Buys
Liked It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia enough to get Seasons 3 to 5. Ooh and I just got the latest issue of Enlightenment!
"Accomplishments"
DVDs: I flipped The Road, the postapocalyptic film based on Cormac McCarthy's best-selling book. Boy, it sure isn't Mad Max! The dying world of The Road is so realistic, it was actually filmed on location. Sure, there's sky replacement and color timing, but relatively little CGI manipulation. Filmed at Mt. St.Helen's, New Orleans and Pennsylvania's ash piles, director John Hillcoat also uses, for example, elements from 9-11's dust plumes. This apocalypse should feel eminent because it's in part already happened. The story is that of a man and his son walking through this wasteland and trying to survive and manages to ask the questions the book does, about parent-child relationships, and about what remains when you strip everything away - is it just survival? Lines from the book are used sparingly, finding its own poetry in the images. I understand the film wasn't embraced by audiences who either had read the book and so picked it apart, or had seen the trailer, which sells it as an action genre film. I think it's worthy of a re-evaluation. I would actually been happy if it had won the Oscar last year instead of The Hurt Locker (or any of the 9 other nominees). I think it resonates that much. The DVD includes a strong director's commentary, a few deleted scenes, and a "making of" that is really just the cast and crew talking about each other, as opposed to how the film was made.
R
oad to Perdition is in many ways the same story. It's about a father running away with his son and desperately trying to both survive and prevent his boy from being visited by the sins of the father and losing his soul. The postapocalyptic wasteland is replaced by 1930s gangland, and there's a more "heroic" through line, but the similarities are all too obvious when watched back to back. Sam Mendes turns a beautiful looking picture, as noir as color film can get, with solid performances grounding things in reality. I never read the graphic novel - though I did get all the Paradox Press stuff prior to it - but my research brings up enough differences to make the film its own, distinct work. The theme of fathers and sons is more fully developped, and Mendes cut as much dialog as possible to tell the story in film's own unique language. The DVD includes an insightful director's commentary, deleted scenes (with commentary), and a promotional, but informative HBO making of feature.
There are some films in my collection that have a purely nostalgic function. Such a film is Colossus: The Forbin Project, a science thriller from my youth watching old movies on television that had scared the hell out of me at the time. That's because SF films from the late early 70s had a tendency to end in disaster for the human race. Watching it for the first time in almost 30 years, I didn't find it as disturbing, but I did enjoy it for its taut paranoid atmosphere and big ideas about artificial intelligence and our surrender to mechanization. Sadly, you have to live in Region 2 to have access to a widescreen version, though from what I hear, the director's commentary on that version is spotty and generic. I'm probably not missing much with this bare bones version (it doesn't even have a MENU!), but I should still mention it. I just had a thought: Colossus would make a great prequel to the Paranoia RPG!
Forbidden Kingdom, our Kung Fu Fridays selection, is an entertaining fantasy in which a kid from Boston gets into hot water and is whisked away to the mythical China of the Kung Fu films he loves so well. There, he learns valuable lessons and helps defeat a powerful enemy before being returned to his own time to face his actual troubles. Jackie Chan and Jet Li reprise the roles they are well-known for in Kung Fu lore, a drunken boxer and Shaolin monk respectively. For a fan of classic Kung Fu films, it's an amusing run through all the tropes of the genre, often referring to Bruce Lee's words of wisdom (that's a bit hackneyed), locations we're used to seeing in Chinese films (the tea house, the bamboo forest, the holy mountain, etc.), and specific films, mentioned and not, from Bride with the White Hair to The Karate Kid. The fights are very good, of course. Judging on the reaction of my usual crew, we're far less obliging when it comes to American-made Kung Fu films or perhaps English-language KFF. When the film is purey Chinese, plot holes, rude humor and inconsistencies are papered over. We think of it as our cultural bias, or as camp. It's just the way those films are. When we know the movie's been designed through a Hollywood lens, we're suddenly less accepting and find fault with the same things we found charming under a Cantonese soundtrack. Me, I found Forbidden Kingdom to be a decent entertainment that had fun with its classic Kung Fu roots without trying to reinvent them, a fantasy that reminded me of the Wonderful World of Disney movies of my youth, where you didn't ask how a car could be alive or a man turn into a dog, you just went with it. The DVD has lots of extras, including a commentary shared by the director and screenwriter, deleted scenes (also commented), outtakes, and a series of good featurettes on various production elements.
