Another irrelevant Bat-title. It isn't even film number 'four'. Or are they counting the 1966 one starring Adam West? I hope so.
Dropping all remaining pretensions at seriousness, this one is a brighter, sillier and more colourful romp, and even features Jim Carrey in a rare supporting role as the Riddler.
Top Secret's Val Kilmer takes over the lead, which I thought he was most successful at when wearing the Bat-costume, purely because I could believe that he was still Michael Keaton under there.
Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face is no threat at all, while Nicole Kidman does her best as the latest in a what is becoming an increasingly long line of blondes for bachelor Bruce Wayne. I wonder what her psychologist character would make of that?
The real success in this one is the introduction of Chris O'Donnell as Dick Grayson / Robin. He scores the only really believable part, struggling as he does with losing his family and charging out onto the streets to set the world to rights. It's not that I think the rest of the characters should have had similar substance, just that O'Donnell was lucky to find himself playing the straight component of the ensemble.
And the script, riddled with so many quotable lines.
Robin: "Holey rusted metal, Batman!"
Batman: "Huh?"
Robin: "The ground. It's all metal. It's full of holes."
Riddler: "Tell the fat lady she's on in five."
Bruce Wayne: "He [Robin] ran away?"
Alfred: "Actually, he took the car."
Bruce Wayne: "He boosted the Jag?"
Alfred: "Not the Jaguar. The other car."
Bruce Wayne: "The Bentley?"
Alfred: "No, sir, the other car."
The bottom line though just has to go Jim Carrey's Riddler.
"Was that over the top? I can never tell."
(available here)
(with thanks to Herschel)
Related reviews:
Batman (1989)
Batman Returns
Batman & RobinLabels: comics, films
What is that title supposed to be referring to within the story?
After all those good intentions last time to make the caped crusader serious again, by the time this sequel got off the ground, it seemed like everyone had realised that Batman works better when it's funny.
(everyone except McDonald's that is, who famously recalled their own Batman Happy Meals for being too dark)
Consequently, this costumed pantomime aims straight for the laughs again, as a cast of truly bizarre loonies take the stage for two hours of over-acting and caricature.
Having been a bit upstaged by Jack Nicholson last time, in this one Michael Keaton gets his rightful top billing, but still graciously accepts his place as part of an ensemble cast.
Joining the human mammal (umm, whatever) is Michelle Pfeiffer as a clutzy Catwoman, and Danny DeVito as the squawking Penguin. Talking penguins always mean comedy.
Watching this for the first time tonight, I got the impression that director Tim Burton had really found his ideal angle on this world, mining the characters and set-up not just for their comedy-value, but also their mileage as grotesques.
One minor fumble would have to be Bruce Wayne's well-intentioned line acknowledging Alfred's over-trusting attitude toward Vicki Vale in the last Batman film. This might have been helpful, had it not been accompanied in the same conversation by a new gaff concerning the difficulty of finding a mechanic to repair the Batmobile. If only they knew of someone who had built it in the first place.
'The world's greatest detective' doesn't investigate any circuses for leads on the evil acrobatic clowns. Alright I'm getting picky.
The final panto-moment would have to be the actors in penguin outfits who are playing actual penguins.
Although Prince did not return to produce any more sounds for this outing, I have to wonder whether a suitable successor might have been Mike Batt.
Underground, overground, penguining free...
Tomorrow: Batman Forever!
(available here)
(with thanks to Herschel)
Related reviews:
Batman (1989)
Batman Forever
Batman & RobinLabels: comics, films
1989 was the summer of Batman, a season which can only be summed up by its ubiquitous buzz-word of 'Batmania'.
Much was made of how the cool new Bat-movie, directed by Tim Burton, would be returning to the Bat-Man's serious roots, albeit without the original hyphen.
(or any other letters, according to the above poster)
Gotham City had been built from scratch to grant it its own unique look.
The music was going to be done by the artist who everybody called Prince.
In the UK, even the British Board Of Film Classification sat up and created a brand new certificate - the '12' - especially for it.
I guess it was my business to know this stuff, because I was spending my first summer after college working at the local cinema, including handling some of the publicity.
Fig. 1: Michael Keaton drops in to pose with his projectionist and ticket-seller. In the film he looks much taller.
Come the opening night (not a dark one - summer remember), the film finally opened with two hoodlums sitting atop a tall building, tensely discussing this terrifying character they'd heard tell of, known only as… 'the Bat'.
On my stool at the back, I inwardly chuckled in approval - this parody was clever. Clearly the camera was about to pull-back at any moment and reveal this melodramatic scene to be taking place on a TV set, fiendishly poking fun at the lightweight 1960s series that this film was so keen to distance itself from.
Two hours later I was still waiting.
To be honest, the whole serious Batman thing didn't really work for me. Jack Nicholson's Joker (so wrongly getting top billing) just didn't strike me as very funny. Although many audience-members tittered a bit at his scenes, I think they were just trying real hard.
Gotham City turned out to look like any old city - wasted budget there.
And the music by Prince? Has anything ever been a stronger example of a soundtrack album deal resulting in a worse movie? Completely wrong style for the film.
Still, the really good news was that the sales-figures disagreed with me. As the weeks turned into months, I found myself watching this movie again, and again, and again. On one afternoon we actually had the 35mm film stretched-out across the projection-box so that it could run in two adjacent theatres simultaneously, a few seconds out of sync.
Over-familiarity improved the music, but less so some of the model-work. (eg. the Bat-Wing crashing up those tiny steps… and then changing position between shots!)
Those clunky TV news bulletins - has Hollywood ever been able shoot these types of scenes convincingly? When things go wrong during a real live broadcast, most newsreaders coolly soldier on regardless, having at least brushed their hair beforehand, regardless of whether or not it's been washed.
And those lifeless songs, some of which were now even getting played between screenings, causing us to dance as we picked up the rubbish and quote lines of dialogue to it.
Still, it wasn't enough. In protest at the whole travesty, Herschel and I began our own underground 8mm version, pointedly entitled The Reel Batman.
Herschel was going to be playing... guess. Most of the rest of the cast worked at the same cinema (and coincidentally came from Ireland), which made the whole idea seem quite promising:
However, after we tragically lost contact with our lead actor before he had even filmed any of it, several years of development hiatus concluded in 1993 with our shooting plastic figures fighting at about 3 frames per second, quite late at night, on another table in Herschel's gloomy living-room.
