Wednesday 30 November 2016

Original of Oevil

I saw the first, so now to see what happened before.

As I said, it was largely going to be the story we already got, and indeed we do. A mother and two daughters are running a seance scam, but due to a Ouija board, they find out the younger daughter is able to contact actual spirits. Creepy! And, of course, there is nothing wrong that can go with that!

Well... this isn't really any different to any other current horror house movie. Spooky things start happening, and kids are creepy. Shock! The only reason it needs to be set back then is that they can use the scam setting a lot easier. But otherwise, this could be any time.

And I didn't really feel like it fed into the other movie that well. There were several elements that needed to be set up, and it wasn't until the last twenty (if that) minutes that it tried to suddenly put the pieces in place, regardless of them fitting the current story or really set up the later/earlier story properly. One example, in the first movie we get that the sisters are actually together, but here they aren't, until the final moment when they have to be to set up the next/previous movie.

Really, it is about as superfluous as you'd expect.

[END]

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Sunday 27 November 2016

Unmechanical

This is one of them puzzle games. It feels a little like Machenarium, etc., in which you are doing puzzles with a small robot.

You get grabbed underground and… have to do things. I never got the sense of a goal, and then I thought we were trying to fix some big machine, but then it turned out all we were trying to do was escape. The puzzles weren’t that incredibly hard, although there were one or two where I just didn't understand what was going on, but managed to luck my way past.

There is also DLC, which is a completely separate story, in which you are sucked underground with a companion (that you are immediately separated from), and then you need to get them back and escape. This does lead to a few sequences which are basically cut scenes while you watch the other character do puzzles that you could be doing.

The controls take some getting used to. You fly with WASD or arrow keys and activate your tractor beam with space or mouse button. I kept thinking the tractor beam was a 'switch of, switch off' thing, and not a 'while button is pressed' deal. And there was also a form of inertia that kept making me go silly places. Fortunately, you can’t die and can’t, or at least I didn’t, screw yourself up enough to not ever solve it.

Nice game, but again not one I'll probably go back to again, even for the achievements.

[END]

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Saturday 26 November 2016

Chef: He Likes Killing Flies

One more chef based movie, this one about the eatery Shopsins.

Kenny Shopsin is a "character", and chef of the eatery he runs with his family. It's definitely a matter of his way or not at all, and even insists of not seating parties of five people. We get to spend a lot of time with him and... he gets taken to run a bigger restaurant, with still his style of cooking. While a good thing, you can tell he's going to bitch the entire way.

If you don't like Kenny, you aren't going to like this movie. Me... I can tolerate him in a way that says 'he's definitely a character', but I'm glad I don't have to deal with him. On the other hand, I'm sad that I won't get to eat there with his weird take on basics.

Definitely more chef movies to see, but this isn't a bad way to finish.

[END]

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Friday 25 November 2016

TP 1.2

This follows directly on from the first story, but this is The Medusa Strain.

It's the 26th Century and a ship captures Jedikiah, the android that's been floating around for 500 years. Fortunately, they have time travel, but only telepaths can operate the engine. Now they do have Peter, a rather underage boy that wears very a open flimsy top, so oo-er, and he is tricked to go back and grab a Tomorrow Person, Carol. The others will try to find them, but completely fail for the rest of the story. Eventually, Peter and Carol manage to save themselves, so hurrah! And we'll never see Jedikiah again...

One point to note here... David Prowse! "Coffin will help." With silver covered nipples. And the effects... are not great. The commentary points out some particular worthy moments, such as the spaceship that has a disposable drink cup in it, and that there are four cages, so there must be four people who get put them in (this is something I now notice, there are X many items, and they were built, so they will be used!).

But now this feels just overlong without anything really happening. This could be half as long, but maybe stretch to three episodes? Either way, we don't need four.

[END]

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Thursday 24 November 2016

Stoneadoes

Amazingly this isn't The Asylum, but it was on Syfy, so that tells you everything you need to know right there.

