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Post by blueshift on May 12, 2014 20:38:21 GMT
Oh I really enjoyed the film. Just, it was in no way Hellblazer. If it was an original film, it would be highly regarded, I think.
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Post by legios on May 14, 2014 19:07:44 GMT
I think it was Martin who mentioned a film called "Franklyn" a while back. I've had it in my rental queue for a while, and now that the queue is almost empty (not added anything new in a few months now) it has rattled out and landed on my doorstep. Interesting film. It was a bit outside my usual genres - in fact I'd say I haven't really dallied in the same neighbourhoods since a book called "Veronica" that a friend bought me when my first girlfriend split up with me. Always good to step outside ones comfort zone every so often. It is a very carefully structured film, and I really like the way it is designed and shot. Very good stuff. Rather enjoyed it.
Karl
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on May 14, 2014 22:13:45 GMT
I think it was Martin who mentioned a film called "Franklyn" a while back. I've had it in my rental queue for a while, and now that the queue is almost empty (not added anything new in a few months now) it has rattled out and landed on my doorstep. Interesting film. It was a bit outside my usual genres - in fact I'd say I haven't really dallied in the same neighbourhoods since a book called "Veronica" that a friend bought me when my first girlfriend split up with me. Always good to step outside ones comfort zone every so often. It is a very carefully structured film, and I really like the way it is designed and shot. Very good stuff. Rather enjoyed it. I only really "got" it on a second viewing - all the subtle appearances of characters in multiple versions of reality, and what-not. It would be a fair criticism to say that a film can't be that it good if you can't follow it properly until you're watching it second time around, but regardless, it's been firmly in my top ten films of all time for a couple of years now. I find the ending supremely uplifting - the mop falling against the side of the bucket is a beautiful moment. And when Eva Green's character sees her room through the eyes of Jonathan Preest in those last moments. And just little things, like when the hero follows the red-headed girl into a building containing only old people playing dominoes (I think) but with the sounds of children in a playground until one of the old men taps the table for silence. Just... superb. Martin |
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Post by legios on May 26, 2014 18:45:05 GMT
I only really "got" it on a second viewing - all the subtle appearances of characters in multiple versions of reality, and what-not. It would be a fair criticism to say that a film can't be that it good if you can't follow it properly until you're watching it second time around, but regardless, it's been firmly in my top ten films of all time for a couple of years now. I find the ending supremely uplifting - the mop falling against the side of the bucket is a beautiful moment. And when Eva Green's character sees her room through the eyes of Jonathan Preest in those last moments. Yes, there is a real sense of rediscovery of life to the end of the film, a feeling of walls coming down which I found quite affecting. There is a lot of clever stuff done with the set design - with the way that some of the sets mirror each other or some of the locations, building up that subconcious sense of parallels between the narratives. It is a very considered and "crafted" film, and I was admiring of the level of discipline and attention to detail that it had. Yes, that was wonderful. In the moment the brain notes it but isn't sure what it means, but it all clicks into place beautifully later when it starts to fall into place. There is a nice little thing done later on at the playground which I have seen done before, but not as well - because "Franklyn" doesn't labour it or thump you over the head with the clue. Very clever film, and it has some really good performances too - just real enough to make the whole thing grounded without being unduly "mundane" if you see what I mean. Karl |
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Post by legios on Jun 27, 2014 20:02:38 GMT
Over the last couple of days I have been watching David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" (my attention span wasn't up to doing it in a oner). The cinematography is absolutely wonderful, it is a really beautiful looking film. There are some wonderful performances as well - Peter O'Toole is great in the central role. How historically accurate it is can certainly be questioned, but viewed as a piece of cinema it is fantastic stuff.
Karl
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Jul 10, 2014 19:26:57 GMT
"The Woman in Black" is on Film Four at 9pm tonight. Anyone who has any time at all for top quality period ghost stories must see this film. It's awesome.
Martin
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Post by legios on Jul 10, 2014 20:11:58 GMT
Seconded! Absolutely marvelous film, well worth ones time.
