image for FULL SIZE.

Click to Enlarge: Bit of a rough one this week...

Click "READ MORE" below for the rest of this week's bumper crop of TWD memes **EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD**...

Friday 13 March 2015

Triple Bill Mini Musings: Gaunt Gyllenhaal, Gone Godzilla, and Gross Gags...

Nightcrawler:
What's it about?
Lou Bloom, a jobless petty thief with a strict learning/work ethic, finds his strange calling when he witnesses a team of 'stringers' (guys with video cameras who record crime scenes etc for news broadcast) doing their work. Muscling his way into the business and learning as he goes, Lou finds an ally with news director Nina who takes a shine to his abilities. However, chasing the perfect footage - before anyone else gets it - leads him down a dangerous path.
Who would I recognise in it?
Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Gaunt and wide-eyed, Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom with such determination that he disappears inside the character; no wonder there were many rumblings when he didn't get nominated for an Oscar. The film sinks us into a bizarre world that takes us behind the scenes of grizzly - even thrilling - crime/accident scene news footage, and does so with such a sense of style and drive that you begin to question the malleability of your own morality. The director put it best when he said that the movie was about a talented man being rewarded for his skills by a society that should really be punishing him for those same skills. This is a world that is at the same time familiar and alien, presented in such a way that is both troubling and exhilarating. Despite all of Lou's faults you can't help but admire his clearly focused sense of drive and ability to achieve his goals. Great.

Click "READ MORE" below for Godzilla 2014, and A Million Ways To Die In The West...

Monday 9 March 2015

Randy Rick Edition: The Walking Dead 5x13 memes...

Find more Walking Dead memes here.

Click each image for FULL SIZE.

Click to Enlarge: Cookie Monster vs Hungry Eyes...

Click "READ MORE" below for more memey goodness...

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Double Bill Mini Musings: Star Maps and Stolen Art...

Maps To The Stars:
What's it about?
A teeth-gnashing satire of Hollywood and its rich, successful, and damaged inhabitants from David Cronenberg with a script from Bruce Wagner. The lives of various Tinsel Town oddities - from an ageing actress desperately trying to secure the lead role in a remake of her famous (and dead) mother's iconic film, to a limo-driving screenwriter wannabe - intersect in what becomes a spiralling tale of madness.
Who would I recognise in it?
Julianne Moore, John Cusack, Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson, Olivia Williams, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
A return to form from David Cronenberg after the frustratingly obtuse Cosmopolis that took itself far too seriously while lacking any warmth or access for a generally bewildered audience. It takes about ten to twenty minutes to settle into the rhythm, but Wagner's script gleefully piles increasingly bizarre and jaw dropping events on top of one another. Just when you thought it couldn't get weirder and more messed up - it does. Top performances all round, but particular kudos to Julianne Moore who goes all-out towards crafting a multi-dimensional and hopelessly damaged person who attracts the audience's sympathy and vitriol in equal measure. There's one decidedly dodgy moment of CGI that sticks out like a big old sore thumb, but apart from that it's a superb venture into Hollyweird ... although certainly not to everyone's tastes. Great.

Click "READ MORE" below for Kurt Russell in a crime caper...

Monday 2 March 2015

Sexy Grimes Edition: The Walking Dead 5x12 memes...

Find more Walking Dead memes here.

Quite the change of scenery this week for Team Rick, and here's five brand new memes. Also, in case you missed last week's batch (what with the quick flurry of posts last week) - click here.

Click each image for FULL SIZE.

Click to Enlarge: Carol's Curriculum Vitae...

Click "READ MORE" below for the rest of this week's memes **MILD EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD**...