May 2010
1 post
3 tags
Shut up about Lost already!
Must. Watch. Lost. More. Quickly.
Before someone tells me how it ends…
January 2010
1 post
3 tags
Battlestar Galactica Season Three
I enjoyed Season Two a lot as it seemed to contain the right balance of action, suspense and narrative. The end of the Season Finale was a bit of a surprise though and the start of the third Season has kept the generally miserable theme up.
Four episodes in and it really is miserable and totally different to the premise of the first two Seasons. It’s a bold move and works for me. The...
November 2009
1 post
1 tag
The Waters of Mars
It wasn’t a terrible episode but it was partly reminiscent of The Pit and the real problem was once again in the script. Having made a song and dance about the fixed points in time and created some really drama and tragedy having the Doctor go back in and save the day was actually just lame.
You go from feeling for this character who can achieve so much and yet cannot intervene here to...
August 2009
1 post
Recommendation Sites
Here’s the thing, recommendations are usually generated from ratings but are you meant to rate something according to how good it is or how much you liked it?
I don’t like Silence of the Lambs but I recognise it is a good film. It is just I am squeamish about a lot of things. If I rate it low then it implies I don’t think it is any good but if I rate it high then I am likely to...
July 2009
1 post
2 tags
Inside Man
Like a weaker Usual Suspects with better parts for black actors and hipper dialogue, Spike Lee’s thriller has a fantastic cast that do much to make a preposterous thriller and enjoyable romp.
However it is possible to guess one of the main twists in the first two minutes and despite the clever flash forwards it does feel like the plot takes a long time to finally confirm your suspicions.
June 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Coraline
I wanted to see the film after reading an article in Wired that mentioned that the film was shot on physical models that were stop-framed rather than being the computer animation I had assumed.
The story is a children’s tale that is similar in content and theme to Gaiman’s Mirrormask. The film has strong echoes of Science of Sleep in its hand-made puppet aesthetic, Wallace and...
2 tags
Burn After Reading
I found this an excellent Coen Brothers comedy with a large, excellent ensemble cast. It mixes middle-age infidelity with government politics and physical exercise. The core of the film is a kind of slapstick comedy of mistaken identities but there is a dark slightly cruel undertow to the whole thing.
All of the turns are excellent and while the plot might be a little lightweight it is really a...
May 2009
2 posts
2 tags
State of Play
It was a relief to watch a thriller film where the protagonists aren’t involved in gun or fist fights every ten minutes. It has good pacing and manages to combine contemporary concerns with references back to classic journalism films like All the President’s Men.
However its depiction of newspaper writing fails to really be convincing as it often seems to have to many “hold the...
3 tags
Wolverine
One of the weirdest aspects of this film was that the opening credits are amazing and probably overshadow the entire film. You could probably leave after 15 minutes and have a pretty good idea of what the film is about.
For comics fans the film borrows liberally from several different X series and mashes up a reasonable version of the Wolverine soap opera for the screen. The biggest difference...
April 2009
2 posts
4 tags
Newswipe
Charlie Brooker’s new program is nowhere as successful or funny as previous incarnation Screenwipe because its focus on current affairs rather than pop culture ephemera makes him look like the poor man’s Jon Stewart.
The most interesting aspect about the whole programme is the time he provides to other people like Peter Oborne and Adam Curtis. Even hearing Ben Goldacre summarise his...
2 tags
BluRay Picture Quality
A few people have asked me whether there really is a difference with BluRay or not. Recently we watched No Country for Old Men and it is possible to compare the standard and high definition versions of the shots between the extras and the film itself.
For the closeups and interiors there probably wasn’t a whole lot of difference but for the big panoramas of the desert it really did matter....
February 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Death in Lost
The weird thing about the death of characters in Lost is that while dead characters make as many comebacks as ghosts, dreams and visions as dead characters did in Buffy their death feels much more permanent. When you get intimations that a character like Jin or Claire has died there is a sense of loss (relative of course, this is still television).
I think that’s because when a character...
1 tag
Lost Season 4: Eggtown
Had a bit of ZOMG moment at the end of the show when the baby’s identity is revealed. I’m also trying to figure out who exactly the Oceanic 6 are. We’ve seen Jack and Kate obviously, Hurley at the start of the Season, then Sayid. Probably Sun and Jin. Although there is the mysterious person in the coffin from Season 3.
