Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Flaming Dune

Great misguided tie-in movie products of our times

Go see "Watchmen," everybody

Alan tells me that the general consensus re "Watchmen" is that bloggers love it, and professional reviewers hate it. Well, put me in the blogger camp then.

I wasn't prepared to like it either, as the last couple of Alan Moore film adaptions made me convinced his material is unfilmable. But no-- about one-third of the way into the really clever title sequence (who knew it was possible to insert all the backstory that Moore provided in the text sections of the comic, into the movie?) I turned to Alan and whispered "I think I'm in love with this movie." The rest of it didn't disappoint, and although there was a significant change to the ending of the story, it's a change that I think worked and if anything strengthened the message of the comic. They also managed the trick which I felt "V" failed to do, which is to adapt a story written in the 1980s, keeping all the 1980s issues intact, but still keeping it relevant to today.

Sign me up for the four-hour directors' cut!

As for the reviewers, well, the comments for the Daily Mail's predictably negative review are pretty hilarious.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Natasha Richardson RIP

Another thing to bolster my dislike of downhill skiing (I'm fine with the cross-country kind, but downhill skiing has never had much appeal; the scenery goes by too fast). I suspect I might even have skied at that resort myself, at the age of 13, which is just too weird.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Headline of the Week

TARRANT ARRESTED IN ASSAULT CLAIM

...Several Federation officers to press charges. Vila reported to have turned State's Evidence.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Unexpected Reassessment Corner: *The Green Slime* (1968)

Alan and I finally, courtesy of Ebay, got our hands on a copy of The Green Slime, a film we'd been wanting to watch for ages, anticipating a 90-minute-long festival of Sixties horror kitsch. Well, although the kitsch was there to some extent (the general look of the film can be summed up by imagining what Gerry Anderson would have done if he had been working on a BBC rather than an ITC budget), we actually found instead that, if you peel away the hilarious-looking monster, the detergent-bottle spaceship, the banal dialogue and the inexplicable decision to have everyone speak in a 50s-newsreader monotone, there's actually a really good film in there (incidentally, if you're not familiar with it, there's a really funny review here and the trailer here).

It's always been a firm belief of mine that the best sci-fi and (especially) horror movies are the ones where the sci-fi/fantasy/horror element isn't an end in itself, but is a metaphor, externalisation, or means of understanding something more basically human. Hellraiser isn't about the cenobites; it's about a woman tearing her marriage apart through adultery. Forbidden Planet, famously, isn't about the robots or the spaceships, it's about one man's suppressed reverse-Oedipal desire for his daughter and jealousy of the younger men who will inevitably replace him in her heart. The Black Hole is about sexual repression and the ways that can twist human relationships; The Blob is every bit as much about the 1950s' ambivalence about the emerging teenage subculture as anything starring Marlon Brando. And so on. Amazingly, The Green Slime turns out to be one of those films.

Taking away the space station setting, The Green Slime is the story of two men who are in love with the same woman. She chooses, not surprisingly, the one who generally seems to be a nicer and more responsible human being. The film's protagonist, the rejected suitor, Rankin, comes back into their lives after a decent interval, and then, in an orgy of repressed lust and desire for revenge, takes away his former friend Vince's command, completely destroys his life, and then kills him. Kurosawa films have been made of less.

So where does the monster fit in? Again, like the cenobites, the Blob, the Id Monster, etc., it (or possibly they) fits perfectly into the story as a metaphor for what's happening at the human level. The titular slime is brought onto the space station because Rankin's anger issues mean that he smashes a scientist's sealed specimen jar, splattering a crewmember's uniform, and then orders the uniforms triply decontaminated, which exposes it to energy which causes it to develop into a marauding creature. As the creature multiplies (and yes, Rankin's personality disorders are responsible for that as well), so it parallels the deteriorating situation between Rankin, his ex-friend, and his ex-love interest. The creature/creatures is/are, in a sense, a physical manifestation of Rankin's jealousy, becoming activated, growing, and multiplying, and not incidentally attacking Vince, his staff, and his girlfriend as it does (though interestingly, although the monsters attack the girlfriend, they don't kill her the way they do everybody else; come to think of it, no women actually get killed, which supports the metaphor), ultimately destroying Vince's space station and him along with it. Not incidentally, the monsters are also green, one-eyed, and possessed of phallic tentacles which kill any man which gets between Rankin and the object of his desire, and it is Rankin's attempts to destroy them which feed them with the energy they need to grow.

