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Posts Tagged ‘TV’

Dr. Who and the Daleks / Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

So, background to my watching these is: the first part of the season finale to Matt Smith’s first run as The Doctor on BBC1 thrilled me so much, and there have been so many references to the legacy of all the old Doctors in this latest series, that I decided to watch the whole thing from the beginning. My plan was to watch everything (reconstructed episodes where necessary – a lot of stuff was “junked” by the BBC in the 70s) in the order that it aired or was released, and there were a few episodes between these two movies, but I ended up watching them one after the other, reasoning (despite the fact I really hate when fans talk of “canon”) that they’re not really canon anyway.

I’m kinda-sorta sure I may have seen the first of these at least before, but my early Doctor Who experiences are a major blur and the imagery so iconic across the board that I could really be remembering anything. Both these movies are remakes of existing stories in the Hartnell years, but from the very title music and credit design, you know the approach is gonna be different. The Doctor is painted here as a much more fun and contemporary character than he was in the early years of the TV series, if only through the way he’s presented (Peter Cushing’s actual performance is beautifully refined as ever).

You’ll find way better informed views on why the TV versions of these stories were ideologically better than these lavish remakes all over the net, and that’s why I decided to blend these two movies into just one review here. What will bring me back personally to watch both movies again is two-fold… firstly, that very lavishness in the design. Early Doctor Who on the TV was adventurous but because of the sheer number of episodes frequently came out wobbly, cheap, even to the point of line-fluffage from the actors. There’s none of that here, and the sets, effects etc are simply beautiful.

Secondly, and more importantly, there’s Roberta Tovey. I love that they make The Doctor’s granddaughter so much younger here. There’s something just plain more aesthetically satisfying about Susan being genuinely precocious, not to mention her physical size, in these environments. She’s far more convincing as “An Unearthly Child” for me than the teenaged Carole Ann Ford (though fine in her own way) ever was in the TV series, and her presence just makes the whole thing a little more fun. If I ever did see either of these when I was younger, there’s no doubt I related most immediately to her, and I’m not sure if anything’s changed

In short, these movies aren’t exactly essential viewing for anyone be they film-lovers, modern Who-fans or passing sci-fi geeks. But if you’re just a little of all the above, they are worth a look. For the time they were made they have crazy production values and Cushing makes for a Doctor so good (if, as I said, you can ignore the presentation) that you almost wish there was more.

Tags: cuties, sci-fi, time travel, TV
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Edge of Darkness

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

It’s odd that I didn’t realise just how much I wanted to see this movie until long after its initial release.

I watched this following that second underwhelming viewing Shutter Island pretty certain I would enjoy it more, and it hooked me fast. This is a movie that launches quickly, with a gutwrenching moment between Mel Gibson and his screen daughter that made me jump out of my skin in such a way I’m not sure I’ve done since the car crash in The Forgotten. Let me say now, I’m increasingly easy pleased when a movie can still do this to me, and this one managed to do it twice in its duration.

Because of how powerful these moments of the movie were for me, it’s hard for me to talk about the story because I’d hate to spoil a similar experience that might be waiting for others. In short, this is mostly a conspiracy thriller, concentrated mainly on a kind of revenge story for Gibson’s character. If you liked him in Ransom or Payback, you will love him here, because it’s that Mel Gibson and in light of his own well documented real life personal problems (to say nothing of his latest tirade: I watched this a while before all that came out), it’s even more intense than ever in this movie. At one stage he seethes at someone, “I’m the guy who’s got nothing to lose and I don’t give a sh*t!” and boy, do you believe it. Fortunately, if being so raw onscreen again was any kind of gamble for Gibson at this stage, I feel confident in saying it pays off hugely. I personally loved (if that’s the right word) every minute of this movie – it goes as far as I believe all movies of this kind need to, with a broad corporate conspiracy line and a deeply personal cause, with Martin Campbell giving equal weight to the emotional side as he does the action – but what I’m sure no one will deny is the power of Gibson’s performance.