For my part I have stumbled over something on Iplayer earlier this week and kicked myself for missing it previously. I stumbled across the second season of a canadian show called Orphan Black, which I had heard of but new little about. Great setup, a woman who was adopted as a child discovers that she is a product of an experiment to produce clone children, and that she has a number of genetically identical "sisters" all raised by different foster families. From there it launches into thriller territory with a corporation who seem to be trying to create "designer humans" - whose DNA they claim a patent on, a quasi-mormon cult who seem to see the creation of the clones as blasphemous and the cloned themselves as "demonic" and needing to be killed, touching on bioethics and taking a definite position on the nature/nurture debate into the bargain. (I do like the shows take on cloning - the clones may be genetically identical but they are not "instant adult, just add test-tube" - they had childhoods and life experiences since they were all born in 1984, and as a result of being raised by different foster families are all very different people). It is decent stuff - improved by only having ten episodes in the season so there us a sense they know they can neither hang about nor meander too much. What is really startling is the absolute blinder being played by the leading actress - playing all of the clones means that she us playing on average four or five different characters an episode - and they are very different characters, a grifter,, a corporate ice-queen and a slightly kooky housewife with an alcohol and pills problem and a genetic scientist who happens to be off the opposite sexuality to the rest of the clones. The degree to which they are all fully-rounded characters who all happen to look similar is quite arresting. Fantastic performance, in what seems to be a low-key and reasonably intelligent piece of science-fiction. I have mainlined the first four episodes over the last two days, and have the rest of the season on the Ipad for watching over the next week or so.
Karl
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Aug 14, 2014 18:02:06 GMT
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Post by legios on Sept 17, 2014 18:52:02 GMT
Finally saw Danny Boyle's film "Sunshine" the other week. Fantastic film. A really good bit of british SF, with some fantastic production design and some cracking performances from the a really good cast. It is also a film which really manages to use lighting very, very well. I deeply regret missing its theatrical run some years back, because I think it would have been amazing in that context.
From the sublime to the ridiculous - I've also been watching "V: The Final Battle" (my rental queue has been running a little low). Yes, er, well. The original mini-series isn't great, but this follow-up is truly painful. Far too much of the plot may as well have "Powered by Stupid" emblazoned on it, and the Visitors seem to slide from "pulp Nazis" to "Colonel Klink" levels of competence across the course of the three parts. Redeeming features - any time Michael Ironside is onscreen telling the Resistance that they are idiots, and a scene which basically boils down to Jason Bernard (or as I will always see him, Captain William Eisen TCN) killing a load of aliens goons with a hosepipe which is shooting out red smoke... Yes, that latter looks as absurd as it sounds, but the sheer ridiculousness of it helps to make up for the several hours of po-faced nonsense I had sat through up till then. I'll give it this though, it may get where it is going in a very dumb way but it does at least do it in far less time than it took the remake to get not very far at all.
Karl
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Oct 12, 2014 19:06:17 GMT
Tomorrow on Channel 5 at 9pm, some series called "Gotham". I guess it's worth giving a go...?
Martin
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Oct 12, 2014 20:26:53 GMT
Tomorrow on Channel 5 at 9pm, some series called "Gotham". I guess it's worth giving a go...? Martin Sean Pertwee as young Alfred. Andy |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Oct 12, 2014 20:27:26 GMT
I shall watch it and see if it's any good.
Andy
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Post by legios on Oct 12, 2014 21:58:00 GMT
I am planning on giving it a go as well. Could be good, might not be, will know soon anyways I guess.
Karl
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Oct 14, 2014 7:14:24 GMT
Well, it was good enough to stick with it to the next episode at any rate.
The Penguin looks promising.
Martin
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Oct 14, 2014 10:56:02 GMT
I honestly didn't think that much of it, simply because it's cramming in all of the Batman villains as youngsters. Penguin, Catwoman and Riddler all in the first episode.
A few people have said it does improve so will give it a few more episodes.
Thought the Penguin was indeed the highlight of it, and the Major Crimes duo of Allen and Montoya the lowlights, they were the only two performances that really stood out as bad. Thought Donal Logue was good as Bullock.
Andy
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Post by legios on Oct 14, 2014 19:15:34 GMT
I'll have to say that the first episode of Gotham did not do much for me. It felt like it was shrinking the world of Gotham by the way it was drawing in so many future Batman characters all tangentially connected to the Wayne shooting. Oswald was really good as the conniving lackey who fancies himself in his bosses shoes, and some of the setup for "honest cop in a bought and paid for department has promise". I'm not as sold on Det. Bullock, not that the actor doesn't give a fantastic performance but because I tend to prefer Bullock as an old-fashioned cop (with all of the short-cutting, violence and questionable methods that entails) who kept quiet when the GCPD was dirty because "you don't turn on a fellow blue" rather than because he was dirty himself. I know why they did it, but it did feel like they made him a little too dirty for my tastes.