For reasons tornadoes are popping up, grabbing stones, and then dropping them on people. Because that’s what weather does. There is a scientist type guy who isn’t treated well by authority, whose kids are in danger, and comes up with a weird idea to solve everything. (Actually, I wrote that before I finished watching, but feel no need to change anything.)

Yes, another terrible disaster movie. And the tornadoes are the cheapest looking CGI effects I've ever seen. Like whenever they cut away to the tornado, I just can't believe how fake looking it is. Is it possible to put negative effort into something?

Still, at least they have William B Davis in this. Otherwise, there's no reason to watch this.

[END]

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Wednesday 23 November 2016

The Sleep Rooming

This is one of those movies that will make you say "well, that was convenient".

Our lead is a call girl, and she attends a new client who can’t quite get it up. However, they spend the time together, and he shows her his old-timey viewing machine. And one of the women in that looks just like her. She comes back, and gets more creeped out as we find out the place has a history of a creepy guy that lived there, filmed his own sex acts and killed people (with no bodies found - you know what is going to turn up). Eventually, there’s a confrontation, and the lead gets away, but then she dies except she doesn't...

I'm not sure about that ending. It could be the 'it was all a dream' ending, but it feels more like they had two different endings, couldn't decide which to go for, and put both in. Either way, it was just a nothing ending on top of a nothing film. It couldn’t decide how scary to be, so a lot of the scares just aren't trying that hard. And the creepiness fails to evoke any feeling at all.

The best thing I can say for it is: it is short.

[END]

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Tuesday 22 November 2016

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

It's the story of the independent movie movement of the 1960s, 1970s. This is Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.

This covers a lot of what is considered to be the classic movies, including Easy Rider and Raging Bull. This has to cover a lot of material, and it manages to do it well. Although, I have to admit... I haven't seen these movies. There are a lot of talking heads from big names about their time at the time, and now I do want to see some of them.

While this is nearly two hours, the time slips by easily. The movie is well made and draws you in, and I definitely wanted to know what happens next. Possibly because of the time since, it feels like the people are a lot more honest than usual, although no doubt some parts are covered lightly, but this is a good example of how to do a decent documentary.

Now I've seen it, and not to say that you can't see if if you want to.

[END]

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Monday 21 November 2016

On This Day In History

Today marks ten years of me writing this blog... with my first post being about removing freckles. Hard hitting! Anyway, this blog has largely been a way for me to express my creative energies and talk about things I want to talk about. It's not been to get an audience (which is just as well), and now it's taken on the aspect of being my external memory store of things I've seen.

However, after ten years, of nearly a post a day... that's a lot of writing. And now it's beginning to feel like "I need to feed the blog, I can't do this other thing, I need to do something to blog about." And when something starts to feel like work...

I'm not getting paid for this. And I want to do other things, things which don't automatically need to be translated into a blog post. I want to put these creative energies elsewhere.

So, I'm not giving up the blog, indeed I already have some posts lined up, and I want to continue some things, such as the TV series. But I won't be posting a post a day. There will still be posts, popular movies (I still have things to sync with other blogs!), terrible movies I inflict on myself, books I read, games I play, etc... but not everything will be up here, and posts will be when I want to do them.

Ten years... that's a lot, but time for something else.

[END]

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Sunday 20 November 2016

Viscera Clean Up Detail

A Steam game for those of us with some degree of OCD! A controllable level, hopefully.

This is a game where you clean up things… that's it. There’s a mess of body parts and blood and trash around some sci-fi setting level, and it’s up to you, the janitor, to clean everything away. You get buckets of water and large trash cans, and a special gun to wipe out bullet holes. (That last one trips up a lot of people.) Then it's just you to go through and get to all points and make sure everything is clean. At the end, you sign out and hopefully score enough for a promotion/pass the level.

