DeadShed Productions

Get In There: Alan Wake - now available for PC via Steam...

2012-02-16T04:54:00.000-08:00

Remedy Games' "psychological action thriller" Alan Wake - which was released for the Xbox360 in 2010 - is now available to play on the PC via Steam download. I absolutely adored this game on the 360, so for the PC gaming crowd out there, I'd highly recommend you check out this excellent slice of atmospheric action. Typically for Remedy (a relatively small outfit in Finland who previously brought us Max Payne) there is a strong focus on storytelling - with key inspirations being Twin Peaks, The Twilight Zone, and The X-Files. There are a couple of rough edges here and there, but it's the sort of game that I get really wrapped up in and become quite obsessive about, seeking out as much background information as I can. Back in 2010 I bought the Collector's Edition (replete with soundtrack sampler, book, and making of documentaries) and then also picked up the spiffing soundtrack album by Petri Alanko.

Annoyingly, the release of Alan Wake (after a lengthy production) coincided with that of Rockstar's superb western sandboxer Red Dead Redemption, so it kind of suffered as a result and become somewhat of a buried cult gem - however now that it's released for the PC, hopefully it will gain the wider audience that it always deserved. What's more the PC edition includes the two DLC packs released on the 360 - and for the 360 fans there's an entirely new DLC pack coming titled Alan Wake's American Nightmare (which looks great, if you ask me). Remedy Games are the sort of developer that really invest their heart and soul into their projects - they're auteurs of the videogame world - and I wish them the very best of luck with Alan Wake's continued adventures.

UPDATE: There's also a retail boxed version of the game, for those who prefer physical media, coming in early March thanks to Nordic Games.

Get In There: Cyanide & Happiness...

2012-02-15T11:39:00.000-08:00

If you're not already up on the excellent web comic Cyanide & Happiness, then where have you been? Waste no more time and dive into the deliciously twisted humour of this daily web comic that I've been following for years now. Presented primarily by Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker, Matt Melvin, and Dave McElfatrick, the comics range from the deeply dark, to the painfully acerbic, to the out-and-out silly, to beautiful send-ups of conventions and expectations. Such as...

What's more, the guys at Explosm have also ventured into animated shorts for the Cyanide & Happiness stable, with utterly superb results - for example, "The Man Who Could Sit Anywhere" and "Barbershop Quartet Hits On Girl From Taxi".

View more of their kick arse shorts at the Explosm YouTube Channel and be sure to check out the Cyanide & Happiness website for their daily dose of stand-out cartoon comedy!

Horror movie memory lane...

2012-02-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

During my formative years I became the massive horror fan that I am today, and as I've written about before, this period of my life struck right in my early-teens just when the British Board of Film Classification was undergoing a change of leadership and policy direction - the year was 1999 and all of a sudden a whole host of previously cut and/or banned horror movies were being unleashed onto the British public for the first time in years (in some cases decades). I came to see many of the big name classics of the genre via our local video rental store, or through fudgy dubbed copies on VHS from friends who had in-turn dubbed them from the same video rental store.

During this time - February 1999 to be exact - I devoured with wide-eyed fervour Channel 4's "Censored" weekend, when I got to see Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters here in the UK) and Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant for the very first time. The former was at the time still cut (by 23 seconds - 4 seconds from the eye gouging, and 19 seconds from the devouring of the same victim's body by a gathering of flesh-hungry zombies) and the latter was in a strange situation ... it was passed uncut theatrically, but on home video suffered from trims to one scene of drug taking.

Anyway, I happened to stumble upon some of the introductions for that Censored weekend by UK film critic Mark Kermode (my personal film critic of choice) on YouTube - check them out below (that theme music has been firmly and fondly lodged in my head for 13 years now).

Around about this time there was also a Film Four "Extreme Cinema" channel, so here's a couple of bonus introductions from there...

Braindead (aka Dead Alive) and A Clockwork Orange.

Ethics Online's 2012 Promo Reel...

2012-02-13T06:18:00.000-08:00

Check out the new promo reel that I cut together for the educational DVDs of Ethics Online - this video covers the range of topics currently on offer: War & Peace, Gaia & Genesis, Sex & Ethics, and Abortion: Ancient & Modern.

Blog tweaks...

2012-02-13T06:13:00.000-08:00

I'm making a few little tweaks to the blog at the moment - one of which is updating the link list ... it's now two lists, the newest being "Stuff I Like" - it's down there on the right hand side, just scroll down and you'll find it. You'll notice some links in there to stuff I've talked about in recent months, and this is part of some posts I'll be doing over the next few weeks called "Get In There" about some of things out there on the interwebtubes that I like and think you'll like too.

Stay tuned.

The "Allen Bridge" blog series in-full...

2012-02-13T05:41:00.000-08:00

In 2011 I did a series of blog posts that concerned the writing process of one of my screenplays - Allen Bridge - a feature length mystery drama. Below is every single entry by date, gathered together for easier access. I hope you enjoy them.

Entry #1 - 13th April 2011

Entry #2 - 14th April 2011

Entry #3 - 15th April 2011

Entry #4 - 19th April 2011

Entry #5 - 23rd April 2011

Entry #6 - 25th April 2011

Entry #7 - 26th April 2011

Entry #8 - 2nd May 2011

Entry #9 - 4th May 2011

Entry #10 - 6th May 2011

Entry #11 - 9th May 2011

Entry #12 - 10th May 2011

Entry #13 - 11th May 2011

Entry #14 - 14th May 2011

Entry #15 - 17th May 2011

Entry #16 - 17th June 2011

Entry #17 - 23rd June 2011

Entry #18 - 27th June 2011

Entry #19 - 30th June 2011

Entry #20 - 2nd July 2011

Entry #21 - 5th July 2011

Entry #22 - 17th July 2011

Entry #23 - 18th July 2011

Entry #24 - 19th September 2011

Entry #25 - 4th October 2011

Entry #26 - 6th October 2011

Entry #27 - 12th October 2011

Entry #28 - 17th October 2011

Entry #29 - 19th October 2011

Entry #30 - 28th October 2011

Get In There: Marvin E. Quasniki for 2012...

2012-02-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

Do you like puppets? Do you like political satire? Would you like to smush those two hands together in a delicious dose of puppet politics? Then step over here and watch the hilariously good videos of Marvin E. Quasniki!

Over the last couple of months - as the long-winded process of America deciding on who's going to run for the next election (just before they begin to focus on figuring out who'll run for the one after that) crawls forth - the Nerdist have been uploading some hilarious campaign spoof videos with Marvin E. Quasniki ... who just so happens to be a puppet.

View Marvin E. Quasniki's videos here.

View his first video below:

He proclaims that there should "be no more bullshit" and uses "How Much Worse Can It Get?" as his campaign slogan. Among his policies are agreeing with everyone no matter what they say, wherever they are - retrieving stuff from the Moon to sell on eBay - and using puppies as aids in settling international disputes.

I'm enjoying the hell out of these videos from the Nerdist channel and The Miskreant Puppets (part of Henson Alternative), and I hope you do too.

Double Bill Mini Musings: February 2012...

2012-02-06T04:44:00.000-08:00

The Ghost:
Roman Polanski's thriller is about a ghost writer (played by Ewan McGregor) who is hired to re-write the memoirs of a British Prime Minister (loosely based on Tony Blair, with added cinematic appeal and backstory) who is in a spot of bother over extradition to the USA - sending terrorist suspects overseas to be tortured by the CIA. McGregor engages the viewer as a half-crumpled writer with a witty sense of humour, while the plot manages to duck and weave enough to second guess your suspicions of how the story will unfold. It kept me hooked throughout - it's worth checking out. A bonus for fans of The Walking Dead too - Jon Bernthal plays the agent of McGregor's ghost writer.

One Crazy Summer:
As I always say - if it's got John Cusack in it, then it's worth seeing - and here we are with him re-teaming with Savage Steve Holland, the director of Better Off Dead, which was only half-as-barmy as this decidedly 1980s 'romantic farce'. It's a good kind of barmy though, with a rather loose sense of plotting (at times it's nearing sketch comedy in style), and Demi Moore as a rock singer trying to pay off the mortgage on the house of her recently departed grandfather ... the same house that is stopping the local rich folks from turning the entire island community into a resort specialising in Lobster dining. What's more - in a way that was seemingly quite popular for 1980s comedies - it all culminates in a sailing competition (also see the John Candy-starring Summer Rental - a family film I'm rather fond of from my childhood years), replete with boat-fixing montage. Oh, and Bobcat Goldthwait's in it - in full-on madcap shouty form.

Get In There: Gary Ugarek's films...

2012-02-05T04:12:00.000-08:00

I'm going to start a new series of posts called "Get In There" where I share things that I'm into around the interwebtubes and think you might like - first port of call...

Gary Ugarek is a buddy of mine who has produced indie zombie flicks Deadlands: The Rising and Deadlands 2: Trapped, and most recently the gangster pic All In The Game (which features members of the cast of The Wire). You'll perhaps have already read me talking about him as he's very much a champion of other indie filmmakers - indeed he very kindly supported the I Am Zombie Man short films I made a while back by showing them as supporting features during the theatrical exhibitions of the two Deadlands flicks, and included them on some of the home video releases. Furthermore Gary even helped produce some of the music for the second two IAZM shorts with Brian Wright (a fellow musician, and co-star from the first Deadlands movie).

You can purchase All In The Game through his website - www.wetnwildradio.com - and his other flicks elsewhere on the web (including Amazon), but Gary has also uploaded all three films (workprint versions of the two Deadlands movies) to YouTube. So if you're into indie cinema, then you'll do well to check out his YouTube Channel.

Flavours of the Month: January 2012...

2012-01-31T03:15:00.000-08:00

LOOKS:

The Angelos Neil Epithemou Show - seemingly just a pilot at this stage (along with Milton Jones' "House of Rooms"), but being a huge fan of his character as-seen on the now cancelled Shooting Stars, I loved it. Hopefully Channel 4 pick it up for a full series.

Apocalypse Now (Blu-Ray) - Franis Ford Coppola's Vietnam war epic just got even more vast - on 3-disc collector's edition Blu-Ray. It's crammed with extras too.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Blu-Ray) - Jason Siegel wrote a killer script and gave a brilliant comedic performance. I loved it when I saw it in the cinema, and I figured it was about time to give it another spin.

The Golden Globes 2012 - last year Sky Movies broadcast them in the UK. This year it was E! Entertainment - and boy did they make a pig's ear of it. The feed was all over the place in the first 30 minutes, missing half of Gervais' intro speech, an entire category, half of a winner's speech, and it kept cutting away to the same glitchy package of adverts that just seemed to keep coming back like a friggin' zombie. Add in the incessant, wimpy bleeping out of every punchline (and even entire sentences!), and it was just a weak sauce showing all round.

Shameless Slasher Nasties Box Set DVD - as you'll have seen already, this month I've been reviewing this excellent 3-disc box set of 1970s Italian genre flicks. Killer Nun, Torso, and Night Train Murders.

Kevin Smith - Too Fat For 40 (his latest stand-up Q&A DVD) finally makes an appearance more than a year after it happened, but in an unexpurgated form. Hilarity ensues as he once again manages to capture my imagination with well told yarns from his personal life (the main feature is 3 hours and 20 minutes long!) Plus at long last, a full year-to-the-day after it's Sundance Premiere, Smith's deeply twisted realist horror movie Red State comes to a wide UK release on DVD and Blu-Ray - it has some flaws, but I really dug it. Finally, another viewing of Clerks: The Animated Series.

YouTube hopping - my love for The Big Bang Theory has excelled thanks to it being on constant repeat on E4 nowadays (since they let Friends go to the Paramount Comedy Channel), and I've found myself skimming around YouTube watching numerous gag reels, interviews and Comic-Con panels to do with the show. What's more I've also got into watching various small clips from season five of Robot Chicken - a season that, at this time anyway, has no release date on DVD (even though it's been out in America for ages - before it's even finished airing on Adult Swim).

SOUNDS:

Chase Status ft. Liam Bailey "Blind Faith" - as heard in Dirt 3.

The Walker Brothers "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" & Wye Oak "Civilian" - the time is nearing for the second half of season two of The Walking Dead (the best show currently on TV in my view), so I've been psyching myself up with these tracks which appeared on the full trailers for seasons 1 and 2.

Red Dead Redemption OST

Ringo Deathstarr "Colour Trip"

Alessandro Alessandroni "Suor Omicidi" - otherwise known as "Killer Nun". Like so many stand-out pieces from the soundtracks of Italian genre flicks, this one gets pleasingly lodged in your head.

Stelvio Cipriani "La Polizia Sta A Guardare" - as heard in the flick "What Have They Done To Your Daughters" (and briefly heard in "Death Proof").

M83 "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming"

Drive OST - Kavinsky ft. Lovefoxxx "Nightcall", Desire "Under Your Spell", College ft. Electric Youth "A Real Hero", Riz Ortolani "Oh My Love", and The Chromatics "Tick of the Clock"

Kavinsky "Pacific Coast Highway"

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - a nice rounding off of a trilogy arc. The third act isn't quite as thrilling or epic as the first two acts, but as a fan of the franchise I really enjoyed myself. The additional "Special Ops" content has also been tweaked for the better (although I do find it strange that "Recruit" mode isn't included for the Spec-Op missions).

Dirt 3 - the 'mini pyramids' felt a bit like a chore after a lengthy career mode, but then on the other hand you aren't left wanting for content. It's still been a spiffing racer to play, mind you.

The Walking Dead: Volume 9 & 10 - slowly but surely I'm catching up on Kirkman's excellent comic series. Still another five to go, however.

Damned by Chuck Palahniuk - the author's latest book, and it's his most inventive outing since Rant. The central character is a 13 year old daughter of a celebrity couple, who is damned to hell after suffering an apparent 'marijuana overdose' and bands together with a veritable 'Breakfast Club' cast of teenage stereotypes to plead her case to the authorities of Hell itself. I enjoyed it immensely - if you're a fan of Palahniuk's work, you definitely need to check this title out.

The Top 50 List - it was an exhaustive process re-jigging the list (less-so than creating the list from scratch back in 2009, mind you) but I had been meaning to do it for ages. Well - I've compiled my own Top 50 list of personal most favourite-favourites ... but even still a beloved title or two is going to slip your mind (such as the utterly arresting The Shawshank Redemption, or the endearingly laid back and meandering The Big Lebowski).

Double Bill Mini Musings: Polar Opposites...

2012-01-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

The Woodsman:
This 2004 character piece must have been quite the risky prospect when they were trying to get it made - simply because Kevin Bacon's central character Walter is a paedophile on parole (living in an apartment overlooking a playground). Keeping decidedly to himself at his job at a lumber mill, he soon gets into a strange relationship with a female colleague (Vicki), but when his past is revealed to those around him - resulting in disgust - he has to fight against his inner demons. The filmmakers wisely only suggest in small, obscure doses what his character has done in his past (before he was incarcerated for twelve years), as it allows the viewer to not just completely shut down to the rest of the plot. There's no doubt that it makes difficult and bleak viewing at times - although let's be very clear, there's nothing graphic anywhere in the movie - the horrific aspects of the story are kept to subtle images, the tortured inner turmoil etched on the face of Walter (Kevin Bacon delivers a powerful performance), and the testimonials with his handler Rosen (Michael Shannon) which reveal just enough back-story to proffer the creation of his sickness.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides:
For a title like that, there aren't many strange tides in the movie, particularly as it's all about finding the Fountain of Youth. The first movie was fun, the second two were far too long, far too overblown, and far too complicated, and this fourth entry is just boring. The rip-roaring fun of the first is long gone, Jack Sparrow's just become a bit of a repetitive arse, and the script is flat-out crap. Indeed the latter complaint is best summed up by the entirely perfunctory thread-bare 'love story' between whinging man of God Philip who just gets in everybody's way, and Mermaid Syrena who has nothing to do but gawp at everyone with doe eyes. With half of the original cast missing you can't help but wonder if they had got thoroughly disenchanted with the whole venture and opted to better their careers elsewhere. I'm so very glad I didn't pay to see this in the cinema and just watched it on Sky Anytime instead, for it is a weak and boring load of old cobblers.

Double Bill Mini Musings: Catching Up on 2011...

2012-01-29T04:17:00.000-08:00

Red State:
I've been hearing about this movie for absolutely sodding ages - particularly as I'm a frequent and consistent listener to numerous podcasts featured on Kevin Smith's "SModcast Network" (and as such I was subject to a few spoilers over the last year-or-more). Indeed, I had got to the point that I was utterly sick of listening to yet another all-too-familiar 45 minute rant about the state of modern movie advertising, that I'd just switch off entirely ... needless to say I was damned ready to see the movie already.

I've also heard very mixed things about the flick - some love it, some hate it, and some whinge specifically about the ending for not 'going the whole Dogma hog' - but considering Red State is a realist horror film, such flights of fantasy wouldn't fit in too well with the overall tone, which feels terrifyingly close to reality at times.

Another thing that some haters of the flick didn't like was the constant shifting of tone, genre, and focus - which was very much intended by Smith - and I can understand how it could wrong-foot some, and how it can mean that some characters remain a bit underdeveloped over the extremely efficient 85 minute running time ... but nevertheless I really dug it.

I dug it so much in fact that I wanted to watch it again straight away - surely a very good sign (I had the same reaction to Clerks II, come to think of it) - although I'm specifically starving myself of it for a little while before I re-view it.

Ranging from teen sex comedy one minute, to Wrath-of-God preaching the next, to Waco-esque shoot-out after that, pretty much nobody in the cast is safe ... and boy, do some of them go in extremely chilling ways. Indeed, the fear is so palpable on many of the victim's faces that a chill genuinely tears up your spine and dances across the base of your neck; seeing one smut-talking teen reduced to a dribbling wreck pleading that he just wants his mother packed a surprising punch. The film's 'Five Point Chuch' - led by a Phelps-to-the-most-extreme patriarch - preach such seething hatred that it makes you sit most uncomfortably in your chair, all-the-more-so because Michael Parks' performance is simultaneously disarming and utterly enrapturing. Suffice to say the man owns the entire film, with a fantastic performance that turns what could have easily become a pantomime villain, into a remarkably fearsome fun-time fanatic. As he beams with joy at the Popeye impression of one his youngest followers, you can't help but grin from ear-to-ear, and therein lies the excellence of Parks' performance: he constantly disturbs your balance.

Moving on, this is most definitely unlike any other Kevin Smith film to date - returning to his Indie roots for the production and distribution (albeit with the connections and sway of a long-time player with a loyal, long-established fan base), Smith's film displays a sense of vibrant flair which he hadn't previously explored. Using the Red Camera system, the film takes on a rampaging sense of immediacy, while looking utterly gorgeous and endlessly crisp on Blu-Ray.

One problem though - and it's the extra features on the Blu-Ray - whoever encoded them did a piss poor job. Every single one of them is in letterbox (so the image is surrounded on all sides by black on a widescreen TV), and whatever settings were used for encoding have rendered the extras subject to an annoying amount of interlacing and even strange image ghosting at times. They're not unwatchable by any means, but considering the sheer high quality of the main feature's presentation, it's unfortunate that the extras haven't been given the same care when being ported over to the disc. I'm not sure if this is only a problem with the Region B disc or not.

Despite receiving a few spoilers along the way from numerous podcasts on Smith's network, there were still a few good shocks left in it for me. Furthermore, good lord, there are countless fantastic performances throughout. Great character actors of various levels of repute populate the cast so that it's fit-to-bursting - there's always somebody new to see, and another dark twist to be taken in the ever-changing plot. While there are occasional pacing issues (which could conceivably worsen if you're one who disagrees with the ever-shifting focus of the script), I really enjoyed the flick - it's ruddy good to finally see it, but in my view it's also Smith's most interesting film since Dogma and his most enjoyable since Clerks II.

Drive:
Nicolas Winding Refn (who has previously given us the stonkingly stylish Bronson) gives us the most stylish and achingly cool movie of 2011. Some didn't like it - no doubt because the title could prove a bit misleading (and the marketing sold it the wrong way) - it's not so much about driving, as it is the existentialism surrounding Ryan Gosling's grippingly-performed stuntman ... but I absolutely loved it.

The opening getaway car sequence (seen entirely from the passenger seat) is nail-bitingly, hold-your-breath tense, exhibiting the sort of patience, skill, and shark-like determination that sums up the character of Gosling's 'Driver'. A man who spends most of the movie not saying an awful lot - indeed, as was the aim of the filmmakers, he is akin to the lone wolf American hero who uses stoicism and skilled use of extreme violence to preserve innocence. Speaking of innocence, the focus of that is Carey Mulligan's mother Irene (whose jailbird husband gets the Driver into an awful lot of trouble with some gangsters and a bag full of money). The relationship between Gosling and Mulligan's characters is sweet and chaste - it truly is an examination of love as an innocent and precious thing, where entwined fingers on a gear stick, and one kiss before an eruption of shocking violence prove to be far more potent than getting your kit off and going all the way.

Speaking of violence, it's no Rambo, but on the other hand it does feature moments of stunningly graphic violence - no doubt because the beauty of the build-up is so involving. Finally, on the issue of style - this film has it in spades. From the titles in pink cursive, to the lush and twinkling neon of the streets at night (a highlight of the superbly composed cinematography), and to the exceedingly cool 1980s soundtrack, it's nothing short of breathtakingly beautiful. One part B-Movie with an A-Movie look, one part masterclass in cool, and one part thrill ride; if I had seen this in 2011 it would have most definitely been on my Top Ten list of that year.

Double Bill Mini Musings: Your Brain on Drugs, and re-jigged Philip K. Dick...

2012-01-27T03:23:00.000-08:00

Limitless:
A dead-beat writer is given an incredible new drug that unlocks the rest of your brain power (we only use around 20% of it normally) - and makes a huge success of himself ... while also getting into an awful lot of trouble. It's slightly barmy, but it's also a spiffing wish-fulfilment flick too, and what's more it doesn't always go in the direction you imagine it will. The plot isn't without the odd hole, but if you just go with the flow it's really quite enjoyable - and it really is a great central plot device.

