Buys
Three more Hong Kong spectaculars for the collection, including Tsui Hark's Zu Warriors, Chang Cheh's Five Element Ninjas (it's a Venom film, so bound to be hilariously homoerotic), and Dennis Law's Fatal Contact. To show I like western action films too, I got the Dirty Harry collection at a very good price. So that's Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool in the pipeline (in fact, I've already flipped one, see below).
"Accomplishments"
DVDs: Finished Hustle Series 4, the last of the series available on DVD at the moment. I thought things would get dodgy without Adrian Lester's Mickey Stone in the mix (he returns in Series 5), but it gave Marc Warren's Danny Blue a chance to take up the leadership and change the style of the cons a little bit. Rap star replacement Ashely Walters as Billy Bond grows on you, but tends to mumble his lines (once again, I point to the lack of subtitles on these DVDs). One of the best bits this series is that the cast goes to America (Hollywood and Vegas) which is a great place for them to be. The DVD has a fun making of concentrating on those two episodes.
W
hat do you do when you wake up at 4 in the morning with insomnia? What we USED to do is watch whatever movie played on the local tv station. I recreated that this week by putting Dirty Harry, just the kind of movie that might have aired late at night, into the DVD player. I hadn't seen it in years, and probably never with the nudity. I was struck by it's B-movie, cinéma vérité style, plunging the viewer into near darkness for long stretches of time. To me it screams 70s cinema, even though it was made at the very start (1971). It holds up thanks to two performances: Clint Eastwood's defining role as Dirty Harry, of course, but also Andrew Robinson (who will always be Garak to me) as the nutsy Scorpio. The DVD features an insightful commentary by Clint Eastwood expert Richard Schickel and various documentaries and interviews, most of which feature material about the other Dirty Harry films (spoilery!). There are nice pieces on the influence the film and character have had and a retrospective on Clint's career, though some of these are more than 15 years old.
On Kung Fu Friday, we watched White Dragon, a wuxia comedy directed by Wilson Yip (who usually works with Donnie Yen). It's a very strange blend of House of Flying Daggers, Naked Gun and Amelie, and I'm not entirely sure it works. It can't decide if it's a touching melodrama or an Airplane-style comedy, and the protagonist (I find that we started Ladies' Month a week early) is unlikable for 80% of the picture. Somehow, it's the silly anachronisms that stuck with us, so we'll remember it as a parody more than an operatic drama. Thanks to Chalif for throwing it in the pot (he got for free anyway). It didn't meet our usual standards, but it still wasn't a Bruce Leespolitation film either.
Cloverfield... Blair Witch does Godzilla... I'd bought it as a Godzilla fan, and find it to be a Gojira for the post-9/11 age. After all, both films exist in the long shadow of a man-made disaster, and relevant disturbing images are found in each. I might be of another opinion had I nauseously seen it in theaters, but on a television, the handheld style didn't cause any queasies. On the contrary, I thought it was a very effective way to make the event seem real, to the point where I didn't know how some of the effects were achieved. The naturalistic acting also helped in this respect, and Hud was a pretty funny character. Director Matt Reeves doesn't skimp on the info in his commentary, and the DVD further includes a making of, deleted scenes and outtakes. Strangely, the trailer they keep talking about isn't included. Is it a TRULY GREAT film? Of course not. But it's more than a curiosity and isn't, to my mind, a "failed experiment". It's a fun and interesting disaster/horror film, that reminded me in a way of 28 Days Later.
Trades: I've been really remiss about reading/getting comics since Christmas, but I can still get into the occasional trade. Been following DMZ in that form, and just read volume 7, War Powers. Haven't read a DMZ in a least lah a year and I still know who each of the characters are, even those who appeared in a single story arc, so I know it's good stuff. In vol.7 (reprinting DMZ #35-41), Mattie seems to become a more active participant in political events, taking up arms and losing some of his journalistic objectivity in the process. Issue 41 has a great story about Zee, as well.
Twitter: On a similar subject, I was using my Twitter account for short (but hopefully sweet) comic book reviews. So no surprise that I hadn't written a single thing in two months. Then I thought, what the hell, let's just use it like everybody uses it. It's all geekery mind you, but it's as much about gaming, movies and tv as it is about comics. I'm a full-on Twit now.
RPGs: Next week is our Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Kickoff Week. Three sessions in 5 days to get a story arc underway. In preparation, our lovable pal St-Pierre has made a Mickey-type character (to be played by Simon Pegg) that due to his tech abilities might go from recurring guest character to TARDIS crew quicker than anticipated (especially since our Time Lord isn't tech-oriented). Which reminds me, the Time Lord still needs tweaking if we're to be ready Tuesday. I've got a player to catch.
New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: Only 1, but I'm still reeling from the last couple weeks' murderousness. Taking a few days off this coming week, so should get back on track.