That's the game, and all levels are basically this. There are very few points where you can die (there are a few), so this is just walking around the level, picking up rubbish and getting rid of it. This is really one of those zen games you play while doing something else (basically listening to podcasts or similar).

There is some sort of story, but you’ll probably miss most of it unless you know about it going in. While you can redo the levels again from the start each time, I can't say I’m that invested in going that far.

I've played all the levels, and even the two add on games Santa's Revenge and Shadow Warrior. I don't feel like replay, even for achievements, so on to something else.

[END]

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Saturday 19 November 2016

Chef: The Madness of Perfection

I asked previously for a documentary that talks about getting Michelin Stars, and this is one such documentary.

A reporter joins chefs as they battle for a first or third Michelin star. The lengths they go to, the amount they seem not to care. Often they say "we just want to serve food to customers", but they all do hang hopes on getting that star (much like writers and actors and such do over their awards). Some chefs care too much, and some do indeed seem to handle not worrying too much. Oh, and he even manages to talk to the present of Michelin and one of the British inspectors.

This is more of the documentary I wanted to see, to actually see behind the scenes (a little) at what chefs get up to when it comes to earning or keeping the stars. And this focuses more on that than the meals they prepare. There are still moments of the meals, but that is less the point.

So yes, I would definitely say check this out.

[END]

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Friday 18 November 2016

TP 1.1

Yes, a new series about an old series. This one is going to take a while as we go through each story of The Tomorrow People. This one is The Slaves of Jedikiah.

We start with Stephen breaking out, becoming a special kid... which is something we kids all thought of at the time. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking of a fist unclenching, hoping to become a Tomorrow Person. Anyway, as this happens, Jedikiah intercepts Stephen and wants him for his own purpose. Fortunately the rest of the TP are on the case and eventually manage to track Stephen down and bring him back... but It's A Trap! Jedikiah is wanting more TPs but has to settle for ending up with Kenny, the kid who isn't long for this series. Everyone ends up on a spaceship as a Cyclops needs TP help to power his ship, but the ship is breaking up... it's a rush to try to save the Cyclops while defeating Jedikiah and getting everyone else back to earth.

It's a hell of an opening. We are presented with three TPs who are already out and about, and have even been off planet, and casually know about other species, which comes up at the end of the story. Stephen is our entrance into the world, but I have to say there's a lot delivered about telep* powers suddenly dumped on us, but we are able to take it, because, as I said, as kids, we want to be special ones with powers.

It's all played rather straight, and is a rare show that has kids in a mature drama with no frequent comedy moments (although there are some, especially the End Laugh). It's a start to a great series.

[END]

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Thursday 17 November 2016

The Cutttting Roooom

Indie movie, I’m guessing, and there's only one good thing about it.

A trio of students are filming a project for film class, and have to film 'behind the scenes' (which is a better explanation for the camera footage than some we get). They decide on cyberbullying, and focus on a particular local case. Tracking her down, they get to some strange people, and eventually a strange place. Which is underground. And labyrinthine. And we’ve seen thing before. Run, chase, scream, and the killer helpfully brings the footage out to share with people.

This smacks of film made on the cheap, and doesn't really strive to be anything exciting. The acting is… on screen, and the costume is… a mask, and that’s about all you can say for it.

The best thing? The opening/closing music:


[END]

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Wednesday 16 November 2016

Unhollowed Groond

It's a movie about privileged kids! Who guard a haunted school! From burglars! And ghosts! And uhh…

To show off the best students, three boys and three girls, the best of two schools, are to patrol the boy's school because… that’s what they do. At the same time, two burglars want to get in to The Archive to get… something. The actual object is mentioned when I was looking at something else, so I have no idea what it was, but it doesn’t matter. Oh, and there are ghosts from students who died 350 years ago who are creeping around the school still because… because. And it turns out that some of the students are actually not nice but evil and plan to do evil, and the others have to survive, and…

Gah! The phrase here is 'overegging the pudding', way too much put in. Which, at only 90 minutes, is impressive and shows off that pudding and padding aren't just one letter different. The two burglars are nearly comedy, and the supposed best girls who are near soldiers still get to scream a lot, because female? And everyone is largely defined by their ethnic stereotype.