The Adjustment Bureau:
The eponymous group of 'suits' keep things ticking along just nicely according to a complicated plan. That time you forgot your keys and were late for work, or that time you missed the bus - possibly little nudges perpetrated by these agents to keep everything ticking along nicely. Things, however, all go a bit arse-over-tit when Matt Damon's up-and-coming political figure falls madly in-love with Emily Blunt's charismatic dancer - and it doesn't match 'the plan'. The love story was an addition to Dick's short story, but it works surprisingly well - although the abilities and rationale of the Adjustment Bureau is never entirely consistent or mapped-out enough to be entirely convincing. However, if you gloss over the cracks, it makes for a fun flick - helped in no-small part by Damon & Blunt's on-screen charm.

Night Train Murders (Aldo Lado, 1974)

2012-01-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

The following is the third of three reviews for the "Shameless Slasher Nasties Box Set" - it's a 3-disc DVD comprised of Killer Nun, Torso, and Night-Train Murders.

Like Killer Nun (included in this box set), Aldo Lado’sriff on Wes Craven’s The Last House onthe Left (1972) found its wayonto the Department of Public Prosecutions list of 72 banned video nasties inthe 1980s. However, similarly to Berruti’s film, Night Train Murders was later acquitted (33 titles in total were acquitted, leaving 39 that were ‘liable todeprave and corrupt’ anyone who viewed them).

While the trailer seems to suggest a lurid and fast-pacedthriller, Lado’s ‘rape and revenge’flick is in fact much more reliant on suspense and slow-build tension – and ascript loaded with brutal social commentary. Furthermore, despite Lado claimingto have never seen Craven’s vicious Vietnam-weary The Last House on the Left (itselfheavily inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s 1959 film The Virgin Spring), there are numerous similarities between thetwo films – two girls fall victim to a gang of thugs (one of whom is a junkie) only for them to in-turn fall victim tothe upper middle class parents of one of the victims (one of whom is a Doctor). That said, the two films differ in twokey ways – Craven’s documentary-like film is far more directly plotted, whileLado’s visually luxuriant film possesses far more twisted characters.

Opening amidst the heavily populated consumer haven of aGerman shopping district on Christmas Eve, Lado’s social criticism gets off toan early start – the safety of this scene getting interrupted when the twoantagonists (“Blackie” and “Curly”) muga boozy Santa Claus. They escape the police by hopping aboard a departing train– the same train that is carrying Margaret and her friend Lisa on their way tospend the holidays in Italy– and so a night of depravity is set in motion.

Amongst the passengers are a cross-section of 1970s Europeansociety – including happy families, students, Catholic priests cheating atchess, and a group of well-heeled adults discussing the very nature ofmorality, democracy, and if there is a middle-ground between liberalism andtotalitarianism. Indeed it is within this last group that we meet one of thekey antagonists – ‘The Lady on the Train’ – an upper middle class woman whohides her sexual perversions in her handbag and behind her veil. It is withthis character that the social criticism of the script is most potent,unleashing her inner demons via a toilet-bound tryst with Blackie – in this waydepravity is almost treated like a sexually transmitted disease that brings outthe worst in her suppressed character. It’s quite literally a clash of the highsociety and the seething proletariat.

As the film progresses, the social commentary continues tocome thick-and-fast as the tension slowly builds – seemingly happy marriagesare shown to be on the rocks, and the very nature of temptation and shame areembodied brilliantly in the figure of a bourgeois voyeur. Indeed, the filmreally explodes once we’ve swapped trains and the central protagonists andantagonists find themselves secreted away in a booth with each other – and itis here that Ennio Morricone’s score (centralto which is a chilling, stalking harmonica) creates an almost unbearableamount of anxiety as events take a dramatic and violent turn for the worse.

Cast in a sinister and seductive blue light, Gabor Pogany’scinematography expertly melds vice, violence, and virgin innocence, whileAlberto Gallitti’s exceptional editing fizzes with inspired cross-cutting andsound design that blends two distinct worlds into a distillation of thetroubled underbelly of (at the time atleast) modern European life. While TheLast House on the Left focussed more on up-front violence, Night Train Murders instead opts forchillingly lifting the veil on the potential moral squalor inside any one of us– and it is precisely this kind of rich thematic texturing that proves Lado’sfilm to be an extremely rewarding entry in the ‘rape and revenge’ sub-genre.

Shameless Screen Entertainment do themselves proud with aclean and crisp transfer, and a nice audio presentation that preserves all ofthe Godfather-like use of clatteringtrain wheels on the soundtrack; trailers round out the package. The 3-disc 'Shameless Slasher Nasties Box Set' also comes with an essay insert from noted film writer Kim Newman (providing brief but informative context), and the set itself comes with impressive cover art that mimics a rental videotape (complete with "Be Kind and Rewind" sticker).

Torso (Sergio Martino, 1973) - DVD Review

2012-01-20T03:51:00.000-08:00

The following is the second of three reviews which I'll be posting for the "Shameless Slasher Nasties Box Set" - it's a 3-disc DVD comprised of Killer Nun, Torso, and Night-Train Murders.

Like Killer Nun (included in this box set), this Italiangiallo flick is presented uncut in anamorphic widescreen with a handful ofnewly re-inserted scenes that were previously expurgated – scenes that provide some extra connections between the dots. Sergio Martino had previously delivered The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (1972) starring giallo legend EdwigeFenech, and would go on to unleash Mountainof the Cannibal God (1978)starring Stacy Keach and a certain Bond Girl by the name of Ursula Andress.However Torso (appropriately sub-titled “CarnalViolence”) has perhaps brought the director the most acclaim in wider circles, as itstands as an excellent example of the slasher movie during the early gestationof the sub-genre.

In advance of early American slashers like Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 1974) and TheTexas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper,1974), Martino’s film features examples of some of the most common themesand iconography found in such fare. Writers such as Carol J. Clover, ReynoldHumphries, and many more have discussed these elements – particularly theso-called ‘final girl’ – the onefemale to make it out alive due to her superior moral standing. Indeed here thefemme who escapes fatal consequences is played by Suzy Kendall – who alsostarred in Dario Argento’s superb debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1971).

However, Martino and his screenwriting partner ErnestoGastaldi, and his Director of Photography Giancarlo Ferrando seem far moreinterested in gazing at any one of the other girls who populate the film’s bevyof gorgeous babes – gals who are no strangers to getting their kit off at amoment’s notice. That all said, once we move into the second half of the moviethe focus finally lands squarely on Kendall’s shoulders – indeed it’s very mucha film of two halves.

The first half rapidly makes it way through a wholesuccession of tense stalkings, bared breasts (even in the very first shot!), violent murders, and no end of redherrings and possible suspects. True to gialli, practically anyone is a suspect,and in a film populated by sex-obsessed men who lustfully/creepily leer at thecentral female cast non-stop, there’s no end of potential slashers. It is thenwith the second half that the pace slows and the spotlight lands on mystery andsuspense – indeed a triple-slaying is entirely off-screen – but Kendall morethan makes up for it as she becomes a captivating captive.

Making exceptionally good use of locations, Martino’s filmcertainly isn’t lacking in the looks department, but pleasingly it’s no “FGrade” student either. “Carnal Violence” might not be especiallycatchy as a title, but it matches the content perfectly. Themes of sex, death,and where the two collide are central to the plot, which also features anunderlying dose of socio-political commentary. Not only is there a clear gendergap on display (many of the survivingmales are sexually defunct, unlike the females), but so too is there adistinct generation gap (the studentsversus the ineffective police).

Shameless Screen Entertainment provides a solid transfer,however it isn’t without some problems: the audio source shows wear & tearat times, as does the video source – but being that this is the sort of filmthat epitomised the video nasty era (while,incredibly, never becoming one!), the slightly rough look only adds to theexperience. We’re unlikely to get a prettier looking Torso in the future; finally, a series of trailers round out thedisc. The 3-disc 'Shameless Slasher Nasties Box Set' also comes with an essay insert from noted film writer Kim Newman (providing brief but informative context), and the set itself comes with impressive cover art that mimics a rental videotape (complete with "Be Kind and Rewind" sticker).

Slasher fans and giallo fans are both exceedinglywell-served here, as Sergio Martino crafts a murder mystery that is as sleazyas it is involving; a must-see.

Killer Nun (Giulio Berruti, 1979) - DVD Review

2012-01-19T09:34:00.000-08:00

The following is the first of three reviews which I'll be posting for the "Shameless Slasher Nasties Box Set" - it's a 3-disc DVD comprised of Killer Nun, Torso, and Night-Train Murders.

Presented fully uncut for the first time in the UnitedKingdom, and including freshly re-introduced scenes previously excised by theproducers, Shameless Screen Entertainment bring us a nicely spruced-uppresentation of Giulio Berruti’s KillerNun. Previously one of the entries on the Department of PublicProsecution’s list of video nasties here in the UK, the film is based on a truestory.

Oftentimes you read the words “based on a true story” and it’s anything but, however Killer Nun is based on a case of aBelgian nun who underwent brain surgery and consequently became a morphineaddict to assuage the torment of persistent headaches and mood swings. In orderto feed her addiction she would ‘helpalong’ patients in her care who were near-to-death, only to steal theirprecious belongings and pawn them in the city for money to buy the drugs she craved.

So far that’s the majority of the plot of the movie rightthere – although nowhere in the true story were there actual murders, torture,or bisexual nuns played by heavy-chested Playboy models. Anita Ekberg (La Dolce Vita) plays Sister Gertrude –the morphine-addicted nun – while Paola Morra plays her sexually obsessed junior Sister Mathieu (the actress was the Italian Playmate of the Month of February 1978).

Today the film is much tamer than its reputation or titlemight suggest, however it’s a relatively high-minded film that dares to mix ina little social commentary about institutionalised cover-ups in religiousorganisations. It’s perhaps more akin to WhatHave They Done To Your Daughters (MassimoDallamano, 1974) in the respect that it’s not quite as lurid as you mightexpect from the title – unlike Strip Nude For Your Killer (Andrea Bianchi,1975), which is precisely as sleazy and violent as you would anticipate.That said, considering the juxtaposition of murder with religion, and sex withSisters of the Cloth, I can picture how it would have historically been considered quite thecontroversial film in certain quarters – indeed to some, for those veryreasons, it could remain offensive to this day.

Giulio Berruti and Alberto Tarallo’s script plays withthematic substance and a gradual pace, and while it may be comparatively lighton sex and gore unlike some of its peers, the film is more then backed-up by aquality production. Tonino Maccoppi’s cinematography is – typically for Italiancinema – beautiful, and is nicely complimented by Mario Giacco’s editing, andAlessandro Alessandroni’s exceedingly memorable score.

Shameless Screen Entertainment’s DVD offers a lovelyrestored print, trailers, and a brief chat with star Anita Ekberg. The 3-disc 'Shameless Slasher Nasties Box Set' also comes with an essay insert from noted film writer Kim Newman (providing brief but informative context), and the set itself comes with impressive cover art that mimics a rental videotape (complete with "Be Kind and Rewind" sticker).

Fans of thiskind of cinema should be pleasantly surprised by Killer Nun, and would do well to give it a spin.

Feature - "Re-Entering the Nightmare: Eraserhead 12 Years On"

2012-01-17T10:38:00.000-08:00

David Lynch’s 1977 debut – Eraserhead – was my firstintroduction to the man’s uniquely idiosyncratic work. In the summer of 1999 Iwas fifteen years old and I was on holiday in Scotland with my family. Duringthose couple of weeks we visited Edinburgh,and being a film-mad teen I was eager to scour the shelves of HMV and VirginMegastore (back when the latter stillexisted).

At this point DVD was still a long way from taking over VHS,so the landscape in these stores was dominated by the reassuringly sturdy formsof video cassette boxes. With money to burn (relatively speaking), my eyes grew wide at a special offer – threevideotapes for £15 – and I duly selected three titles: Graveyard Shift (Ralph S. Singleton, 1990), Evil Ed (Anders Jacobson, 1995), and Eraserhead.

Featuring screaming faces drowning in rat-infested water,severed heads, a screaming, crimson-coated, lunatic film editor, and bold textproclaiming “BE WARNED: The nightmare hasnot gone away…”, it’s little wonder I was drawn to the box art of theseparticular titles. Being fifteen at the time – and each video alluringlybrandished with an 18 certificate – it fell to my Dad to purchase the videos.The store clerk knew full-well who the videos were actually for (proclaiming knowingly “I see you’re quitethe connoisseur”), but they didn’t care. To me there was a sense of dangerand fascination about it; I wasn’t legally of-age to be purchasing thesevideos, and yet by that point I’d been watching 18-rated movies for six wholeyears (don’t worry – they weren’t anythingwildly inappropriate).

I found Graveyard Shift to be an average, but not all thatmemorable Stephen King adaptation, and Evil Ed to be an utterly barmy horrorcomedy that really earned the cover blurb “arampage of exploding heads and flying limbs make this gorefest trulysplatterific!” … however, Eraserhead proved to be an entirely differentjourney.

It was to take me the best part of the ensuing 12 months toget through every one of the 89 minutes in the running time. The film was sobizarre and unsettling to the early development of my cinephile senses that Icould only manage 5 or 10 minutes at a time – with gaps of weeks or even monthsbetween these sporadic portions. No doubt this extremely fractured form ofviewing didn’t help in achieving any kind of understanding of the narrative,but even if I’d viewed it in one sitting, I simply wouldn’t have ‘got it’ one bit aged fifteen with thetypical attention span for my age.

More than a decade later, and with The Horror Channelshowing Twin Peaks in-full (which I’dnever seen before), I truly discovered the work of David Lynch. Blue Velvet(1986) revealed itself as beautifullydark and consuming, while second-attempts at Lost Highway (1997) and Wild At Heart (1990)proved successful. A transcendent witnessing of Mulholland Drive (2001) was followed by the half-baffledenjoyment of Lynch’s most cryptic work to date – the three-hour-long InlandEmpire (2006). Aged fifteen, thelatter wouldn’t have even been attempted had it been out at the time, but nowthings were very different – and as such I realised that I would need to returnto Eraserhead, which had spent the last 12 years sitting on a video shelfquietly goading me.

I had realised that Lynch’s actual work, and his reputation,are two very different beasts. The content of his work is far easier todecipher once you understand what information in each scene is key to the plot,and what information is unique, inspired, dream-like, Lynchian window-dressing.

The following blow-by-blow account is laid out by time,during which I will posit my personal understanding of Lynch’s most widelyanalysed, and argued about, film.

Spoilers ahead.

January 15th 2012

8:02pm – Resemblingthe Lady in the Radiator, I steel myself with a face full of Jaffa Cakes, andpress play.

8:04pm to 8:09pm– Henry, full of apprehension, floats in space, but it seems the planetoid goingthrough his mind is in fact a nightmarish ovum. Is this happening now, or isthis a guilt-ridden memory – a memory of Henry’s shame, and perhaps even lust,as engendered by the scarred man who instigates the terrified release ofHenry’s sperm. Splash down: conception.

It was at this point, I seem to remember, that I first tooka lengthy breather from the film as a freaked-out fifteen year-old.

Industrial landscapes that howl with angry, distantmachinery – a typically Lynch obsession is birthed on film. Guilt, corruption,intimidation and paranoia seep from every brick, every stained and brokenwindow, and every blackened steel girder.

8:12pm – Ah, the ever-popularzigzag patterned flooring. As the elevator doors slide shut on Henry, I finishmy Jaffa Cakes and prepare to enter the nightmare.

8:13pm – “Are you Henry” – we meet ‘The BeautifulGirl Across the Hall’ – the temptress of apartment twenty-seven.

No wonder Henry’s a bit down in the dumps. His shittyone-bedroom apartment roars with the sound of a hissing radiator and features awindow without a view.

8:18pm – Henry andMary X: their relationship is a fractured one amidst a terrifying industrialhell that roars with a cacophony of man-made noise, smoke, decay, lonelinessand no small measure of social awkwardness.

8:22pm – Time fordinner at #2416: The wild feasting of puppies upon an exhausted/indifferentmother canine foreshadows news which will bring Henry’s world – and vacation –crashing down around him.

8:25pm –Puppeteering Grandma to mix a salad. An eyebrow takes a subtle step forward inits ascent up my forehead. This is one of those oddball details, withlittle-or-no underlying meaning, that you so often see in dreams or nightmaresthat make little sense, but which provide background texture to a scene.

8:27pm – Henry carvesthe damn-near foetus-size chickens at the behest of crooked-kneed patriarchBill … if I remember correctly, my fifteen year-old counterpart took anotherlengthy breather after the close-up of the viscous ooze that gushes forth fromthe miniscule chicken as its legs flail about. Considering a scene towards theend of the film, perhaps this is another moment of foreshadowing.

8:30pm – A blownbulb, a mother’s invasive questioning and out-of-the-bluepersonal-space-invading, and a nose bleed. A moment of handheld, free-roamingcamerawork unsettles the glaring balance of the usually static, scrutinisingcamera.

8:34pm – Feedingthe horrific premature result of Henry and Mary X’s premarital lust … andreceiving a very small worm-like thing in a very small box in the mail. I sensethat my fifteen year-old counterpart has gone AWOL once again.

8:37pm – A stormynight to mirror the post-natal torment of Mary X.

8:44pm – Mary X,the woman caged by her youthful indiscretion, flees leaving Henry alone withthe monstrous baby … and the temptress next door.

The nightmare escalates – the baby is unwell … it’s sicklywailing, and its diseased appearance, have decidedly disturbed me. The power ofthe Jaffa Cakes is called upon.

8:52pm – The‘Lady in the Radiator’, her swollen cheeks, her cutesy come-hither smile, andher dance upon the stage inside Henry’s radiator. Naturally in 1999 such animage simultaneously flew over my head, and exploded it, but I feel I have abetter grasp of the scene’s meaning – or at the very least I have aninterpretation to proffer.

This vision of Henry’s creation stomps on his sperm – theresult of his lust; the very product that rendered him trapped alone with hisailing, premature, inhuman offspring – and so suggests a sense of innocentbliss, a suggestion of what could have otherwise been, before his pre-maritaldalliance with Mary X.

8:56pm – Mary Xis back in Henry’s ragged bed, crowding him out, but this seemingly normalscene becomes a ghastly unreality as our electric-haired protagonist exhumesgiant, slimy, sperm-like worms from between the sheets (from between Mary’s legs … is this a form of afterbirth, or a rejectionof his seed?).

As we return to that miniscule worm in the miniscule boxthat came in the mail, only to be devoured by it whole, I ponder if this wormis in fact a seed of an idea in Henry’s head, and become quite freaked out …I’m so glad I’m not on drugs right now.

9:00pm – Thetemptress of #27, locked out of her apartment late one night, comes toresurrect Henry’s lust … but where is Mary X, Henry’s new wife, and is thisencounter a dream? Henry silences the gruesome progeny.

9:03pm –Infidelity strikes: The pair are quite literally consumed by their actions andsink into the cloudy pool within his marital bed. Sexual seas split – possiblyat the moment of climax – but any ecstasy is usurped when the temptress comesface-to-face with the planet-like egg.

9:05pm – “Inheaven, everything is fine” – so sings, quite hypnotically, the Lady in theRadiator. The Lady, and Henry’s infidelity, are juxtaposed … however shevanishes after a moment of happiness with him, only to be replaced before hiseyes by the scarred man, his dead sperm, and a gnarled and lifeless tree.

9:09pm - Amixture of guilt and threat creeps in as Henry finds himself on trial for hisactions.

Then his head falls off – replaced on his shoulders by thatof his terrible offspring – as the dead tree secretes a trickling river ofblood into which Henry’s severed head suddenly falls.

The head descends from the sky, the skull cracks open, and achild steals it as a homeless man protests.

9:12pm – Over thelast 12 years I had almost convinced myself that the following sequence wasjust in my head, but no – Henry’s decapitated head really is taken to apencil-making factory where a sampling of his head (much like you’d take a core sample of cheese) is used to make theeraser part … well that explains the title of the film, I suppose.

The dust of his ‘Eraserhead’ wakes him from hishallucinogenic dreamscape where thoughts of his tryst with the temptress plaguehim … just as two people feverishly dig (orfight?) in the dirt in the alleyway below.

9:18pm through 9:27pm–Henry’s grotesque child mocks him as the girl next door returns home with anotherman, much to Henry’s dismay. She sees the head of the baby on Henry’sshoulders.

Full of resentment, Henry hacks open the bandages thatencase the screaming premature progeny – and he ruddy well stabs it … thedisturbance levels in my mind have taken a big old leap … however quite soonboth eyebrows find themselves making friends with my hairline as an oozingvolcano of goo and sparking electrical outlets precipitate the baby’s headgrowing to room-consuming size so it can stalk Henry’s terrified form in thestrobing Lynchian light … things have most definitely gone a bit mental.

9:28pm – Theplanet-like egg breaks open as the scarred man wrestles with his jammed levers– then Henry finds himself with the Lady in the Radiator. Hugging her, hediscovers that in heaven everything really is fine.

He killed his hideous offspring – and did it in return killhim? – so he can live free of torment forever after.

9:38pm – I watchan episode of Cougar Town to un-freak my mind.

In summary the meaning of the film is quite clear – it’s allabout the fear of an impending birth, the dread of on-coming fatherhood, andthe torturous and guilty thoughts of a mind-in-fright seeking escape. To meit’s about responsibility versus temptation, and nightmares born out of a fearof everything going wrong – not only with the imminent birth but also your ownlife, and your relationship with the mother.

Twelve years apart, these two viewings of Eraserhead couldnot be more different. With age, experience, and even a film degree, comesunderstanding of a film that flew right over my head in 1999. Back then Istruggled with it completely, whereas now I found it quite concise – and I haveto say I rather enjoyed it.

In follow-up to my personal Top 50 most-favourite-favourites...

2012-01-14T10:50:00.000-08:00

Having updated my Top 50 personal favourite films of all-time, I’ve decided to throw together a short list of some other flicks –films which I greatly admire, and which have made a great impression upon me.

