Just a quick update as I'm keeping my eye on this one - it's the remake of "Let The Right One In".  As I mentioned before, I really don't see the point of this other than to prevent the dumb from having to read subtitles, which is the stupidest excuse I've ever heard.  However, the first trailer seems to have the right mood, but again it seems to just be a shot-for-shot do-over.  If they went back to the book for more inspiration that's one thing, but being the US market you can guarantee that the will omit *that* shot which was a major shock in the original (hope I've made you all curious enough to check it out now, heh) as it would be too controversial.

Having said that, it does feature a couple of very good child actors, Chloe Moretz who has already proven herself fearless in "Kick-Ass", and Kodi Smit-McPhee from "The Road", who has the same odd look as the boy playing Oskar in the original.  I may be wrong.  I'm not holding out hope though and if I hear too much negative I'll give it a miss rather than tarnish the original.

Anyway - trailer:

Tags: geek, opinion, rant, vampires, trailer
Categories: Geek | Movies | Opinion | rant | spoilers | trailers | vampires

So my beloved TV Tuesdays have come to an end for another year - well, for a few months until things start up again anyway.  I figured I'd get some of my thoughts down about what has gone by and what is to come, and besides I'm putting off doing some real work so this seems as good an excuse as any!  I've been spotting ex-BSG cast quite regularly this year too, popping up in various guises, so just for fun I'm keeping a tally - let me know if I've missed any. 

When you're done here, check out my good friend Captain Kibble's take on all things TV - funnier and with pictures! Kibblemania

24
This one hasn't quite finished in the UK yet.  It's Jack Bauer's final TV outing, and as I've never been able to watch 24 week-to-week as it's just too damn tense, I saved it all up and watched it over 4 days after the finale became available online.  Have to say it's one of my favourite seasons up there with 1 & 3; yes it's still really silly and unbelievable and they did decide to push Jack completely over the edge this time, but they did a great job with the direction.  There is a terrific shot in one of the finale 2 eps (forget which one) where they don't even bother showing you Jack fighting, they just pan across a room showing the trail of destruction and dead bodies, which just tells you everything you need to know.  And I have to say they have set it up well for a movie I think.

BSG rollcall: 2


Caprica
I was quite surprised by Caprica.  Seemed to be as far away from BSG as you could get but it turned out to be very well written and actually some of the best "real" science fiction seen on TV for a long time.  Both technically and philosophically it hit the marks and I can't wait until it comes back.


Castle
Just got better and better - Fillion and Katic make very charismatic leads, the writing is solid and it gives you exactly what you'd expect.  Yes it's very much light drama but sometimes that's all you want and it's very easy to get this mixture wrong, but it's been consistently great.  Picked up for a third season, so roll on Autumn!

BSG rollcall: 1


Chuck
Chuck was really very clunky for a good half of the season I thought - they bought in Brandon Routh (seemingly just to be able to make the "Who do you think you are? Superman?" joke) and kept him around WAY past his sell-by date.  Terrible actor.  I know Chuck is not going for serious thespian performances but even so...  Second part of the season was lifted by Yvonne Strahovsky constantly wandering around in her underwear and Sarah Lancaster getting even more gorgeous, and Julia Ling re-appearing!  Works for me!  It ended strongly, with a surprise introduction for next season.  Not sure if the new character has been cast yet, but going on Chuck's previous form of playing to the geeks I'm hoping for Mary McDonnell.

BSG rollcall: 1?


Dexter
I touched on this in a previous post so I'll be brief; brilliant show, best season yet, and the final 4 episodes were the best 4hrs or so of TV I've seen this year full stop.  Genius.


Flashforward
They cancelled it.  Damn, just as it was getting good!!!  Admittedly it probably killed itself with the first half-dozen episodes where everything was happening without any explanations and it was lumping character upon character, but after the hiatus it cam back strongly with a terrific double episode which just threw the doors wide open, and carried on from there.  I guess that the audiences didn't come back with the show.  I am so pissed off that this has been cancelled while "V" gets another season.

BSG rollcall: 1

Heroes
They cancelled it.  Thank God.
I'd sit there watching every week, wondering WHY I was watching.  The show was great until the finale of the first season which was one of the biggest let-downs in TV history.  I think I (and seemingly millions of others) kept watching in the hope that maybe, just maybe it could get back to where it was.
But no.  I think it ended in a good way, where they could close the door and let you imagine where it would go but without a massive cliffhanger.  It doesn't need any TV movies, please just let it end there.


House
Confusing season, confusing ending.  But oddly I think this may be the one season that I'll want to re-watch.


How I Met Your Mother
Running out of ideas.  Barney is really the only reason for watching this now and even he isn't the same as he was.  Maybe has one good season left in it I think.


Stargate Universe
For the love of God someone push Chloe out of an airlock.  Even stranding her on a planet only lasted 2 episodes before she came strolling back through the gate in an occurrence that is still not being explained...
Other than that it's been pretty good, and I feel that the writers have some good ideas in the wings.  I will keep watching.


The Big Bang Theory
Slightly hit and miss this year, but for the funniest show on TV that still leaves it way ahead of the pack.  Totally worth it just for the physics montage and Sheldon in the ball-pit.

BSG rollcall: 2

The Pacific
Not a patch on Band of Brothers.  Rambling, too talky, overly gory when there was actually some action, and it explained very little about the actual campaigns.


V
I'm getting the "Heroes" vibe with this one.  NOTHING happens, nothing is explained; unlike the 80s series where you knew why the aliens were here and exactly why they were a menace, all they've done so far is heal a lot of people.  I'm sure the writers were trying to convey them as being cold and emotionless but it's really not coming across.  Elizabeth Mitchell lights up the screen whenever she's on it but all the others might as well be played by shop window dummies.  It had better all kick off in a big way when it comes back or I'm off...