Three years after that I even had it processed. Tim Burton may have knocked out a further two sequels by that point, but could he honestly say, hand on heart, that his Batman was darker?
No.
21 years have now passed since that unforgettable summer of Bats, during which time Herschel (characteristically) sold-out and paid even more money to watch Burton's two-hour effort all over again on VHS, where it is now a '15'.
Tonight I too acquiesced, popped it into my VCR, and sat back to find out whether time had in fact been kind to it.
It had!
The Joker may indeed still not seem very funny to me, but I now believe that this was intentional. He is the only character in the film to laugh at any of his material. I guess what we have here is a serious story about a funnyman.
Gotham City still just looks generic though.
Prince's music? It still sounds soulless to me, but then I guess that fits the Joker's inner numbness, so maybe it was a good call after all.
Michael Keaton particularly has an interesting take on the pointy-eared title-character. He's an awkward, shy introvert, and as such something of a non-plussed hero.
Michael Gough's Alfred on the other hand is the opposite, taking such a shine to Kim Basinger's Vicki (Vicky?) Vale after having met her… once.
One moment that I miss about the cinema version is, at the end, the way the beams of Alfred's car's headlamps used to streak off the screen and right over the heads of the audience 3-D style, thanks to the projector illuminating the dust in the air. You can't get that effect off a TV.
Overall this is a curious opening entry into what has proved to be an enduring series. It's something of a runaround without much purpose to it, but the conviction of Burton's direction makes it absorbing throughout. After more than two decades, it also still looks brand new.
I give it six-and-three-quarter bats out of ten, but I still prefer the TV show.
Tomorrow: Batman Returns!
(with thanks to Herschel)
(available here)
Related reviews:
Batman Returns
Batman Forever
Batman & RobinLabels: comics, films
When it comes to historical characters with comedy potential, there are three who appeal universally: Adolf Hitler, Elvis Presley, and Gandhi.
With Hitler they accentuate his evil. With Elvis, it's his singing. With Gandhi they go to the other extreme, by taking his passivity and turning it into the polar opposite - violence. I'm thinking of UHF and Red Dwarf here.
I'm not sure that's necessary. How much comedy potential is there in exaggerating passive resistance into a super power? How funny might it be to see Gandhi defeating villains by ducking so that they hit each other?
Because, make no mistake, this powerfully acted drama is one of those very rare films that falls within both the biopic genre, and the super hero one.
"They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me, then they will have my dead body. NOT MY OBEDIENCE!"
Gandhi's own hero's journey begins, as so many biopics do, at the end. Grrr! Why do so many docudramas start anywhere but at the start? Chariots Of Fire, Not Only But Always, Man On The Moon... even The Dish opens with Sam Neill's character reminiscing about the events that we are shortly to witness unfold.
In Gandhi's case the film opens with his tragic assassination. While this does grant the entire narrative a tone of doom-laden inevitability, it also robs it of much immediate threat. From the outset, we know that Gandhi can't die until he's an old man, so standing up to corrupt cops fails to convey much sense of risk to his life.
Of course, it could be argued that we know he's not going to die because the film is named after him, but that reasoning only really holds good for the first 90 minutes. After that, the end credits could roll at any moment, so we just don't know how long he has left.
As it turns out, the full film runs for a very quick three hours plus, which for me was one of the stunning successes of this biography. I found it took a bit of getting into, not least thanks to the somewhat cartoon portrayal of good and evil, but once the spindly Indian had had his first major showdown with the man, I was hooked like a fish.
Perhaps I shouldn't have criticised that opening flaw in the storytelling. In the on-screen text at the very beginning, the film announces its intention to capture something of "the heart of the man", and that certainly comes through loud and clear. I obviously have no idea what Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was like in real life, but the character in this movie is an inspiring role-model, and makes agape love look very easy, even when it involves getting bludgeoned with a club.
"The function of a civil resistance is to provoke response and we will continue to provoke until they respond or change the law. They are not in control; we are."
"In the end, you will walk out. Because 100,000 Englishmen simply cannot control 350 million Indians, if those Indians refuse to cooperate."
Reporter: "Whatever moral ascendancy the West once held was lost here today. India is free, for she has taken all that steel and cruelty can give and she has neither cringed nor retreated."
The appearance of so many famous actors sadly robs the film of believability (hey look - it's Cliff Claven!) while the funeral scene has so many extras that I mistook it for actual news footage. I'm a little bit offended at that - it is possible to spend too much money on making a film.
Overall though I found this to be a compelling piece of drama, with a timeless message about the freedom the human spirit that I for one need regular reminding of.
Ignore the power!
(available here)Labels: films
Back: George, John and Fraser.
Front: Steve, Scottish Dave and Fionnuala.
(today)Labels: diary
One of my favourite Doctor Who stories for so many reasons.
1. It's a great story.
Although repeatedly referred to as "aliens", the Silurians are anything but, having evolved on Earth millions of years before humans. Though that doesn't give them the moral high ground to exterminate mankind, it sure does give them the right to live on our planet. The story's message of treat others as you would like them to treat you comes through loud and clear, without anyone having to ever say it. (thankfully)
2. It's got a fantastic castlist.
Jon Pertwee (the Doctor), Caroline John (Liz Shaw) and Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) are joined by Paul Darrow (Captain Hawkins), Peter Miles (Dr. Lawrence) and Fulton Mackay (Dr. Quinn)!
As that last fellow potters around his house alone, I really got the impression that he was being followed about at his heels by his faithful dog Sprocket from Fraggle Rock.
Then, as if all that wasn't enough, in episode four Geoffrey Palmer suddenly walks in as Permanent Under-Secretary Masters, and with typical candour exclaims "Any chance of some coffee?"
3. It's a long one. (seven episodes)
With so many formidable characters being portrayed by such a strong cast, the ensuing dialogue-based drama has real space in which to unfold and breathe. Everyone has their own agenda to campaign for, except for Liz and Hawkins, who are just extensions of the Doctor and the Brigadier respectively. On the whole though, this enables a real attitude of "What do we do now" to emerge. Even the Doctor concedes that he needs to get Whitehall on his side for there to be a chance of peace.