It was only midway through the movie that I remembered reading/hearing/being told that it was based on a 1985 BBC series which intriguingly was also directed by Campbell. I loved the idea of the story, and the idea of a director remaking his own work, so much that I got hold of and watched the entire 1985 production immediately (over a couple of days) after the credits rolled on the Gibson movie. The thing to note by comparison is that they’re really very different productions, and I find myself now I’ve seen both loving each in starkly contrasting, but equally passionate, ways. The TV series runs to nearly 6 hours. The story is very slightly different, and the flow simultaneously calmer, more procedural, but (in the last episode particularly) actually ultimately that bit crazy and surreal. I would definitely recommend the TV series to anybody who liked the movie, but I imagine it’s even more pertinent to recommend it to those who don’t like the movie at all… the TV version might be exactly what you’re looking for. Me, if I had to choose… I would have to pick the streamline plot and sheer rage of the movie… I’m not a hateful person, but when it’s so pointed and heightened as this, I can really go for it, and this one really had me rooting for the vigilante.

Tags: adaptation, conspiracy, revenge, TV
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Odd Girl Out

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Again, I wanted to watch this for a long time (a very long time, in fact) not only for Alexa Vega’s role, but also a rare post-Annie appearance by Alicia Morton, shortly after which she seems to have quit acting completely. I’d also heard seriously good things about the movie in general, and there aren’t many movies like this which I don’t find at least marginally more interesting than most others.

The problem initially for me was pretty much related to that… there have been so many other good movies on this subject – and this one seemed immediately to fall bang in between two of the best, Mean Girls and Thirteen, the former for its extreme bullying (albeit here with the humour stripped away) and the latter for its rawness, here found in Alexa Vega’s performance. It was interesting to watch this straight after Remember the Daze where she’s older and glossier. The only way I can describe Alexa’s face in this movie is, it’s like a Carpenters song… you know that empty, lonely, drained and sad but still beautiful quality their sound had? Something like that. You utterly believe her loneliness in this movie and that helps a ton in understanding a lot of her decisions.

What I wanted and hoped for from this movie, and it was a big ask, was some kind of answer to the behaviour it presents. Alexa Vega’s character here ultimately finds herself cornered with literally nobody that she can go to for help because all her trust circles collapse for various reasons and the bullying she is subjected to is not easily explained to anyone who isn’t involved. I understand that place well, and I kind of still find myself there sometimes, but like the mother here explains to her daughter at one point, I never really figured out how to deal with it.

Astonishingly, I felt like the movie kind of gave me such closure. Something far more satisfying than I expected, at least. This movie gets so sad and this girl’s situation so impossible that I really feared that it was simply that kind of movie, that merely presents the seeming unconquerable nature of these situations and leaves it hanging there. There’s a really excruciating moment following the girl’s attempt at suicide when she returns to school and once again accepts her “best friend”‘s apology with open arms and part of me was just hoping she was finally leading them on, setting up some kind of revenge. I kind of lost all sympathy for her once I realised nope, she was just that naïve (there are a lot of moments like this, it must be said, when the whole thing is a little too extreme to be believable). But then the truth comes out, and it’s the final straw, and she confronts the one person who hurt her most and says something simple but perfect,

“You have nothing that I want.”

It worked for me, anyway. I don’t know about the state of bullying in schools today, there are a lot of people over on this movie’s IMDb board claiming this kind of thing never happens and certainly not these days: but I believe that it could happen, anywhere; that these situations don’t just occur in school; and that for anybody who finds themselves in such a situation, or anything even close, would find a light at the end of the tunnel in this movie. It’s the best performance I’ve seen yet from Alexa Vega, truly haunting, and the rest of the cast aren’t too bad either (Alicia Morton is particularly frightening, about as far removed from her button-nosed Annie as you could get). Really worth looking for.