My film degree opened my mind to a whole variety ofcinematic experiences, and ever since then I’ve watched films of all varieties. I can gofrom a horror movie to a drama, then onwards to documentaries, animation,Oscar-grabbers, dim-witted blockbusters, exacting character studies, experimentalshorts, indie flicks, or musicals, and whatever else you have from big names orno names – be they in the English language or not. The point is, if I’minterested in it, then it doesn’t matter what country or genre the filmoriginates from.

My Top 50 list was designed for, and populated by, firmfavourites that I could watch at any time, at the drop of a hat – but thefollowing is a short list of more varied films off-the-top-of-my-head that I’ve had to bein the right mood for, but which have left a lasting impression.

BattleRoyale (2000)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Blow-Up (1966)

Brick (2005)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)

Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)

Downfall (2004)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

The Good, The Bad, and The Weird (2008)

The House of the Devil (2009)

Hunger (2008)

Ichi the Killer (2001)

Inland Empire (2006)

La Jetee (1962)

Let the Right One In (2008)

Martyrs (2008)

Neighbours (1952)

Pi (1998)

Repulsion (1965)

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

Stalker (1979)

The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

Touch of Evil (1958)

Versus (2000)

My Top 50 Personal Favourite Films of All-Time - the 2012 Update...

2012-01-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

The list of my own personal favourite Top 50 Films of All-Time (plus 10 honourable mentions) is broken down into three parts - you can view each part by following the links below:

Part One (#1-20)

Part Two (#21-40)

Part Three (#41-50 plus 10 Honourable Mentions)

This list is purely the films that have been the most ever-present throughout my life, and the ones that I return to time-and-again and/or absolutely adore beyond all reason. While many of the films are American or British, do note that my viewing habits have historically been much more varied - and while I am greatly impressed by films such as Downfall or Yojimbo or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Battle Royale or Singing in the Rain or Neighbours (the short Canadian film from 1952, not the soap opera!), they don't factor into this particular Top 50 list. Indeed, it was hard-as-all-get-out for me to come up with 50 personal favourites (e.g. The Shawshank Redemption totally slipped my mind, and I utterly adore that film - can I smell a 2013 update coming?) ... and finally it should be noted that this isn't what I perceive to be the best 50 films of all-time in general (I'd never even attempt such a list, and certainly not from the position of a single, solitary person).

It's simply my own personal list of most-favoured-favourites.

Enjoy!

My Top 50 Personal Favourite Films of All-Time (2012) - part 1 of 3...

2012-01-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

Go to: Part Two or Part Three

In May 2009 I compiled a list of my Top 50 All-TimeFavourite Movies, and as far back as November 2010 I’ve been meaning to updateit (and in the interest of my New Year’sResolution, to be more succinct). After all, I do love a list.

Upon reflection some entries in the old list were influencedby recent nostalgic viewings and have therefore either been ranked down or evenremoved from the Top 50. Likewise there have been a few cases of ranking up,but also several brand new inclusions – either because I hadn’t watched thoseparticular films when the list was originally compiled or because I’d revisitedthem afterwards, and fallen in love with them.

Note: Each ‘ten slot’ is ordered alphabetically – it washard enough compiling a list of 50 films out of the thousands I’ve seen duringmy life, nevermind ordering them all numerically!

Well finally, here’s the updated-for-2012 list.

Top 50: #1-10

Aliens (1986):
When I was a kid – long before I eversaw the it – I knew this was a seriously cool movie. My friends and I wouldfrequently play Terminator or Aliens, and we’d bicker over who got to pretendto be Hicks (played in the movie by Michael Biehn), one of the coolestbadass good guys committed to film. The first battle with the titularXenomorphs and the operations room siege, are two key sequences for me – evenafter repeated viewings over many years they still get my adrenaline pumping; theyare perfect examples of how to do action cinema correctly.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007):
Director Andrew Dominik went in a very different direction after his debut filmChopper with this meandering, wistful, hypnotically poetic western. Roger Deakins’cinematography is sumptuous, the central performances are astounding (particularly Casey Affleck as the eponymouscoward), the score is wonderful, and while it can very easily divide anaudience (if your attention span isshort, don’t even bother) I found it to be nothing short of spell-binding.

Back to the Future (1985):
The script is text book perfection – no scene is wasted, back story isconstantly imparted, and the plot is tight and controlled. Seeing the thirdfilm in the trilogy was one of my earliest cinema-going memories, and indeed Ican never watch the first film without following it up with the second two.Smart, witty, filled with mind-bending time travel technicalities, andendlessly quotable dialogue, Back To The Future is a true classic. My love forthis film was further strengthened during its 25th Anniversary theatricalre-release – it was a joy to finally see it on the big screen, but even greaterwas seeing young parents bringing their children to share in theirlong-standing enjoyment of this fantastic film.

Blade Runner (1982):

The very first time I saw Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece(the 1992 Director’s Cut on a fuzzyChannel 5), it decidedly passed over my head. The special effects impressedme, but that was about it – it was most definitely beyond my years at thatstage. A few years later I re-discovered it and began to appreciate it muchmore, and over the years that trend has continued. I now adore it as a visionary treat for the senses – acombination of classic film noir with a future dystopia. It might depict anover-crowded, smog-choked metropolis that seems to exist in a permanent stateof neon-mottled darkness, but it’s simply beautiful and breathtaking to behold.

Dawn of the Dead (1978):
This is one of the movies that made me want to get into filmmaking. In 1997 Ibought an issue of SFX which featured an article, and review, about George A.Romero and the release of the “Director’s Cut” (actually the Extended Cannes Cut) inthe UK.I read and re-read this article, and from that point on it was my mission tosee the movie. I fondly recall how I was so utterly gripped during my firstviewing – for the entire 139 minute running time – that after the creditsfinished I just sat there with my open-mouthed in awe. Since then I’ve seen thefilm dozens of times and to me it’s simply the absolute best thing to happen inthe zombie genre.

Fight Club (1999):
Visually arresting and so well crafted, this is the ideal male movie for themodern era. It successfully combines a searing style with an acerbic wit thattempts the rebellious part inside all of us. Closely followed by Zodiac, it’sperhaps David Fincher’s finest outing as director.

Ghostbusters (1984):
During my childhood this was what it was all about – the movies, the cartoon,the action figures – this was (and stillis) my Star Wars. As a child it inspired awe for its fantastic specialeffects and family friendly frights, but as an adult I was finally able tofully recognise and appreciate just how well written and downright hilariousthe script is. This is one of those films that was seemingly on endless repeaton the VCR when I was a kid, and as such it’s utterly imprinted on my memory.Utterly, utterly, utterly superb.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (1966):
Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy” was what got me into westerns during mymid-teens, but it was the grand and sweeping scale of this epic ‘spaghettiwestern’ that proved most enduring in my memory. The score is fantastic, theediting is brilliant, the cinematography is lush, and the central trio ofEastwood/van Cleef/Wallach make this a perfect bloke’s movie.

The Maltese Falcon (1941):
During the first semester of the first year of my film degree at UEA, we saw arestored print of this iconic film noir for the Key Issues in Film Studiescourse. Before this point I had never really appreciated classic black andwhite movies, but a switch was flicked inside my mind during that screening –my first introduction to Bogart – and I’ve never looked back. Not only is it avery fine film indeed, but on a personal level it really blew the doors open interms of the scope of my cinematic appreciation.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991):
I first saw this (in a heavily censoredversion) on BBC1 at just the right time – I was a young kid just gettinginto action films such as this, and it left a mighty impression. Pioneering inits use of CGI, T2 is one of the finest examples of action filmmaking. LikeAliens, the busted blocks come with intelligence, but also impressive skillwhen it comes to crafting adrenaline-fuelled sequences to drop your jaw.

Top 50: #11-20

Blue Velvet (1986):

During my teens Istruggled with David Lynch’s work (ittook me the best part of a year to gradually work through all of Eraserhead,the director’s debut) and this was one of his films I didn’t ‘get’ at thetime. Fast forward the best part of a decade and I came to appreciate itimmensely after another two viewings. It’s perhaps Lynch’s most distilled andchilling examination of the seedy underbelly of a community that looks idyllicon the surface (a theme which he wouldthen go on to explore further in the wonderful Twin Peakstelevision series). It’s horrifyingly beautiful to look at, entrancing tolisten to (thanks to Angelo Badalamenti’sbrooding-then-soaring score), and is one of Lynch’s most hauntinglymemorable films.

Casablanca(1942):
My time at university studying film broadened my cinematic horizons andappreciation of film immensely, and initially this came in the discovery of thework of Humphrey Bogart. I found Bogart’s Rick – a booze-soaked,cigarette-choked, club owner hiding out in the eponymous town – to be unreservedlycompelling. It almost goes without saying, but the writing, direction,cinematography, and acting all demonstrate great talent. You won’t find CitizenKane on this list (although it too is animpressive and extremely important film), but here in its place is one of itsmost widely acknowledged contenders for the best film of all time.

A Clockwork Orange(1971):
In the UK, Stanley Kubrick’s self-banned ‘unofficial video nasty’, had quitethe fearsome reputation – and its 1999 re-release (after the director’s death, and during an era of new-foundliberalisation at the BBFC) coincided perfectly with my formative years. Iwas discovering a whole host of newly un-banned (and uncut) ‘video nasties’ (alongwith countless other films by the hundreds), but it was this one thatbecome the poster child for me during my GCSE years. The book, the film, andthe soundtrack proved to be quite inspirational to me at the time (don’t worry, not in the “ultra violence” way)during my 2-D Art GCSE. Of all the films on this list, it’s one of the onesthat had the most tangible impact upon me.

The Dark Knight (2008):
Christopher Nolan has crafted himself a career filled with brilliantfilmmaking. He so skilfully combines blockbuster action with intelligence andideas, and The Dark Knight is a shining example of that. On the one hand you’vegot a long-standing and well-recognised superhero yomping around fighting crimewith marvellous gadgets, and on the other you’ve got moral dilemmas aplenty forthe characters to battle against in their hearts and minds. Richly textured,densely scripted, packed with pounding action, and a terrific penultimateperformance from Heath Ledger as The Joker, make this downright superb … andthen Nolan followed up with the equally brilliant Inception. Finally, I’llalways remember how – when the truck flipped end-over-end – a kid far back inthe audience was so impressed that he screamed out “WOWEE!” – and I think thatsense of awe and enjoyment sums it up nicely.

The Evil Dead (1981):
Bought for a fiver from the local post office bargain bin of videos, my firstviewing of Sam Raimi’s grue-filled shocker was one of the most memorableviewing experiences of my life. It may have been a version that wascut-to-ribbons (it was released in the UK fully uncuta few years later), but there at 14 years old I was transfixed. The sheerinventiveness of how Raimi and his merry band of indie filmmakers put the flicktogether has been a constant inspiration to me over the years, and itsreputation as Mary Whitehouse’s “number one nasty” just makes it all-the-moreappealing.

Goodfellas (1990):
My favourite Scorsese film, and aside from Scarface, my favourite gangstermovie. In all facets – from the soundtrack to the script to the performances tothe cinematography – it’s nothing short of enduringly memorable.

Rocky (1976):
Who isn’t inspired by the fictional underdog boxing hero of Rocky Balboa? Thecharacter is an icon for anyone who is downtrodden and looking for somethingbetter in life. It’s an inspiration to keep pushing forward, but above allthat, it’s just an exceptional film made all the greater by the simple factthat Stallone really earned it.

Scarface (1983):
One of the very best rise-and-fall tales, and one of the finest gangsterpictures ever made. Pacino, DePalma, Stone – a bravura creative team give us astylish crime drama that draws you into all the murkiness and temptations of acocaine-addled Miamiin the 1980s. A grand, sweeping epic for the decade of excess.

The Thing (1982):
There are few films capable of scaring me, and not least by penetrating my mindwith extremely potent themes of isolation and paranoia. John Carpenter was atthe height of his talent and passion – indeed the same can be said of many ofthose involved. Just thinking about the movie gives me the creeps. Terrorperfected.

Zodiac (2007):
David Fincher’s methodical examination of what happened to those who tried tosolve the crime of 1970s Americais like the antithesis to his previous serial killer thriller Se7en. Both filmsare excellent, but for different reasons. While Se7en is brutal and immediateand darkly stylish, Zodiac is subtle and slow-burn and almost nostalgic. Withan extreme attention to detail, Fincher’s never been more precise.

My Top 50 Personal Favourite Films of All-Time (2012) - part 2 of 3...

2012-01-12T10:43:00.000-08:00

Go to: Part One or Part Three

Top 50: #21-30

Clerks (1994):
Not only is it hilariously funny with sharp dialogue, but it’s a great slackerflick, and a great indie flick. The further into my twenties that I’ve got, themore it’s spoken to me, and as illustrated in the excellent making-ofdocumentary “The Snowball Effect”, it’s one of those flicks that I enjoy evenmore because of the story behind its production.

Day of the Dead (1985):
After that 1997 issue of SFX, this was my first introduction to the films ofGeorge A. Romero. Bought on VHS from a local Woolworth’s (long before they went bust), my first viewing was one of awe. I’dnever seen such tremendous gore effects before, Captain Rhodes proved to be anenduring screen villain, the score kicked arse, and it features the beston-screen zombie of all time – Bub. It’s a terrific zombie movie (as I often say, AMC’s The Walking Dead isthe best thing in zombies since 1985) and it’s one that I saw at the mostexplosive time in my formative film-viewing years.

Die Hard (1988):
My favourite Christmas movie of all-time, and one of the best action moviesever made. It’s tough, sweary, violent, and it stills holds up to this day withease.

Heat (1995):
The first time I saw Michael Mann’s epic and stylish ‘cops and criminals’thriller, it was all a bit ahead of me if I’m perfectly honest. Then yearslater I rediscovered it on DVD and suddenly the appeal was there. Beautifulcamerawork, perfect performances, and one of the best movie bank robberies evershot, make this simply splendid.

High Fidelity (2000):

I always dug this flick, but it wasn’t until several yearslater that I really came to value it. It’s got a cool script, excellent performances,and it’s a tip-top ‘hang out’ movie. What’s more, the way the protagonistorganises his life and his memories around his music very much appeals to me, asI do the very same thing, albeit with cinema.

Pulp Fiction (1994):
Achingly cool, this was one of those flicks that gave you immediate cred in theschool yard when you could say you’d seen it. Upon its initial release itwhipped up a bit of a storm here in the UK due to one particular sequenceof drug use – so it had an air of danger about it – and that just made itall-the-more appealing. However, beyond all the elements that tempted all of uskids in high school to see it, it’s just a really damned good flick.

Scott Pilgrim vs. theWorld (2010):

When I saw it in the cinema I was aware of the graphicnovels, but that was it. As such it mostly flew over my head, but after I readthe books and got the flick on Blu-Ray, I got absolutely obsessed with it.Edgar Wright’s inventive style blends seamlessly with O’Malley’s slacker-actiongenre-meld, and while it’s disappointing to see it didn’t do stellar businessat the box office, it did become one of the best cult movies this side of themillennium. Brash, stylish, and with brilliant sound design, it’s a genre-splicingarse-kicker with heart and an unbreakable sense of appeal.

Shaun of the Dead (2004):
It may be a comedy, but this Wright/Pegg/Frost runaway success was the bestthing to happen to the zombie genre in a very long time indeed (well, until AMC’s The Walking Dead camealong). Chock-full of zombie movie references for the die hard fans of thegenre, it combines a dizzyingly good script with charming performances, gore,and even genuine heart.

The TexasChainsaw Massacre (1974):
Picture the scene – it’s the middle of winter, I’m eating dinner, and for thevery first time I’m watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on a fudgy 3rdgeneration dubbed copy on VHS. That’s how these movies should be viewed –during those mid-teen years of cinematic discovery on a scruffy copy from afriend – it has a sense of illicit, rebellious danger to it. This viewingexperience, for me, sums up why I’ll always be a child of the video era.

Tremors (1990):
I saw this early enough in my childhood that I sought to emulate it –recreating scenes in Lego while dressing similar to Kevin Bacon’s character Val– and over the years it’s become not only a fond memory of my youth, but alsoan example of perfect screenwriting. Like Back to the Future, no scene iswasted – everything drives the plot forward with new information – the pacingis spot-on, it’s quotable, and it’s utterly and totally enjoyable. Plus – Burt!

Top 50: #31-40

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968):
This was yet another case of seeing the movie before I was ready to fullyappreciate it. Thankfully, upon rediscovery, I found it to be transfixing.Thematically it’s intriguing, visually it’s stunning, and technically it’s amarvel.

American Psycho (2000):
The source novel was a brilliantly dark slice of satire; it cut the decade ofexcess to ribbons with a disturbed glare and a vicious wit. Christian Bale’sperformance as Patrick Bateman – a Yuppie version of Norman Bates viaLeatherface – is as chillingly cool as the film itself.

Apocalypse Now(1979):

A journey into madness both on and off-screen, Francis FordCoppola’s re-mixing of Heart of Darkness for the Vietnam era is an extraordinaryfilmmaking achievement. Its journey to the silver screen was a long and arduousone, but it unleashed a vast war movie for the ages.

The 'Burbs (1989):
A favourite from my childhood that has endured countless viewings over theyears, and as such it is imprinted on my mind like only a few others. To thoseof a certain age it’s a fond trip down memory lane with memorable quotesgalore, but what’s more when I think about it, it was really my firstintroduction to the horror genre. I was fascinated by a clip of achainsaw-wielding maniac, and an infamous gushing of pea soup – which in laterlife I discovered were clips from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and TheExorcist respectively.

The Devil's Rejects (2005):
A sleazy, down-and-dirty, yet blackly comic punch-in-the-face horror movie. Theopening siege and shoot-out kicks the doors open with gusto in Rob Zombie’sbest filmmaking effort thus far, which goes on to boast graphic violence,terrific characters, magnificent editing, and the best use of Lynard Skynard’s“Free Bird” to date. After the onslaught of Scream-clones in the late 1990s andvery early 2000’s, Zombie’s gut-punch was a lurid, nasty and extremely goodantidote.

Escape From New York (1981):

JohnCarpenter at the height of his game, Kurt Russell as one of his most iconiccharacters (Snake Plissken), and featuring Dean Cundey’s neon-smearedphotography, this future dystopia action flick is a 1980s genre classic.

Grindhouse (2007):
It was never released in-full in the UK after a less-than-stellar box officerun in the USA, but eventually I got to see it in its ‘double bill version’ (before which I had watched Planet Terror andDeath Proof in their extended, separate forms) and I absolutely loved it.As a big fan of Rodriguez and Tarantino’s work this was a delight for me –especially as I’m a huge fan of this kind of cinema anyway. Planet Terror is abloody blast, the fake trailers are an adrenaline rush of tongue-in-cheeknostalgic sleaze, and personally I absolutely loved Death Proof (which divided audiences).

Hobo With A Shotgun (2011):

Jason Eisener’s 1980s-grindhouse-cinema-inspiredcrimson-choked arse-kicker is a bloody good time from start-to-finish,especially for fans of this kind of flick. What’s more, the genuine indiespirit and heart behind the making of the movie makes it all the moreentertaining and indeed meaningful – here we have a bunch of genre fans from Nova Scotia getting thechance to make their own spiffing genre movie. Without a doubt it’s myfavourite movie of 2011.

L.A. Confidential(1997):

Curtis Hanson’s deeply cool1940s-set detective thriller didn’t initially appeal to me when I first saw it,however like a few entries on this list, I came to greatly appreciate it upon asecond and third viewing several years later. Everything about this sumptuouslyshot film is luxurious – the superb cast and their performances, thelabyrinthine script, and the sharp direction. It’s one of the very best high qualityprestige pictures to come out in the last twenty years.

The Matrix (1999):
After a coupleof bloated back-to-back sequels, the initial impact of the Wachowski Brother’s influentialmilestone action sci-fi outing may be somewhat diminished. However, casting mymind back to 1999 and watching it in my local independent theatre with my Dad,it was a cinema-going experience not to forget. It was the film to see thatyear and it blew the doors off seemingly everything at the time.

My Top 50 Personal Favourite Films of All-Time (2012) - part 3 of 3...

2012-01-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

Go to: Part One or Part Two

Top 50: #41-50

Adventureland (2009):

There have been a handful ofrecent releases that have really made an impression upon me, and GreggMottola’s reflective 1980s-set coming-of-age film is one of them. It’s a‘transformative summer movie’ where the protagonist undergoes a watershed ofpersonal growth over the summer months, and Mottola’s movie is all-the-moreimpressive and touching in that it makes you wish that the summer of growthJesse Eisenberg’s James Brennan experiences was your own.

Enter The Void (2010):

Gasper Noe’s head-splittingwrecking ball might be lazily paced and at times rather blunt in its thematics,but it is a visual experience unlike any other. From the perspective of a newlydeceased drug dealer (high on DMT) weswoop and twirl and spiral through the neon-dripping streets, alley ways,apartments, and adult establishments of Japan’s seedy underbelly. Visuallyit’s a remarkable film – most notably in the climactic ‘Love Hotel’ sequence.Hell, the opening titles alone leave you firmly blown off your feet.

Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984):
Out of all the big-name slasher-masters, Jason is my slice-and-dicer of choice,and while Sean S. Cunningham’s franchise opener remains a tightly crafted indiehorror writ large, I’ve always had a preference for the third sequel (the not-so-final-chapter of the long-runningfranchise). Tom Savini’s gore effects are excellent, the script actuallymakes you care about the characters before dispatching themleft-right-and-centre, and it features perhaps the best non-Hodder rendition ofthe central antagonist.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956):
Much like John Carpenter’s The Thing, this film routinely sends shivers up anddown my spine. The crisp black & white visuals, inherent paranoia, and theMcCarthyism/Communism thematics of the script make this a smart sci-fi chillerthat remains just as potent to this day.

Mulholland Drive (2001):

I’m very glad that I didn’t getaround to seeing David Lynch’s seductive, Hollywood-set neo-noir until a decadeafter its premiere, as it would have no doubt left me utterly baffled as ateenager. However, after properly getting into and understanding David Lynch’swork in the last couple of years, I was able to dive right into this dark dreamof a film. For me it’s Lynch’s best work, second only to Blue Velvet. Much likeAngelo Badalamenti’s heartbreakingly beautiful score, this film issimultaneously hypnotic, mysterious, dark and twisted.

