Category: reviews

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movie reviews

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Despite lukewarm reviews I had high-ish hopes for this movie – at least in a stay-in-and-slob-out-feel-good-waste-of-time kind of way. Firstly it’s the kind of movie I’ve liked in the past – gentle rom-com with young attractive leads – and second I liked Michael Cera in Juno. So did it live up to my modest expectations?

Not quite.

It reminds me of those movies from the eighties that involve some kind of journey – Adventures in Babysitting; Blind Date; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; and even Risky Business. Here the MacGuffin is the quest for a secret gig by a cool on-the-up band. Michael Cera’s Nick and Kat Dennings’ Norah are on the hunt for this gig and along the way they share some fun, grow a little closer, there’s misunderstanding then… well you can guess the rest, it’s a rom-com right?

The leads are likeable enough but I can decide if the lack of spark between them is the fault of the un-inspired script of just that missing je ne sais quoix they call chemistry. The film also suffers from not really knowing what it wants to be tonally – there are elements of gross-out comedy, slapstick and as mentioned, following the leads’ strengths, a very gentle burgeoning teen romance. It never quite meshes but one would be expecting a lot to think that it might – I blame, as ever, the legacy of American Pie for that.

It’s also the fact that none of the necessary non-Nick, non-Norah scenes are that memorable or interesting. The obligatory comedy sidekicks are neither endearing nor outrageous enough. The funny set-pieces aren’t funny enough.

Perhaps notable is the sex scene, not for any lascivious reasons – it was reasonably discreetly done – but for message it conveyed. The idea that “it’s in his kiss” is used in many rom-coms – they use the song in Adventures in Babysitting – but this was the first time I seen a movie where “you’ll know he’s the one if he can give you an orgasm” was the message. And as this was – of course – their first mutual experience that’s kind of unhelpful and unrealistic. But it is the logical extension of what Hollywood has been saying about romance for years I suppose. I dunno though there’s room in the subtlety for a little more realistic fantasy.

5/10 – vaguely likeable, almost entirely unmemorable and done better elsewhere.

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reviews

A Whedon-less Buffy Film? Why Not?

In case you haven’t heard the rights-holders to the Buffy franchise are thinking of “rebooting” Buffy with a movie – without involving Joss Whedon. It wouldn’t star Sarah-Michelle Gellar and familiar characters like Willow, Giles and Xander would not be in the script.

And I think it might not be bad idea.

Heresy? Unthinkable? Me, a self-proclaimed fan of all thing Whedon suggesting that this travesty not only be allowed to continue but that it might actually be a good thing?

Well almost.

Heresy is Good

At the very least I think the unthinkable should be thought about and that contemplating heresy is good for the soul every now and then. One of my favourite Depeche Mode songs is “Somebody” which describes the kind of person the singer is looking for and includes the lines:

Someone who’ll help me see things
In a different light
All the things I detest
I will almost like

I think it’s a truly valuable thing to be able to sympathise with a radically opposing viewpoint. To understand how someone could get there even if you couldn’t yourself.

So that’s the first thing.

Getting Films Made is Hard

Film-making is probably hard. In fact I’m pretty sure it is. But from the little I know and have heard/read that’s nothing compared with actually getting them made in the first place. Most films never get made. Most professional screenwriters have sold scripts that’ll never see a screen. Most actors and directors – big names with a successful track record – have projects that they’ve never quite managed to get made. And of the tiny number that do get made, most are unsuccessful – critically and financially. Remember Sturgeon’s Law – 95% of everything is crap.

That’s the second thing. Try to keep these in mind when thinking about the possibility of a Buffy movie.

Not Giving The Fans What They Want

There have of course been rumours of a Buffy movie for years. And they’ve been just that – groundless rumours, based not on real facts but speculation and fan longing. I can understand this. I too felt a loss when Buffy ended. I can understand wanting there to be more.