Just a mess of a movie, don't worry about it.


[END]

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Tuesday 15 November 2016

Quakey quakey quakey

Instead of going and seeing a movie yesterday, I spent the day keeping an eye on the news. [Note: links live at time of writing.]

I even checked overseas sites, and indeed Australia, US and UK reported on us. (Although for some reason, UK likes to put us in the Asia category... what?)

Anyway, for those that didn't click links, there was a 7.5 earthquake around 12am Monday morning (that's between Sunday and Monday). I just happened to be awake when it hit, and it went on for a while. It did feel slow, and I just lay there, but I can confirm that in my place is fine, nothing fell off (even cans precariously balanced on a shelf). Unlike other places in which there was a lot of trouble. (Fortunately, my place is on rock, so it's less of a problem.)

But now there are aftershocks. And the CBD is closed (hence why I decided to not go to the movies). And my work is on the waterfront, and may be closed for a while.

Yikers. Will stay tuned...

Play us out with a song:

[END]

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Monday 14 November 2016

Suspendering

It's a horror movie with a "twist". But the big puzzle is… what exactly is supposed to be suspended here? Belief? People? Just supposed to have generic suspense itself?

A young woman is bullied in school and spends her time drawing a psychopathic killer going around murdering people. We see this art world as people are killed, but then it seems that it is really happening? Or it is just recasting the people around her into the world? Eventually, yes it does seem that this is really happening as per the art… or is it?

Uh… yeah. This completely failed to grip me because it completely failed to actually be entertaining. I just starting skipping forwards, and lost nothing of the plot while doing so. There is a reveal that does sort of explain everything… but even then, no not really, not without severe amounts of unreliable narrator. At which point you should just give up pretending to try to follow the movie because there's no way you can.

This features… some people? Doing acting? And basic effects of blood spurts. And… there you go.

Or rather, don't bother going, because there’s nothing there when you arrive.


[END]

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Sunday 13 November 2016

Stunged

Monster attack time… and it's bees! Or wasps! Or wasps infected by bees or something? Whatever, they are flying insects and that's what matters.

It's a party to celebrate an old woman when an attack starts with people getting infected and running around in panic. As people get infected, people sized bugs emerge from their bodies so that’s fun. A small group of them house in the house, and then it’s a matter of “character development” while we wait for the bugs to get in/the people try to get out and get eaten by bugs. And, of course, one of them on the inside is infected.

Has Lance Henriksen given up and just doing whatever comes to his agent now? And the other actors aren't looking like they are doing this because their careers needed a boost. As a monster movie there's nothing here that hasn't already been seen a thousand times before… and yet it won a Jury Award for Best International Film at a Film Festival? Nope, not seeing it.

According to IMDB they were trying for humour as well as horror… again, nope, not seeing it, and you shouldn't bother either.


[END]

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Saturday 12 November 2016

Chef: Le Cerque

Le Cirque is a new restaurant with a lot of history, and a rather famous (in the circle) owner.

Sirio Maccioni is a famous restaurant owner who runs some very popular, and rather expensive, restaurants. And then he decides to shut one down and open up Le Cirque in the Bloomsberg Building. We follow him, and his three sons, as he tries to get it up to his standards, while, at the same time, his sons are trying to set up the business for them to take on, as he can't run everything. Then there are the all important New York Times star reviews, which basically decide if your restaurant is good (three or four stars) or the utter pits (two stars, at least going by their reaction).

Sirio is a good example of "obstreperous", wanting things his way, and talking over anyone who disagrees with him. This makes it hard for his sons, and I sided with them about their reality of having to take control over matters.

The two star review (they are re-reviewed later) pointed out that they treated people differently, depending on how well known/famous they were, and the review was right, which one of the sons accepted, Sirio less so. So yeah, I can see why they got that review.

