As mentioned in an earlier post of mine, I've become quite a fan of US TV drama & comedy series.  Thankfully, after everything I said in my last post about these things not being quickly available in the UK things are changing, and more quality shows seem to be finding their way here much sooner than they have previously.  This is a Good Thing.  Anyway, here's my thoughts on some of the things I've been watching lately

Heroes
So we're into series 4, but does anyone really care anymore?  This is apparently the most downloaded show, but I'm kind of at a loss to see why.  The writers don't seem to have a coherent plan, everything is fragmented and the whole Carnival thing (which started off quite promising and creepy) just isn't being explained enough... maybe the next ep with the return of Mohinder will sort things out?  Doubt it, but still...

Dexter
Again season 4, and still as good as ever, but I really think he has to be found out by his sister soon, and this series would be a good time to do it I think.  Best thing this year is the incomparable John Lithgow as Trinity... a revelation if you've only known him from comedy, he goes from civil to psychopath in the blink of an eye, and manages to be terrifying even when acting normally - he is this show's Hannibal Lecter.  Wonderful.

House
Most watched TV show in the world for one reason - Hugh Laurie.  Man is awesome, and deserves every plaudit.  What can I say, if you don't watch House, you really should.  Do your self a favour and get the boxsets and have a marathon.  Yeah, ok it has a formula, but it's the performances that make it compelling.

Castle
Only introduced to this a few weeks ago - it's Nathan Fillion's (of Firefly / Serenity) current project.  How can I describe it?  It is on the surface your typical ABC afternoon drama show, but after the first short season it has finally found it's stride and is a pleasure to watch.  Basic synopsis - famous author follows police detective around to do research for new book, helps to solve cases, bit of romantic tension thrown in for good measure.  That may well put you off but the show is carried ably by the two leads - Fillion with his wit and charm, and Stana Katic by being hot and funny.  This actress is one to watch, like a younger Courteney Cox meets Penelope Cruz (hang on, let me just visualise that...), with good comic timing.  It's entertaining in kind of a Moonlighting way, but without being as self-aware as that show.  Check it out anyway.

Flash Forward
The new "Lost"...? I never got into Lost but I'm trying hard with this one.  They seem to be throwing a lot more information around, which may or may not be a good thing.  I'll stick with it though, if only to see how they deal with the episode set on the day of the FlashForward next April.  That will be the decider I think...  I still reckon iit will turn out to be one of Derren Brown's "Events".

Stargate Universe
Robert Carlyle is the main reason I'm still watching this.  At the outset they said "people will die on this show", and I'm still waiting for them to jetison more of the annyoing cast - I think they lost one character and have stranded 2 on a planet (possibly, they sent them through a gate but they may have gotten back off-screen as it's not been mentioned since).  I'm still worried it's going to turn into "this week's dilemma / race-against-time", but it seems to still be teetering on the edge of being a great show.

Big Bang Theory
Hilarious, no other way to describe it.  The "Rocky" montage and the Wil Wheton ep were laugh-out-loud funny for me, which is rare.

V
Is this a right-wing dig at Obama?  The aliens are all good looking, have a united society (clearly Communism, right?) "come in peace" and literally promise "universal healthcare".  I think this maybe a parallel to BSG which was a response to 9/11 and Iraq.  Will be interesting to see how it develops - only 4 episodes coming before it disappears until March, so they have to come up with a massive cliffhanger to get people to tune back in.  

Breaking Bad
Only just started watching this, and good to see Channel 5 have picked it up in the UK.  Bryan Cranston (dad from "Malcolm in the Middle") plays a fifty-year-old chemistry professor who finds out he has lung cancer and only months to live.  Wanting to provide for his family he makes an ill-judged choice to use his chemistry knowledge to get into the drugs trade by cooking Crystal Meth... Best way I can describe the first couple of episodes is like a Coen Brothers movie - very funny but with a dark streak a mile wide.  This is definitely one to check out.  There are 2 seasons so far, the first only has 7 episodes so I hope C5 shows both back-to-back.

That's pretty much it - just these few shows go to demonstrate the massive gulf in quality between the UK and US.  Thank the lord for the internet.

Tags: geek, opinion, sci-fi, tv
Categories: Geek | General | Opinion | Reviews | TV

So it's happened - the Zombie Apocalypse (caused by someone eating an infected burger) and everyone on Earth may now be a member of the undead.  

We're into the action quickly with a superb intro where Jesse Eisenberg introduces some of his "rules" for survival (#8 - Cardio, #4 - The Double Tap, and so on).  He soon meets Woody Harrelson - they agree on no names so for the whole movie they are known simply by where they are headed.  Harrelson is "Tallahassee", Eisenberg is "Columbus".  Tallahassee has no rules, except maybe if it moves just shoot it.  The group is complete with the arrival of Wichita (the gorgeous Emma Stone) and her 12-year-old sister Little Rock.

What can I say about the rest of the film - it's a road movie following the group across the country, and Tallahassee's quest for one last Twinkie. It's just wonderful bloody fun, turning the "run from the zombies" theme on its head as they take on the undead head on, even relishing the opportunity.  Cue many funny zombie deaths, and one absolutely hilarious cameo appearance - if you haven't had it spoiled on the Internet yet I suggest you keep it that way and be surprised, it is totally worth it, and kudos for this person to have agreed to do it, it is brilliantly played. 