But that’s the very reason I never wanted to see a Buffy movie (though of course I would have gone to see one if it had been made). Because I love movies and have done since long before I ever heard of the idea of Vampire Slayers. A Buffy movie would have been more of the TV show and TV shows are not movies – one is on-going stories, dealing with big themes but examining them on an everyday scale in sometimes minute detail. The other is epic and grand with sweeping huge brushstrokes.

Trying to make a movie that fulfils the longing of fans to see “more” of their show and yet works as a movie in its own right is nigh on impossible. Joss almost succeeded with Serenity – I mean creatively it does work in both those ways but it was only a moderate box office success and made money on DVD and largely due to the buy-everything-Whedon fan behaviour.

Joss famously[*] said once that he “needed to give the fans what they need and not what they want.” He was referring to the fact that he couldn’t let the desires of fans to see certain outcomes in the on-going Buffy story dictate where that story went. It was creative suicide and it was actually less satisfying to those same fans in the end.

At least that’s how I’ve always read this comment.

Well not giving them what they want at this stage means not just not giving them a particular romantic coupling or other given story outcome – but not giving them “more Buffy” in the form of a movie that’s trying to carry on its back the weight of a 7-series TV show.

So Buffy needs to be left alone. Left in peace to fade gracefully in our collective memory.

A Different Approach, A Point of View. Different is Good.

…or it needs to be rebooted. Re-imagined. By someone far enough away from all the things that have been done with the franchise already to see it with fresh eyes. Already there are hints in the article that they would go darker, more of a genuine horror experience.

So no Xander, Willow or Giles – they’re all too comfy. It might even not be Buffy but another Slayer. Betty. Bertha. Belinda. Or Martha. OK – probably not the last one.

Whether this will lead to anything good who knows? But it’s an interesting idea. It might spark something strange and wonderful. Or it might just be a curate’s egg.

What about Joss?

Joss doesn’t need Buffy. He’s got other ideas. Newer, fresher, dare I say, better ideas. If I ever doubted that Dr. Horrible confirmed it. Dollhouse started weak but got better and better.

Sure he still has Buffy stories left in him – but he’s got the perfect medium for that in the comic books. It’s an on-going episodic form, similar to the TV show.

Besides what he really needs is to be allowed to make great TV and Movies and I can’t help feeling that being associated largely with an ultra-loyal and sometimes not-so discriminating fanbase kind of gets in the way of that.

But What About the Fans?

What about the fans? Don’t they deserve something? Anyway isn’t it crazy to take something so beloved and take away the thing that made it beloved? On a pure business level surely you want, you need, to please the fans?

No.

The Firefly fans were the most rabid of an already fearsome fanbase. They were as dedicated to their cause as any evangelical cult member. They tried their best to spread the gospel  of Firefly-ness and Serenity. They went to see the movie multiple times, bought up extra tickets to give away, trying to convince everyone and anyone of its goodness. They did all this and yet they still couldn’t make the movie a hit.

The thing about Buffy is that it always managed to have a bigger cultural impact than was reflected by its core audience. References to Buffy, “the Scooby Gang” and “Buffy-esque” dialogue still crop up all over the place. There was an audience of casual viewers that had seen the odd episode and knew it was good. They were not fans but enjoyed it when it was on. They were also slightly put off by the really obsessive fanboys and girls.

Oh and there are millions of them.

All of which means that using the Buffy name, the “brand” to bring in the general populace could work even if you piss off the fans.

It could just work.

But it probably won’t – because even though this is not a groundless rumour, most movies don’t get made and of the ones that do, most aren’t any good. But I’m more stirred by the idea of someone else having a go at a reboot than more of the same. Leaving Joss free to do new things.

OK you can burn me at the stake now.

[*]For values of “famous” scaled to fit the relatively small world of Buffy online fandom. i.e. not very.

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reviews

Romeo and Juliet, at The Globe

Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet

On Thursday I finally did something I’ve wanted to do since I moved down here – go see a play at The Globe in London. For those that don’t know it’s a re-construction of the 16th century theatre where Shakespeare actually wrote and acted.