Tags: adaptation, bullying, cuties, highschool, suicide, TV
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The Addams Family

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Being as I actually have a review of the pales-in-comparison 3rd Addams Family movie Reunion on this site, let alone the more official sequel Values, I guess it’s about time I wrote something on this, the 1st, even though I only ever watch it now in conjunction with the infinitely more brilliant 2nd. It’s kind of unfair. This one is always in fact a lot better than I remember. The thing that always makes it “less” for me – the less scene-stealing nature of Christina Ricci’s part (though she even has her moments here – “Are they made from real girl scouts?” lol) – makes it necessary to focus on the other family members, and it has to be said, they’re just as fantastic.

I watched it today for the first time in HD which is probably the best I’ve ever seen it looking (I don’t think I ever saw this one on the big screen), and it made me really notice how amazing the set design is. It’s the embodiment of the one aspect that makes these Addams movies such surprising classics the more I see them – the sophistication. We have proof of how an Addams Family movie would turn out under normal mainstream movie-making circumstances, and that’s the too-slick, flat, cheap and wobbly “Reunion”. It’s almost a miracle that these ones were permitted to be so much more, with real veteran actors like Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Dana Ivey, Carol Kane, and such a find in Ricci. Literally the only thing here with the typically broad appeal needed for an “event movie” is the title, yet event movie it kind of became… it certainly made a ton of money.

At 90 minutes apiece there’s kind of no excuse for not watching both this and “Values”, as I usually do, in tandem. But this one certainly has enough to recommend it if it’s the only one available for whatever reason. It’s in its final act when the Addamses are ejected from their home and forced to engage with the real world that it really takes off, and where the mastery of that first sequel was perhaps born.

Tags: black comedy, cuties, gothic, TV
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In the Loop

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

I watched this after a large catch-up session watching all of the “Thick of It” episodes that had aired before the release of this spin-off movie and I’m not really sure whether it helped by setting me up with the world and style or just hindered by sheer overexposure to it in such a short time. In any case, I didn’t feel the time was entirely wasted. I found myself towards the end of the TV episodes I watched rather unfavourably comparing it to The Office in my mind and I still feel as a whole it is “good” rather than “great” … though that could be that I’m just not interested enough in politics, even if I am far more interested than I was when I first passed on watching the show.

On the “Thick of It” side of things, I have to say I preferred it in TV form. A whole other side of the story is presented in the movie in the shape of America and it’s too much of a leap, while the shooting style remains the same and I found myself thinking how I couldn’t imagine going to the cinema to see something like this. It’s entirely uncinematic, almost anti-cinematic, and I felt compelled before writing this to dig up Mark Kermode’s review and was surprised to find he liked it.

However, there was one unexpected surprise waiting for me here and again I can’t quite decide whether it helped or hindered my appreciation of the film. I had no idea Anna Chlumsky (of My Girl fame) was in this movie, and frankly she steals the movie entirely. I was pretty sure of her impressively honed acting skills in Blood Car but her performance here seals it for me, she has officially survived “the child star thing”, and the double whammy of those two movies shows just how interesting her choices an an actress are going to be. As for “The Thick of It” side of things … I look forward to getting back to the third series of the TV version.

Tags: comedy, cuties, politics, satire, TV, war
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Star Trek

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

This one comes with such good spirit that reviewing it is entirely a waste of time … but I’ll do my best to recount my experience as always. I came to this, the first midnight screening available locally, not quite knowing if it’d be the biggest cinematic misstep I could make in 2009 or if, in fact, I might actually be the ideal audience for JJ Abrams’ approach to resurrecting the franchise. I’ve never been a huge Trekkie by any stretch, always citing the over-attentiveness to the details the show and movies seemed to have compared to more frivolous sci-fi outings like Star Wars, for example; I never really watched any of the TV series for any great amount of time, but I have seen all of the movies, even on the big screen, and with the possible exception of Final Frontier, I enjoyed them.

