Flavours of the Month: January 2016...

Hobbits, exploitation flicks, and a brand new screenplay - just a couple of this month's flavours...

Click "READ MORE" below for January 2016's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...



LOOKS:

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Blu-Ray) - and so concludes a post-festive-season tradition for the last three years: an extended edition trip to Middle Earth. 11 hours of extra features to wade through - all of it fascinating, illuminating, and rather good fun.

Turbo Kid (Blu-Ray) - mini review here.

The Final Girls - DVD review here.

Chillerama - DVD review here.

Baron Blood (Blu-Ray) - one of Mario Bava's last films. It's a strange combination of old school gothic horror (creepy old castles, ancient evil etc) with the then-new thrust of the youth market into horror, so the protagonists are young and hip, and there's a rather conspicuous coke machine tossed in. Indeed, it's a bit of a throwback film for the most part, and for Bava's part it seems more about looking back than forward - one particular scene recalls a famous image from his directorial debut Black Sunday. Not one of Bava's best by any means.

Tarantino/Rodriguez - Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained, Grindhouse, From Dusk Till Dawn, Reservoir Dogs.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much - Blu-Ray/DVD review here.


SOUNDS:

Nine Inch Nails "The Fragile", "With Teeth", "Year Zero", "And All That Could Have Been"

Misfits "Famous Monsters", "American Psycho"

The Black Angels "Passover", "Directions To See A Ghost", "Phosphene Dream", "Indigo Meadow"


VIBES & FLAVOURS:

"A Sideline In Vengeance" - having bashed out the majority of the serious planning for this new screenplay in December, January was all about putting fingers-to-keyboard and actually writing it. Fortunately, as I've blogged about on a couple of updates this month, the muse was with me and the words flowed. As I've been writing I've also been making changes - so all-said-and-done, I've now got a complete fourth draft of the script (clocking in at 97 pages). I'm rather chuffed with it, but now I'll be taking a break from it for two or three weeks - 'age it in the drawer' as they say - after which point I'll return to make further changes, have some other pairs of eyes take a look at it, and then make yet more tweaks. Undoubtedly, this time away from screenwriting that I've had - in order to write a variety of short stories and novels/novellas - has helped push my writing craft forward and improve my 'writing stamina'.

Alan Wake - it's been a while since I last gave Remedy's superb action thriller a spin, so it's been a pleasure to return to Bright Falls. I absolutely love the game - but the fact that they contrive to wipe your inventory so you have to start from scratch - so often - is my biggest bug bear with it. Small niggles, as I've always thought, are: the lip synch is dodgy, and the jump mechanic is very dodgy. Story, setting, characterisation, game play, design, writing - all solid and loads of fun.