Couple of hours before bed yesterday, I decide I just don't have enough nightmare fuel in my head. I plop in Suspiria. Now, there are relatively few horror films in my collection. It's really not my thing. That said, what I've read about Dario Argento piqued my interest, and Suspiria seemed to be the relevant masterpiece. It's a creepy, modern fairy tale about Satanic goings on at a ballet school for young girls, but the plot isn't really important (or that unambiguous). Argento is all about atmosphere, managing the horror not in the standard gothic tropes of the tale, but with extreme lighting, bizarre locations and dissonant sound design. Not to say the shock moments that punctuate the story aren't disturbing. Everything in Suspiria is designed to make the audience feel on edge, tapping into a different side of the brain. Lots to admire whether it scares or not, as it's filled with innovation. Remains unique even after all these years. The DVD features a retrospective with plenty of interviews by the people who made it, and some bits and bobs, like trailers, a music video that rocks and rolls the Suspiria theme, and an extensive photo and promotionals gallery.
Now on to TV... 13 episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are easy enough to flip, even with sporadic commentaries, a couple featurettes (including a creepy one on the creepy McPoyles), Dancing Guy's entire public access video, outtakes and tv spots. It's a fair package of extras, and many of the episodes made me laugh out loud. Yes, It's Always Sunny is Seinfeld on crack (sometimes literally) and that's part of why I like it. The Seinfeld characters had to be told at series end just how horrible people they were. The "gang" in THIS show are scumbags from the get-go. You're cheering for them to fail, and yet you love them because they do. It's a highwire act or sorts.
The 7th Doctor and Ace era is one of my favorites in Doctor Who, so I liked Silver Nemesis quite a bit even if the story doesn't really work. Its problem - like many stories from this era - is that it tries to do too much. You've got 25th Anniversary inside jokes (that only the production team is likely to get), occultist Nazis, devil-worshiping time-traveling Elizabethans, Cybermen, a comet that's a spaceship, running after the Queen at Windsor Palace, jazz stylings, an ancient Gallifreyan weapon (it's a lot like Remembrance of the Daleks), an unnecessary Broadway guest-star and the possible truth about the Doctor's identity. As soon as you begin to look at any element too closely, you realize it doesn't make sense or that we're missing key information. It's no wonder there are more than 20 minutes of extended or deleted scenes on the disk. Far from perfect, but still better than its reputation usually allows. And I like how this particular cast and crew have such vivid memories of making the show, both in the commentary and the documentary (as opposed to some of the older ones). The trailers and continuity section has a nice little promo for the 25th Anniversary as well.
Audios: As winter sets in, the weather/treacherous terrain/hours of daylight spell the end of my walking to and from work reading a book, so I turn instead to Doctor Who audios from the fine folks at Big Finish. Where was I up to? Ah yes, Something Inside by Trevor Baxendale. The 8th Doctor, Charlie and C'rizz find themselves in a prison for home-grown psychic soldiers and must defeat the weaponized Brain Worm that might be hiding in their own heads! It's a solid, claustrophobic story, with amnesia again striking Doc8 (but to good effect), though the paranoid finale loses the thread in favor of a demented alien voice and lots of shouting. Still would rate it above average, but that could be because I've been away from the audios for months.
The Nowhere Place is a rare non-Dalek audio from Nicholas Briggs (who gets to guest-star without a voice modulator) featuring the 6th Doctor and the always delightful Evelyn. The TARDIS materializes on a ship in the late 22nd century where the Doctor finds a door from which sounds from the 1950s emanate but which leads to the end of time. Spooky and strange, it almost over-timey-whimeys itself by the end, but manages to come across as mostly clever. Good character work as well, from both the main and supporting casts. Nick Briggs doesn't need the Daleks after all!
Books: The book I DID manage to finish as the cold came in was Douglas Coupland's Shampoo Planet, his second novel, right on the back of his seminal Generation X. Coupland offers a witty book full of observations and pop culture references, with a plot as aimless as its characters are. Like a good chunk of his work, it's a postmodern coming of age story, here contrasting the twentysomethings of the 90s with their prents from the 60s - from hippie to hipster in a single generation. Perhaps like the movies I reviewed at the top of this post, there is a strong sense of exploring what the parent leaves the child. A fun read which contains some elements Coupland will develop more in later books.
Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
II.ii. New Arrivals - Zeffirelli '90
II.ii. New Arrivals - Fodor (2007)
II.ii. New Arrivals - Tennant (2007)
Liked It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia enough to get Seasons 3 to 5. Ooh and I just got the latest issue of Enlightenment!