I’m not sure that Romeo and Juliet would be my first choice of play to see but someone was organising a trip and I decided to join in. Besides it’s Shakespeare and I like Shakespeare.

I guess that there are two things to review here – the theatre ‘experience’ and the performance itself.

We went for the cheap tickets in the yard which was open to the elements but were lucky with the weather – I had prepared for rain so was pleasantly surprised we didn’t get any. I had braced myself for inclement weather and for standing for 3 hours, what I hadn’t prepared myself for was that for the first hour there was a plane going overhead every few minutes. It meant 10-15 seconds of struggling to hear the actors, who are not relying on their lungs and voices. I also was unfortunate to stand behind two of the tallest people there, so I was constantly shifting position as they did. The Globe website says that there’s no seat that doesn’t have a partially obscured view of at least part of the stage, but at least pillars don’t move. I think that, rather than comfort would make me want to pay for a seat next time.

The performance itself was excellent I thought. It was a very ‘straight’ version with the period costume and staging – which I’m told, despite the theatre, isn’t always the case. The leads were great, especially Adetomiwa Edun’s Romeo. Phillip Cumbus as Mercutio was good too, bringing out a side of that character I wasn’t aware of. I guess I’ve been influenced by the Baz Lurhmann film to think of Mercutio as quite a cool dude. Cumbus’ Mercutio was more comic, a bit of a windbag – but just a likeable and entertaining. Along with Fergal McElherron’s Peter he was responsible for bringing out the bawdy humour of the play. The later was also very good.

I had wondered whether the nature of the venue – both being outdoor and very close up – would lead to a problem with the audience being too noisy but that wasn’t the case. There were a few who ignored the no cameras rule and I heard at least one mobile phone on a very loud vibrate setting but generally the audience was more respectful that I’ve seen say in the cinema recently. There was a good-natured feeling of wanting to laugh that made the humour work better than it perhaps deserved at times, but when Juliet ‘died’ there was a hush in the place I hadn’t expected.

Overall it was a very enjoyable performance. It made me want to go see more Shakespeare – though perhaps indoors next time.

8/10 for the play.

6/10 for the ‘experience’

Categories
movie reviews

The Boat That Rocked

The Boat that Rocked
The Boat that Rocked

I saw this movie with M. on my birthday so I figure I owe you a review on it. However I’m not sure how much I have to say.

OK it’s a Richard Curtis movie that’s not a romantic comedy (well not really). It’s a (very) fictionalised version of pirate radio in the 60s. It takes place on a boat in the north sea which houses a radio station. There’s a colourful collection of characters – some obviously based on real life DJs – and a plot about the authorities trying to shut it down.

It’s good fun, it rattles along pretty well and there’s plenty to laugh at. It does suffer from some of Curtis’ particular ‘sins’ i.e. a tendency to over-sentimentality, plus an entirely unrealistic moment where the guy is completely inept but the girl goes for him anyway. It also has an ending that’s both illogical and too drawn out.

But… I dunno, it’s hard not to like. Thanks to all-round good performances the  characters are so amiable, and it’s all so breezy and light that you don’t really care about that stuff. At least I didn’t.

8/10 – a fun, even if completely unmemorable, way to spend a couple of hours.

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reviews

Lesamy Week 31 – Officially Unofficial

Not a lot to say this time since it’s only a couple of days since last ‘week’ so to speak.

However the stats below show the perils of letting people know an ‘unofficial’ weighing. Someone over at SoF asked for an update so I gave them a weigh-in from that day. Turns out it was 0.2kg less than my unofficial one. Oh well.

Can’t complain because I’ve still hit two milestones – I’m under 17stone for the first time in 9 years and I’m now 75% of my original weight.

Weekly loss: 1.2kg (2.6lb)
Total loss: 36.4kg (80.2lb or 5st 10lb)
To target: 31.5kg (69.4lb or 4st 13lb)
Current weight: 107.7kg (237lb or 16st 13lb)

Oh and it’s my birthday in two days – so I enter my 43rd year weighing about what I did when I was 33.