The biggest barrier for me here from what I’d seen in the small clips that had been released to the public seemed to the cast, in particular the two most important characters Spock and Kirk played by Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine. What I’d seen made the new crew look horribly fratboy-ish and to my mind horribly unbelievable in terms of their becoming the Enterprise crew of the original series. To make a wild comparison, like the Tinkerbell movie of last year, it looked like it wouldn’t matter how great the movie looked, no matter how they served it up, and even though like I say I was never even a fan, I would just never buy this crew as that crew.

How unwarranted could my worries have been? Though I still have my misgivings about Quinto in the Spock role (I don’t know, there’s something about his face like Casey Affleck that makes me feel like he’s constantly making private mockery of the material), the character here I found more “fascinating” than ever. The emotional content of this movie absolutely bowled me over and a lot of it centers around Spock of all creatures. Add to that of course (I’m sure you’ve heard) the presence of Leonard Nimoy who lends the movie an all-important sense of authenticity (I won’t touch on the what-where-how of why he’s there except to say sequel-prequel-wise this movie is insanely clever) and I can easily forgive this piece of casting. Chris Pine along with the rest of the main crew are another story entirely. Simon Pegg’s accent notwithstanding, I adjusted to them all almost immediately. Pine almost weirdly channels Shatner at some points, and like a lot of the could-be-awfully-cringeworthy-but-we-have-to-do-it-anyway moments, the balance struck is near perfect.

One of the things I always did love about Star Trek was the music and it was always gonna be interesting to see what happened after Jerry Goldsmith’s death. I was surprised to find nary a hint (at least until the glorious end) of Star Trek music past in Michael Giacchino’s score here and he dives in boldly creating the kind of score that overhypes the imagery that I’m usually averse to, yet he somehow gets away with it so much does the imagery live up to his hype. The visuals here are stunning – I was so afraid I would come away from it saying something along the lines of, “it’s good, but it’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” but I think I can say for sure that there were things here I really hadn’t seen before.

In short, it’s a stunning creation. It stands alone and it fits in with what came before. I don’t know if it fits in enough for some fans, but then I wouldn’t know that, but they do a valiant job of showing they care a little about those fans. Again, I won’t hint at the plot and how it ties in etc, but I want to point out again how incredible this movie is in terms of being a part of everything that came before it. It is not another reboot (god, how I hate that word applied to cinema), it’s much more than that, it’s almost dare I say genius. Just in purely objective terms this must be one of the cleverest and smoothest continuations of a long-running franchise that has ever hit our screens. The more I think about it the more impressed I am. The Nimoy factor is the icing on the cake. At the risk of being corny, may it live long and prosper.

Tags: prequel, sci-fi, sequel, TV
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Hannah Montana: The Movie

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

If you know me, you’ll know that I came to this wanting to love it and that there was a lot I hoped for from it. I’m a big fan of Hannah Montana, but I’m no dumb blind follower (well, maybe a little … hehe); I’m aware of the kinda massive problem that lies at the very heart of the concept and the reason why a lot of people are blindly agin it. When I saw the first trailer for the movie that flatly set up the movie’s central dilemma (She’s Always Had The Best of Both Worlds. Now She Has To Pick One), I got pretty darn excited. Could a live action Disney movie based on a TV show in this decade actually do the right thing by its target audience?

The movie begins perfectly, exploding the confines of the TV screen setting up the blonde wig as a fully fledged cinematic icon and a plot point as Robbie Ray stares in deep thought at it mounted on a static wig stand as Miley battles with security outside to get into her own concert. Within the movie’s first few minutes Miley/Hannah bonks her head a few times not to mention having a coconut fall on her head and a ball thrown at her. Any fears that as Miley grows she might leave her goofy streak behind are quickly brushed aside here.