"Accomplishments"
DVDs: I flipped The Road, the postapocalyptic film based on Cormac McCarthy's best-selling book. Boy, it sure isn't Mad Max! The dying world of The Road is so realistic, it was actually filmed on location. Sure, there's sky replacement and color timing, but relatively little CGI manipulation. Filmed at Mt. St.Helen's, New Orleans and Pennsylvania's ash piles, director John Hillcoat also uses, for example, elements from 9-11's dust plumes. This apocalypse should feel eminent because it's in part already happened. The story is that of a man and his son walking through this wasteland and trying to survive and manages to ask the questions the book does, about parent-child relationships, and about what remains when you strip everything away - is it just survival? Lines from the book are used sparingly, finding its own poetry in the images. I understand the film wasn't embraced by audiences who either had read the book and so picked it apart, or had seen the trailer, which sells it as an action genre film. I think it's worthy of a re-evaluation. I would actually been happy if it had won the Oscar last year instead of The Hurt Locker (or any of the 9 other nominees). I think it resonates that much. The DVD includes a strong director's commentary, a few deleted scenes, and a "making of" that is really just the cast and crew talking about each other, as opposed to how the film was made.R
oad to Perdition is in many ways the same story. It's about a father running away with his son and desperately trying to both survive and prevent his boy from being visited by the sins of the father and losing his soul. The postapocalyptic wasteland is replaced by 1930s gangland, and there's a more "heroic" through line, but the similarities are all too obvious when watched back to back. Sam Mendes turns a beautiful looking picture, as noir as color film can get, with solid performances grounding things in reality. I never read the graphic novel - though I did get all the Paradox Press stuff prior to it - but my research brings up enough differences to make the film its own, distinct work. The theme of fathers and sons is more fully developped, and Mendes cut as much dialog as possible to tell the story in film's own unique language. The DVD includes an insightful director's commentary, deleted scenes (with commentary), and a promotional, but informative HBO making of feature.
There are some films in my collection that have a purely nostalgic function. Such a film is Colossus: The Forbin Project, a science thriller from my youth watching old movies on television that had scared the hell out of me at the time. That's because SF films from the late early 70s had a tendency to end in disaster for the human race. Watching it for the first time in almost 30 years, I didn't find it as disturbing, but I did enjoy it for its taut paranoid atmosphere and big ideas about artificial intelligence and our surrender to mechanization. Sadly, you have to live in Region 2 to have access to a widescreen version, though from what I hear, the director's commentary on that version is spotty and generic. I'm probably not missing much with this bare bones version (it doesn't even have a MENU!), but I should still mention it. I just had a thought: Colossus would make a great prequel to the Paranoia RPG!
Forbidden Kingdom, our Kung Fu Fridays selection, is an entertaining fantasy in which a kid from Boston gets into hot water and is whisked away to the mythical China of the Kung Fu films he loves so well. There, he learns valuable lessons and helps defeat a powerful enemy before being returned to his own time to face his actual troubles. Jackie Chan and Jet Li reprise the roles they are well-known for in Kung Fu lore, a drunken boxer and Shaolin monk respectively. For a fan of classic Kung Fu films, it's an amusing run through all the tropes of the genre, often referring to Bruce Lee's words of wisdom (that's a bit hackneyed), locations we're used to seeing in Chinese films (the tea house, the bamboo forest, the holy mountain, etc.), and specific films, mentioned and not, from Bride with the White Hair to The Karate Kid. The fights are very good, of course. Judging on the reaction of my usual crew, we're far less obliging when it comes to American-made Kung Fu films or perhaps English-language KFF. When the film is purey Chinese, plot holes, rude humor and inconsistencies are papered over. We think of it as our cultural bias, or as camp. It's just the way those films are. When we know the movie's been designed through a Hollywood lens, we're suddenly less accepting and find fault with the same things we found charming under a Cantonese soundtrack. Me, I found Forbidden Kingdom to be a decent entertainment that had fun with its classic Kung Fu roots without trying to reinvent them, a fantasy that reminded me of the Wonderful World of Disney movies of my youth, where you didn't ask how a car could be alive or a man turn into a dog, you just went with it. The DVD has lots of extras, including a commentary shared by the director and screenwriter, deleted scenes (also commented), outtakes, and a series of good featurettes on various production elements.
