"How Mr Snuffles III and Others Met Their Maker"...

I had a sudden spark of inspiration a couple of weeks ago, and so, instead of getting stuck in to some deep planning on my next screenplay (working title of "A Sideline In Vengeance"), I've found myself bashing away at "How Mr Snuffles III and Others Met Their Maker" - a dark comedy set in the Celebrityville universe.

Initially I was thinking of it as a short story, but - being that I'm now 5,000 words deep with plenty of ground left to cover - it's looking likely that it'll extend into 'novelette' territory. What's a novelette? A story that's between 7,500 and 17,500 words (at which point a 'novella' takes over, up to the 'novel' crossover line of 40,000 words)...

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Quadruple Bill Mini (and Cine) Musings: June 2011...

X-Men: First Class:
The first two movies were good-and-great respectively, but the third (Last Stand) was cobbled together style over substance, and then Wolverine was decent fodder but it curiously lacked the depth of X1 and X2 ... and, odder still, it lacked the x-factor (if you'll excuse the pun). Now with this sort-of-reboot for the franchise, we're transported back to the era of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the birth of the X-Men themselves.

The script bounds along quite nicely, although at times it does feel a tad overloaded with characters - which results in the weaker side characters (Salvadore, Banshee, Darwin, Havok) falling into "don't care" territory as our primary focus (and that of the filmmakers) is the main cast of characters, at the heart of which are the young Professor X (Charles) and the young Magneto (Erik). The latter is played thoughtfully by Michael Fassbender, who is fast carving out a career as a quality mix between character actor and leading man. Indeed, it is the central duo (the other half charmingly played by James McAvoy) that provides the main thrust for the script with a growing schism between the two men and how the mutant/human relationship should be carried out.

The movie is most impressive when it is busy delving into the motivating experiences of the leads, and once again the best work in the movie in this respect comes from Fassbender, who really sinks his teeth into the seething want for vengeance possessed by his concentration camp survivor who, as we all know, goes on to become the revenge-fuelled Magneto. It's this superhero-version of the civil rights movement (or indeed any discrimination felt by many in our society) that makes the X-Men franchise stand out, and such deep concerns are key to this prequel.

I initially groaned at the idea of First Class, but down the line here (with smart direction from Matthew "Kick Ass" Vaughn), it makes a lot of sense. While X1 and X2 were probably just a bit better, First Class entirely blows Last Stand out of the stratosphere with ease, and easily beats the not-as-good-as-it-should-have-been Wolverine. In fact, you could go so far as to say it's up there with X1 - although X2 remains the pinnacle of the lot.


Foo Fighters: Back and Forth:
This revealing delve through the backstory and history of one of the most successful bands out there right now is a must-see for any Foo fan. The establishment, and early trials, of the band are of particular interest, in this involving and nicely put-together documentary.


Death At A Funeral:
Surprisingly, and yet curiously unsurprisingly, this apparent black comedy farce from Neil LaBute isn't remotely funny. A drugged-out James Marsden steals the movie, but that evidently wasn't much of a challenge in the first place. I found it dull and didn't connect with it one iota.


The Creature From The Black Lagoon:
One of the classic monster movies from the 1950s - a period filled with so-called B-Movies that were obsessed with science and abominations of nature. This must have been quite a treat when it originally came out in cinemas, and the Creature itself pleasingly remains a creepy vision to behold - not least because of that dead-eyed look as it breathes deep, creeping ever closer to its next victim. I really quite enjoyed it.

Flavours of the Month: January 2011...

LOOKS:

Kick Ass (Blu-Ray) - still a great flick. I'd forgotten how thrilling the action set pieces were, too.

Scott Pilgrim VS. The World (Blu-Ray) - three of the four commentaries and another viewing on top, plus all the special features. I must have heard the menu music a hundred times by now.

Inception (Blu-Ray) - Nolan's mind-bender blockbuster is still as spiffing as it was in the cinema, if not more so.

The Expendables (Blu-Ray) - Ultimate Recon Mode is quite impressively done, and one of the best Picture-in-Picture tracks I've seen so far. While I generally prefer Rambo to this, it's still a bloody good time and I look forward to a sequel.

Black Books - years late to the party, but we barged through the rest of the complete box set.

Boardwalk Empire - it took a couple of episodes to get into it, but you find yourself becoming really quite invested in the characters and the complexities of their relationships. Plus the re-creation of the 1920s is superb.

Clarkson: The Italian Job - I think his DVD from 2009 was better, but it was still good for a bit of a Top Gear-like fix. The best sequence was the race at the end.

Lost: Season Three & Four DVD Extra Features - now I just need to get my mits on the last two seasons.

Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide - 3 discs of video nasty goodness, and surprisingly informative. Definitive, most definitely.


