The Tunnel

You've heard of the movie that was distributed over the torrents in an attempt to drum up interest and to get people to pay for it afterward? Yes, that's right, this is that movie!

Set in Sydney, this movie is about tunnels under the city. The city thought about using it to store water, but the homeless are staying there. Ace reporter Natasha wants the story so she, Pete (another reporter) and crew people Steve (camera) and Tangles (sound) enter the tunnels for on site reporting.

And then it starts going wrong. The homeless aren't there anymore... because something else is...

There are two important points about this movie.

One: This movie has a great atmosphere while in the tunnels. I don't know how much tunnel they had, but with the camera shots and running around and no lighting, it builds up a real sense of 'panic!' It's so spooky that if they ran tours, no-one would sign up.

Second: The atmosphere is completely undercut by the narrative device. They are interviewing people about what happened, which implies that... so yeah, we already know where things are going. It is still eerie, but what happens to the people is less so. Shame about that.

As a distribution model, it kicks ideas of pirating in the head. And, yeah, I'm thinking about which bundle to buy...

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DW: 6.6

Um... Er... You know what, if you could miss this episode, I would recommend it. There's just nothing worth watching in it that couldn't have been folded into last week's...

What happens in this episode? They run around the monastery, the Gangers decide to kill the humans, and... hand on, that was the same as last week! They already decided that! And so why can't we have only had to go through one episode?

Okay, right, there's that bit at the end, but there was always something going on. Hmmm... Confidential is saying that this isn't the real Amy... wasn't the point of the episode that these Gangers were the same as the real people? Get on the same page people!

Really, I'm just depressed by the complete run-around with no impact that this episode was. Bah.

(BTW, didn't think the Ganger Doctor was going to be the one to die in Impossible Astronaut... no artron energy. And did they have to pay Tom Baker for the audio clip?)

Frankly, I'd rather rewatch Fear Her.


Next week: yeah, I watched the prequel, and am remembering River Song...

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Of Steam, Steel and Murder

We sit around. Then move around. Then sit around some more. There is talking to people, finding of revelations... but otherwise not a huge advancement of plot. We really need to get organised and sort out what the hell we are wanting to do, big picture wise.

Which is the problem. I have little to no idea of what's really going on in the big picture, and this just increased that lack of knowledge. We need to do proper planning, especially where other people don't end up sitting around going 'what am I doing here?'

If nothing else, at least I can become the master of my own Marmoset army...

Listen, if you care, to Game 36. On Rapidshare and Hotfile. Warning: this does contain some really bad puns...

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DW: The Way Through The Woods

Next up, the long titled The Way Through The Woods by Una McCormack.

People have been disappearing into the woods. Lots of people, from all over time. Only now the entire town is going to disappear... actually that last bit isn't hinted at in the front or back cover, but it makes a better teaser than what is the front cover. The hint there is that there are monsters, and this book is more about the strangeness of the woodness than the ... monsterness of the monsters. In that regard, the cover is a complete fake out.

And the strangeness of the woods is interesting enough, the way Una McCormick presents it. The bizarre can be just as fascinating as the horror, and Una creates a great atmosphere that carries the book through breezily the bulk of the story. The last section stumbles slightly, but is a rare instance in the world of DW stories where... well, that would be giving things away.

Not surprisingly, considering the author is an authoress, there are a fair few women in this story, and they are very well written (although Emily comes across as rather more worldly than you would expect). If anything, the main characters, although Rory is so-so, are less well served in characterisation. The Doctor ends up sidelined for most of the adventure!

In all, far superior to a certain other book I was reading before...

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Sticks of Joy!

A few years ago there was a triumvirate of documentaries relating to arcade games, a look back at the people who grew up during the eighties and how they are still living those times.

High Score (2006): Bill Carlton played Missile Command. A lot. A lot a lot. However, he only had the 10th highest score. This documentary is about his attempt to gain the highest score by playing the game for hours... estimating needing over two solid days of playing to get there! Now, there's dedication, but that is incredible determination! The machine has a few problems with remaining stable, however, Bill is not going to quit... Quite an interesting documentary, and Bill is very personable!

The King of Kong (2007): Along a similar theme, this one is about Steve Wiebe trying to gain the high score on Donkey Kong, contested by Billy Mitchell. When reading the details on IMBD, this movie is partially real, and partially crafted. For example, their relationship is not as antagonistic as portrayed, and it's not that they were the only people involved. Again interesting as it shows that old challenges (arcade game scores) are still taken very seriously.

Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007): Featuring some of the same people as above, back in 1982 Life magazine did an article on the top arcade players of the age. This documentary sees how they have fared over time. Some well, some... consider they are doing well. Most have moved on from the arcade game business, and some are still making their living doing it. (Walter Day was a manager of an arcade game parlour back then, Twin Galaxies, and became the person responsible for tracking high scores. During the movie, he was writing a book on the history of the topic, which seemed to have inspired the documentary, and then planned to move on.) Worth a look, an offers a more comprehensive view than the above movies.

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DW: Dead of Winter

The next round of DW books kicks off with... Dead of Winter by James Goss.

Short version: it sucks. Long version: it sucks and blows.

The TARDIS crashes and Amy, Rory and the Doctor end up at a Italian health resort in 1783. There is some extremely transparent identity confusion, and it gets extremely painful to get through the first 100 pages. After that, the book becomes more streamlined, with running around and sort of avoiding monsters (in that they are sort of monsters). I will admit the final 'defeat' of the creature is the one interesting item in the entire book, but otherwise this is an annoying waste of time.

It's just that it takes so long to get nowhere. There's a lot of pages passing by, but nothing really happens, and so much that does happen is pointless and then retrod. We're ahead of the game, and treading pages for everyone else to get on with it.

And then, and this really annoyed me, there is the method of the narrative device. A lot of this story is presented as letters, or journal entries. Which relate huge chunks of dialogue. Really? No-one writes that in letters in reality. You can't remember conversations at the level of exact words. At best phrases, and topics, but not exact sentences. And then some letters are left off in the middle of a climax. "I must write to tell you that I was walking along... and then I was stabbed in the back! Your loving daughter," Again, no, it doesn't work like that. Who would write that and leave the letter there? You are clearly writing, so obviously it's not a cliffhanger. It's not like some present tense dictation of events, in which you can be interrupted, no this is clearly done after. It makes no damn sense!

In all, one interesting plot point (which I've just realised is a variant on the Explosive Overclocking trope), and a nice cover, but otherwise completely avoid this book.

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Hare and Burke

When it comes to the matter of murder, it can either be treated with the utmost regard and due recognition of the seriousness of the matter... or it can be a comedy!

This movie is a... version of the events of two body suppliers (it wouldn't be correct to call them grave diggers, as they don't do a lot of that) as they seek to make an honest living by killing the people around them. And fall in love, of course, because there has to be a romantic story in all this.

It's all treated as a light hearted story (not so much of the laughter, but definite wry amusement), and ends in a fair bit happier way that certain realities would have you thinking. Yeah, they take lots of liberties, and seem to invent several modern contrivances along the way, but I'm willing to forgive such things as 'what's real' in the case of comedy (as long as it is funny).

One big point of the movie, the names. Check it out: Andy Sirkis, Simon Pegg, Bill Bailey, Jessica Hyne, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Curry, Ronnie Corbett, Isla Fisher... Not to mention cameos by the likes of Christopher Lee, Ray Harryhausen, Jenny Agutter, John Woodvine, and more!

Light entertainment of death, what more could you want?

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