Doctor: "Look, Mr. Under-Secretary, surely this is a government matter - it cannot be decided at this level!"
At the fantastic end of the story, the Doctor actually gets his chance for peace, only for his friend - the Brigadier - to betray him. Now there's characterisation for you.
The penultimate episode is devoted almost entirely to the outbreak of the Silurian plague, as the dying Masters' dizzy location work around London gives the threat a real relevance that no amount of paid extras in Cardiff can.
Unfortunately this sequence also demonstrates one of the serial's weaknesses, on my copy at least. Some of the picture quality on this VHS release is pretty ropey.
Masters' final journey was shot on film (twice due to damage), then transferred to videotape, then transferred via a TV to a black and white film recording, recoloured from an NTSC copy, then remastered for distribution and finally copied onto the VHS tape that I bought.
One consequence of all this generation-loss is that many scenes probably work far better on this release than on the more recent digital cleaning-up for DVD, simply because, when seen clearly, those monsters look awful.
Why sure, of course there's no reason why a reptilian biped from millions of years ago shouldn't look just like a guy wearing a costume with a big headpiece, but when coupled with such human gestures, we may actually be better off with fuzz-o-vision. Basically, these villains look at their most threatening in their opening episodes, in which they don't appear.
Even the incidental music does the Silurians few favours, the composer apparently deciding to emphasise their menace with a kazoo.
Otherwise the music is good, trumped however by the sound effects, which are AWESOME! The squeaky cue for the villains' telekinetic powers is terrifying.
As I said at the start, I think Doctor Who And The Silurians must rate as one of the series' best outings of all time. One of my other favourites stories is Mawdryn Undead which I used to think contradicted this one by retconning it all into having taken place in a different year.
Not so now that I've just watched it again. Masters' cab driver can clearly be heard to charge him in shillings, so I'm saying this one's contemporary.
Mind you, I think I'll just ignore the Doctor's claim to have lived for thousands of years…
There's also another retconny continuity-ish moment when James Stevens - co-author of the 1996 book Who Killed Kennedy - rings up the Brigadier. I gather he's in The Mind Of Evil somewhere too!
Finally, even this story's title is a mine of trivia.
It's the only TV story to date to feature the prefix "Doctor Who And…". This is a shame considering how so many story-titles actually had those words added to them for their book versions, so this really should have become the first novelisation to bear the correct name. Alas no. Presumably because of the scientific inaccuracy of the word 'Silurian', the author carefully avoided using that word in his text, and re-entitled the story Doctor Who And The Cave-Monsters. D'oh!
Later Doctor Who episodes further retconned the 'Silurians' into 'Eocenes', which is apparently also the wrong term. When borrowing elements from another canon, I do think it's important to be consistent with it, but hey, they did try.
Therefore my closing words on this have to come from Justin Richards and Andrew Martin's publication Doctor Who - The Book Of Lists, which contains the following profound observation on that title Doctor Who And The Silurians:
"He isn't called Doctor Who, and they aren't actually Silurians."
Which means things aren’t looking too great for that conjunction in the middle either…
:)Labels: doctor-who, tv
Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don't forget anything of what you've seen.
- Deuteronomy 4:9a (Message)Labels: bible, tv
All of you young people should obey your elders.
- 1 Peter 5:5a (CEV)
Labels: bible, tv
These days, for a retro TV series, there are two common types of film adaptation - a reimagining, or a reunion movie.
Lost In Space wants to have it both ways.
In the reimagination corner, there is a huge amount packed in from the three years of the original's run. This film doesn't just cover the events of the pilot (the first four episodes), but also takes in the characters' getting stranded on a planet for years in seasons one and two, and even fits in the odd individual episode's plot too. (Will's plan to travel back in time and avert their departure from Earth)
Many reimaginings acknowledge their roots by featuring a cameo appearance from one of the original castmembers in a tiny role. Lost In Space squeezes in four, two of which are fairly prominent parts.
Jonathan Harris - the original Dr. Smith - turned down the opportunity to brief his own replacement Gary Oldman, reportedly protesting "I play Smith, or I don't play." Oldman must have breathed a sigh of relief. Had he said yes, then Harris would have completely upstaged his successor right from the film's off, making all of Oldman's scenes look mediocre by comparison.
Now don't get me wrong, Oldman perfectly reproduces Dr. Smith's descent from cold-blooded terrorist to pantomime buffoon (which took about 12 weeks in the TV show), but why have such a great impersonation of Jonathan Harris, when you could so easily have had Jonathan Harris?
Bearing these near-misses in mind, by the time that Oldman is hollering his character's well-worn catchphrases "Never fear - Smith is here!" and "The pain! THE PAIN!", we're onto the scenes featuring an aged Will Robinson, a role that was initially offered to the original child actor Bill Mumy, but who apparently couldn't make the filming dates.
Throw in the retaining of Dick Tufield as the voice of the famous robot, which by this point in the story has been rebuilt to look almost identical to its classic TV counterpart, and there is the sense that we very nearly had a big reunion going on here too.
For all those missed opportunities, the new cast are excellent, particularly Matt LeBlanc as Don West, whose performance is a joy throughout, whether or not it's intentional. Like in his Charlie's Angels movies, he Joeys the whole film, making it hard to shake the impression that this actually is Joey blagging his way through yet another disastrous acting gig. I kept looking to see if he was doing long multiplication in his head.
I could criticise the plot - especially that terrible moment at the end, when John finds a time machine that can take him to any time or place so he chooses a really stupid one - but you know what? That's okay. The characters in the original were always making infuriatingly bone-headed decisions too, so this film is just consistent with that. It may even be deliberate.
Despite all the hype at the time of the film's release, as expected, 1998's Lost In Space movie is now just a footnote in the original's history, waiting to be itself overwritten whenever the series next gets remade.
In fact, four years after this film had bombed, there was an actual reunion movie planned which no doubt would indeed have completely ignored this one. Sadly, then Jonathan Harris passed away, and that was that.
For a TV series that never reached a conclusion, what a shame that the Robinson family and friends all came so close to finally making it home again.
Available here.Labels: films, tv
Let's get one thing straight - the test card is cool.