Basically, this movie needs to be remade, with a proper budget, a witty script, and an overall presentation which will bring out its hidden messages (arguably, that is; I'm compelled to add that Alan's position on this is that it's the very Sixtiesness of it that makes it so great). As it is, since it's not even been officially released on DVD, I'd just like to encourage anyone who's interested to seek out a copy and watch it with an open mind. Or vote for it at TCM and hope that this will get it an official release.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Monday, March 09, 2009

Headline of the Week

From the Globe and Mail:

MAID OF THE MIST MONOPOLY CHURNS UP COMPLAINTS

...mainly because I immediately pictured a group of Canadians sitting around a monopoly board, arguing as they buy up Niagra Falls-based tourism companies.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Farewell Miss Brahms

RIP Wendy Richard, then. This is particularly ill-timed, as Alan and I have been holding Are You Being Served? marathons lately (sometimes chanting along with the jokes, Rocky Horror-style), and so it was literally only yesterday (well, last week) that I saw her as a bright-eyed young Cockney shopgirl.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Victory

I've just won a court case against my ex-landlord and gotten the balance of my deposit back.

Yay.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Keeping score

Since last January, I've been keeping track of the number of movies I watch every year in the sidebar. The problem with this system is, what do I do with partial movies? For instance, last year I watched about two-thirds of both Cloverfield and Great Expectations; in both cases, enough of the movie that I felt like I'd invested a significant amount of time in seeing them, but in neither case had I watched the whole movie.

This has come up again because the other week I watched the remake of The Omen, but got thoroughly fed up by the time I got to the scene where Damien murders his mother, and I'm not sure whether to count it as half a movie or just ignore it.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Dune is busting out all over, part II

Fixing some packet pasta with a French label, I noticed that the cheese sauce sachet was prominently labeled MELANGE.

Don't it make your brown eyes blue...

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Patrick McGoohan RIP

Also Ricardo Montalban. Is someone collecting actors?

As a result, I've been paying attention to The Lol'ing Prisoner again after far too long. Expect some more pictures over the next little while.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Next Recyclingwatch

The Unquiet Dead: Christmas Dickensiana, also featuring homeless aliens trying to take over the Earth.

The Christmas Invasion: Christmas setting featuring regeneration crises, and questions about the Doctor's identity. The Doctor gets, and accepts, a dinner invitation.

Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel: Mrs Hartigan's "Turn left, turn right," routine is a deliberate echo of Mr Finch's playing with the converted; Cybermen chasing people through the corridors and back staircases of an old house; Cybermen hiding out in underground tunnels and snagging a local power-hungry maniac to convert into their leader.

The Runaway Bride: Christmas setting involving red/red-clothed queen who is trying to save her race from genocide; improbable physics regarding the Thames. The Doctor gets, but declines, a dinner invitation.

The Shakespeare Code: Bitchy evil feminists involved in the conjuring of portals around premodern London (and watch for a Shakespeare cameo on the London info-stamp).

Daleks in Manhattan/Enemy of the Daleks: Small band of classic DW villains are thrown into the past and, low on power, make use of local technology and workforce to try and build themselves up again; the "Cybershades" are a close analogue of the Daleks' pig-slaves. Both Dalek Sec and the Cyberking are hybrid creatures whose merging doesn't quite go according to plan, leading to an internal power struggle between them and their followers. The Doctor offers the Cybermen here the same deal he offered the Daleks before-- relocation to another planet provided they leave humanity alone.

Last of the Time Lords: The Doctor's messiah complex surfaces again.

Voyage of the Damned: The Doctor's Tarzan act on the pulley is a direct visual steal from his using the angels for flight.

The Sontaran Strategem/The Poisoned Sky: Frustrated intelligent person allies self with aliens bent on taking over the Earth, then is rather surprised when the rest of the world doesn't see their plan as anything but horrible.

Journey's End: Something that appears to be a regeneration but isn't, which leads to the creation of a human analogue to the Doctor.

The New Series Generally: Rosita has a name which is a merging of Rose and Martha, and seems to have Donna's personality to go with it. The Next Doctor is every bit as much at home in Victorian London as the current one is in modern London.

Catchphrasewatch: Between the pair of them, the Doctors get off some "Allons-y,"s, one "No no no no no," and a "Brilliant" or two, with the Cybermen wandering around muttering "delete" at intervals.

Old Skool Who: Big Finish anticipate this heavily, with "The One Doctor" featuring a fake Doctor and companion team, and "Minuet in Hell" a man who is convinced through alien influence that he is the Doctor. Doctor Who: The American Telemovie brought us a faintly-ersatz Doctor with a penchant for cod-Victoriana. Earthshock has the Cybermen searching their database for info on the Doctor's past lives, in black and white. The War Games features people with artificially altered memories. Remembrance of the Daleks (villains who gain the power of imagination by wiring a human into a computer).

