Flavours of the Month: June 2011...

LOOKS:

Tron and Tron Legacy (Blu-Ray) - the original was a huge artistic and technical leap at the time (as illustrated plentifully on the disc), but in terms of the script it was a bit lacking. I feel that the sequel is definitely superior in this regard, and while it's not the technical cinematic landmark that Tron was, I still really, really dig it. A solid and focused plot married with superb visuals and a fantastic aural experience courtesy of Daft Punk.

Hatchet - sifting through the DVD extras, it certainly looks like it was a fun time making the movie, but it's a real shame that the passion didn't translate into anything remotely original. The movie itself is a grab-bag of moments from the Friday 13th franchise, and while modern horror debuts such as Eli Roth's Cabin Fever are oftentimes chock-full of references, the best ones use these references are a genre-fan aside. Cabin Fever referenced everything from Last House on the Left to Dawn of the Dead, The Evil Dead, and beyond, but the spark that lit the fire under Roth to make the movie was from personal experience of a flesh eating virus. Adam Green's Hatchet, however, has flawed goals from the off. You can't set out to deliberately make a loveable anti-hero horror rogue. None of the horror icons were intended to be icons, they just happened to become that over time ... this demonstrates the disappointing and misguided purpose behind Hatchet. At least they had a fun time making it.

Psychoville 2 - about as jet black as black humour can get, this series from two-thirds of The League of Gentlemen has been a very memorable viewing experience. I don't think I'll ever think of Tina Turner's "Simply The Best" in any other way but that of Maureen Sourbutts' horrifically comical rendition.

Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood - as a student of film, this proved to be a fascinating three-part documentary series detailing the, well, birth of Hollywood. Scouring the arrival and increasing drawing power of silent cinema, the truth behind Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle's fall from grace, and the arrival of sound, Merton's series told this fascinating story with expertly balanced passion and humour.

Paul (Blu-Ray) - the disc is, compared to that of Scott Pilgrim (also from Universal), is somewhat lacking in the extras department (indeed it's curious that some of the production video blogs are missing - most notably the other half of the Frisbee blog, the first-half of which was featured on the Pilgrim Blu-Ray). However, a handful of silly asides, an enjoyably friendly commentary, and a solid making-of keep the end up. As for the film itself, it's still thoroughly entertaining.

Top Gear: The Great Adventures Vol. 1-3 - while Volume 1 is a bit of a mixed bag outside of an extended Polar Special (thanks to a rather disappointing treatment of the U.S. Special), the second and third volumes decidedly pick up the slack. Commentaries give a jovial insight into the production of Top Gear (and just how un-set-up it actually is, despite the protestations of its curiously always-vocal detractors), and the extended footage provides more meat for folk like me - huge fans of the world's number one motoring show.

L.A. Confidential (Blu-Ray) - inspired by L.A. Noire, I picked up the Blu-Ray on the cheap. It's a five-star film all the way, and one which just gets better with age and repeated viewings. You can clearly see where many influences came from with Team Bondi's game.

Raising Hope - I've really come to love this follow-up to the cancelled-too-soon My Name Is Earl. I do hope a second season is given to this show as, much like Earl, it elicits audible guffaws from me even when I'm watching it by myself.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World - what with finishing the graphic novels, the natural next step was another viewing of Edgar Wright's superb adaptation. I've seen it six times now, and even still I'm finding new things to appreciate. This time around it was the sound design - particularly the real world everyday sounds that are used to punctuate the dialogue and humorous moments. When I first saw it, it somewhat stumped me - yet I still enjoyed it - but I recognised that it was a somewhat niche 'thing' to get into. Something that would decidedly benefit from reading the source material - and I was proved right in that regard - as reading the books has given me a richer appreciation of the SP world and the film itself (and plenty of entertainment in-so-doing).

SOUNDS:

Nine Inch Nails "Year Zero" - it's taken me quite some time to get around to getting into this album, but I'm definitely into it now.

Anamanaguchi "Mermaid" - I found this via Edgar Wright's blog and I absolutely loved it. Stylistically it's like a modern twist on the music you used to hear on 8bit and 16bit videogames.

Tame Impala "Lucidity" - it's got a bit of a 1960s vibe to it. Heard it on a Top Gear episode from Christmas. Digging it; might have to look into getting their album.

UNKLE "Caged Bird" and "Follow Me Down" (Instrumentals)

Beck "Ramona" - there's been a distinctly Scott Pilgrim-shaped vibe to this month, and this wonderful track features on the movie's end credits.

Trent Reznor ft. Karen O "Immigrant Song" - as heard on the pounding trailer for David Fincher's version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Hopefully they release a full version of this arse-kicking cover soon!

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

The Walking Dead: This Sorrowful Life (Vol. 6) - the dialogue still has a propensity for exposition, but in terms of the artwork, and the situations that Robert Kirkman establishes for the characters to deal with, are jaw-dropping. The last few volumes have been increasingly shocking (in a good way), and this volume certainly had some particularly stunning moments.