If it weren't so, then we wouldn't have test card-related web sites, fan clubs, YouTube channels and about a dozen CDs of its music commercially available.
Because you know what? Back in the day, test card music actually was amazing. Sure it gets dismissed out of hand a lot now, but if we're honest, not by anyone who actually hung around long enough to listen to it.
I mean just because the image that it accompanied was repetitive and unchanging, hardly means that the music was too.
In fact, the BBC used to go to a lot of trouble over producing this stuff. They didn't just stick any old record on to play with it, apart from anything else because they weren't allowed to.
A combination of restrictions imposed by the Musicians' Union and copyright people, no doubt agitated by the Beeb's reluctance to be seen to advertise, meant that they had to create most of it from scratch, outside the UK. Flights to Germany for musicians and producers to attend recording sessions can't have been cheap, so test card music must have represented quite an investment.
Like everything else forty years ago, test card music attracted a cult following. Though tracks were not billed in Radio Times, many fans simply became familiar which tracks were on which of the BBC's ¼" compilation spools, and in what order. I gather it was a bit of a shock when, one day, the Beeb changed all their tapes without telling anyone…
The Girl, The Doll, The Music is a cracking collection of colour-check compositions transmitted between 1966 and 1984. There are 22 tracks, all of them awesome. They come packaged with a spoken introduction ("Now we return you to the test card, and some music"), the iconic BBC jingle (literally the three notes B, B and C), and even a 440hz tone to jokingly round the whole thing off.
One potential parlour game for this disc would be to randomise your CD player and then challenge whoever else is present to identify each track's title. Many - such as Greenland Sleigh Dogs (aka Alaska) are instantly identifiable, but then my favourite piece Angry sounds anything but.
All in all, this is an astoundingly good lounge compilation, and I'm thrilled to have discovered while writing this that there is now also a second volume out. (other test card compilation series are available)
Next time BBC-2 suddenly postpones Dad's Army because of a football match, or a general election, or something else that they didn't see coming, I might just load this into the DVD player and stare distantly at its cover…
Track listing:
1. Introduction*
2. Royal Daffodil (Gordon Langford) - Stuttgart Studio Orchestra
3. Riga Road (Reinhard Egin / Mike Run) - The Westway Novelty Ensemble
4. Angry (Dudley Mecum / Joles Cassard / Henry Brunies) - The Oscar Brandenburg Orchestra
5. Capability Brown (Ernest Tomlinson) - Stuttgart Studio Orchestra
6. Waltz in Jazztime (Syd Dale) - The Cavendish Ten
7. Bella Samba (John Finten) - The Benito Gonzales Latin Sound
8. Holiday Highway (Brian Couzens) - Stuttgart Studio Orchestra
9. Cordorba* (Werner Tautz) - Orchestra Heinz Kiessling
10. My Guy`s Come Back (Mel Powell / Ray McKinley / Benny Goodman) - The Oscar Brandenburg Orchestra
11. The Lark in the Clear Air (Traditional arr. Gordon Langford) - The Langford Orchestra
12. Pandora* (Ray Davies) - New Dance Orchestra
13. Firecracker (Frank Chacksfield) - Fernand Terby Orchestra
14. Hebridean Hoedown (Gordon Langford) - Stuttgart Studio Orchestra
15. High Life (Otto Sieben) - The Gerhard Narholz Orchestra
16. Samba Fiesta* (Heinz Kiessling) - Orchestra Heinz Kiessling
17. Stately Occasion (Ernest Tomlinson) - Stuttgart Studio Orchestra
18. Chelsea Chick (Johnny Scott) - Mr. Popcorn's Band
19. Greenland Sleigh Dogs (aka Alaska)* - Roger Roger and his Orchestra
20. These Foolish Things (Jack Strachey) - The Cavendish Ten
21. March from 'The Colour Suite' (Gordon Langford) - Stuttgard Studio Orchestra
22. Long Hot Summer (Roger Roger) - Ensemble Roger Roger
23. Going Places (David Gold / Ernest Ponticelli / Gordon Rees) - The Oscar Brandenburg Orchestra
24. 440Hz Tone*
* mono recordings
Available here.Labels: music, tv
14:30: Trailers and adverts start.
14:37: While Herschel and I are buying our tickets, I ask the person on the ticket desk at what time the actual film will be starting.
"What time does the actual film start? I mean I know it's meant to be two-thirty, but what time do the trailers and adverts finish?"
They explain that there will be about 25 minutes of trailers and adverts, so the actual film's actual start time will be about 15:00. And you know what? They're right. Even the cinema's website says so.
"Normally the advertisements and trailers last for approximately 25 minutes which should be added on to the total running time of the film."
(http://www.odeon.co.uk/fanatic/faq/?category=1#faq28)
14:41: We're stocking up on snacks for the upcoming 148-minute Chris Nolan marathon.
14:46 (roughly): With quarter of an hour to go, we're entering Odeon 3!
Inside, it's dark. There's a trailer in progress featuring Leonardo DiCaprio with some exploding cars. It goes on for a bit, so rather than blindly flounder about in search of row D, we settle into some chairs at the back and squint at the faraway screen.
The trailer is an epic, cutting around from location to location in that disjointed way made famous by 1970s cutdowns on Super 8. Sheesh, it's almost as long as the one for X-Men 3. People are getting blown-up, attacked, and drowned, but then it all turns out to be a dream. Then that turns out to be a dream. Or does it? Whooah. We gotta go see this film!
15:00: Still no sign of this trailer ending. As two trains pass each other, somewhere in front of us and over to the left somebody's watch double-beeps three o'clock. (it's okay to leave them switched on, apparently)
Right then - Time for that retro Odeon music to start! Time for the ad for the online booking system! Time for some famous film-maker to pitch a movie idea and get Orange mobile phones sprinkled liberally throughout it!
If only this very, very long trailer would finish…
Do y'see what happened there? We - the ticket-seller included - had had the seed of an idea introduced into our heads that the feature presentation would not begin until 25-30 minutes after the trailers and adverts had begun.
That seed had then grown, specifically, into a chocolate bar, a bottle of water, a strawberry-flavoured Frijj drink, and the wrong seats, Gromit.
Oh, and at least one very confused film-goer sitting at the back.