SOUNDS:

The Black Angels "Directions To See A Ghost" - I love their first album (Passover), and I've come to really dig this second outing too.

Daft Punk - Tron: Legacy Soundtrack - the flick was the visual and aural treat of 2010, so Daft Punk's superb soundtrack has been in my CD autochanger ever since.

Sex Bob-Omb, Metric "Black Sheep", and Nigel Godrich "Hillcrest Park" - there's been a distinctly Scott Pilgrim flavour to January, so that naturally extended to the aural world too.

Kick Ass OST - not only was it a great action superhero movie, but it had a cool score to boot.

Black Spiders "Just Like A Woman" - as recommended by a fellow fan of Airbourne.

Bo Diddley "Hey, Bo Diddley" - as heard during one of the Mafia 2 cutscenes.


VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Cold - I haven't had one since January 2009, so that was a rubbish few days. I do maintain however that some people who say they have "the flu" actually have a cold, and they're just trying to sound tough. Cold or Flu, they both suck. As if the time of year when you're packing away all the festive decorations wasn't depressing enough, eh?

Script Writing - working on the new version of the short version of zombie mini-epic "The End" (working title), as well as working on an idea to enter for a Public Information Film.

The Big Book of Top Gear 2011 - it's just a bunch of silly old nonsense mostly, but I do love Top Gear.

Cyanide & Happiness Vol. 2: Ice Cream & Sadness - my favourite online webcomic in book form for a second year running.

The Walking Dead Vol. 5: The Best Defense - I continue to make my way through the trade paperbacks for the first time, and while the dialogue is still needlessly filled with unrealistic exposition, the scenarios are intense and gripping. By the end of this volume I was gagging to read the next.

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (Vol. 1) - the Scott Pilgrim feel to January extended to the first two (of six) volumes of the graphic novels.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Vol. 2) - it's interesting to see that volumes 1 and 2 basically make up an hour of the movie (which runs for an hour and 50 minutes), but it's also cool to see further exploration of the characters and entire sequences that never made it to the film version (such as Ramona and Knives' library battle).

Call of Duty: Black Ops - the second time around, like with the previous CoD, it's not about the hype and all about playing the game on its own level. It also helps that you know what to do, so you don't have moments where the action gets too confusing, which has been the case with first-runs for the last couple of CoD games.

Mafia 2 - I fancied some 1950s gangster action, so I gave this another spin. It's no GTA IV or Red Dead Redemption (essentially being a linear game in a sandbox world), but I still found myself really enjoying it as the story continues to make you invest in the characters. I even got to nab some more achievements and collectibles I'd missed the first time around.

Jeremy Klaxon - Driving Us Insane (A Parody) - just a bit of fun, and one of those pleasant surprise gifts you get at Christmas.

Octuple Bill Mini Musings: September 2010 #2...

Gacy:
Compared to the likes of other real-life-serial-killer movie biopics (of sorts), such as the superior Dahmer (starring Jeremy Renner) and Ed Gein (starring Steve Railsback), this isn't much cop ... nor when compared to the likes of more lurid films such as The Hillside Strangler (the one the guy from all those terrible Asylum movies) or Ted Bundy (which Tom Savini worked on). However, when compared to the bizarre, confusing and even dull Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders, and Ed Gein: Butcher of Plainfield - in which Kane "Jason" Hodder (a large, intimidating dude) plays the slight, quiet and odd farmer who inspired Psycho's Norman Bates - Gacy stands taller. Not by an awful lot though. The pace is unsure, the plot is confusing and while the first four titles I mentioned all give a far better sense of time, escalation and motivation, Gacy isn't strong in any of those fields.

The Blues Brothers:
I remember a friend loaned me his VHS copy back in high school - more from his recommendation than from my own interest - and I gave up on it pretty quickly. Then again my interest in film was far more limited in those days, and my movie-viewing stamina was surprisingly all over the place (I'd often watch movies in 10-20 minute chunks and have several on the go at once, skipping from one to another). Anyway, I wouldn't have appreciated it in my high school days, but now I recognise why it's considered a bit of a classic. It's absolutely bat-shit crazy, and the epic scenes of destruction are all the more impressive as there's not a sliver of CGI to be seen - being that it wasn't invented yet. It's utterly barmy - in the good way.

17 Again:
I didn't really intend on watching this movie a while ago, but ended up seeing several portions, so figured I'd just watch the whole thing. I have zero interest in High School Musical and all that, but I can understand why this Zac Efron guy is so popular. He's a talented dude and has a real screen persona that's interesting to watch - even in this fairly paint-by-numbers flick. You know exactly how this movie is going to play out, but it's just a bit of fun. It's a cheeseburger of a movie really ... but yeah, it'll be interesting to see if Efron takes up more challenging roles.