No Country For Old Men (2007):
While I’m not a rabid Coen Brothers fan, their films have rarely failed toimpress me. It’s a great film to watch from the perspective of a student offilm as the mechanics and construction of the film exhibit expert accuracy. Thesparse plot is classic Coen Brothers territory, where greed corrupts an everydayman and leads to no end of bloodshed. Unsettlingly cool in its calm pursuit ofmethodically unfolding a cat & mouse chase, it’s also a real joy to simplywatch – thanks to Roger Deakins’ astonishing cinematography.

Sin City (2005):
It’s a rough and tough comic book movie that is perhaps the most successfulcomic-to-movie adaptation ever made. Born from Frank Miller’s excellent, pulpysource material, this stylish and deftly executed flick drips cool like noother.

Shutter Island (2010):

For a long timeprior I was longing for a great movie set in a mental asylum, and MartinScorsese finally provided just that with this B-Picture-with-an-A-budget. Dark,brooding and unnerving in its paranoia-inducing pace, even after three viewingsI’m still finding new depths to the script.

Sunshine (2007):
The music, editing, pacing and stunning visuals of Danny Boyle’s nicely craftedflick really impacted upon me in the cinema – so much so that during certainsequences I found myself gripped the armrests of the seat like I was undergoingan enjoyable version of the Ludovico technique from A Clockwork Orange. Icouldn’t turn away from the screen, so the film’s ability to capture myattention so assuredly earns it a spot in my Top 50.

WALL.E (2008):
Johnny 5 from childhood favourite Short Circuit sticks out as a long-standingloveable robot in my eyes, so it was inevitable that I was going to adore hisdescendent WALL.E in Pixar’s exceptional sci-fi. With Roger Deakins acting as avisual consultant, it is without a doubt Pixar’s best-looking film to date, butmatching the looks with smarts, the virtuoso animators excelled at making whatwas for the most part a silent film. The fact that we can truly invest in thefate of two robots from very distinct eras of mechanical engineering just goesto show how talented the Pixar folks are at crafting peerless animated films.

Top 50: Honourable Mentions

American History X (1998):
Few films wield the power to simultaneously move, anger, demoralise and uplift– but this one certainly does.

Batteries Not Included (1987):
I could easily put Short Circuit, or The Money Pit in this slot, but out ofthese three – all of which were decided childhood favourites – this one madethe biggest impact upon me. I’m sure The Towering Inferno made quite theimpression on young boys who saw it, and I can imagine that the inferno thatengulfs the decaying housing block inspired a similar sense of awe in me. Itmight sound a bit iffy, but as a kid I’d repeatedly draw versions of thatsequence – to an outside observer that might look like a pyromaniac-in-waiting,but I can assure you that instead it was just a film fan expressing how blownaway he was by the spectacle of that sequence.

In Bruges (2008):
Some black comedies promise a deft mix of darkness and light, but boy does thiswonderfully non-PC tale of two assassins hiding out – in Bruges – properly deliver on the promise. Theswings from utter, eye-opening hilarity to utter, eye-opening darkness, andback again are truly marvellous.

Last House on the Left (1972):
The story behind the making of this cult classic ‘rape-revenger’ isfascinating, but Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham’s down-and-dirty sleazyslice of fleapit horror is a cinematic milestone. Contextualised by aVietnam-weary America,the glut of perversion that befalls two partying teens – and then befalls theircaptors – must have been rather shocking upon its initial release (a release that inspired countless grindhousereleases thereafter).

Lord of the Rings (2001 - 2003):
Truly, truly epic … the elaborate production alone was, and is, a massivelyimpressive achievement – but what’s more it’s a modern classic that made along-standing literary masterpiece accessible to the masses without sacrificingdepth or quality.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004):
The last couple of semesters at university in the final year were anincreasingly stressful period, and in our off-campus house tensions began toflare. Then, in the midst of the fallout from a row (long story), one of our housemates introduced us all to thisrunaway cult success. Any tension and ill-feeling vanished in an instant – andpermanently – and for weeks afterwards it was practically on an endless repeatin our household as we’d constantly quote from it to each other.

Rabid (1977):
Bought from the same local post office (alsofor a fiver) as The Evil Dead was, I first saw David Cronenberg’s grittyviral movie during my formative years. Fast forward to my film degree and theCanadian & Quebecois Cinema course (oneof my favourite courses during my three years at university) and I’manalysing it in the context of Canadian socio-economic politics in the 1970s.It’s a superb film, but it also reminds me of the best times I had learningabout cinema to a graduate level.

Se7en (1995):
Visually striking, and directed with style and dark meticulousness, few movieshave the power to continually creep me out, even after multiple viewings.However, David Fincher’s extreme slice of serial killer thriller is sorelentlessly gloomy, gritty and tough, that it can only be admired and fearedat the same time.

United 93 (2006):
A few films will elicit a keenly felt response from you, but even fewer willelicit a physical response from you – and so it was with Paul Greengrass’horrifyingly true-to-life telling of the events of September 11th 2011 from theperspective of those connected to the ill-fated flight. The first time Iwatched it, during the inescapable final moments, I was so moved by thedramatic recreation on-screen that I leapt out of my chair, punched the air,and screamed out – my reaction to those chilling final moments was visceral tosay the least.

Vanishing Point (1971):
Embodying the independent spirit of seventies cinema, this is one of the bestcar movies ever made. The Dodge Challenger is a beautiful machine (so much so that it features prominently inTarantino’s Death Proof) and this flick is a magnificent cinematic specimenof the era.

Removals:

I still love and/or greatly respect these movies, but withten new additions to the list, ten films had to be removed. The reasons varied:some were for nostalgia, some were for recent influence (that has since faded)when originally compiling the list, some were misjudgements resulting fromlist-making fatigue, and some were because – upon reflection – they didn’tquite cut the mustard to remain in the list.

All The President's Men (1976)

Animal House (1978)

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Critters (1986)

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

The Money Pit (1986)

Rambo (2008)

Screamers (1995)

Short Circuit (1986)

The Warriors (1979)

Triple Bill Mini Musings: The 80s, The Nuthouse, and the Desert...

2012-01-12T04:09:00.000-08:00

The Informers:
Based on short stories by Brett Easton Ellis (American Psycho), this multi-stranded 1980s-set drama vaguely follows the lives of a collection of mostly unlikeable well-to-do types in Los Angeles. It looks the part, but we're so distanced from the characters (be they likeable or not) that you don't give a stuff about what's happening on-screen. Some of the characters drift in and out with little impact (let alone story) and even the ones afforded some kind of arc don't have an awful lot to do. Instead it feels like a series of half-established strands that are left half-resolved by the end of it ... now, intentional or not, it doesn't make for particularly good viewing. On the other hand American Psycho, and Rules of Attraction (both Ellis adaptations), got the mix right. They featured some downright loathesome characters but we were pulled along for the ride by them the whole way - we were invited into their respective worlds, whereas in The Informers you're kept at such a distance by a bunch of half-developed gits that you can't help but wonder why you've bothered to pay any attention in the first place.

The Ward:
Or "John Carpenter's The Ward" as it's otherwise known ... but quite honestly there's nothing in this pretty standard horror flick (set in a mental asylum) that suggests Carpenter's involvement. It could have been directed by anybody - and that's a real shame. It's nicely shot, but the plot is both thin and uninspired (rather disappointingly), so when the pretty decent final minutes rock up it's all a bit too little too late. In brief though, it's the 1960s, Amber Heard burns down a farm house and gets banged up in the nut house with a collection of other fruity-loop femmes. Cue disappearing girls, predictable LOUD NOISE 'scares' and a potent sense of a missed opportunity.

Rango:
Gore Verbinsi trades Pirates for reptiles and the Caribbean for the desert, but keeps Johnny Depp in this really rather rockin' CGI flick from Nickelodeon. The eponymous reptile - previously of home comforts - finds himself lost in the desert where he re-invents himself as Rango, a gun-slinging hero from the "far west" who once killed seven bad guys with one bullet (the seventh "died of infection"). Quite quickly he finds himself the new Sheriff in town - that being the town of Dirt - a dying frontier-style settlement where water is the commodity of choice and fast running out.

It's surprisingly really good fun - I expected it to be fun, but I wasn't expecting this much fun. Crammed with references going from the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone (especially in one inspired sequence at the end of Act II) to a brief but beautifully witty nod to Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, it's a real blast. What's more it looks just incredible - and so it should considering the visual consultant was none other than the exceptionally talented cinematographer Roger Deakins, who performed similar duties on Pixar's WALL.E - indeed it's such a visual treat that it straight-up matches (and sometimes out-strips) WALL.E itself. There are numerous competitors to Pixar - who have a pretty spiffing track record - but none of them ever manage to match Pixar's deft balance of great storytelling, heart-felt emotion, and technical prowess ... but I think we've just found a true contender.

Quadruple Bill Mini Musings: New Year, New Musings...

2012-01-07T05:43:00.000-08:00

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011):
The uniquely talented and ever-reliable David Fincher sidesteps the 'English remake syndrome' with aplomb by delivering an equal to the original Swedish-language film in which Noomi Rapace so memorably portrayed Lisbeth Salander, the punk-with-a-photographic-memory. Complimenting the Swedish version, David Fincher's take provides us with two same-but-different looks at one international best selling book about a journalist's investigation into the decades-old unsolved case of the murder of a girl - a member of the wretched Vanger family (a self-involved, in-fighting lot, some of whom were members of the Nazi party).

Fincher's vision is a perfect match for the subject matter; his precise direction and particular style are as darkly intriguing as the content of the dense script. Many of the scenes are brief, but crammed with information. At two-and-a-half-hours it is surprisingly pacy, however there is one issue - Salander (Roony Mara) and Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) don't share enough screen time. In the Swedish original they felt like a real pairing, whereas here they feel like two able-minded independent bodies who sometimes check-in with each other. That said, Mara's Salander is every bit as spring-coiled as Rapace's famous rendition, and interestingly Craig's Blomkvist is a slightly different character here - in the Swedish version he felt very much like a rumpled journalist with a hardcore agenda that bordered on vengeance at times ... in this version he's much more understated and stoic.

Each film does many things the same, but they also do a number of things differently in different ways, and each includes or excludes certain elements more or less than their counterpart. I very much enjoyed the Swedish film, and I very much enjoyed this.

Young Frankenstein:
Now I know where the dramatic musical sting in that dramatic chipmunk YouTube video came from. A must-see Mel Brooks comedy that I've finally got around to seeing. Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, and Teri Garr - among others - make up a brilliantly talented and hilarious cast. This comedic rendition of the classic Frankenstein tale (Wilder plays the titular mad doctor's grandson) is a genuine, honest-to-goodness, laugh riot.

Silent Night Deadly Night 2:
It was only a couple of weeks ago that I saw The 41 Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It - the worst movie I saw in the entirety of 2011, and one of the worst I've seen in my whole life ... and now I've already found a strong contender for the worst movie I'll see in all of 2012. The first Silent Night, Deadly Night was a decent slasher - very much cobbled together - but decent, sinister, slasher fun nonetheless. The same cannot be said of the sequel - in any way, shape or form - in fact it's downright criminal that the producers charged money for admittance to this rip-off. Out of the first 40 minutes of the movie, a good 30-or-more minutes is - I kid you not - a trimmed-down version of the best bits from the first movie, as recounted (poorly) by Billy's psych-ward-dwelling brother Ricky. Considering that the budget was a quarter of that of the original, it's hardly surprising a third of the sequel is the original, but still - come on!

The adult Ricky may have the physical presence to be a killer, but he sure doesn't have the acting chops ... oh dear, does he not have the acting chops (here at least). Mustache-twirling maniacal laughs, crazy eyes, and scene-chewingly-awful line delivery is the order of the day here (have a look for the "garbage day" sequence on YouTube - it's the best part of the whole flick). Dull, boring, flacid, half-arsed, useless, inept ... I could easily go on. I've seen some cheap sequels in my time, but this really takes the biscuit - I was genuinely shocked by the sheer brass neck displayed by the producers in the first clip-heavy 40 minutes. Once again it's not so bad it's good, it's just rubbish - but, perhaps masochistically, it's so bad that you can only understand by viewing it for yourself ... but I'd rather be on the Naughty List.

The Green Hornet:
I never got around to seeing this superhero flick in the cinema, but catching up to it on Sky Movies has been a real joy - it's actually a really fun time. Michel Gondry brings his skewed style to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's cheeky & breezy take on a long-standing, but not-so-well-known superhero. Rogen plays Britt Reid, the son of a now-deceased newspaper mogul, who teams up with Jay Chou's Kato - an engineering, martial arts, and coffee-making master - to take on the crime boss of Los Angeles (as played with relish, and suprisingly good comedic chops, by Christoph Waltz - who was fresh off Inglorious Basterds at the time).

The third quarter of the flick is a bit saggy, Cameron Diaz's Lenore Case is mostly dispensible, and there's never quite enough of Waltz's enjoyably off-kilter japes as villain Chudnofsky - however, for the bulk of the running time it's really good fun. What's more it features one of the coolest movie cars since The Tumbler in 2005's Batman Begins.

Stirling Castle - Scotland 2011...

2012-01-06T11:24:00.000-08:00

I took some video and photographs at Stirling Castle when I was on holiday north-of-the-border a few months ago, and I've been meaning to cut together a little video using them. Well, in these dark days in the aftermath of the joyous celebrations of the festive season, I finally got around to it. Like Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle was one of the locations used to film the John Landis movie Burke & Hare.

The Thing (2011) - the spoiler-ific, twenty-point gripe-fest...

2012-01-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

Alright, you can see my spoiler-free review HERE, but now it's time for the fanboy gloves to come off and take a closer look at this prequel/remake hybrid - beware: spoilers-galore ahead!

1) The inherent problem with prequels - especially when we damn-well-know it all went pear-shaped for the Norwegian Camp - is that there's no mystery for the fans of the franchise. Indeed, knowing the outcome, but not the specific details of how the horror unfolded at the Norwegian Camp is exactly why it's such a haunting part of John Carpenter's 1982 film.

2) Marco Beltrami's score feels disappointingly generic. He was never going to be able to match Ennio Morricone's excellent score for the 1982 film, but deary me, this score doesn't have anything about it.

3) John Carpenter's film has a large cast, just like this 2011 version, however the key difference is that the characters in the 1982 film were distinct despite their lightly drawn manner. The 1982 cast rehearsed together extensively, so a lot of the character work is unspoken ... meanwhile in the 2011 film they're just lightly drawn, and at times downright dull, uninspired, or out-right generic.

4) Early complaints about the film featuring a female character (Kate Lloyd) at the research station were idiotic. Not only were there women at these camps for decades prior to the 1980s, but so what if there's a female lead?

5) The first reveal of the spaceship within the ice is just as dull as our first venture inside it ... and you know what, the third act inside the spaceship is dull as ditchwater too.

6) The portions of the Norwegian Camp that we see (in a destroyed form) in JC's flick are pretty well recreated here. So kudos there.

7) The 'bad scientist'/'good scientist' schtick between Dr. Sander and Kate Lloyd is an eye-roller of a dynamic. It's cliched and you can see the third act face-off coming from a million miles away.

8) Prior to the film's release there was a preview scene - the one where Jameson stares at the ice block and one of the drunken Norwegians screams "boo!" at him from behind. Then the alien bursts out of the ice and shoots up through the roof - the scene was shite out-of-context and it's just as shite in-context. It doesn't make an awful lot of sense, and it just feels lazy.

9) The first kill - of Henrik - not only involves far too much squiggly-wiggly CGI, but it's far-too public (a common trend in this flick). There's zero stealth involved and then everyone of the surviving cast sees the monster with its own eyes. Premature, shall we say. In JC's flick the attacks themselves were rarely seen, and we only saw an attack when an infected victim was cornered and had no other choice but to 'go loud'. This increased the mystery and horror of who was infected and who wasn't. No such effort is made for the 2011 film.

10) The autopsy of the ice-block-creature is pretty good - Gillis & Woodruff Jr's practical work actually gets a proper airing (i.e. it's not replaced, or covered, by CGI). It's all nicely detailed (e.g. the translucent skin on Henrik's semi-absorbed face), but it lacks the ick-factor of Rob Bottin's masterful work, and Dean Cundey's slightly obscured photography, in the 1982 film.

11) The second attack (aboard the helicopter) - is yet again a case of CGI overload and lacking in stealth. What's more it doesn't make enough sense - the alien reveals itself once again, but in-so doing destroys itself, or does it? It's one of a few plot holes in the movie.

12) The discovery of the bloody fillings and shower is pretty cool, as-is the subsequent discovery that it's all been cleaned-up. However, Juliette transforming behind Kate, makes for yet another stealth-free, OTT-CGI sequence. Any tension or misdirection during this portion of the film was short-lived, to say the least.

13) Speaking more generally about the use of CGI, the designs are good, but the execution is poor. It's far too obvious and over-used, and what's more if you layer CGI over practical effects then you might as well have done the entire thing in CGI as none of it ends up looking practical. The same damn thing happened with Rick Baker's work on The Wolfman.

14) Too many scenes and plot points are all-too-familiar from Carpenter's film ... hence the ever-so-curious 'remake-that-isn't-a-remake-because-it's-a-prequel' vibe.

15) The initial creation of the two-faced creature - as so memorably seen (in a frozen state) in the 1982 film is pretty decent - but, yet again, the use of CGI covers any-and-all practical elements and spoils it. What's more, it's also a shame that they essentially turn this once-mysterious creation into a 'big scary chase monster' ... and, continuity wise, the body wasn't anywhere near-as burnt in the 1982 movie as it was here in the 2011 movie - especially on the split-face.

16) They claim to have paid close attention to what the Norwegians did in the 1982 movie, but where on earth is a sequence showing the team blowing up the ice to reveal the spaceship? Nowhere is where - instead, stupidly, the ship's engines appear to melt the ice and reveal it.

17) Which brings me onto this point - if the ship's engines were working, then why on earth did the alien ever leave the ship in the first place? Or does being frozen for 100,000 years repair broken engines? This is perhaps the largest plot hole of the entire movie and sums up the sloppiness of the entire third act.

18) As mentioned before, the third act face-off between Kate, Carter, and a 'thinged-up' Dr. Sander is dull, dull, dull. It's CGI overload time and as a sequence it lacks any suspense or thrills.

19) The confrontation, just before the end credits, between Kate and Carter doesn't make total sense. We see that he has an ear-ring in his left ear before entering the ship, then once they've dispatched Dr. Thing, she spots that he's missing the ear-ring and he checks the wrong ear ... so she burns him. Fair enough, but he seems to beg like a real human, never attacks her, and the look on her face seems to suggest that she's not entirely sure if he actually was infected ... or am I giving the film too much credit by thinking there was subtext somewhere in there? What's more - I wonder what happens to Kate Lloyd? Does she just decide to freeze-to-death and get covered in snow, so that the Outpost 31 crew can't see the two snow vehicles?

20) The sequence (during the end credits) that links the 2011 prequel to the 1982 original is the best part of the entire movie. It's a tad awkward that the dog - now an alien - remained totally hidden at the camp whilst the other alien(s) yomped around dumbly in the open, before escaping the camp in-full-view after the helicopter arrives. However, that awkward scripting aside, having Lars become the mad Norwegian with a rifle who gets gunned-down by Garry at the beginning of JC's flick is cool. The same helicopter and emulation of shots from the original gets all the right fan-senses tingling - but it's too little, too late. Weirdly, this sequence is the most prequel-like portion of the entire movie.

The Thing (Matthijs van Heijningen Jr, 2011) - spoiler-free review...

2012-01-04T10:53:00.000-08:00

What with the festive season this one got kind of buried - so, better-late-than-never, have at it.

When I first heard rumours of a new version of The Thing (why on earth they couldn't call it, for example, 'The Thing: Outpost 30', or whatever number the Norwegian Camp was, is beyond me), I thought what most other fans must have thought - oh no, here comes another remake ... however, that's not the case, for the most part. When is a remake not a remake? When it's a prequel - a prequel that can't decide whether it's a prequel or a remake, that is.

Filling in the blanks of what happened at the Norwegian Camp, as visited by some of the members of Outpost 31 in John Carpenter's masterful sci-fi/horror/suspense flick from 1982, this 2011 remake-that-isn't-a-remake continually suffers from the one key problem that plagues almost all prequels - we already know the outcome.

Yes, those who haven't seen the superior 1982 film won't be so bothered about this, but on the other hand they won't get any of the nods and winks towards Carpenter's film - which really, when all is said and done, is the only real reason to bother watching this movie.

It's not all that bad, but it's not all that good either. Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Kate Lloyd (a Paleontologist) is whisked to Antarctica to help dig up something that has been found in the ice. Accompanied by box-ticking Americans (and a Brit, for some strange reason), she and the Norwegians venture inside the ice-bound alien spacecraft (which is sorely underwhelming on both visits during the movie) to have a look-see before dragging an occupied block of ice back to camp.

Then the obvious series of events happen - events that won't surprise anyone who has seen the 1982 film.

Prior to the release of the movie, after fan concerns about the use of CGI, there was a lot of championing of the practical effects used on this new one - this immediately got my suspicions on alert. Sure enough, while there are some practical effects on display (one example is an impressively detailed, but not Rob Bottin-level icky, autopsy sequence), the vast majority of effects are CGI ... and subtlety hasn't been employed - at all. Anything that was once practical and needed to move on-screen has been either entirely replaced by CGI creations, or has been so covered-up by layers of CG-tweakery, that it all just looks like it was never anything other than CGI ... i.e. the fan fears are most definitely founded regarding that aspect. It's most disappointing.