Yep, we had actually missed the inception of Inception.
Well, being a Chris Nolan film, we might actually have missed the end...
Inception is a film about this process of planting an idea. Well, most of it is anyway. I really can't speak for that opening. I assume some characters were introduced, along with the story's subject matter. Sorry, but missing that really damaged the film for me.
Presently, I did get into the main story, and was pleased to find myself watching something reminiscent of one of my favourite TV series - VR.5 - specifically the idea of stealing information from, and/or implanting an idea into, a subject's subconscious mind, by interacting with their dreams.
I mean sure, everyone knows that most dreams don't make much sense or maintain an intact location for very long, hence this film narrows its scope to lucid dreams, and hopes that the targets actually do dismiss such vivid experiences as meaningless upon awakening. (maybe they dealt with this at the start)
What this outing did do was engage my own brain for the entire remaining duration. I think maybe 30% of the plot passed me by, but that remaining 70% had my attention locked-in like gravity.
I've watched several of writer/director Christopher Nolan's films over the years - Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight - and found that last one to be the only dud. This makes him one of my favourite directors. Here he explores his own ideas in such meticulous depth that whenever I didn't understand something, I was confident that it still worked anyway.
Some of the imagery too was quite stark, reminding me of some of my own vivid dreams. In the current era of 3-D movies, I'm surprised that this one hadn't hopped on the bandwagon too, as this could have really given it that heightened feeling of reality.
Afterwards, a friendly usher asked us both what we had thought of the film, and I really wanted to ask him if, bearing in mind the inaccurate information we'd been given and acted upon earlier, we could stay and watch the start of the next screening, like I'd done so many times at this cinema as a child. (things were different back then, admittedly)
Of course, I never plucked up the courage for such impertinence, even this late in the film's run. I had the deep-rooted idea in my noggin that he would just fall back on his rules and say no, even if he paradoxically agreed with me.
But, y'know, maybe if I had just suggested it to him and planted the idea in his mind…
(instead I guess I may have just have to pay for it again here...)Labels: films
Comicbook adaptation that starts off with someone drowning.
The lead character is one of those awkward shy types with a lot of creativity pent up inside of them, despite their outward passivity. This is contrasted by their extrovert colleague / best friend, who is constantly throwing themselves at the opposite sex.
This set-up changes however when the lone protagonist stumbles upon a set of super-powers from an ancient god, which bestows upon them a full-body CGI transplant and releases their inner potential.
The character's initial problem of not being able to remember their actions while in this nighttime alter ego is quickly overtaken by a whole heap of other hassles. A flash of frank impertinence at their boss, giving in to using their new powers to steal, an unscheduled appearance on stage at a public dance performance, and a big crime going down.
Not to mention the cop who figures out their secret identity, and has them arrested.
Sitting despondent in a prison cell, they are visited through the bars by their pet, and upon escaping bring the real villain to justice, while handily getting off scott-free for their own earlier theft.
What's that? Catwoman? No no no, I'm still reviewing that Jim Carrey film I watched a fortnight back - The Mask.
(Catwoman is available here.)Labels: comics, films
I hate to admit it, but the title of this film really put me off.
Well I mean, it sounds a bit smug.
Indeed, the opening scenes don't do much to win over the "sci-fi" viewer. The credits confuse time travel with space, the otherwise excellent cast display little rapport with each other and, it has to be said, even the picture quality is quite lousy.
But you know what? The film overcame all of that.
When done properly, a good time travel caper is usually quite complex, and as such this one, for the most part, is pretty well worked out.
At the pub, Ray (Chris O'Dowd), Pete (Dean Lennox Kelly) and Toby (Marc Wootton) discover a time portal in the gents, which keeps depositing them at various different points in the bar's history. (no-one else uses the toilet in maybe 80 years - whew!)
As the title promises, the situations that they find themselves in are fairly standard, but that's not really a bad thing. I like seeing stories in which characters avoid their younger selves, see their older selves die, and pit their own free will against their own free will. If it's funny, so much the better.
Fortunately then, this script is both clever and snappy, making the whole thing feel a lot like Red Dwarf in both substance and tone.
A little bleakly however, the low budget and vague picture make it feel most like Red Dwarf: Back To Earth, which is perhaps not the best era to pitch-in with.
Most time travel movies are, as I think the characters point out, usually very poorly plotted, so I tend to go quite easy on reviewing them. Here however Jamie Mathieson's script plainly invites you to analyse it in-depth, which is ironic as this time I can't really be bothered.
I mean sure, Cassie (Anna Faris) never explains quite why she returns to the bar the first time, Pete never realises that he can save his life by just avoiding this pub forever (or at the very least shaving regularly), and they all hide from their previous selves in a cupboard rather than, um, anywhere else on the planet, but on the whole I enjoyed this too much to complain.
Oh all right then - evil Millie (Meredith MacNeill) is supposed to have come back in time to kill our heroes and change history, yet she first meets them next to their memorial. She has not changed history yet, so that memorial cannot be a part of history yet.
The only way I can reconcile this is to suppose that as soon as Millie enters history to change it, she immediately becomes subject to the sum of all her other interference too.
Bearing this in mind, it would also make more sense if she met our heroes in reverse order, killing them first, before nipping forward in time - into the lads' past - to set the event up in what would now be her own unchangeable history afterwards. This would explain why she doesn't simply accompany them back to the present and then just kill them straight away.
This would also be consistent with Ray, Pete and Toby being unable to alter any events themselves, either because they take place within their own personal history, or because they are simply not trying hard enough.
If this is the intended sequence of events however, it doesn't seem to be signposted anywhere, unless I missed something? (common with time travel flicks, and part of the reason why they are so much fun to think about!)
Speaking of earlier versions of history, I don't know the movie's origins, but the whole story has the feel of a filmed stage-play, specifically pub theatre, featuring as it does such a tiny laddish cast, centred almost entirely in the same place. Their hiding in the cupboard would make more sense on a stage too, as would their near misses with themselves. But hey - that's writing for a low budget for you.
Despite literally making a song and dance about it, Pete never washes his hands after going to the toilet. Either time.
Aside from all the pointless swearing (which sadly reduces this film's potential audience quite significantly - sorry kids) the only real disaster here is the final ten minutes, which surely cannot have come from the same mind as the meticulously worked out preceding 70.