Couple of hours before bed yesterday, I decide I just don't have enough nightmare fuel in my head. I plop in Suspiria. Now, there are relatively few horror films in my collection. It's really not my thing. That said, what I've read about Dario Argento piqued my interest, and Suspiria seemed to be the relevant masterpiece. It's a creepy, modern fairy tale about Satanic goings on at a ballet school for young girls, but the plot isn't really important (or that unambiguous). Argento is all about atmosphere, managing the horror not in the standard gothic tropes of the tale, but with extreme lighting, bizarre locations and dissonant sound design. Not to say the shock moments that punctuate the story aren't disturbing. Everything in Suspiria is designed to make the audience feel on edge, tapping into a different side of the brain. Lots to admire whether it scares or not, as it's filled with innovation. Remains unique even after all these years. The DVD features a retrospective with plenty of interviews by the people who made it, and some bits and bobs, like trailers, a music video that rocks and rolls the Suspiria theme, and an extensive photo and promotionals gallery.
Now on to TV... 13 episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are easy enough to flip, even with sporadic commentaries, a couple featurettes (including a creepy one on the creepy McPoyles), Dancing Guy's entire public access video, outtakes and tv spots. It's a fair package of extras, and many of the episodes made me laugh out loud. Yes, It's Always Sunny is Seinfeld on crack (sometimes literally) and that's part of why I like it. The Seinfeld characters had to be told at series end just how horrible people they were. The "gang" in THIS show are scumbags from the get-go. You're cheering for them to fail, and yet you love them because they do. It's a highwire act or sorts.
The 7th Doctor and Ace era is one of my favorites in Doctor Who, so I liked Silver Nemesis quite a bit even if the story doesn't really work. Its problem - like many stories from this era - is that it tries to do too much. You've got 25th Anniversary inside jokes (that only the production team is likely to get), occultist Nazis, devil-worshiping time-traveling Elizabethans, Cybermen, a comet that's a spaceship, running after the Queen at Windsor Palace, jazz stylings, an ancient Gallifreyan weapon (it's a lot like Remembrance of the Daleks), an unnecessary Broadway guest-star and the possible truth about the Doctor's identity. As soon as you begin to look at any element too closely, you realize it doesn't make sense or that we're missing key information. It's no wonder there are more than 20 minutes of extended or deleted scenes on the disk. Far from perfect, but still better than its reputation usually allows. And I like how this particular cast and crew have such vivid memories of making the show, both in the commentary and the documentary (as opposed to some of the older ones). The trailers and continuity section has a nice little promo for the 25th Anniversary as well.
Audios: As winter sets in, the weather/treacherous terrain/hours of daylight spell the end of my walking to and from work reading a book, so I turn instead to Doctor Who audios from the fine folks at Big Finish. Where was I up to? Ah yes, Something Inside by Trevor Baxendale. The 8th Doctor, Charlie and C'rizz find themselves in a prison for home-grown psychic soldiers and must defeat the weaponized Brain Worm that might be hiding in their own heads! It's a solid, claustrophobic story, with amnesia again striking Doc8 (but to good effect), though the paranoid finale loses the thread in favor of a demented alien voice and lots of shouting. Still would rate it above average, but that could be because I've been away from the audios for months.
The Nowhere Place is a rare non-Dalek audio from Nicholas Briggs (who gets to guest-star without a voice modulator) featuring the 6th Doctor and the always delightful Evelyn. The TARDIS materializes on a ship in the late 22nd century where the Doctor finds a door from which sounds from the 1950s emanate but which leads to the end of time. Spooky and strange, it almost over-timey-whimeys itself by the end, but manages to come across as mostly clever. Good character work as well, from both the main and supporting casts. Nick Briggs doesn't need the Daleks after all!
Books: The book I DID manage to finish as the cold came in was Douglas Coupland's Shampoo Planet, his second novel, right on the back of his seminal Generation X. Coupland offers a witty book full of observations and pop culture references, with a plot as aimless as its characters are. Like a good chunk of his work, it's a postmodern coming of age story, here contrasting the twentysomethings of the 90s with their prents from the 60s - from hippie to hipster in a single generation. Perhaps like the movies I reviewed at the top of this post, there is a strong sense of exploring what the parent leaves the child. A fun read which contains some elements Coupland will develop more in later books.Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
II.ii. New Arrivals - Zeffirelli '90
II.ii. New Arrivals - Fodor (2007)
II.ii. New Arrivals - Tennant (2007)
Comments
Allegedly Ron Howard is working on a remake.