Hyperion to a Satyr entries this week include:
Act I Scene 3 according to Zeffirelli
Three more Hong Kong spectaculars for the collection, including Tsui Hark's Zu Warriors, Chang Cheh's Five Element Ninjas (it's a Venom film, so bound to be hilariously homoerotic), and Dennis Law's Fatal Contact. To show I like western action films too, I got the Dirty Harry collection at a very good price. So that's Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool in the pipeline (in fact, I've already flipped one, see below).
"Accomplishments"
DVDs: Finished Hustle Series 4, the last of the series available on DVD at the moment. I thought things would get dodgy without Adrian Lester's Mickey Stone in the mix (he returns in Series 5), but it gave Marc Warren's Danny Blue a chance to take up the leadership and change the style of the cons a little bit. Rap star replacement Ashely Walters as Billy Bond grows on you, but tends to mumble his lines (once again, I point to the lack of subtitles on these DVDs). One of the best bits this series is that the cast goes to America (Hollywood and Vegas) which is a great place for them to be. The DVD has a fun making of concentrating on those two episodes.W
hat do you do when you wake up at 4 in the morning with insomnia? What we USED to do is watch whatever movie played on the local tv station. I recreated that this week by putting Dirty Harry, just the kind of movie that might have aired late at night, into the DVD player. I hadn't seen it in years, and probably never with the nudity. I was struck by it's B-movie, cinéma vérité style, plunging the viewer into near darkness for long stretches of time. To me it screams 70s cinema, even though it was made at the very start (1971). It holds up thanks to two performances: Clint Eastwood's defining role as Dirty Harry, of course, but also Andrew Robinson (who will always be Garak to me) as the nutsy Scorpio. The DVD features an insightful commentary by Clint Eastwood expert Richard Schickel and various documentaries and interviews, most of which feature material about the other Dirty Harry films (spoilery!). There are nice pieces on the influence the film and character have had and a retrospective on Clint's career, though some of these are more than 15 years old.
On Kung Fu Friday, we watched White Dragon, a wuxia comedy directed by Wilson Yip (who usually works with Donnie Yen). It's a very strange blend of House of Flying Daggers, Naked Gun and Amelie, and I'm not entirely sure it works. It can't decide if it's a touching melodrama or an Airplane-style comedy, and the protagonist (I find that we started Ladies' Month a week early) is unlikable for 80% of the picture. Somehow, it's the silly anachronisms that stuck with us, so we'll remember it as a parody more than an operatic drama. Thanks to Chalif for throwing it in the pot (he got for free anyway). It didn't meet our usual standards, but it still wasn't a Bruce Leespolitation film either.
Cloverfield... Blair Witch does Godzilla... I'd bought it as a Godzilla fan, and find it to be a Gojira for the post-9/11 age. After all, both films exist in the long shadow of a man-made disaster, and relevant disturbing images are found in each. I might be of another opinion had I nauseously seen it in theaters, but on a television, the handheld style didn't cause any queasies. On the contrary, I thought it was a very effective way to make the event seem real, to the point where I didn't know how some of the effects were achieved. The naturalistic acting also helped in this respect, and Hud was a pretty funny character. Director Matt Reeves doesn't skimp on the info in his commentary, and the DVD further includes a making of, deleted scenes and outtakes. Strangely, the trailer they keep talking about isn't included. Is it a TRULY GREAT film? Of course not. But it's more than a curiosity and isn't, to my mind, a "failed experiment". It's a fun and interesting disaster/horror film, that reminded me in a way of 28 Days Later.
Trades: I've been really remiss about reading/getting comics since Christmas, but I can still get into the occasional trade. Been following DMZ in that form, and just read volume 7, War Powers. Haven't read a DMZ in a least lah a year and I still know who each of the characters are, even those who appeared in a single story arc, so I know it's good stuff. In vol.7 (reprinting DMZ #35-41), Mattie seems to become a more active participant in political events, taking up arms and losing some of his journalistic objectivity in the process. Issue 41 has a great story about Zee, as well.
Twitter: On a similar subject, I was using my Twitter account for short (but hopefully sweet) comic book reviews. So no surprise that I hadn't written a single thing in two months. Then I thought, what the hell, let's just use it like everybody uses it. It's all geekery mind you, but it's as much about gaming, movies and tv as it is about comics. I'm a full-on Twit now.
RPGs: Next week is our Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Kickoff Week. Three sessions in 5 days to get a story arc underway. In preparation, our lovable pal St-Pierre has made a Mickey-type character (to be played by Simon Pegg) that due to his tech abilities might go from recurring guest character to TARDIS crew quicker than anticipated (especially since our Time Lord isn't tech-oriented). Which reminds me, the Time Lord still needs tweaking if we're to be ready Tuesday. I've got a player to catch.New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: Only 1, but I'm still reeling from the last couple weeks' murderousness. Taking a few days off this coming week, so should get back on track.
Hyperion to a Satyr entries this week include:
Act I Scene 3 according to Zeffirelli
Comments