CGI aside, little attention has been paid to the methods of the titular nasty - in this 2011 version it doesn't give a stuff about being stealthy. No, what we have instead is a creature that's ever-so-ready to reveal itself (slowly, in leering close-up, so we can all examine how marvellous the pixels apparently are) and make a load of racket. Add in some plot holes, an iffy twist regarding "non-organic material", and a cast of characters that are more-often-than-not interchangeable or forgetable, and it all adds up to a bit "so what?" Now sure, non-English-speaking Lars (who becomes very important) and wild-eyed-and-beardy Jonas (who is annoyingly underused) stand-out, but it's not hard when the other characters make little impact. Juliette is dull, Dr. Sander is the cliched 'bad scientist' to Winstead's 'good scientist', Carter is no match whatsoever for 1982's MacReady, Colin is just a grumpy Brit, Peder doesn't do an awful lot, and Jameson (Mr. Eko from Lost) has three-fifths-of-bugger-all to do throughout ... and that's just the ones I know the names of.

It's a missed opportunity, but then again could it have ever been a truly worthwhile exercise? It does make complete career sense for Winstead to take this flick on (I respect and enjoy her work), but she's never used to her full potential here unfortunately. It's all a bit of a mostly-tension-free damp squib - not terrible, but not much cop either beyond a few fanboy nods and winks to tie it in with John Carpenter's far superior chiller. If you're going to watch The Thing - make it the 1982 version.

"Pingu's The Thing" - Lee Hardcastle claymation...

2012-01-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Click here to view the re-upload on YouTube.

What with my review, and twenty-point gripe-list, for the 2011 version of The Thing, it was a nice little co-incidence that Lee Hardcastle's latest YouTube video was his take on the 1982 version of The Thing.

If you're not familiar with Lee Hardcastle's clay animations, then you're in for a treat. I first discovered his work through Edgar Wright's blog when he was in-competition with "The Evil Dead in 60 Seconds" - it was an excellent, gore-filled clay animation, and from that point on I was hooked.

The above video is his latest - a typically humorous combination of Pingu (a claymation childhood favourite) and John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi chiller The Thing.

Check out Lee Hardcastle's website HERE and view many more of his fantastically gory claymations on his YouTube Channel.

Favourite Films of 2011 (that I've seen):

2012-01-04T02:15:00.000-08:00

There's inevitably a delay in seeing some movies, particularly when it comes to Awards Season (as such I was months late in seeing The King's Speech, and only just over the Christmas season have I caught up on Black Swan). Plus you might not always be able to get to the cinema - indeed there was a huge gap in my cinema-going after the forgettable Columbiana in the first half of September, that was only plugged in the last days of the year with the excellent Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Part of me decided that, in these more restrained times, I'd only go and see films I was much more certain would be worth the trip and the ever-increasing ticket costs ... but then there are other films that you are certain you'll be buying on DVD or Blu-Ray. Kevin Smith's Red State is a must-buy for me, so rather than spend several quid seeing it in the cinema (it was barely on the screens as it was) I can put that cash towards the home video release (which, now that I mention it, is in January). Also coming out in January will be Drive - another flick I'm rather switched-on by, so there's two examples of September 2011 releases that I won't see until January 2012.

Enough of that though - what flicks (that I actually saw in the cinema) tickled my fancy in 2011? In chronological order, my Top Ten of 2011 are:

1) The Fighter - Mark Wahlberg's restrained boxer is the perfect balance to Christian Bale's far-out, wide-eyed, character-of-characters in this true-life tale of a working class boxer rising to great heights before the chance slips through his fingers entirely. If it was between this and Rocky, I'd pick Rocky, but The Fighter is well worth seeing.

2) True Grit - the Coen Brothers give us a fresh telling of the source novel. Typically classy Direction, beautifully photographed, and brilliantly performed. An absolute must-watch.

3) Paul - Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kristen Wiig, a pot-smoking alien-on-the-run, and a whole host of modern comedy legends make Greg Mottola's fanboyishly fun sci-fi-action-road-movie-comedy a total blast.

4) Fast Five - surprisingly bloody good fun. I might even go so far as to say it's the best of the series. Big in every way, the action is thunderously entertaining, the vehicle sequences thrilling, and it was just such a fun ride. A little heart, a little humour, and Justin Lin's assured ability at crafting memorable action set pieces make this a damned good time.

5) X-Men: First Class - exhibiting smarts to equal its brawn, even underwhelming side characters can't affect the fascinating central battle between good and evil that birthed the Xavier/Magneto war of conflicting ideologies. Sweeping aside the action-heavy but ever-so-dimly-written-and-directed Last Stand, Matthew Vaugh's comic book fest proved to be the highlight of a heavy crop of comic book movies this year.

6) Captain America - putting characterisation ahead of blowing shit up, Joe Johnston's comic book adaptation proved to be a thoroughly entertaining ride that actually bothered to ascribe meaning to all the spectacle.

7) Hobo With A Shotgun - without a doubt my number one film of 2011. Jason Eisener's grindhouse throw-back is gleefully gruesome, utterly barmy, and lovingly crafted with a truly independent spirit and method. Rutger Hauer brings heart and even pathos to the titular avenging street-dweller, while everyone else brings grue, guns, and gurningly over-the-top performances. It was my most anticipated movie of the year, and the Blu-Ray release didn't let me down at all - bloody brilliant.

8) Rise of the Planet of the Apes - mixing smarts with blockbuster budgets seems to be becoming a common theme nowadays, and hip-hip-hooray for that. After last year's underwritten Iron Man 2, and three ever-diminishing and ever-dumber Transformers movies, the balance has been countered with films such as this. Trading on themes ever-present in the struggle for equal rights, the spectacular visuals were coupled with a meaningful script.

9) Super 8 - nostalgia, scope, heart, and thrills galore combined to form a nigh-on perfect sci-fi that harked back to the glory days of Steven Spielberg's milestone works such as E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. J.J. Abrams did a stellar job. The central child cast pull you in and feel real, joy isn't without pain or loss, and the jaw-dropping train crash compliments an accomplished sense of pacing.

10) Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - deftly scripted and directed, nail-shreddingly tense action from Brad Bird as he makes his live-action debut. Mixing thrills with chuckles in all the right places, this is one of the best action thrillers I've seen in a long time.

The Technically-In, Technically-Out Mention (because I saw it on January 3rd 2012):

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) - side-stepping the 'perfunctory pit' that so many English-language remakes fall into (Let Me In, please step forward), David Fincher brings his uniquely gifted talent to explore the ever-more-popular international phenomena that is the opening part of the 'Millennium Trilogy'. Fincher brings his remarkable sense of poise and precision to material that's already familiar to millions globally, but still manages to match the original Swedish film punch-for-punch.

Honourable Mentions:

Source Code - certain plot holes aside, Duncan Jones' follow-up to last year's impeccable Moon, is a breezy bit of sci-fi action that may sometimes stumble with logic, but nevertheless puts ideas ahead of fireballs.

Scream 4 - this third sequel rocked up a decade after the dreadful Scream 3 and actually had a little something to say. Most of the wit of the original had returned, and there were even a few good tricks pulled out of the bag. Perhaps it struck home more with those of a nostalgic disposition such as myself: I discovered the original flick during my formative years - initially loving it, then resenting it due to the torrent of tripe cash-ins that it unleashed, only to fall back in-love with it all over again after the horror genre regained its balls in the early 2000's.

The Inbetweeners Movie - the little Brit-flick that could. More like a long episode that doesn't always fire on all cylinders, but for any fan of the cringe-inducingly-good show on E4 must have been happy with this. If you're in-on-the-whole-thing it's great fun, but if you're decidedly on-the-outside-looking-in, you might think otherwise. Personally I'm on the inside having a great old time.

Do note that I usually come to less-mainstream fare after their release year, either through Sky Movies, Film4, the Horror Channel, or DVD/Blu-Ray.

Happy New Year 2012! Have some Glove & Boots...

2012-01-02T02:58:00.000-08:00

Well there goes 2011 - which was, in my view at least, mostly shite (apart from a few good things) - so here's hoping that 2012 is significantly better than last year!

In the meantime, as you nurse your New Year's party hangovers, get yourself in on some Glove & Boots, who did a whole series of hilarious videos for the coming of 2012. In case you don't know, Glove & Boots is a puppet-based (and family friendly) YouTube series (and they have a website too) about Mario, Fafa, and Gorilla. They've done some utterly brilliant videos recently - such as The Walkie Talkie Dead, and The History of Television - and have been my number one discovery on YouTube in 2011 (thanks to the aforementioned The Walkie Talkie Dead video, which perfectly encapsulated their charmingly irreverent and inventive style, and wonderful sense of humour).

Back to the whole New Year 2012 business - they did a series of videos for the event and you can find the playlist of all five videos here or watch it below.

Flavours of the Month: December 2011...

2011-12-31T06:02:00.000-08:00

LOOKS:

Glove And Boots - a new favourite YouTube channel of mine, I discovered it via their video "The Walkie Talkie Dead". If you like puppets, you're going to love Mario, Fafa, and Gorilla. Fantastically funny stuff!

Carnivale - I finished up the second season this month on Sky Atlantic and well, they certainly cancelled it back in 2005 on a bit of a cliffhanger, didn't they? I preferred the first season, especially as the second seemed to get a bit too lost and a bit too plodding at times ... and you can't beat that first season closer.

Ross Kemp On Afghanistan - a new run of the hard-hitting documentary on Sky 1. Illuminating, fascinating, chilling.

Black Mirror - from the mind of Charlie Brooker (which says a lot already), comes this trio of darkly twisted tales. The first episode was perhaps the most caustic, bleak, and ultimately haunting dose of satire I've seen in a long old while (perhaps ever). The second episode was overlong and lacked focus, but there were impressive ideas, and a strong cast. The third episode picked things up again by taking a brilliant little sci-fi 'what if' idea and spun it against the backdrop of a classic plot about adultery.

Charlie Boorman: Extreme Frontiers Canada - for a very long time now I've had this fascination with Canada (indeed I one day hope to visit the country), and being a fan of all the sorts of journeys that Boorman has undertaken over the years, I quite enjoyed this four-part series on Channel 5 ... but it would be nice if they put an extended version out on DVD.

Boardwalk Empire Season 2 - this richly detailed, masterfully written, deeply considered series is one of the best shows on television. The second season ramped up the complex motivations, suspicions, and double-dealings of all the well drawn and perfectly performed characters, and bloody hell - don't worry, no spoilers - the season finale is not only a brave move, but one that literally dropped my jaw and made me sit bolt upright in shock. I eagerly await the third season of this utterly engrossing drama - and if you haven't checked it out, then for goodness sake get yourself in on it.

Prometheus - the teaser trailer finally appeared and oh, the intrigue of it all. This is my most anticipated movie of 2012, with The Dark Knight Rises coming in second, and The Avengers in third on the anticipation scales.

Super 8 (Blu-Ray) - I loved it when I saw it in the cinema, and a second viewing confirms my love for this wonderful film. It's got real heart, real spectacle, a great range of adult and child characters, and well, it's just so damned nifty.

SOUNDS:

M83 "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" - sometimes you need the right time to listen to an album properly, especially a double album, and I finally got a chance to return to this great record that I've not been able to listen to enough for my liking. Top stuff.

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross ft. Karen O "Immigrant Song" - a driving, pulsing, thumping cover of Led Zeppelin's track, as featured in David Fincher's version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This track provided the backdrop for the superb teaser trailer.

Saints Row The Third - numerous tracks, but particularly "Pepper" by Butthole Surfers, "Angry Elephants" by Junkie XL and "Slow Revolution" by Tugboat.

Prometheus - the music from the trailer ... ooh, it's spine-tingling. That aural call-back to the trailer for the very first Alien movie just makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end in an instant.

Dick Figures "Bath Rhymes (Instrumental)" - from the excellent YouTube cartoon series "Dick Figures".

Alice Cooper "Spark In The Dark: The Best Of" - nearly two-and-a-half hours of excellence.

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky - after weeks of pouring through this deep, dense, dramatic novel, I finally got it finished. It was a demanding read at times - for good reasons and bad at different times - and despite some sections around the middle where it seems to get a bit lost and lumpen in its storytelling, once we arrive at Polis the pace picks right back up again. Fascinating, extremely detailed, and very atmospheric.

The Festive Season - Christmas adverts on the telly (including that old one from Coca Cola that everyone of my age loves and considers the kick-off for the season once they've seen it), mince pies fresh from the oven, decorations, wrapping (with a nifty little tip I learned from James May's Man Lab Christmas Special on BBC2), and all the assorted festivities. 2011 has been a bit of a rough year - indeed at times it's been utterly awful - but then again there were good times and productive times, so it wasn't a total write-off ... but I do hope 2012 proves to be far better than 2011 was.

Dirt 3 - nabbed it on sale. The first non-shooty-or-sandboxy game I've bought for four ruddy years; I'm gradually getting the hang of this spiffing rally racer which features an entertaining Gymkhana section.

Ross Kemp On Afghanistan - I was given this book for Christmas two years ago, and I never got around to it until now. Fresh from the latest series on Sky1, and in search of (relatively) lighter reading after the demanding-yet-involving Metro 2033, I ploughed through this. Like the series its connected to, it proved to be a fascinating, illuminating, and at times sombre read. It really makes you better appreciate - from the comfort of your living room, admittedly - what the soldiers fighting on our behalf go through.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - one of my presents this year. I've only done the first act of the story mode, but so far it's rather enjoyable. Nothing that changes the formula, but it's good to return to this particular story arc. More on it in next month's Flavours of the Month.

Until then - I hope you've all had a spiffing holiday season, and here's to 2012!

Triple Bill Mini (and Cine) Musings: Last of 2011...

2011-12-31T05:49:00.000-08:00

Megamind:
Similar to Despicable Me (which was quite enjoyable), Megamind centres around a villain who has to discover the good inside him to win the day. Featuring a great cast of voices (Will Ferrel, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, David Cross, Jonah Hill, J.K. Simmons etc) it's a good, fun time. Naturally it doesn't have quite the same 'pull you in' factor of a Pixar movie (although I've little interest in seeing this year's Cars 2, which seemed to receive luke-warm feedback), but Dreamworks did a ruddy good job nonetheless.

The 41 Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It:
Without a doubt, this 'spoof' of Judd Apatow comedies is the worst film I've seen all year. If you thought all those mind-bendingly awful 'Date Movie/Disaster Movie/Meet The Spartans' cinematic abortions were bad, then - amazingly - this load of old shite from 2010 is even worse. The sheer lack of any skill at comedy, as well as screenwriting, pacing, and narrative cohesion, is astonishing. Actual jokes are non-existent - in their place you instead get dreadful, shoe-horned-in moments of randomness that makes Disaster Movie look like a well-structured and thought-provoking drama, and such flatly redundant dialogue that you wonder how on earth anyone convinced the money men to pay for this utter drivel. It's incredible - nay, insulting (to all filmmakers and to all film lovers) - that this laugh-free, talentless, ham-fisted, completely misjudged rip-off, was ever produced in the first place. This shamefully inept and pathetic effort should hang like a skunk-sprayed albatross around the neck of anyone involved. Before you say it though, this is absolutely not a case of 'so bad it's good' - no, it genuinely is just trash with zero value whatsoever. It's an insult to mankind that this crap exists at all.

Mission: Impossible 4 - Ghost Protocol:
Brad Bird's live-action debut is a scorcher. This third sequel in the 15-year-running franchise is in no way at all the runt of the litter - it's a tip-top, nail-assaulting chair-grabber of a thrill ride.

No sooner has the Paramount logo been-and-gone than we're launched into the action at break-neck speed. From the very get-go the mission statement is clear: Ghost Protocol is here to kick arse - and kick it well. After a daring, action-crammed escape from a Russian prison, the IMF team find themselves on the receiving end of the titular protocol after the Kremlin is bombed and they're framed for it. Their mission, should they choose to accept it, is to catch the men responsible and clear their name in the process.

I'd have to watch the third film again to just be sure, but I think I can pretty safely say this is the best Mission Impossible since Brian DePalma's franchise-opening entry in 1996. Bird's direction is deft and works very well indeed with a script that perfectly balances nail-biting tension, adrenaline-drenched action, and sigh-of-relief-inducing smiles. Joining Cruise this time around are Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, and Simon Pegg (returning as Benji from MI:III, who is now a field agent) - and they gel together perfectly. Everyone gets their chance to kick arse, induce a few chuckles, and even generate a moment of regretful pause and introspection.

The first half is perhaps better than the second, but not by much - indeed it's such a breathless, well-balanced, breezily-paced, entertaining thrill ride that there were audible sighs of relief whenever the tension was expertly popped during some of the most tense sequences - such as a vertigo-inducing climb for Cruise's Ethan Hunt up the tallest building in the world (all-the-more impressive because it wasn't done using green screen - no, Tom Cruise really was hanging from a wire 130 storeys up) ... that sequence alone made the palms of my tightly-clasped hands sweat.

Simply a brilliant action movie spectacle - the ideal mix of brains and brawn.

More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead - The Definitive Return of the Living Dead Documentary (Bill Philputt, 2011)

2011-12-24T09:57:00.000-08:00

Dan O'Bannon's 1980s horror comedy The Return of the Living Dead is a hell of a fun ride. So resilient is it, and important to the pop culture of zombies, that the standard go-to rendition of a zombie (e.g. as represented in The Simpson's) is that of lurching, half-rotted, risen-freshly-from-the-grave monsters who scream out for "braaaiiins". Featuring a punk rock soundtrack and a fresh, young cast (adorned in various counter-culture outfits), Return of the Living Dead mixed grisly practical gore effects with sly humour - but, crucially, the jokes never came at the expense of the ensuing chaos.

While the sequels haven't exactly proved to be legendary, the original has really stuck around as a fan favourite. Part 2 over-egged the comedy at the expense of the horror with a weak script (although it did do well in that it brought back Thom Matthews and James Karen, and had some pretty nifty special effects at times). Part 3 - under the direction of splatter-meister Brian Yuzna - re-upped the horror quotient and made for a fun time. Then, unfortunately, came the exceptionally ill-judged fourth and fifth instalments (Necropolis, and Rave To The Grave) ... the less said about those, the better.

Now more than a quarter-of-a-century old, the original Return of the Living Dead has warranted a full-on documentary from Michael Perez Entertainment - who have previously presented us with a doc on the A Nightmare On Elm Street series titled Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (although, personally, I'm yet to see that one). Make no mistake, if you're a fan of this movie, then More Brains: A Return to the Living Dead, is an absolute must-own.

Bringing in all the surviving key players from the cast and crew, the doc meticulously pours over every facet of the production from concept to production, and ultimately exhibition. The interviews are frank, honest, and at times hilarious - more of which can be garnered from a series of deleted scenes (one of which is an eyebrow-raising tale of visiting real-life crematoriums), and a credit-roll gag reel - suffice to say, everything you would want to know about the movie is here.

What's more, this is no cheap production, corners haven't been cut or anything rushed. The presentation, from Carl Ramsey's cover art to the interviews themselves (featuring lovely background set design), is done with care and a great deal of attention, making this as equally visually impressive as it is illuminating. However, it's not all talking heads - behind-the-scenes video (captured in the days long before DVD, when such footage was rarely shot or preserved) crops up throughout, as well as hundreds of photographs revealing all from between-takes moments, to concept art, and the development of the special effects.

As if the main documentary, which runs for two whole hours, wasn't enough, we fans are treated to a further two hours of extra features. 50 minutes alone is dedicated to parts two and three, pulling in various members of the cast and crew from the respective productions, before we even get to the rest. Deleted scenes, a location tour, music video, trailers, 'ROTLD in 3 Minutes', and most poignantly of all - an in-depth on-camera interview with Writer/Director Dan O'Bannon, who sadly passed away in 2009.

If you haven't been convinced already then check out the trailer - otherwise, what the hell's wrong with you? If you're into this 80s horror black comedy fan favourite then you'll simply have to buy a copy - without a shadow of a doubt, it's well worth your time and money.

For more information, please visit - www.getmorebrains.com

Prometheus - the teaser trailer is finally here!

2011-12-22T11:52:00.000-08:00

Ridley Scott made a legendary name for himself with not one - but two - of the greatest and most respected science fiction movies ever made. In 1979 he gave us Alien, and then in 1982 we were gifted with Blade Runner (which was finally - seemingly at least - completed to his full satisfaction in 2007's "Final Cut").

Since then he's gone on to forge an impressive career to say the least - he's even now Sir Ridley Scott (and rightly so) - however he hasn't returned to the sci-fi world ... until now that is. I've felt that his directorial efforts in recent years have been lacking that something special. After a great double-whammy at the beginning of the millennium (with Gladiator and then Black Hawk Down), his output - to me at least - felt a bit lacking. Matchstick Men was decent, but not very memorable, Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood were of no interest to me personally, and American Gangster (very proficient as it was) just felt like any one of a large number of 'rise and fall of a criminal empire' movies that have come out in the last 20 to 30 years.

Now though we have Prometheus to look forward to in 2012. At first it was an Alien prequel (an exciting prospect on its own), but then the secretive project morphed into something else - something within the same universe, but something seemingly altogether different. For months, fanboys and fangirls have been giddy with excitement, and this newly released trailer (which was preceded by a three-day-long series of teasers) has certainly got me hot under the nerd collar.

They have themselves a tip-top cast, an incredible looking production, and seemingly a newly invigorated Sir Ridley Scott at the helm of the whole thing - indeed as the teaser-trailer teasers suggested, this is the happiest he's been behind the camera for a while now - and I for one can sense that already.

What's more we're apparently going to have a Blade Runner sequel to look forward to sometime in the future, also from Scott.

Anyway - enjoy the trailer and ride the fangasm!

Quadruple Bill Mini Musings: December 2011...

2011-12-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

Little Fockers:
With some of the cast having almost all of their scenes completely away from the actors, the dynamic that worked quite well in the previous film (Meet The Fockers) is mostly lost. It's no thinker by any stretch of the imagination, with some rather basic plot progression and even dunderheaded moments of character development/comedy ... it's all a bit underwhelming. There are some chuckles to be had for those familiar with the series, but if they plan on doing a fourth flick they'd better buck up their ideas after this.

