Flavours of the Months: November & December 2025...

A long-awaited return, shredding the streets, and burning rubber are just some of what's been setting the tone of my November/December 2025...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

Flavours of the Month: November & December 2024...

Retro punch-em-ups, a mixed bag of animated action, and something sticky is some of what's been setting the tone of my November and December 2024...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

Flavours of the Month: November/December 2023...

Whammin' bammin' slammin' action, two very twisted brothers, and a flatulent cartoon quest are just some of what's been setting the tone of my November/December 2023...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

Flavours of the Month: October & November 2022...

Flooring it in Mexico, the (sort of) end of an undead era, and the calamitous closure of a horror franchise is just some of what has been setting the tone of my October & November 2022...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

Flavours of the Month: October/November 2021...

Escapades into action adventure, a tonal tightrope act, and a shedload of synth is just some of what's been setting the tone of my October/November 2021...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

Flavours of the Month: October & November 2020...

Struggles continue to be endured, but we're still standing and putting one foot in front of the other. Anyway, spooky doings, a Russian snail, and an exceedingly colourful 1947 are just some of what's been setting the tone of my October & November 2020...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

Flavours of the Month: November 2019...

Holistic investigations, comic book anti-heroes, and a trip to an alternative 1961 are just some of what's been setting the tone of my November 2019...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

Flavours of the Month: November 2018...

Carpenter classics, ascending zombies, and the biggest videogame release of the year are just some of what's been setting the tone of my November 2018...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

Flavours of the Month: November 2017...

Space bums, dimension-jumping duos, voices from the past, and A Sideline In Vengeance - just some of what's been setting the tone this month...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

Flavours of the Month: November 2017...

Rogue cops, dessicated ghouls, beautifully restored horrors, and wandering the wasteland - some of what has set the tone of my October 2017.

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

Flavours of the Month: November 2016...

Deliciously dark techno-satire, an outback villain, and a fair bit of preparation - it's some of what's been setting the tone of my November 2016...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue...

Flavours of the Month: November 2015

Deliciously dark drama, refreshed writing, and a chainsaw-wielding ass kicker...

Click "READ MORE" below for this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

Flavours of the Month: November 2014...

Zombies and nasties and reporters galore, rocking and writing and editing and more ... just some of the flavours of my November 2014...

Click "READ MORE" below for the full run down of what the looks, sounds, vibes & flavours of my month have been...

Flavours of the Month: November 2013...

LOOKS:

Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (Blu-Ray/DVD) - an exhaustive seven hour documentary on the entire Friday the 13th franchise. It's a shame that an early stab at covering the series ("His Name Was Jason", by some of the same people) recurs so frequently here - pre-existing interview footage is used liberally. However, even if you're familiar with HNWJ, you're in for a real treat (particularly with fresh interviews and rare clips). Based on the exceedingly excellent book of the same name by Peter M. Bracke.

Click "READ MORE" below for more looks, sounds, vibes & flavours for my November 2013...

Flavours of the Month: November 2012...

LOOKS:

The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-Ray) - Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's love/hate letter to the horror genre. It isn't a game changer, despite the hype, but it's a damn fun time for genre nerds with a solid compliment of extras on the Blu-Ray (which is now fully functional after numerous reports of technical glitches for some viewers when it was originally released on disc).

Married With Children: Season 7 - ten years ago I went off to university and so, not having Sky at my disposal anymore, I wasn't able to keep up with this sitcom on the Paramount Comedy Channel (now known as Comedy Central), so beyond the first two episodes of the seventh season, it's all brand new to me. I wasn't planning on waiting a decade to resume my perusal of the Bundy back catalogue, but that's how it turned out. I do have the remaining four seasons all lined up and ready to go though - in fact I'm barging through season 8 already.

Click "READ MORE" below for more Looks, Sounds, Vibes & Flavours...

Flavours of the Month: November 2011...

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...

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.

Flavours of the Month: November 2010...

LOOKS:

The Walking Dead - as you will have noticed I have been putting up my thouhts about each episode every week, so you can read what I've thought of this spiffing new undead TV series from AMC.

Twin Peaks - the Horror Channel has been having a David Lynch season this month, and the tentpole of it has been the showing, from start-to-finish (at the time of writing it's still part-way into season two), of Twin Peaks. I had never seen it before, but knew of it, and being a fan of the videogame Alan Wake, it's interesting to see where various elements of that game came from (indeed the creators are big fans of Lynch's dream-like drama).