I'm prepared to give it another episode or two to see if it finds its feet, but it felt like the episode was neither a solid Batman prequel or a solid "Cop Show in Gotham City", neither fish nor fowl.
I've also started watching Season Two of Arrow, which looks like it promises to live up to its first season - hits the ground running and keeps up a solid pace whilst seeding the ground for how it is going go change up its status quo. I still think of all the superhero derived live-action shows we've seen in years Arrow is perhaps the solidest.
Karl
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Post by Philip Ayres on Oct 25, 2014 12:09:33 GMT
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Post by legios on Oct 25, 2014 13:27:19 GMT
Well, I watched the second episode of "Gotham". I honestly think the show is strongest when it is focusing on two of its strands - the fall and presumptive rise of Oswald Cobblepot (whose actor is absolutely fantastic and for me has nailed the right tone in terms of being someone unhinged enough that he will one day think putting on a distinctive costume to be a criminal is a sensible idea) and the young James Gordon - good man in a very bad department. By contrast I find anything to do with Bruce Wayne, or beating us over the head with the adventures of other Batman staples, to be to me an irritating diversion from the parts of the show that I feel work. The other thing that I regret is that every so often they seem to be going for a "noir detective" kind of tone for the world, but haven't really grasped how much of noir is actually in lighting. May well watch further episodes, but probably as an "at loose end on Demand 5" kind of thing, rather than worrying about catching it on broadcast.
I have also been mainlining the rest of Season Two of Arrow. One of the things I like in "Arrow" is that it seems much more at ease within its own skin - and always did from the beginning. Rather than trying to skirt around the fact that it is melodrama like "Gotham" seems determined to do at the moment, "Arrow" seems more comfortable with embracing this fact and running with it - and has a cast who do seem to be comfortable playing to that "slightly dialed-up" kind of performance which it needs.(Nice to see Summer Glau in a "genre" show getting to play a (relatively) normal performance most of the time as well). The two episodes "pre-Flash" guest appearance by the guy that will be Flash come Monday night over here has made me quite optimistic about that show as well - he does some absolutely first-rate work in his two episodes of Arrow and I am looking forward to see what he can do with the role of The Fastest Man Alive.
Karl
(PS: Yeah, I think I will leave the spider program to those folks who won't be immediately checking their loadouts to see if they have enough fragmentation ammunition to back up the pulse lasers and "clear the area". :-) )
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Post by legios on Oct 26, 2014 16:56:48 GMT
Yesterday evening was a Miyasaki double-bill, courtesy of the wonders of rental. I started the evening with "Porco Rosso" - the story of a Seaplane piloting pig (an Italian Air Force pilot cursed for not entirely established reasons) who is Bounty Hunting seaplane-flying air-pirates in the inter-war Adriatic. It is a lovely little film, with a lot of verve and charm. It really sells the feel of the tail-end of the age of gentlemanly rivalries and sportsman-like behaviour that typified the very beginnings of aerial combat - the rivalry between Marco, the "Porco Rosso", and an American pilot by the name of Donald Curtis powers the film in many ways and is much less the deadly rivalry of bitter enemies as it is a clash between two egos who cannot stand knowing who is better. Like most Miyasaki films it is not short of strong female characters - in this case a feisty 17 year old aeroplane designer and mechanic who is practically fearless even when confronted by the air-pirates of the Adriatic (not that said pirates are entirely as terrifying and ruthless at heart as they might be...), and the beautiful and slightly sad Gina - who runs a neutral ground nightclub a bit in the Casablanca style and with whom every pilot in the adriatic is a bit in love with, even though she really only has eyes for Marco... There is a real love and affection for flying in this film, this part of Miyasaki's personality is perhaps clearer here than in anything I've seen. The painstakingly accurate attention to detail as far as the aircraft goes is never allowed to impair the story though - instead Marco's own love of flying and of his red seaplane is one of the great sources of joy in the film. Brilliantly paced, animated with the breathtaking skill one has come to expect (but still be amazed by) from Studio Ghibli, and with a bittersweet ending which still manages to be thoroughly charming this is a wonderful film.