L.A. Noire - well I've wrapped up Team Bondi's detective sandboxer and as I said last month, while it's flawed, it's a bold and involving step in a fresh direction.

Scott Pilgrim - "and the Infinite Sadness (Vol. 3)", "Gets It Together (Vol. 4)", "vs The Universe (Vol. 5)", "Finest Hour (Vol. 6)" - it's been since January that I last read the first two volumes of Brian Lee O'Malley's superbly entertaining and visually arresting graphic novels, so it was about time I resumed the series, and what do you know, I ended up barging the remaining four volumes. I consumed them voraciously and frequently laughed out loud at the dialogue and the artwork (in a good way). If you dug the movie, but haven't read the books yet - check out the books.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare - Rockstar San Diego's wild west sandboxer was my gaming highlight of 2010. It was a beautifully crafted (aside from a few minor bugs and glitches) game with an involving script, and it featured a new gaming icon - John Marston - a character that I genuinely cared for. Last year the DLC was released - basically Red Dead Redemption with zombies. It's relatively brief, but certainly not skimpy. New missions, side quests, strangers, random events, weapons and locations - plus it's crammed full of flesh-hungry undead and mythical beasts. I really enjoyed it, and while the original game is naturally better, it's a must-play for RDR fans. I even, for the first time with a sandboxer, got it to 100% completion. Let's hope that the fifth GTA is just as involving as RDR was.

Mark Kermode "It's Only A Movie" - Kermode was a figure of film criticism that I identified with strongly during my formative years. He appeared in numerous documentaries and film seasons on television (often regarding my beloved horror genre), and to this day I routinely watch/listen to his movie reviews. While the book so far has a tendency to meander and ramble in equal measure - like the man himself on BBC Radio 5 Live - that's also what makes it a personal journey through a life spent watching films for Kermode. I've particularly identified with his fascination with horror movies and other 'forbidden fruits' during his formative years.

As I've written about before, my formative years sat on both sides of the 1999 liberalisation of the BBFC. So on one hand there was the slack-jawed magnetic pull of the horror section of the video rental shop (remember those?), and the heavily cut version of The Evil Dead ... and on the other there was a whole list of genre milestones, freshly unleashed uncut (for most of them) onto the British public during my mid-teens ... the perfect timing, really. It's a time in my movie-watching history that I'll cherish forever - and it's that sort of love of film that this book exemplifies.

Allen Bridge - after a month-long break, it was time to head back to my drama/mystery screenplay. A tidying up of Act II first, and then proceeding onto Act III which is where, at the time of writing this, I currently reside.

Flavours of the Month: April 2011...

LOOKS:

Hot Tub Time Machine - still a bloody good laugh. "Great White Buffalo ... Great White Buffalo ... Great White Buffalo."

Event Horizon - I hadn't seen this for years, so it was a nostalgia trip as I used to watch this all the time when I was in high school (when it originally came out). Me and my mates loved it, and the fact that it featured "Funky Shit" by The Prodigy made it all the more appealing to us. I tell you what as well, it's a damn sight better than Pandorum, that's for sure.

Blue Velvet - there's a certain tone and vibe to a David Lynch project that makes them stand out from the crowd, and Blue Velvet is one of his strongest films. I'm rather looking forward to the Blu-Ray release, now that a whole load of deleted content has been recently discovered.

Jackass - I had another skim through the Jackass flicks, being that the third one recently came out on home video, for old times' sake. Now roll on whenever Jackass 3.5 comes out.

Mulholland Drive - I'd not seen it until this month, but the Blu-Ray was released not too long ago, and coming hot on the heels of another viewing of Blue Velvet, it felt like the right time. It looks nothing short of seductive on Blu-Ray, and the extra features (which are mostly in French, somewhat curiously) are intriguing - particularly the one that uses Lynch's own list of 10 clues to decipher what the movie is (most likely) about. I loved it.

MacGruber - I'm totally unfamiliar with the SNL sketch on which this is based, but we laughed hard at the cinema when we went to see it, and I certainly enjoyed it a second time around. "KFBR 392, KFBR 392, KFBR 392."

Iron Man 2 - it was about a year ago that we saw this in the cinema, and we were insanely psyched to see it. It's a shame then that it just didn't live up to the excellent trailer, nor the very enjoyable and well paced first movie. The sequel's pace is too uneven, the final battle with Vanko is bizarrely short, and it gets a bit distracted by establishing the wider Avengers franchise. There's still some cool action, but here's hoping that the third movie - apparently under the tutelage of Shane Black - re-asserts the quality factor of the first flick.

SOUNDS:

CKY "An Answer Can Be Found" - I was a little bet let down by this album back in 2005, but it's definitely better than I remembered it as being. However, Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild, and Carver City, were both superior albums in my view.

The Prodigy "Invaders Must Die" - I think it was the use of "Run With The Wolves" in the trailer for Paul that inspired me to give this a few more spins.

Angelo Badalamenti & BlueBob - there's something about the vibe, that music produced for David Lynch projects, gives off that helps get my mind into a certain place that helps me write.