Sirio and co were never going to end up with a dead business, we were going to see just how non-terrible it was.

[END]

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Friday 11 November 2016

Red Dwarf 11.5, 11.6

Let's wrap this season up with the two last episodes.

Krysis: Now first off, I do like this episode title. I think there was a better story to associate it with than this though. Of course we are going to think of The Last Day, but this is more original than that. What if Kryten had a mid life crisis and wanted a zippy red number? And that's about it. They meet another cleaning droid, and I hope you like the joke of the droid being better than Kryten, because they continue it on, and on, and on. But not to worry, after some more jokes, they manage to scrap together a meaningful scene to make a point, but even that gets hammered on too long.

Can of Worms: Hey, it's a Cat episode. Certainly there's a lot of possibility there, and this hints at it. But, however, this is not a good Cat episode. Indeed, it's not even a good episode. It's a Polymorph story, so there are two things going to happen: 1) lots of shape changing, and you'd think the effects would be better by now, and 2) emotions will be played with, and conveniently there's a machine to alter people's emotions. Then, after all the set up, everything is quickly dealt with in the last minute. Urgh.

Well, we know that there is a 12th season planned, but really without Rob Grant, let's please not?

[END]

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Thursday 10 November 2016

Dr Stranger

It's Benedict Cumberbatch with his greatest acting challenge ever... a believable American accent!

To be honest, this does follow the first few issues of the comic rather well. Strange is a surgeon, gets into an accident, goes to Eastern philosophy to get healed, deals with an ex-student and Dormammu... I have read the comics, so I was waiting for it to unfold. Now, this isn't a complicated story, it's an origin story so we aren't going to get too deep, but it tells it well. The final "fight" seemed a bit unbelievable to me, but when [bleep] was revealed, I went "yep, I buy it now".

Of course there is a lot of effects here. From the trailer it looked like "what if we took that effect from the Inception trailer and made a movie out of it?", and to be honest there was a lot of that effect, but there are also lots of other effects. This is probably the most obviously effects heavy movie. So much blue screen.

And, okay, let's talk about the "white casting" of Tilda Swinton. To be honest, my main complaint is that she isn't old enough to be The Ancient One. Get Diana Rigg or Joanna Lumley or any of the other Avengers ladies to do it! They'd be great! And as for BC's accent... it reminded me of Hugh Laurie's House voice, only far less convincing...

I'm still surprised people leave before the credits are over. When you go see this (if you haven't already), make sure you stay.

[END]

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Wednesday 9 November 2016

Trumpingland

It's a major selling point that Michael Moore put this film together in 11 days. Thinking of his previous documentaries, that's a short time to put together interviews and graphics and such. But this is what he wanted to do to help get the voters out. What would like be like under Trump?

What this is is a stage show, with Michael berating the audience for an hour. And it's not much about what like would be like under Trump, but it's about Hillary Clinton. Why do people not like her? She's done good, and she is going to be able to do what has to be done!

And that's what this is. Rah rah, here's why you should consider Hillary. Yeah, Donald has promised to break the system that's putting you down, but that's not going to be long lasting. At least Hillary isn't going to be as bad as him.

When this posts, America will be mid-voting. I doubt this documentary would have done that much to change people's minds, but he gave it a Michael Moore shot.

[END]

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Tuesday 8 November 2016

Clintonian Cash

This is the documentary that came out to rock the foundation of Hillary's campaign to be President. It's about where the money comes from.

The story is repeated more than once in this movie. In some area of the world, some people want concessions to allow them to make a lot of money in a way that the Clinton's outspoken political views would be against. Bill is paid lots of money for a speech, and then Hillary arranges for that person to get concessions. Money trumps morals, basically.

And yep, this happens. I have no doubt that there are some very shady things in the Clinton's past and probably present. However... I would contrast this against pretty much any other politician and point to several lobby groups that pay politicians to forward their agendas. How is this different?