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25 books book reading reviews

25 Books, book 3, Skellig

So having Set Aside The Crow Road what did I pick to read next? Well I was in Waterstones as I said and saw a display of books recommended by Nick Hornby. I picked up Skellig by David Almond largely because it was short. It turns out it’s another book aimed largely at kids – that makes three I’ve read since Christmas. If I had done so deliberately I’d start to worry that I’m ‘dumbing down’ my reading choices, however in each case I’ve genuinely not realised until I actually had the book that it wasn’t aimed at adults.

Anyway it’s an enjoyable and easy read – as you’d perhaps expect from something aimed at children.

The book is a fairly simple and straightforward story – there are no real surprises in the plot itself – of a boy who meets a strange and mysterious person in the crumbling garage of his new home, the eponymous ‘Skellig’. Who or more importantly what Skellig is is one of the major questions of the book.

It’s written with a child’s voice but also has a particular tone to the writing which will either strike you as lyrical or overly stylised depending on how well you’re enjoying it. I was mostly in the first camp with a few forays into the second.

I’d definitely recommend it to any adult looking for a light charming read or any child with a love of the unusual.

7/10 – a delightful little fable.

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reviews TV

Dollhouse Catch-up 1.02-1.04

You may have noticed I haven’t blogged about Dollhouse since the disappointing opening episode. That’s mostly because I lacked the enthusiasm to even watch the episodes never mind write about them. However I finally got around to it and the good news is the show is definitely improving.

So without further a do:

1.02 “Target”

"Run Joss, run!"
"Run Joss, run!"

Target is a variation on the old idea of someone hunting a human being. From other reviews and comments I’ve heard that this  references something called “The Most Dangerous Game” which may well be the first but is certainly not the only use of this idea.

It’s a bad habit but I found myself second-guessing the plot twists and wondered if this client had paid for the hunt (but was expected to avoid an outright kill). Instead the twist was that the hunter didn’t exist, he was an assumed identity. That fits with the overall Dollhouse theme but wasn’t quite as satisfying.

Target had a bit more of the Whedon-style dialogue – as expressed through Stephen DeKnight.

Overall it was a better episode that the first, and a decent-ish version of a well-worn idea, but nothing new or radical – 6/10.

1.03 Stage Fright

Anyone seen my career?
Anyone seen my career?

OK now it starts to get a bit more interesting. This time Echo is being a back-up singer (and closet bodyguard) for a pop diva who has a crazy fan out to get her. Not a scenario that attracts me on paper but it was well done. In particular I liked the feisty-ness of Eliza’s character in this one.

It also had a couple of plot twists I didn’t see coming. I liked the idea the Echo sees deeper into the assignment than her handlers had expected – that she need to protect Rayna from herself. This singles out Echo as something special.

The writers continue to have fun with the themes of the show with the dialogue about being “grown in a lab”. They also have a gentle dig at the fans with this:

Are you a fan Mr Dominic?

I’m sorry?

Rayna, do you like her music?

I’m not sure being a fan has very much to do with that

Whedon has teased the fans about this kind of thing before – notably in Angel’s third season “Waiting in the Wings” or, I suppose, the whole of Buffy season six with the nerd trio. But it’s always affectionately done.

The reveal of Victor as an active was a surprise and I guess that’s going to be an ongoing issue with this show – who’s an active?

After watching this my thought was, it’s a very good episode of a certain kind of show – but is it the kind of show I like? Anyway still enjoyed it, Eliza can sing – 7/10.

1.04 Gray Hour

"...and there's absolutely no chance of bring back Tru Calling?"
"...and there's absolutely no chance of bringing back Tru Calling?"

With the frankly ridiculous opening of Echo as a midwife half-way up a mountain, the show neatly identifies a problem with the show’s core concept – why not just hire the best expert in a field you can find? The super-rich certainly have the money to do that and it’ll be cheaper, easier and probably safer than relying on what is fast turning out to be some fairly unreliable tech.