Black Swan:
Darren Aronofsky's warped ballet flick is a wonderful mix of his over-the-shoulder style with the more strained psychological moments of films like Dario Argento's career-defining Suspiria, and David Cronenberg's entries into his own sub-category of 'body horror'. It wisely doesn't become ponderous and instead gets on with following Natalie Portman doing her absolute best to bring her ballerina crashing down into a pit of paranoia and perversion.

The Horseman:
This Australian indie horror makes for assuredly grim viewing, but intriguingly many of the worst moments of violence are left off-screen. More often than not we're witnesses to the brutal beginnings and creepy closings of violent sequences - it's a nice stylistic twist in this dark tale of a father who seeks to track down every last man who was involved in the porno production that preceded his daughter's untimely death. Disturbing and tense, but also shot with confidence, it makes for good genre viewing ... mind you, you might not be rushing back to see it any time too soon.

Dark Floors:
Otherwise known as 'The Lordi Movie' (aye, the horror rockers who are most widely known among the general populace for winning Eurovision a few years back), this is a turgid load of old cobblers. Missing the 'so bad it's good' mark by a country mile, it's just bad. The script is dull, the dialogue is cliched and boring, the plot makes absolutely no sense, there's a total lack of tension or suspense, and the inclusions of members of Lordi prove to be perfunctory and uninspired. For a flick as short as this, it doesn't half drag ... a bunch of people you don't give a stuff about randomly end up in some sort of hospital-bound hell, and all they do is traipse around all-too familiar corridors, briefly meet a member of Lordi, then run down to the next level to repeat the whole tedious exercise all over again. Unless you're a hardcore Lordi fan, don't even bother.

Triple Bill Mini Musings: December 2011...

2011-12-05T03:25:00.001-08:00

The Invisible Man Returns:
The sequel to James Whale's wonderfully dark, inventive, comedic, and sinister film doesn't share the same sense of style or horror perpetrated by Claude Rains' see-through scientist-turned-psycho. Here we find Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price) wrongly convicted for murder - and about to swing for it - escaping from prison with the help of Dr. Frank Griffin (the brother of Rains' scientist), and his imperfect scientific discovery, to which the antidote must be found post-haste. There's a knowing sense of humour, and some inventive special effects (continuing what was established before, but never really topping them), and the obligatory nostalgia factor - these classic horrors of the 1930s and 1940s are the early roots (but not the starting seeds) of the horror genre we all know and love today - but I think I'll stick with the first film.

Morning Glory:
Rachel McAdams is a struggling TV exec who scores a job running Daybreak - a dead-end morning show - and it's her job to turn the ratings around lest the show be cancelled and replaced by soap opera and gameshow re-runs. It's a breezy and frothy comedy of little consequence when all is said and done - Patrick Wilson's love interest is a thankless, throwaway part (although it's interesting that the gender roles are reversed in this instance), for example - but Harrison Ford plays to his strengths as a grizzled and grumpy 'real news man' drafted in as co-anchor due to his contract. He drinks, he mumbles, he has spats with Diane Keaton's female co-anchor, and it all works out how you'd imagine from the start. Easy chuckles and the warmth of the cosily familiar replace any potential caustic satire or drama that could have been wrung out of the premise, but it's a movie that's easy-to-enjoy, un-demanding, and of the comfort food variety.

Middle Men:
Luke Wilson is a problem solver - he fixes businesses - and he finds himself caught up in the world of being a pornography middle man, helping run 24/7 Billing, the company that invented the world of paying for porn on the internet. "Inspired by a true story" goes the opening title card, although how much of this crime comedy/drama is true and how much is false, who knows - although murder, a Russian gangster, and some sloppy records keeping seem like they could easily be both. It starts off with a strange mix of world-weary comedy and depressed hindsight, and continues on a slightly uneasy path between the humorously overt (Giovanni Ribisi's wide-eyed, coke-snorting, paranoid ideas man) and the thoughtfully introvert (Wilson's marital and moral problems). It's an interesting flick - if you like stories of suddenly gained vast wealth and all that goes with it, then you'll no doubt get a kick out of this (albeit not-too long-lasting) - and it certainly kicks off with a fast-paced, info-overload bang ... if you like the sound of it, why not give it a spin?

Flavours of the Month: November 2011...

2011-11-29T10:48:00.001-08:00

LOOKS:

The Walking Dead (Season 2, Part 1) - the best thing to happen to zombies since Romero's Day of the Dead in 1985, AMC's superb zombie drama (adapted from Robert Kirkman's deliciously dark comics series) continues apace despite the odd spell of behind-the-scenes trouble. The first half of the season has come to an end (the remaining six episodes will begin airing in February 2012), and it's been an excellent run of episodes. One thing though - bloody spoilers - some out there in the world of the interwebs have been annoyingly loose-lipped at times, and for us Brits that's been quite frustrating (we see the episodes five days after they air in America). Indeed one of the biggest shocks of the season was completely spoiled for me. Despite the minefield of spoilers though, many twists and turns were left un-spoiled, and it has been a very satisfying series of episodes. Now the desperate fanboy wait for February begins...

SOUNDS:

David Lynch - he recently released an album titled Crazy Clown Time, and while a number of the tracks weren't to my liking, several were: "Pinky's Dream", "So Glad", "Noah's Ark", "Football Game", "The Night Bell With Lightning", and "These Are My Friends".

Julee Cruise "Nightingale"

God Is An Astronaut "Forever Lost"

Alice Cooper - I've respected his music and dabbled in it for quite a while now, but after seeing his 2011 Halloween concert on Sky Arts, I've been seeking out some of his albums at long, long last.

Blink182 "Neighborhoods" - their new album takes me back to my formative years when "Take Off Your Pants And Jacket" was practically on an endless loop at the Sixth Form.

Daft Punk "Tron Legacy Reconfigured" - a number of the tracks are utter tosh (a lazy, generic, ill-fitting dance beat that occasionally halts to drop a bit of the original track to quality for the compilation), but others are terrific remixes: "Derezzed" by The Glitch Mob, "Fall" by M83 & Big Black Delta, "The Son Of Flynn" by Moby, "Encom Part 2" by Com Truise, "End Of Line" by Photek, and "End Of Line" by Tame Impala are the stand-outs for me.

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

The Walking Dead Vol. 7 & 8 - I'm forever trying to catch up with the comics, and this is as far as I've got so far. No spoilers for those who haven't got to this point, but bloody nora is volume 8 a memorable one!

Illness - this autumn/winter season I've had this bizarre muscular/nervous flu which roams around various parts of the body. Aches, pains, headaches, exhaustion, stiff joints, sharp pains - and all on a constant rotation around my body for at least a couple of weeks. Fortunately it seems to have all gone, but what a weird one.

Homefront - it's not the most polished example of an FPS out there, and the ludicrously short single player campaign (3.5 hours from start-to-ruddy-finish!) has a few stumbles and design faults, but the central conceit of a Unified Korea occupying America in a bleak near-future is still quite interesting. Hopefully Crytek will fully crack it for the apparent sequel that they're working on.

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky - so far I'm half way through this very dense piece of horror fiction set in the unforgiving Russian subway system in a post-apocalyptic world. At times it's a little too slow paced, and the author's style isn't particularly fond of paragraph breaks, but the world of the Metro is vividly depicted with a complete overview of the socio-political situation down there in the dark, danger-infested tunnels.

Saints Row The Third - while Crib customisation has all-but been removed in favour of new features, this third entry in the once sub-GTA franchise is easily the best of the three. The sloppy coding, gameplay, and balancing of Saints Row 2 are gone (mercifully), and in their place is a very solid and very enjoyable game. I've only encountered a couple of small glitches along the way such as the odd texture issue, no max-speed sound effect for any of the vehicles, or the odd roadblock on the occasional mission - but the latter have easily been remedied by starting again from the most recent checkpoint. I'm about 3/4 of the way through at the moment and it's pretty much a vast improvement across the board - the plot is tighter and actually interesting this time (if not particularly meaningful - but that wouldn't fit in anyway), the gameplay is tight and enjoyable, the in-game cell phone is perfectly formed for handling all your upgrade, mission, map, contact, and monetary needs, and the high level of utter daftness is most welcome. Professor Ghenki's Super Ethical Reality Climax (one of the many activities you can take part in) is a particularly good example of the sort of barmy fun you can have with this game. Well worth your time and money!

Pentuple Bill Mini Musings: November 2011...

2011-11-24T05:01:00.001-08:00

The Exterminator:
This 1980s exploitation action flick got somewhat caught up in the 'video nasties' era here in the UK, but save for a few violent moments (such as a tremendous decapitation in the action-packed, explosions-galore opening five minutes) there's not an awful lot here to get your knickers in a twist about.

A Vietnam veteran takes to the meanstreets of New York City to sweep away the scum - the gang members, the pimps, the abusers, and so forth - in revenge for the terrible fate that befalls his good friend. After an impressively realised and explosive Nam-set opener, the movie quickly falters - the pace is all over the shop, the plot has an inconsistent focus, and the side characters are loosely considered. There are numerous great ideas littered throughout this revenge flick, including a vaguely explored governmental conspiracy, that could have (and should have) added up to a much tighter and more entertaining action picture - but alas it's not to be, especially with an underwhelming denouement that fails to provide a knock-out punch (let alone utilise the impressive arsenal that two main characters are seen packing).

Great ideas and great moments are lost in a disappointing murk. If you're into this kind of movie it's worth a watch, but unless it specifically hooks you, it'll mostly fade into the ether of your memory.

Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House:
As a kid I was a big fan of the Tom Hanks comedy The Money Pit (and I still am to this day) - and it was this Cary Grant-starring comedy that provided the foundations for it. Grant plays an Ad Executive in 1948 New York who dreams of a family home in rural Conneticut and, like an episode of Grand Designs, his dream project soon takes on a life of its own. The budget spirals, problems galore arise during the build, and it all becomes a bit of a stress. Naturally I prefer The Money Pit - as it's been a part of film-viewing life for as long as I can remember - but it was good to see this. The pace might be a bit sedate, and the comedy a touch on the soft-delivery side of things, but it was good fun nonetheless.

Island of Death:
One of the lesser known (yet still notorious) 'Video Nasties', Island of Death is a Biblically immoral tale of an incestuous couple spreading their wrath throughout the Greek island of Mykonos. Goats, amorous Frenchmen, homosexuals, randy old spinsters, the most pointless policeman on the planet, and anyone else going feel the wrath of this pair of misfits whose motives are - at best - foggy. The love-it-or-hate-it soundtrack works jarringly against-the-grain of the on-screen sadism, and it lacks any real sense of propulsion or purpose, but if you're fascinated by the era of the video nasty, then it's worth a look ... mind you, I'm quite glad I saw it on the Horror Channel instead of spending any money on it. To me at least, it's a one-watch-pony.

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou:
As I've said before, over the last year I've suddenly gotten into Wes Anderson's brand of quirky ensemble comedies. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited, and now this - a similarly inimitable telling of Bill Murry's titular sea explorer who discovers he has an adult son just as he's about to set off on a voyage to track down the apparent Jaguar Shark that ate his best friend and collegue. It's exactly what I'd expect from a Wes Anderson film, although out of the aforementioned movies of his that I have seen, this would be at the bottom of the list for me personally - but that said, the bottom of this list is still quite high up in general.

Identity:
A cast full of names - including John Cusack (so as I continue to maintain, it's already worth watching simply for that fact) - populate this very effective, and incredibly fast paced mystery thriller. A series of people find themselves all trapped at a Motel in the midst of a torrential storm, and they're getting picked off one-by-one by an unseen killer. The reveal becomes apparent before its time and should have been hidden better for longer, but regardless, it's a stylish, efficient and very worthwhile thriller delivered by a talented cast and crew. It's one of those flicks I meant to see when it first came out in 2003, but for whatever reason I never got around to it - well I'm glad I finally did, because it's damn well worth a watch.

So now what?

2011-11-16T09:13:00.000-08:00

With copies of the script and copies of treatments sent off to production companies for "Allen Bridge", I figured it was about time to head back to "Summer Road".

I learned a lot from writing Summer Road (both in terms of the actual process of writing, but also from the feedback I received from the BBC Writersroom) and then of course writing Allen Bridge (as detailed in 30 blog posts) was a great writing experience from which I was able to not only learn an awful lot more - but apply what I'd already learned from past experiences.

So, having found new avenues to submit scripts to, I'm going to head back to this comedy/drama script and do a full-on re-write. I'm still proud of the script, but having learned so much since, I can see a whole array of opportunities to improve upon it - and hopefully, being that so much of the work is done (i.e. adapting an existing script, not starting from the very beginning again) it won't take too long to complete this revamping project.

...

On the side I've also got numerous ideas flooding in for an as-yet-untitled drama/horror script that I have in mind - I'd really like to write something that comes in at a tight 90 pages, and return to the horror genre (the BBC Writersroom don't accept horror scripts, but some of the new companies accepting scripts that I've found do accept genre fare) ... so that's what I have in mind for after the Summer Road re-write.

The Walkie Talkie Dead...

2011-11-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

It's all about The Walking Dead at the moment as season two continues to kick mucho arse, so with that in mind here's a video that a fellow poster over on Homepage of the Dead linked to that I found utterly hilarious:

I've since subscribed to their channel and watched all of their videos - they're fantastic - you should check them out.

The only downsides to season two of TWD? The intrusive amount of adverts on FXUK, and the fact that us Brits have to wait until the following Friday to see each new episode - five tense spoiler-avoiding days ... but nevertheless, I'm absolutely loving the second season!

Double Bill Mini Musings: A Double Dose of David...

2011-11-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

Inland Empire:
As if Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive melded together and birthed a rabbit-headed Polish baby with a penchant for industrialised zones and the murky unknown. Perhaps Lynch's most cryptic outing as a director, Inland Empire is a shot-on-miniDV mixture of old and new ground - similar themes from films past, present themselves along a path that is distinctly non-linear; one that is experimental.

An actress wins a role on a cursed film - one that was already abandoned once before when titled 4-7 - and soon finds her sense of reality breaking down. She inverts on her own life, confuses her past and present, becomes more than one version of herself (and possibly so for the character she is playing in the film), and goes through a protracted and twisted nightmare ... most specifically during the middle-hour of this three-hour journey.

By comparison, Mulholland Drive is a relatively straight-forward tale told in an unusual way ... although I think that could be said of Lynch's work in general - to an extent - in that, perhaps, his work appears to be more weird because of Lynch's particularly unique outlook and approach to his art. The central mystery of Mulholland Drive was the unravelling of a dream ... meanwhile Inland Empire is an altogether different beast. Lynch's experience making the film was one of discovery as he himself has stated - it began as one thing and developed over time into a whole other thing. Disparate scenes and ideas slowly and intricately began to fuse together to form an extremely complex whole.

To understand the whole film would be to miss the point - the mystery is the journey and the journey is the mystery - indeed, quite possibly, Inland Empire might be impossible to understand in its entirety. There is most definitely a plot snaking around the non-linear pacing of the scenes, and each viewer will grasp onto certain themes and images in their own way, and as such this is quite possibly Lynch's most interpretable film to date.

Red lamps, strobe lighting, doorways, nightmares, dreams, alternate/inverted realities, multiple personalities/identities, curious and threatening figures, the dark underbellies of seemingly stable lives and situations ... all are combined throughout this curious, enchanting, haunting, disturbing, unsettling, experimental digital world.

Lynch (one):
Shot during the production of Inland Empire, this documentary follows filmmaker David Lynch around in his life. Pockets of stories are left scattered around the running time like discarded cigarette butts on Lynch's office floor; snippets of behind-the-scenes moments from the making of Lynch's most recent film are diced between photography sessions in abandoned factories, one-sided phone calls, and the bookends of various unidentified moments. For Lynch fans, it's well worth checking out - it's a window into the world of Lynch; simultaneously strange and straight-forward.

Double Bill Mini Musings: Junkies and Demons...

2011-11-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

Half Nelson:
I remember there was a lot of talk about this movie when it came out in 2006 - much of which was focused entirely on Ryan Gosling's arresting performance. All I knew about it was that it featured a teacher who happened to be a drug addict; however I never got around to seeing it until now. Sure enough, Ryan Gosling plays a teacher/druggie who bumbles about in a distracted haze ... one minute he's teaching his inner city students about change and opposing forces, the next he's smoking crack. He strikes up a sort of friendship with one of his students - the niece of a drug dealer - and so begins a meandering, distracted, and sometimes sparse film which is at times brilliant, but is at other times either politically blunt or just downright boring. If it wasn't for Gosling's performance, I'm not sure if the film would have even half of the plaudits it was garnered with a few years back ... however, if you muddle your way through the parts of the film that feel unintentionally lost, there are numerous moments that make the journey worthwhile - moments filled with unspoken pathos and deft direction. It's just a shame it can often feel as distracted and directionless as its protagonist.

Night of the Demons (2010):
I've never seen the original movie, so I can't say anything about this remake in those terms, however what I can say is this; it's ideal bloke's night-in fodder. Never mind that the script gets increasingly weak throughout the 90 minute running time, there's a load of gore, boobs, and nice production design on-the-go ... not that the latter will particularly be on the mind of the members of a beer and pizza session, but it certainly helps raise this above cheaper fare. Shannon Elizabeth (American Pie), Monica Keena (Freddy vs. Jason), and Diora Baird (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning), offer up the bloke-friendly eye candy, while Edward Furlong (yes, John Connor from Terminator 2) dishes out plenty of wry sarcasm. Add in some nifty gore moments, and you've got a decent exploitation flick - it's all about the gore and the boobs and nothing more - it's no genre classic by any stretch of the imagination, and certainly won't linger long in your memory banks, but for lad's night-in fodder it's worth a punt. Again, having not seen the original, I can't comment on how it compares to the original - but it is what it is - stylishly presented buxom babes and gushing grue.

Flavours of the Month: October 2011...

2011-10-30T04:12:00.000-07:00

LOOKS:

Boardwalk Empire Season 2 - the return of HBO's critically and commercially successful period drama is most welcome.

An Idiot Abroad 2 - Karl Pilkington's jetting off around the world again, this time moaning his way through a bucket list. At times cringe-inducing, at others utterly hilarious.

Family Guy and American Dad on BBC Three - repeats galore, but I've often found myself switching over after eleven to catch back-to-back double bills.

The Big Bang Theory on E4 - now that Friends has moved to Comedy Central, E4 have been pushing new shows, as well as existing ones on their roster. It seems that The Big Bang Theory is their new big name, and I've found myself routinely catching the re-run double bills after midnight. I've been watching the show for a few years now, but this is the first time I'm going back over old episodes of this excellent sitcom.

The Walking Dead Season 2 - months of waiting, filled with fanboy speculation and fevered forum banter, have all led up to this point; the return of AMC's superior undead drama. Friday nights on FXUK - it's all about Rick Grimes leading his not-so-merry band of survivors through the undead apocalypse. Recently renewed for a third season, I'm very glad indeed to have this masterful show back on their air (despite a few behind-the-scenes troubles along the way).

SOUNDS:

Phoenix "Love Like A Sunset Part 1 & 2" - as heard on the soundtrack for Sophia Coppola's sparse film Somewhere.

Rob Zombie - numerous albums and remixes.

Tool - Ænima, Lateralus, and 10,000 Days.

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl Soundtrack - ideal atmospheric moods for finishing off my latest script.

M83 "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" - the highly anticipated return of the 1980s-inspired nostalgia and love-tinged moods of the French shoegazer.

David Lynch - "Ghost of Love", "Polish Poem" & "Real Love" (with Chrysta Bell), and "Dark Night of the Soul" (with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse)

Wye Oak "Civilian" - as heard during the trailer for season two of The Walking Dead.

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Unusually warm weather - the month got off to a somewhat curious start which found me washing my car in bright sunshine and shorts. We're back on track though - the winter socks, long-sleeved shirts, and winter duvet have come out of hiding.

"Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th" by Peter M. Bracke - I finished off this excellent book. If you're a fan of the Friday the 13th franchise, then I highly recommend you treat yourself to this.

Allen Bridge - this month saw me complete my drama/mystery script (as detailed in numerous blog posts over the months), which I'm currently submitting to some companies for consideration. Hopefully this challenging and rewarding creative venture bears fruit.

"Allen Bridge" blog #30...

2011-10-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

The script is complete (Draft 2.2 - 115 pages in length) and has been submitted to the BBC Writersroom this week. Furthermore, I'm sending out synopses/treatments to some production companies who are open to screenwriters like me - namely those who are unrepresented and don't have the help of industry contacts to fall back on.

Hopefully Allen Bridge - a challenging and rewarding creative venture - will bear fruit.

Finally, in drawing this series of blog posts to a close, below is a picture of all the notes and research (as well as the first draft) that went into creating Allen Bridge. Countless pages and countless hours - but I'm very proud indeed of the final product. It was most definitely worth it.

Oh and by-the-way, this is blog post #700.

Double Bill Mini Musings: Creepy kids, and long distances...

2011-10-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

Wake Wood:
Seemingly from the company that owns Hammer, but not directly from the famous studio themselves, this UK chiller comes from the tradition of such 'creepy folk in a creepy rural town' films as The Wicker Man. In a somewhat rushed intro, we find a young couple have moved to the titular town after the death of their daughter - however, one night they discover that all is not as it seems in Wake Wood. A ceremony in which the dead can be brought temporarily back to life is overseen by the townsfolk - and rather readily accepted by the couple.

Wake Wood is a decent chiller, however the main problem with it is that the protagonists are all-too-ready to accept quite a far-fetched ritual as actually possible. There's no "you're a nutter, what are you on about?" period of disbelief or even mockery - in fact they hop on-board with ease. Indeed the general pace of the film feels too rushed - we don't have enough time to really get to know the central couple, nor their circumstances in life, nor the town of Wake Wood itself. A creeping sense of realisation - a build up to a shocking discovery - is sorely missing.

The premise is a good one, and while it does occasionally stray unsuitably into gore-flick territory, and the score is at times intrusive or against the grain, it's an admirable effort. Despite being in too much of a rush, not exploring the other residents, and the town itself, to the extent that it should have, there is definitely something there to dig up for fans of The Wicker Man - and other such fare.

