07 Jun 2009
Posted in Fillums, Reviews at 11:20 pm by alby
Went to see the new Star Trek fillum this evening.
Well hmm.
Overall it was a nice fun ride with big bangs and swooshy noises. But there are buts.
The main one was the central plot device. Talk about ludicrous. I shan’t give out many spoilers here but come on! “Red matter”? Pfft.
Then there are 2 major omissions of action. Parts of the action take place on Earth and on Vulcan. Apparently these major advanced civilizations with all their warp drive, weapons and technology can’t deal with the attacks (the drilling rig thing) but 2 blokes with parachutes and basic blasters can.
Some of the others are a bit more minor (eg when they arrive at Saturn’s moon Titan they have a wonderful vista of Saturn’s rings – oops big howler here – Titan is on the plane of the rings so they wouldn’t have seen owt but the thin edge – not a great visual tho – and thanks to the SGU for pointing that one out).
And on one further odd note. Star Trek has always been a bit American-ethics-conquer-the-galaxy-y. So what? The start of the film has Kirk’s dad in charge of a star ship. He’s outgunned and clearly in a weaker situation than his attacker. So what does he decide to do? That’s right – “ram them”. Yup Kirk’s dad was a suicide bomber. Nice.
It does look like the reinvention of the Star Trek universe though so future fillums should be coming out regularly. I hope they can be as fun and not so contrived as this one.
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19 Feb 2009
Posted in Fillums, Juggling, Reviews at 8:57 pm by alby
Pot pouri today.
I’ve watched a couple of fillums. Least interesting was Finding Nemo. Took me ages to get around to seeing it and it was alright.
That’s about it really. Annoying squealy American voice of the little ‘un but apart from that was fine. Particularly liked the Aussie seagulls.
Onto better things with Grizzly Man. The story of a lunatic who took it upon himself to live in the Alaskan wilds with grizzly bears and, more to the point, no guns.
It may not be a great surprise to learn that he ended up getting eaten. What is surprising is that he managed to survive for 13 summers and got some utterly breathtaking footage from his time there.
The man comes across as an utter loony who doesn’t really have a clue. He’s there to somehow “protect the bears”. It’s the polar bears that are endangered anyhoo. But he never really says what his “protection” is. He just seems to shoot footage and witter annoyingly,
He is horrified when bears behave like bears and eat live animals – as if they are supposed to be soft, cuddly liberal, animal lovers.
We hear from natives who have lived in the region for millenia and they came up with a good basic rule; don’t mess with grizzly bears. I think they had it right.
But to give him credit. 13 YEARS!!! Wow. And the foxes that befriend him are ace.
And to other news:
BJC 2009 – cancelled at the mo, hopefully just postponed but talk about a shitty outcome. [just been told - postponed it is, most definitely not cancelled no no no]
I have friends who have already booked their travel from Germany, people are saying they’ve already booked hotels and time from work etc. It’s all just a bloody mess.
I’m pretty lucky in that work is flexible so I don’t need to take those days. The germans may have to be welcome here for the weekend (assuming they go to Tom’s in Northampton for the first part of their trip).
Sigh.
Just realised that sounds really grumpy. I am a bit but I do understand how hard this stuff is to do. Which leads me to my next point:
In other news:
BJC 2010. Leicester. You heard it here first.
That’s the plan anyway – me and Pete are having a look into the possibility of sorting the merest chance of doing something along the lines of offering a bit of a modest possible proposal to be offered up as a potential option for 2010’s do.
Basic site seems promising, show venue is good, just need to sort out an awful lot of details. The start of a long and tedious process hopefully leading to a proposal to be put forward at some unspecified date for others to pick apart and decide on.
We’ll see. Of course this may well be the last that’s said of this.
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07 Feb 2009
Posted in Fillums, Reviews at 1:06 am by alby
Scary fillum night has just happened. Pizza, the usuals plus Tom sadly minus Nicky made for a nice crowd and pizza turned out to be as cheap delivered as it would have been to pick up. Huzzah!
