31 March 2009
88 Minutes (2007)
30 March 2009
Hancock (2008)
29 March 2009
Frost/Nixon (2008)
28 March 2009
27 March 2009
Watchmen – Under The Hood (2009)
In the Watchmen movie, reference is made to Hollis Mason’s (the original Nite Owl) autobiography of his days as a masked vigilante, Under The Hood. This short, released to coincide with the Watchmen movie, explores that book in the format of a television documentary featuring interviews with some of the original Minutemen (at least the ones that are in the movie). Sadly the Comedian is mentioned but not interviewed. It’s a bit dull, but does provide some context for the Watchmen’s opening credits.
26 March 2009
Burn After Reading (2008)
Joel and Ethan Coen have a great talent for creating quirky characters for their actors, but I wish they were equally as good at writing a script. Burn After is a story of incorrect assumptions, infidelity, and mistaken identity that is not as interesting as the characters in it.
25 March 2009
Watchmen – Tale Of The Black Freighter (2009)
24 March 2009
Quantum Of Solace (2008)
23 March 2009
Let the Right One In (2008)
22 March 2009
21 March 2009
20 March 2009
19 March 2009
Itty Bitty Titty Committee (2007)
18 March 2009
Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008)
The Writers Guild of America strike of 2008 might have caused the death of some tv series, fragmented others while they went on a forced hiatus, but there was some good that came out of it (and I am not just talking of increased revenue for writers). Joss Whedon (with his brothers and friends) created an online musical during the void that is now on DVD.
Dr Horrible/Billy (Neil Patrick Harris from Starship Troopers) is a supervillain (but really very evil) who lives with his side-kick Moist (Simon Helberg from Big Bang Theory), is secretly in love with Penny (Felicia Day from Buffy The Vampire Slayer) from the Laundromat, publicly at war with his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion from Serenity, who has a great smarmy smile), and doing his best to be accepted in to the Evil League of Evil (led by Bad Horse, who is a horse).
And Penny will see the evil me
Not a joke not a dork not a failure
And she may cry but her tears will dry
When I hand her the keys to a shiny new Australia
Most people like music but, quite legitimately hate musicals. Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog may be the one that changes their mind. It is better than I thought a musical could be. Much better. I think it is far supperior to Joss’ musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. This is a funny, corny, tragic, dramatic, and quite revealing study of the motives of heroes and villains. The DVD extras include a whole new song track about the writer’s strike.
17 March 2009
Watchmen (2009)
Incidentally, I have no reservations referring to Watchmen as a comic. I don’t need to justify its use of pictures to tell a story (and the art by Dave Gibbons is magnificent) by calling it a graphic novel. Calling something a novel doesn’t make it any more valid a literary item than a comic. Have you seen most of the novels that are out there? They are derivative, uninspired trash. If African Americans can make “nigger” non-derogatory, if homosexuals can claim the terms “queer” and “gay” as their own, if punks can make the term “punk” positive, then “comic” can be acceptable terminology for sequential art narrative (as the lovely and talented Nicki Greenberg once described them). It is an art form more varied and intricate than many people realise. The problem is with people, not the terminology.
The film is not all bad. Snyder couldn’t destroy everything from the original, and what is left of Moore and Gibbon’s story makes the film enjoyable (at times). The opening credits are a great recap of what has happened in this alternate world of superheroes, even if it won’t mean much to those who haven’t read the comic. Jackie Earle Haley’s Rorschach is the standout character, and the acting is generally good, except for Matthew Goode’s Ozymandias. Rorschach (an obsessed, masked vigilante trying to clean up the streets of his city) is a much better Batman than anyone else has managed to create on film (even if he is meant to be more like The Question than Batman). Niteowl is also a better Batman than anyone else as managed to film (and at least he is like Batman in costume and accessories). The Comedian (excellently played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is a better psychotic, violent madman than any Joker ever filmed as well, and he is not even meant to be the “real” villain. It’s common knowledge that films are never as good as the books they are based on, Watchmen is no different. I liked it despite all there was to hate.
16 March 2009
Ritual (2001)
15 March 2009
National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers (2003)
I have to stop watching National Lampoon movies before my brain rots. They are not funny anymore. This review is done solely as a warning to whoever reads it to never watch this film. NEVER WATCH THIS FILM.
12 March 2009
W... again...
Genghis Khan died, and waited 738 years for Omar Sharif to do him justice...
Attila the Hun lay dormant for 501 years until his agent collected 10%...
and Vlad the Impaler was in the ground for 455 years before Hollywood came calling.
But lately, people haven't been waiting quite as long after death to bring these stories to the screen...
George S Patton was imortalised only 35 years after he died...
Winston Churchill was being played by Robert Hardy a mere 16 years after his passing...
Andy Kaufman had been seeing the "man on the moon" for only 15 years...
... and I'm sure there's already a Heath Ledger bio-pic on the way...
10 March 2009
Behind The Mask The Rise Of Leslie Vernon (2006)
09 March 2009
Blood Ties The Complete Series DVD (2007)
Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox) is a Private Investigator in Toronto who, while investigating the disappearance of Coreen Fennel’s (Gina Holden - Dale Arden in TV's Flash Gordon) boyfriend, meets Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid), a vampire. By the end of the first story, Vicki has discovered that Henry is a nightwalker and that the world is populated by magic and monsters, and she employs Coreen, who has a knowledge and passion for the occult, to help her investigate what the police don’t understand. All of this confuses Vicki’s ex, Mike Celluci (Dylan Neal), a local detective who is suspicious of Vicki, Henry, Coreen and the supernatural cases they investigate.
Once the characters are established, the episodes break down in to the Night Stalker scenario of having a new monster/demon an episode, including vampires, zombies, elves and Pandora’s box. There is the expected sexual tension between the characters, and Henry’s character makes no apologies for being a vampire and feeling a little superior because of it. In one episode, Vicki stops by Henry’s apartment and catches him with yet another woman…
“I thought you were the Prince of Darkness, but it’s really more like the Lord of Lechery or something.”
“A man has to eat.”
“You don’t have to play with your food.”
It’s an enjoyable show, and the revolving cast of metaphysical creatures leaves it more room to move than the similarly themed Moonlight (2007).