Anyway, best to leave that aside for now. If I can live with the stupid idea that the best approach to fighting a global vampire threat is a single girl in one small town then I can certainly live with this.

Plus, I’m never one to harp on these technical details if the story’s good and here it is.

Well it is for me anyway because I have a weakness for heist stories. I loved “The Shroud of Rahmon” which many will tell you is an awful Angel episode.

A different character, different story, but again we have a feisty Eliza – at least for the first half of the story.

The thing that I found myself thinking during this episode is that I wanted to know what happens next. That’s gotta be good right?

More good dialogue

This one is broken.

Look who’s talking

I liked the use of Sierra and seeing the same “imprint” being used with her as the active.

It seems that, like Lost did for a while, they’re developing a habit of using a music-over-montage at the end of the episode.

Anyway, love a good heist story and this was one – 8/10.

General Comments

There’s been a lot of discussion of how Echo being a different character every week causes a problem because you’re not following the same character every week. I don’t think this is such a problem because we get that from the other characters and the ongoing story.

The format reminds me a little of Quantum Leap and that was very successful, ran for years and years.

I wonder whether it’s partly a reaction to the criticism Whedon has had about his shows being too “arc-y” that this one has a “story-of-the-week” written into the very format of the show?

Maybe the problem, if there is one, is that the metaphor – which is basically about what being an actress is like – is not universal enough.

Anyway – the show’s picking up – getting better with each episode according to my personal scale. Just in time to get really good before it gets cancelled no doubt.

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movie reviews

Another Watchmen Blog Post – Why?

Movie Poster
Movie Poster

M. and I went to see Watchmen on Tuesday night and one of the things we did afterwards was to browse some of the online comment about the movie together. She read out one blog entry that basically just kept repeating the question “Why?”

Which is kind of how I feel – about this post, not the movie.

I’m not sure I have anything original or insightful to say. Still most of my reviews are well after the fact so I’m going take the opportunity to gain a bit of passing trade by comment on something current when I’ve actually seen it.

So… I think I agree with most of the reviews that one problem with Watchmen is that it’s too reverentially close to the source material. Perhaps that’s unfair because as I said in my review of the comic book

That and extraordinary visuals. Take for example the iconic cover-art image (above) and see how that’s used and developed on the very first page. This kind of thing — starting on a small detail and pulling back and back until a fuller picture (literally and thematically) is revealed — is done throughout the book. It’s no wonder people want to make this into a movie. It’s like a pre-drawn storyboard for itself.

Though actually it’s not the direct copying of the book’s visual ideas that’s the problem. It’s the adherence to the plot – which makes the film episodic – which is obviously fine for a comic book but not for a movie where we need a single consistent story.

Where I also agree with a lot of the reviews is that the ‘Hallelujah’ sex scene was cringe-makingly awkward and awful. It reminded me of the kind of soft porn I used to furtively seek out as a teenager. Superficially enticing, once you get over the “ooh naked bodies” of it, it’s extremely un-erotic due to how obviously fake it is. Two naked people rubbing themselves against each other but blatantly and deliberately not having sex is weird and embarrassing.

I did enjoy the movie – Rorshach was great, as was Dreiberg/Nite Owl – but it felt slow and ponderous in places and gratuitously violent in others. The change to the ending was not as radical as it might have been (should have been perhaps) and in my opinion slightly improved it. But then I never really liked the comic book ending.

But having agreed with a lot of people who basically said it was a disappointment let me say this: it’s not so very long ago that a big budget CGI-fest like this came with a free lobotomy. Aside from a few notable exceptions such as Dark Knight many still do. One of the trailers was for Transformers 2 and that doesn’t look like it’s got anything interesting to say about the moral ambiguity involved in wielding power. It’s nice to see a blockbuster that’s actually got some ideas in it.

6/10 – enjoyable but not as good as the book because it needed to be not the book a bit more.