My heart sank briefly at the introduction of our villain, a tubby British tabloid pap almost as cringeworthy as Richard O’Brien’s in Spiceworld (hmm, I liked that too, incidentally ) but soon enough the real heart of the movie just started to get me and get me more. They sell Miley’s dilemma here almost shockingly well. It would be easy for the movie to sound as whiny as the show’s naysayers think it would be, “Oh it’s so hard being a megastar!” etc … but the real fight here is really about the wants of the masses vs. the higher needs of the few. When Hannah troops ahead into an impromptu concert at Miley’s best friend Lilly’s party because she’s not given the space to become the right person, the situation is entirely believable. You feel Lilly’s hurt off camera as you watch Hannah going through the motions, and you can see Miley’s eyes under that wig scanning the crowd torn over what to do: not just in the moment but with her whole life. All through the movie there’s a sense of pre-occupation about Miley – she’s really going through the decision of her life here.

There are lowlights, of course. The Tyra Banks shoe fight, Rico’s exploding cake, Jackson getting bitten on the butt by an alligator are among the flashes where I felt a little let down by the proceedings but I know you couldn’t really release this movie without them. Some of the slapstick stuff really had me laughing in spite of myself: the celebrity plate rack, for instance – you see it coming as gramma places Elvis in pride of place but I didn’t quite see it coming the way it ultimately does, lol.

Most of all it’s about Miley. Despite the title, there’s a lot more Miley here than there is Hannah, and I for one believe the things she’s been saying in interviews about the Miley in this movie being closer to the “real” Miley than we’ve ever seen. I say this in the best way possible, but this girl with all the gloss stripped away has a really funny face and some of the ways she twists it in this movie, combined with the time the camera spends on them (even in slow motion in parts) … they’re not the faces you generally get from a soulless megastar worth billions. They’re beautiful. It’s this goofy streak in Miley that always brings me back for more and its here, thank mercy, in spades.

Which I guess brings me to the ending which comes in two parts, neither of which I’ll entirely spoil for you because I had managed to avoid the details and I’m glad. I did not see the big moment on stage at the end coming at all here. It’s a moment I wanted to see in the movie right from the start but that I never once dreamed would actually be there. I had a lot of moments during the movie where I almost cried, but this was the moment where I really let it come. However. This is unfortunately followed by the real ending … which kind of, pretty much, actually entirely pushes the reset button TV style. I’m trying not to focus too much on this part of the ending because the rest of the movie just pleased me so much, also, I think if I think about it some more later on I might find a way to love it anyway (something to do with – the way the little girl says “Hannah is a part of you, don’t let her go,” which is something I hope the real Miley never does, ie, never speaking of it in 10 years time in an embarrassed way).

Anyway, in short, it was everything I hoped it would be and more – though some of the more was questionable. The songs are great, in fact, they’re growing on me (my first listen of the soundtrack a couple of weeks ago was a little disappointed), there’s more Lilly than I initially feared. Miley outdoes herself acting wise though the real performance I loved here was that of Margo Martindale as gramma. The director and cinematographer do a great job of keeping the screen alive right from the aforementioned wig moment onward and though there are the inevitable gags for less advanced pre-teens, they pass quickly enough as not to impact the larger experience.

Tags: cuties, Disney, identity, music, TV
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Bastard out of Carolina

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

I know, it’s bad that I took so long to see this, and even worse that I saw Hounddog first. It boded well for this, though, that I wasn’t too impressed by Hounddog. I love Jena Malone, and the rest of the cast of this (made for TV) movie is impressive too. I have to say, though, maybe I expected too much something that was absolutely better than Hounddog from the off; and it takes a while for this one to warm up.

There are movies that touch on grey areas of what some people think is “child abuse” that kinda get on my nerves when they reach an absolute conclusion. The good (for want of a better word) news is that here there’s no such doubt here that what Malone’s character is subjected to is abuse and that the character responsible gets what he deserves. It’s very much a “powerful” movie in that slightly meaningless sense of the word that will appeal most to self-righteous couchbound social commentators (hey, whatcha lookin’ at mefer?), but it’s still far better than Hounddog and certainly better than most TV movies..

Tags: abuse, cuties, rape, TV
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