The post-Doctor Who film however was "My Neighbour Totoro", a story of two girls and their father who move to the country to be nearer the hospital where there mother is being treated for an unspecified (but given the degree of autobiographical nature of the film may well be Tuberculosis) illness. Moving into an old house in the country it isn't long before the youngest meets up with an local nature spirit which she dubs "Totoro". This is an absolute glorious film - from the joy the two children have running around the old house when they first move in, to young Mei's first encounter with Totoro (and the similar smaller creatures which seem to share the forest with him which is laugh-out-loud funny in so many places (the animators nail the expression of a kid that age when she is absolutely determined so well it is astounding). The world that the film creates is absolutely magical, somehow even the ordinary and everyday is made a little bit magical by Mei and her sisters sense of wonder at the rural life they find themselves living. And that is before we cross the shallow and porous-to-the-point-of-non-existence boundary between the everyday world and the supernatural world alongside it. Totoro is a wonderful creation - a huge, round, fluffly creation with a huge yawning mouth which straddles the border between terrifying and absurd when he opens it, a creature who is able to take enormous child-like joy at something as simple as an umbrella when he is stranded in the rain. And that is before we even mention the Cat-Bus, which is pretty much what it sounds like - a bizarre cross between a giant cat and a bus which really needs to be seen to be believed. Not afraid to tackle head on the innate darker side of fairy-tales, Totoro and friends reach out to help the children in their darkest hour, completing a magical journey that is at turns sad, humorous and more than anything genuinely uplifting.
I finished "Totoro" last night feeling a real sense of joy. There is every danger that this might become my favourite Miyasaki film at this rate (not that isn't a bit ike asking someone to pick their favourite of their children or something).
Karl
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Post by Philip Ayres on Nov 3, 2014 12:39:26 GMT
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Nov 3, 2014 14:03:06 GMT
I also appear for 3.5 seconds in the actual TV show as well. If you know where and when to look you can spot me... Available on iPlayer currently. Hint ~53:59. Gavin |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Nov 5, 2014 18:46:22 GMT
I watched M.
He has long rallied against sciencing while wearing a white lab coat, saying it's not what proper sciencologists do.
Lo and behold he was in the online extra in the white coat!
Seriously though, you came across well in that wee clip.
Top sciencing!
Andy
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Nov 5, 2014 20:52:22 GMT
Thanks! The white coat was forced upon me by the uni health and safety folk. Not my choice!
It was an interesting day of filming. Tim was great to work with and it was fascinating to get a flavour of what goes into the making of documentary shows these days.
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Post by legios on Nov 8, 2014 21:29:19 GMT
I have spent this week burning through the Universal/BBC "The Hollow Crown" series, their cinematic versions of Shakespeare's "Richard II", "Henry IV" and "Henry V". Absolutely fantastic stuff, a few little nips and tucks to the text here and there I suspect (although I'm only really familiar enough with "Henry V" to spot them for certain there). The casts are absolutely fantastic - Jeremy Irons gives a towering performance as Henry IV, and having Tom Hiddleston play both the young rebellious Prince Hal and the mature Henry V is a brilliant choice which really gives a good throughline through the latter plays. (Hiddleston in particular gets to deliver a wonderful, low-key rendition of the St Crispin's Day speech in Henry V which works really well for being quite an intimate feeling performance). There are some truly electric moments in "Henry IV", and also some marvellously bawdy comedy as well. All told it is a great set of dramatisations of the plays, and was well worth the rental.
For a complete change of pace I finally got around to watching "Galaxy Quest" this evening. Fantastic film, a very affectionate parody of both Star Trek and hardcore Star Trek fandom which gets laughs from it rather than at it, and at heart a very good-natured film. Also earned an extra laugh point from me for the sight of Enrico Colanti in a role almost literally light-years from that I am accustomed to seeing him in (he really is marvellously versatile).
Karl
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Post by Shockprowl on Nov 9, 2014 14:11:58 GMT
OH MY GOODNESS! So that's why spiders move how they do! Mrs Shockers, who is one of those poor misguided fools who's afraid of spiders, always says, just like in the program, that spiders move, stop, and plot! But now I can satisfy her fears! Great program, M! I haven't had chance to watch the full doc yet, but I will. You were MAGNIFICENT on camera. The camera clearly loves you.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Nov 22, 2014 14:56:22 GMT
I watched M. He has long rallied against sciencing while wearing a white lab coat, saying it's not what proper sciencologists do. Lo and behold he was in the online extra in the white coat! Man in white coat  |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Nov 22, 2014 17:17:48 GMT
PROOF!!!!
Andy
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Post by Philip Ayres on Nov 23, 2014 19:37:31 GMT
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Nov 23, 2014 19:48:41 GMT
Channel 5 1115 tonight The Punisher starring Dolph Lundgren!
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Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 18, 2014 20:15:03 GMT
Oooo, nobody told me The Railway: First Great Western was back on. Great TV.
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