After Toby's earlier dig at Hollywood "Story is king!", the convenient rewinding of time, together with our heroes' impossible memories of events that have no longer happened to them, seems either hypocritical or parodic.
How can the piece of paper remain drenched if Toby's pint was never tipped over it?
This is quickly made worse by Ray's sudden two year relationship with Cassie, without any clear explanation of how. Are those years in Ray's future? Are they in a new past, in which case why can he not remember them, and why is his present still the same? Did they somehow happen with the dead Ray in the parallel universe, which seems to be the source of several other unexplained punchlines?
We've just spent 80 minutes watching unexplained things happen and then get resolved, so how is having a few more unexplained things happen - which never get resolved - supposed to cap it all? Not so much complicated, more incomplete.
Most disappointingly of all, the story proper concludes with our heroes spending the rest of their lives in enforced mediocrity. Though they don't die, they do still lose.
Despite all this, the cast continue to play the whole thing with tremendous conviction. The whole story is quite ridiculous, but each of the main players conveys their journey from disbelief of events through acceptance and beyond with 100% believability, empowered to do so by such finely-honed dialogue.
This film's greatest accomplishment though must lie in the attitude of the evil editors from the future. They routinely nip back in time to erase history for aesthetic reasons, something which I'm a bit adept at meself. You see, I'm always watching movies off of tape, and then going over them with other stuff.
But you know what? I'm actually going to keep this one, which proves that our four heroes succeeded.
In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I even watched it again a week later, and then re-edited this review!
Now who sounds a bit smug?
;)
Available here.
This is a compilation of floppy discs.
No, not those rigid square things that used to slide comfortably into personal computers in the 1990s, I mean actual floppy floppy circular discs.
Floppy discs.
Oh all right then, they were alternatively known as flexi discs. Do you see what they did there? They took the word "flexi" from "flexible", and "disc" from "disc" and they created the term "flexi disc". They also called them "sound foils", because they had sound recorded on them, and were made of… um, vinyl, generally.
Well actually, for a while the underground flexi disc industry in Russia used to make them out of discarded medical x-rays, but let's not get side-tracked, we're here to talk about Germany.
Flexi discs were very thin 7" singles that usually only had a groove on one side, played at 45rpm, and advised the user to place a coin somewhere near the centre, just in case the lightweight thing became too attached to the stylus and ceased revolving.
Mind you, these flexi disc things weren't cheap. In fact, to buy one could literally cost you a pretty packet. Yes Missus, flexi discs were FREE!
Back in "der Tag" (those crazy 1960s), it must have seemed like you couldn't buy anything in Germany without discovering one of these magical Schallfolien hiding somewhere about it like some kind of pre-Playstation easter egg.
Though the singles were often sellotaped nicely to the front of a magazine cover, flexi discs could theoretically be any size, and so were given away with anything from mens' shirts to bottles of fabric softener. Even candy box lids were sometimes known to disguise a spiral groove containing music.
Said scores were typically specially composed advertising music for the product you had just bought, and as such were as funky and exciting as 1960s Europop got.
The enthusiastic sleeve-notes on this sometimes staticy compilation CD sum it up:
"Wie da Vibraphone und Flöten unisono zu dezenter Elektrogitarrenrhythmik und Cool Jazz entlehnte Melodiefloskeln in duften Beat umdeuteten, wie Tijuana-Trompeten wieselflinken Violinen den Marsch bliesen, wie sich der sirrende Sound der Hammondorgeln mit einem Mӓdchenchor gerade so funky mischte, dass junge Leute aufmerkten und auch die Teenager-Spӓtlese gönnerhaft sagen konnte: "Dolle Sache!" … das mußte Bruhn, Wilden, Doldinger, Wüsthoff et al, erstmal einer nachmachen."
I find something quite wacky about any foreign language, especially when spoken or sung with utter conviction, so it's wundervoll that this collection has been filled out with some actual commercials and trade show accompaniment.
Track 5 really says it all, so I'd like to now present you with its full 2:39 of female-sung choral lyrics:
(INTRO WITH DRUMS, ORGAN AND ELECTRIC GUITAR)
Moulimoulinex,
Moulimoulinex,
Moulimoulinex,
Moulimoulinex,
(CUE VIOLINS)
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Laa la-laa la-laa la!
Laa la-laa la-laa la!
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Laa la-laa la-laa la!
Laa la-laa la-laa la!
(CUE TIJUANA-TRUMPET SOLO)
Moulinex.
Moulinex.
Moulinex!
Moulinex-Moulinex-Moulineeeeex!
Moulinex.
Moulinex.
Moulinex!
Moulineeeeex!-Moulineeeeex!-Moulineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeex!!!
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Laa la-laa la-laa la!
Laa la-laa la-laa la!
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Laa la-laa la-laa la!
Laa la-laa la-laa la!
(CUE FLUTE SOLO)
(Moulinex.)
(Moulinex.)
(Moulinex!)
Moulinex-Moulinex-Moulineeeeex!
(CUE TIJUANA REPRISE)
(Moulinex.)
(Moulinex.)
(Moulinex!)
Moulineeeeex!-Moulineeeeex!-Moulineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeex!
(CUE BIG FINALE!)
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Mouuuuuliiiiinex.
Mouuuuuliiiiinex. (fade out)
Catchy little number. It's called Moulinex.
Years later, this dancey singalong really should have been covered by 2 Unlimited.
Leaving no time for recovery, the next jazzy piece is Variationen K'71, written to advertise BASF, and as such was incredibly composed around the four notes B, A, Es and F. Today it sounds like a cross between The Prisoner and The Cosby Show.
Track 8 Open Commodore ends like an episode of Star Trek (you can just picture that green woman with her raised arms), track 14 Tobler Twist sounds like the Benny Hill music (you can just picture those tall women with Benny's terrified face), and track 18 appears to feature guest chuckles from Krusty The Klown.
However the compositions that made my head spin as fast as the original record would have to be the two pieces entitled Minikillers.
