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...

Badass Glenn, Sleeves, Duct Tape and Good Times: The Walking Dead 3x07 memes...

Find more Walking Dead memes here.

Tensions are running high in the world of The Walking Dead with just the mid-season finale left to go, but before we get to what is sure to be a thrilling mid-season conclusion, let's dig into some memes for "When The Dead Come Knocking".

The 'clean' version.

Click "READ MORE" below to go sleeveless, use duct tape as armour, reminisce, and see alternatives...

Walking Dead Debrief 3x06 "Hounded"...

See last week's debrief here.

See memes for this episode here.

WARNING: EPISODE 3x06 SPOILERS AHEAD!

IN SUMMARY:

* Some have expressed controversy regarding Michonne, even going so far as to call her a "ninja", and while her sudden arrival amidst Merle's search party was a bit of a stretch in terms of believability, it was still good fun. I can't imagine this scene will further endear those struggling to accept her character though.

Click "READ MORE" below to continue with the debrief...

Want even more Walking Dead memes?

There was once a Tumblr page for "The Laughing Dead", but a while back it vanished - however, never fear, they're back in the form of the Official Laughing Dead Facebook page.

I see they've shared a few of my memes on there in recent weeks as well (nice to see "likes" and comments on them). There's lots of people sharing their own memes, and plenty of Walking Dead flavoured chuckles to be had - so if you're on the lookout for even more Walking Dead memes, check them out.

For more DeadShed memes for The Walking Dead, click here.

Daryl vs Carl, Where's Carol, and Hello Aunt Alicia - The Walking Dead 3x06 memes...

Find more Walking Dead memes here.

Another cracking episode this week, and one that sets up what is sure to be a gruelling and memorable next two episodes to round-out this first half of season three. Now though - a couple of memes.

(Updated Version)

Click "READ MORE" to ask "Where's Carol?" and listen in to one of Rick's phone calls...

Walking Dead gifs...

Rummaging through some files I stumbled upon these couple of animated gifs that I cobbled together a few months ago - I'd never created a gif before and fancied a stab at it, and yet for some reason I forgot about these, so I might as well share them here.

These two are from the The Walking Dead season two finale "Beside the Dying Fire".

The first one was supposed to be used as an avatar for forums and the like, and the second was my very first stab at creating an animated gif image. I was only using a relatively basic gif creator, and I couldn't really figure out how to get the perfect balance between smooth motion, image size, and the actual size of the file itself. Still though - worth sharing - I hope you enjoy them.

In Time: The Most Idiotic Movie I've Seen in Years...

What's it about?
In the future the entire world economy has been replaced by a system of time - you work for time, you buy goods and services with time, and that time is displayed on your arm. When the counter reaches zero, you die. However, this bizarre system is connected to the invention of immortality which keeps everyone looking like they're 25 (even if most of the actors are decidedly over 25 years of age).

Andrew (S1m0ne, Lord of War) Niccol's film is stunning - in that it's stunning how this shoddy script (which he wrote, produced, and directed) was ever green lit, and how on earth it attracted so many known names to it.

Justin Timberlake plays factory drone Will Salas who encounters a 'time rich' man, who he rescues from time thieves, only to be gifted with the stranger's century of time. Crossing several "time zones", Will ends up gambling with one of the richest men in this new world order, Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser), but is soon apprehended by the authorities ... for about five minutes before he makes a daring escape, kidnapping Sylvia (Amanda Seyfreid), the rich man's daughter in the process. Now it's the two of them versus the system.
Who would I recognise in it?
Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser, Olivia Wilde, Johnny Galecki.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Let's summarise my thoughts on this moronic mess, replete with plot holes you could navigate a cruise ship through, with a list of glaringly obvious problems as they randomly spring to mind:

Click "READ MORE" below to continue reading just why "In Time" is the most idiotic movie I've seen in years (BEWARE - MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD)...

Walking Dead Debrief 3x05 "Say the Word"...

See last week's debrief here.

See memes for this episode here.

WARNING: EPISODE 3x05 SPOILERS AHEAD!

Click "READ MORE" below to read this week's episode debrief...

Quadruple Bill Mini Musings: Lists, Fields, Heists, and Love...