Zombieland was originally intended to be a 24-part TV series, and the makers have said that this is basically the first two episodes rolled together.  I certainly hope we get to see more of this, it may well be my favorite movie of the year - just a blast from start to finish.  Totally tongue-in-cheek, very, very funny and without the lapse into seriousness that Shaun of the Dead suffered from (IMHO), this is one zom-com that is definitely worth your time

 

Tags: blood, movies, reviews, zombies
Categories: Movies | Reviews | zombies

When a massive alien spaceship stops over Johannesburg, South Africa, the occupants have to live somewhere... That somewhere is the slum known as District 9.  The citizens of Johannesburg don't want them there, and after 20 years of trouble turning to rioting it is decided that they should be moved 240km outside the city.

Easier said than done.

Wikus van der Merwe is the civil servant charged with organising the move on District 9, taking a team of other civil servants and armed police officers into D9 to issue eviction notices.  This is all filmed in a documentary style reminiscent of "Cloverfield", but also containing "behind the scenes" comments from people so much like an uncut documentary I suppose.  It's amusing at first but then quickly becomes distubing seeing how the aliens are treated as scum, not even "second class citizens" but as objects of derision and hatred - they are referred to constantly as "prawns", even to their faces. The officers are quick to shoot first and ask questions later.  Wikus is a lively, friendly man but when things start to go wrong all that quickly changes.

I'm not going to go much deeper into the details as that would provide spoilers and you should really avoid them for this film - I'm certainly glad I did.  The movie is continually surprising, even when it treads down paths that for other films might be seen as cliche or obvious ideas, it manages to pull them off.  I found very little to dislike, the pacing is spot on and considering the $30m dollar budget the effects are extraordinary.  I believe that Neill Blomkamp was previously involved in SFX work, so knows exactly what will work on camera and look real in this dirty and gritty environment.  No shiny CGI work here.  The creature effects are very good, only occasionally making you see the aliens as "just CGI" - everything feels real.

The film style does change about a third of the way through, moving from documentary style to a more traditional narrative, but the film is then occasionally spliced with news footage and short snippets of other broadcasts so the style never totally goes away and hence the flim doesn't suddenly feel disjointed.  It all works very well and gives a unique slant to the project.

While not being preachy at all, District 9 manages to deliver a hard-hitting social commentary, obviously stemming from the filmmaker having seen apartheid first-hand in South Africa.  It's a movie that does make you think, and change your mind about things as the film goes on.

Great plaudits must also go to Sharlto Copley who plays Wikus - as a first-time actor he does an amazing job, and is certainly someone to watch.  His portrayal of Wikus is key to the emotional effect of this film, he really makes you first dislike then come to care about Wikus.

All in all, very highly recommended.  I'd give it 9 out of 10, and cannot wait for the DVD release.  There is room at the end for a sequel, but I think I'd prefer this one to stand on its own - I feel the sequel that suggests itself would likely require a much higher budget and with that come inevitable studio interference and demands.

Tags: awesome, geek, movies, reviews, robots, sci-fi, space
Categories: Geek | Movies | Reviews | Sci-Fi

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

Cute Asian chick in sailor suit?  Check.
Big sword? Check.
Vampires? Check.
Plenty of flying about on wires? Check.

What else do you need to know???  Oh alright then...

BTLV (as it shall be known) almost disappeared without trace as it was only on at the local multiplexes for a week, I guess the 18 cert and the potential for subtitles and therefore having to pay attention to the film would have put a lot of "average" cinemagoers off - at least the ones I seem to get trapped in a room with for a couple of hours every few weeks.  As for me, well it kind of got my attention for the same reasons.  I like movies with subtitles, if its the native tongue on the soundtrack then I'd always rather have that than a bad dub - even in animation.

Luckily for all concerned then that BTLV isn't dubbed, but is in English anyway.  The film follow Saya, who is half-demon half-human and is "employed" by a shadowy group known as The Council.  This isn't particularly well explored, and in fact after a bit of in-fighting between some Council agents they seem to disappear completely.

Saya is trying to find Onegin, most powerful of all demons and the murderer of her father.  The Council put her into a school on a US miltary base in Tokyo where she tracks down a couple of demons masquerading as students, and saves the life of Alice, who then follows her around watching as Saya chops her way through hundreds of the undead.

So far, so Blade.  

Anyway, going much further with detail would cause spoilers but I suspect that even with the sparse information I've given here you can pretty much map out the rest of the film.  This is not to say that I didn't enjoy it - I did,  I'm just saying that the general plot follows some pretty well-worn sterotypes.

I thought the wire-work was particluarly well done, the fight scenes were clear and well choerographed.  The blood is CGI and quite cartoonish which lend the film a degree of unreality which is probably just as well given its anime roots, and it didn't bother me at all.  What did bother me was some pretty piss-poor CGI demons and some work towards the end of the film which just made it look very straight-to-DVD.  Shame really.

This hasn't been released in the US just yet, so I'll be looking out for reviews on the major movie sites in the coming weeks, but the Asian Blu-Ray and DVD are out in October.  I'm pretty sure I'll get the Blu-Ray as I think with a good transfer the movie will look lush, and its the kind of thing I could watch again on a bored evening. 

All things considered, I'd give it a 7.5 / 10, dropping to 6/10 if you don't usually like "this kind of thing".  I'll leave you with the trailer:

 

Tags: movies, reviews, japan, geek, blood
Categories: Movies | Reviews