Which, to be direct, is not an excuse for Clinton, but to point out that there's lots of corruption around, and there is an obvious reason why they are in the spotlight at the moment.

And when you compare to the other guy, this isn't anywhere near as bad...

[END]

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Monday 7 November 2016

Where He Invaded Next

Michael Moore does a lot of documentaries, but I wasn't aware of this one.

Michael is thinking there are some good ideas in countries in Europe that America should adopt, and so heads overseas to check them out. In Italy he sees the idea of the paid vacations, in Finland, the idea of no homework, and other ideas in other places. These are all great ideas and America should take them on board (he "invades" the country to take the idea back). Except then he shows that these were American ideas all along...

Certainly there is a lot less political discussions that in his previous movies. In some ways, this is just a nice tour of European cities (he does point out there are problems in these countries, but he's focusing on the good things). Yes, there are a few moments when you go "this works really well, why the hell isn't everyone doing this?", but mostly it comes down to treating people decently. Which sounds simple, but is painted as something America just doesn't want to do. (I said this wasn't all political, not that it was unbiased.)

A rather basic documentary, which I found out about because of another documentary he's doing.

[END]

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Sunday 6 November 2016

Never Go Jack

It's the latest attempt to pretend Tom Cruise is over 6 foot and 200 pounds!

Jack hits it off over the phone with the new female leader of the Military Police (a role he had), so heads to base to check her out. Just, as it happens, she's been caught up in a smear campaign to get MPs out of the way of shady non-military dealings. As part of this, Jack finds out he has a daughter, and she is also caught up.

On the one hand, this is pretty much in line with the book. At least, as far as I can remember it. I feel like I now need to relisten to the audio to find out how Lee laid it all out, because... on the other hand, this feels very choppy. Jack finds out he has a daughter... cut to him watching her. What? How did he trace her so easily? It's a thing in the book, and just jumped over here. Along with many other plot moments, because you need to get to the significant scenes, which involve the two leads yelling at each other or the fighting.

And speaking of that... no, I can't buy Tom as Jack in these fights. I can buy Tom as Tom in these fights, and they are scaled for him, but for a big beefy guy that Jack is supposed to be? Those fights would not go like that. And Cobie Smulders gets decent action pieces too, although there is one moment which definitely demonstrates that you shouldn't have a ponytail. The drama between them... isn't bad, but I believe Cobie more than Tom.

I still feel that Dwayne Johnson would make a better Jack, but as long as you can tolerate Tom in the role, this... is just a barely above average movie.

[END]

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Saturday 5 November 2016

Chef: Pressssure Cooooker

At Frankford High, Wilma Stephenson teaches a touch culinary arts class, and this is one year with them.

Wilma is immediately presented as touch as nails, and she lives up to it too. We also meet several of the students and go into their lives. We follow them through school and eventually to them trying to get culinary scholarships (which you can already tell not all of them are going to get, because this isn't that sort of documentary). We see the students cooking and the students trying to get by in the rest of their lives. They all have a story, we get it and the cooking.

I'm not sure if the maker of this documentary was very cynical or very passionate. My cynical sense says "hey, here's a group of black kids with trouble stories, trying to do good, easy documentary!". This film feels over padded, with too much focus on the students. But I'm not sure if that comes from "I care about these kids so much I want to put in as much of them as possible" or "I don't care about this, so just shove all the footage into it." Either way, this should have had a more strict editors.

But this is about the cooking and the kids and Wilma. We get that Wilma is tough because she cares, and in the end the kids do their best to live up to her and to themselves. And although only some of them were "good enough" for scholarships, for damn sure, they'll be better and more dedicated to what they are doing than I'll ever be.

[END]

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Friday 4 November 2016

Red Dwarf 11.3,11.4

Okay, where to now?