Kill List:
What's it about?
Two hitmen - one of whom who has a dodgy past and has been out of the game too long - are contracted to pull off multiple kills, but something's not right, not least because the victims say thank you before they're offed in Ben Wheatley's dark British horror thriller.
Who would I recognise in it?
Neil Maskell, Michael Smiley, MyAnna Buring, Emma Fryer.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Some might find it slow to get underway, initially focusing on the troubled marriage of a lower-middle-class couple, particularly the husband's askew mental state, but the time taken up-front pays off in the end with greater investment and impact in the closing scenes. Some have mentioned The Wicker Man in connection with this British horror flick, and some connections can be seen here and there. Ultimately, some might find the lack of answers or any real explanation in the third act, which can somewhat undo the genuine creepiness built up during Act II, to be a bit off-putting, but even still it's a cracking little chiller. Good.

Click "READ MORE" for Texas Killing Fields, Tower Heist, and Submarine...

Rick the Psycho Dad Edition - The Walking Dead 3x05 memes...

Find more Walking Dead memes here.

Another solid episode - "Say the Word" introduced us to a completely unhinged Rick Grimes, which was the main meme inspiration for this week, with a little help from the theme song to Al Bundy's favourite TV show.

Click "READ MORE" below for more of Rick: Psycho Dad, an awkward trouser malfunction, a dash of Merle, and some security problems (the second image contains spoilers for last week's episode - 3x04 "Killer Within")...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Woods & Dogs...

The Cabin in the Woods:
What's it about?
Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's love/hate letter to the horror genre was originally made in 2009, but due to MGM's financial troubles at the time, it was shelved until 2012 for release. Five good-looking college kids head off to the woods for a fun weekend, but where do a bunch of shady button-pushers in an underground bunker fit in?
Who would I recognise in it?
Chris Hemsworth, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, and ... well, that would be telling.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
It's hard to talk about this movie without spoiling it - but the trailer gives most of the game away as it is (although not the entire game, one should note). In a cabin rather reminiscent of that in Sam Raimi's seminal 1981 horror milestone The Evil Dead, there are all sorts of nasty surprises just waiting to be discovered.

Click "READ MORE" below to see if this flick's any cop, and whether the Straw Dogs remake has any teeth...

My Dear Killer (Tonino Valerii, 1972) DVD Review...

Find more Shameless Screen Entertainment DVD reviews here.

Tonino Valerii's only venture into the world of the gialli flick is as much a poliziotteschi crime thriller as it is a bloody murder mystery. George (All The Colours of the Dark, The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh) Hilton plays Inspector Luca Peretti, the cop who is (typically enough) obsessed with his latest case, which kicks off with a novel use for a dredger – decapitation – one of the films stand-out set-pieces.

As Peretti's case gets ever-more-twisted, he finds himself trapped within a complex web of deceit and a hidden truth that someone is going to murderous lengths to keep a secret. Eventually it becomes clear that at the heart of this growing pile of bodies is the missing child of a rich family, that is populated by an untrustworthy group of liars and cheats – but who is to blame and why are they resorting to cold-blooded executions?

Click "READ MORE" below to continue the review and see more screenshots...

Walking Dead Debrief 3x04 "Killer Within"...

See last week's debrief here.

See memes for this episode here.

WARNING: EPISODE 3x04 SPOILERS AHEAD!



IN SUMMARY:

* In a welcome moment of levity, the show makers injected a little sauciness into proceedings. In the comics there was a running joke about Glenn and Maggie shacking up like a pair of rabbits, and here their guard-tower tryst brings a sense of fun to an otherwise harrowing episode.

* Axel fans got their wish - "You follow me?"

Click "READ MORE" to continue the debrief (spoilers ahead!)...

World War Z trailer analysis...

There's already been a lot said about the film adaptation of Max Brooks' celebrated zombie novel, which centred around a series of interviews from around the world, conducted by one man, in which the disparate experiences of survivors were recounted (from the initial outbreak in China to the infamous Battle of Yonkers), and not a lot of what has been said about it thus far has been all that good.

