Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder...

Futurama was a wicked show, and it was stupid that it was ever cancelled - especially considering that The Simpson's hasn't been that good in literally years. It was welcome, most welcome, when these four 'movies' were announced (although as they've gone on, the intention to split them into four episodes each has become increasingly evident) - and the first really lived up to the TV show.

Beast With A Billion Backs wasn't quite as good, but still a good story ... Bender's Game however did show a distinct dip in "the funnies", as well as a properly good story - it was still welcome though. Again, and now with the final of the four 'movies', Into The Wild Green Yonder (despite being said by some to be up there with Bender's Big Score) shows the continued downslide of the four from absolutely fantastic, to moderate at best.

No doubt it was somewhat affected by the Writer's Strike during production, but it's still light on proper jokes and a really solid story. Despite some quality gags (mainly in the first 25 minutes, my favourite being the "Tickle Me Bender" toy), the majority of the 'movie' is either devoid of chuckles or falls back on jokes that just aren't funny - Celine Dion bashing has been going on since Titanic came out, and people who are obviously not rappers having "grills" on their teeth is again ancient history ... same goes for newsreaders not being able to switch off in real life.

This all said, the ending most definitely left me wanting more - just please, for crying out loud and for the sake of the Futurama brand, make it properly funny and properly gripping next time! More Big Scores, and less Wild Green Yonders. The Futurama team have been, and still are, capable of so much.

More, funnier, Futurama please!

More summertime movie musings...

Batman:

Aye, the original 1989 box-office-bothering Tim Burton flick. I'd only seen it once before and what with The Dark Knight approaching, I figured I'd go back to the first Burton movie (the fact it was on sale for a fiver had a hand in this too).

Great stuff indeed, Nicholson is fucking great in no uncertain terms. With that fresh in my mind, it's going to be even more interesting to see the late Ledger's performance in the same role. While Nicholson was demented and fairly dark, he was also wickedly over the top and ... well, a real joker.

Ledger's version feels far, far darker. While Nicholson's might have been the Elvis style incarnation of the cackling one, Ledger's - from the trailers that have been shown at least - feels like the Sid Vicious incarnation. There's still a sense of humour, but it's all pitch black and nigh-on terrifying ... demented to say the least. No doubt it will be a fitting end to Ledger's sadly too short career.

Anyway, Batman 1989 ... indeed ... a spiffing film, but bloody hell have blockbuster action super hero type movies changed a lot in the past 19 years. At times, during action sequences, the pace of Batman felt positively sedate ... then again, there wasn't much internet or Sky TV or YouTube around in 1989 with "the yoof" consuming multiple media sources simultaneously and at a far greater speed than ever before. As a result, blockbuster fare has followed this trend.

So while it's not exceptionally gripping anymore, it's still a bloody good watch. But then again I guess it's all subjective and changes from film to film. After all, I've said in the past that I was - and indeed still am - positively gripped by The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford...and that's the best part of three hours and generally sedate and poetic.

Anyway, Batman still garners two fresh thumbs from me.

...

Rambo:

I've already spoken about it, but I recently got the DVD from America.

First though, I was rather pissed off by the mixed and confusing information from the distributors regarding the content of the discs. I got the 1-disc thinking it had the extras on it - it doesn't, it has FUCK ALL on it. I avoided the 2-disc edition because I figured 'if the 1-disc has extras, why spend two more quid for a digital copy that I won't use and apparently doesn't work anyway' ... DVDTimes, a site that until now was entirely trust worthy in providing pre-release info, failed to notice than the 1-disc is devoid of any extras. So it's a bit of a kick in the nuts. It would have been nice to listen to Sly's commentary and see the featurettes about everything and everybody getting thoroughly shot to shit.

Oh well, can't win them all.

Back to Rambo itself though, it's still bloody awesome fun. The manliest slice of blokery since the Berlin Wall was sledge-hammered to smithereens.

...

Futurama: Bender's Big Score:

Again, I've already spoken about it, but I got the DVD in preparation of the second feature coming out later this month (on the same day as Diary of the Dead as well, I might add).

Still superb and still tons funnier than The Simpson's has been for the past 9 or 10 seasons. More please!

...

The A-Team: Season 5:

Yes, not a movie, but who cares it's still awesome and therefore shut up...

I'm still mid-way through this final season of the excellent boy's own adventure show, and it's still good. I even like the remix of the theme tune ... the original version still pwns everything aural, but the remix still gets me in the mood to take down mob bosses with a cigar hanging out of the corner of my mouth.

Quality fun for any child of the 1980s. Nuff said.