Going The Distance:
I wasn't all that interested in seeing this, but I caught a couple of minutes of it on Sky Movies when flicking around - and I quickly found myself chuckling. So over to Sky Anytime it was, and I gave this Drew Barrymore/Justin Long romcom a spin - and in short, I enjoyed it quite a bit. A pleasant surprise was the script - it was breezy, bright, and appealed effortlessly to both male and female demographics at different times, and in different ways, throughout. It even has a dirty mind at times - but not in a sleazy or gross way - and what's more the actors all fit together well ... indeed, Barrymore & Long's real-life relationship shines through to afford their characters a sense of truth that you don't often find in romcoms.

Although there are romcoms, and then there's this which - as I've already said - effortlessly appeals to men and women simultaneously, but also appeals to the different sides within each gender. Relationship drama, career woes, gross-out male banter, frank sex talk, and some genuinely hilarious (and well performed) moments (see the impromptu moment of passion on the dinner table) - it's all catered for. Going The Distance is surprisingly rather well crafted, and properly entertaining to boot.

Quadruple Bill Mini Musings: Cute CGI, Intriguing Cusack, Tense Clooney, and Superfluous Remake...

2011-10-22T06:12:00.000-07:00

Despicable Me:
Animated fun that's not from Pixar, but still pretty darn good. Pixar are more capable of mining emotional depths (see the tenth minute of Up, or the entire third act of Toy Story 3), but Despicable Me proves successful at all things cute and sweet with some nice moments of comedy thrown in. An evil genius, who isn't especially successful, sets out to steal the moon but finds himself learning there's more to life than shrink rays and getting a loan from the Bank of Evil. Not as consistently hilarious as some other non-Pixar fare (such as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs), but it's easily on-par with (if not a little ahead of) Monsters vs Aliens.

Pushing Tin:
As I've said before, if it's got John Cusack in it then it's worth seeing - and the rule continues unbroken. Cusack plays an air traffic controller, the best in fact, who finds himself getting into a deep battle of egos with Billy Bob Thornton's rogue hotshot, and managing to screw up his entire life in the process - not helped by Angelina Jolie's temptress. The middle portion loses some of the heat of the early part of the flick (where air traffic control scenes are paced like an action movie), but it's an intriguing light-hearted drama.

The American:
From the director of Control comes a meticulous, slow-paced tension-builder. George Clooney plays an assassin and master craftsmen (of sniper rifles) on the run from those who want him dead. Holed up in a remote Italian town, he finds himself falling for a local red-light girl - but will he manage to outrun the hounds that seek to hunt him down? The trailer made it look more like an action film, but it's not - what it actually is, is a tense waiting game. While it doesn't particularly tread any unique ground, it's an interesting effort.

Let Me In:
Remakes are dime-a-dozen at the moment (and have been since 2003's re-tread of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and if they're not remakes they're reboots, prequels, or English-language makeovers. Sometimes it's a worthwhile endeavour, but more often than not you come away with something that was at best benign, and at worst so bad that it actually spits in the face of the superior original. Let The Right One In was a fantastic little gem - and certainly helped by not being an Americanised exercise in seen-it-all-before sameness - it had a strong character all its own.

The English-language re-do however, is practically a shot-for-shot copy at times, and certainly doesn't stray at all far from the established path. I found myself watching it thinking "oh yeah, it's this bit; next it'll be that part", and while it's sensitively directed and stays true to the pacing and atmosphere of the original (thank god it wasn't all nu-metal, tween emos, product placement, and Michael Bay-style dunderheadedness), it just doesn't feel like there's much point in it existing. Why watch this when the superior original is right there, and if you've seen the original, you'll find this to be a copy with softer edges. It's faithful, but it feels scared to explore alternate territory - although the scenes of a bin-bag-headed killer hiding in the back seats of cars does make for genuinely tense and well-directed moments. If this was an original, it'd be very good indeed, but the problem is that it's not - Let The Right One In exists, and if you're going to watch a version of this story, watch the original.

The original; with it's sparse dialogue, reliance on meaningful looks, pregnant silences, and explosions of brief-but-spectacularly-memorable moments of violence, is very worthwhile seeing. This Americanised version - which admirably brought Hammer back to the scene - feels sadly pointless. Talented individuals made a good film - but an unavoidable problem looms large - in the shadow of Let The Right One In, Let Me In is simply superfluous.

"Allen Bridge" blog #29...

2011-10-19T11:00:00.001-07:00

As I near the end of the writing process (I'm ostensibly on the final go-through, on page 87 of 116) I thought it would be interesting to list some of the music that has provided some of the consistent backdrop to the writing process of Allen Bridge - so, without further ado:

Angelo Badalamenti, David Lynch, Julee Cruise, and Blue Bob - various soundtracks and collaborations

The Black Angels "Passover" and "Directions To See A Ghost" (albums)

Daft Punk "Tron Legacy" (album)

Donovan "Hurdy Gurdy Man" (track)

Godspeed You Black Emperor "Moya" (track)

Hans Zimmer "Journey To The Line" (track)

Ingram Marshall "Fog Tropes" (track)

Krzysztof Penderecki "Symphony No.3 Passacaglia - Allegro Moderato" (track)

Max Richter "On The Nature Of Daylight" (track)

Michael Giacchino "Life And Death" (track)

MoozE/Frey Vladimir "STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl" (album)

Petri Alanko "Alan Wake" (album)

Roy Orbison "In Dreams" (track)

Rob Zombie - various, but particularly "Educated Horses", and "Hellbilly Deluxe 2" (albums)

Tool - "Æenema", "Lateralus", and "10,000 Days" (albums)

Some of these are more recent entries, while others have been frequently played for months, and naturally there will be some other albums and songs that have filled in here and there along the way. Some of the music - such as Rob Zombie or Tool - is suited to powering through the re-drafting process at times, while other stuff - such as Daft Punk's soundtrack to Tron Legacy - can fulfil that requirement, but also act as a good atmospheric inspiration ... and then there are other examples - such as the Badalamenti/Lynch/Cruise stuff, or Petri Alanko's Alan Wake soundtrack, or MoozE's soundtrack to STALKER - that are excellent inspirations for a particular mood.

I found that writing Draft 1.1 and 1.2 were more suited to the music that provided me with a particular atmosphere or mood (sometimes I would play particular tracks at particular points in the script - to write/read along to a specific track). Then when it came to Draft 2.1 and 2.2 it was more about powering through changes and tweaks, but also adding new content, and as such there was a fluid mix between atmospheric stuff and hard rock/metal.

In terms of inspiration for Allen Bridge in general, it was always - from my very first thought - more about capturing a particular type of mood, rather than anything else (well, apart from telling a good mystery that had the potential to chill as well as enthrall). Therefore, music was the perfect inspiration for the script, and while there were certain films that inspired me - it was always from the standpoint of a particular mood that it successfully protrayed, and not the content it offered - and even then all the inspiration was just to get me into a particular head space. Quite quickly I found myself never consciously thinking about any particular film, television show, book, campfire tale, or whatever you fancy.

I was fortunate to find that Allen Bridge itself ended up inspiring Allen Bridge, by which I mean, the established parts of the story (initially scenes from a half-remembered dream) would lead to a new scene, then a new character, then a new backstory, and then new scenes and characters and yet more backstories from there. It was like deciphering a film - or a dream of a film - inside my head, and down on paper, from a jumbled order so that I could discover an organised and complete entity at the end of it all.

Progress wise, as I said, it's tantalisingly close to completion - I've reached the stage where I'm feeling confident that it is ready to be submitted, the point where the story and the plot feel strong like stone ... a point where it flows satisfyingly from one scene to the next and can inspire surprise, chills, and further questions. At this stage I can so vividly see the script inside my head as a film - and even if I do say so myself - I think it'd make a good one.

"Allen Bridge" blog #28...

2011-10-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

It's back to page 1 again as I make another tour through the script - this time with an eye to trimming as many unnecessary words as possible. I particularly want to trim Act I, as for a while now it's culminated on page 34 - although on the very first draft, it did so on page 44, so cutting out 10 pages worth was quite good in itself. However, Act I should end on page 30 - and right now I've got it ending part way into page 33, so it is crawling back somewhat. If I can't get it any further than page 31 or part way into page 32, so-be-it, I'm not going to cut stuff just for a page number - but it would be quite nice if I was able to manage this little feat of editing.

As for the rest of the script, particular focus will be on the newly added content, and especially the dialogue-heavy sequences found in Act II and the denouement. They might be heavy with dialogue, but they're also heavy with information and thematic imagery, it's not just empty words. However, if there are lines that aren't needed, they'll come out.

It's also interesting to go through my bullet points for this re-drafting process. The vast majority have been met, but there's the odd one that's much more obscure to include. For example, thinking of having the character of Jeanie - the owner and operator of the town's cafe - to be somewhat flirtatious with D.C.I. Ryman ... and while I've added a little detail here and there to suggest the possibility of an attraction, in this particular case it's not something you can really write in - if anything it'd be a piece of between-the-lines performance/motivation for the actors.

Furthermore, in all my notes on the script dating back to the very first ideas, little thoughts of things like Ryman having a broad vocabulary haven't quite fed in as much as I'd initially thought. He certainly speaks in a way that sits apart from other characters, but due to some of the stuff he has to talk about, Harland Mumper has become the character whose dialogue has a very individual ring to it. Ryman has become verbally more direct, while Harland has become verbally more inventive. Small things, almost infinitesimal things, can shift when it actually comes the time to put fingers-to-keyboard ... it's all a part of the evolution of the script.

Finally, after having spent so much time (when I'm not busy with other things) over so many months now, I'm really ready to see this script finished. Around this time in a project there is a sense of fatigue that you have to battle against - you don't want to say "ah screw it, that'll do", but you also don't want to needlessly and ridiculously nitpick over every single shred until it becomes a muddled mess - at some point you have to say "no, it's finished now" and release it so that it can be looked at by the necessary people.

As I often say "it'll be what it'll be" - the key is to do everything you can reasonably do, within the skill set and knowledge you possess at the time, to make it the best product you can, under the circumstances within which you're working. A dedicated approach, but also a practical one.

"Allen Bridge" blog #27...

2011-10-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

I've been through the script from start-to-finish, word-for-word, applying as many tweaks as possible along the way. That was Draft 2.1, so now we're onto Draft 2.2 - this is where I can hop around all over the script applying anything that I missed on the list of changes, or didn't quite nail down as required.

I can now focus on a specific issue at a time, applying all the necessary tweaks here and there as I need them - for example, it could be a single sentence of dialogue added to close a minor plot hole, or it could be adapting a piece of action or discovered information in Act II after having added some clarification (or done some more exploration of a theme) in Act III.

Right now there's a lot of effort going into the Act III denouement - there's a lot of loose ends to tie up in a way that makes enough sense to the reader (as opposed to me - who knows all of the back story and detail found in my notes, but which are not necessarily fully in the script's pages), while at the same time not just spelling every damned thing out like it's nursery school.

This is a mystery after all, and with plenty of characters (all of whom have back stories) and the expansive history of the eponymous town on offer, it's best to leave enough things open to allow numerous smaller/side mysteries to linger in the mind of the reader. The main bases have to be covered, but beyond that it's best to suggest further avenues in the story as opposed to the plot - the latter covers everything between the first and last pages of the script, while the former concerns that and everything that is off-screen before, during, and after what is written on the page.

So at the moment it's a case of layering on further levels of intricacies to the plot and the story - things get a little more detailed and sewn-together with every session of writing - and it's a satisfying thing to jump back and forth to pick out small subtleties that need a little polish, which link to other parts of the script, which then in-turn link to other thematic elements. It's like a million-piece jigsaw puzzle that's almost complete save for a patch of blue sky.

Looking forward though, I'm hoping to get Allen Bridge finished this month and sent off to the BBC Writersroom ASAP - after which I'll also see about submitting it to some of the companies that I recently discovered who accept scripts from writers such as myself.

Progress is good - it's going well - and it's tantalisingly close to completion with each passing day.

Double Bill Mini Musings: Pretentious and Exploitative?

2011-10-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

Somewhere:
From Sofia Coppola (who gave us the excellent Lost In Translation) comes something a bit familiar, albeit with a script that must have been as thin as a postage stamp, and lots of not much happening within a structure that has little care for the intricacies of the three acts, or inciting incidents, or what have you.

That said, if you are able to get into a sort of semi-drowsy state and just let the lack of much of anything happening wash over you, then you can kind of get into it. A directionless actor bums around at the Chateau Marmont in L.A. watching pole dancers until he falls asleep, and then his daughter turns up ... cue a series of roughly scripted scenes where suddenly this actor who lacks meaning, has a purpose in life ... then it sort of ends (in a way that could easily be seen as pretentious, rather than evocative - evocative like the how far superior Lost In Translation did with that haunting soundtrack and unheard whisper). Nothing amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but fans of sparse atmospheric filmmaking and shoegaze/indie music should be able to find something on offer here. However, many might very well find it all a bit scant and pretentious ... it's all in the eye of the beholder ultimately.

Savage Streets:
Directed by Danny Steinmann (who went on shortly after to call the shots on Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning), this lurid exploitationer concerns a girl gang who manage to piss off the wrong group of troublesome young men. Seeking revenge, the male gang rapes (and puts into a coma) the deaf/mute sister of Linda Blair's fiery high school senior (played by genre icon Linnea Quigley) ... big mistake ... that is after the flick goes a little bit off-the-boil, but once Blair straps on the leather and has a crossbow clenched in her mits, it picks up again. Stylish, sleazy (see the extensive, soapy, shower sequence early on that tosses in a soaking wet, semi-clad girl fight for good measure), and decidedly eighties (in a good way), it's actually a pretty solid revenge pic. Worth seeing for fans of such fare, or indeed followers of Linda Blair.

What Have They Done To Your Daughters? (Massimo Dallamano, 1974): DVD Review...

2011-10-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

This early 1970s giallo has a bigger bark than bite - it appears to be more lurid, judging by the cover art (in Shameless' signature gaudy yellow), than it actually is. While Strip Nude For Your Killer (1975) was as sleazy as you'd expect, Daughters takes a different route and focuses much more on the police investigation aspect - that is oftentimes overshadowed by the easier to market themes of sex and violence.

A rich school girl is discovered hanged in a loft apartment - a girl who is evidently no stranger to carnal activities - and so begins an investigation that leads to the discovery of a secretive, high-end prostitution ring that specialises for those seeking underage exploitation. There are times when the film appears to have quite serious pretensions of addressing a horrific fact of life, albeit in the vein of an occasionally gruesome murder mystery. Indeed, by the end of the film, the underlying cynicism of Ettore Sanzo and Massimo Dallamano's script really comes to the fore to point a finger at the grim realities of political corruption - how thousands of missing teenagers are simply ignored by the system.

So while it might disappoint some of those seeking more exploitative fare, it does compensate in spades with a pretty strong police procedural story (relatively speaking, at least) mixed with elements of murder mystery and even action. A notable high point in the film is an impressive chase sequence that appears to throw caution to the wind in a somewhat guerrilla filmmaking style. The police chase a leather-clad, cleaver-wielding motorcyclist at high speed through the streets and - seemingly at least - genuinely catch unaware bystanders by surprise, which only adds to the thrilling riskiness of the chase.

Compared to Strip Nude For Your Killer, the direction and photography aren't quite as tight or quite as beautiful, but nevertheless Franco Delli Colli's cinematography provides a constant stream of impressive compositions, while Dallamano keeps the spotlight shining directly on the police investigation - indeed, considering some aspects of the plot, it makes an awful lot of sense to take the higher road. One stand-out contribution above them all, however, is Stelvio Cipriani's score - particularly "La Polizia Sta A Guardare" (as heard during the climactic chase sequence in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof) - which adds a sense of propulsion that nicely compliments the procedural aspects of the plot.

Shameless Screen Entertainment's DVD makes for a solid presentation. The film looks about as good as you can hope for - this not being a 'big name giallo' like The Bird With The Crystal Plumage - yet the clean-but-still-grainy 2.35:1 print (in anamorphic widescreen) actually helps compound the grittier elements of the plot. A series of trailers for other releases, and a reversible sleeve round out the package.

For those with a penchant for 1970s giallo, this is definitely a worthy and intriguing entry in the genre. A mixture of mystery, horror, action, and thriller with a healthy dose of cynicism that makes for a strong and enjoyable viewing experience.

"Allen Bridge" blog #26...

2011-10-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

I'm ploughing through the script - now up to page 73 (of 114) - which puts me just before the triple-whammy finish of Act II. The first Act remains in need of a little trim-down, but Act II and Act III can both easily afford a few extra pages of exploration - which is nice.

The biggest change at the moment is concerning Miller's back story - a certain piece of his past and how it connects with the town itself. It's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle at the moment. You have to find the right points in which to put the right pieces of additional information.

Another thing I'm keeping an eye on throughout this re-drafting is removing/softening anything that could give away anything a bit too soon, be it a plot point, or someone's motivations. It's all a balancing act at the moment, where you are simultaneously viewing the script from afar as one 'finished' piece, and from very close up as you place small bits of this-and-that here-and-there.

"Allen Bridge" blog #25...

2011-10-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

Draft 2.1 is underway - but getting into gear was a tad tricky. When you've been out of the way of writing for a little while it can be hard to get into that mode again - so I decided to ease into it slowly, applying a few cursory changes throughout the entire script to 'get my hand in' again.

However, as I've said before, oftentimes it's just a case of double-clicking that icon - that simple task is surprisingly a hurdle in itself - but once you're into the software, your brain suddenly thinks "well, seeing as I'm here" ... and off you go.

I'm currently at the end of Act I in the re-drafting process and the page count for the entire script has jumped a couple of pages (mostly due to a handful of extra lines that pushed everything beyond it down a notch or two) and it's going well so far. Although I do still aim to trim down Act I as it's still a little bit on the long side - but I think that'll have to wait for Draft 2.2 for now.

There haven't been any major changes thus far, and there's unlikely to be - it's more clarifying smaller elements, enhancing certain aspects of certain back stories, tweaking dialogue, and seeking the perfect balance of how the mystery itself plays out (walking a fine line in search of a perfect balance between giving away enough to suggest various possibilities, but not so much that you allow someone to figure out something important ahead of time).

That said, some small changes can require plenty of time and thought to go into what is relatively speaking only a few lines of dialogue, or the tone of someone's action at a specific moment in a scene. One of the larger changes though is to do with part of Miller's back story, which will provide a tighter additional reason for him being in Allen Bridge in the first place and why he's so inexplicably drawn to the place. This change is really a further exploration of an element that was already present in the first draft, but one which kind of ended up in the background - but when you're piecing together an entire script with multiple characters, back stories, and histories, it's bound to happen ... that's what re-drafting is for, anyway.

So far so good, and I have to say I'm very proud of this script. Without a doubt in my mind, it's the strongest thing I've written, and is easily one of the most satisfying writing experiences I've ever had.

Flavours of the Month: September 2011...

2011-09-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

LOOKS:

The A-Team (Blu-Ray) - still rather good fun. After a year or more of thinking the movie would suck, when I actually got to see it in the cinema last year I had a really good time, and it still is a good time. I'm not sure whether they will or not, but I would welcome a sequel.

Fast Five (Blu-Ray) - I never bothered with the second or third movie in the franchise (I saw clips and didn't like what I saw), and I found the fourth movie to be a bit underwhelming, but this fourth sequel was a bloody great time at the movies, and it continues to be so on home video (although goodness knows what the additional one minute of content is). Blisteringly enjoyable big-scale mainstream action.

Dangerous Roads (BBC2) - three episodes, three pairings of household British names (comedians and adventurers), and three distinctly treacherous journeys. In the absence of a new Boorman/McGregor adventure, this satiates the appetite a bit.

Carnivale - I missed this curious-and-rather-good show the first time around, but thanks to Sky Atlantic I've been catching up, and this month saw the first season draw to a close ... and what a closer it was! Cliffhanger central, so it was, with shocking twists galore edited together incredibly effectively to Hans Zimmer's "Journey to the Line".

Fresh Meat - a new comedy created by the blokes who gave us Peep Show, detailing the off-campus lifestyle of a bunch of first year uni students. I'm quite enjoying it, and not just because it's giving me flashbacks of my own time living off campus - mind you, our gaff was far smaller and decidedly more of a health hazard (bed bugs, persistent mold, and a bathroom that was cleaned so few times in two years that you could count them on one hand ... at the time we didn't seem to mind, yet the further from it I get, the more disgusting it appears). Although, the second episode was a step-down - some plots have been dived into all-too-quickly, and some characters are feeling a tad one-note - but hopefully it's just an early wobble from which the show will recover.

SOUNDS:

AL-P "The A-Team Theme (AL-P MSTRKRFT Remix)" - as heard on the Blu-Ray menu for 2010 The A-Team movie.

M83 "Midnight City (Big Black Delta Remix)" - October will see the long-awaited release of M83's new double-album, and in advance there's a few remixes of the first single doing the rounds.

Stelvio Cipriani "La Politzia Sta A Guardare" - as featured (briefly) in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, I re-discovered it playing during the trailer for the Italian giallo flick What Have They Done To Your Daughters?

HIM "Deep Shadows & Brilliant Highlights" - this is the band's third album, and it takes me right back to the wintry beginnings of 2003, listening to this and their second album (Razorblade Romance) after getting back from late afternoon screenings when it was pitch black and raining outside. Some albums transport you back to very specific times in your life, and this is one such album.

Hans Zimmer "Journey To The Line" - as mentioned above regarding the season one finale of Carnivale, this haunting piece of music was created for Terrence Malick's poetic The Thin Red Line.

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

The 10th Anniversary of 9/11 - what is there to say? The event that defined the decade (and no doubt will define the century) was a shocking assault on all of mankind whether witnessing it first hand, or through the chilling footage streaming live around the world. When the event itself was unfolding I was in the final year of the Sixth Form and one of the girls from our year said, somewhat curiously, that "a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center" - naturally we all thought of the time a small plane crashed into the Empire State Building, but by the time we all got home and saw the endlessly repeating footage we realised this was something totally and horrifically different. With each passing year - and with more and more fascinating (yet terrifying) documentaries about that day - it becomes a little easier to process, while at the same time continuing to be an inconceivable horror.