Tom came last time where the worst of it was a bit of goriness in Black Sheep.
This evening’s fare was to be a little more nervy.
But more of that later. First flick was City of God from Brazil. This is one we’ve had waiting for an age. It doesn’t really fit into the “scary” bracket but it didn’t disappoint.
It’s a tale of a few characters in the eponymous slum area near Rio. We watch as they fall for and lose girls, nick stuff, shoot children, get shot, get stabbed, sell drugs, buy off police and chase errant chickens.
Despite all the nastiness there are some loveable characters. Benny for one and the wannabe photographer “Rocket”. And the cast are bloody marvellous.
At some points the various stories collide to give some narrative.
Highly recommended if a trifle downbeat.
After a brief break and having to convince Pete to stay awake we get to the star performer of the evening. I say that even after saying that the first fillum was so good.
[rec] is its name. It’s another of the fillums that’s so good they made it twice. (Well the mercans made it again because no American seems to be able to read – they didn’t even change the name of the main character!)
In terms of fillum making this was in a league below City of God but lordy lordy it did its job. After Tom’s gentle intro to our little group last time, this one had him saying that he’s not coming back for another. Clurb squealed like a squealy thing and even let rip the odd startled yelp. Bloody fantastic it was.
The only real negative for me was the handheld camera work which did leave me feeling queasy by the end of it. Thankfully it was only 75 mins long (shorter in the UK than in other versions – peculiar).
The story was pretty thin but that’s not an issue for a no-holds-barred adrenalin flick. Think a very constrained 28 Days Later. The characters are all stuck in a smallish apartment building instead of all of the UK.
The usual guff about infection followed by homicidal fury. All fillumed by a bloke called Pablo and fronted by a rather fetching spanish reporter.
Wonderful shock moments, scary and fast moving, and it all leads to a boss level with king baddy at the end with more shocks and claustrophobia.
Top end to the week.
A shame Nicky missed it. I might lend her the disc and tell her it’s not that bad really, she should probably watch it on her own. I think I’d be in trouble if I did though.
A very good pair of fillums indeed.
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10 Jan 2009
Posted in Fillums, Reviews at 3:04 pm by alby
Hurrah! The first of the scary fillums nights of the year was on yesterday.
For various reasons the scary bit was toned down completely for the first pick to allow D to attend. We also chose curry ahead of pizza this once to allow Nicky to actually have nice food rather than the bland stuff her man insists upon.
Oh and Tom D, The Biskup and Mats1 came along too. A nice crowd and after nice food we got going.
First pick: Shaolin Soccer – Well now here’s a thing. I think this is the first fillum we’ve picked precisely because of the quality of the trailer that we’d spotted on an earlier fillum night. And it was worth it. A grand fillum with a bit of slack that they seem to have excised from the english-dubbed version. (We watched the 100-odd minute Chinese version – the english dubbed version is only 80-something minutes long).
Totally ludicrous, stupid acting and over-script. Great fun tho and made us all laugh I think. How could you not love a denoument that has Shaolin Soccer team versus “Team Evil”?
Probably the best (and certainly the funniest) sports movie I’ve seen in years (possibly ever).
After a swift loo and juggling break we lost 3 guests before settling down in front of Black Sheep.
Credits were mildly discomforting what with Jonathan King being the writer and producer.
Inevitable comprisons with Braindead only with sheep. It was funny, mildly gruesome and had one of the oddest easter eggs I’ve ever spotted on a DVD. Only mildly discomforting and the humour was good. It was short and to the point too. Nice.
Next night will be an Iberian thing with one in Portugese and another in Spanish.
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29 Nov 2008
Posted in Fillums, Reviews at 3:07 pm by alby
Hurrah! Fillums were watched last night.
We had the usual group round for fire, fillums and pizza. And a good evening was had.
We have a stack of dvds still to watch and we decided that people should pick their first 2 preferred ones and the most popular were chosen.