Foo Fighters "Wasting Light" - after being a little bit underwhelmed by their last two albums (although I still enjoyed them, just not as much as their 2nd, 3rd and 4th outings), this is a return to form in my view. A stripped back sound with catchy songs. Make sure you check out the 'Live at 606' version of the album on the band's official YouTube channel.

Scream 2 - I gave the soundtrack CD, which I bought back in 1999, another spin after seeing Scream 4 in the cinema. It's a rather mixed album - the good comes in the form of "Eyes of Sand" (Tonic), "Dear Lover" (Foo Fighters), "Red Right Hand" (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), "I Think I Love You" (Less Than Jake) and "She Said" (Collective Soul) ... but the bad comes in the form of the absolutely dreadful opener "Scream" (Master P), and a series of mediocre offerings filling out the rest.

White Zombie "Astro-Creep:2000", and "La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. 1" - the former is definitely my favourite White Zombie outing. Every now and then I swing by these albums in my collection and give them another spin.

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Brownies & Apple Juice - a recurring snack choice for this month.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 - it's been a while since it was released, but I got around to it for the PC. It's good fun with some pretty cool levels and a nice sense of scale. Plus, naturally, the sound design is superb, and how could you not enjoy blowing holes in buildings and then rinsing the military occupants with bullets?

Hobo With A Shotgun - trailer contests, trailers, featurettes, music, there's been a decided Hobo vibe to this month.

Allen Bridge - having broken the back of the central idea (which originated in June 2010), I finally got into writing it, and as you'll have noticed here on the blog, I've been doing a series of posts specifically about it. Inspiration has come in the form of Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks, and the music connected to those flicks, but that's not to say that this drama mystery of mine is particularly Lynchian. Those just happened to be the influences that got my mind into a particular space that allowed me to head off into my own directions and generally set a sort of tone ... if that makes sense. Continue to follow my progress with this script here on the blog.

Red Dead Redemption - replaying the story missions, ahead of L.A. Noire out later in May, I really enjoyed heading back to the dying days of the wild west with John Marston. It's possibly the best thing that Rockstar have thus far produced, even if certain elements feel very familiar from the likes of GTA.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - I've seen Blade Runner numerous times over the years, but I've never read the book. Now though I'm into the second half and I'm really enjoying it - especially as it's decidedly different to the film, so it's pretty cool to see how Blade Runner developed out of Philip K. Dick's android hunting paranoid vision.

Quiz Cocktail Supreme - it's that time of year when spring is slowly morphing into summer, and that means cider and pub quizzes. Teaming up with some chums of mine, with a name inspired by a Jackass 3D skit, we've been doing better than we thought we might.

The Royal Wedding - while I wasn't all super-psyched about it, or especially looking forward to it, I remain in favour of the Royal Family for numerous reasons (which I've gotten into elsewhere, so I won't get into it here). I ended up watching the whole thing and actually quite enjoyed it, particularly for the sheer military precision and organisation of the entire event. Besides, it's not often that an event like this happens, and we Brits are reserved in our patriotism - saving it up for grand gestures and events, such as this, every once in a while - and we really show a global audience (estimated at two billion) just how to pull off pageantry properly.

Flavours of the Month: June 2010...

Continuing on from last month, my obsession with Prison Break Season One exploded and I'm now eager to see the remaining three seasons. Initially I was sceptical as it does take a good four or five episodes to get you into the groove of the show, but after that you're totally sucked in and fascinated by how every single problem that arises gets solved ... and the last two episodes are nothing but awesome.

I read Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, as I'm a big fan of the film adaptation, and naturally it was ruddy great, and then I simply had to watch the movie yet again - inspiring another mini-Cusack fest complimented by another viewing of Grosse Pointe Blank.

There's been a lot of script writing going on, what with Summer Road (comedy drama, now onto Draft 2.2) and Allen Bridge (drama mystery with a somewhat supernatural tint, now in the planning stages).

I also got the Season 1 through 3 box set of Robot Chicken, so it was nothing but that for a couple of weeks as I gorged myself on the extra features - and yes, season 4 is pre-ordered.

I finished Red Dead Redemption, which was a ruddy good game, and is Rockstar's best game to date, I'd have to say. You really care about John Marston and you end up caring about his family too, and what's more you really feel involved in the setting - that of the dying days of the wild west - and wow, the ending really packs a punch (just remember, the game ain't over till you've seen the credits roll). Speaking of the credits, the soundtrack to the game is tip-top, especially those two tracks on the credits which leave a memorable mark in the context of the ending.

As such, there has been a bit of a soundtrack festival on my CD changer - the soundtracks to Red Dead Redemption, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and The Road - two are westerns, two are by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and all three are excellent.

Finally, a hot topic for discussion over on Homepage of the Dead at the moment is the forthcoming TV series The Walking Dead, and having never read the source material before, I've now gone and gotten myself into that. At the time of writing I've read Vol. 1 "Days Gone Bye", and I've just started Vol. 2 "Miles Behind Us".

...

And there we have it, a whole year's worth of Flavours of the Month - to see the first one, follow this link:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/07/flavours-of-month-junejuly-2009.html