First there was news of the plot getting a total overhaul – yes, it would be difficult to translate a series of interviews into a narrative film, but initial news would suggest there's been large scale changes. Then there was the inevitable news that a costly flick such as this would be, *sigh*, rated PG-13, and then the news that the shambling corpses of the book were getting replaced with runners – and by the looks of the trailers, they're not just runners – the term “zombie tsunami” has been bandied about in comment feeds across the Internet. There was also the news that significant re-shoots were required to re-work the third act – rumours abound that it was tens-of-millions of dollars (some rumours going as high as a surely-implausible $100 million) worth of re-shoots. The suggestion was that they were going far beyond the usual level of re-shoots required for a big budget movie … suffice to say, this sort of news doesn't bode well for fans of the novel.

So let's take a look at the recently released trailer.

Click "READ MORE" for the analysis and a shed load of screenshots...

Eyes In Your Window: Blog #05...

Find the previous post in this series here.

Progress update - with the first draft of the first episode ("Mug") complete, it was time to move on to figuring out the lay-of-the-land regarding the remaining two episodes in this planned three-part post-watershed drama serial. Episodes two and three are titled "Knife" and "Stump" respectively, and at first I was just going to jump straight into a Word document and map them out there - but suddenly the flow I had experienced when planning "Mug" was gone...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue...

Teleporting Walkers & Amorous Activity, You Follow Me? - The Walking Dead 3x04 memes...

Find more Walking Dead memes here.

 
Well that was a hell of an episode, wasn't it?! To calm your shredded nerves, have some memes from episode 3x04 "Killer Within".

Click "READ MORE" below for sauciness and teleportation...

Triple Bill Mini/Cine Musings: Bond, Loves, Action...

Skyfall:
What's it about?
23rd entry in the long-running spy action series arriving during the 50th anniversary of Bond on the silver screen. A hard-drive detailing the information of undercover operatives is stolen by the blonde-haired baddie Silva, who has a personal grudge to settle that goes straight to the heart of MI6. Naturally, it's up to Bond, James Bond, to get things sorted.
Who would I recognise in it?
Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Dame Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite:
Casino Royale (Craig's first Bond) was superb and brought about a tougher, more hard-edged Bond (building on work first established by Timothy Dalton during his two-Bond-run in the 1980s) - it combined arse kicking with traditional Bond glamour and a great script. The follow-up Quantum of Solace was a bit iffy in some respects - the camerawork during action scenes was shaky-to-the-point-of-frustration and (as a result of the writer's strike at the time) the script was unbalanced, lacking in tension, and failed to really grab the viewer - that said, it wasn't a write-off by any stretch of the imagination. We'd come to expect something greater though with Casino Royale and now, delivered by Sam Mendes, Bond's 50th Anniversary is an enjoyable knock-about triumph.

Click "READ MORE" below for the verdict, plus two other flicks...

Walking Dead Debrief 3x03 "Walk With Me"...

See the debrief for the previous episode here.

See memes for this episode here.




WARNING: EPISODE 3x03 SPOILERS AHEAD!



WHAT WE LEARNED:

* As I'd thought, 3x03 focused purely on Andrea, Michonne, The Governor, Merle, and Woodbury. Back at the prison they have safety, shelter, food, medical supplies, and have dealt with the other survivors - they now have time to take a breather - so when you've got a whole bunch of new people and situations to introduce, you're going to require an entire episode to do so. The next episode will feature both the Prison and Woodbury though, so it seems.

* The people of Woodbury refer to walkers as "creepers", "biters" and "lurkers".

* Andrea and Michonne didn't know that anyone who dies becomes a walker - Rick only admitted the truth (as told to him by Dr Edwin Jenner in 1x06 "TS-19") after the herd of walkers had besieged the Greene farm, at which point Andrea had been left behind (apparently taken down by walkers as far as Rick & Co are concerned).

* Milton is the town's very own Dr Logan (Day of the Dead). Seeking to find reason amidst the chaos of the zombie apocalypse, he proffers his thesis regarding Michonne's undead bodyguards. Removed of the ability to eat the flesh of the living (arms and lower jaw severed), walkers will become docile and act as repellent to other geeks.

Click "READ MORE" below to continue the 3x03 debrief...