I've saved up some shows to fend off the summer drought, so I have still to watch "Treme" from David Simon who wrote "The Wire" and "Generation Kill"; "Breaking Bad" is now in season 3, and going on the first 2 seasons there is little to worry about, fantastic show.

And coming up?  Well, "Burn Notice" is back and has been given 3 more seasons, making 6 in total which is fantastic news.  "True Blood" is back this month, as is "Entourage", hoping for more good things from those.  Biggest thing on the horizon is of course "The Walking Dead" from AMC, who also make Breaking Bad.  More on that as it gets closer.

Tags: awesome, geek, opinion, rant, reviews, sci-fi, spoilers, tv, vampires, zombies
Categories: Geek | Opinion | rant | Reviews | spoilers | TV | zombies

Been a little while since last update, but I've a couple of things to share which have appeared on my radar recently. First the movies:

Clooney and McGregor in "The Men Who Stare At Goats". This is based on a book by Jon Ronson (who I highly recommend as an author if you want an interesting and intelligent non-fiction read), following his investigation into the true story of the American military Psy-Ops experiments... yes, it's all true. Looks hilarious, and a George Clooney is a favourite actor of mine, especially in comedy roles, this is a must see:

Next up is "The Box". This is an adaptation of a Twilight Zone episode, brought to you by Richard Kelly. Kelly is the man behind the awesome Donnie Darko (which REALLY needs a Blu-Ray release soon please!) and the awful Southland Tales (great trailer, horrible movie). So it's a shot at redemption I guess:

Guess what's next? Yep, vampires!!! As every other movie at the moment is either zombies or vampires that was a pretty easy guess - but this is a bit different. It's "Daybreakers" and has been getting some decent reviews lately, and there is no teen-angst and no walking around in daylight all sparkly! Seems much more in the mould of Blade 2, so its one I'm looking forward to but I have no idea when it will make its way to the UK.

Finally I'll leave you with a link to check out.

http://www.drakortha.info/#/dc-chronicles/4535926375

This is a site where someone is producing Machinima movies using Fallout 3 as the engine. They're not bad at all and worth a few minutes of your time if you're interested in fan-films.

Tags: movies, sci-fi, trailer, vampires, youtube,
Categories: Geek | Movies | Sci-Fi | trailers | vampires

Oskar is 12 and lives in a Stockholm suburb. He's an only child to a single mother, isolated and bullied at school, and dreams only of fighting back.  One evening, Eli and her "father" move in next door.  Eli is also twelve, but has "been twelve for a long time".  She is a vampire.

So begins the critically-acclaimed "Let The Right One In" - or "Låt den rätte komma in" in the native Swedish.

I loved this film - I'm not a fan of horror movies as such, certainly not of the output of recent years where the emphasis seems to be just showing as much carnage on screen as possible.  What I do like are suspenseful, dramatic, well-thought-out movies in any genre.  This ticks all those boxes and more.

Firstly the cinematography is gorgeous.  The landscape is comprised of snowy vistas, contrasted with the bleak estate housing where Oskar and Eli live.  It gives a sense of loneliness and isolation, adding only to the protagonists plight in our eyes.

Then the plot unfolds slowly over the 2 hour (almost) running time.  It's not a film for the MTV generation with short attention spans.  It's not kill after kill after kill, but this makes these scenes so much more effective when they do happen.  It comes as a shock, makes you jump, it's just brilliantly paced.  It's also sweetly romantic in an odd kind of way, Oskar and Eli's scenes together just make you smile - again adding to the shock when bad things happen.

The two children in the lead roles are superb - I don't know whether its the fact that they are speaking another language and I don't get the subtlties that native speakers would, but the performances seem much more natural than most English-speaking child actors around today. 

The movie is violent as you would expect, but much of the violence is seen at a distance, not shot with leering closeup.  Whoever did the sound design for the movie deserves praise too, the noises Eli makes when attacking her prey are really eerie.  We also see occasional flashes of "old" Eli in the child's face, really subtle but amazing use of makeup and effects.  The scene with the cats is also really well done - you know it's CGI but it's believable.

The last thing I have to mention is that yes it's a vampire movie, and no they DO NOT SPARKLE!!  They kill, they get bloody, they cannot eat normal food, they catch fire in sunlight.  One bite and you're infected and become one - none of the blood-swapping ("a whole big sucking thing" as Buffy once put it).  It's more of a disease.  We also see what happens when a vampire enters a house uninvited...  In general this movie treats the vampire myth with respect, and most closely reminded me of Kathryn Bigelow's classic "Near Dark"

All in all, big thumbs up for this.  The DVD is very well mastered, with a very clean transfer - I watched it upscaled on a 1080p projector screen and it looked fine.  I had considered going for the more expensive Blu-Ray but I'm glad I didn't as the standard-def is more than adequate.  The 5.1 surround track is great, and the subtitles are very clear.  There actually isn't a great deal of dialogue, so the film is easy to follow even for people who normally don't like to "read a movie".

Unfortunately, a Hollywood remake is in the works called "Let Me In".  I will be extremely surprised if they don't miss the point and ruin it. Even for all the assurances of the director that he loves the original, I can see the movie studios wanting to get the Twilight demographic and insisting on changes.  See this before that one appears next year, and you won't want or need to see the remake.

Trailer below

Tags: awesome, blood, geek, movies, reviews, trailer, vampires
Categories: Geek | Movies | Reviews | vampires