Give and Take: Uh, the main joke in this episode relies on them never seeing what is on the back of the bot, despite approaching it from behind! Gah! Soo stupid! And then there's the science ship with crazed doctor (Quarantine) and going back through time in a stasis field (Stasis Leak), are we just ripping off all the episodes now? But the very worst thing is that this involves a time paradox which is carefully set up to be consistent from the start of the episode but breaks down at less than a moments notice. (In white text: Lister has his past kidneys removed to replace his current lack of kidneys... which couldn't have then been taken out by the doctor bot!) And Kryten's lying mode reminded me of Arkwright.

Officer Rimmer: Rimmer gets to be an officer! It feels like this is from elsewhere, but I can't think of where immediately. Aside from being an ass, Rimmer gets to make multiple copies of himself... hang on (sigh), Rimmerworld. And then it goes wrong and you can pick on either DNA or Polymorph as other inspirations, with finally Rimmer needing to stop himself being eaten (white text: despite being a hologram unlike the copies!). This does have some rather naff effects, with the head error being just... ergh.

[END]

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Thursday 3 November 2016

Wuiga

The sequel is out, but I never saw the original. Didn't even know there was an original. So here it is!

Two girls play with a ouija board, and we cut to a grownup version... and you can tell she ain't got long for this movie. Indeed, I gave her five minutes and had thirty seconds spare. Her friends gather and one decides that the best idea is to use a ouija to contact her.  Guess how that goes! Can you tell which members of the cast of this movie are on the block to die next? Strange things happen, and then they find out that there were spookier things going on (which, I'm guessing, is the story of the prequel), Fortunately, they manage to deal with it... but unleash something worse. Yay!

There's nothing excitingly new here, and you can tell that the most when you can spot and time how long until people die. This is retreading familiar ground, and the ouija board is just feeding into the delusion of it actually does something. (They have a brief moment of skepticism, talking about the ideomotor effect, but it doesn't last). The effects are decently done, but again nothing special.

I can't say I'm surprised they turned this into a franchise, but it's not like it needed one.

[END]

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Wednesday 2 November 2016

Eeeeeeeevil Dade

This is the remake I'm talking about here, and it's taken me this long to see it.

A group of kids go off to a cabin in the woods and get killed off one by one... hang on, that's a pretty common horror trope... but hang on further, was Evil Dead the first movie to do that? It can't be, right, but right this minute I can't think of an earlier one. [Ahem, Night of the Living Dead probably could be counted as a cabin where a group of people are killed off, but that's seen more as a zombie film than a cabin-killer film.] Anyway, this is a remake of that classic and...

Where's the humour? Not to say the first movie was side splittingly funny, but it didn't take itself seriously, whereas this movie is trying to most of the time, except for when it is doing deliberate nods to the original (hey, remember this bit? Pretty kooky huh!). Oh and they included the tree rape scene, because of course we needed that again.

Speaking of the cast... is anyone going to speak about this cast ever again? I can't say that I recognise any of them, but I presume at least some of them found work elsewhere? At least the effects team had a little fun, when there was the brief moments of evoking the original with the fountains of blood etc.

We didn't need a remake, and this wasn't a great one.

[END]

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Tuesday 1 November 2016

Night of the Demon

Halloween night at the Film Society, so let's get a spook on: Night of the Demon.

It's a scientistic investigation into Karswell's Cult. The first one wants to get out after Karswell shows off the power, but is killed by the Demon... or was it just an accident? An American scientist, our male lead, turns up, along with our female lead, the first guy's niece. Karswell predicts his death, and together they do some investigation and she does what she can to get him some protection, but of course he's having none of it. In the last twenty minutes, we get the secret to survival and then it's a matter of how can that be pulled off?

Oh yeah, I like this. It's a good movie, very well done. Well, except the actual demon, but even the director didn't like it, and was forced to use it. Niall MacGinnis is great as Karswell, the very personal bad guy (he's even Bobo the clown, keeping the clown theme running).

It's 60 years old, but this is a classic.

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