As you know, Mini-Killers was a 4-part movie series starring Diana Rigg of The Avengers fame, that was released exclusively on Super 8, sometimes mute. It's reasonable to suppose that these compositions may have originally been intended to be played together with the film's pictures, but whatever the case, in isolation from it they sound quite disturbing. The second one particularly features a woman moaning and screaming "No!" in terror, until some brutal fiend exclaims "I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you NOW!" before guffawing at length and ecstatically declaring "Mini-Killers!"
As I possess a reel of this somewhere, I really should try syncing it up some time.
And then, just as you thought it was safe to go back into the kitchen, along comes track 26, enchantingly entitled Moulinex TV Version…
If you didn't grow up in Germany, well, now's your chance.
Track listing:
1. Mal weghören, jetzt kommt Werbung (Intro)
2. Ford Capri II (Christian Bruhn, 1973) - Ford
3. Wild Freshness (Klaus Doldinger, 1970) - Fa
4. Swinging Nordwest (Max Meier-Maletz, 1965) - Interpret: Orchester Wolf Gabbe - Nordwest Schuhe
5. Moulinex (Gert Wilden, 1972) - Kenco. No, wait, it's Moulinex.
6. Variationen K'71 (Luigi Pelliccioni, 1970) - BASF
7. Minikillers I (Johnny Teupen, 1968) - Mini-Killers
8. Opel Commodore (Klaus Wüsthoff, 1974) - Opel
9. Frei mit Boots (Klaus Doldinger, 1973) - Salamander
10. Arbeit '70 (unknown/HVBG, 1970) - Hauptverbannd der Berufsgenossenschaften
11. Polycolor (Klaus Wüsthoff, 1970) - Polycolor
12. Mon Chéri (Klaus Wüsthoff, 1965) - Mon Chéri
13. Swing a little, Kim a little (unknown, ca. 1967) - Kim
14. Tobler Twist (Conzelmann, Haensch, 1963) - Tobler
15. Sein großer Traum (Erik Sylvester/M Joyct, 1972) - Nürburgring
16. Roth-Hӓndle (Peter Schirmann, 1966) - Roth-Hӓndle
17. Nescafe Calypso (Max Woiski sr., 1959) - Nescafé
18. Peach Girl (baden, Brenk, petri, 1968) - Ellen Betrix
19. Komm' in Fahrt - Der Hansa-Pils-Hit (Christian Bruhn, 1973) - Hansa Pils
20. Minikillers II (Johnny Teupen, 1968) - Mini-Killers
21. Ford Taunus (Christian Bruhn, 1974) - Ford
22. Space-Freizeit '69 (W Breinig, 1969) - Ford
23. Swinging Nordwest (Playback) (Max Meier-Maletz, 1965) - Orchester Wolf Gabbe - Swinging Nordwest
24. Strahler 70 (Christian Bruhn, 1970) - Strahler 70
25. Opel Rekord (Klaus Wüsthoff, 1975) - Opel
26. Moulinex TV-Version (Gert Wilden, 1972) - Moulinex
27. Sweet & Sexy (Baden, Brenk, Petri, 1968) - Ellen Betrix
28. Aus dem Titel "Memories" (C J Schӓuble/H Jankowski, 1967) - Kodak
Available to sample here (requires RealPlayer) and buy here.
Review of volume TWO here!Labels: music
Genius marketing strategy in which Zondervan take sample chapters from ten completed books and stick them all together to make a new one.
And then charge for it.
Well all right, 99c is a pretty good deal for 213 pages of popular Christian teaching, especially if you use one of the money-off coupons at the back to actually purchase one of the books they're sourced from.
Me - I got a really good deal. I was given the thing as a gift so that I would have something to read on my very first flight to New Zealand back in Feb '04.
Though I did indeed peruse bits of it on that odyssey, it's taken me six years to get onto reading it all through properly, cover to cover, and out loud.
The excerpts are:
Chapter 1 of Rumours Of Another World by Philip Yancy
Chapter 1 of The God I Love by Joni Eareckson Tada
The introduction to The Case For A Creator by Lee Strobel
Chapter 1 of Breakthrough Prayer by Jim Cymbala
The introduction and chapter 1 of Focus On The Family: Going Public With Your Faith - Becoming A Spiritual Influence At Work by William Carr Peel, Th M and Walt Larimore, MD
Chapter 12 of Every Child Needs A Praying Mom by Fern Nichols with Janet Kobobel Grant
Chapter 4 of When God Doesn't Answer Your Prayer by Jerry Sittser
Chapter 17 of Boundaries Face To Face - How To Have That Difficult Conversation You've Been Avoiding by Dr Henry Cloud and Dr John Townsend
Chapters 1 to 18½ of the Student Bible (NIV) edited by Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford
Chapters 1 to 3 of The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
Though I think I've found each chapter absorbing at the time, perhaps the real test here has been which bits have remained with me until the end.
From The God I Love, Joni Eareckson's picture of her family life when young is still quite strong.
From Going Public With Your Faith (I don't know why they italicised that word in the bookblock's headers but not on the cover) I found the "Microdirections Of Faith" chart on page 92 useful, which displays the different stages on a person's journey to faith.
The Boundaries one was quite interesting too.
The chapter that I found the most intensive though would have to be the Student Bible's take on the first third of Genesis. The accompanying notes really did offer fresh perspectives on a familiar text, and afterwards I made a point of completing it in my regular NIV Bible.
However I guess the final winner has got to be the only one of these books that I actually went out and bought, which ironically happened:
1. Shortly after I first landed in New Zealand,
2. Without having read the sample chapters, and
3. Completely failing to take advantage of the $3.00 off voucher.
It was The Purpose Driven Life which, as I've just re-read the first three chapters, I seem to be continuing through with again.
Though the title Fresh Voices is still pretty accurate six½ years on, those last few chapters now sound like old ones.
Available here.Labels: books
Although it's packaged and priced as a compilation of the previous year's greatest gospel music, there can be little doubt from the sleeve notes that this double-CD is also a sales catalogue for 30 other albums.
And what albums they must be. There's scarcely a dud track anywhere on here, for as everyone knows, you can tell a good gospel number by three things:
1. A lively tempo.
2. A joy-filled chorus of singers.
3. A man shouting until his vocal chords bleed.
It doesn't really matter what he shouts, he can even just repeat whatever the singers are crooning, so long as they're not also repeating him, because then they might all be going around in circles for ages. Opening protagonist Hezekiah Walker sounds like he has been there.