Everything Else: Not only is the setting Dickensian, but there's a straight-out A Christmas Carol reference in the Doctor's conversation with the urchin at the start. Lionel Bart's Oliver! (you keep expecting the Victorian extras in the background to burst into song). Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has the cod-Victorian protagonist, and his offspring, rescuing an underworld full of dirty-faced oppressed children from the machinations of the Child Catcher, as well as some proto-steampunk chic. Little Orphan Annie featured the villainous Miss Hannigan, a power-hungry, child-hating orphanage matron with a fondness for saucy double-entendres. The Cyberking references, as well as The Iron Giant, the Japanese "mecha" genre of films and animes, featuring giant robots attacking cities (in particular, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman has a hermaphrodite villain with a fondness for siccing improbable mecha, including a giant robot mummy, a giant scorpion and a nest of giant ants, upon Tokyo). Around the World in 80 Days features balloon-related Victorian shenanigans.

Thought for the day

Q. How many television executives does it take to change a lightbulb.

A. One, but does it have to be a lightbulb?

(from the commentary track of my new Out DVD)

Thursday, January 01, 2009

a review of "Dune: House Harkonen" in the style of nigel molesworth

there is a man named baron harkonen.

baron harknonen hav a brother, and he hate baron harknonen.

there is also a religious order called the bene gesserit, and they all hate baron harkonen.

there is also a duke called leto atreides, and he hate baron harkonen.

leto atreides hav two wives, one son, three good friends, a doctor and a mentat, and they all hate baron harkonen.

in fact the whole business is unspeakably sordid.

Monday, December 08, 2008

SJA Checklist: Enemy of the Bane, part II

Crowds of people walking through London under alien influence: Non-check, though half the population of London appears to be really Bane.
Tie-in with Doctor Who story: Check, and mate.
Girl protagonist's mum is annoying: Check; seriously, all it takes is for someone to wander round saying they're a nephew of her neighbour's and she's having them in for tea? I actually live not too far from Ealing, and, while it's a pretty friendly neighbourhood, no self-respecting Londoner is *that* trusting. Also more antics with getting Sarah Jane's name wrong.
Mobile phone as plot device: Non-check, though a galactic sat-nav is.
Luke says something so daft that you have to wonder how he gets through life without being mercilessly bullied: Well, he doesn't actually *say* much that's daft, but he does sit there listening to Mrs Wormwood with this air of dumb incomprehension, and it also never occurs to him, once he's inside the forcefield, to just point out to Mrs W and Kaagh that they can't get him in there, and sit down and wait things out rather than doing their bidding.
Sonic lipstick: Check, complete with jokes about ladies carrying lipsticks.
Wristwatch scanner: Check.
One or more of Sarah's companions falling under alien influence: Non-check, though Major Kilburn does turn out to be a Bane (like everyone didn't see that coming).

And, a special bonus for the end of the season....

Sarah Jane making wide-eyed speech about the wonders of the universe and how great it is to be in her gang: Big old check.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

SJA Checklist: "Enemy of the Bane," part I

Crowds of people walking through London under alien influence: Semi-check; crowds of people wandering around London industrial estates/suburban Ealing who are really Bane.
Tie-in with Doctor Who story: Check; tie-in with the entire UNIT era, actually, as well as with the Sontaran two-parter.
Girl protagonist's mum is annoying: Check; just when you think she can't become any more of a stereotype of a middle-aged mumsy woman, she takes a job in a little shop and whips out a giant bar of Dairy Milk.
Mobile phone as plot device: Semi-check; the UNIT people's hands-free earpieces do get used as a means of immobilising them all temporarily.
Luke says something so daft that you have to wonder how he gets through life without being mercilessly bullied: Check, as he works through his adoption issues. "Luke, I am your mother," indeed.
Sonic lipstick: Check, mere minutes after the wristwatch scanner.
Wristwatch scanner: Check
One or more of Sarah's companions falling under alien influence: Non-check; Gita doesn't count, and neither does Luke falling for Mrs Wormwood's blandishments.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

SJA Checklist:: The Temptation of Sarah Jane, part II

Crowds of people walking through London under alien influence: Semi-check; the slaves in the parallel universe are technically under alien influence, though I'll agree it's pushing the definition.
Tie-in with Doctor Who story: Check; see last week.
Girl protagonist's mum is annoying: Check. She's more or less OK in the parallel universe, but it's business as usual when we get back home.
Mobile phone as plot device: Non-check-- well, it is the 1950s after all. Though, give the mobile addiction most of the characters in SJA seem to have, I'm surprised Rani and/or Clyde didn't whip theirs out right after arriving in the parallel universe to check if they've got a signal.
Luke says something so daft that you have to wonder how he gets through life without being mercilessly bullied: Non-check, though his mother gets in some daft lines about how wonderfully special it is to be in her gang.
Sonic lipstick: Check.
Wristwatch scanner: Check.
One or more of Sarah's companions falling under alien influence: Non-check-- in fact, it's a plot point that they're protected from it.