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reviews

Lesamy Week 25 – Big Breakfast

When we moved offices at work back at the end of January it had an effect on my eating habits. It became easier to make and take my own sandwiches. Which meant that I was eating slightly more calories for lunch than I had been. Which in turn meant that I compensated by having a smaller breakfast. Probably over-compensated because I found I regularly had 400+ calories spare at the end of the day so my usual one treat had become three.

Which would be fine – as long as it’s in the budget – except I was feeling quite hungry toward the end of the day. Plus I was also struggling a bit with my morning sit-ups. If you recall the reason I started having breakfast at all was so as to have something inside me before I attempted these. I guess I forgot that, or thought that a 100 calorie yoghurt was somehow helping with that.

So now I’m back on my 361 breakfast of cereal. It’s made a huge difference to my feeling less hungry in the afternoons and has, I think, helped my mood. I wish I could say it has made the sit-ups easy, but I definitely think it has made them easier.

So anyway here’s some figures:

Weekly loss: 1.4kg (3.1lb)
Total loss: 33.1kg (73lb or 5st 3lb)
To target: 34.8kg (77lb or 5st 7lb)
Current weight: 111kg (244lb or 17st 6lb)

So I’m now over 5 stone down!


Categories
movie reviews

Ghost Town

Ghost Town Poster
Ghost Town Poster

They seem to love Ricky Gervais in the US. Something I can’t quite understand – for the simple, arrogant reason that I personally think he’s just ok. I can’t see why many other fine British actors or comedians never get the reception he gets.

Anyway they obviously like him enough that someone thought he could star in a romantic comedy. And you know what maybe they’re right because it oh-so-nearly works. And as you may know if you’ve read this blog for a while that’s quite an acheivement for a rom-com in my opinion. The nearly-great ones are rare enough never mind the tuly great.

Gervais plays a mildy misanthropic dentist, Bertram Pincus, who dies briefly on the operating table and acquires the ability to see ghosts. This is not much fun as they all want something from him – all that unfinished business with the living – “tell my daughter I love her”, “the will’s hidden behind the…” and so on.

Chief amongst these is Greg Kinnear who is the dead husband of Téa Leoni and it’s his attempts to frustrate Leoni’s new relationship via Gervais that occupy most of the film. Naturally Gervais falls for her and thus we have a story, albeit a fairly predictable one.

Which is not to say this movie is without its charms – it looks great, it manages to find some shots of New York we’ve not seen a million times before – but let’s get to the key question: does Gervais pull it off as a romantic lead?

Well yes and no.

First the no. At the end of the day he doesn’t look like a leading man. It’s not actual looks per se it’s the way he holds himself I think. He’s too used to being the figure of fun. Also whilst I think he’s likeable and has some chemistry with Leoni, when Greg Kinnear comes on screen you realise what a great comic actor he is and what’s lacking a little with Gervais.

Also, and this is not Gervais’ fault really, there’s this thing that happens in some comedies with a forceful comic personality at the centre where the comedian steps outside of the plot and basically does his schtick – his well-known sitcom character, or even his stand-up routine – and the characters around him/her carry on as if this is nothing unusual. You see it in everything from Woody Allen to Groucho Marx and it makes for a certain kind of comedy, but I don’t think it works in a rom-com because it distances you slightly from the emotional reality of the characters.

What works is that Gervais does sadness well. Cleverly David Koepp co-writer and director, has fashioned a story in which Ricky’s character is more sad than bad. He doesn’t really hate the world he’s hiding from it because he’s been hurt. This is where Gervais’ training as a comic loser comes in, because such characters as David Brent are really tragic figures. So Gervais knows how to make us feel sorry for his dentist Pincus. It’s a short step from there to empathy and to imagine why Leoni feels something for him.

Overall it’s a brave attempt and I did enjoy it. As a movie per se it’s no better than quite good, but if you have to choose a rom-com from the last 5 years you could do an awful lot worse.

lots of ghosts
lots of ghosts

7/10 – Mildly enjoyable