Chorus: I am souled out.
Walker: C'mon - I'm souled out.
Chorus: I am souled out.
Walker: C'mon - clap your hand and say it!
Chorus: I am souled out.
Walker: Oh! I'm souled out!
Chorus: I am souled out.
Walker: Oh! I'm souled out!
Chorus: I am souled out.
Walker: I'm souled out!
Chorus: I am souled out.
Walker: C'mon - up it a knock and y'say I'm souled out!
[tempo increases]
Chorus: I am souled out!
Walker: C'mon! Y'all say it! C'mon! I'm souled out!
Chorus: I am souled out!
Walker: C'mon! All new your groooove, c'mon!
Chorus: I am souled out!
Walker: Aye! Souled out!
Chorus: I am souled out!
Walker: C'mon! Oh love fellowship groooove!
Chorus: I am souled out!
Walker: C'mon! Aye! I'm souled out!
Chorus: I am souled out!
Walker: Aye! C'mon! I'm souled out!
Wow - just how packed was that theatre?
Though I jest, this is a terrific number to open the collection on, expertly followed by Donald Lawrence & Co.'s slightly mellower Back II Eden. That's right - instead of putting the word "to" in there, or even the funky digit "2", they actually went a stage further and used Roman numerals. This time next year everyone will be doing that. Then when they get tired of it, the BBC will start.
Oh but who cares. Gospel music is always so happy that it can get away with anything, and that positive-mindedness just never lets up here. In fact, this collection contains a definite theme throughout of maintaining trust in God no matter what.
Kirk Franklin's bittersweet Help Me Believe is sincerely touching.
Wish I could see,
That this mess I'm in will really work out for my good,
You said it would,
So if you can hear me, can you give me a sign,
Cause I don't feel you like I should,
Please if you could?
My faith is almost gone,
I can't hold on much longer,
Take this cup from me,
But if you choose not to,
Please,
Help me believe…
Conversely, there was the odd song on disc one that I found yick, woozy, or a bit too funky, but then Jonathan Nelson showed up and contentedly Shatnered his way through most of Bettah. I mean he even overcomes the song's title, which rather than being an obscure Biblical name, is actually a corruption of the word 'better'.
My praise causes things to look bettah,
It loosens and breaks ev'ry fetter, (fella?)
My faith is increased,
New blessings released,
My praise causes things to look bettah,
My praise causes things to look bettah.
It is another world in there…
Old hands The Mighty Clouds Of Joy provide the final and only track on this first disc that I actually sang along to, although they too shamelessly exploited the technique of extreme repetition to make me do so.
Disc 2 opens with Fred Hammond, who's always good value, especially if you close your eyes and imagine that his fierce, funky growling is actually being postured by Mr T. At an organ. Fool.
Israel Houghton's Saved By Grace had me bobbing my head like a muppet, while in just a few minutes James Fortune seems to go all the way from level-headed to screaming in agony. I mean you know that disturbing line in Copacabana "She... drinks herself half blind"? Well, this guy screeches himself into a nervous breakdown.
Oh God ah just lost mah job, and,
Ah got more bills than money, but,
Oh God ah will!
The doctors - there's nothin' else he can do, but,
Oh God mah back's up against the wall!
Oh that's right!
I TRUST you!
Oh God I WILL!
Yes that's right!
GOD!
WILL!
MAKE!
A WAY!
OUTTA NO WAY!
Ah KNOW he will!
GOD WILL!
Crikey I sure hope so.
For me however, the winning track on here just has to be Sheri Jones-Moffett's Renewed. Is it gospel, is it Mo-Town, or… is it gostown?
(Ah been renewed)
Just enough is not enough for me,
(Ah been renewed)
Life is meant to live abundantly,
(Ah been reneeewed)
And I'm walking in my authority,
(Ah been renewed)
Rearranged my priority,
(Ah been renewed)
Passing on to my destiny,
(Ah been renewed)
Won't let nothing get the best of me,
(Ah been reneeewed)
OOh thank God I been renewed,
(Ah been renewed)
Ooohaayyyyheyyyayy ah been renewed,
(Ah been renewed)
Aaaaarrrggggghhhhhhheahhhhhhh!
(Ah been renewed)
Ayyy, ah wanna shout about it!
(Ah been reneeewed)
Arrrrggghhhhhyyyyayyyyy…
(Ah been renewed)
Around about this point she alarmingly stops singing, and the music has to quickly finish up without her.
They’re a fearless crowd, these gospel singers. No wonder they're always showing up to healing services.
Track Listing:
CD1
1. Souled Out - Hezekiah Walker & LFC
2. Back II Eden - Donald Lawrence & Co.
3. Praise Him In Advance - Marvin Sapp
4. Help Me Believe - Kirk Franklin
5. Wait On The Lord - Donnie McClurkin featuring Karen Clark Sheard
6. Good News - Vanessa Bell Armstrong
7. Faithful To Believe - Byron Cage
8. It Ain't Over - Maurette Brown Clark
9. God Is A Healer - Kurt Carr & The Kurt Carr Singers featuring Faith Howard
10. Justified - Smokie Norful
11. Waging War - Cece Winans
12. Cry Your Last Tear - Bishop Paul Morton & The FGBCF Mass Choir
13. Bettah - Jonathan Nelson featuring Purpose
14. At The Revival - The Mighty Clouds Of Joy
CD2
15. They That Wait - Fred Hammond featuring John P Kee
16. Saved By Grace - Israel Houghton
17. Here I Am To Worship - Heather Headley
18. I Worship You - Mary Mary
19. Chasing After You (The Morning Song) - Tye Tribbett & G A
20. I Look To You - Whitney Houston
21. I Pour My Love On You - Juanita Bynum
22. I Trust You - James Fortune & Fiya
23. Free - Darwin Hobbs
24. Restored - J Moss
25. Ungrateful - Deitrick Haddon
26. Renewed - Sheri Jones-Moffett
27. Revealed - Myron Butler & Levi
28. One - Kierra Sheard
29. He'll Make A Way - RiZen
30. Enter His Gates - Reverend Timothy Wright and the New York Fellowship Mass Choir
Available to sample and buy here.Labels: music
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