Avatar 3-disc (Blu-Ray) - if only every studio/distributor would tell you in advance that a kick arse version of a movie on disc was coming later on. Fortunately Fox and James Cameron put it out on front street that Avatar would be getting a super-duper home video release in due course (when they were launching the vanilla disc). Naturally, being a whore for making-of documentaries and special features in general, I bided my time and finally I got my mits on Cameron's eco-actioner. It may not be in 3D this time, but now I get to view it without the 30% loss in brightness/contrast (such as you get with 3D glasses) and with 16 extra minutes (which, handily, you can view on it's own if you want to).

As far as the new footage goes, some is mere extensions, but quite a bit of it provides worthwhile new content and background. We get to see what Earth has become (providing good grounding and context, as well as visible reason, for mankind's actions on Pandora - it's a nice Blade Runner-esque counterpoint too), and learn more about Augustine's school and her relationship with the Na'vi. You can still see plotpoints coming from miles away, but Cameron's work has often (if not always) worked in popular broadstrokes. In short, it was great to get back to Pandora.

Toy Story 3 2-disc (Blu-Ray) - I never got to see it in the cinema, and I'll blog about the film separately, but it was great to finally get to see Pixar's latest, and well, that moment (if you've seen it, you'll know what I mean) was jaw dropping. That entire sequence was jaw dropping in fact. Bravo Pixar. Bravo.

The American Nightmare - I've seen Adam Simon's documentary on the American/Canadian horror flicks of the 1960s and 1970s several times over the last several years, and it's still a joy to watch. Informative, incisive and creepily stylish in its construction. A must-watch for any fan of the horror genre.


SOUNDS:

Airbourne "Runnin' Wild" - I already had the vice-rock group's second album, so it was about time I caught up with their debut. Fast, loud, wild and all about women, drink and everything in between. Inspired by the sound of AC/DC, it's a thrashingly good time.

Angelo Badalamenti "Twin Peaks Theme"/"Laura Palmer's Theme" - unsurprisingly, having gotten into Twin Peaks at long last, Badalamenti's dreamy score has become one of the constant sounds of November for me.

Godspeed You Black Emperor "Moya" - I'd always wondered what that mournful-then-energised music was in The American Nightmare, but I finally found it, and it's mesmerising.


VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Solitaire - sometimes when I'm listening to shows from the SModcast Podcast Network I'm not doing all that much, but then I remembered about Solitaire (which I used to play quite a bit in the 1990s), and I've become oddly fascinated by it again. It took me ages to get a win on it initially however as I kept running into dead ends - frustratingly so - fortunately the vagaries of a computer software's random card dealing didn't last long and I've been enjoying this little trip down memory lane.

Dead Rising 2 - I've got it for the 360, but I'm not good enough at it to do the story (or the rest of it anyway), so I got it for the PC so I could use cheats to just run around having all sorts of fun - and, importantly, actually get to play the story mode. You might think that slaying thousands upon thousands of zombies with a Light Machine Gun (or a Humvee) would get boring, but you'd be wrong.

STALKER: Call of Pripyat - I was a big fan of the original STALKER game (Shadow of Chernobyl), which provided the best atmospheric dose of gaming that year (2007, if memory serves), and while the follow-up (Clear Sky) was a bit disappointing towards the end it again provided that jolt of The Zone that we "STALKERs" crave ... in 2007 I got into the whole thing in a big bad way with the game, and the movie and book upon which it was based (not to mention absorbing documentaries about the real "Zone" itself). Anyway, it's been on the to-do list for a while, but I finally got around to it.

Unfortunately the DirectX 9 graphics are nowhere near as good as they were in Clear Sky (no doubt to push the DX10/11 technology), and while the pace is a bit slow so far, I'm getting into the world of STALKER all over again. It might be feeling a bit dated and too-samey to the previous two games, but you can't deny the lure of lurking around the rotting ruins of "The Zone".

Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday 13th by Peter M. Bracke - I got this for my birthday and I've only just gotten around to it, and boy will it be a long old read. Nevertheless I've covered the first two movies in the long-running franchise. It's a must-have for any fan of the franchise as it's crammed with behind the scenes photos and mountains upon mountains of information from those involved.

Flavours of the Month: November 2009...

I'm about a week late on this one, but nevertheless, away we go!

John Cusack...

Yeah it's a veritable hetero-man-crush going on. I finally got to see the ruddy excellent Say Anything, and then saw the rather brash 2012 ... which is good in it's own 'cheese burger kind of way'. It's not Beef Wellington, but you know what, a cheese burger can really hit the spot too.