First up was “Innocence“. A mightily creepy little thing about a school full of young girls. At first there are no adults, just girls with a hierarchy based on age. We follow Iris from when she arrives (bizarrely in a locked coffin) and is then shown around a bit. There are restrictions such as not being allowed to leave the grounds. One or two of the girls do try, one dies and another just disappears.
The school seems to be there to teach these girls two things. The main one is dancing. There are ballet classes for all of the students. The other subject is biology.
Every night the elder girls all go away from the house and aren’t allowed to say why. Young Iris follows one day and we see things get a bit more disturbing.
We finish by following one of the girls as she graduates out of the school.
This movie was really very creepy. Loads of symbolism, quite a lot of discomforting images (one girl enjoying tasting blood rather too much, plenty of long damp tunnels, another girl being “chosen” to be removed from the school by the dodgy headmistress in a sort of talent and beauty contest, and the final image is of one girl standing opposite one of the first boys we see, in a fountain with a huge frothy plume of spurting water between them).
One comment I made at the end was “I wonder if this was made by a primary school teacher” as one of the teachers says to the graduater “You’ll soon forget us” with the sound of bitterness in her voice. And then someone else chimed in with “I wonder if it was made by a paedophile“.
It was a good fillum but not what you’d call “fun”.
And I knew I’d seen the ballet teacher somewhere before.
So after creepy and just a bit “wrong” we moved onto good old ghost story territory with “Ghost Game“.
This one is about a reality show that’s a cross between Survivor, Ghostwatch and Derren Brown’s Seance. This kids have to survive in a creepy old PoW camp, that was host to one of the worst wartime atrocities, without bolting in terror. The rather obvious twist in the fillum is that the ghosts are real rather than imagined or dreamt up tricks by the crew.
There’s no real sub-plot to note just a traditional “who will survive?” game to play as you watch. Will it be the fat girl (“She’s too fat to die”), how about the cynical one who is trying to prove it’s all a set-up, or possibly the cheeky lad who’s trying to get off with the model?
It was good and scary. Job done.
And it has to be said that these 2 brought the average quality back up to somewhere near “good”. We’ve seen some shockingly poor movies in recent sessions and these were a marked change.
Well done them.
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05 Jul 2008
Posted in Fillums, Reviews at 10:55 am by alby
2 fillums watched again with the usual crowd of masochists.
But before them may I just take a moment to decry the trend of declining quality in the fillums we have. They seem to have gone right downhill since the giddy heights of Ring, The Grudge and Ghost Watch.
Anyways.
First we had Versus. Lent to us by the lovely Philipp.
Starts with 2 prisoners escaping and reaching somewhere to be picked up by the associates of one of them. But odd stuff happens and you end up with zombies. Not just zombies but kung-fu lesbian zombies with guns. Sounds like it could be a riot. Sadly it was a mess. Appalling acting, gurning to out-do Eccleston’s Dr Who and atrocious dialogue. From about 15 mins in it was clear here was a fillum that would have lots of set pieces (all fights) and the only narrative progression would be that the baddies would be harder and more fun fights would ensue. A shame that the fun was missing then.
Another one we switched off before the end.
Second up was Tesis. Some woman at the local university is doing a thesis on violence on screen. She claims she’s horrified by violence but you know she loves it really. Well her prof dies and she nicks the fillum wot he was watching at the time. Ooh is it like “Ring”? Nope the vid doesn’t kill her 7 days later but does lead her into the world of snuff movies. Then the thing becomes a bit of a mess. She has one friend in her quest to find out what’s happening. He’s a nerd who’s into mondo fillums (stuff like “Faces of Death” – google it if you’re desperate). He figures out that the camera used is one particular model. So they trace sales of that model and bingo; it’s someone at the uni. Is it the handsome and slightly scary fillum maker? Has the nerd got something to do with it? Who’s the new professor? What about the handsome lad’s slightly psycho girlfriend? Fair to say that twists galore happen which frankly left me thinking the thing would have better simpler. Too many “oh good grief, so he is involved” moments for me. But the whole fillum was a sub-Funny Games rant against people professing horror at violence but lapping it up on screen. The movie closed with the news station playing the footage obtained and everyone around was watching avidly. As the scary professor says “Film is a business. Give them what they want.”