Black Mama White Mama:
Inspired by the documentary American Grindhouse, I got myself into a bit of a blaxploitation/Pam Grier flick kick ... although BMWM is really a women-in-chains/prison movie, not a blaxploitation/soul flick. It's properly good grindhouse though - but it does lose its momentum by the third act. If you like your grindhouse cinema though, it's definitely worthwhile - Pam Grier, nudity-galore, Sid Haig as a cowboy pimp, outrageous side characters, oddball scenes ("eight ... three and a half") and shot in the Phillipines.

Coffy:
It could have used a little more of Pam Grier toting a shotgun and bringing her brand of justice to the scum of the streets, but again it's properly good grindhouse fun - and Sid Haig's in it as well.

Foxy Brown:
It starts off a little bit unsure, but it really finds its feet in the second act and then goes out with a strong finish (including Grier driving a prop plane - owned by Sid Haig's bit part drug trafficker - through a bad guy!) - yep, you guessed it, properly good grindhouse fun.

The Boston Strangler:
Never mind 24, the use of split-screen is something to behold. Not an awful lot to say about it, but over-the-piece, it gets a thumbs up.

The Longest Day:
Saving Private Ryan really dunked you head first into what it might feel like to be one of those brave men storming the beaches during the Normandy landings, but this true epic really coveys the sheer sense of scale to the operation that turned the whole war around. Not only that, but the tension on the side of the Allies, and the cocksure predictions of the Axis, is writ large. It's an honest-to-God epic - no wonder if had three directors (one each for the American, British and German portions ... but I wonder who directed the French parts?) Beautifully shot, large scale, it doesn't ignore the big players who didn't happen to be Americans (the French and Germans characters wisely speak in their own language to boot) and surprisingly for a film that's just shy of three hours long - it doesn't drag.

Some of the knowing pontificating about the nature of war and the importance of the invasion are a bit 'too movie', but equally, verbalising the fact that the Brits (and as an extension, the French) had been slogging their guts out and really struggling through for years before the Americans got involved, is a welcome dose of fact that's so often ignored with more recent WW2 movies - a criticism that can most certainly be levelled at Saving Private Ryan, despite its highly commendable way of presenting warfare on film in an entirely new, involving and radical way.

Black Falcon Video Productions (2006)...

The Murder of the Reverend Pralph (2006):

Filmed with members of the Sealed Knot, this short (which I acted as cameraman on) was shown on BBC Local TV and the Community Channel. It was a re-enactment of a local historical event when a group of soldiers murdered a preacher when the two parties met and got into a disagreement.


The Blast (2006):

This was a promotional video that I helped to shoot for a local rock band at one of their gigs (in a local pub in a cramped stage area being buffeted by hyper teenagers). It was a lot of fun to shoot, and the final product was pretty good too.


Kathy North (2006):

I helped to shoot this promotional video (I was operating two of the three cameras) for a local cabaret singer, at one of her performances at a local hotel.

Black Xmas...

Having seen the original many moons ago, and then again fairly recently, I came across the remake on Sky Movies recently and figured I'd tape it and have a look ... what a shock, it's as shite as the vast majority of all of the other rape & pillage remakes out there at the moment.

Shite script, shite acting, shite directing ... it's just a load of shite really. It either rips out entire chunks of the original flick and just pastes in new actresses, or it goes off into weird new territory that both makes little sense, as well as acts as a hardy new yard stick, for new levels of yawn.

Seriously, why bother at all? Even the title was lazy. Shite, shite, shite, shite ... SHITE.

Black Sheep...

I'd been meaning to see this flick for a while, being that it's along the same vibe as Braindead (in style, as well as country of origin), and the F/X were done by Weta "Them Lot Who Done Lord Of The Rings" Workshop ... also, it's essentially a zombie movie but with sheep, set in New Zealand, the home of countless numbers of the woolly jumpers in-waiting.

I spied the DVD on the cheap and figured why not? Off the bat, it doesn't live up to the "if you liked Shaun of the Dead" tag, but then again basically all films that use that, never do. Mind you, Black Sheep is far from a write off, it's still quite entertaining, pulls out a few nifty gore gags, gets a few great character moments in here and there, and generally isn't disappointing.

Now - this use of Shaun of the Dead on the cover reminds me of Dead & Breakfast ... dear god was that a sack of shite and a half. Dead & Breakfast doesn't have the humour of Shaun, nor does it have the gore, the style, the intelligence, the comedic acting skill, the script or a whole host of other things.

So basically, Black Sheep is a good bit of modern B-movie fun ... and it's loads better than Dead & Breakfast, another movie which used the name of Shaun of the Dead to flog itself (yeah yeah, that was most likely entirely down to the advertisers, but still).

It'll be interesting to see what the writer/director comes up with next.