Also I've been mad-keen on High Fidelity again. I've watched the movie another two times and have been listening to the soundtrack like nobody's business. As I've said before, I will pick up the book at some point and continue my obsession.

Writing...

I've delved back in to "Zero", as I've been blogging about on here recently, and November was marred somewhat in this respect. Not by the script, but by the software. As you'll have seen from previous posts, Final Draft was causing a right old load of trouble. However, moving to Final Draft version 8 has sorted the problem out and I've been merrily chugging away on Draft 3.1 - which is itself nearing completion. I just need to obsess over those first 10 pages some more and then I'll post it off to the BBC Writersroom at the beginning of January.

The next DeadShed Productions short film...

I've been gearing up for the next short film, doing prop research and then finally making a decision and ordering said props (which I think will work very well indeed). I've been recording dialogue in preparation, and have just generally been getting ready for it. A filming date hasn't been set yet, but we've been talking about shooting it for a while now, and the project itself has been gestating for a long old while. So keep your fingers crossed that we can actually get it on tape at long last.

Top Gear...

The most awesomest show in the entire world is back for its 14th series, yo ... nuff said.

Foo Fighters, Rammstein, and Guns 'n Roses...

I've been on a Foo's retrospective kick of late, but going backwards through their catalogue. During this time I rested for a long while on my favourite Foo's album (There Is Nothing Left To Lose), which really inspired me while I was heavily into some script writing on "Zero".

It's also been a time for some Rammstein. Not content with just have their latest album in my disc changer, I nabbed a copy of Rosenrot for a fiver.

Similar to the Foo's, I've been having a GnR revival in my hi-fi, what with Use Your Illusion 1 (great album) and UYI 2 (not that great, but with moments of greatness - e.g. "You Could Be Mine"). Next up is one of my all-time favourite albums, Appetite For Destruction.

James Cameron...

I've been getting amped up for Avatar (out in a couple of weeks time, woo!) and Total Film had a full-on supplement all about the man himself. Further to my JC revival this past month, I got Aliens of the Deep on DVD, and have Ghosts of the Abyss on its way. Roll on Avatar!

400th Blog Post...

Indeed, in November this 'ere blog got to it's 400th post, woo!

Videogames...

Such is the way with the videogame industry, they all seem to want to pimp out their titles at the same time as everyone else. Why this is a good idea is beyond me, because every gamer will know that you always get logjams of games.

Then again as you can so often crack through them fairly swiftly the first time through, it's not like you've got three World of Warcrafts to play or something. No, instead it was GTA Episodes From Liberty City - in which the second episode "The Ballad of Gay Tony" was much better all-round than the first episode, which was "The Lost & Damned".

Next up was a bash through Ghostbusters. As a GB videogame it's a 9.5/10 ... as a videogame in general it's a 7.5/10 ... but blimey did it make me grin with glee everytime I popped it in to play.

Then of course it was the biggest entertainment launch of all time, and strong contender for Game of the Year the world over. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I maintain that it sits on level pegging with the first Modern Warfare. Each game does things better and worse than the other.

While MW2 is a thrillingly intense action festival, with some amazing sights and sounds, the plot is full of cavernous holes, and indeed the story frequently gets lost in the chaos. Some levels - such as Burger Town - become too frantic, and you find yourself confused thanks to constant radio chatter, a compass with too tiny letters for North South East and West, and sometimes preposterous amounts of bad guys facing off against your little squad.

The increased difficulty/chaos on Recruit (aka Casual/Easy) Mode is also annoying. I personally don't want to be challenged, I just want to play and have fun. So you have to pay more attention in MW2 than you did beforehand. This can occasionally become annoying at a couple of points in the game.

However, MW2 does provide a serious dose of awesome sauce directly into your veins, and upon a second play through (which I'm currently cracking through at a fair old lick) it just feels better than the first time. No doubt there was an element of hype overload when I first played MW2 - and I actively tried to avoid the hype as much as possible, while maintaining my own excitement. Even still, it's hard to avoid the bombardment of utterly pointless MW2 hyping videos when you're subscribed to both IGN Entertainment and Machinima on YouTube. Seriously - calm the fuck down.

So yeah, while I blogged extensively about Modern Warfare 2 last month (go on, have a gander), I won't go on about it too much here. Safe to say though, when all is said and done, it sits on the same level pegging as the first Modern Warfare. Hopefully MW3 will fix the issues I had with MW2, but also continue the greatness.

...

So there you have it folks, another month and another flavour shot.