And that was that. Tesis was spectacularly better than Versus but not v scary and not anywhere close to some of the better fillums seen so far.
We need better ones!
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27 Jun 2008
Posted in Fillums at 7:30 pm by alby
I think the mere fact that this fillum title exists is proof that the world is more entertaining than lots of people think:
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05 May 2008
Posted in Fillums, Life, People, Reviews at 10:22 pm by alby
Well I said I was looking forward to this weekend and I was right to.
Saturday was the BCC, Sunday lazy until my folks arrived and today was grand too.
Folks turned up Sunday aft and we didn’t do a huge amount but they did have a go on WiiFit and embarrassed themselves thoroughly. Actually they weren’t bad and my ma came out at 45. A good 17 years younger than her actual age and younger than Charlie managed on her first go (NB This is work Charlie aka by far the fittest person I know)
Then they watched The Jungle Book and then to bed.
Today we didn’t rush in the morning before heading out for a walk in the country. We looked on a local map and decided a nice 8 mile round trip around Tilton would be a grand bet; and so it was.
Gorgeous weather, not too muddy ground and a nice pub half way round. As I said a grand day.
[edit: pics here]
And that’s not the end of it!
Me, Clurb and Rod headed out to watch El Orfanato at the Phoenix. Well worth the trip. Spooky, scary and with a good few jumps. It’s those fillums with kids that spook you.
Recommended.
Oh and I haven’t mentioned the very oddest thing wot’s happened to me this weekend.
I had an answerphone message from someone at the BBC saying
I’m researching Henry Stanley Tibbs and I’m after relatives. Can you call me back on……
Never heard of the guy but after googling him found this. Wow, another famous person in the family (t’other was Stanley van Beers).
As I say though I’d never heard of him before.
Weird.
PS And Have I Got News For You with Brian Blessed was superb.
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01 May 2008
Posted in Fillums at 11:17 am by alby
Just a notice. How about a fillum night out?
The Phoenix has “The Orphanage” on this weekend (Sunday at 6, Monday at 7) and I reckon it’s right up our street.
Thoughts?
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30 Apr 2008
Posted in Fillums, Rants, Reviews at 8:42 pm by alby
If you’ve read my previous post and seen Star Wars ep3 before you can already guess what’s coming.
OK then so what have they learned from the critical, public and my review of episode 2?
That you need a good script? That you don’t need pointless spectacle? That good actors can’t save a sack of bollocks?
After seeing ep2 at the cinema when it came out I avoided bothering with ep3. Seemed like a waste of my entry fee to the cinema.
So a freebie off me dad was a good opportunity to see it for free.
Only it wasn’t free. It wasted an hour of my life. My life is worth far more than this waste of my time.
You may notice I say “an hour”. Yup I gave up. I’ve rarely given up on a fillum or anything else.
I remember a time in Germany where I went to see an outdoor classical music concert. The headline piece was Orff’s Carmina Burana. But there was a first half to get through first. I didn’t like the omens. People at this concert seemed to feel that walking around and eating bratwurst was better than bothering to listen to the music. And the path between the rows of seats was gravel. Just what you want is some fat german crunching his way to the hotdog stall as you try and listen to some music. And as it’s outside you also had traffic noise, plane noise, people outside the venue shouting to mates inside etc… I spent the intermission wondering whether it would be a bigger waste to stay or leave. After seeing the dreadful “dancing” they insisted on foisting on this innocent classical piece I chose to leave. Definitely the better choice.
And this was repeated today. No germans, no crunching just sheer unadulterated poverty of vision, acting, plot, script and even the visual effects were ropey.
So I’ve given up on ever getting to the end of the second trilogy. I’d rather spend my life ooh I don’t know picking my toe nails, cleaning something that doesn’t need cleaning or whatever else.
Utter shite. Well done George Lucas. Take a classic franchise and kill it in a blaze of vacuous effects. You’re a moron.
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