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony - returning to the second DLC for Rockstar's smash hit sandboxer, and having got used to the tweaked controls featured in Red Dead Redemption, I found the controls and cover system to be at best fiddly and at worst utterly incapable (driving is something to merely get the hang of, but the cover system is awfully clunky here - however, thankfully, it was mostly improved in Red Dead Redemption). That said, I've had a ridiculous number of hours out of GTA IV (despite its faults) and I am very much looking forward to the next entry.

"Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th" by Peter M. Bracke - I was given this last year but only got around to reading about the first two movies in the franchise before I found myself with a stack of books (as Christmas gifts) to wade through - however I returned to Bracke's vastly informative tome and it has been a stonking good read. At the time of writing I'm up to Jason X.

Allen Bridge - after a bit of a hiatus, in which I sought feedback from a select few readers, I have returned to my drama/mystery script. I've plotted a list of additions and tweaks that I want to make, but I can see that where I am currently at - heading into Draft 2.1 - is the point at which I would have arrived at last year by Draft 3.2, so I feel quite confident in that I'm learning an awful lot. Indeed I've been putting as much care and attention into this script as I possibly can. Like I've said before, I am determined to make this one count!

Homefront - there's a shed load of games coming out over the next few months that will go onto my 'to do' list, not that I'll get to many of them anytime soon if at all, but this B-Grade shooter (from the writer of Red Dawn and Apocalypse Now) isn't too bad. It's definitely not in the same league as a Call of Duty, for instance, but it presents an intriguing and scarily almost-possible bleak future where America becomes a nation occupied by a united Korea. At times it is hauntingly dark (mass graves at baseball fields, a child's parents gunned down in front of them, white phosphorous melting enemies alive, etc) and despite a number of flaws (such as a stupidly short campaign, weak protagonists, and an occasionally rough finish) it's worth a play.

Dick Figures, and ASDFmovie - these two online animated series are well worth checking out. The former has so far racked up 19 mini episodes (from the same company that gave us Happy Tree Friends), and the latter is a wonderfully silly and inventive series of mini-sketches that have - for one thing - birthed a ridiculously catchy song called "I LIKE TRAINS".

Gears of War 2 - in preparation for the third entry in the monstrously successful Xbox360 exclusive franchise, I've returned for another bash through this first sequel which was without a doubt decidedly superior to the solid first game.

Hextuple Bill Mini Musings: Money, Men, and Evil...

2011-09-28T11:20:00.001-07:00

Winter's Bone:
Set amidst the harsh mid-winter woodlands of Alabama, Jennifer Lawrence plays a 17 year old charged with raising her two young siblings, looking after her ill mother, maintaining a roof over their head, and ultimately tracking down her deadbeat meth-cooking father who has skipped bail and left the family home on the line. Meandering, slowly paced, sparsely plotted, and extremely atmospheric, it might take a while to pull you in but once it does its Oscar-nominated harsh realism will keep you intrigued ... although it's not quite all you might think it's trumped up to be. Intriguing.

The Invisible Man:
I was into the likes of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and The Bridge of Frankenstein long ago (they're all wonderful and everlasting pieces of early horror cinema), but it was only relatively recently that I got around to Dracula (which I was a bit half-and-half about, to be honest) - and likewise it has taken me a while to get around to James Whale's fantastically inventive and mischievous The Invisible Man. Naturally it's quaint by today's standards, but in 1933 the practical trickery and rudimentary visual effects must have been astounding - indeed they're wonderful to behold in 2011.

The opening is chilling (and not just literally) as Claude Rains' scientist pitches up at a remote tavern seeking peace and privacy in order to discover how to reverse the effects of his own creation - a chemical that has turned him invisible and violently unstable. Packed with humour, great character actors, splendid special effects, a strong visual approach that strained against the early confines of 'sound cinema', and a surprising dark streak at times, it is no wonder that Whale's classical horror picture has become a beloved and respected genre milestone.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps:
Gordon Gekko is back - the devil that accidentally become the poster boy and inspirational figure for a generation of Investment Bankers - but not quite as much, and in not quite the same way, as you might expect. Although he's still a dangerously charming bastard, so some things never change. Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan (an investment banker with a penchant for green fusion energy, and a lefty blogger, respectively) are the main focus of the plot that is set amongst the events leading up to and beyond the 2008 financial disaster.

Some of the money-speak gets a bit confusing (or maybe that's the point), the use of metaphors couldn't be more blunt (children blowing bubbles, for example), and certain Gekko character beats in the final act don't quite settle, but especially when compared to Stone's recent efforts (the comical but generally pointless W. and his somewhat spiritual World Trade Center) it's pretty good. It's definitely not in the same league as his iconic original - although the brash visual pace has returned with vigour - but there is a purpose behind this outing. An intriguing follow-up that fans of the 1980s original should definitely seek out.

World's Greatest Dad:
From Bobcat Goldthwait (yes, the guy from the Police Academy movies) comes this unique black comedy, featuring Robin Williams as a failed writer/teacher, who is wrapped up in a whirlwind after a tragic event occurs in his life (a moment that is delivered with chilling realism by Williams). Seeking to disguise the reason behind it, he inadvertently writes a book that gains national attention. Quirky, unique, and with a dark wit that combines the ordinary with the extraordinary, it's well worth checking out. Bonus points also for the reverence afforded to proper zombie films featuring the shambling undead.

Tucker & Dale vs Evil:
It feels like a very long time since I first heard about this flick - a horror comedy in which the grim-looking hillbillies are the bumbling good guys, not the machete wielding psychopaths, and the gaggle of fresh-faced 'teens' are deadly in their ineptitude. Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine play the titular hillbillies who venture into the Appalachian mountains to renovate their new holiday home, only to get mixed up in a gore-ific and hilarious comedy-of-errors. One thing though - whoever cut the trailer should be slapped - they spoiled so many great moments from the flick (especially in the Red Band Trailer). So if you like the idea of the flick, avoid the trailers and just see it - I enjoyed it a lot, but I'm sure I would have enjoyed it even more if so many of the good bits hadn't been blown by the ever-so-revealing trailer.

Frankenhooker:
From the creator of Basket Case (which explains a lot) comes this utterly barmy rejigging of the Frankenstein story. A Jersey boy called Jeffrey (who spends his spare time performing self-administered brain surgery with a drill, and looking after his experiment/pet brain-with-an-eyeball-in-it creation) creates a remote controlled lawnmower that promptly hacks his girlfriend to pieces. Fortunately he's working on piecing her back together, but seeing as he's missing all but a foot, hand, and her head, he ventures across the bridge into the red light district of New York to gather just the right parts from prostitutes. Initially his plan goes explosively off-course, but he succeeds in bringing his girlfriend back to life - except she's now a monstrous Frankenhooker! It's utterly, utterly mental - perhaps almost too silly straight-off-the-bat, but after I stuck with it for a little bit it all came together and proved to be quite an enjoyable load of gory nonsense.

"Allen Bridge" blog #24...

2011-09-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last time I posted about this script - the 18th of July to be exact - so here we are, a couple of months later, and what's been going on with it?

Well, a couple of projects had to be worked on, a holiday was had, and some general time away from the script was also needed. However, in the intervening time I've run the script by a select few to read and provide feedback via a questionnaire and debrief discussion - that's a new tactic I've decided to employ on this script. On previous scripts I rarely showed them to others, or only on a somewhat casual basis, but this time I'm getting ultra serious about doing all I can to make this one count.

I've also found a couple more places that I can submit to (frustratingly, so many companies are either not interested in writers of my current station at all, or insist that you're well connected enough to be represented by a production company or an agent - which rather limits the opportunities for people like me) ... so rather than the BBC Writersroom alone, there are now a handful of other places to try my luck with. Indeed, the idea is to re-draft last year's Summer Road after Allen Bridge is done, dusted, and submitted - and submit that re-draft to the welcoming companies that I've recently discovered.

However that is then, and this is now, so back to the feedback situation. I've been going over the questionnaire answers, and topics of discussion, today in order to compress it all down into a comprehensive and organised list of areas that I want to tweak, clarify, and further explore. Once I have that list properly compiled, I am then going to go through the script page-by-page and jot down corresponding numbered notes along the way ... then I'll be ready to put fingers-to-keyboard on Draft 2.1 of Allen Bridge.

Strip Nude For Your Killer (Andrea Bianchi, 1975) DVD Review...

2011-09-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

It's a very real possibility that you've never heard of this mid-70s giallo flick, let alone seen it (especially if you're British), but - thanks to Shameless Screen Entertainment (in their gleefully gaudy yellow DVD cases) - you can.

The film kicks right off at the business end of an abortion that goes tragically wrong for the fashion model on the receiving end of the procedure, thus setting into motion a series of killings perpetrated by a vengeful and lithe figure adorned in black leather motorcycle gear. Everyone at the dead girl's modeling agency could be a suspect or the next victim, and with the police struggling to crack the case, it's up to a photographer and his beautiful assistant to solve the case - when they're not busy stripping off and getting steamy with each other, that is.

Packed to the rafters with bare flesh, the sexual politics are obviously well dated, but fans of beautifully photographed and skilfully directed giallo with a touch of sleaze will be in for a treat. Franco Delli Colli's photography (polished up by Shameless and presented in its original aspect ratio) mixes perfectly with Francesco Bertuccioli's scene-blendingly crisp editing, and Andrea "The Zombie Dead" Bianchi's smoothly crafted, tension-inducing direction.

Like many giallo flicks, the focus is more on beautiful images and gorgeous girls, than telling a tightly scripted narrative, but if you enjoyed the giallo movies of Dario Argento's early career (such as The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, and Deep Red) and you're wanting to branch out a bit further into the scene, then Strip Nude For Your Killer is an ideal next step for cinematic connoisseurs.

Shameless Screen Entertainment's Region Free DVD comes with a series of trailers for this and other titles in their catalogue, as well as a reversible sleeve so you can choose which lurid cover is more to your liking (both feature the same back cover, replete with 13 screenshots ... all of which have boobs in them ... for your information).

Bianchi's film is garish, gorgeous, brutal and beautiful all at the same time.

Quadruple Bill Mini & Cine Musings: Action, Frights & Jet Black Comedy...

2011-09-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

Colombiana:
From the Luc Besson stable comes this quick bit of wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am action (directed by Olivier 'Transporter 3' Megaton), although that said, when compared to the likes of District 13, Taken (in particular), and From Paris With Love (all Directed by Pierre Morel), this flick isn't as punchy and blistering as I'd expected. District 13 was stylish, fast-paced, and had a great hook with the use of parkour ... Taken was brutal, smart about it's combat efficiency, and turned Liam Neeson into a formiddable middle-aged action hero ... and then From Paris With Love was just barmy but really quite good fun. Colombiana is much more generic and less brash than those three flicks ... it's a brief bit of fun, but Zoe Saldana needs a ballsier shoot 'em up if she's going to ascend to true action heroine status.

Slaughter High:
A cheap and generally silly slasher from the 1980s (featuring Caroline Munroe who - then in her mid-30s - begins the movie playing a bitchy teenager in high school). There's a few good kills, a couple of chucklesome lines, and one stand-out genuinely nifty scene featuring an electrified bed. Apart from that it's no classic and really only worth seeing if you're a hardcore horror nerd.

Fright Night:
Another beloved genre flick gets the remake treatment, but nevermind that, this is the original 1980s horror comedy that many of a certain age hold dear to their hearts. It has the same fun-loving cheesiness exhibited by the likes of Return of the Living Dead, and while scripts these days wouldn't be allowed to get away with thinly sketched protagonists and brushed-aside leaps in the plot, the decidedly 1980s style and sense of fun propels it foward. It's just a big shame that 5* (the TV channel cashing in on the Colin Farrel-starring remake being out in cinemas) failed to air it in the correct aspect ratio - it was as if they'd just chucked in some dusty old VHS tape they found on a shelf somewhere.

Four Lions:
Chris Morris' incredibly jet black comedy about a group of inept, Westernised terrorist wannabes sounds like an exercise in extreme bad taste - and yet it's really quite entertaining. Everybody in the film is a bit of an idiot (even the police have no idea what they're doing - at one point two snipers argue about the difference between The Honey Monster and a Wookie when trying to identify a target), but even when it reaches its climax it doesn't avoid the chilling side of terrorism ... albeit in the context of an utter bugger up. Simply, it's well worth seeing, and if you're a fan of the likes of Brass Eye, then it's an absolute must-see.

Abortion: Ancient & Modern (2011)...

2011-09-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

This project (three films between 15 and 20 minutes each) was a chance to further build upon my previous experience with educational DVDs, and what I've done with them in the past. Being on the topic of abortion, which is a difficult thing to represent on-screen, due to its controversial nature but also in terms of a concept - it's incredibly hard to be literal about it (due to a lack of footage, but also not wanting to get exploitative and visceral), so I had to develop a more metaphorical and ambient approach to the visuals.

On previous educational DVDs we used a lot more Public Domain 'Public Information Films' (PIFs), but here it wouldn't have worked, so combining modern day stock footage and photos with more ethereal elements such as water, smoke, and light, in our own established style ("video collage" as I often put it), proved to be a successful way to present the subject - both visually and as a topic of discussion and information for Sixth Form students.

Below are some examples of feedback that we have gained, as well as sample video clips. Visit www.ethicsonline.net for more information about Abortion: Ancient & Modern.

"I congratulate you warmly on this production, well balanced and full of fascinating history. Well worth screening outside classrooms too."
Lord David Steel, Architect of the 1967 Abortion Act

"A brilliant resource. All three films are extremely thought provoking and material is presented in a sensitive manner."
Sarah Hopkins, Religious Studies Subject Leader, Bishop Hedley High School

"These films are of an exceptionally high standard. They are well-researched and ideal for discussion. Highly recommended."
Tina Hollingsworth, Westminster College

"Very insightful and challenging.... really good."
Beth Aston, A Level RS Student

Roger Corman's Cult Classics Triple Feature: The Women In Cages Collection DVD Review...

2011-09-05T02:43:00.000-07:00

Presented by Shout Factory, this two disc, three-movie set - bringing together the first three 'Women in Prison' movies produced by Roger Corman's New World Pictures (resurrecting a side-genre that was already well established) - is a must buy for fans of 1970s exploitation and grindhouse cinema. All of the flicks have been cleaned up nicely, and presented anamorphically in their original aspect ratios, and while the audio is at times a touch troubled (particularly in Women In Cages), these movies - birthed in the heat on Manila - have been given the attention and respect that some cinemagoers would never afford them in a million years.

The Big Doll House (Jack Hill, 1971):
Jack Hill had a great run of exploitation flicks - balancing sex, violence, style, and wit with aplomb - as he would go on to give us not only Coffy, but Foxy Brown as well. A couple of years prior however, he established his working relationship with the likes of Pam Grier and Sid Haig in The Big Doll House - where the likes of Judy Brown and Roberta Collins' crims are serving hard sentences in a hellish female prison in the raging heat of the Philipines. Straining against a sadistic Wardress, if the chained chicks want to survive they'll have to hatch an escape plan. While women in prison movies had been around for decades at this point, Hill's flick certainly proved very influential over those that followed (even if the, surprisingly dull and decidedly inferior, 99 Women (Jesus Franco, 1969) arrived just beforehand).

Women In Cages (Gerry De Leon, 1971):
The Big Doll House had been a hit, so Corman sent a crew straight back out into the jungle heat to shoot another one - and the rush-job approach certainly shows. The plot is half-lifted from The Big Doll House, Grier, Collins, and Brown all return for acting duties, Hill's signature balance of exploitation and smarts is absent with De Leon lacking his predecessor's style and skill ... and what's more, the sound effects are an absolute mess. Even at a trim 81 minutes it's a bit sluggish, and while it's not a total snoozer like 99 Women, it's easily the least of this collection. On it's own it'd only be for hardcore exploitation flick fans, but in the context of this boxset it works better.

The Big Bird Cage (Jack Hill, 1972):
Returning to re-work the success of The Big Doll House, Jack Hill's style and sense of humour are back in spades - moreso even - for instance, every male guard is gay, all the chicks are gagging for it, and Sid Haig's revolutionary has to flirt outrageously to get a job on the inside. It's an impressively put together flick bringing Grier and Haid back together again as revolutionaries looking to boost their numbers and morale by busting out the fetching femmes of a nearby prison work camp - where an oppressive sugar cane mill dominates the terrain. The idea of revolutionaries reflected the real-world politics of the region at the time and became a common theme for some of these flicks - it was referenced in The Big Doll House, and again in Black Mama, White Mama (Eddie Romero, 1973) for instance.

Building on his established and successful formula, Hill picks up the script duties too and provides plenty of laughs to balance the scantily clad lovelies - Teda Bracci's uniquely ebullient performance produces ear-to-ear grins, while Grier plants the seeds of her bad ass chick schtick that she would build upon in the following years for Coffy and Foxy Brown, and Anitra Ford plays it cool, calculating, and smoulderingly sexy as the girl with all the right secrets from torrid trysts with government figures. It's easily the best of the set, and worth the price of admission alone.

Rounding out the package are two commentaries with Jack Hill, a series of stills galleries, trailers, and most impressive of all a specially made documentary titled From Manila With Love which goes behind the scenes of The Big Doll House and The Big Bird Cage with numerous key players (Jack Hill, Sid Haig, Anitra Ford, Teda Bracci, Roger Corman, and more). Running just shy of 50 minutes it leaves you wanting more, but not with a sense of lacking. It's a nicely put together documentary and is the perfect way to complete this package. Two thumbs up for Shout Factory!

Triple Bill Mini/Cine Musings: September 2011...

2011-09-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

Super 8:
A group of pre-teens are set to spend the summer of 1979 making a zombie movie (hence the title), but things don't go exactly according to plan after a passing train ("production value!") derails spectacularly and unleashes - something - upon a typically Spielbergian small town. J.J. Abrams, a name synonymous with good storytelling, thrilling action, and teasing intrigue, delves deep into his childhood and serves up an excellent dose of nostalgia. At times the thematic and stylistic nods to Spielberg's earlier work (such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and E.T.) become somewhat overwhelming, the reveal of the big bad beastie isn't quite as thrilling as the tease, and some of the adults' back stories are skimmed over a bit. Nonetheless, these minor quibbles don't spoil a well crafted coming-of-age sci-fi bone-rattler that remembers that plot is key to hooking your audience.

The Inbetweeners Movie:
I was so looking forward to this movie version of the excellent E4 TV series that I probably spoiled my viewing a bit - that's not to say I didn't enjoy it (I thoroughly lapped it up), but it's best for fans to temper their expectations a tad. The four boys have completed their A-Levels and jet off on a sun-sea-sex holiday, and - this being The Inbetweeners - they get into a series of cringe-inducing scrapes and social faux-pas moments. From silly asides to up-front gross-out moments, the flick bounds along at a good lick and provides a satisfying closer to a mini TV phenomena that grew in popularity with every series. Hopefully there'll be an uncut (it was slightly trimmed to gain a 15 rating) and extended version when it hits home video.

Eden Lake:
A so-called 'hoody horror' starring Michael Fassbender and that guy who played Cooke in the second incarnation of Skins. A young couple head to the titular lake for a romantic time, only to have it spoiled by a gang of feral teenagers raised by vicious parents. As the battle between the out-of-town couple and the teens escalates, so does the intense bleakness. Siding with the theory of nurture, over nature, causeing violent offspring, the hands-off approach and downbeat sensibility will leave viewers rattled. The dark and depressing tone manages to cover over most of the plot holes to make an actually horrific horror movie - one that is all-the-more chilling and important in the wake of the English riots. One thing though, ITV4 showed this (like many other 2.35:1 movies) in a cropped 16x9 presentation - so the framing (specifically designed for 2.35:1) was butchered throughout ... so pay attention ITV4 - show films in their original aspect ratios!

Flavours of the Month: August 2011...

2011-09-01T03:52:00.000-07:00

LOOKS:

Hobo With A Shotgun (Blu-Ray) - my favourite movie of 2011 finally hits UK shores on home video. Check out my review from earlier this month.

Beaver Falls - showing on E4, this show about three Brits who spend their summer as camp counsellors at an American summer camp is pretty good fun. It's much better than Glory Daze which also showed on E4 earlier this year, but a mere six episodes in length feels a bit too brief.

Wilfred - a sitcom about Elijah Wood and a guy dressed as a dog (but is actually a dog to everyone else). Nuff said. Good fun.

SOUNDS:

Nirvana - I've been touring through their back catalogue, from "Bleach" to "Unplugged In New York".

Rage Against The Machine "Maggie's Farm" - as heard at the end of The Other Guys.

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Alan Wake - I've been meaning to replay Remedy's excellent 'psychological action thriller', but there had always been something else to fill my designated 'videogame time' - however I finally got around to giving it a second run through, and once again I loved every second of it. It deserved to sell many more units than it did (it clashed with the excellent Red Dead Redemption, after numerous delays), and while it has some flaws, it's just so involving and atmospheric and has that unique Remedy vibe.

Scotland - I was off on holiday to Scotland again this year to catch a bit of the festival and do some of the tourist spots. The Royal Yacht Britannia, Best of the Fest, Ed Byrne at the EICC, The Real Mary King's Close, and Stirling Castle were some of the highlights - and I even spotted comedian Mark Watson walking past the BBC Three compound.

Frank Miller "Sin City: The Hard Goodbye" - I loved the movie, but I haven't gotten around to reading the graphic novels, however I finally gave this one a read (included with the Recut & Extended Region 1 DVD that I got damn near six years ago) and so I think I must give the un-filmed books a look-see.

More info and clips for Abortion: Ancient & Modern...

2011-08-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

Saunter over this way - to the official Ethics Online website - to see three new clips from Abortion: Ancient & Modern, as well as further information about the films that comprise the DVD. You can also purchase a copy of any of the DVD sets featured on the website.

The first response is in too:
“I congratulate you warmly on this production, well balanced and full of interesting history. Well worth screening outside classrooms too.” - Lord David Steel, Architect of the 1967 Abortion Act